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New York City map makes it easy to find historical images of NYC from 1939 to 1941

18 Aug

A newly-launched online mapping system called 1940s NYC makes it simple for anyone to find historical images of the city captured from 1939 to 1941 by the New York City Tax Department in collaboration with the Works Progress Administration. The photography initiative involved capturing images of every home, shop and other buildings in all five boroughs, the result being an incredibly detailed time capsule of the city as it existed decades ago.

These historical photographs were already available to the public, but getting them — particularly ones of specific buildings — was time-consuming. Things got a bit more simple in 2018 when the New York City Municipal Archives finished digitizing the full collection, a process that also involved tagging each image so that it could be more easily found online using the right details.

Despite that improvement, the process of browsing these images was still limited. Users must go to the NYC.gov website’s city map tool and enter the exact address for the building of the photo they want. This makes it difficult to casually browse these historical images, something the new 1940s NYC mapping tool solves.

The new and far more capable mapping tool comes from NYC-based software engineer Julian Boilen, who notes on the website that an automated process was used to place the images on the map and, therefore, there is the potential for some ‘imperfections.’

The mapping tool is exceptionally simple to use. Every black dot on the map represents a photo of that location; users can zoom in on individual streets and neighborhoods, which appear to be overlaid with historic city zoning maps. Users can also enter an address to go right to a particular building. This is quite a bit more robust than the mapping tool offered by the city itself.

Users located in New York City also have the option of clicking a location icon that will pull up their current location on the map, making it easy to see what their neighborhood looked like decades ago. As well, the map provides an ‘Outtakes’ section that is a large gallery of browseable photos. Many of these images feature black dots and NYC.gov watermarks.

In addition to serving as a portal to the 1930s – 1940s NYC images, the mapping tool also includes a link to a similar map that features the same variety of imagery, but one captured in the 1980s.

This dataset features 800,000 photos of buildings, according to the tool, as well as more than 100,000 ‘street segments.’ This mapping tool includes a ‘Stories’ feature that provides a series of images alongside the stories behind them.

These stories include things like pointers on spying interesting elements in the photos, details about whether certain buildings still stand and if they were remodeled, notable events that took place at these locations and similar information.

The website is not affiliated with the New York City Department of Records, which is the agency that owns the historical photos. Anyone can order the high-resolution digitized copies or prints of images they like from the city’s Municipal Archives, otherwise, the public is limited to the watermarked and low-resolution versions made accessible by the NYC Department of Records and Information Services.

Including these images, the NYC Municipal Archives Digital Collections website offers the public access to more than 1.6 million digital items, including photos and videos.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Slideshow: The ‘Best Images Entered So Far’ for the 2020 Comedy Pet Photo Awards

17 Aug

Mars Petcare Comedy Pet Photo Awards

The Mars Petcare Comedy Pet Photo Awards is still taking submissions through August 31, 2020 for its 2020 competition, but the organizers have already released a few of their favorite images submitted thus far, showcasing humorous photos of pets from around the world.

‘From the founders of the world-famous Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards, Paul Joynson-Hicks and Tom Sullam have created a fun photography competition calling on all pet and animal lovers to submit hilarious images of their funny furry friends for a chance of winning £3,000 and being named the 2020 Mars Petcare Comedy Pet Photographer of the Year,’ reads the press release for the ‘Best Images Entered So Far’ gallery.

In addition to laughter, the competition also aims to raise awareness around homeless pets in the United Kingdom, with 10% of the sponsorship fees and 10% of all entry fees going to the Blue Cross, a ‘UK Pet charity to help with its work rehoming pets and providing veterinary treatment and care.’

If you’re interested in submitting your own images to the competition, you can do so through August 31. Of the submitted images, 40 finalists will be announced on September 28 and the winning image will be announced on November 19th. For £5 you can enter five photos or videos; for £10 you can enter 15 photos or videos. There are multiple categories you can submit your photos into, including Dogs, Cats, The Mighty Horse and more.

You can find out more by visiting the Comedy Pet Photo competition website.

