Want to venture into the great outdoors with your camera to catch stunning shots of wildlife? Turning your pictures from amateur shots of birds into professional quality images of the animals is tricky. Wildlife photography is one of the hardest to master. Your subject isn’t usually a willing participant and more often than not you’ll find them trying to Continue Reading
The post Infographic: What You Need For Wildlife Photography appeared first on Photodoto.
It’s a bird! It’s a camera! It’s actually both and it’s really giving us the creeps. Camera pigeons and other odds and ends we found at CP+ 2017 are all highlighted here for your amusement.
Check out all of our CP+ 2017 coverage
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
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A sip of hot chocolatey goodness from a lens mug always gets us in the photo making mood.
Please enjoy our favorite recipe, with tonso options for customization, passed down from the collective wisdom of our mothers’ mothers, the internet, and our insatiable appetite for all chocolate. All of it.
(…)
Read the rest of Our Amazing Photo-Fuel (aka Hot Cocoa) Recipe (228 words)
© laurel for Photojojo, 2017. |
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The Canon Powershot G9 X II is the latest iteration of Canon’s pocketable 1″ sensor enthusiast compact. Featuring a 20MP BSI-CMOS sensor and 24-80mm equivalent F2-4.9 lens, the G9 X II may give up a bit of speed on the tele-end of its range, but makes up for it with its slender design that’s great for keeping with you all the time. Check out our sample gallery to see how this compact camera does in the real world.
See our Canon Powershot G9X Mark II sample gallery
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Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
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Prior to February 2006, if you wanted a camera with a long lens, you had to get something like this. But on the 14th of that month, Panasonic introduced the world’s first compact travel zoom camera with optical image stabilization: the Lumix DMC-TZ1, which had a 10x 35-350mm equivalent lens. Where even relatively compact long-zooms like the Lumix DMC-FZ5 wouldn’t fit in an average-sized pocket with its dimensions of 108 x 68 x 85mm, the TZ1 came in at 112 x 58 x 40mm. Naturally, it was also lighter: 250 g, compared to the FZ5’s 326 g.
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So how did Panasonic manage to squeeze a 10x, F2.8-4.2 lens into a body 40mm thick? The answer is folded optics. As you can see from the cutaway above, light comes through the front elements, hits a prism and then travels through the rest of the elements before hitting the camera’s 1/2.5″, 5 Megapixel sensor. In the ‘folded’ section of the lens is where you’ll also find Panasonic’s ‘MEGA OIS’ image stabilization system.
Panasonic bragged about the DMC-TZ1’s ‘fiercely fast’ linear autofocus system which, at the time, had the best response times of any camera in its class, at least according to the company.
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So what other features did the TZ1 bring to the table? Its 2.5″, 207k-dot LCD had a ‘high-angle’ function, which really did make the screen visible when holding it above your head (this is before articulating LCDs were a big thing).
The camera had numerous scene modes, including one for shooting out of airplane windows. If I recall, you’d get a warning similar to ‘When using the camera, follow all instructions from the cabin crew’ whenever you switched to that mode. Another scene mode of note was ‘high sensitivity’, which dropped the resolution to 3MP and increased the ISO to 800. As you’d expect, the results weren’t very good. (Overall image quality was good for its day, though noisy.) For the videophile, the DMC-TZ1 captured VGA clips at 30 fps.
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Panasonic really broke new ground with the Lumix TZ1, and continues to crank out compact travel zooms to this day (with longer lenses and more pixels, naturally). They may not be big sellers anymore, but there’s something to be said for a camera that covers all the bases for a family vacation.
Read our review of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ1
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
[ By SA Rogers in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]
Taking a concept most commonly applied to broken pottery, artist Rachel Sussman applies golden pigment to the cracks in paved urban surfaces in a series called ‘Sidewalk Kintsukuroi.’ In Japan, this tradition – also known as kintsugi – treats breakage and repair as a valuable part of an object’s history instead of something to disguise. The cracks are highlighted and in effect, celebrated, making the object more visually interesting.
It’s interesting to see this idea of embracing flaws extended to public surfaces. Instead of simply allowing them to be paved over, Sussman calls attention to them and makes them into works of art. In this sense, these cracks become part of the constant evolution of a city, remaining visible even after the functionality of these roads or sidewalks has been restored.
The resulting patterns are often quite stunning, their irregularities taking on abstract compositions of light and dark, matte and luminescent. In some cases, they almost look like marble.
Susan created the in-ground installations using tree sap-based resin and a combination of bronze and 23.5 carat gold dust. To reproduce the effect in a gallery environment, the artist hand-painted enamel and metallic dust onto photographs of the physical works. They’re currently on display as part of the Alchemy: Transformations in Gold show at the Des Moines Art Center.
[ By SA Rogers in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]
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Online e-learning platform Alison has launched a new course aimed at those who want to build their own camera drones. Over four modules the course claims to teach students about the components that go into a drone and their functions, as well as how to assemble, check and fly your own quadcopter.
The course uses video tutorials that already exist on Drones Garage but adds step-by-step summaries and introductions to guide students through the information. Students must take an assessment at the end of the course to ensure knowledge has been retained and a score of 80% has to be achieved to pass. Those who pass can buy a certificate or download a free PDF that shows a record of what courses have been taken and passed.
The course is free to take after sign-up as most of the content already exists and pre-roll adverts fund the site. For more information see the Alison e-learning website.
Press release
Alison, one of the world’s largest free e-learning platforms, has announced the launch of a new course teaching people how to build their own drones. Aimed at beginners, the course is taught by experts through a series of videos.
Mike Feerick, CEO of Alison, said: “On a personal level, I find the ever-expanding field of drone technology absolutely fascinating. The opportunity for UAVs to transform industry is extraordinary; from providing new sources to journalists and delivering orders, to criminal surveillance and assisting the emergency services with search and rescue operations.”
