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Archive for March, 2016

LED Buddha Vaults & Smart Card Entry: High-Tech Cemetery in Tokyo

05 Mar

[ By Steph in Culture & History & Travel. ]

rurden high tech cemetery 1

When visiting a deceased loved one at this Tokyo cemetery, you’ll swipe a smart card upon arrival at the door so that the particular LED Buddha statue representing the correct vault will light up, making it easy to locate on a wall of identical figures. At Ruriden, a futuristic charnel house belonging to Koukoko-ji temple, cremated remains are kept in storage lockers in this unusually high-tech environment, eliminating the need for loved ones to maintain graves.

Traditionally, each family in Japan would own a plot of land and a stone tomb in a physical cemetery, costing up to $ 40,000 and requiring upkeep and maintenance fees. But as space gets tighter in the urban areas, the prices for those tombs are getting out of control, and cemeteries like Ruriden are stepping in to offer an alternative.

ruriden high tech cemetary 2 ruriden 5

You may not even be able to touch the glass separating your hand from that little glowing buddha if your relative’s vault happens to be high up on the wall of 2,046 altars, but seeing the statue illuminated can help provide a sense of connection to the gravesite, and you can still access the remains.

ruriden 3

ruriden 7

When you visit, the remains will be delivered to a communal vault in the floor via a forklift and conveyer belt system. A digital slideshow puts images of your deceased loved one on display. Ashes are stored in these vaults for 33 years for family visits, before being buried below the Ruriden.

flow ruriden 4

600 of the plots are currently in use, and 300 more have been reserved by elderly Tokyo residents planning for their own deaths. Vice recently took a tour of the complex and spoke to people shopping for their own high-tech graves. Employees at the cemetery even speculate on the possibility of interactive, holographic representations of dead relatives in the future. Read the whole story at Vice.

ruriden 6

Top two images via Vice/Emiko Jozuka; remaining images via Ruriden.jp

[ By Steph in Culture & History & Travel. ]

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Lee introduces 15-stop Super Stopper neutral density filter

05 Mar

Lee Filters has announced it is to offer a neutral density filter that converts what would normally be a two-second exposure into one that lasts 17 hours and 4 minutes. The new Super Stopper reduces the amount of light entering the lens by a massive 15 stops, to enable especially long shutter speeds in normal daylight conditions.

Available for the 100mm, SW150 and Sev5n ranges, the filter is made from what Lee describes as ‘high-quality optical glass’. It comes packaged in a protective tin case and has a lifetime warranty. The company says the filter induces only a slight color cast that it claims is easy to remove in post-production. It joins the 10-stop Big Stopper and the 6-stop Little Stopper in the company’s range of ND filters.

The filter factor of the Super Stopper is 3200 and it has a density of 4.5. It will be available soon, and the version for the SW150 series will cost $ 175. For more information on the company see the Lee Filters website – though the company hasn’t posted any details of the Super Stopper yet. There is more information though on the website of UK distributor, Linhof Studio.

Press release:

LEE Filters NEW Super Stopper Available for 100mm, SW150 and Sev5n.

With its 15 stops of light-reducing power, the Super Stopper sits at the top of the Stopper family, joining the Big and Little Stoppers in the long-exposure photography revolution.

The Super Stopper is designed for use in bright conditions, during the middle of the day – a time that’s traditionally considered unsuitable for photography because of the harsh, contrasty nature of the light.
However, with the Super Stopper filter fitted, the softness that arises from any movement contrasts pleasingly with any areas of bright light, creating an effect rarely seen in photography before now.

Like all the filters in the Stopper family, the Super Stopper is constructed from the high-quality optical glass and is supplied in a metal case for protection. It has only a minimal colour cast that is easily corrected in postproduction.

The exposure guide chart below allows you to find out the extremes to which photographers can now take their long exposures.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Weekly Photography Challenge – Modes of Transportation

05 Mar

By Rishi Bandopadhay

We humans have many ways of getting ourselves from point A to point B, methods of transportation, or vehicles, such as:

Planes
Trains
Car/automobiles
Bus
Bicycle
Motorcycle
Boat
Scooter
Sailboat
Cruise ship
Skateboard
Rollerblades
Etc. and the list can go on and on . . .

By Joan Campderrós-i-Canas

By sese_87

Weekly Photography Challenge – Modes of Transportation

That leaves it pretty wide opened for you this week. You could shoot traffic on a busy street, try some panning, freeze or stop the motion by choosing the appropriate shutter speed, take a bus or train and shoot from inside, just for a few ideas.

