May 2013

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PetaPixel Turns Four Years Old

PetaPixel turns four years old today. As the blog continues to grow at a healthy clip, we're slowly looking to expand our team of writers. Just last week we decided to open up applications to anyone interested in working for PetaPixel as a blogger. We received hundreds of applications that came in at a rate of about one per minute.

Forensics Analyst Claims That the World Press Photo Winner is a Composite

Dr. Neal Krawetz, a computer science PhD who specializes in non-classical computer forensics, online profiling, and computer security, made some pretty damning claims in a blog post recently. After taking a close look at Paul Hansen World Press Photo 2012 winner (seen above), he concluded that it was "a digital composite that was significantly reworked."

Infographic Maps Out the Landscape of the Photography Industry

The company LUMA Partners has gotten in the habit of occasionally mapping out various industry landscapes to show how a product or service gets from Point A (i.e. the creators, marketers, businesses, etc.) to Point Z (i.e. the buyers, brands and publishers), going through the rest of the alphabet in between.

BTS: The Rolls Royce Wraith Launch Film and the Largest DSLR Array in Europe

In order to shoot the best Rolls Royce Wraith launch film possible, Angus Elliott and company pulled out all of the stops. In addition to using some very nice video cameras and all-around great filmmaking, they also wanted to shoot a bullet time sequence, for which they set up a 100 DSLR array. By their reckoning, that's the largest DSLR array shot in Europe.

Comparing the Quality of iPhone Cameras Over the Years

The iPhone has evolved in leaps and bounds since the smartphone first burst onto the scene in 2007, and one of the most impressive ways it has evolved is in its capability to take pictures. In the original iPhone, a camera was something of an afterthought; the current model has entire commercials dedicated to the camera.

Sony Xperia ZR Smartphone Doubles as an Underwater Camera

Waterproofing is one specialization that compact cameras have had that smartphones (and their cameras) haven't, but that's about to change. Sony has launched a new phone called the Xperia ZR that will help smartphones further erode the point-and-shoot market by opening the door to underwater smartphone photography.

How to Process C-41 Color Negative Film at Home, From Start to Finish

I know there are a few guides out there for home processing, some of which were instrumental in helping me get over my fears. All of these other guides seemed to be a little incomplete and that lack of detail made me wait longer than I should have before taking the plunge. In reality, it’s easy to do your film at home. Let me show you!

Instagram Food Photograph Gets Identity Thieves Busted

If you make your money unscrupulously as an identity thief, you might want to refrain from sharing about your life through photographs online. Two identity thieves in South Florida found that out the hard way earlier this year after they were busted thanks to an Instagram photograph of food.

My Experience Photographing the Boston Marathon Bombing

Patriots Day. This Massachusetts holiday celebrates the battles of Lexington and Concord, which were the first battles of the American Revolutionary War in 1775. The day always begins with battle re-enactments. Then the Red Sox play an 11AM game, and during and after the game there is the running of the Boston Marathon, a race that first ran in 1897.

Magic Lantern Manages to Pull 24p RAW Video Out of the Canon 5D Mk III

A couple of weeks ago, the Magic Lantern team announced that they had discovered a RAW DNG Live View output on the 5D Mark II and Mark III. At the time, they could only get 14 frames per second for only 28 frames before the camera needed to buffer, but the team was confident that they could eventually increase the speed to 24p and pull a true RAW video feed out of the camera.

Pink PocketWizard Units Being Auctioned Off to Benefit Breast Cancer Victims

A little over a year ago, we shared the story of photographer Bob Carey and his wife, a breast cancer survivor. Over the past year, Carey and his Project Tutu have done a great deal to raise awareness for breast cancer. By going around the world and photographing himself in a pink tutu (and nothing else), he's done a lot to further the cause for breast cancer victims and their families.

High Speed Photo Series of Liquids and ‘Stuff’ Flying Through the Air

You don't have to be high-brow to put together a creative photo series; you don't even need to travel the deserts of Tunisia. Sometimes, all you need is a container full of something, the willingness to toss it in the air, and the skill to capture the result. That's what Belgium-based photographer Manon Wethly has done, shooting various airborne containers filled with stuff and uploading the resulting pictures to her Instagram account.

DigitalRev Pits Film Vs Digital in a 36-Hour Photo Tour of London

For their most recent international foray, the DigitalRev producers decided to send Kai, Lok and Alamby on a 36-hour trek across London to take photos. They were tasked with travelling to and photographing 10 of London's best known landmarks, using old film SLRs on day one, and digital cameras the next.

Photo Series Visits Abandoned Star Wars Film Sets in the Tunisian Desert

In September 2010, visual artist and filmmaker Rä di Martino set out on a quest to photograph and document old abandoned film sets in the North African deserts. The project had started when she discovered that it was common practice to abandon these sets without tearing them down, leaving them fully intact and crumbling over time, like archeological ruins.

Photog Goes in Search of the Architecture that Was Once the “Vision of the Future”

Relics of the Future is a short documentary that follows Toronto-based fine art photographer Toni Hafkenscheid as he explores the world of once-futuristic architecture through his tilt-shift lens. In the 1960's, these buildings and monuments were considered "visions of the future;" now they stand, as one interviewee put it, "on that fence between futuristic and nostalgic."

