October 2011

Here's an interesting factoid: to make the Star Wars scenes containing AT-AT walkers and tauntauns more realistic, a new stop motion technique called "go motion" was created: …

Engadget has published a lengthy review on the Pentax Q that confirms what many people have assumed since the camera was announced: that using a tiny sensor just to make an interchangeable camera system small isn't a good idea: …

One of the big things GoPro has going for it is viral marketing: people -- including the world's best daredevils -- are constantly producing never-before-seen footage using the company's tiny HD cameras, and it seems every week a new GoPro video goes viral on the web. The company isn't bad at creating their own videos either -- the above is an amazing promo video showing off the capabilities of the new Hero2 camera announced yesterday. 100% of the footage was captured using the camera, which …

Update: We've removed this image to avoid fringing on the copyright held by Magnum Photos. Click the image below to see the original side-by-side comparison.

For Halloween this year, photographer Tyler Card decided to made a giant Nikon DSLR costume. Not just any DSLR costume, mind you, but a fully functional one. The camera actually takes pictures when the shutter release button is pressed, and the photograph is displayed on the giant LCD screen on the back. The built-in flash also works, and the camera is even capable of triggering Alienbees strobes.

If you have some translucent film canisters lying around, you can turn them into DIY glow sticks for light painting photography. Fuse three of them together into one translucent tube, stick a small flashlight into it, wrap it with a colored translucent sheet, and voilà, you have yourself a cheap and simple glow stick. It's a way to add some thickness to your light painting "brush".

Here's the current state of imagery: still cameras can shoot HD video, video cameras can capture high quality stills, and data storage costs continue to fall. In the future, it might become commonplace for people to make photos by shooting uber-high quality video and then selecting the best still. However, as any photographer knows, selecting the best photograph from a series of photos captured in burst mode is already a challenge, so selecting a still from 30fps footage would be quite a …

Photography enthusiast and retired physicist Milo Shott of Oxford, England has found a way use his love for cameras to raise boatloads of money for the poverty-fighting charity Oxfam: camera repair. 11 years ago, Shott noticed some workers at an Oxfam store throwing out an old piece of camera equipment. After saving it from the trash, he fixed it up and helped the store sell it for £270.

Step into the Foto Henny Hoogeveen Leica store in Lisse, the Netherlands, and you'll be greeted by a giant stainless steel Leica camera that weighs a whopping 350kg (~772lb). The sculpture was crafted by Chinese artist Liao Yibai, and there are only three of them in existence. Besides the one found in the shop, the other two are owned by Leica itself and a distributor. The camera isn't based on any one model, but is instead a hodgepodge of features found on the M6, M7, and M9.

Canon's new 1D X is an impressive fusion of the old 1D and 1Ds lines, boasting state of the art sensor quality combined with impressive speed, but there's one downside that may be a big disappointment to some photographers: the camera loses autofocus when used with lenses with a max aperture of f/8.

A 'vortograph' is a photo taken using a triangular arrangement of three mirrors. The process was invented back in 1917 by an American photographer named Alvin Langdon Coburn. Photographer Simon Gardiner decided to try his hand at vortography, and created this beautiful Inception-esque photograph of the Champs-Élysées in Paris [using Photoshop].

GoPro has unveiled the HD Hero2, the followup to the highly popular HD Hero from 2009 that has been adopted by daredevils around the world. The new camera is similar in design but offers major upgrades: more angles of view (90°, 127°, and 170°), 11-megapixel still photos (up from 5MP) at 10fps, a helpful LCD display instead of a single character code system, a mini-HDMI port, and a faster sensor that allows for faster frame rates (e.g. 960p at 48fps, up from 30).

Here's CNET's introduction to the new Lytro camera. The square LCD screen on the back of the camera might be small, but it's a touchscreen display that lets you play around with the focus directly in-camera rather than having to connect the device to a computer.

Photographer Dennis Calvert creates amazing light painting portraits that look more like video game illustrations than photographs.

Photographer Lisa Bettany has an interesting post over at Camera+ comparing the iPhone 4S camera to the cameras on each of the previous versions (and a couple other cameras as well). It's an interesting look at how much cell phone cameras have improved since the original iPhone was announced at the beginning of 2007.

Photographs of happy babies are cute, but not-so-happy babies can also make for great photo subjects. Photographer Evan Kafka has a knack for capturing wonderful expressions of both varieties.