By Ben Salter

By Harald Kobler

By Bob Jagendorf

By joiseyshowaa

Share your images below:

Simply upload your shot into the comment field (look for the little camera icon in the Disqus comments section) and they’ll get embedded for us all to see or if you’d prefer upload them to your favourite photo sharing site and leave the link to them. Show me your best images in this week’s challenge. Sometimes it takes a while for an image to appear so be patient and try not to post the same image twice.

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The post Weekly Photography Challenge – Modes of Transportation by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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Samsung Galaxy S7 teardown reveals Sony IMX260 Dual-pixel sensor

05 Mar

At the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge the Korean manufacturer did not provide any official information about the makers of the the new devices’ camera module. However, now a teardown from Chipworks has confirmed rumors that the S7 captures its images on a Sony IMX260 sensor with 12MP resolution, 1.4um pixel size and dual pixel AF across the entire sensor. Read more

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Modes of Transportation – 28 Images of Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

04 Mar

We photographers tend to have a fascination with a few different subjects including old cars and bicycles.

But what other modes of transport are there that we love to shoot? How many can you see here, and how have these photographers captured their essence, done them justice?

These first few images are mine:

By Darlene Hildebrandt

These are by other photographers:

By Giovanni Orlando

By Howard Ignatius

By Brent Pearson

By Timothy Neesam

By Staffan Scherz

By Garrett

By jimmy brown

By Peter Miller

By Gerry Balding

By Patrick Franzis

By Justin

By Konstantinos B

By amanda tipton

By Davide D’Amico

By Patrick Franzis

By jimmy brown

By michael kooiman

By Ryan Desiderio

By WickedVT

By madhan r

By Kev Haworth Photography

By Dennis Jarvis

By Caden Crawford

The post Modes of Transportation – 28 Images of Planes, Trains, and Automobiles by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS60 / TZ80 real-world samples and studio comparison

04 Mar

Panasonic’s ZS60 puts a lot of enticing features in a very small package. It’s an iteration on a tried-and-true travel zoom formula that combines a 24-720mm equivalent zoom, 18MP sensor, 3″ touchscreen and a built-in electronic viewfinder. The ZS60 also offers 4K/UHD video at 30p as well as Wi-Fi. We spent some time outside with the ZS60, even managing to catch a few breaks in the late winter clouds, and have a real-world sample gallery to show for it. Take a look at how it fares out and about and in the studio.

See our Panasonic Lumix ZS60 real-world sample gallery

See the Panasonic Lumix ZS60 in our studio test scene comparison tool

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Polaroid-branded BrightSaber Pro wand packs 298 LEDs

04 Mar

A Polaroid-branded ‘BrightSaber Pro’ handheld light wand is now available, packing 289 LED lights into a frosted tubular diffuser with a built-in, secondary tungsten filter. Like the recently-announced Yongnuo YN360 light wand, the Brightsaber takes on the popular IceLight at a much lower price point.

The Polaroid BrightSaber weighs 624g/22oz and supports operation from either batteries or a wall outlet. The integrated LEDs output 5600k light and have a lifespan rating of more than 50,000 hours. Twisting the BrightSaber engages the tungsten filter sleeve, changing the light’s color temperature to 3200K. Photographers can choose from a few different light modes as well, including an SOS distress strobe, slow flashing and rapid flashing.

Polaroid includes an infrared remote with the BrightSaber; it serves as a portable control for the light wand and as a remote shutter release for nearly all Pentax, Canon and Nikon camera models. BrightSaber is available via Amazon starting at $ 149.99.

Press release:

Polaroid Brightsaber Pro Handheld/Mountable LED Lighting Wand Now Available

Perfect for photographers, videographers and more, the Polaroid brightsaber pro LED lighting wand with integrated rotating tungsten filter provides outstanding lighting for stunning results

RIDGEFIELD PARK, NJ – March 1, 2016 – The Polaroid brightsaber pro LED lighting wand is the easiest and most affordable way to get a perfectly lit shot, whether on set, in the field, or anywhere in between. The highly portable lighting solution can be comfortably handheld or mounted to a tripod for studio setups, and comes with an integrated rotating tungsten filter to give photographers, videographers, event planners, set decorators and more the light they need to create a beautiful look.

Polaroid Brightsaber Key Features

Includes infrared lamp and camera shutter remote; rechargeable battery pack
Professional-grade LED lamp driver chip enhances consistency and lighting stability
Ergonomically designed, the 1.7” diameter multi-purpose grip provides maximum comfort during handheld use, while a built-in threaded tripod mount enables studio setups
Intelligently integrated, freely rotating, tubular tungsten filter in wrap-around design ensures perfect lighting balance
Array of 298 powerful, efficient, low-heat 5600k LED bulbs rated at >50,000 Hours

Your Work in a Different Light…and Lots of It

The Polaroid brightsaber’s 298-piece LED bulbs deliver true daylight color 5800K, and have been engineered to be in optimal proximity to the gently frosted light diffuser, resulting in a soft yet powerfully projected and evenly dispersed shine. Photographers can easily set the light to a rapid or slow flash with the press of a button. Offering the pros extra versatility, the Polaroid brightsaber features a tungsten color temperature filter in the form of a 3200k sleeve, giving users the ability to add dramatic lighting effects without the need for additional devices.

