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Posts Tagged ‘Photo’

NASA ortbiter snaps aerial photo of lonesome Mars Curiosity rover

23 Jun
The bright blue dot at the center of this photo by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is actually NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover, going about its lonely mission on the Red Planet. © Photo courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona

No human photographer could capture this aerial photograph. That’s because this image is literally out of this world – it was captured by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on June 5th, and shows the Mars Curiosity Rover as it traverses the red planet, approximately 241,500,000 miles away from where I sit typing this right now.

It’s hard to spot, and you have to look really closely, but there’s a small blue dot in the very middle of the photograph above. This closer crop might help:

There, amid the Martian landscape, you can actually see the Curiosity rover as it trekked along the northwestern flank of Mount Sharp, on its way to ‘Vera Rubin Ridge.’

The photograph was taken by the NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter using its High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera, which captures a red band, blue -green band, and an infrared band, combining these together to form an RGB image. Because of this, the photograph is not a so-called ‘true color’ image, and the orbiter appears bluer than it actually is.

Oh, and if you’re curious, you can actually see what Curiosity was seeing when this photo was captured. The rover was using its Mast Camera to shoot these photographs of the Martian landscape while its picture was taken.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Should You Switch from Photoshop to Affinity Photo?

22 Jun

If you are considering the switch from Photoshop to Affinity Photo, you might wonder how it will affect your photo editing workflow. And how will just a tiny loss in features (for a big drop in price) affect your options for photo editing? Keep on reading to find out how your workflow will change, what you will miss and what Continue Reading

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The Kennel Club 2017 photo contest winners are cute as h*ck

21 Jun

The Kennel Club Dog Photographer of the Year

The Kennel Club has announced the 2017 winners of its annual ‘Dog Photographer of the Year’ photo contest. Now in its 12th year, the international competition received almost 10,000 entries from 74 countries around the world, and was sponsored by SmugMug and Nikon School. As the internet would say, that’s a lot of h*ckin’ good puppers.

We present the 1st place winners from each of the ten categories in the competition. To see all the winners in each category, head over to the Dog Photographer of the Year website.

Above:

Overall winner and ‘Man’s Best Friend’ category winner: Maria Davison Ramos (Portugal)

About the photo: For me, capturing real and candid moments is what photography is all about. This is one of those moments. My friend had just adopted Yzma and while we were chatting in the kitchen I was taking some photographs. The location and the light were far from perfect, but I ended taking one of the photos I’m most proud of.

About the dog(s): The dog’s name is Yzma and she’s a Golden Retriever cross. She was adopted by one of the photographer’s closest friends.

The Kennel Club Dog Photographer of the Year

‘Assistance Dogs’ category winner: Alasdair Macleod (Ayrshire, Scotland)

About the photo: Megan was photographed during her weekly visit to South Beach Care home in Saltcoats, with one of the residents, 95 year old RAF veteran Mr Duncan Currie (a pilot for the Royal Air Force No. 617 Squadron, Dam Busters) who has Dementia.

About the dog(s): Megan is a rescued Greyhound and was the top Therapet for 2016.

The Kennel Club Dog Photographer of the Year

‘Dogs at Play’ category winner: Kalyee Greer (United States)

About the photo: Petey and I stood there together on the water’s edge in awe as the day bowed out to the night and the sun slipped its yellow head behind the horizon. Pastel colours painted themselves across the Summer sky above our shoulders in stripes of pink and cobalt blue as we quietly revelled in that perfect, endless moment. Then, just as suddenly as the sky had lit itself on fire, Petey clumsily jumped into the water with a joyful little sparkle in his eye, beckoning me to come along. I followed him in and giggled until my sides hurt as he would push his paw down into the warm, salty water, sending little crystal droplets flying through the air all around him. With each happy splash came the realization of the perfection in those tiny moments, and of the unmatched purity of the canine heart.

About the dog(s): The dog in the photo is named Petey. A cuddly and endlessly sweet Wheaten Terrier who belongs to a previous client of Kaylee’s.

The Kennel Club Dog Photographer of the Year

‘Rescue Dog’ category winner: Alexandra Robins (Wiltshire, England)

About the photo: When I went to Bath Cats and Dogs home to photograph some of their animals, Chloe and Tess were the first on my list. We took them out to one of the large, grassy paddocks for them to have a run around. Both dogs flew across the field together, I managed to get some fun action shots of them playing. However, it was this image of Chloe looking up at her carer that has always been my favourite. Chloe was a little timid towards strangers; she was probably looking for reassurance with a strange photographer present!

About the dog(s): Chloe came to Bath Cats and Dogs home with her friends, Tess and Diego, when their owner died. Chloe the brindle greyhound was a timid dog and used to hide away from strangers but was gentle and caring to her friends. All three dogs found loving homes.