Maria Indurain — Intellectual Dog

Photographer: Maria Indurain

Title: Intellectual Dog

Animal Name: Newton

Animal Type: Dog

Location of shot: Barcelona, Spain

Magdaléna Straková — Snow Monster

Photographer: Magdaléna Straková

Title: Snow Monster

Animal Name: Not Available

Animal Type: Dog

Location of shot: Czech Republic

Magdaléna Straková — Gossip Girls

Photographer: Magdaléna Straková

Title: Gossip Girls

Animal Name: Not Available

Animal Type: Dog

Location of shot: Czech Republic

Sally Billam — Ding Dong’ Can you spare a few mins of your time?

Photographer: Sally Billam

Title: Ding Dong’ Can you spare a few mins of your time?

Animal Name: Freddie

Animal Type: Dog

Location of shot: East Yorkshire, UK

Isabelle Merriman — Guinea Pigs Doing Tricks

Photographer: Isabelle Merriman

Title: Guinea Pigs Doing Tricks

Animal Name: Stigg & Minky

Animal Type: Guinea Pigs

Location of shot: Guildford, UK

Iain McConnell — Overdramatic Cat

Photographer: Iain McConnell

Title: Overdramatic Cat

Animal Name: Edmund

Animal Type: Cat

Location of shot: Oswestry, UK

Nicole Rayner — Smiley!

Photographer: Nicole Rayner

Title: Smiley!

Animal Name: Mimi

Animal Type: Dog

Location of shot: Manchester, UK

Alice Van Kempen — The Shepherd’s family road trip

Photographer: Alice Van Kempen

Title: The Shepherd’s family road trip

Animal Name: Not available

Animal Type: Dog

Location of shot: Netherlands

Sarah Bub — Cat or Snail?

Photographer: Sarah Bub

Title: Cat or Snail?

Animal Name: Ron

Animal Type: Cat

Location of shot: Kreuztal, Germany

Karen Hoglund — Hunting Dog Dropout

Photographer: Karen Hoglund

Title: Hunting Dog Dropout

Animal Name: Murphy (The Turkey is a prop)

Animal Type: Dog

Location of shot: Colorado Mountains, USA

Teun Veldman — Red Slippers? I don’t know anything about red slippers

Photographer: Teun Veldman

Title: Red Slippers? I don’t know anything about red slippers

Animal Name: Not Available

Animal Type: Kitten

Location of shot: Netherlands

Mehmet Aslan — The Social Distance Meal Order

Photographer: Mehmet Aslan

Title: The Social Distance Meal Order

Animal Name: Not Available

Animal Type: Cats

Location of shot: Turkey

Mehmet Aslan — Smile

Photographer: Mehmet Aslan

Title: Smiley!

Animal Name: Not Available

Animal Type: Dog and Horse

Location of shot: Turkey

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Google researchers use AI to generate 3D models from random Internet images

13 Aug

Researchers with Google Research and the Google Brain deep learning AI team have published a new study detailing Neural Radiance Fields for Unconstrained Photo Collections (NeRF). The system works by taking ‘in the wild’ unconstrained images of a particular location — tourist images of a popular attraction, for example — and using an algorithm to turn them into a dynamic, complex, high-quality 3D model.

The researchers detail their project in a new paper, explaining that their work involves adding ‘extensions’ to neural radiance fields (NeRF) that enable the AI to accurately reconstruct complex structures from unstructured images, meaning ones taken from random angles with different lighting and backgrounds.

This contrasts to NeRF without the extensions, which is only able to accurately model structures from images that were taken in controlled settings. The obvious benefit to this is that 3D models can be created using the huge number of Internet photos that already exist of these structures, transforming those collections into useful datasets.

Different views of the same model constructed from unstructured images.

The Google researchers call their more sophisticated AI ‘NeRF-W,’ one used to create ‘photorealistic, spatially consistent scene representations’ of famous landmarks from images that contain various ‘confounding factors.’ This represents a huge improvement to the AI, making it far more useful compared to a version that requires carefully controlled image collections to work.

Talking about the underlying technology, the study explains how NeRF works, stating:

‘The Neural Radiance Fields (NeRF) approach implicitly models the radiance field and density of a scene within the weights of a neural network. Direct volume rendering is then used to synthesize new views, demonstrating a heretofore unprecedented level of fidelity on a range of challenging scenes.’

There’s one big problem, though, which is that NeRF systems only work well if the scene is captured in controlled settings, as mentioned. Without a set of structured images, the AI’s ability to generate models ‘degrades significantly,’ limiting its usefulness compared to other modeling approaches.