Video or Still, Pro or Prosumer, It’s All the Lighting You Need

Getting a well-lit shot is easy with the Polaroid brightsaber, eliminating the need for lighting umbrellas, stands, mounts and sweat-inducing spotlights. At just 22 ounces, the Polaroid brightsaber is super lightweight, portable and overall refreshingly manageable. Even so, it provides a full range of powerful and sophisticated “studio-level” features professionals will appreciate in the studio and on location.

Infrared Remote

Helping photographers stay focused on set, the Polaroid brightsaber comes with an innovative multi-function IR remote. This handy device gives users full control over the lighting, while doubling as a remote shutter release for virtually any Canon, Nikon or Pentax camera.

Pricing and Availability

The Polaroid brightsaber pro is available now on Amazon for 162.29 USD and ships with a lamp, filter, remote control, battery, AC power adapter, case and manual.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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6 Powerful Reasons Why All Photographers Need Facebook Pages

04 Mar

Hi there everyone,

It’s Ed a.k.a Edrenalin here, editor of FashionPhotographyBlog.com, bringing you insights from the inside.

I’m constantly intrigued when I discover that out of the numerous photography businesses I’ve helped, the majority of them do not have a Facebook page for their business. Sure, these photographers had a personal Facebook profile, however, when it came to having a dedicated page for their photography, this was non-existent. I see this over and over again, and I can tell you that they are missing out on a great marketing tool in their business tool belts.

However, I have to insert a disclaimer here, in that not every business will benefit from having a Facebook page for their business. It really depends on what kind of clients you are after for your business. For those of you who are looking for clients to make contact with you to book you then a Facebook page would be an ideal platform for you. If not, you can still create a Facebook page but there may be other social media platforms that may be more relevant to your market.

Top 6 reasons why you need a Facebook Page for your business (even if you don’t have a photography business yet).

1. It’s free as long as you are connected on Facebook with a personal account. It won’t cost you anything to create a Facebook business page and it’s pretty quick and easy to set up so give it a go, you have nothing to lose.

2. Having a recognisable authority website such a Facebook, talking about your website provides bonus points for SEO. Not all social media accounts pass on “SEO link juice” these days (the reason for this is to prevent online scammers from abusing these social media platforms) however having a Facebook page is a great way to increase the visibility of your photography business, on Facebook and Google searches.

3. Not only can people see friends that they know like and interact with your page, they can read the reviews and the feedback that people leave in the comments, to work out if you are a reputable photography business or not. People trust what their friends say more than what what you say. It’s one thing for you to talk about how great you are with your photography business, but it’s another when they hear it (or read it) from people they know, trust or relate to.

4. Potential clients who want to send a message to you on your website for an enquiry or booking might want to first know how quickly will you reply back to them (and whether you are still in business or on holiday). They may check out your Facebook page, since Facebook is one of the largest social media platforms in the world, and see what you are currently up to, and check up on your most recent posts.

5. It allows your target audience to discover your photography business outside your website. By having a Facebook page you have another web property with a sizeable audience that potential clients can find out about you and your photography, even if they don’t know what the web address of your photography website is (or even if you don’t have one yet).

6. And here is one of the most important reasons – If you don’t have a Facebook page yet, you can guarantee that your competitors already do and they are communicating with your potential clients before you get the chance to. This is the reality in today’s competitive marketplace and a lot of photographers are losing potential business because they haven’t jumped on board Facebook yet and join the conversation.

So if you are hesitating or been thinking about starting a Facebook page for a long time but haven’t done so yet, I recommend that you do so right away for the reasons stated in this article. Do not worry if it doesn’t look perfect the first time. Remember that progress is better than perfection, and you can always close the page down or make edits to it later if it’s not to your satisfaction.

Do you like this article? Want to read more articles like this? Then please SHARE this article on social media. If you have any comments or questions please feel free to put them in the comment section below.