The course teaches students how to build a Rush 4 drone for the first time. The curriculum involves learning about the process of preparing the motors, electronic speed controllers and power distribution board. Learners are also guided on how the first-person view is attached in order to film while flying the drone.
Finally, students learn about the steps that need to be taken before flying a drone, and introduced to the software tools that can prepare the drone for flying.
Mike added: “I’m excited by the idea of giving people the ability to put something this powerful together with their own hands, but also by the beauty it can capture – from photographing the coastline at angles that were previously impossible, to taking videos of kids’ birthday parties. There is a seemingly endless range of uses for these devices.”
The course is available here.
About Alison
Alison is one of the world’s largest free online learning platforms, providing free education to more than 10 million registered learners worldwide. Alison is a for-profit social enterprise with a goal to drive the cost of education and skills training to zero.
Headquartered in Galway, Ireland, Alison was founded by CEO Mike Feerick, social entrepreneur, Ashoka fellow (2010) and Harvard MBA. Alison has over one million registered learners in the United States, United Kingdom, and India with 180,000 registered learners in Ireland.
Awards
* UNESCO Award for Innovation in ICT for Education (2011)
* World Innovation Summit for Education Award (2013)
* Finalist ‘Social Entrepreneur of the Year’ World Economic Forum/Schwab Awards (2016)
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
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Samsung has announced its latest application processor for mobile devices, the Exynos 9 Series 8895. The new chip is an octa-core processor and Samsung’s first to use the 10-nanometer FinFET process, allowing for up to 27% higher performance while reducing power consumption by 40%, compared to 14nm technology.
It also offers impressive imaging, video and machine vision features. The Exynos 8895 supports recording and playback of 4K video content at 120 frames per second with the latest video codecs, including HEVC(H.265), H.264 and VP9. The integrated Image Signal Processor (ISP) also supports 28MP still image resolution on rear and front cameras, Smart Wide Dynamic Range and PDAF. A dual-ISP design, one for high quality and one for low power consumption, allows for a variety of dual-camera setups while keeping power consumption at bay.
In addition the chip features a VPU (Vision Processing Unit) which is designed for machine vision technology. The unit is capable of recognizing an item and its movements by analyzing visual information and enables features such as corner detection which is used for motion detection, image registration, video tracking and object recognition. The Exynos 9 Series 8895 is in mass production now and we should expect to see it implemented in high-end Samsung mobile devices any time soon.
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Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
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Elinchrom has introduced its new ELB 1200 portable lighting system for photographers, a model that builds upon the company’s existing ELB 400 system introduced in 2015. The new system features three new flash heads, the Action, Hi-Sync, and Pro, as well as a TSA-approved ‘Air’ lithium-ion battery capable of powering 215 full-power flashes and 80 minutes of continuous LED use.
In addition to the TSA-approved ‘Air’ version of the battery, Elinchrom also has an ‘HD’ version with a higher capacity that can power 400 full-power flashes and 120 minutes of continuous light. The batteries are also capable of powering accessories via a 5v USB outlet, and they can both be switched into a ‘shipping mode’ for long distance travel.
The three aforementioned flash heads feature a daylight-balanced and dimmable LED CRI 92 lamp, which Elinchrom says is equivalent to a 250w Halogen lamp. The Hi-Sync flash head supports shutter speeds as fast as 1/8000s. The company expects the ELB 1200 to be available in the ‘middle of 2017,’ with pricing information being provided at a later date.
Check out Elinchrom’s product video below to see the kit in action.
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
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UCLA neuroscientist Matt Lieberman posted the ‘no red pixels’ image on the left. It’s developed from an original by Experimental Psychologist Akiyoshi Kitaoka (right) that, despite appearances, does have some very slightly red-tinged pixels in it. |
Remember internet kerfuffle that was ‘the dress’ ? Well, there’s another optical illusion that’s puzzling the internet right now. Behold: the red strawberries that aren’t really red. Or more specifically, the image of the strawberries contains no ‘red pixels.’
This picture has NO red pixels. Great demo of color constancy (ht Akiyoshi Kitaoka) pic.twitter.com/pZHvbB6QHE
— Matt Lieberman (@social_brains) February 27, 2017
The important distinction to make here is that there is red information in the image but, despite what your eyes might be telling you, red is not the highest value for any individual pixel in the image. Hence, no ‘red pixel’ in the image.
@social_brains I isolated a few of the colors that appear most “red” in the strawberries and put them on the white background to the right. pic.twitter.com/GJJ9PJqNxt
— Carson Mell (@carsonmell) February 28, 2017
As was the case with ‘the dress,’ it all relates to a concept called color constancy, which relates to the human brain’s ability to perceive objects as the same color under different lighting. Which should immediately bring to mind a familiar photographic concept: white balance. Although there’s a significant cyan cast to the whole image, your brain is able to correct for it without you having to consciously identify a neutral part of the image (as you’d need to in processing software).
This got us thinking: without any understanding of what strawberries look like, how well would a camera’s auto white balance cope with the significant color cast in this image?
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| Here’s what a Nikon D7200’s auto white balance algorithms made of the image (defocused slightly, to avoid moiré from the monitor’s pixels) |
The answer? Pretty well, actually. We don’t know whether it’s been able to detect the overall cyan cast or has assumed that the brightest point in the image is probably neutral, but it’s done a good job.
We have Experimental Psychologist Akiyoshi Kitaoka to thank for turning this puzzle loose on the world, and neuroscientist Matt Lieberman for turning it viral. Curiously, the first image contains a few red-dominated pixels (which Lieberman’s edited version doesn’t), yet appears more grey than Lieberman’s version.
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
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