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Posts Tagged ‘Than’

Lensrentals on the Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 Art: a lot for less than the competition

29 Jul

Following some initial lab testing results, Lensrentals has published a full review of the highly-anticipated Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 Art. While lab testing suggests that it doesn’t quite keep up with the established, much more expensive options from Canon and Nikon, a competitive price tag is one of the lens’ major selling points. Depending on your budget and needs, that price difference might tip the scale. Reviewer Zach Sutton sums it up:

“However, here is where the Sigma shines once again, offering itself at a $ 1,300 price tag, whereas the Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L II sits at $ 1,750, and the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8E at $ 2,400. The Sigma provides a lot for significantly less than the competition.”

Check out the full review and let us know what you think of the 24-70 in the comments.

Read Lensrentals’ full
Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 Art review

See our Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 Art sample gallery

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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The Fujifilm Instax Square SQ10 is less fun than it should be

16 Jul

Fujifilm Instax Square SQ10
$ 280/£249 | www.fujifilm.com | Buy Now

The Instax Square SQ10 represents two firsts for Fujifilm’s Instax line. It’s the first to use the brand’s new square format film, which looks more like a classic Polaroid than the credit card-sized Instax Mini film used by all of the company’s other instant cameras. It’s also the first ‘hybrid’ instant camera offered by Fujifilm, meaning it’s actually a digital camera with the ability to print photos on instant film. You can do this as soon as you snap the shutter for a just-like-instant experience, or manually once you’ve had the chance to review it.

That’s right, this is a digital camera imitating a mobile app that imitates the effects of film cameras. What a time to be alive.

Since it is a digital camera, the SQ10 offers some modern conveniences that its instant-only peers don’t. For one, there’s a real LCD for image composition and menu navigation. There are also a few straightforward image setting adjustments available, like exposure compensation (+/-3 EV).

Key specifications

  • 3.6MP 1/4-in CMOS sensor
  • 3″ 460k-dot LCD
  • microSD card slot / built-in memory for 50 photos
  • Fixed 28.5mm equiv. F2.4 lens
  • Auto ISO only (100-1600)
  • Shooting modes: Standard, double exposure, bulb mode
  • Self timer: 10 or 2sec
  • Built-in NP-50 battery rated to 160 prints
  • Micro USB charging
  • 119mm x 47mm x 127mm / 4.7 x 1.9 x 5″

You can also save photos to internal memory and microSD. The camera automatically stores the last 50 images it printed to internal memory, so you can re-print photos. The SQ10 includes a selection of Instagram-style filters that can be used while shooting or added to images later, as well as a vignette effect. That’s right, this is a digital camera imitating a mobile app that imitates the effects of film cameras. What a time to be alive.

In use

In my first few outings with the camera I was determined to treat it like a true instant camera and left it in Auto print mode. But when not everybody in the photo was looking the right direction, or it turned out that I’d left the flash turned off when it was needed, it felt like I’d really screwed up and wasted a print. Just knowing that it could have been different made the experience less enjoyable than the carefree “Oh well, that’s film!” attitude I can take with my Instax mini 90.

If you dial in exposure compensation or turn the flash off, the SQ10 will continue to honor those settings even if you turn the camera off and back on. But it’s easy to forget they’re enabled as there’s no information displayed on the shooting screen. Before switching to manual printing I lost a few precious prints that way.

I also found that in printed images, shadow tones tend to come out significantly darker than they appear on the screen when viewed straight on. Features that were visible when I previewed images ended up being crushed in shadows when printed. Tilting the camera and viewing the LCD at an angle actually gives a more accurate print preview in some cases than viewing the image straight on.

The good news is that any modern digital camera will take nice photos in the right light

The good news is that any modern digital camera will take nice photos in the right light, and in ample sunshine the SQ10 produces very nice images. I got the best results leaving exposure compensation alone and embracing the punchy contrast. Flash portraits with subjects at a reasonable distance also look pleasant. Images taken in shade or under cloudy conditions have a noticeably cooler tint, and there’s no way to adjust white balance.