The researchers explain how they build upon this AI and advance it with new capabilities, saying in their study:

The central limitation of NeRF that we address in this work is its assumption that the world is geometrically, materially, and photometrically static — that the density and radiance of the world is constant. NeRF therefore requires that any two photographs taken at the same position and orientation must have identical pixel intensities. This assumption is severely violated in many real-world datasets, such as large-scale internet photo collections of well-known tourist landmarks…

To handle these complex scenarios, we present NeRF-W, an extension of NeRF that relaxes the latter’s strict consistency assumptions.

The process involves multiple steps, including first having NeRF-W model the per-image appearance of different elements in the photos, such as the weather, lighting, exposure level and other variables. The AI ultimately learns ‘a shared appearance representation for the entire photo collection,’ paving the way for the second step.

In the second part, NeRF-W models the overall subject of the images…

‘…as the union of shared and image-dependent elements, thereby enabling the unsupervised decomposition of scene content into static and transient components. This decomposition enables the high-fidelity synthesis of novel views of landmarks without the artifacts otherwise induced by dynamic visual content present in the input imagery.

Our approach models transient elements as a secondary volumetric radiance field combined with a data-dependent uncertainty field, with the latter capturing variable observation noise and further reducing the effect of transient objects on the static scene representation.’

Upon testing their creation, the researchers found that NeRF-W was able to produce high-fidelity models of subjects with multiple detailed viewpoints using ‘in-the-wild’ unstructured images. Despite using more complicated images with many variables, the NeRF-W models surpassed the quality of models generated by the previous top-tier NeRF systems ‘by a large margin across all considered metrics,’ according to researchers.

The potential uses for this technology are numerous, including the ability to generate 3D models of popular destinations for VR and AR applications using existing tourist images. This eliminates the need to create carefully-controlled settings for capturing the images, which can be difficult at popular destinations where people and vehicles are often present.

A PDF containing the full study can be found here; some models can be found on the project’s GitHub, as well.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Nikon D6: initial sample images

05 Aug

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With sporting events scarce, finding subjects that will challenge an action-oriented camera in the time of COVID-19 has been, shall we say, a bit of a challenge. Nevertheless, we’ve been getting to know Nikon’s newest professional flagship DSLR in settings conducive to distancing. Take a look at a selection of images taken early in our testing – including a number from the AF-S Nikkor 120-300mm F2.8, which also debuted this year.

Take a look at samples from the Nikon D6

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Slideshow: The winning images from the 2020 Potato Photographer of the Year contest

31 Jul

2020 Potato Photographer of the Year

Editor’s note: Image #10 (11th in the gallery) doesn’t strictly feature nudity, but may be considered NSFW, so proceed with caution accordingly.

Yes, you read the headline right. The Potato Photographer of the Year is a real photo contest and this year’s winners have been announced.

If you’re wondering where the idea for a potato photo contest came to be, look no further than Kevin Abosch’s Potato #345 (2010), a now-famous photo of a sole starchy tuber that sold for a wallet-mashing one million dollars in 2016, making it the 15th most expensive photo sold at the time.

The Potato Photographer of the Year contest was founded by the contest platform Photocrowd, who partners with The Trussell Trust to ensure all proceeds to ending hunger and poverty in the United Kingdom. Proceeds are made with each photo entry, which costs £5 (GBP) each (up to 8 images).

While the competition ‘didn’t quite raise a million bucks I had secretly hoped for,’ says competition organizer Benedict Brain, ‘the few grand we did raise will go a long way to help provide much-needed food for the Trussell Trust.’

The overall winner is Raw Spence, who captured an image of his sprouting spud about to get a much-needed quarantine haircut. For taking the overall prize, Spence is receiving a Fujifilm X-A7, a year’s membership of the Royal Photographic Society, a one-on-one workshop with photographer Benedict Brain and 3 years of Photocrowd master-level subscription.

The ten winning images, presented in the following gallery, were selected from an panel of judges that includes Martin Parr, Paul Hill, Angela Nicholson (Founder of She Clicks), Nigel Atherton (Editor, Amateur Photographer), and Benedict Brain (Brain’s Foto Guides).

