If you own a digital camera without Wi-Fi and want to quickly transfer photos to your smartphone or tablet, then the new Eye-Fi Mobi SDHC card might be for you. Setup is simple: just download the app for iOS or Android, enter a 10 digit code, and you’re ready to roll. After that, photos you take on your camera will automatically be sent to your mobile device. For more on the Eye-Fi Mobi, read the full story on Connect.
News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
Roger Cicala of Lensrentals has published a blog post in which he gives his first impressions of the new Carl Zeiss 32mm F1.8 ‘Touit’ lens, in Sony E-mount. Unlike Roger’s normal approach, where he exhaustively tests multiple samples of the same lens, he was only able to look at a single example of the 32mm F1.8 on the Sony NEX-7. Click through for some details of his findings, and a link to the full article at the lensrentals blog.
News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
A Guest post by Judd Green
There’s always, always an upgrade that I ‘need’ or a new lens I ‘can’t do without’. And I could easily convince myself, and the boss (the wife) I can’t do my next shoot without getting this strobe or lens or wireless system, it would make the shoot awesome! Turns out the gear doesn’t make you awesome, you make you awesome. I have consciously decided to not upgrade any of my gear yet, I’ve made the decision to push my knowledge and the gear that I have to achieve what I want to achieve.
I recently had a band approach me to do some promo shots for them. All they gave me to work with was ‘classy with an edge’ which sounded like fun. Straight away I’m thinking I wanted the ‘look’ of a big production, I organized to do the shoot in a warehouse to give the ‘edge’ and have a set up with a lounge, side table and lamp to add some class. I’ve seen with something like this you’d have strobes and reflectors and assistants running around everywhere. I had my 580exii, a $ 100 strobe I bought off ebay and my mate Dylan.
I did the shoot with my 5d2 (would love to get the mark 3) and a cactus v4 wireless system (would love to get a pocket wizard system) and my 24-70 lens that I have dropped in the past (would love to upgrade that too) and my 580exii and a cheap strobe.
We had no ambient light to work with and in order to light every band member up perfectly I had to shoot them one at a time as a composite image so it would be a simple cut and paste job later. One good tip also when doing this style of shoot is to get a ‘clean slate’ shot, a shot with nothing in it but the background, it just makes it easier to cut and paste onto.
Don’t let only having little gear stop you from achieving what you want to achieve, but make sure you work it all out before hand, you can never be too prepared when it comes to shoots as to not waste your clients time.
Pushing boundaries and my knowledge is what I love about photography, I had an idea and a goal set and then just made it happen. Learn the gear you have and become excellent at it. It’s always nice to get the latest and newest gear, and it often helps and makes things easier, but it’s not the gear that makes you awesome, it’s you.
Judd Green is a Photographer from Brisbane Australia. See more of his work at www.juddricphotography.com
Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.
Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.
Achieving a ‘Big’ Look with little Gear | Using What You Have
One of our most popular posts on this site is How to Photograph Silhouettes.
Today I thought I’d add to the theory of the topic by posting some examples of silhouettes to give a little inspiration to take some of your own.
Image by Luza
Image by Thomas Hawk
Image by 3blindmice
Image by Alexbip
Image by !!sahrizvi!!
Silhouette by !!sahrivi!!
Photo by FreeWine
Photo by simpologist
Photo by Kalandrakas
Silhouette by Yves Lorson
Image by Thomas Hawk
Photo by Fort PhotoHave you taken any Silhouettes? Share them in our forum’s Share Your Shots section.
Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.
Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.
12 Stunning Silhouette Shots
[ By Steph in Gadgets & Geekery & Technology. ]
In the future, maybe we’ll all be pressing buttons on countertop machines that will squeeze various food pastes into the creative shapes of our choice. The 3D printing revolution isn’t limited to fashion, pretty objects, guns or even architecture – it’s edible, too. A combination of scans, special digital files and machines that extrude materials into complex forms might just make food more of an art form than ever before, if these 14 examples are a preview of what’s to come.