Photographing the National Convention of the National Socialist Movement

The National Socialist Movement held their 2013 national convention in Atlanta, Georgia, protesting undocumented immigration and contemporary political policies. The NSM boasts of being the nation's largest "white civil rights groups" and aligns itself with other like-minded individuals across the nation. Spanning across the majority of the 50 states, the NSM retains its presence through regional and local leaders.

Popular Space-Saving App JPEGmini Now Available for Windows

Beamr's space-saving application JPEGmini has gone through a few evolutions over time. What started as a web app to reduce JPEG files by up to 5x without losing quality has since spread to the world of desktops and mobile devices with their space-saving Mac app and high-res photo sharing iOS app.

Incredible High Speed Video of Lightning Captured at 11,000 Frames Per Second

According to the Encyclopedia of World Climatology, lightning happens about 40–50 times per second worldwide; that translates into almost 1.4 billion flashes per year. But of the 1.4 billion that happen in 2011, we're pretty sure this was the only one captured at 11,000 frames per second, turning a one second lightning flash into an incredible 6 minute experience.

KeyProp: The Smartphone Stand That’s Always There When You Need It

For those of you who often take pictures with your smartphone, but find that you never have a stand or tripod with you when you need one, here's a creative Kickstarter that may solve that problem. Called KeyProp, this ingenious little key shaped smartphone stand fits on your key chain so you always have it with you -- and it comes with a free camera timer/clap-to-snap app to boot.

Portraitist Platon on Photographing Some of the World’s Most Powerful People

Platon (short for Platon Antoniu) is a Greek-English portrait photographer who has had the privilege of photographing some of the world's most powerful people. From literal world leaders, to cultural world leaders, to regular people who are changing the world one day at a time, his photography has earned him many well-deserved awards and magazine covers.

Print Photos Off of Over a Dozen Online Storage Services with Pi.pe Prints

Pi.pe is a file synching service that came about as a way to move photos and other media between the may cloud storage and sharing services out there. In the year or so since it launched, over 50 million files have passed through Pi.pe's servers as users took advantage of the service to backup, transfer and share thousands of photos. And now, we can add "print" to that list.

Photography Website Pixiq Abruptly Shut Down, Leaving Contributors in the Dark

Back in early 2010, we received an e-mail asking us to join an up-and-coming photography blog that was trying to bring all of the best contributors, content creators and experts from the world of photography under one roof. It was described as a "photography website that should have been around for the last five years or more" and it was called Pixiq.

My Hospital Eye or: How I Started to Love iPhoneography

Professional photographers using their smartphones is just a fad, I thought, but it all came to me sooner than I expected. Some 3 weeks ago I was diagnosed with central serous retinopathy in my left eye and was hospitalised for 3 days. In the process, I finally discovered smartphone photography!

Olympus Unveils E-PL6: A Cheaper MFT Camera That’s Strong Where It Matters

For those of you that were disappointed when you saw the price of Olympus' newly-announced E-P5 earlier, the company has another camera up its sleeve to help ease the pain. Although it's only been given a release date in Japan -- lending credence to rumors that it may never sell anywhere else -- the much rumored and leaked Olympus PEN Lite E-PL6 has also arrived.

Abstract Art Created by Combining High Voltages with Instant Film

After working with standard photography and digital cameras, Brooklyn-based artist Phillip Stearns decided to experiment with creating works of art using old photographic technologies. He ended up studying the effects of high voltages and household cleaning products on instant pull apart color film. The results are pretty wild.

Old Color Footage Shows What London Looked Like Back in 1926

Want to see what London looked like back in the year 1926? Check out this beautiful color footage shot in various London locations by Claude Friese-Greene, an early British pioneer of film. Frisse-Greene created a series of travelogues nearly 90 years ago using a color process developed by his father William Friese-Greene.

Modern Motorcycle Diaries: Man Captures His 500-Day Trip Across the Americas

If you feel feelings of wanderlust and jealousy easily, you might want to stay away from the story of Alex Chacon. He's a guy who recently completed a 503-day solo journey on a motorcycle. He rode 82,459 miles across 22 countries in both North and South America. Chacon also captured photos and videos throughout the journey in order to document his experience.

To ‘Shop or Not? The Hard Part of Being a Good Photographer

Pictures like this drive me nuts. I call it Meanwhile, Back at the Supreme Court. It captures the boisterous scene outside that building as right and left wing demonstrators clashed after the contested election of 2000. While all this was happening, President George W. Bush was delivering his first inaugural address in the background over loudspeakers. It was an exciting and historic experience to witness and document, but until now, I’ve never shown this image to anyone. As a matter of fact, …

Forensics Firm Discovers that Snapchat Photos Don’t Disappear After All

Snapchat has been a huge success since it was first introduced in September 2011. Competing with the likes of Instagram, Facebook and other photo sharing platforms, Snapchat set itself apart by offering the fleeting experience of disappearing photos. When you send a photo, you set a time-limit of up to 10 seconds. After that, the photo allegedly disappears.