Overall Winner

Photographer: Ray Spence

Title: End of Lockdown

Caption: ‘This picture manages to introduce a topical lockdown obsession to the brief of photographing a potato. It takes a great imagination to see a sprouting potato as a head covered with hair, and there is a lot of humor in the way the picture has been executed.’ — Nigel Atherton

Judge’s comment: ‘This is delightful, imaginative, and a good laugh. And again, a bit bonkers. What we all need at this grim time. Love it!’ – Paul Hill

2nd Place

Photographer: David ‘Spud’ White

Title: A Potato

Judge’s comment: ‘This looks like an alien lifeform, photographed on the surface on a barren planet by a NASA robot.’ — Nigel Atherton

3rd Place

Photographer: Amy D’Agorne

Title: Tight Market Specifications

Caption: ‘Potato agronomy is changing, raising the need for new solutions to old problems. In an environment where pests, weeds and diseases have no regard for the pressure to meet tight market specifications Bayer is committed to helping you produce quality crops that are also profitable to grow.’ – Bayer, 2019

In Peru, the birthplace of the potato, indigenous women sometimes use fine slices of potato peel as a facemask to soothe and soften the skin.

I was meant to be working with an indigenous NGO in the Andes when Covid broke out so since I couldn’t try this in the Andes themselves, I decided to try this technique out at home and made a self-portrait documenting the process. I was simultaneously reading about the history of agriculture and the development of large agribusiness, specifically about the corporation Bayer, now one of four major agrichemical businesses in the world, a company that owns 80% of all commercial seeds on the planet. The report that I was reading was released by the CIA in 2001 and discloses information about Bayer (then known as IG Farben) and their despicable involvement in Nazi Germany.

I rang up the Crop Science branch of Bayer that is based in the U.K. and was shocked to hear that the company still uses and promotes the use of glyphosate on British potatoes. Glyphosate, a chemical that the company Monsanto, which was bought up by Bayer in 2011), sold in their ‘Round-Up’ product, a product they, and now Bayer is being sued by consumers for giving the users of the product various cancers and autoimmune diseases. I was fascinated by the obvious dichotomies and differences that there are when looking at the relationship that indigenous peoples have with their food and the relationship that western ‘developed’ countries and companies share with their food.

Indigenous peoples make up less than 5% of the planet’s human population, and yet they are protecting 80% of its diversity. And only 100 companies are responsible for 71% of global emissions. This image investigates the relationship between natural remedies /the close relationship some people have with their food and the big companies/corporations that take advantage of that natural knowledge to expand on market specifications.

Judge’s comment: ‘This image looks at the politics of the potato from two angles — its indigenous origins and the current domination of agriculture by a single company — and cleverly combines them is a thoughtfully conceived and well-executed composite image.’ — Nigel Atherton

4th Place

Photographer: Laure Gibault

Title: Potato Slug

Caption: A straight shot of a sweet potato

Judge’s comment: ‘I like the fact that this spud looks like a cross between a seal and a unicorn.’ Martin Parr

5th Place

Photographer: Peter Hubert

Title: Planting Jersey Royals

Caption: Every winter the fields in Jersey are ploughed in preparation for the planting of the Island’s main cash crop, Jersey Royals. As a Jerseyman I have been endeavouring to determine and photograph some of the things that we take for granted but are intrinsically and distinctly part of the fabric of Jersey life, cultural reference points that fellow Islanders would instantly recognise and instinctively understand. The planting of potatoes by migrant workers has been a feature of the farming community since the 19th century. Over the years some have stayed and many families include forebears who originally arrived as seasonal farm labourers.

6th Place

Photographer: Tova Krentzman

Title: Untitled

Caption: A portrait of individuals, together yet very much alone….and the unifying task of the mundane that is also beautiful….much like the character of the potato (mundane and glorious in its basic state and potential).
Together, alone, under a mundane task of peeling potatoes. During these past months of lockdown, the story of individuals; each from a different country, with their own interests and commentary…sharing space. In this depiction, they are united by the potato.

Judge’s comment: ‘This carefully arranged tableau is a work that stayed most in my mind when I went back and forth through the excellent contributions to the competition. The photographer has creatively used what looks like available light in an empty kitchen, and the image also reflects effectively the claustrophobic side of the lockdown. It is engagingly surreal and a bit bonkers too.’ Paul Hill

7th Place

Photographer: William Richardson

Title: Frites in Bruges

Caption: Frites in Bruges with dollop of mayonnaise.