In a possibly Freudian typo, Shapeways describes this Bacon Mobius Strip as “not delicious but also vegan and kosher-friendly.” You can order one of your very own to keep forever as a bizarre conversation piece on the mantel, or recurring breakfast gag.
Amazingly intricate sculptures of sugar are 3D printed by The Sugar Lab, a husband-and-wife team of architectural designers. “With our background in architecture and our penchant for complex geometry, we’re bringing 3D printing technology to the genre of mega-cool cakes. 3D printing represents a paradigm shift for confections, transforming sugar into a dimensional, structural medium.”
How will 3D printing technology be applied to the home of the future? Designer Janne Kytannen of Freedom of Creation envisions our own little countertop printing machines capable of producing pasta, cereal, burgers and more. Kytannen believes that as the ability to design our own food becomes more accessible, the items we choose to eat will become far more creative and complex.
A 3D printing workshop in Tokyo produced miniature chocolate versions of the creators’ faces. Each person went into a small room to get a full body scan, and a 3D printed mold was made of their heads. Now, they can make chocolates and other confections in the shape of their own faces again and again. Tokyo’s FabCafe sells the molds for $ 65 each.
A slab of ordinary cookie dough was made into Escher-inspired cookies using a 3D-printed roller. George W. Hart converts patterns into 3D-printed rollers using a MakerBot; you can download the software and files to make your own at his website.
Deemed the world’s highest-resolution 3D-printed chocolates, these sugary confections from Moving Brands started out as a fun project and turned into a learning process about the intricacies of 3D printing with various materials. “We had to think about the physical properties of molten plastic and the structural integrity of layers… We had to become conversant with how the machine was put together and even how it sounded and smelled,” explained the project technical lead, Daniel Soltis.
A shoe isn’t typically the most delicious-looking object, but Tristan Bethe managed to make one look pretty good in both burger bun and chocolate form. Tristan 3D-scanned his own shoe, made a food-safe silicone mold and poured in the mix for both items.
Cornell University’s Fab@Home program has provided designers with 3D printers equipped with syringes that squeeze out pastes of various kinds, including pasta dough. Dave Arnold of Cooking Issues used his to make noodles in cool shapes. “I find that whole idea, which removes ourselves even further from the way our food is made, horrifying. Dinner from a series of homogeneous pastes?” says Arnold; but ultimately, the noodles he created were so delicious he could barely capture them on camera before they disappeared.
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by Lynsey Peterson.
– verb: to present oneself insincerely
– noun: a deliberate pretense or exaggerated display
I’m not a fan of posed portraits. I’m not even a fan of the word. Insincere exaggerated pretense is not how I want my images to look. I want honest responses, full-body laughter, and spills of emotion. A posed portrait maybe has a place in this world, but I am banking on my client’s children and my own children wanting to look back at pictures from their childhood and see their real reactions and meaningful expressions. You can’t get that in a pose. But you can get it in a set-up.
I use a couple tried and true set-ups every time I do a family shoot. I used to worry that all of my work would start looking the same and I would be known as the photographer that always takes pictures that look like this or that and nothing more. What I have realized though is when the ingredients are different, the end result never looks the same. Families bring their own energy to a shoot and even if I do the same “pose”, if I do it well and give it my all, it will never look the same as another family doing the same thing. To best illustrate this I am showing three different families doing the very same set-up.
But they do make for good pictures. The Set-Up: ask anyone in the picture to tell anyone else a secret. Honestly it doesn’t matter who because often it isn’t the secret shot itself that you are going for, but rather the reaction of said secret. Every once in a while I get a kiddo that doesn’t understand what a secret is or how to do it and when this happens I just tell them to lick their brother/sister/moms ear. Which would totally gross me out personally, but usually gets met with fits of hysterical laughter and there ain’t nothing bad about photographing that instead.