More news from the ongoing Olympus scandal: despite an official explanation issued by Olympus last week, the company's stock has continued to plummet. It closed today at ¥1,099, down from around ¥2,500 before the crisis began. Investors are apparently spooked after a major Japanese newspaper suggested that the payments at the center of the controversy could have links to the criminal underworld (something the company has denied). The New York Times is reporting that the FBI is now involved in …

Here's a super-awesome way of using stop-motion photography to announce the birth of a new baby.

Night photographer Ben Canales made this image by stacking together roughly 50 different exposures in order to show all of the star trails across the sky. Regarding the color seen in the stars, Canales writes, …

Remember the light brown leather X100 special edition announced by Fujifilm a couple of days ago? While those might come with a unique limited edition serial number, the look apparently isn't as unique. As a commenter pointed out, it appears to be a covering offered by a shop named Aki-Asahi Custom Camera Coverings. There are quite a few styles in addition to that look (which is named "Lizard Ochre"), including a couple of beautiful wood coverings crafted from walnut and cherry wood.

In this video, commercial photographer Jay P. Morgan walks through how he went about shooting a composite sports photograph of Mexican soccer player Rafael Márquez.

Japanese camera site digicame-info is reporting that an upcoming announcement of a D700 successor (possibly the D800) has been cancelled due to the ongoing flooding in Thailand, and that Nikon's product supply has nearly come to a standstill -- affecting existing products in addition to upcoming ones. Even if the D800 is being manufactured in Japan like the D700 is, some components may be produced in Nikon's flood-damaged factory.

Inspired by Caleb Ungewitter's giant poster project, Andy Beckmann decided to try his hand at making a nicer version. Instead of attaching prints to the wall directly, Beckmann purchased 36 210x297mm wooden boards to mount the prints on (the photo was split into smaller prints using PosteRazor). The result is a more durable and professional looking display that can be easily reused in a different location.

Sending cameras to the edges of space on a weather balloon has become a pretty popular activity as of late, but up to now people were mostly sending up cell phones, compact cameras, and small HD video cameras (e.g. GoPros). While those devices are light and relatively cheap, the quality of images produced isn't the best.

The "midnight sun" is a natural phenomenon that occurs in summer months near the Earth's poles where the sun doesn't set and is visible 24 hours a day. During these times, the sun travels horizontally across the horizon throughout the night, causing the landscape to be bathed in an extended "golden hour" light.

The 100 year anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic will come in April of next year, and auction houses are already seeing a spike in the number of artifacts from the disaster being put up for sale. Among them are a set of previously unseen photographs made the morning after the sinking, which show the rescue ships, lifeboats, and an icy Atlantic ocean.

So this is how some photographers always manage to capture awesome action shots... Now if only Neo or Max Payne would lead a photography workshop on how to activate "bullet time".

The Nikon Lens Scope Converter is a rare accessory that attaches to the back of Nikon lenses, turning them into telescopes. You can sometimes find them listed on eBay for around $230. They're designed for AF D-era lenses that have mechanical aperture rings, but you can "hack" your G lenses to be compatible by using a piece of plastic to keep the aperture blades in the open position.

We've shared before that the Canon 5D Mark II was used for scenes in Captain America and Iron Man 2, but if you think that's crazy, get this: the upcoming movie 'The Avengers', which features an entire team of Marvel superheros, contains scenes shot with the iPhone 4. The movie's cinematographer Seamus McGarvey tells IFTN, …

Photographer Zack Arias has an interesting piece on why he doesn't think photographers should feel threatened by others who offer their services for absurdly low prices: …

Casetagram is a service that makes custom iPhone cases using Instagram photographs. The case comes in four different templates, and cost $35 each with free shipping worldwide.

Artist Brian Hart creates amazingly detailed light painting photographs, sometimes spending nearly 20 minutes exposing a single one. The above photo, titled "apartment light drawing", took 17 minutes to draw.

Eddie had a hard time finding a camera strap he liked, so he decided to make his own in the style of some rifle slings he found online. The slings were weaved together using 550 Paracord (parachute cord), which has a breaking weight of 550 pounds. He found some for sale for $7 at his local army-navy store, and weaved together his own rugged DIY camera strap.

After being spurned back in early 2008, Microsoft is supposedly on the hunt to acquire Yahoo once again. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Microsoft is working on putting a bid together with Silver Lake Partners, the company that Microsoft recently purchased Skype from. If the buyout succeeds this time, Microsoft will also become the owner of Flickr, which Yahoo purchased six years ago.

