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We’ve added Panasonic’s new Lumix DC-S1 / DC-S1R to three of our buying guides. Both are listed in our ‘Best Cameras over $ 2000’ guide, with the S1 being considered for video and the S1R for landscapes. While we’ll have more detail when our reviews are published, these guides provide quick overviews of both models.
Best Cameras over $ 2000
Best Cameras for Video
Best Cameras for Landscapes
View all buying guides
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
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DJI has confirmed its drones are prepared for the GPS 2019 week rollover scheduled to take place on April 6. The event may disrupt some GPS receivers, but most manufacturers have confirmed that their systems have been tested ahead of time and are prepared for the rollover.
The GPS 2019 week rollover is an event that will take place due to how the Global Positioning System (GPS) works. Receivers are provided with time information from the GPS system, which uses a 10-bit week counter to count weeks from 0 to 1023. Upon reaching the end of that range, the system reverts back to 0 and starts over.
GPS receivers that aren’t prepared for the rollover may incorrectly report a date of 19.6 years in the past (1024 weeks), resulting in some GPS devices displaying a date of August 22, 1999, starting after the April 6 rollover. The first GPS rollover took place on August 21, 1999.
To avoid this complication, manufacturers must push out software updates to prepare their devices for the change. In a brief statement published on March 20, DJI said that all of its ‘platforms have been thoroughly tested’ and will not be impacted by the GPS rollover. DJI drone owners can continue to use the devices as normal.
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
YouTube Photoshop tutor Colin Smith has shared a video in which he demonstrates ten tips for making the application run more smoothly.
His tips on the Photoshop Cafe YouTube channel include ways to streamline the program’s interface as well as methods to assign more memory to help with intensive tasks. One of the best tips shows how to avoid processes that use more memory than is necessary when we are copying one image on to another.
The tutorial is aimed at new users, but out of the ten tips there is bound to be one or two that even more advanced users aren’t aware of or hadn’t thought of. Smith claims his final tip will solve 99% of problems most users have with the software. Below is a rundown of the ten tips and their respective timestamps in the video:
0:48 – Remove the welcome screen
1:30 – Shrink the New Document window
2:00 – Increase recent documents up to 100
2:48 – Increase how much RAM Photoshop uses
3:20 – Fix varies display issues
3:50 – Go back to legacy compositing
4:20 – Tweak your scratch disk settings
5:42 – Don’t copy and paste
6:43 – Free up resources
7:44 – The ‘fix all’ solution (and bonus tip)
For more Photoshop tutorials, head over and subscribe to the Photoshop Cafe YouTube channel.
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
The post 8 Pieces of Architecture Photography Equipment You Need appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Simon Bond.
A great subject for photography is Architecture. Whether you’re a commercial photographer, or you enjoy photographing interesting buildings for fun, this is a great area of photography to explore. In this article, you’ll learn about some of the essential equipment you’ll need. Through using this equipment, you’ll be able to get great results each time you photograph. So read on and find out what architecture photography equipment should be in your camera bag.
A tripod combined with a decent wide-angle lens. This is a great architecture photography equipment combination.
The tripod is a great piece of gear to have, and that’s certainly true for architecture photography. If you’re photographing indoors, or as it’s getting dark, it’s essential you have this. Even when the light is good, using a tripod will improve your results. The following are the main reason you’ll want to bring a tripod with you.
An alternative piece of architecture photography equipment is the bracket and clamp. This can be used as an alternative to the tripod, and you can use it to secure the camera to a structure such as a metal railing. There are locations where a tripod won’t be allowed, and in some cases having a bracket and clamp instead, will allow you to secure the tripod for your needs.
The next most widely used piece of architecture photography equipment is the wide-angle lens. This will almost certainly be needed for interior work and is often needed for exterior work as well. Those photos taken in a room, where you need to capture the entire room, will need a wide-angle lens of at least 17mm on a full-frame camera. A lot of architecture is often large in scale, so a wide-angle lens is needed to capture the full size of the architecture you’re photographing. The exception comes when you are some distance from the subject you’re photographing, in this case, a longer focal length would then be required.