[LINE1]
Like crows on a clothesline. The Set-Up: with a younger family, I get away with asking everyone to hold hands. Once kids get a little older, I just have everyone get on the same level. This takes on a different direction every time: a running contest, a stadium-style wave, a monkey swing. The goal is always interaction. And if that isn’t happening on it’s own, I find it’s never a bad idea to bust into song. Everyone likes a serenade.
Kids take great delight in getting to run up behind their unknowing big people and surprise hug/tackle them. The Set-Up: if kids are too young to understand this or too old for it to work without being awkward, reverse it and have parents do the sneak attack. I usually save this for the end of a shoot because sometimes it can get a little crazy. Though my photography business has still never caused an emergency room visit. That I know of.
Grown-ups are bread, kids are peanut butter and jelly. Or, pickles and prosciutto. (I’ve photographed some very sophisticated young folks.) The Set-Up: Depending on size and age of kids, have parents bookend the little people and either pick-up kids and smash everyone together, or just get low enough to make it work. If there are more kids than adults, this can get really funny but it’s quick. Be ready and consider being a bit lower than you usually would, as the pull of gravity is heavy here because the kids likely are too.
Now is probably a good time to mention that I get laughed at a lot. Usually 95% of what I ask people to do for photos is met with a sweet but certain: “I absolutely will not do that.” I just ignore that. Because they always do in the end. No one has ever flat-out refused and told me no when it comes down to it. Which may be something I should factor into my personal relationship issues, but that’s a different article. The Set-Up: This typically works best when you ask a grown-up to have REALLY BIG ARMS and hug everyone at the same time. Sometimes this requires encouragement and you have to think of yourself as a little hugging cheerleader. When I have to do this, I am just grateful that there is no one videoing my crazy hand motions and the way my voice gets squeaky.
My goal for each shoot is to do something random that I have never done before. When doing this, don’t over think it. It will work or it won’t; those are the only two options. If it works, great! You have a new idea. If it doesn’t work, great!
Now you know to never try that again and hopefully no one was sent to the emergency room in the process. The Set-Up: This is a good time to really shoot for the moon, knowing that it’s nothing more than a bonus. It honestly could be anything. Be brave and ask for something new—you’ll know pretty quickly if it’s going to work and there is nothing wrong with it not working—just know to move on.
These ideas, as with any type of lifestyle photography posing are about the reaction, not the concept itself. Shooting digitally allows us the ability to shoot constantly; keep the expectation open and allow the moment to play for itself. And have a funny song in your back pocket just in case.
Check out more of Lynsey Peterson’s work on her website.
Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.
Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.
Unposed Posing: A few Tried and True Tips for Photographing Families in Natural and Fun Ways
Social media has brought about the ability to share images across the world in seconds, something unthinkable a decade ago. There are several major firms who dominate this market – Facebook, Flickr, Pinterest, and Instagram to name but a few. Sleepy old Google+, however, hasn’t had much of a say. With 500 million registered users it’s officially the second most Continue Reading
The post Google+ Takes An Evolutionary Step With Online Photography appeared first on Photodoto.
Hot on the heels of its cashback offer for its 1 System cameras, Nikon UK has announced similar promotions on its D600 and D5200 SLRs. Buyers will be able to claim back £50 / €60 on the D5200, and £150 / €180 on the D800, when purchased either body only or with a new Nikkor lens. Meanwhile buyers of various Coolpix compacts will have the chance to win one of over 1200 ‘exhilarating prizes’, including an indoor sky diving experience.
News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
Zeiss has announced that its first two Touit lenses for mirrorless cameras are now available for sale. The 12mm F2.8 wideangle has been designed according to the ‘Distagon optical concept’, and has an RRP of €920 / US$ 1,250 excluding VAT. Meanwhile the Planar-type 32mm F1.8 normal lens will cost €670 / US$ 900 excluding VAT. The lenses will be available to fit Sony NEX and Fujifilm X-system cameras, and the X-mount models feature aperture rings with 1/3 stop detents. The next model in the line, a 50mm F2.8 Macro, is expected to appear at the end of the year.
News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
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