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When you do end up with a nice exposure, print quality is the Square’s strong point. It’s expensive, but I prefer Fujilm’s Instant film’s deep blacks and rich colors over the zero-ink Polaroid-branded competitor any day. And the square format is a selling point for my money – it’s the format associated with instant photography and if it’s good enough for OutKast, it’s good enough for me.

Fujifilm claims you can print photos from other cameras using the SQ10 if you load them onto a microSD card. I followed the instructions in the manual to the letter and never got anything but a read error when trying to view it on the camera. Your mileage may vary. Even if you can get it to work, it’s a pretty clumsy process. There’s no Wi-Fi included for printing from a phone or Fujifilm camera, which is a shame.

The SQ10 is also significantly heavier than the Instax mini 90 – at least it felt significant to my shoulders. The SQ10 weighs about a pound (450g) fully loaded; the 90 is half that Not back-breaking, but noticeable when you carry it around all day. The built-in battery is rated to 160 prints, and indeed it never needed a recharge during the course of this review.

Summing up

The Instax Square SQ10 offers a convincing imitation of instant photography, plus some of the modern comforts of digital. And there are plenty of benefits from this mashup of digital and instant technology. Having the ability to save the printing step for a convenient time is very nice if you’re say, on a hike, and don’t want to carry around a developing photo. Being able to make multiple prints is another bonus, and if you run out of film, great news – you can still take pictures.

But the truth is, if you opt to print manually rather than as you go, you’re basically just carrying around a mediocre digital camera that’s glued to an instant printer. The camera in the SQ10 is just not as good as a modern smartphone camera, plain and simple.

To be sure, smartphone cameras are awfully sophisticated these days, and if you count the phone they’re attached to, cost well more than the SQ10. And the great thing about the year 2017 is that even a bad digital camera will take nice photos in many conditions. If bright-light snapshots and flash portraits are your aim, then the SQ10’s digital camera component will serve you just fine. But if you plan to take photos without flash in lighting that’s less than ideal, you’d be better off using your phone.

The camera in the SQ10 is just not as good as a modern smartphone camera

If instant photography appeals to you but you want more control over the output than an all-film camera, the Instax Square SQ10 is worth a look. But it’s hard to recommend over Fuji’s standalone Instax SP-2 printer used with a smartphone. The camera that’s already in your pocket or purse likely offers a better automatic exposure mode, a polished user interface, infinite film-simulation filters and better control over exposure settings.

Shortcomings like poor image quality in low light are much easier to forgive in an all-film instant camera, but somehow feel more egregious in the SQ10 simply because it seems like the camera should be able to do better. To me at least, it feels less fun than all-instant photography, with not enough of the convenience of digital to make up for it.

What we like:

  • Digital conveniences like saving images and printing later
  • Lovely square format film
  • Good battery life

What we don’t like:

  • Small sensor struggles in low light
  • Prints are expensive at around $ 1.50 each
  • Tendency to crush shadows can make it difficult to judge exposure

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Now we know: Sony a9 is sharper than we thought

22 Jun

To make a long story short, we’ve re-shot our studio scene shots of the Sony a9 with the FE 85/1.8 lens, and they’re much sharper. We apologize for misleading any of our readers, but it’s a long story – see below. To jump to the images, just click the button, but we do encourage you to read the full text as well.

Just take me to the pictures!

The Long Story

You may have noted on the studio scene page of our Sony a9 review that we admitted to having quite a bit of difficulty focusing the camera with the new Sony 85mm F1.8 lens in magnified live view. The maximum magnification (x9.4) on the camera LCD made it very difficult to fine tune the 85/1.8 precisely. Multiple AF-S attempts yielded shots varying in sharpness, and we were often able to attain better results manually focusing. But the only way to check each shot was to shoot tethered and check each shot magnified on a monitor. Of course, every time we thought we’d nailed focus, we’d try nudging the camera or focus ring just a bit to make sure we couldn’t do any better, and then realize we’d fallen off a bit.