The interior of the grand mosque in Abu Dhabi. This requires a wide-angle lens to capture how impressive it is.
Here is a selection of some of the best wide-angle lenses you can use. Depending on the system you have, you may go for a different lens from this list.
Getting a bubble level is a good idea to ensure your camera is completely lined up. You’ll find that with a wide-angle lens the distortions they produce can make it difficult to see if the camera is truly level. Using a bubble level, which can easily attach to the hot shoe, you’ll have a quick and easy visual reference. In some cases, you may have a bubble level built into your tripod head. This is a great alternative to a separate bubble level.
The use of strobes is not just for portraits, you can use them in architecture photography as well.
Strobes are excellent at close quarters, but perhaps not for outdoor use with a larger structure.
You’ll get the best use out of these when you’re doing interior photography.
They’ll come in handy when you have a bright window, and a dark room. You can now use the strobes to light up the room, by bouncing light off the ceilings or walls. This will balance the light across the photo, and can either supplement or replace the need to bracket your photos.
Take care when bouncing the light off a surface that isn’t white, as the light from the flash could potentially color cast the room, in the color the strobe has bounced off.
You’ll be photographing your architecture at a wide angle, and it’s likely you’ll be aiming up from street level. This causes problems for architecture photography due to lens barrel distortion. The result is you’ll have buildings that bow inwards towards the center of your image. This is a problem that can be solved using a tilt-shift lens. It’s also possible to correct this distortion in post-processing, so the tilt-shift lens is not strictly needed. It’s best to get your photo as correct as possible in camera though, so using a tilt-shift lens is best.
This photo has not been adjusted for barrel distortion since the minarets lead the eye into the center of the image. It is an example of where a tilt-shift lens could be applied, as this would fix this distortion.
You’ll want to get the sharpest results possible for architecture photography. You will take the majority of your photos from a tripod to achieve increased sharpness.
However, when you press the shutter, you’ll move the camera a little. To avoid this, you’ll need a cable release cord or a remote control shutter release. Using these tools ensures your camera will be completely steady when you expose.
Those using DSLR cameras should remember to lock up their mirrors ahead of exposure. If you were using live view to compose and focus your photo, then the mirror will already be locked up.
A cable release is a great piece of architecture photography equipment to have.
Post-processing is an important part of architecture photography. Post-processing software might not be physical gear, but it’s easily as important. To get successful architecture photos you’ll need to learn how to sharpen your image in the right area, and how to apply noise reduction software. One of the most useful post-processing techniques you can learn is digital blending, this is essentially manual HDR photography. A correctly blended image will have a lot more impact with certain areas of the photo made brighter and distracting highlights such as window light reduced in brightness. So which software is worth having?
Learn to use Photoshop effectively. Your photographs will improve.
A good set of filters are great pieces of architecture photography equipment. It could be argued the need for filters is diminished due to the advance of post-processing. Those that are best at post-processing will tell you to use filters though because it makes life a lot easier once you get the photos onto your computer. The two main filters worth having in your bag are a circular polarizing filter, and a graduated neutral density filter.
There are many types of filters, these can all help your photography.
There is a wealth of good camera equipment available for you to use. Which pieces of architecture photography equipment do you find best? Do you have experience of using some of the items in this list? What other items are in your photography bag, and why would you recommend them?
At digital photography school we’d love to see your images of architecture photography, so please share them in the comments section.
The post 8 Pieces of Architecture Photography Equipment You Need appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Simon Bond.
Canadian photographers Taylor Jackson and Lindsay Coulter teamed up to create ‘Gear Lust,’ a music video centered around Gear Acquisition Syndrome — that is, a photographer’s compulsion to acquire more gear than can reasonably be used.