Judge’s comment: ‘How reassuring to see a helping of chips and mayonnaise.’ – Martin Parr

8th Place

Photographer: Justin Quinnell

Caption: Eating a ‘potato face’ – from inside of my mouth ‘Smileycam’, 110 cartridge pinhole camera image taken from inside of my mouth using two flashguns to illuminate subject and teeth (not in mouth).

9th Place

Photographer: Amy D’Agorne

Title: 2030

Caption: The year; 2030. Climate change and a rise in food shortages have prompted the U.K. Government to encourage all citizens to start growing food within their back yards. Gripped by the mass hysteria, the protagonist, with a colander on her head to protect herself from her own erratic fears of 5G, tries to plant potatoes in her concrete-lined back yard. As one of the hardiest food crops, they may be her only chance of survival.

Judge’s comment: ‘I like the humour in this image and have nothing but admiration for the effort the photographer went to in order to create it.’ – Nigel Atherton

10th Place

Photographer: Jodie Krause

Title: Apple of the Earth

Caption: This photograph depicts an interpretation of Adam and Eve. Subsequent to COVID-19, humans have been denied many temptations such as contact and intimacy. However, it has also provided an opportunity for the world to ‘reset’ and renew. The potato is a staple food enjoyed around the world and therefore epitomises the fundamentals of life. Moreover, potato in French, ‘Pomme de Terre’, directly translates to ‘Apple of the Earth,’ highlighting the importance of the potato since it is likened to a fruit associated with re-birth. Therefore, my photograph is focused on the creation of Adam and Eve, who herald the start of a new world by holding a potato.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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10 Tips & Tricks to Make Your Instagram Images Look Beautiful For Beginners

29 Jul

Instagram has undoubtedly become one of the most popular image sharing sites. It is also a sweet spot for photographers and enthusiasts looking to get their pictures noticed. Of course, the popularity of Instagram has led to fierce competition. To help you stand out on this social media platform, I decided to share some Instagram photo tricks to make your Continue Reading

The post 10 Tips & Tricks to Make Your Instagram Images Look Beautiful For Beginners appeared first on Photodoto.

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Go on a 4K video tour of Mars with images captured by NASA’s Mars rovers

23 Jul

ElderFox Documentaries has compiled a 4K UHD video tour of Mars using ultra-high resolution images and photo mosaics captured by NASA’s Mars rovers. It’s a stunning look at the Martian landscape and a great way to view another world nearly 34 million miles away.

The video is technically a slideshow, as there are massive technical constraints limiting NASA’s ability to record and transmit high-resolution video from Mars to earth. As NASA points out, it can take about 20 hours to transmit 250 megabits directly back to earth. There is an eight-minute window during each Martian day (sol) in which the rover can send the same 250 megabits of data to the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter as it passes overhead. As ElderFox Documentaries notes, at those transmission speeds and considering that ‘nothing really moves on Mars,’ it makes more sense to send images back home rather than video files.

In the video above, we see images captured by three different NASA Mars rovers: Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity. In the bottom left corner of the video tour, ElderFox has noted the Mars rover used to capture the images and the location on Mars in which they were captured.

If you want to see more of Mars, we have a lot more to show you. In March, NASA shared the highest-resolution panoramic image of Mars ever captured by its Curiosity rover. You can see a video NASA published below. In July 2017, Curiosity captured images of clouds above the Martian landscape. Earlier that year, space enthusiast Jan Fröjdman turned NASA anaglyph images into a simulated flight video using 33,000 reference points and NASA’s own depth information. You see that incredible video here.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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NASA and ESA Solar Orbiter spacecraft sends back closest ever images of the Sun

18 Jul

NASA and the ESA revealed the first images of the Sun from its Solar Orbiter joint mission, providing an unprecedented look at our star. The images have revealed a new mystery that scientists have named ‘campfires’ — this refers to miniature solar flares on the Sun described by ESA as ‘omnipresent.’

ESA says the early technical verification phase of the mission knowtn as commissioning has been completed, meaning Solar Orbiter is just getting started. Despite this early stage, the mission has already revealed new phenomena, underscoring the promising results the space agencies anticipate from their joint spacecraft.