And so the search began again and again, with the quest for perfect focus ending up a bit of a fool’s errand. We finally tuned focus to what we thought was reasonable (we look for maximum aliasing in the central Siemens stars, and color aliasing in the text), and shot our entire studio and dynamic range tests.

Subsequently, we got lots of complaints about the a9 being soft.

The Lens Factor

Was it the lens? This is the first Sony FE camera we’ve shot without the stellar Zeiss 55mm F1.8. We’ve had a long-standing policy of shooting with an on-brand 85mm equivalent lens per-system, to maintain equal distance from camera to target, something that allows for all images to be rendered with equal perspective. With Sony’s recent release of the razor sharp FE 85/1.8, we thought we’d stick to our policy and give it a try.

But we don’t blindly switch lenses for a system; we first verify:

  1. The new lens is at least as sharp as the previous one.
  2. The lens transmission (also accounting for the aperture at F5.6) is not so different as to affect noise comparisons.

Our initial testing showed equivalent sharpness between the 55 and 85mm F1.8 lenses on even a high-resolution a7R II (see below). Furthermore, DXO verified similar levels of sharpness between the 85 and 55 F1.8 lenses (which both perform better than Sony’s 85/1.4 GM, surprisingly). And while we don’t have a way of directly measuring lens transmission, we measured signal:noise ratio of a few grey patches in our scene with the two lenses on the same camera body, and found them to be within 1/6 to 1/10 EV of one another. That meant the new lens would not make the a9 look better, or worse, in Raw noise comparisons compared to if we were to use the Zeiss 55mm F1.8 at F5.6.

Sony 85mm F1.8 at F5.6 (left) vs. Sony 55mm F1.8 at F5.6 (right). Shot on a7R II

Some Friendly Help

While plowing ahead with other aspects of the review, a message from forum expert Jack Hogan turned up in my inbox showing this:

Long-time forum member and all-round expert Jack Hogan did a quick MTF analysis per color channel based off of the slanted edges in our scene. Uh-oh. Looks like the red channel is focused better than the green channel, yielding a calculated MTF50 of only 945 line pairs per picture height (equiv. to a 5.4MP image if weighting sharpness, or MTF50).

Importantly, the green channel should have the highest MTF.

It was now clear that focus was the underlying issue with our studio shots. Not a bad lens. Not a strong anti-aliasing filter. But simply the fact that the lens was not optimally focused: if it were, the green channel would have the highest MTF.

So we sat down one day and spent the entire day shooting many, many runs of our studio scene, slowly moving a macro rail (rather than coursely adjust focus on the lens) between each run. From these shots, we picked the (centrally) sharpest runs. While our copy of the 85/1.8 appears slightly decentered (the left is softer than the right), the results now are much more in line with where things should be:

Jack Hogan re-analyzed some of our new studio shots of the a9, and the green and blue channels now have the highest MTF, not the red channel. The calculated MTF50 of 1125 lp/ph (equiv. to a 7.6MP image if weighting sharpness, or MTF50), which is a 19% increase in linear resolution over our previous results.

A side benefit of analyzing properly focused shots is an ability to estimate the strength of the anti-aliasing filter, which appears to kick in around 0.744 cycles per pixel (the first minimum in the MTF curve). For comparison, the D5’s anti-aliasing filter kicks in around 0.748 cycles per pixel according to Jack’s analysis of our studio scene shots. Meaning the a9’s AA filter is fairly typical.

Have a look at our updated images, and our updated image quality analysis based off of our new results:

See our updated studio scene

Editor’s note:

As camera sensor and lens resolutions are becoming astronomically high, tiny little differences become visible in pixel-peeping. And that’s precisely what our studio scene allows you to do.

Our studio scene isn’t perfect, but it can be helpful. It has its caveats though. For example, because we don’t control for lens transmission from brand-to-brand, or any shutter speed inaccuracies, we state that noise comparisons are only accurate to within 1/3 EV. Trying to extrapolate differences smaller than that from high ISO shots of our studio scene is meaningless: margins of error are real.

