January 2012

Canon's latest compact cameras at CES this year have some fancy new facial recognition features that assist in portrait shots. Up to 12 people can be stored in the camera. Simply snap a photo of your friends face, provide the friend's name (and birthday if you wish), and the camera will recognize your friend from that point forward. In group shots, the camera will give your friends' faces preferential treatment, making sure that they're properly in focus and exposed.

Reminiscent of the Fatescapes series we featured recently, LIVE ! is an ongoing project by Hatim el Hihi and Jean-Marie Delbes in which they post classic album covers that have had deceased band members carefully Photoshopped out of them.

CNNMoney has an interesting article on how the Kodak brand will likely survive even if the company itself declares bankruptcy: …

Casio is showing off a crazy 2D to 3D conversion service at CES that turns ordinary photographs into three-dimensional sculptures. The service takes a photograph, calculates depth using some fancy technology, and then prints out the result using a proprietary 3D printer. The examples they're showing off aren't too flattering though -- the dog and cat sample photos were turned into sculptures that look like transdimensional taxidermy.

Fujifilm claims that the sensor in its new X-Pro1 mirrorless camera system beats DSLR sensors (both crop and full frame) in resolution and signal/noise ratio. To give salivating photographers a taste of the camera's image quality, the company has released 9 full-resolution JPEG images shot at different settings and focal lengths. The photo above was captured at ISO 1600 (check out the full-res here). They also provide a glimpse into the camera's film simulation mode, as each one was shot in …

If you've always wanted your own military-grade portable darkroom, today's your lucky day! There's a used US Army one for sale on eBay with the starting price of $4,500. The 4,500LB shelter contains 3 rooms with 614 cubic feet of space, and comes with all the darkroom equipment you need, including a fridge, film drying cabinet, film processors, sink, storage spaces, and an escape door! It even packs its own temperate water control system and heating/AC unit. You can find more photos here.

Art director Sean Ohlenkamp, his wife Lisa, and an army of volunteers spent many sleepless nights at Type Books in Toronto, Canada moving, stacking, and photographing books. The result was this beautiful stop-motion video showing books coming to life at night.

Kodak might be on its deathbed, but that's not stopping the company from launching a new volley of lawsuits over patent infringements. Already trying to milk $1 billion from Apple, the company has filed new lawsuits against smartphone makers Apple and HTC, alleging that Apple violated four of its patents and HTC five. The lawsuits center around technology for transferring photos on and off devices. While today's lawsuits might simply be a creative marketing effort in Kodak's attempt to sell off …

This is what the new Nikon D4 looks like when stripped down to its rugged magnesium alloy frame.

Smartphones are constantly getting better at imitating compact cameras, but so far we haven't seen many cameras that attempt to mimic smartphones. That changes today with the Polaroid SC1630 Smart Camera, a 16-megapixel compact camera unveiled at CES. It's a point-and-shoot camera that's pretty much a smartphone without the phone. Powered by Android, the camera features a 3x (36-108mmm) optical zoom lens, a 3.2-inch touchscreen, Wi-Fi connectivity, 720p video recording, and geotagging. The …

Japanese photographer Mariko Sakaguchi has a curious self-portrait series in which she photographs herself sitting in a bathtub in all kinds of random locations, which range from business offices to lecture halls.

So this was the first sunset I captured in 2012. It cost me $6,612 to take this photo.

Adobe released a beta version of Lightroom 4 today. New features include support for location data through a map module, book making through Blurb, new video features, new shadow/highlight controls, simplified basic adjustments, new local adjustments, and space saving lossy compression for DNG files. You can find a complete list of changes here. You can downloaded the program for free and use it until the beta version expires on March 31st, 2012.

dpreview has published an in-depth hands-on preview of the new Fujifilm X-Pro1. The image above shows the camera next to a Leica M9-P digital rangefinder, which costs about $8,000 -- body only.

Filmmaker Jesse Rosten created this satirical commercial for Fotoshop by Adobé with the tagline "This commercial isn't real, neither are society's standards of beauty." It's a humorous response to how the beauty industry has distorted our society's perception of beauty through ubiquitous Photoshopping. The video may or may not be work safe, depending on where you work.

With camera-equipped phones eating up more and more of the compact camera market, manufacturers are turning to gimmicky features in order to lure consumers. Canon's new line of ELPH cameras have a Sleeping Face Recognition mode that'll make your camera creepy stealthy (i.e. turn off flash, assist beam, and sounds) when it detects someone sleeping in the frame. Olympus' new VR-340 has a Beauty Make-Up Mode that offers 18 in-camera enhancements (e.g. whiten teeth, lift cheek bones) -- something …

Here's something that might give you a chuckle (or be too painfully accurate for some of you): Visual Idiot created a web-based Adobe Photoshop simulator that attempts to faithfully reproduce how the program works in Mac OS X.