Solar Orbiter was launched in February 2020 with the goal of, among other things, capturing images of the Sun at the closest distance thus far attainable. The mission includes half a dozen remote-sensing telescopes and four in situ monitoring instruments for studying the environment around Solar Orbiter.

Data gathered by both sets of instruments will, hopefully, provide scientists with new insights about the star and solar wind. Kicking things off are the ‘campfires’ featured in the first set of images above. Solar Orbiter used its Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) instrument to capture the images — it includes an imager capable of capturing the entire Sun, plus two high-resolution telescopes.

It’s unknown at this time whether campfires are entirely different than big flares or simply miniature versions of them. Talking about the newly discovered phenomena is EUI instrument principal investigator David Berghmans, who said:

The campfires are little relatives of the solar flares that we can observe from Earth, million or billion times smaller. The Sun might look quiet at the first glance, but when we look in detail, we can see those miniature flares everywhere we look.

The EUI is only one of the imagers on Solar Orbiter; it is joined by the Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager (PHI) used to capture high-resolution measurements of the Sun’s magnetic field lines. The latter instrument has also provided scientists with another ‘first,’ having revealed a single active region on the Sun that is experiencing bursts of energetic particles that, until now, experts were unaware existed.

‘That is a first,’ said PHI principal investigator Sami Solanki. ‘We have never been able to measure the magnetic field at the back of the Sun.’

In time, Solar Orbiter will reach within 42 million kilometers (26 million miles) of the Sun, covering almost a full quarter of the distance between the star and our planet. This gradual change in distance will take place over the next two years, providing the space agencies with increasingly detailed close-up images of the Sun.

NASA Solar Orbiter project scientist Holly Gilbert said, ‘The first data are already demonstrating the power behind a successful collaboration between space agencies and the usefulness of a diverse set of images in unraveling some of the Sun’s mysteries.’

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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4 Ways to Create Awesome Infrared Images

10 Jul

The post 4 Ways to Create Awesome Infrared Images appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Simon Bond.

A really interesting form of photography that can transform your images is infrared photography. This form of photography has been around for a long time, and today, you’ll discover how to make your own infrared images. Anyone can do this, and it’s possible to do with minimal or even no extra equipment at all. So read on and find out how you can enhance your photographs today.

4 Ways to Create Awesome Infrared Images — Infrared works very well as a long exposure, especially with moving water.

1. Infrared photography with an infrared filter

The first and most accessible way for photographers with a digital camera to get into infrared photography is to buy a filter. Filters work by filtering out all light except infrared. This will lead to an infrared image rendered onto your camera sensor.

The imperfect solution

Using a filter is the quickest route into this genre of photography, but it’s not without it’s problems. The fact is your camera is built to resist infrared light, a fact that has both positive and negative results for you as a photographer. Let’s take a look at some of the factors you’ll need to consider.

Camera sensor – Different cameras will work better or worse when it comes to infrared photography with a filter. This comes down to how strong the filter that blocks infra-red light hitting your camera sensor is. A strong filter will mean you’ll need longer exposures, and the results are not always as strong.
Light leaking – With the long exposures needed it’s important to cover area’s of the camera that allow light in, other than of course the lens. If you fail to do this you’ll find light leaks in, effecting the outer area’s of your image. The most obvious area that needs covering on a dSLR camera is the viewfinder.
Camera noise – If your camera is not sensitive to infrared light you’re going to have two choices, both will lead to digital noise on your image. Those choices are upping the ISO, to allow a shorter long exposure, or exposing for several minutes in bulb mode.

The need for long exposure

As mentioned infrared photography with a filter requires long exposure, however this can often really add to your image. You’ll need a tripod, a way for triggering your shutter remotely, and you’ll need to cover your camera to prevent light leaking in. Using long exposure is often the choice of many landscape photographers anyway, so what will you gain? If you’re photographing anywhere with moving water or clouds, then you’ll capture their movement with long exposure. Coastlines and seawater are somewhat different in that it will flatten the water, again often a desirable effect.

Which filter?

There are plenty of options when it comes to filters you can buy. Obviously, as with different manufacturers, the results will vary, and you’ll need to choose a filter that suits your style. However, all of these filters will do the same thing, and that is filter out infrared light. The photos in this article were produced using the Hoya R72 filter.

