2012

Adobe Photoshop Now Retina-Friendly, Creative Cloud Sees Major Updates

A couple of weeks ago we shared a rumor that today would be the day Adobe officially announced a few major improvements to Photoshop CS6, including support for Apple's Retina display. Well, as luck (or good sources) would have it, we weren't wrong. This morning Adobe announced several exciting updates to Photoshop and Creative Cloud.

Canon Patent Reveals a Smaller Optical Viewfinder with 100% Coverage

A Canon patent filed in May of last year and published last week reveals that the company has a new optical viewfinder up its sleeve that offers both a compactness and 100% coverage. While 100% coverage is a standard feature in high-end DSLRs, the new technology may help bring it to smaller and lighter cameras that have traditionally displayed less than what is actually captured.

Photographs of Children’s Games Turned Into Single-Color Sculptures

For his project titled "Game Over," Brooklyn-based photographer Henry Hargreaves took a number of popular and instantly-recognizable children's games (and toys) and painted over all the colorful designs and branding with single pastel colors. He then photographed the games on backgrounds of the same color.

Too Lazy to Put Up Christmas Lights This Year? Photoshop Can Help

Photo-editing wizard Corey Barker of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals wanted a photo of his house decorated with Christmas lights but was too lazy to physically put up the decorations... so he did it in Photoshop. All the colorful lights and decorations you see above were 'shopped in.

Twitter Officially Launches Retro Photo Filters for Its Mobile App

Well that was fast... Just hours after Instagram launched a major update to its popular photo sharing app, Twitter dropped a bomb on the industry by finally unveiling its own long-awaited and recently-leaked retro filters. The move brings it into direct competition with what Instagram offers -- the two services virtually offer the same product now, except Instagram is solely focused on images while Twitter lets you Tweet text as well.

Instagram Updates iOS App with Sleeker Look, Faster Speed, and New Filter

Instagram officially ended Twitter's ability to display embedded Instagram photos this past weekend. Twitter users aren't pleased, but Instagram is now trying to divert their attention away from what they no longer have to what they do. The company announced a major update to the iOS version of the app today, which includes a sleeker look, faster speed, and a brand new filter for Instagrammers to play with.

CrowdOptic Discovers Islands of Popular Photo Subjects in Oceans of Images

We live in a world that's teeming with digital photographs. More photos are now uploaded every two minutes than were created during the entire 1800s. Facebook is seeing thousands of photographs uploaded to its servers every second of the day, and Instagram was flooded with 10 storm-related photos per second during Hurricane Sandy.

With such a large quantity of photographs flooding the web, it's clear that visual data mining will be an in-demand market in the coming years as more and more people look to glean valuable images from the torrent of useless pixels. One of the companies trying to occupy this space is CrowdOptic, a San Francisco-based startup that's building some pretty interesting location-based photo curation technologies.

Baby Boomer: A Clever Idea for Capturing a Pregnancy in Photos

When Quebec-based photographer Patrice Laroche and Sandra Denis found out they were to become parents, Larouche came up with a funny and clever way of documenting the 9-month journey of pregnancy. The photo project involved paying a visit to a local gas station at various points throughout the process, snapping photos to show exactly how their daughter Justine came into the world.

The Fine Art Photography Market’s Most Bankable Stars

Every few months, it seems, a fine art photograph is sold at auction for an astronomical price and then takes its place among the world's most expensive photos. The price tags are large, but pale in comparison to the hundreds of millions of dollar shelled out for the world's priciest paintings.

How to Make a Padded Lens Case Using Plastic Bottles

If you'd like a cheap and simple way to protect your camera lenses from rain and from drops, you can make a makeshift lens case using ordinary plastic bottles (e.g. water bottles, soda bottles). Here's a step-by-step guide on how to do so.

