The Michael Jacksons, by photographer and social scientist Lorena Turner, is a study of people who make a living or perform as the late great Michael Jackson. In her own words:
It is an index of the refraction of Michael Jackson's public persona within the culture by exploring issues of fantasy, reality and representation as influenced by and filtered through cultural experience.
Innovation is why we love companies like Google. Several times a week, it seems, the company comes out with another program or product idea that makes us all smile (and secretly wonder how long we have until they've achieved world domination). Their best ideas, however, involve their user base -- and their latest expansion idea for Google Earth does just that.
Prison is no cake walk -- and rightfully so. Inmates of maximum security prisons have often done terrible things, things that in some states are still punishable by death. But is there a fate worse than death?
Some might say that the city of Rochester, New York is struggling; others might say that it's evolving. One thing's for sure though: Rochester -- nicknamed The World's Image Centre -- is changing. Because of this, and because of the city's rich photographical history (think Kodak), ten of Magnum Photos' photographers have chosen Rochester as one of three locations currently being documented across the United States.
This is probably the strangest and most awkward thing you'll see today. It's a short 5-minute video titled "The World's Most Downloaded Man" that chronicles photographer Fernado Martins' journey to meet Jesper Bruun, the world's best-selling stock photography model.
"Fake People Suck" -- now that's a tagline. In 2009 David Katzenstein and Sherrie Nickol began a fine arts project that involved asking people off the street to come to their studio and photographing them against a white background. The idea was to capture the striking diversity that's commonplace in New York. But after photographing about 50 people -- and due also to a steady drop in commissions from commercial and corporate projects -- they realized the potential the project had as a …
Stephen Shankland over at CNET has written an interesting behind-the-scenes look at how DxO Labs -- one of the world's premier camera testing services -- evaluates equipment. DxO Labs is based near Paris, France and was the result of a 2003 spinoff from a company called Vision IQ, which specialized in swimming pool safety. Since then, the group has published over 185 in-depth camera reviews on its website DxOMark.
When working with rim lights, or shooting into a significant backlight, glare becomes a serious issue. The typical solution to this problem is setting up flags on either side of your subject, but who needs flags when you have a spare piece of Coroplast sitting around your studio?
2008 marked the first time in history that more of Earth's population lived in cities rather than in the countryside, and by 2050 nearly 70% of the world's population will reside in large cities. A new series of satellite photographs captured decades apart by NASA's Landsat department and the U.S. Geological Survey offers a striking look at how human cities have spread across the face of the Earth in just a few short years. The image above shows Las Vegas in 1984 and in 2011.
Photo sharing apps for smartphones are a dime-a-dozen. Ever since Instagram achieved worldwide success -- and was rewarded with a $1 billion dollar buyout by Facebook -- many developers have tried to follow in their footsteps. That being said, finding a photo sharing app that stands out is rare, which is why the OpenPhoto app release this week struck a chord with us.
Comedian and musician Mike Falzone often records monologues on various subjects while going for walks. Here's what he has to say about professional Instagram photography. Little does he know that one of his "farfetched" examples is very much a reality.
Camera rating business DxOMark has published its in-depth sensor review for the Canon 5D Mark III. For Canon fans, there's both good and bad news: while the camera boasts the best sensor seen in a Canon DSLR so far -- besting the sensor found in the 1Ds Mark III -- its score of 81 is far below the Nikon D800's 95. DxOMark does, however, point out that the two cameras focus on different strengths: …
About a week ago rumors of an iPhone app that could shoot in RAW format raged across the Internet. The app in question, the 645 PRO by developer Jag.gr, was to be the first camera app for the iPhone to achieve this feat. And although by all accounts the app is a very impressive and useful app, it turns out that shooting in true RAW isn't among its features.
If you're ever photographing a baby that's sitting on anything above ground level, make sure you have a spotter near the baby at all times. This video shows why.
A member of Magnum photos since the 1960's, photographer Constantine Manos and his Leica rangefinder have been creating beautiful photography for many years. Perhaps best known for his work in Boston and Greece, much of Manos work revolves around his South Carolina upbringing and Greek heritage.
I’ve got a little story for you today, and a valuable lesson for photographers everywhere. On the Monday before last, a post that I wrote the week before started to go viral. I was receiving more traffic than I had ever experienced before, and from sites that I had never heard of. Fantastic. Only, along with the good news, we have some bad news.
Living Dolls is a series by Vancouver-based photographer and retoucher Hayden Wood that shows two models photographed and manipulated to look like plastic Barbie and Ken dolls.