The white balance

To get to your desired result with an infrared filter, you’re going to need to adjust the white balance. You’ll usually want to do this in post-processing, however, it’s also possible to do it in-camera.

The method needed to do this in-camera is as follows:

Compose your photo and aim at some grass that is well-lit by the sun – it needs to be photosynthesizing.
Use an exposure of 10 or 20 seconds – enough to correctly expose the photo.
During the exposure, which in this case can be handheld, move the camera around so you get a blurred photo.
Your image should now be red, with no sharp portions to your photo.
Now go to your camera’s white balance settings.
Select the custom white balance option.
Select the photo you have just taken, and use this to set the custom white balance. It will now set everything that is red in your image and make it white.

Post-processing required

If you chose not to use the camera’s custom white balance, then you’ll now need to process your image. You’ll have a RAW image that is mostly red. You can now decide whether to process for a color infrared image, or a black and white one. In both cases, you’ll need to adjust the red and blue channels to achieve this.

2. Modify your camera to produce infrared images

Those more serious about infrared photography can look into modifying their camera. It’s important to mention that once modified, your camera will only be useful for infrared photography, so don’t get this done with your main camera.

Those that go down this road often have a second camera body, which they’re prepared to dedicate to infrared photography.

What’s involved?

Remember that most camera manufacturers produce cameras that block out infrared light? You will modify your camera to remove that infrared blocking filter in front of your camera sensor and put an infrared filter in place. That’s the process, and now your camera will be sensitive to infrared light.

What are the advantages?

You can now use this camera more like a regular camera, instead of only being able to take long exposure photos. That means techniques like panning and infrared are possible. You’ll be able to use fast exposures to capture moments. In other words, you will regain full artistic control of your camera, just now it only photographs in infrared.

3. Film photography and infrared

Infrared images have been produced for a long time, and certainly predate digital photography. It’s possible to take beautiful infrared images with film, though you’ll need to get film that specifically for this form of photography.

An infrared filter used on a digital camera won’t be needed this time, as the film itself exposes for infrared light. However, you may well consider using filters anyway. The same filters that enhance regular black and white photos can also do the same for infrared. That means the classic yellow, orange, and red filters should be in your camera bag. Should you choose to use an infrared filter this will certainly work, but again it will block most of the light, meaning you’ll be taking a long exposure.

4. Producing infrared images in post-processing

The last method to produce infrared images is post processing.

That means you can choose any of your existing photos, and process them to replicate the infrared effect. It’s worth choosing a photo that would work well if it were photographed as an infrared.

Think of a landscape photo with plenty of green foliage, and a blue sky with one or two clouds. Those wishing to learn how to process their images in this way can do so by reading this article.

Time to create your infrared image dreamscapes!

This article has given you all the information needed to create infrared images, or where to find that information.

Have you tried out this form of photography? If so, which of the above methods did you use, and do you have a preference?

Infrared photography is fun. If you’re waiting to get out on a sunny day, why not try the post-processing route? If you have any infrared images already, why not share them in the comments? We love to see your images!

The post 4 Ways to Create Awesome Infrared Images appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Simon Bond.

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Great Photoshop Tools to Edit Backgrounds in Images for Online Use

21 Jun

The post Great Photoshop Tools to Edit Backgrounds in Images for Online Use appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Ana Mireles.

Are you moving your business online? You’re probably noticing the huge amount of possibilities? From blogs to Instagram; from banners to thumbnails – you need to keep editing your images to fit your every need. Fortunately, there are some Photoshop tools to edit backgrounds that come to the rescue. Keep reading to learn how to solve some of the most common issues about backgrounds.

Introduction to Photoshop tools to edit backgrounds — Are your white backgrounds really white?

Photoshop tools to edit white backgrounds

There are a number of Photoshop tools to edit white backgrounds, so let’s break them down.

Curves

A white background shot seems simple, but it ‘s not so easy to achieve. You can always cut out the subject and replace the backdrop, but this can be very time-consuming even if you did it right in the photo-shoot. You still need to do some editing, and one of the best Photoshop tools to edit a backgrounds’ brightness is Curves.

Photoshop tools to edit a white background — When a white background image is placed on top of a digital background you can see if it was really white.