Total Solar Eclipse Time-Lapse Captures Shadow Sweeping Across the Land

Last month, there was a total solar eclipse that was visible to people in Australia. Photographer Colin Legg captured the whole thing as three separate time-lapse videos (seen above). The short but beautiful clips show the moon passing in front of the sun, a darkness sweeping across the vast landscape, and the moon's shadow sweeping across the sky!

Pilgrimage: A Photographer’s Journey to One of the Birthplaces of Photography

If you're at all interested in the history of photography, Henry Fox Talbot is a pioneer that you need to be familiar with. Although French pioneer Louis Daguerre is often credited with being "the father of photography," Talbot, based in England, had announced his own photographic process in the same year. Daguerre's daguerreotype process dominated the industry early on, but Talbot's process -- one that involved creating photographic negatives and then printing photos with them -- eventually became the standard model used in the 20th century.

Photoshop in Photography: What Defines a Photograph?

Last month photographer Chris Crisman entered the photograph above, titled Butterfly Girl, into the World Photography Organization’s 2012 World Photography Awards. It was selected from the thousands of entries as part of a promotional campaign for the contest and in that process was spread out all over the Internet. From the Daily Mail to the Huffington Post, the story about the World Photo Awards and Chris’s photo made the rounds across the web.

In particular, on the UK news site The Daily Mail, the photo generated a ton of comments and sparked some controversy as to whether or not it was appropriate for a photography competition. This caused me to ask myself the question: "What defines a photograph?"

Gorgeous Infrared Landscapes With Trees of Gold and Silver

If you want to enjoy some eye-popping infrared landscape photographs, look no further than the portfolio of French photographer David Keochkerian. He photographs gorgeous landscapes using an infrared sensitive camera, which causes the green tree leaves to show up as golden yellow and silvery white, and turning spring into fall and winter.

End of the Road: Zeiss Ikon Rangefinders To Be Shuttered

After bidding farewell to the Super Wide and Silver editions of its Zeiss Ikon 35mm rangefinder earlier this year, Cosina is officially saying goodbye to the last of the Zeiss Ikons, relegating the whole line to the history books. The news, which began as a rumor based on this tweet by one of Cosina's retailers, has since been confirmed by The Phoblographer with the company itself.

Beware Counterfeit Memory Cards Being Shipped From Amazon Warehouses

Check out the two memory cards above. One of them is a counterfeit card while the other is a genuine one. Can you tell which is which? If you can't, we don't blame you. Japan-based photography enthusiast Damien Douxchamps couldn't either until he popped the fake card into his camera and began shooting. The card felt a bit sluggish, so he ran some tests on his computer. Turned out the 60MB/s card was actually slower than his old 45MB/s card.

While it's not unusual to come across counterfeit memory cards -- it's estimated that 1/3 of "SanDisk"-labeled cards are -- what's a bit concerning is how Douxchamps purchased his: he ordered the cards off Amazon -- cards that were "fulfilled by Amazon."

Everyday Objects Photographed to Look Like Sea Creatures

The Pacific Trash Vortex, also known as the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch," is an area the size of Texas in the Pacific ocean in which there's 6 times the amount of plastic as there is natural plankton. Photographer Kim Preston wanted to draw attention to this growing problem, so she shot a series of photographs titled Plastic Pacific that features everyday household plastic objects made to look like the sea life they're choking to death.

Photographing the President Overseas: A “Giant Chaotic Moving Game of Chess”

Reuters has released this interesting behind-the-scenes look into what it was like to be a news photographer trailing President Obama as he made an official visit to the nation of Myanmar in November -- the first by a US president. The video offers a glimpse into how hectic the job is, as photographers must rush from place to place, out of vans and into venues, in hopes of capturing a historic and newsworthy shot.

Twitter Retro Filters Coming Soon. This is What They Might Look Like

The mobile photo sharing wars are heating up, and two of the big players, Instagram and Twitter, are in the process of trading blows. Back in November, it came to light that Twitter is currently working to build Instagram-style retro filters into its smartphone apps. Instagram retaliated this week by announcing that its photos will soon no longer be embeddable on Twitter. The latest news now is that Twitter is trying to spoil Instagram's holidays by pushing out its new filters by year's end.