5 Killer Reasons Why Photographers Need Social Media After all of my client’s photography businesses I’ve helped improve, one thing is common across each and everyone one of them, they wanted to have a presence online and they wanted to be on social media.
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Don’t Believe In Heroes With Addie Mannan FashionPhotographyBlog.com sat down with Photo of the Week winner, Addie Mannan after winning her round. The theme of the week was “Fashion Warriors” and no doubt, her winning photo from her series “People Don’t Believe in Heroes Anymore” was the people’s choice that best represented the theme. As the winner of Photo of the Week, I caught up with Addie…
Fashion Clown With Tim Engle FashionPhotographyBlog.com is delighted to have Tim Engle joining us today. The Sacramento based commercial, fashion and beauty photographer started his photography journey during his school years and since has turned his passion into a full-time occupation, getting paid to do what he loves to do. Transitioning between commercial photography, to portraits, fashion to avant-garde, he prioritizes his dedication firstly to…
Pretty In Pink With Nicole Luneburg It was an interesting week when Nicole Lüneburg aka Peppermunk won Photo of The Week. Not only there very mixed and competitive voting, there was a bit of a mix up as well. Remind me not to do Facebook posts at midnight lol. I was very relieved that the confusion didn’t affect the week’s polling at all because the public…

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Virtual Heist: 2 Artists Secretly 3D-Scan an Ancient Artifact

04 Mar

[ By WebUrbanist in Culture & History & Travel. ]

3d art figure scan

An usually high-tech form of pseudo-theft, executed by a pair of artists, has resulted in a high-resolution scan of the famous Queen Nefertiti statue at the heart of a dispute between Germany and Egypt. Avoiding the watchful gaze of four guards at the Neues Museum in Berlin, Nora Al-Badri and Jan Nikolai Nelles painstakingly scanned the 3,500-year-old bust over the course of three hours using a Kinect.

3d nefriti statue scan

Technically, nothing was taken, but the exact contours of the bust are now publicly available, open-sourced by the artists in question.

3d rendered egyptian artifact

Their work, itself a sort of art project, is in part a commentary on the question of art ownership and accessibility. The statue in question has been in Germany for over 100 years, but the Egyptian government has been lobbying to get it back.

3d figure copy

Since the release of their data dump, thousands of people have downloaded a virtual copy of the statue either to examine or 3D-print a copy. While this is not the same as preservation, it does add layers of redundancy for future researchers should something ever happen to the original figure. Many galleries are already making high-resolution images of famous paintings and drawings available on the web, and there is no reason a similar tactic could not be taken with three-dimensional works as well.

[ By WebUrbanist in Culture & History & Travel. ]

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End of an era: Fujifilm to discontinue FP-100C instant film

04 Mar

Fujifilm Japan has announced that it is to stop production of its FP-100C instant film that enthusiasts use in old Polaroid-type cameras. The film has only been available in the 3.25×4.25in size recently, since the 5x4in version was discontinued, but it has been keeping vintage cameras clicking since Polaroid stopped production itself.

The company says that it will halt production in spring this year, but that stocks will continue to be available for some time after that. Falling demand and sales are cited as the reasons for the ending of the product line, which also spells the end of the working life of Type 100 cameras. The company used to produce a black and white version too, but that was stopped in 2014.

The Fujifilm FP-100 films are particularly popular with enthusiasts and professionals because they produce very good quality images, but also because a negative can be recovered, cleared and used for making prints. The film comes in a peel-apart format, and the section most people discard contains a negative that is difficult to see because it has a black coating on the outside – to prevent light getting into the pack. This can be removed with domestic bleach, and when thoroughly washed and dried a very serviceable negative can be had.

There is a Japanese notice on the Fujifilm Global website, and the film’s data sheet is available in PDF format.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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360Photography

Archive for March, 2016

LED Buddha Vaults & Smart Card Entry: High-Tech Cemetery in Tokyo

Lee introduces 15-stop Super Stopper neutral density filter

LEE Filters NEW Super Stopper Available for 100mm, SW150 and Sev5n.

Weekly Photography Challenge – Modes of Transportation

Weekly Photography Challenge – Modes of Transportation

Share your images below:

Samsung Galaxy S7 teardown reveals Sony IMX260 Dual-pixel sensor

Modes of Transportation – 28 Images of Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS60 / TZ80 real-world samples and studio comparison

Polaroid-branded BrightSaber Pro wand packs 298 LEDs

Polaroid Brightsaber Pro Handheld/Mountable LED Lighting Wand Now Available

6 Powerful Reasons Why All Photographers Need Facebook Pages

Top 6 reasons why you need a Facebook Page for your business (even if you don’t have a photography business yet).

Related Posts:

Virtual Heist: 2 Artists Secretly 3D-Scan an Ancient Artifact

End of an era: Fujifilm to discontinue FP-100C instant film

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Archive for March, 2016

LEE Filters NEW Super Stopper Available for 100mm, SW150 and Sev5n.

Weekly Photography Challenge – Modes of Transportation

Share your images below:

Polaroid Brightsaber Pro Handheld/Mountable LED Lighting Wand Now Available

Top 6 reasons why you need a Facebook Page for your business (even if you don’t have a photography business yet).

Related Posts:

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