August 2012

Take Hands-Free Roadtrip Photos with a Pair of Hacked Cameras

Snapping a photograph while driving isn't the smartest, safest, or easiest thing to do. How then should one go about snapping pictures of the interesting things you drive past without breaking the law or putting people at risk?

Caleb Kraft of Hack a Day has one possible solution: remote-controlled cameras that attach to the side windows of a car.

Kobe Bryant Caught on Camera Having Lens Cap Issues

Basketball superstar Kobe Bryant is one of the most graceful players in the NBA, but put a camera in his hands and he becomes a mere mortal. Bryant was spotted by television cameras at a Roger Federer Olympic tennis match having trouble with his Canon DSLR and telephoto L lens. He is seen asking someone -- presumably a photographer -- for help, only to be told that the lens cap was still on.

The 5 Most Artistic Satellite Photographs of Earth Captured by NASA

Satellite photographs of Earth are often abstract and artsy, filled with strange colors, shapes, and textures. Some resemble the paintings of old masters, while others look like microscopic slides studied in biology classes. NASA's LandSat has snapped images from space for 40 years now, with many of the images going into a special collection by the U.S. Geological Survey called "Earth as Art". NASA recently decided to run a photo beauty contest to find out which of the satellite images in its collection are the most artistic.

Shooting a Mini Cooper at Night Using Giant Bags of Light

This advertising photograph for the new Mini John Cooper Works GP looks like a piece of CGI artwork, but it's a lot more photo than render. It also looks like it was shot at high speeds, but it was actually photographed at a crawl. Shot during a top-secret nighttime photo shoot at the Circuit Paul Ricard in France, the photo required long exposure photography, fake smoke, gigantic lights, and a fancy moving camera rig.

What if Every Olympic Sport Was Photographed Like Beach Volleyball?

Nate Jones over at Metro was recently looking through Getty Images in search of Olympic beach volleyball photos, when he came upon an interesting/"gross" discovery: some of the photographs focused on the body rather than the athlete or the sport. While other Olympic sport photos focus on action and emotion, it seems that certain beach volleyball photographers are intent on snapping images of behinds.

That got Jones thinking, "what if every Olympic sport was photographed like women's beach volleyball?" He then decided to take other shots of other sports and crop them through the lens of volleyball photographers. Here's a sampling of the hilarious images.

Review: Olympus Tough TG-1 iHS Lets You Ditch that Zip-Loc Bag

A few weeks ago, some friends and I went on a rafting trip. Not wanting to put an actual camera at risk, I decided to simply bring my iPhone along in a Zip-Loc freezer bag. A pretty ghetto solution, I know, but it turns out that many rafters do the exact same thing.

Announced back in May, the Olympus Tough TG-1 is a new $399 waterproof camera that'll change the way you think about capturing dangerous-to-capture memories.

(Re)touching Lives Through Photos and Using Photoshop for Good

Photoshopping gets a lot of bad press due to the fact that it's often used to "make skinny models skinner and perfect skin more perfect", but there are also people out there using it for good. The video above is a recent TED talk given by retoucher Becci Manson on how Photoshopping was used to bring joy and memories back to those affected by the devastating 2011 tsunami in Japan.

How Martin Schoeller Photographed Swimmer Ryan Lochte for TIME

Update on 12/18/21: This video has been removed by its creator.

Photographer Martin Schoeller recently photographed American swimmer Ryan Lochte for the July 30th issue of TIME magazine. The behind-the-scenes video above offers an interesting glimpse into how the images were made.

What It Feels Like to Be a Freelance Photographer

Freelancers often have to deal with the difficult challenge of trying to satisfy vaguely stated requests from clients, and also the frustration of meeting new requirements that aren't revealed until after the work is "completed". The video above is an interesting social experiment by Don't Get Screwed Over that attempts to show people what these freelance horror stories feel like to the people getting "screwed over".

Forced Perspective Shots with a Moving Camera in Lord of the Rings

Have you ever wondered how Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson made Frodo Baggins the hobbit so much smaller than Gandalf the wizard? Aside from using CGI and child body doubles, the filmmaking team also employed brilliant forced perspective techniques that tricked viewers with optical illusions.

A bright green grassy hill under a blue sky with scattered white clouds. The scene is sunlit and peaceful, with no trees or buildings visible.

The Most-Viewed Photo of All Time

Ever wonder what the most viewed photograph of all time is? One leading candidate is Bliss, the photograph chosen by Microsoft to be the default wallpaper of Windows XP. Showing rolling green hills in Sonoma County, California, the image was shot by the side of a highway by professional photographer Charles O'Rear using a medium format camera. It has reportedly been viewed by over 1 billion people since it first emerged in 2002.

A Documentary About Hollywood’s Transition from Film to Digital

The photography industry isn't the only one transitioning away from film and into digital; Hollywood's undergoing the exact same thing. Side by Side is an upcoming documentary film produced by Keanu Reeves that offers a look into this major transition that's underway

For almost one hundred years there was only one way to make a movie — with film. Movies were shot, edited and projected using photochemical film. But over the last two decades a digital process has emerged to challenge photochemical filmmaking.