Often, despite your best efforts, your seemingly white background is not 100% white. Look at the example above. On the left, you can see the result of the photo-shoot, which appears to be okay. But, if I add a white background layer, you can see it’s not. Notice how you can see the difference in the corners. To easily fix this, you have to add a Curves Adjustment Layer.

To add a Curves adjustment, click on the Adjustments icon at the bottom of the Layer palette, denoted by a circle with black and white halves.

Curves is a good Photoshop tool to edit backgrounds

Then, lighten your image by dragging the top part of the curve. Keep going until the transition between your photo and the digital background is not visible. Don’t worry if your subject is getting too light, you’ll fix that in the next step.

Layer masks keep the subject out of adjustements

Now, grab the Brush tool, and with a soft brush at 10 or 15% flow, start painting black over your subject. This will mask out the adjustments from the curve to keep the original exposure on the subject, including its shadows.

Photoshop tools to extend backgrounds

There will be times when you also need to extend your image backgrounds. Here are some tools to help you do that.

Clone Stamp

The Clone Stamp is one of the most useful Photoshop tools to edit backgrounds. Being able to clone one part of the image to another, helps you to retouch almost anything.

You can correct any specks, dust, or scratches in your image.

I want to show you another situation where it can come in handy too. Imagine you need to extend your background to gain some negative space. You can clone your background to cover a bigger area. First, enlarge your document by going to Menu->Image->Canvas Size and set up the new size.

Photoshop tools to extend backgrounds — For this example, I was turning a thumbnail into a header.

Grab the Clone Stamp and take a sample from the background to start cloning. If you are working on a separate layer, make sure to set Current and Below in the options bar. If you’re working on the same layer, use “Current Layer.”

Clone stamp is a Photoshop tool to edit backgrounds

Keep going by sampling from different areas each time, that way, it’s less noticeable, and you’ll get a better result. If the area is too big for this, then the Pattern Stamp tool will be more efficient.

Pattern Stamp

First, use the Rectangular Marquee tool to select a sample of the background. Then go to Menu->Edit->Define Pattern. This will open a pop-up window where you can name and save this background as a pattern.

Pick the Pattern Stamp tool that you’ll find under the Clone Stamp. On the options bar, you can open the pattern menu and choose the one you just created.

Pattern Stamp is another Photoshop tool to edit backgrounds

Now you just have to paint all the space you want to fill. You can adjust the size of the brush, the hardness, and flow for better results.

If the separation between stamps is noticeable, then go back to the clone stamp tool and smooth out the junctions.

Photoshop healing tools for backgrounds

Similar to the Clone Stamp is the Healing Brush, which has two variations. Unlike the clone, both of them will blend the new pixels with the existing ones. As a result, the correction is much smoother. Let’s see the difference between them.

Spot Healing Brush

The Spot Healing Brush will automatically sample the pixels it thinks are best to use as a source. It will take the texture and reproduce it while blending the color and luminosity with the pixels in the new spot.

This is really useful when you’re working on large empty areas, like textures. In most cases, I find it’s very unpredictable, and it includes pieces that don’t belong, so I don’t use it often. However, it’s a matter of finding what works best in each situation.

Healing spot brush is unpredictable — I wanted to extend the background. Notice how it included the texture from the subject.

If you cancel the action by going back on your history or using the command Ctrl+Z and try again, it will give you a different result. It works better when you use a small brush and tackle small areas at a time.

If you want to cover a big space, you’ll be better off using the Healing Brush Tool.

Healing Brush

This tool is a mix between the Spot Healing Brush and the Clone Stamp. You can manually choose where to sample by clicking on the spot while holding the Alt key. Then click on the area you want to ‘heal’ and it will blend the source pixels with the current ones. This way the result will be much more uniform. Make sure that “Sampled” is marked as the Source in the Options bar.

You can use this tool to extend your background or to retouch any details on it. It’s very versatile, so try it out.

Conclusion

Your background can complement, enhance, or distract from the subject, so it’s just as important and you want to give it enough attention. Whether it’s a blemish or an extension, these Photoshop tools to edit backgrounds can help you out for most of your online needs.

What is your favorite tool? Share it in the comments section!

The post Great Photoshop Tools to Edit Backgrounds in Images for Online Use appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Ana Mireles.

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