Walter Mason of Berlin, Germany shot these beautiful photographs of land art he created. Land art is abstract artwork created using natural materials found outdoors.

Here's a hands-on tour of the new Fujifilm X-Pro1 that was announced yesterday -- a gorgeous camera that has the photo world buzzing with excitement. There's been a lot of speculation on the camera's price, which hasn't been announced, with most sources reporting that it will be in the range of $1,600-$1,700.

If you saw any of these images on the back of your digital camera after snapping a photograph, you'd probably want to get the camera checked out. Phillip Stearns, on the other hand, feels a sense of accomplishment. The Brooklyn-based shutterbug has a project called Year of the Glitch in which he publishes electronic glitches as art.

Farmlands might look pretty ordinary from ground level, but photograph crop fields from space (or even from an airplane) and you'll see strange and beautiful patterns.

Pretty much everything we wanted to know about the Fujifilm X-Pro1 was leaked over the weekend, but now the camera finally transitioned from the world of rumors into official reality. Fujifilm unveiled the X-Pro1 at CES today, and confirmed the leaked specs. They also announced plans to release 9 additional lenses within the next three years. Sadly, the usefulness of the official announcement ends there -- there was no word on how much things will cost when they become available late February …

Aviation photographer Justin de Reuck has an awesome job: rather than do photo shoots in the comfort of a studio, he hops into fighter jets to photograph other airplanes in flight. This behind-the-scenes video shows him at work, snapping images while zipping around above the clouds and battling G-forces. The photographs that resulted from this shoot can be seen here.

Fujifilm's beautiful X-Pro1 mirrorless camera isn't official yet, but we now have a clearer picture of what the system will look like after a few product pages for X-series lenses were accidentally published on Amazon (they've since been removed). In addition to new images of the camera itself, prices for the lenses were revealed: $500 for the 35mm f/1.4 and 18mm f/2.0, and $600 for the 60mm f/2.4. Also, get this: the camera will be able to simulate 10 different kinds of film (e.g. Provia, …

Unlike Nikon, which jumped headfirst into the interchangeable lens mirrorless game last year, Canon appears to be content with simply upping the sensor size in its existing compact cameras. Today the company announces the G1X, a new camera into the G-series line that offers a sensor large enough to compete with existing mirrorless camera systems.

While there are quite a few photographers out there who are fans of using early photographic processes (e.g. the collodion process), wet plate photographer Dana Geraths takes things one step further: he builds the camera equipment he uses. You can check out Gerath's work on his website here.

Earlier today, the official website of Nikon Germany briefly showed a mysterious camera in an image of the company's DSLR lineup. It was quickly removed, but not before screenshots of the page quickly spread across the blogosphere. The camera in the photo looks identical to the photo of the Nikon D800 that leaked in November of last year.

Here's a fantastic project/gift idea for those of you who are both tech-savvy and artsy: make a custom snow globe of your house. The process involves capturing photographs of the house from all sides, turning the images into a 3D model of the home using a 3D modeling program (e.g. Google Sketchup), turning the 3D model into a physical object using a 3D printing service (e.g. Shapeways), and then sticking the object into a custom snow globe kit. Qarl has published a step-by-step tutorial on the …

Want a better idea of what the new Nikon D4 is like? In this post we've aggregated some of the various videos about the camera that have emerged in the past day, from hands-on demos and presentations to sample videos shot with the camera.

Well, well, well, look who's first to the XQD game. It's not Sandisk or Lexar, but Sony. On the same day Nikon announced its new D4 with XQD compatibility, Sony has announced the first line of XQD memory cards (intended to eventually replace CF cards). They offer 125MB/s transfer speeds, and can quickly store up to 100 RAW images in continuous shooting mode. A 16GB card will cost $129, while a 32GB one will be priced at $229. They'll hit store shelves sometime in February.

NASA photographer Lauren Harnett captured this photograph of the International Space Station passing in front of the moon. What's amazing is that it didn't require any fancy astronomy equipment -- Harnett was shooting from a parking lot using a Nikon D3S, 600mm lens, 2x teleconverter, heavy duty tripod and sandbag, and a remote shutter release. She shot at 1/1600, f/8, and ISO 2500 in burst mode, and then combined the resulting photographs into this one image.

