We humans have done quite a lot in the span of a thousand years. We've discovered new lands by sail boat, sent men to the moon, and successfully managed to ruin the economy-class flying experience as we know it. So now that it's 2013 -- the obvious move would be to beam an animated GIF to a distant solar system, right?
There's no doubt about the fact that using the camera on your shiny smartphone is killing your battery life. But up until now, it seems like the only proposed solutions have been to work on the battery itself instead of looking at the camera.
Researchers at both Microsoft and Rice University think they've come up with a solution that will make your gadget's camera far more energy efficient by focusing on the camera's sensor and the power it uses.
The Curiosity Rover has been trekking the surface of Mars since late last year, and so far, there has been no shortage of great imagery.
But what gear is behind those intriguing images we see so frequently? NASA JPL has put together a short video on the camera equipment on board the Curiosity rover.
Flip through the pages of any major magazine published in the last few years and it's likely you've seen a picture snapped by Martin Schoeller therein. The German-born award-winning photographer got off to a rough start upon moving to the United States in the early 1990s, only to find himself as an in-demand iconic picture taker today.
He's covered every major celebrity you can imagine with his trademark close-up portraiture and fashion photos alike (though, he admits fashion isn't quite his bag). From Paris Hilton to Barack Obama, Schoeller has worked with Hollywood's elite and America's most influential politicians. He's seen it all.
Let's face it: sometimes when you take a picture of someone, they look downright unflattering. Maybe it's that monster pimple on their cheek. Or perhaps the cat got angry again and left some scratches to the forehead.
Lightricks Ltd. -- based out of Israel -- released the application earlier this year called Facetune, and it promises to help with retouching images taken on your mobile phone while you're on-the-go.
How would you like to bring your cell phone with you into the pool this summer to capture pictures of your precious family moments? You needn't stuff your iPhone in a plastic sandwich bag, because today, AT&T has announced the Samsung Galaxy S4 Active.
It looks like the ongoing revamp of Flickr isn't limited to additional storage space and a new user interface. Yahoo, the company behind Flickr, has acquired Ghostbird Software for an undisclosed sum in order to beef up Flickr's mobile offerings.
It will probably come as no surprise to many that Kodak is planning to discontinue production of the acetate base, a primary component film, according to a WROC report published Tuesday.
It is probably safe to say that the rumors of an alternate Samsung Galaxy S4 with an improved camera can be given the "true!" stamp of approval. The company has announced the Galaxy S4 Zoom, a smartphone sporting a high-resolution image sensor and optical zoom.
Step aside, rich kids of Instagram. There's a new group of people in town sharing images that are equally as unappealing and vomit-inducing. They're called doctors, and they've got themselves a new app dubbed Figure 1.
Apple has just concluded the WWDC 2013 Keynote in San Francisco, and they've announced the next iteration of their ever-so-popular mobile operating system, iOS 7.
Amongst all of the announced changes is perhaps one of interest to the photo lovers out there. The revamping of the stock Photos application that we've all come to know so well.
In a surprising, yet not so surprising bit of news, pop teen sensation Justin Bieber and one of his bodyguards have been sued by a photographer following a brouhaha that took place outside "The Hit Factory" in Miami last week.
Back in April, Adobe released a Lightroom 5 public beta, a preview version meant to iron out bugs. Today, Adobe brought the program out of beta testing and has officially launched it in its final form for both Windows and Mac systems.
With the rise of digital photography, good old-fashioned film processing has, for the most part, become a thing of the past for many of us. But with a new app called Koloid, photography enthusiasts can play around with the look and feel of wet plate collodion photography while creating digital images with their iPhones and iOS devices.
For a while now, Canon has offered online resources to available teach those who may be unfamiliar with, well, taking photos. In what could be called a welcome addition to already-available resources, the company has launched what they call 'Canon EOS 101: Photography and Videography Basics'.
Check out this mind-bending video that talks about the "Hubble Ultra Deep Field" image captured by NASA astronomers nearly a decade ago -- a photograph that some call "the most important image ever taken."
When it comes to viewing and editing RAW photos, many photographers turn to editing software such as Adobe Lightroom or Apple's Aperture. But one developer hopes to harness the power behind web browsers to view -- and potentially edit -- RAW image files.
In an all-too-clear display of how journalistic carelessness can lead to big legal troubles, the two "Bag Men" who were shown on the front page of the New York Post following the Boston Marathon bombings have filed a defamation lawsuit against the paper on Wednesday of this week.
When the Canon 50D camera made its debut in August 2008, video capture wasn't one of the listed features available to buyers. Today, that's a different story, thanks to the Magic Lantern RAW hack that has brought video recording to the now 5-year-old camera.