The amusing song kicks off with, ‘Some people say that I have a problem acquiring gear, some say that I have Gear Aquisition Syndrome, but I like to call it Gear Lust.’
In addition to YouTube, the song is available to stream from Spotify and Apple Music.
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
The post Seven Steps for Post-Processing a Pure White Background appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Kevin Landwer-Johan.
Photographs with clean, white backgrounds are extremely popular with
The original background with a white border around it to clearly illustrate the contrast between pure white and off white
Producing pure white backgrounds is imperative. A background that’s not quite white looks terrible on a white page.
In this article, I will walk you through one method of post-processing I use to isolate subjects and give them a white background.
Some photos are far more difficult to work with than others when you want a white background.
Any subject that’s fuzzy or hairy will be problematic. As will any blurred subject. Whether it’s focus or motion blur, you will have difficulty in obtaining a good clean transition with the background.
Smooth, clean edges are the easiest to work with. So if you want to sell wigs on Amazon, you are in for a tough time. It’s better to make sure you have a pure white background that requires no post processing with such subjects.
Choose your subject and photograph it against a clean, contrasting background. If the background is too busy, it will make isolating on white more difficult.
Keep your subject a good distance from the background. Use an aperture setting that keeps all your subject in focus, but the background is out of focus.
If your subject happens to be moving, make sure to choose a fast enough shutter speed to stop the motion. Making sure your subject is sharp will make post-processing much more straightforward.
Open your file in Photoshop. Make sure it’s the highest resolution jpeg file it can be. Working with low-resolution images is more challenging, but larger ones will slow your computer down.
You need to find a balance here. If you start working through these post-processing steps and find your computer is not handling it, downsize your photo and start again.
Choose the Select and Mask tool. You’ll find this in the Select Menu at the top of your window. Change the View Mode to an option that allows you to see your changes easily. I prefer the Overlay Mode.
Choose the Select and Mask option from the drop-down menu.
With the Quick Selection tool, draw around the inside of your subject. Do this slowly, so Photoshop has time to render your action.
Pay careful attention to the areas you are selecting. You do not want to have any part of the background selected. If parts of the background are selected, paint over them with the Refine Edge brush.
Zoom in so you can see what you’re working on more clearly.
When you’re all done and are satisfied your subject is masked, it’s time to output again to the main window in Photoshop.
Select New Layer with Layer Mask from the Output options and click OK.
Add a white background by clicking on the New Fill or Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers Panel. Choose Solid Color and set it to pure white.
Check around the edges of your subject. Can you see any of the old background?
If you can, select the mask on your main layer in the Layers Panel. Choose the Brush tool and make the color Black.
Make sure the mask is selected.
Paint carefully over the areas where you can still see the old background. You may need to lower the opacity of the brush and adjust the feathering to achieve the best results.
If you have not done this before it can be challenging. However, don’t worry, if you erase parts of your subject, switch the brush color to white and paint back over them. They will re-appear.
There are various other methods and tools for erasing unwanted backgrounds. This is the best way I have found for images which are not too complicated.
Crop out any extra white space and save your new photo with your subject isolated on white.
This is one way to achieve a white background. As with most post-processing procedures, there is more than one sequence of steps which will provide an acceptable result.
Practice and experiment to find the workflow which works best for you.
Are you experienced in creating clean white backgrounds using other methods? Do you have any tips to share? Please share them in the comments section below.
The post Seven Steps for Post-Processing a Pure White Background appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Kevin Landwer-Johan.
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Delaware craft brewery Dogfish Head has teamed up with Kodak to create SuperEIGHT, an analog-inspired Super Gose beer designed specifically to develop film.
Sam Calagione, founder and CEO of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, was recording an episode of The Kodakery, a podcast created by Kodak, when he learned that with the right levels of acidity and vitamin C, it would be possible to create a beer capable of developing film. Coincidentally enough, the research and development team at Dogfish was already working on a beer with properties that would align perfectly with those needed for developing film, and so SuperEIGHT was born.