The same goes for sharpness. The reality of lenses and mounts is that there is copy variation – in both. Therefore, we urge you to make sharpness comparisons largely from the center of the scene, which removes the lens (as much as it can anyway) from the equation. The rest of the scene is useful for assessing color, detail retention and noise at high ISO in JPEG and Raw, respectively, and other subjective attributes. And keep in mind common sense things: the lock of hair is well above the plane of optimal focus, and different lenses can have field curvature which either helps or hurts the sharpness of this lock. It’s important to keep these sorts of things in mind when pixel-peeping our scene.

This time, with the a9, we take full responsibility for a non-optimally-focused set of shots. But the process has also been a learning experience for us: depending on a lens’ electromechanical coupling and the magnification of the live feed, it can be extremely difficult to take test shots that stand-up to the level of scrutiny our image comparison tool demands. And there are the practical issues mentioned above around taking one shot, checking it, and repeating the process – returning to the position of optimal focus is nearly impossible. The results of visually checking which shot is sharpest can even vary from tester to tester. I can assure you though: we are constantly working on methods to improve these processes.

That said, it’s important to keep things in perspective: in the real world it’s unlikely you’d have seen the sharpness ‘issues’ we had with our initial a9 run (that otherwise appeared so drastic in our studio scene). Why? Because (1) you don’t typically view images at 100%, (2) there will at least be a plane of maximum sharpness (which in our case, unfortunately wasn’t our studio scene on our first run), and (3) your lens and shooting aperture will have far more impact on subject sharpness than which 24 MP sensor was used to shoot it.

To our readers: we offer our sincere apologies, and wish you happy shooting!

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Platypod Ultra compact camera support launches on Kickstarter with more features than Pro model

07 Jun

Platypod, the company behind the compact camera support of the same name, has launched a new product on Kickstarter called Platypod Ultra. This latest model is designed for mid-size and mirrorless cameras, unlike the larger Max model and original Pro model. Ultra is compatible with the majority of pro-tier tripod ball heads, according to Platypod, though the device itself is only about the size of a smartphone, making it ultra-compact.

Platypod Ultra is thicker (4.6mm vs 4.0mm) and 10% wider than the original Platypod Pro, making it sturdier, according to the company. The Ultra model comes with four spiked, threaded feet with rubber tips on one end, enabling the device to be used at a variety of angles on both rough and smooth surfaces. The Platypod Ultra also features five threaded holes for greater balancing and positioning options.

The company has also added three new openings to the Ultra plate so that it can be transported on bags using bungie cords or carabiners; there are also three countersunk holes for screwing the plate to a surface, such as a wood post. Finally, the plate also has two belt slots for strapping the tripod to irregularly shaped or vertical surfaces. The company is including a Velcro cinch strap with the kit.

The company is also launching a multi-accessory kit with accessories for both the Ultra and Max models. This kit includes a non-slip pad, 36-inch cinch strap, 3-inch spigot adapter, and a riser for certain tripod ball heads.

The Kickstarter campaign has exceeded its funding goal with more than two weeks remaining. The company is offering backers who pledge at least $ 49 a single Ultra unit, while a $ 69 pledge will also include the multi-accessory kit. Shipping to backers is estimated to start this upcoming July.

Via: Kickstarter

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Wider than wide: A landscape photographer’s thoughts on the Canon 11-24mm

06 May
The Canon EF 11-24mm F4L USM is a super wideangle zoom lens for Canon’s full-frame DSLRs, which can also be adapted for use on Sony Alpha a7 and a9-series full-frame mirrorless cameras.

Even though I’ve been writing for DPReview for over 4 years, I’ve never written any equipment reviews. And why should I? There are far better equipment experts, technical fanatics, pixel-peepers (I mean that in a good way!) and gear enthusiasts out there than me. My fields of expertise are different, and my writing consists mostly of photographic vision, composition, the philosophical aspects of photography and so on. I intend to stick to this line of writing, and for the most part, I’m happy to leave the equipment reviews to the experts.

That said, after shooting with the Canon 11-24mm F4L for a few months, it has proven to be such a game-changer that it has altered how I think about composition. And in a more general sense, it has changed my ability to take control over what is included in an image, and how these elements are arranged.