SIDE BY SIDE, a new documentary produced by Keanu Reeves, takes an in-depth look at this revolution. Through interviews with directors, cinematographers, film students, producers, technologists, editors, and exhibitors, SIDE BY SIDE examines all aspects of filmmaking — from capture to edit, visual effects to color correction, distribution to archive. At this moment when digital and photochemical filmmaking coexist, SIDE BY SIDE explores what has been gained, what is lost, and what the future might bring.

5 Tips to Being a Thrifty Photographer

In this guide, you will find out how you can save money on film photography. I will go over five basic ways on how any film photographer can pursue their artistic dreams and develop their creative outlets without having to spend a fortune.

Man Leaves $13K Worth of Camera Gear in a NYC Taxi, Gets It Back

A photographer's worst nightmare happened to YouTube filmmaker Casey Neistat recently. After taking a taxi after a long 18-hour work day and flight, Neistat accidentally forgot all of his luggage -- and $13,238.86 worth of camera gear -- in the back of a New York City taxi cab. Among the equipment lost was a Canon 5D Mark III kit ($4300), a 24-70mm lens ($1600), and about $550 worth of memory cards -- equipment necessary for Neistat to make a living.

Olympics Photographer Caught Having Lens Cap Dysfunction

A photographer at the London 2012 Olympics was spotted by a television camera making an embarrassing mistake that's usually limited to newbies: forgetting to remove the lens cap. As he tries to photograph Japanese gymnast Kohei Uchimura using his DSLR's live view, the photographer notices that his LCD screen is strangely blank. After a short period of befuddlement, he realizes the errors of his ways, quickly corrects it, and casts a classic sidelong glance to see if any of his photographer buddies were secretly laughing at him.

Print Photos onto Fabric Using Sunlight With the Lumi Process

The Lumi Process is a new print process for transferring photographs onto textiles and natural materials. It's based around Inkodye, a light sensitive solution that uses sunlight to print images onto everything ranging from cotton to wood. Once fixed, the images are permanent and can go through washing machines without fading. Co-founder Jesse Gennet recently launched a Kickstarter fundraising campaign to bring the project to a new level, and ended up raising over $250,000 -- a good deal more than the stated goal of $50,000.

Olympic-Sized Meals on Oversized Place Settings

Photographer Michael Bodiam and set designer Sarah Parker were recently commissioned by NOWNESS to shoot a project called "A Day on My Plate: Athletes' Meals". The goal was to document Olympic athlete meals, but with a twist: instead of standard perspectives, the massive amounts of food were placed onto oversized place settings created with laser-cut MDF, cardboard and paper.

Random Things You Can Use to Make Food Photos More Appealing

There's a reason that most of the foods you buy never look like the photos used to advertise them. Food photographers and stylists have all kinds of random tricks up their sleeve for making food items look picture perfect. Here's a list of various household products that are commonly used to make dishes look more appealing. A warning, though: you might lose your appetite.

Paparazzo Light is an Old School Press Camera “Flash” for the iPhone

How's this for a strange camera accessory: the Paparazzo Light is a lighting attachment for iPhones that mimics the look of vintage press camera flashes (yes, the kind the original Lightsaber was made from). The light comes from a 300 Lumen LED that's powered by two dedicated CR 123 batteries, and three modes offer different brightness settings for photos and videos.

Win Two Stylish ONA Camera Bags Worth $388

We just gave away a Tamron lens, but now we're back again with another awesome giveaway. This week we're giving away two beautiful camera bags by ONA that'll let you carry your cameras in style. One lucky winner will win both a Brixton camera + laptop messenger bag worth $269 and a Bowery camera bag worth $119 -- a total value of $388.

Austria’s Largest Paper Runs ‘Shopped Photo of Syria

Photographs of of Syria these days are filled with grim sights of pain and suffering. One Austrian newspaper apparently decided that the photos weren't grim enough. Kronen Zeitung, Austria's largest newspaper boasting ~3 million readers, published a photo this past weekend (top) showing a couple stepping through the rubble of a destroyed building complex with their child wrapped in a blanket. A powerful image... but completely fabricated. The original photo (bottom) published by the European Pressphoto Agency two days earlier shows a completely different scene.

Camera Forgotten on Plane Causes Flight Diversion, Scrambling of Fighter Jets

The next time you fly, be sure not to forget your camera on the plane -- your camera might make the national news. A United Airlines flight carrying 169 people from New Jersey to Switzerland was diverted to Boston last night after a camera was discovered in a seasickness bag behind one of the seats. In addition to inconveniencing the passengers, two F-15 fighter jets were scrambled to follow the plane. The camera was later discovered to be... an ordinary camera.

Apple to Use Face Detection for Exposure Metering and Snappy Autofocus

Face detection has become the snapshot photographer's invaluable assistant in ensuring tack-sharp faces, but soon it'll be able to add two more job responsibilities to its resume: exposure metering and speedier autofocus. Two patents recently awarded to Apple show that future iOS cameras (perhaps the next iPhone?) will have standard camera features that rely much more on face detection technology. The first patent, titled "Dynamic exposure metering based on face detection", allows the camera to automatically select faces as the primary target for metering. In more difficult situations -- group shots or people standing in front of a crowd, for example -- the camera will use factors such as "head proximity" to select the primary subject.