June 2012

The Kick: A Highly Customizable Pocket-Sized “Lighting Studio”

The stated goal on "the Kick" is that they're trying to "help you take better pictures, make better videos and have fun doing it." But what they've really done is re-imagine, and maybe even revolutionize, portable lighting. That's because the Kick, in particular the Kick Plus, can do so much: use it as a strobe, as a continuous light source, or to generate different colors or effects.

Museum Asks for Help Identifying The Subjects In 150 Year Old Tintype Photos

Back in the days before every photo was tagged and shared with family, friends and strangers alike, a photograph was a rare, prized possession. In the Civil War era it wasn't uncommon for soldiers to carry a small tintype of a family member into battle, and if they died, sadly so did all of the information about that photo. That's why the Museum of the Confederacy needs your help.

Nokia To Put 41MP PureView Cameras in Future Lumia Windows Phones

Those of you in the US who were salivating over the 41-megapixel camera in the Nokia 808 PureView were given a small ray of hope when you found out that the smartphone was possibly going to make it stateside unlocked. But if the camera was what you were pining for then you have no reason to fret, because according to Nokia USA President Chris Webber, future Lumia Windows Phones will be sporting the same tech.

A Snapshot of the Photography Industry

Did you know that more photos are created every two minutes than in the entire 1800s? HighTable created this infographic that gives a quick overview of the state of the photography industry and the rise of mobile photography.

Largest Photo Book Ever Published Sells for £330,000 at Auction

The largest photo book ever published sold yesterday at the Bonhams Book, Maps, Manuscripts and Historical Photographs sale in London. The book is made up of 20, un-enlarged prints of Egypt, Sinai and Jerusalem taken by renowned English photographer Francis Frith that each measure a colossal 30in x 21in. To give you some perspective, we've superimposed a picture of Canon's new T4i (to scale) onto the picture from the book itself. As you can see, these are some big prints.

Scream Portraits Shot Using a Photo Booth Triggered by Sound

Screamotron3000 is a creative photo booth hacked together by photographer Billy Hunt, who writes,

The Screamotron3000 is an converted boom box that takes a photo when you scream. Think Rube Goldberg meets the Wizard of Oz. By using a machine, I hope to offer a window through the inherently artificial process of portraiture into real human emotion.

It's a brilliant way to cause inner turmoil for his subjects. On one hand, a scream is needed to activate the camera, but on the other hand, subjects have a natural desire to look presentable in photos.

Ethereal Photos of Indoor Clouds

Dutch artist Berndnaut Smilde creates indoor clouds using a smoke machine and uses dramatic lighting to make them look realistic. He calls the project Nimbus.

Kodak Moving Forward With Patent Sale, 20 Potential Buyers Surface

Recent news coming out of Rochester yesterday points to the fact that Kodak will be selling off its two massive patent portfolios sooner rather than later, and regardless of any progress made in the suit against Apple and RIM. In accordance with the June 30th deadline outlined in their lending agreement, Kodak has already filed a motion with the bankruptcy court -- to be approved at a hearing on July 2nd -- petitioning for a closed bids auction due to the "special nature of the assets."

Portraits of Celebrity Impersonators and their Asian Doppelgängers

For his project titled All Look Same, San Francisco-based photographer Howard Cao photographed celebrity impersonators in Las Vegas and then had Sugar Digital do some post-processing magic to transform their race. The result is a series of images that is meant to ask the question, "Would celebrities be as interesting to American culture if they were Asian?".

The Uncropped Versions of Iconic Photos

Here are some uncropped (or "unzoomed") versions of iconic photographs that show more context than their famous cropped counterparts. It's interesting to see what photographers and photo editors chose to keep and what they chose to throw away. The image above is an alternate view of Tank Man.

Rooms Turned into Colorful Camera Obscura Light Installations

Artist Chris Fraser creates beautiful light displays by turning rooms into giant camera obscuras. Rather than use a single pinhole as the lens, he bores numerous holes into the walls to create layered patterns of light. He writes,

My light installations use the ‘camera obscura’ as a point of departure. They are immersive optical environments, idealized spaces with discreet openings. In translating the outside world into moving fields of light and color, the projections make an argument for unfixed notion of sight.

It’s Not About The F-Stop!

Last year I did a lecture about how to get commercial assignments by photographing and promoting personal photography projects at the Event Space at B&H Photo in NYC. It was a wonderful lecture discussing how to come up with tests shoots that are artistic, enjoyable to shoot, and could be marketable to potential clients. Most of the images I was showing that day were from a portrait project I had shot a couple years earlier which ended up getting me some great advertising jobs. The portraits I was showing were very much about personality and were by no means a great technical feat being that they were shot in the studio on a black background.

Nikon In Hot Water After Canceling WWII “Comfort Women” Exhibit

Nikon found themselves at the center of a controversy this last weekend after they decided to cancel a sensitive photography exhibit without giving a reason why. The exhibit, a photographic documentary on the theme of "Comfort Women" (Korean women used as sex slaves during WWII in Japan), was put together by Korean photographer Ahn Sehong and set to start on June 26th at the Nikon Salon in Tokyo -- until Nikon cancelled it.

Amazing Slow Motion Footage Using a High Speed Camera Robot

Super slow motion footage captured by high speed cameras usually shows slow movements (if any), but German studio The Marmalade came up with a brilliant way of speeding up the movements: a high-speed robot camera operator.

Our groundbreaking High Speed Motion Control System 'Spike' brings the creative freedom of a moving camera to the world of high speed filming and so enables us to create shots that would be impossible to achieve otherwise. 'Spike' can freely move the camera with unparalleled speed and precision, thereby removing the previously existing creative limitation of having to shoot high speed sequences with a locked camera.

By marrying the hardware of a sturdy and reliable industrial robot to software that was built from the ground up for the demands of motion controlled high speed imaging, we developed a unique system for creating real life camera moves with the ease of use normally associated with 3D Animation.

The system does camera moves that are exactly repeatable, allowing them to be slightly tweaked until the shot is just right.

Canon Rebel T4i/650D Touchscreen in Action

Here are a few videos showing the new Canon Rebel T4i/650D's touchscreen LCD in action. The navigation options (e.g. pinch to zoom and swipe to change) are very similar to controls found on smartphones.

Apple Job Postings Hint at Mobile Version of Aperture

Rounding out a day packed with Apple announcements and general excitement at the WWDC 2012, here's one final Apple tidbit coming from rumor site Apple Insider. According to them, recent job postings at Apple hint at the possibility of an Aperture mobile app coming in the near future. After receiving a tip from an anonymous user, Apple Insider found that the Aperture team is looking to fill quite a few manager and developer positions, many of which require experience developing on the iOS platform in one form or another.

Apple Announces Photo Sharing Through “Shared Photo Streams” Coming in iOS6

It looks like previous rumors about an updated photo stream in iOS6 were right. Apple has officially announced what they're calling "shared photo streams," which are exactly what they sound like: mark certain photos or albums as "shared," choose who you would like to share them with, and you're done. The folks you chose to share the album with will get a notification (if they have an iOS6 device or a Mac with Mountain Lion) and be able to browse, like and comment on your pictures in iPhoto, Aperture, or even on AppleTV. Non-Apple users will have to settle with browsing your shared photos on the web.