A few months ago we mentioned that compact camera manufacturers were approaching smartphone competition the wrong way. We posited that instead of adding creepy unique features like sleeping face recognition and make-up mode, they should instead be focusing on improving ease-of-use and image quality.
This short video tutorial shows how you can shift the color balance of sunlight to create a blue background that looks like moonlight.
In today's post about Nikon's D3200 announcement we also mentioned in passing that the WU-1a Wireless Adapter was announced at the same time. But after taking a closer look, we think the adapter merits a little more detail and a lot more excitement.
Photographer Shane Murphy has written up an informative step-by-step tutorial on how you can photograph the International Space Station as it whizzes by overhead.
Even though Kickstarter projects are anything but few and far between, you still don't have to look far to find something great. Case in point: the Timelapse+ -- a Kickstarter project that reached full funding on February 19th -- is a feature-rich intervalometer that would make a valuable addition to any photographer's camera bag.
A strange bit of news coming out of China: couples are opting to have their wedding photos faked using Photoshop due to rising photography costs.
It's a big day for camera releases; hot on the heels of Nikon's D3200 release, Samsung have officially announced three new highly-anticipated compact system cameras: the NX20, NX210 and NX1000 -- all featuring built-in wifi connectivity, a 20.3-megapixel APS-C sensor, 8fps continuous shooting and full 1080pHD video recording.
During the 9/11 attacks in NYC, Magnum photographer Thomas Hoepker shot what is perhaps the most controversial image created that day: a photo that appears to show a group of young people casually enjoying themselves while the World Trade Center burns in the background. Hoepker kept the image under wraps for four years and then caused quite a stir after publishing it in a 2006 book. Columnist Frank Rich wrote in the New York Times that "The young people in Mr. Hoepker’s photo aren’t …
Nikon officially unveiled the D3200 today. The new HDSLR -- which is the successor to the D3100 -- was announced last night alongside the WU-1a wireless transmitter and the Nikkor 28mm f/1.8G full-frame lens; and talk about bang for your buck. The D3200 offers a 24.2 megapixel DX-Format CMOS sensor, 4fps continuous shooting, 100-6400 ISO range expandable to 12,800, 11-point autofocus and the ability to shoot full 1080p video at up to 30fps.
Now here's a divisive photo series that will draw both anger and cheers: graphic designer (and former Apple employee) Michael Tompert teamed up with photographer Paul Fairchild for a project titled 12LVE that consists of photographs showing annihilated Apple products. Here's the description: …
Cinemagraphs, or still images that have a dash of movement, have become very popular as of late. So popular, in fact, that Microsoft Research is jumping onto the bandwagon.
Here's an interesting "How It's Made" segment showing how optical lenses are made. Here's a hint at why lenses are so expensive: slabs of optical glass cost up to $1000 for 2.2lb!
Canon has begun informing retailers in the UK and Canada (and probably other regions as well) that shipments of the Canon 5D Mark III have been put on hold as the company investigates the "light leak" issue that has come to light over the past month. Widely discussed in the blogosphere and on forums, the issue -- which some have dubbed "leakgate" -- is now known to cause a 1/3 stop error in exposure in very specific situations (i.e. scenarios that will not affect the vast majority of …
There's a Danish TV show called "Dumt & Farligt" in which two guys are given a house and the task of doing stupid and dangerous things that come to mind. In addition to recording the experiments in real time, the show decided to also use a Phantom Flex high speed camera to capturing everything at 2,500 frames per second. The video above provides a slow motion look at things ranging from setting off large fireworks indoors to microwaving a bottle of red wine.
Remember that monochrome Leica M camera rumor that we reported on last month? The latest rumor pegs May 10th as the announcement date. The new camera won't be a successor to the M9 -- the M10 will likely be announced in September at Photokina -- but will instead be a M9-styled rangefinder with a sensor that can only capture black and white. It is also said to have fantastic high-ISO quality and may ditch the LCD screen entirely.
For his project titled "Good Morning!", photographer Levi Mandel shot stealthy photos of unsuspecting strangers, printed out the faces, crumpled them up, and then re-photographed them.
Here's a wonderful cartoon drawn by John T. McCutcheon back in 1912 that's just as true today as it was back then. It's a great explanation for why the "vintage film" look offered by the likes of Instagram has become so popular.