Goðafoss, Iceland at 13mm. The extra width allowed me to get closer to the edge and get a wider view while keeping all the elements I needed in the image, framing the waterfall, with enough space around them to avoid a crowded feel.

Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 11-24mm F4L
Nisi Filters 180mm ND + GND
F14, 13sec, ISO100

This will not be your regular gear review. I won’t be discussing sharpness (although trust me that this lens is very sharp), chromatic aberrations or barrel distortion. I will only be talking about composition, which is, in my opinion, the single most important ingredient to a successful photograph. I will present some images and explain what about the 11-24mm made them possible. I’ll also talk a bit about the downsides of this lens and the solutions to the problems it presents. 

So why? Why does a landscape photographer need an 11-24mm? Isn’t it just too darn wide? Is 11mm worth the size and the monstrous weight? Is it worth the hefty price tag? I have to admit that before shooting with it, I was in serious doubt. I was sure I’d leave it in the bag most of the time, taking it only on rare occasions when 16mm wasn’t wide enough. I thought that 16mm would be wide enough for 90% of my images, after all, I’ve been producing satisfactory shots until now – what good could a wider lens be?

I knew that when going wider, background subjects shrink significantly in size, which can hurt the composition. Moreover, in cases where 16mm wasn’t enough, I had a 14mm F2.8 which was excellent for night photography and for shooting in confined spaces. 

It turns out that I was wrong. The extra width proved to be extremely useful, much more than I had imagined. It allowed me to have much more control, to include more sky when I wanted to, to get closer to the foreground, to reveal more detail and create a greater sense of depth and more dramatic imagery. Let’s look at some examples.

An ice cave in Breiðamerkurjökull glacier, Iceland. Getting this composition in one shot with a narrower lens would have been impossible.

Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 11-24mm F4L
Focus stacked from 3 images at 11mm, F13, 15sec, ISO800.

The ice cave pictured above was magnificent, but it was also very cramped. I couldn’t walk upright in most of the spots I shot, and this stream was very small. The ice-crusted rock in the middle was tiny, and its details were so beautiful, I needed to get close in order to expose their intricacies. On the other hand, I needed to frame the different elements well, and in a balanced way that makes visual sense.

The cave’s ceiling is extremely important, since it’s the only subject of the frame which is part of the glacier, which basically IS the ice cave. It also contains wonderful melting patterns, and black, volcanic earth which gives extra texture and detail. 
On the bottom of the frame, there are two important elements: the ice-crusted rock in the middle of the stream, which is most definitely the centerpiece, but equally importantly the ice crusted banks on the bottom right. These serve to create the frame to the blurred water and to compositionally counterbalance the rock and the left-running stream.

In addition to the compositional aspect, I strongly feel that including all these elements serves to give the viewer a better sense of being in this incredible cave. This might be the strongest advantage of utilizing such a wide angle of view.

Without a super wide lens, I could still have included all of these elements. I could have achieved this in one of several ways.

Firstly, I could have moved back a little. This would indeed allow me to include all the different desired elements in the frame, but going backward would change the perspective significantly, shrinking the most important elements in the process, namely the ice crusted rock and the stream itself. That would hurt the composition a great deal.

Alternatively, I could have shot a panorama, using a tilt/shift lens or by moving the camera and lens. This would make the job much, much harder, since (a) it would require multiple stitching in addition to the already-challenging focus stacking and (b) shooting so close to the stream meant I constantly needed to wipe the lens dry, and the extra shooting time would mean much more wiping, Photoshop work and general headache.

The 11-24mm allowed me to shoot this as close to the rock as I needed to, in order to include all the detail I wanted to show while still framing the shot as I desired, all with only three shots to focus stack. I simply wouldn’t have been able to do that before I bought this lens. 

Let’s see another example from my Arctic trip earlier this year.

The amazing black and white sand patterns of Skagsanden Beach, Lofoten, Arctic Norway.

Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 11-24mm F4L
Nisi Filters 180mm ND + GND
Stacked from 4 images at 11mm, 0.8 sec, F13, ISO100

Again, this image would’ve been almost impossible without the 11-24mm, which allowed me to get very close and personal with the tree-like sand patterns, while being wide enough to shrink the background and include the whole mountain range in the frame. 

The Lofoten Islands are full of fjords with towering mountains rising out of them. Some mountains are so close to a water body, it’s extremely hard to include the entire thing in the frame without a truly wide lens. This is even more so when trying to include reflections.

Mount Stortinden reflecting in the calm Flakstad Fjord, Lofoten. I was standing about 1 km from this 850m tall mountain. Being so close, I couldn’t have included both the mountain and the reflection with a 16mm. It was easily done, however, with the 11-24mm.

Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon 11-24mm F4L
Nisi Filters 180mm ND + GND
11mm, F11, 0.5 sec, ISO100

Last but not least, the 11-24 is an almost perfect tool for night photography. The maximum aperture of F4 is a limit, but then again, it’s easier having the foreground in focus at F4, plus the monstrous angle of view allows one to expose marginally longer without getting the stars or Northern Lights blurred.

Let’s see an example from an incredible night of Aurora in Lofoten. The super wide angle allowed me to include a huge chunk of the sky, showing the wonderful patterns and lines in addition to the mountains and the moving waves. I could also expose for 8 seconds, which is considered a bit long for this kind of strong Auroral activity. To be honest, the lights blew up a few seconds before I took this shot, and I should’ve exposed for less time, but the amount of blur is not a big issue and the Aurora is still well defined.

Beautiful Aurora in Skagsanden Beach, Lofoten, Arctic Norway.
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV
Canon 11-24mm F4L
11mm, F4, 8sec, ISO1600

Here are a few more examples of Aurora shot with the 11-24mm.

Stacked from 2 images at 11mm, F4, 8sec, ISO3200 Stacked from 2 images at 11mm, F4, 13sec, ISO3200
11mm, F4, 5sec, ISO1600 11mm, F4, 8sec, ISO3200

I hope you’re convinced of this lens’ advantages. What about the downsides?
For me, the greatest disadvantage is the inability to fit regular filters in front of the huge front element. I’m used to popping my 100mm system out of the bag and putting it in front of any lens. Not this one.

The only solution I currently know of which covers the whole width of this monster is the Nisi Filters 180mm system (proper disclosure: Nisi gave me the holder and some filters to try out). These filters are not cheap, but they are well made and have superb optical quality. The problem is that together with the mounting system, they are big and heavy, and don’t allow a photographer to be as spontaneous as with a 100mm system. I still like the system very much and I’ve achieved good images with it. If you’re into using filters with the 11-24, I highly recommend it.

As to the size, weight and price – simply put, it is what it is. If you need this type of lens, or if you can extract any type of value out of it, there is not much choice, is there? You need to weigh the advantages and the disadvantages and make up your own mind. You can also leave the lens at home if it’s not really necessary or if the weight is too much for a specific project (for example, on my recent Patagonia hiking trip, I chose not to lug it around due to the weight, and opted for the lighter 16-35mm). In my opinion, the answer is clear: if you’re an avid landscape photographer, don’t wait – get this lens, you won’t regret it.

Erez Marom is a professional nature photographer, photography guide and traveler based in Israel. You can follow Erez’s work on Instagram, Facebook and 500px, and subscribe to his mailing list for updates.

If you’d like to experience and shoot some of the most fascinating landscapes on earth with Erez as your guide, you’re welcome to take a look at his unique photography workshops around the world:

Land of Ice – Southern Iceland
Winter Paradise – Northern Iceland
Northern Spirits – The Lofoten Islands
Giants of the Andes and Fitz Roy Hiking Annex – Patagonia
Tales of Arctic Nights – Greenland
Saga of the Seas and The Far Reaches Annex – The Faroe Islands
Desert Storm – Namibia

Selected Articles by Erez Marom:

  • Parallelism in Landscape Photography
  • Behind the Shot: Dark Matter
  • Mountain Magic: Shooting in the Lofoten Islands
  • Behind the Shot: Nautilus
  • Behind the Shot: Lost in Space
  • Behind the Shot: Spot the Shark
  • Quick Look: The Art of the Unforeground
  • Whatever it Doesn’t Take
  • Winds of Change: Shooting changing landscapes
  • On the Importance of Naming Images
  • On Causality in Landscape Photography

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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New York Times reportedly more than doubles photographers’ pay rate

06 Apr

The New York Times has more than doubled its photographers’ pay, according to a new report, increasing its day rate from $ 200 to $ 450. The report’s sources also claim that the publication’s pay rate for photographers working less than a day is now $ 300, though it isn’t clear what the previous rate was. This follows a report the company published in January stating, among other things, that it ‘need[s] to expand the number of visual experts who work at The Times and also expand the number who are in leadership roles.’

The Times discussed its ‘strategy and aspirations’ in its 2020 report published in January 2017. Chief among the details about many changes the publication needs to make is discussion of photography and its role in modern journalism. ‘Too much of our daily report remains dominated by long strings of text,’ the report explains, detailing ways it could improve articles using visual elements.

In addition to enabling reporters and others to improve their visual storytelling capabilities, The Times says, ‘We also need to become more comfortable with our photographers, videographers and graphics editors playing the primary role covering some stories, rather than a secondary role.’ 

Via: PetaPixel

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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These Brutalist Sand Castles Might Be Cooler Than the Real Thing

28 Mar

[ By SA Rogers in Art & Sculpture & Craft. ]

modernist sand castles 11

Brutalist architecture is often criticized for seeming cold, impersonal and out of human scale, but the same can’t be said for these structures when they’re miniaturized and ephemeral, destroyed in seconds by the sea. In fact, when they’re crafted out of sand on a beach, outside their usual context, we can appreciate the beauty of their geometry more than ever. Calvin Siebert’s modernist sand castles might just be better than the real thing.

modernist sand castles 10

modernist sand castles 9

While staying on Rockaway Beach in Queens during the summer, the professional sculptor and self-described ‘box builder’ crafts amazingly complex architectural structures that remain in place just long enough to photograph them, inevitably washing away. You might say that nature is… brutal.

modernist sand castles 12

modernist sand castle 1

While it’s not hard to imagine seeing some of these designs in the hills of Los Angeles, using sand as a medium enables Siebert to get more creative than the average architect in envisioning fantasy structures that could translate to concrete.

modernist sand castile 2

modernist sand castle 2

He doesn’t start with sketches, plans or even anything particular in mind, preferring to work intuitively, allowing the forms to take shape. He’s been creating these temporary works of art for the past six years, and has thousands of photos documenting them on his Flickr.

modernist sand castle 4

modernist sand castle 5

modernist sand castle 6

“Building ‘sandcastles’ is a bit of a test,” he says. “Nature will always be against you and time is always running out. Having to think fast and bring it all together in the end is what I like about it… once I begin building and forms take shape I can start to see where things are going and either follow that road or attempt to contradict it with something unexpected.”

modernist sand castles 7

modernist sand castles 8

“In my mind they are always mash-ups of influences and ideas. I see a castle, a fishing village, a modernist sculpture, a stage set for the oscars all at once. When they are successful they don’t feel contained or finished. They become organic machines that might grow and expand. I am always adding just one more bit and if time allowed I wouldn’t stop.”

Sand Cities: Geometric Architecture Sculpted from Beaches

A serious step beyond traditional sand castles, these sculptural micro-structures range from simple sets of cubes to miniature buildings and architectural complexes.

Calvin …

Tag Before the Tide: Temporary 3D Sand Graffiti by DAIM

Artist Mirko Reisser has long developed a highly personalized (and profoundly cool) approach to making two-dimensional tags appear three-dimensional on surfaces, but in this unusual project, he …

37 Detailed Sand Sculptures that Make Your Castle Look Sad

A small shovel and a pail for sand are the typical beach goer’s adventure kit, but some people take their sand castles a bit more seriously. With ladders, and teams of workers, sand sculptors …

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[ By SA Rogers in Art & Sculpture & Craft. ]

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Urban Legend: Why Are European Cities so Much Denser than American Ones?