After nearly a year of rumors, speculation, and leaks, Nikon has finally announced its new flagship D4 DSLR. The specs were already leaked, but here they are: 16.2MP, ISO that expands to 204,800, 10fps stills (11 if AE and AF locked), 51 AF points, a new full frame sensor, 1080/30p video recording, a 91K pixel meter (up from 1,005 pixels in the D3S), backlit controls, a 3.2-inch LCD with an ambient light sensor, a 0.12s startup time, and dual card slots (CF+XQD). It'll cost $6,000 when it hits …

Toronto-based photographer Jeff Harris started a photo-a-day project back in 1999 in an effort to document his life through self-portraits. Since then, he has captured 4,748 beautiful photographs that show everything from reckless stunts to a fierce battle with cancer (warning: there's a graphic image). Harris states, …

Earlier this week, photographer Jeanine Thurston shared a letter that she received from a client that powerfully illustrates the value of photography. Thurston writes,

Street View Stereographic is a fun little web app that creates a "little planet" (i.e. stereographic projection) using the photos from any Google Street View location you provide it.

The Impossible Project and Polaroid have teamed up to launch the Polaroid Classic line. Every year the two companies will be collaborating on 6-10 Polaroid Classic branded products. Guess what the first product is? A DIY paper camera kit! …

Don Hong-Oai was a San Francisco-based Chinese photographer who created beautiful images that resembled traditional Chinese paintings.

The folks over at Triposo wanted to know when people around the world take pictures, so they harvested the timestamps and geolocation data from photos shared on the Internet and created this beautiful visualization showing one year of photos taken around the world (be sure to watch it full screen and in HD). It's neat seeing certain parts of the world light up with photo activity on special days.

The Nikon D4 wasn't the only upcoming camera to have its photos and details leaked today: Fujifilm's retro-styled system camera also got the same treatment. Réponses Photo (the French magazine that leaked the D4) has leaked an article about the Fujifilm X-Pro1 -- previously believed to be called the X1 or LX10. A press release about the camera also appeared on Wells Fargo's website (screenshot here). We now know that the camera will offer a custom 16MP CMOS sensor, use Fujifilm's EXR processor …

French magazine Réponses Photo has spilled the beans on the Nikon D4, one day ahead of its official announcement. A two-page scan from the magazine leaked onto the Internet, revealing photos of the camera and confirming the specs that we shared yesterday and last December. Some confirmed details: 16 megapixels, ISO 100-12800 (expandable to 50-204800), 51 autofocus points, 100% viewfinder coverage, 10-12fps, 91000 point metering system, 1080p video recording, CF/XQD card slots, 1.34kg weight, …

Guess who joined in on the Instagram party? President Obama. While the White House Flickr Photostream publishes a steady stream of official images captured by Pete Souza, the new Instagram stream will be broadcasting casual behind-the-scenes glimpses at Obama's reelection campaign -- with vintage filters, of course. His username is @barackobama.

Photographer Kien Lam quit his job last year and embarked on a 343 day backpacking journey around the world. He ended up traveling through 17 different countries and capturing 6237 photographs in the process. To share his incredible journey, he created this beautiful time-lapse video with short glimpses into various locations he visited. Each 2 second segment is made up of about 40-60 still photographs.

Fatescapes is a series of images by visual artist Pavel Maria Smejkal consisting of iconic photographs with their subjects Photoshopped out of them. The New York Times writes, …

Kodak was warned by the New York Stock Exchange yesterday that its stock will be delisted if its price remains under $1 for the next six months. The stock has had an average closing price of below $1 for over 30 consecutive days now, and is no longer compliant with the NYSE's requirement for minimum share price. Sadly, the company might not last another six months: the Wall Street Journal reported today that the company is now preparing to file for bankruptcy, which will likely happen in the …

Freelance photographer Bill Rhodes captured this X-Ray photograph that reveals what various pieces of camera equipment look like on the inside. There's lenses, a camera, a radio transmitter, remote shutter release, light modifiers, and batteries.

Nikon will reportedly announce its new D4 DSLR at a press event this Friday, but new details beyond previously leaked specs are emerging. The 16.2MP camera will be available starting next month for $6,000. Its ISO goes up to 102,400, but can be expanded to 204,800. There's also a heavy emphasis on video: it'll have a dedicated video button, H.264 B frame compression, contrast detect AF during recording, a low pass filter, and a smooth aperture change feature.

If you're in the market for a new digital camera this year, buying it in January or February might get you the best deal. Lifehacker has published a comprehensive list of when to buy things based on when you're most likely to see low prices: …

Ever wonder how the photographs found on the pages of National Geographic come together? Here's a fascinating behind-the-scenes video showing how the images of the 1992 cover story titled "The Sense Of Sight" -- photographed by Joe McNally -- were shot, edited, and arranged. McNally writes, …

Philanthroper founder Mark Wilson was at a photography exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago when he came across this sign. His response? …

Update: Turns out this is actually a mockup created by Jonker Burger back in November of last year. We hear it's very close to what the camera will actually look like, though. (Thanks Peter) …