HDR (high-dyanamic-range) video is no new concept. In fact, Magic Lantern has offered a way to shoot HDR footage utilizing Canon DSLRs since 2011. It's even become a feature of some mobile phones. But capturing and displaying HDR video in real-time? Well, that's another story.
Leaked images from GSM Arena and a Twitter user of what could very well be Nokia's next flagship mobile phone reveal yet another camera-centric device with a high-capacity sensor.
That device, the Nokia EOS, is purportedly sporting a PureView image sensor, xenon flash unit, and Carl Zeiss optics.
Canon has today announced to the masses the an 11-22mm f/4-5.6 IS STM lens, expanding the company's EF-M lens line with an ultra-wide barrel of glass fit for the EOS-M mirrorless compact system camera.
In light of the ever-tightening bond between camera manufacturing giants, Olympus is rumored to be working hand-in-hand with Sony to bring their 5-Axis image stabilization technology to Sony's upcoming A-mount cameras.
Is the photograph above the "perfect" Pinterest picture? It's a simple salad photo that originates from TV cooking show host Paula Deen's recipe website. Since being published, it has been repinned 300,000 times and liked 8,000 times on Pinterest. A Philidelphia-based analytics firm believes that it's the prototypical popular Pinterest photo.
It remains unknown just how popular Google Glass will be when it's available to the masses, but for the select group of individuals who are lucky enough to sport a pair today, the on board camera just got a bit better.
Olympus isn't the only camera manufacturer finding ways to cut costs by getting rid of their low-end camera offerings. Tokyo-based Fujifilm is expected to dramatically slim down their compact camera line by fifty percent in the near future.
It wasn't very long ago that Leica began teasing its Mini M camera on the homepage of their website. Purported leaks of Mini M began to surface, including photographs and specifications.
Slowly but surely, the black box labeled "Mini M" on the Leica website began to open up as the rumors continued to flow through the blogosphere. Some sources had confirmed that the rumors and images were, in actuality, the real deal. Others, on the other hand, were convinced the leaked images and specs were fakes.
Just a few days old, a new Kickstarter project called "Spinpod" is aiming to improve your panoramic photos and videos through the use of a spinning pod designed for smaller cameras such as smartphones, GoPros and so forth.
High-resolution photography is seemingly where it's at in today's day and age. NASA knows this, and as such, astrophysicists at both the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Maryland and Pennsylvania State University have stitched together a remarkable 160-megapixel UV image of the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds -- our two closest neighboring galaxies (less than 200,000 light years away).
Colorful images of beach bum-packed shores are probably the best way to describe West Hollywood-based Gray Malin's collection, dubbed "À La Plage, À La Piscine" (translates to At the Beach, Pool).
Eye-Fi has offered the ability to wirelessly transmits photos from a camera to another device for quite a while now, but there was a downside: you were required to connect to a Wi-Fi hotspot to do so (with the exception of the Eye-Fi X2). This presented a challenge to photographers shooting on location where a Wi-Fi hotspot may not have been readily available.
Eye-Fi has come forth with their new "Eye-Fi Mobi" product, which streamlines the process of sending images to a mobile device.
Fancy an always-in-focus lensless camera in your arsenal of image capturing tools? It could be a while, but we're one step closer thanks to "compressive sensing," a technology developed by Bell Labs in New Jersey.
Sometimes getting access to shoot concerts or major concert events can be tricky. Dealing with publicists, event planners, and even security. But one band is making it super simple to get into the pit with your camera in hopes of capturing great shots -- for a fee.
Well-known American rock band Hawthorne Heights has posted an advertisement of sorts on their website, selling anyone the chance to take photos of them at this year's Warped Tour.
Traditionally, a photographer's post-processing workflow does not include a web browser, but rather, tools like Lightroom and Aperture. Pics.io is hoping to change that, and is working to bring serious RAW picture editing and collaborating to the web browser.
The start-up, founded by three Ukranian entrepreneurs, uses WebGL technology (which, in short, allows web browsers to harness the power of a computer's graphics card) to make the online tools they offer a reality. The mission? Get more people to dabble into RAW photography by offering easy access to editing tools.
Europe's largest annual photo expo, Focus on Imaging, has been terminated, according to organizer Mary Walker Exhibitions. Focus on Imaging's last show was in March of this year, following years of exhibitions.
For some filmmakers, the arrival of the Magic Lantern RAW video recording ability has become a godsend. With increased sharpness and a remarkable improvement in dynamic range, it's quickly become a much talked about topic.
But how does the RAW footage fare when it comes to bumping up ISO in those low-light situations?
There's something to be said about lens manufacturing. You could even go so far as to say it, in itself, is an art form, with the hands of skilled and methodical workers ever-so-delicately assembling the glass we use to take photos.