After further developing the ‘super-refreshing, sessionable Super Gose,’ the Dogfish Head team sent a few batches over to Kodak for testing and sure enough, it worked. The resulting footage, seen in sample footage above, isn’t nearly as impressive as dedicated developers, but for a beer we’d say it’s pretty darn impressive. Kodak and Dogfish Head even shared a recipe for the development, which can be downloaded and printed off.
As for the beer itself, SuperEIGHT has an alcohol content of 5.3% and ‘is made with eight heroic ingredients including prickly pear, mango, boysenberry, blackberry, raspberry, elderberry, kiwi juices and a touch of quinoa, along with an ample addition of Hawaiian sea salt.’
Dogfish Head Craft Brewery will start shipping six packs of 355ml (12 fl oz) cans in April 2019.
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
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The Diana Instant Square camera from Lomography mashes the charm of a Diana F+ toy film camera with the novelty of the Instax Square format. Lomography has long offered an instant back for the F+, but this takes the concept a step further. The Diana Instant Square is the only instant camera with truly interchangeable lenses and like most Lomography products, offers unpredictable and often lo-fi results.
See our complete instant camera guide
The most obvious competitor to the Diana Instant Square is the Fujifilm SQ6 – it also uses Instax Square format at a similar price tag. But unlike the Diana – which is manual focus with manual aperture control – the Fujifilm is more automatic in its operation.
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The camera operates on four AAA batteries that you load into the bottom, and a pack of Instax Square film pops into the rear of the camera. The camera has three settings: Off, On and MX (multiple exposure). When you turn it on the film counter on the back glows green to show you how many shots you have left. It ships with an optional viewfinder that slides onto the top.
Before you shoot you will probably want to triple check that you aren’t in pinhole mode, which my camera kept seeming to click into
Shooting with the camera is very straightforward. The lever to select your aperture is found on the bottom of the lens. Aperture settings are cloudy (F11), partly sunny (F19), sunny (F32) and pinhole (F150).
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| Left of the lens is the shutter release, on top is a shutter speed toggle (1/100 sec or bulb) and below the lens is a lever to adjust the aperture setting. Focus is set on the front of the lens. |
Focus settings are found on the front of the lens and can be set to one person (1-2m), a small group of people (2-4m) or many people with mountains (4m – infinity). On the top of the lens you will find a lever to switch shutter speeds – there are two options: N (1/100 sec) and B (Bulb Mode, Unlimited). The camera’s shutter release is found on the right side of the lens. Before you shoot you will probably want to triple check that you aren’t in pinhole mode, which my camera kept seeming to click into.
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| The body is large and chunky. |
The Diana Instant Square is more of a toy than an actual photographic tool, and although operating it is quite simple, getting it to produce images that you actually want to share with the world takes some finesse. The results were certainly unpredictable.
The Diana Instant Square seemed to work best when shooting outdoors, without a flash on very bright days. Although you have the option to attach any type of flash, the dedicated Diana F+ flash made the camera feel the most balanced. The results when shooting with the flash were also unpredictable. Sometimes photos turned out totally overblown, and other times they shot out totally black even when the settings on the camera were altered slightly. The Diana Instant Square essentially seems to do what it wants.
Getting the Diana Instant Square to produce images that you actually want to share with the world takes some finessing
A few times the back door that keeps the film in place popped open on me, so I decided to secure it with a large piece of gaff tape. Unfortunately, when this happened I ended up losing a few of the Instax sheets inside and it reset my film counter. The metal levers that control shutter speed and aperture are covered with a small piece of plastic; the one on the aperture lever fell off almost immediately, exposing the metal edge. It isn’t particularly sharp, but over time I did notice that the lever began to bend.