A group of garbage men in Hamburg have figured out a way to combine their love of photography with their work of hauling trash, turning large dumpsters into giant pinhole cameras to photograph their city. The dumpsters are converted by drilling tiny holes into the fronts and then hanging large sheets of photo paper inside. Although framing a shot with the giant rolling cameras takes only a minute, exposing it can take up to an hour of waiting. They've dubbed the experiment the "Trashcam …
Afghan photographer Massoud Hossaini won the Putlizer Prize yesterday for his Breaking News photo showing a 12-year-old girl screaming after a suicide bombing in Kabul. His images of the mosque attack were so powerful that the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal all published them on their front pages on December 7, 2011. However, each one ran a different image captured at the scene, and only the New York Times ran the Pulitzer Prize-winning shot that showed the full extent …
An American tourist traveling from Beijing, China to Pyongyang, North Korea pointed his camera out the train window to capture this rare 1-hour-long look at what North Korea looks like on the interior.
Argentinian photographer Alejandro Chaskielberg started as a photojournalist before turning to documentary photography and developing his trademark style of shooting under moonlight and using strobes and long exposures to illuminate his subjects. His portrait subjects are asked to remain motionless for long periods of time as he photographs them using a large format film camera. He recently applied his style to a series on residents of Northern Kenya -- a location that's typically photographed …
You may have heard that digital cameras can be made sensitive to infrared light by removing the IR filter found inside, but did you now that something similar can be done with the human eye? People who have aphakia, or the absence of the lens on the eye, have reported the ability to see ultraviolet wavelengths. Claude Monet was one such person.
Want to attach your smartphone to your tripod without buying a special mount? Two large binder clips can do the trick. Simply attach the clips to your tripod and then use the handles to cradle your phone. playstationfive has uploaded a step-by-step tutorial over on Imgur.
"Doggie Style" is a cute series of fashion photos shot by photographer Emily Shur for Paper Magazine. They're pretty different from ordinary fashion photos: Shur had her human models face backwards while holding dogs facing forwards.
The Nero Multi Trigger is a nifty camera triggering device that can make your DSLR and external flash unit respond automatically to sight, sound, and motion. It has built in optical, audio, and laser sensors, allowing you to shoot everything from lightning flashes to balloon pops. There's also an intervalometer for time-lapse photography. The device mounts to your DSLR's hotshoe and is powered by a pair of AAA batteries. They cost $200 each and are available for both Nikon and Canon DSLRs from …
When German image sensor scientist Joachim Linkemann gave a talk called "Advanced Camera and Image Sensor Technology" at Automate 2011 back in March 2011, he tried to boil things down to terms people could understand and ended up using beer to illustrate the concepts. If you want to learn about how things like signal-to-noise, dynamic range, and dark noise would work if a glass of beer was the pixel on an image sensor, check out the PDF slideshow.
Here's a revolving self-portrait created back in 1865 by French photographer Félix Nadar (real name Gaspard-Félix Tournachon). Nadar was the first person in history to take aerial photographs (he was a balloonist) and was one of the pioneers of artificial lighting (he photographed in the catacombs of Paris).
A quick update on the "light leak phenomenon" on the 5D Mark III that Canon confirmed last week: after emailing Canon about the issue recently, photographer birdbrain received the following response: …
New York-based production company Variable traveled to India and pointed a Phantom Flex high speed camera at the Holi festival celebrations.
The 2012 Pulitzer Prize winners have been announced, and both winning photographers focused on the unbearable trauma of war. Massoud Hossaini of Agence France-Presse won the Breaking News award for his "heartbreaking image of a girl crying among a pile of dead bodies after a suicide bomber's attack at a crowded shrine in Kabul." Craig F. Walker of The Denver Post won the Feature Photography prize for chronicling "Colorado resident Scott Ostrom's struggles with severe post-traumatic stress …
Nikon shooters: Nikon Camera Control is a new open source Windows application that lets you remotely control your Nikon DSLR using a PC and a USB cable. Features include tethering, remote control over camera's basic settings, remote shutter triggering, an intervalometer for time-lapses, and fullscreen review.
Facebook may have been the victor in the race to acquire Instagram, but it wasn't the only runner. The New York Times writes that Twitter had been interested in snatching up the service in the months leading up to the $1 billion buyout.
While visiting New York City by himself, Serbia-based art director Marko Savic came up with an interesting way of creating "tourist" photos with himself in the frame. Instead of setting the timer on his camera, asking passers-by for help, or photographing his reflection, he decided to shoot self-portraits by illuminating his face and photographing it in various reflections.