Speaking of lens manufacturing, Carl Zeiss Lenses has just posted an short, yet interesting, video behind the manufacturing process of their Touit lens line (for what it's worth, the video is also available in 3D, if you need an added dimension to your viewing experience). These lenses come as 12mm f/2.8 or 32mm f/1.8, and are available for both E-mount and X-mount cameras starting in June.
Researchers at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore have developed a graphene image sensor one thousand times more sensitive to anything available on the market today. The sensor is capable of detecting broad spectrum light, making it a great solution for all types of cameras. Its uses could include traffic cameras, infrared cameras, and so forth.
It's no secret that wild animals can be immensely difficult to photograph. Now imagine taking photographers of large wild animals in a studio-like setting. It's just what photographer Joel Sartore has managed to capture in his work for The Photo Ark project. The project aims to document endangered species (with over 2650 photographed to date), in order to raise awareness of the fact these creatures may soon be gone.
If you find that the flash on your mobile phone simply isn't cutting it anymore, take a look at The Kick Light? Described as "a super customizable light studio that fits in your pocket" the Kick Light is a panel of LED lights that can attach to your iPhone (or be used separately), and can apparently display any color in a brightness of a user's choice.
There has been no lack of controversy surrounding the announcement of Adobe's new Creative Cloud product line, and the California-based company is well aware. So much so, in fact, they've come out with an update to address some of the major concerns in moving from their traditional boxed-copy to subscription-based model.
The Chicago Sun-Times has laid off its entire photography staff, according to a report from the Chicago Tribune. Twenty full-time staffers received the grave news at a meeting on Thursday morning, leaving them jobless.
Moving forward, the newspaper will be strictly working with freelance photographers, a move that is expected to further cut down on costs in this already financially troubled industry.
Olympus is slated to begin developing and supplying Sony with lens parts and lens units in the near future as part of what has been called a "mutual parts supply". The news comes months following a formed alliance between the two companies in September 2012.
"The imaging sensor has already started to source from Sony to Olympus. And the lens [parts] and lens units will start to source from Olympus to Sony," said an Olympus Japan spokesperson in a recent statement.
Perhaps best described as mesmerizing, Turkish photographer and artist Erdal Inci has created an interesting set of animated loops in GIF form that has the web abuzz.
The effects, which are done by cloning sections of footage of a moving subject within a static setting, provide for hypnotic never-ending animations in rather banal locations.
With the availability of a whopping 1TB of storage space now available to users on Flickr, it wasn't long before someone out there found other ways to put 1TB of storage space to good use. That is to say, the uploading of files other than images.
That's just what Redditor rlaw68 has done, allowing the user to upload packaged files by essentially tricking the Flickr servers into thinking you're merely uploading an image. The process involves putting two files in one folder, a GIF image (though some users have been able to do this with other image file extensions) and an archive file (such as a .zip or .rar), followed by combining them to create what only appears to be an image file.
There's no shortage of interesting work coming from Shin Seung Back and Kim Yong Hun of Seoul, South Korea. Yesterday we posted an interesting body of work that employed the use of computer algorithms to detect facial structures in the clouds above. The duo has another project that caught our eye: one that shares a representation of the four seasons -- with a twist.
What's cooler than a multi-cell pinhole camera? How about a multi-cell pinhole camera upgraded to a lensed version? That's exactly what James Guerin has put together as a follow-up to a previous lens-less camera experiment.
As humans, it's only natural to take a look at the sky and perceive to see an object, a face, an animal. Computers, too, are capable of this perception. However, they may be capable of finding things that the human eye can't, or just might not notice.
In a project called "Cloud Face", Seoul, South Korea-based Shin Seung Back and Kim Yong Hun of aptly-named 'Shinseungback Kimyonghun' have pointed cameras up at the sky and let complex algorithms detect faces in the passing clouds.
Using discarded tin cans found on the hot Arizona desert ground, David Emitt Adams has created timeless pieces he calls Conversations with History. The cans are branded with tintype pictures, reflecting ties to the very locations the cans -- some of which have been sitting out in the sun for over forty years -- were found.
In the words of Adams, "The deserts of the West also have special significance in the history of photography. I have explored this landscape with an awareness of the photographers who have come before me, and this awareness has led me to pay close attention to the traces left behind by others."
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer found herself in the spotlight earlier this week following a controversial statement made at Flickr's NYC press event regarding pro photographers:
There’s no such thing as Flickr Pro today because [with so many people taking photographs] there’s really no such thing as professional photographers anymore.
Photographer Zack Arias took offense to the comment, and before long, a number of publications picked up the story, sparking discussion and debate on the matter. Some users even took to Mayer's Flickr page to voice their opinions.