22 Mar

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

densities

At a glance, it seems obvious New York City would be more densely populated than Paris, but in fact the reverse is true: New York has only half the population density of its French competitor. In Europe, too, rich people tend to live in the hearts of cities, not in their suburbs as they often do in the United States. This fantastic short video will take you through the reasons for these differentials in just ten minutes:

Most people attribute this to the age differential — young American cities are much younger. Europeans walking to work preferred and paid a premium for proximity (and to live on lower floors before the advent of elevators). A similar effect can be found in small towns: villagers would walk to work in fields. And this is part of the story, but per the video above (and text below) there are other forces at work in the modern age.

Meanwhile, in the U.S., railroads took time to get up to speed, making it easy to build suburbs further out and not just adjacent to cities. Streetcars in turn created upper-middle-class suburbs closer into town. Finally, the automobile filled in the gaps between railroad and streetcar lines.

But why didn’t European cities experience a similar trend? In part, ones that were damaged during in world wars generally rebuilt the way they had been, and the rest kept their legacies of density throughout.

There is also the history of crime: violent urban crime drove those who could afford it out of the hearts of cities. Rural land is also cheaper in the U.S. thanks for fewer farm subsidies, making it easier for developers to buy and build remotely.

Cheaper energy costs also drive car ownership state-side, reducing motivation to locate homes close to work. Energy prices also mean that heating huge suburban homes in America is much more affordable. But these commutes are linked to higher anxiety and the trend is reversing, bringing the rich back into cities.

Urban Human Habitats: 13 Compact Concepts for Growing Cities

 

How will various cities around the world adapt to rapid population growth while maintaining quality of life and responding to their unique environments and cultural context? In some …

American Dream 2.0: Visionary Video of Associative Design

People used to dream of moving out of the city into single-family homes with white picket fences. More and more, however, the call for sustainability and an increased interest in urban living has …

Fantastic Cities: 48-Page Urban Coloring Book Made for Adults

Coloring books are no longer just for kids, as this one designed for adult colorists illustrates in beautiful black and white. Showing urban scenes both real and imagined, these fictional, actual …

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[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

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It Happened to Me: I Made a Photo Book in Less Than 15 Minutes

22 Mar

Scrolling through your camera roll is cool and all, but leafing through the pages of a photo book is just more magical.

We’d make a photo book for every occasion, but who has the time?

Turns out, if you’ve got 15 minutes, you do!

Photojojo-er and all around great gal, Laurel, just got back from a trip to Thailand, and put together a photo book of her adventures in less than 15 minutes.

And, she’s here to tell you just how she did it.
(…)
Read the rest of It Happened to Me: I Made a Photo Book in Less Than 15 Minutes (339 words)

© laurel for Photojojo, 2017. |
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2016 CIPA data shows compact digital camera sales lower than ever

08 Mar

Last month, the Camera & Imaging Products Association (CIPA) released its 2016 report detailing yearly trends in camera shipments. Using that data, photographer Sven Skafisk has created a graph that makes it easy to visualize the data, namely the major growth in smartphone sales over the past few years and the apparent impact it has had on dedicated camera sales.

The chart shows smartphone sales achieving a big spike around 2010, the same time range in which dedicated camera sales reached its peak. Each following year has represented substantial growth in smartphone sales and significant decreases in dedicated camera sales, particularly in the compact digital cameras category. 

Per the CIPA report, total digital camera shipments last year fell by 31.7% over the previous year. The report cites multiple factors affecting digital camera sales overall, with smartphones proving the biggest factor affecting the sales of digital cameras with built-in lenses. The Association’s 2017 outlook includes a forecast that compact digital cameras will see another 16.7-percent year-on-year sales decrease this year.

Skafisk’s graph below shows the massive divide between smartphone sales and camera sales – be prepared to do some scrolling.

Via: PetaPixel, CIPA

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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