Canon's new 1D X DSLR shoots at a whopping 14 frames per second, but did you know that it's not the first Canon SLR capable of that frame rate? Nearly 30 years ago, back in 1984, Canon unveiled the "F-1 High Speed Motor Drive Camera": a camera powered by huge battery packs that could chew through a roll of film in 2.57 seconds.

Here's a cross section view of the consumer light field camera unveiled by Lytro yesterday. Many people have been wondering about the camera's output resolution. The official specs are enigmatic in this regard, as the resolution isn't listed in megapixels (it boasts "11 Megarays"). If the diagram is to scale, however, we can learn a little about the sensor's size. The camera is listed as being 41mm tall, so the sensor appears to be between 7.5x7.5mm and 10.5x10.5mm -- roughly the size of a …

When the X100 was announced a year ago, some people accused Fujifilm of ripping off the look of Leica's rangefinder cameras. The retro look worked though, and retailers have had a hard time keeping the camera in stock. Now Fujifilm is making another Leica-esque move by releasing a limited edition version of the X100.

Our camera stickers are fun, but for something more personal you can make your own 35mm film stickers. All you need is a sticker making machine that usually costs between $10-$20 online or in your local craft store. You can use any film you'd like, though slide film is recommended because it'll give you positive image stickers. With film manufacturers struggling, any reason to buy more film is a good reason! …

New media artist Kent Sheely took some of his old photographs and recreated them inside the sandbox physics game Garry's Mod. Each "virtual photo" took about 2-3 hours to recreate: Sheely had to pick out models, set up objects, tweak details, and position everything while looking through the stationary camera view in the game.

Leica Camera is now nearly half American-owned: the company announced yesterday that it has agreed to sell a 44% minority stake to US-based private equity firm Blackstone Group. Leica Chairman Andreas Kaufmann says the purpose is international expansion: …

"Exposing to the right" is a well-known rule of thumb for maximizing image quality by pushing exposure to avoid noise, but the equation is changing as the quality of image sensors continues to improve. Ctein over at The Online Photographer writes, …

Verena Lang of Ivy Design came up with this brilliant idea of a table that conveniently folds up into a giant picture frame when it isn't needed. They're built out of wood, plexiglass, and stainless steel, and cost about $2,200 on the Ivy Design site. Of course, you could always try your hand at building your own!

Hands on videos and first-impression reviews of Lytro's new revolutionary light field camera are starting to emerge. Engadget writes, …

A week ago we shared a photo showing Nikon's factory in Thailand submerged due to the catastrophic flooding happening there. The latest news is that both Nikon and Sony have had their camera factories severely damaged, which may have cause delays of at least 1-2 months. 90% of Nikon's SLR cameras -- the low to mid-range ones -- are produced at the company's Thailand plant, while 100% of Sony DSLRs are made at its now-damaged factory.

Two years ago, Flickr partnered up with Getty to allow Flickr users to sell photographs, and today Getty announced that its "Flickr Collection" has grown to over 250,000 images. Getty also revealed that the above image titled "Rock Concert" by Flickr user Michael Bodge is their best seller. No word on how many copies it has sold, though.

Lytro has finally announced its revolutionary consumer light field camera. It's a tiny camera with built-in storage, an 8x f/2 lens, and a design that looks more like a futuristic flashlight than a point-and-shoot camera. The camera captures "living pictures" that can be refocused by the photographer and the viewer, which means focusing is completely eliminated from the process of taking a picture. An 8GB that stores 350 pictures will be priced at $400, while a 16GB with a 750 image capacity …

Daily photo projects have become quite popular as of late, and a number of viral time-lapse videos feature people who take one self-portrait a day over many years. However, if you think taking a photo every day requires a crazy amount of dedication, you ain't seen nothing yet.

Adobe's amazing Image Deblurring demo was the star of the Sneak Peeks event at Adobe MAX 2011, but it was just one of the many demos shown that night. Another interesting photography-related demo was for "Pixel Nuggets": a feature that lets you search a large library of photos for features (e.g. people, landmarks, patterns, logos).

Renowned rock photographer Baron Wolman, the first photo editor at Rolling Stone magazine, is speaking out against the worrying trend of copyright grabs by music artists. He recently spoke to makingimages.com.au, saying: …

Wedding photographer Lee Morris recently had the idea of trying his hand at making a wedding video with his still photography mindset. His idea was to slow down the video to make it more of a "moving image", bringing it more into his realm of expertise. To do this, he photographed a wedding at 60fps using a Canon 60D and then slowed the video down to 24fps afterward.