Panda on Plane Photo Making the Rounds on the Internet

Here's a photo that's currently going viral on the web. As with many other viral photos, it's being shared with all kinds of different descriptions, and people are simply passing it on to family and friends without bothering to verify whether or not the captions are real.

Don’t Let Photographers Look Down On You Because You Are Young

Since the moment I walked into Milford Photo looking to buy a professional camera in the winter of 2011, I have been exposed to constant judgment for being a rich, stupid and spoiled 13-year-old who wanted an expensive camera to take “artsy” pictures that I didn’t know how to take.

Contrary to society’s beliefs, I do not fit into that stereotype in any way, shape or form. Unfortunately, I am associated with this stereotype because that is the view society chooses to observe and overplay.

Rivals Apple and Google Team Up in Bid for Kodak’s Valuable Imaging Patents

Yesterday we shared some news courtesy of the Wall Street Journal that Kodak had received a generous bid for its patent patent portfolio of over $500M. This was good news for Kodak, seeing as $500M was the mark the company had to hit in order to receive $830M in exit financing that would play a crucial role in helping Kodak dig its way out of bankruptcy.

However, all we knew at the time was that the bid was being put forth by a "consortium of bidders" out of Silicon Valley. Well, as it turns out, that consortium is being led by none other than the unlikely team of Apple and Google.

BTS: Creating Strobed Photos Showing People Becoming Athletes

Back in 2011 and 2012, Paris-based photographer Max Riché shot a creative series of portraits of athletes (including several Olympians) in the French National Sports Institute. Titled "Becoming an Athlete," the project featured a strobed-style look that shows the athletes progressing from ordinary people to world-class athletes, all within single frames.

Riché has just released the behind-the-scenes video above that shows how he created the photographs.

Short-Lived Samsung Webpage Reveals Galaxy Camera Coming to Verizon

After receiving much press coverage for its groundbreaking fusion of camera and smartphone, Samsung's $500 Galaxy Camera finally hit store shelves in the middle of last month -- AT&T store shelves.

Although the launch was done exclusively through what's considered to be the worst US carrier, it appears that Samsung will soon be branching out to additional providers. Verizon customers are reportedly next in line for the unique smartcamera.

Disposable Cameras Exposed by Artists On Sale for $1,000 Each — Undeveloped

New York City gallery W/------ (pronounced "with") seems to think that art buying has gotten a bit snobby, and that photographers have gotten a bit used to having unlimited chances to capture the perfect shot. Enter their new Disposable Cameras project, currently on display at the NADA art fair in Miami through this weekend. If you visit W/------'s booth at the fair, you'll find a wall of 24 hanging disposable cameras, each with a very hefty price tag.

Canon’s New Wireless Photo Printers Can Receive Photos Directly from the 6D

With the release of the Canon 6D, the company's first Wi-Fi enabled DSLR, it was only a matter of time before the camera manufacturer began announcing products that took advantage of that wireless capability. Case in point: Canon has just announced a couple of new PIXMA photo printers that can communicate directly with your 6D, allowing those of you who ponied up the cash for the new full-frame shooter to print your photos over the air.

Your Breath Contains Harmful Acids That Can Damage Camera Lenses

Do you ever clean the front element of your lens by fogging it up with your breath and then wiping it off with a cloth? If so, you might want to stop -- Nikon says the practice could be damaging to your glass. Apparently human breath contains stuff that isn't too friendly toward camera lenses.

Dizzying Portraits of Toronto Residents Using a Jump Rope-Style Camera Rig

Earlier this year, Australian artist Callum Cooper released a video called Full Circle that featured footage captured by a camera attached to a jump rope. It's a bit nauseating to watch, but the creativity of the project has led to hundreds of thousands of views for the short.

Cooper is back with a new project based on the same idea. It's titled "The Constant and The Flux," and you can view a portion of it above.