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| A multi-exposure example from the Diana Instant Square. |
The image quality of the Diana Instant Square was expectedly unpredictable. Sometimes I ended up with a double exposure that I didn’t expect, some images had major vignetting, and others had interesting focal fall off that gave them a dreamy quality.
The Diana Instant Square seemed to work best when shooting outdoors, without a flash on very bright days
Sometimes frames that appeared totally black could be rescued once they were scanned and photoshopped. Other frames came back totally overblown or completely dark. When it worked, it worked well, but getting it to work was a bit of a guessing game.
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Ultimately we had a lot of fun with the Diana Instant Square when the shots came out, but it hurt a bit every time one didn’t.
What we like:
What we don’t:
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
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The Canon EOS RP is among the smallest and lightest full-frame cameras on the market, and is the least expensive full-frame camera at launch, ever. And though its specifications aren’t going to set the world on fire, the RP is a likable little camera with solid JPEG image quality that will be a fine photographic companion for casual users and those already within the Canon ecosystem looking for a compact second body.
Accounting for inflation, the EOS RP (body-only) is priced within $ 75 of the original 6MP Canon Digital Rebel / EOS 300D that was released back in 2003 – a camera that really helped bring large-sensor digital photography to the masses. And like the Digital Rebel, the EOS RP promises to offer a bit of a stripped-down shooting experience in exchange for its large full-frame image sensor at a reasonable cost. It’s worth noting, however, that the earlier Rebel debuted with a range of relatively low-cost lenses designed for it – not so much the case today.
While other manufacturers are moving ever further up-market with more expensive and capable devices, the EOS RP stands alone in providing more novice or budget-constrained users with access to the shallower depth-of-field that full frame cameras offer over those with APS-C or smaller sensors. There are caveats, though, in that the RP is a poor choice for those looking to shoot video, and the native lens selection is lacking at this time.
The EOS RP is available now at a price of $ 1299 body-only, $ 1999 with the EF adapter and a 24-105mm F3.5-5.6 lens, and $ 2399 with the native RF 24-105mm F4L lens.
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The EOS RP has a lot of ingredients we’ve seen in other Canon cameras before, but certainly not at this price point. Read more |
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The EOS RP’s diminutive size and light weight don’t get in the way of some well thought-out controls. Read more |
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Take a look at how the RP stacks up in our standard studio test scene as well as how its images look out and about in Seattle and New Orleans. Read more |
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Want the full list of specifications for the EOS RP? We have you covered. Read more |
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
NVIDIA Research has demonstrated GauGAN, a deep learning model that converts simple doodles into photorealistic images. The tool crafts images nearly instantaneously, and can intelligently adjust elements within images, such as adding reflections to a body of water when trees or mountains are placed near it.
The new tool is made possible using generative adversarial networks called GANs. With GauGAN, users select image elements like ‘snow’ and ‘sky,’ then draw lines to segment an image into different elements. The AI automatically generates the appropriate image for that element, such as a cloudy sky, grass, and trees.
As NVIDIA reveals in its demonstration video, GauGAN maintains a realistic image by dynamically adjusting parts of the render to match new elements. For example, transforming a grassy field to a snow-covered landscape will result in an automatic sky change, ensuring the two elements are compatible and realistic.
GauGAN was trained using millions of images of real environments. In addition to generating photorealistic landscapes, the tool allows users to apply style filters, including ones that give the appearance of sunset or a particular painting style. According to NVIDIA, the technology could be used to generate images of other environments, including buildings and people.
Talking about GauGAN is NVIDIA VP of applied deep learning research Bryan Catanzaro, who explained:
This technology is not just stitching together pieces of other images, or cutting and pasting textures. It’s actually synthesizing new images, very similar to how an artist would draw something.
NVIDIA envisions a tool based on GauGAN could one day be used by architects and other professionals who need to quickly fill a scene or visualize an environment. Similar technology may one day be offered as a tool in image editing applications, enabling users to add or adjust elements in photos.
The company offers online demos of other AI-based tools on its AI Playground.
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
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