The Kennel Club Dog Photographer of the Year

‘Dogs at Work’ category winner: Sarah Caldecott (Yorkshire, England)

About the photo: The photograph of Rita was taken during a training day in February this year on the moors in County Durham the weather hadn’t been kind and the light was fading fast.

About the dog(s): The dog in the photograph is a pointer called Rita owned by a friend who Sarah met during training sessions with her dog.

The Kennel Club Dog Photographer of the Year

‘Puppy’ category winner: Mirjam Schreurs (Netherlands)

About the dog(s): Mirjam placed a call out on Facebook for dogs to photograph and the owner of Tyson the Boxer puppy responded to it. Mirjam photographed Tyson when he was 14 weeks.

The Kennel Club Dog Photographer of the Year

‘I Love Dogs Because…’ category winner: Julian Gottfried (Chicago, US)

About the photo: I especially enjoy this photo because it exemplifies what I love about my dog. In the image you can easily see his cuteness, personality, and playful manner. Combined with the snow, they create a truly lively photo.

About the dog(s): Pippin, a terrier-mix. Julian’s family adopted him on Valentine’s Day in 2010. He and his brother had been wanting a dog for a really long time, and their parents finally decided to adopt one. Pippin had been found wandering around Missouri with his mother in a poor state, and was staying at a shelter. He was only seven pounds, but the most adorable dog there, and he has since become an integral part of the family.

The Kennel Club Dog Photographer of the Year

‘Oldies’ category winner: John Liot (St. Helier, Jersey)

About the photo: This image was taken as part of a commissioned shoot with three rescue dogs. It was a beautiful and bright November day and the Sun was creating an intense light through the windows, warming the client’s house. Kelly, an apprehensive 12 year-old collie-cross, found her spot in the God rays heating up the arm of a sofa and had a nap. She was a cautious girl with a sad backstory and had challenging behavioural issues prior to being adopted. Happily though, she has found rejuvenated life with her new family in Jersey who are giving her all the love and attention she sorely missed in her younger years.

About the dog(s): Kelly is rescue and her breed is unknown. She was 12 when the photo was taken. She was adopted by Bex D., a worker at Jersey’s animal shelter, who has two other rescue dogs that she’s also adopted from the JSPCA.

The Kennel Club Dog Photographer of the Year

‘Young Pup Photographer’ category winner: Dylan Jenkins (Swansea)

About the photo: I took this photo in my garden. We had some cake and Mosey came to sniff it. I took about twenty photos and this was the best and the funniest.

About the dog(s): Mosey is the older of our two hounds. She’ll be 10 in October. She has had some scent training (truffles!) and has appeared in a few dog shows but is happiest as a pet/companion dog She is incredibly gentle and sweet-natured and hilariously funny. Mosey and Dylan have an incredible bond.

The Kennel Club Dog Photographer of the Year

‘Dog Portrait’ category winner: Anastasia Vetkovskaya (Russia)

About the photo: This magnificent Afghan was incredibly nice to shoot – he is very expressive and emotional.

About the dog(s): SISLEY- SHOU GERAT GRANT AHTIAR AK JAR, Afghan Hound

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Photographer uses ‘antique’ photo technique to illustrate struggles of Native Americans

17 Jun

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During the Dakota War of 1862, the United States government hung 38 members of the Dakota Indian Tribe in Mankato, Minnesota – the largest single-day mass execution in US history. A day after Shane Balkowitsch learned about this event – something most Americans have never heard of – he made the plate ‘Death by Oil’ (pictured above) using an antique photo process called wet plate collodion, which was first developed (no pun intended) in 1848.

The oil in the photo links the struggles of Native Americans in 1862 to the present time, in which they are again standing up to the US Government to protect their homeland. In this case, it is from the proposed Dakota Access Pipeline.

Wet plate photography requires subjects to sit still for long exposures, sometimes as long as 30 seconds. It involves applying a collodion emulsion onto a glass plate and sensitizing the plate for 3 minutes in a bath of silver nitrate, then taking the photo while the plate is still wet (which requires a portable darkroom). According to Balkowitsch, while the photos come out black and white, ‘they capture real life more beautifully and romantically’ and they will last for hundreds of years, unlike more traditional modern photographic prints. Balkowitsch is one of a very small group of photographers still using the collodion wet plate process and has made over 2300 plates since 2012.

Balkowitsch’s full collection of wet plate photos is available for viewing online.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Enter the Photojojo Weekly Photo Challenge!

16 Jun

Here in the Photojojo office, we love, love podcasts. We listen to comedy podcasts, music podcasts, educational podcasts, and even podcasts for making podcasts.

That last one inspired and encouraged us to start our very own podcast about something we also love SO much – photography! And the Photojojo Photo-a-Week Challenge was born.

Read on for some info about how to enter our podcast challenge and learn about some of our other favorite photography podcasts.

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How to Use a Prism to Make Creative Photo Effects

14 Jun

In this article, I’ll give you some ideas and tips on how to use a prism to make some really cool and creative photo effects.

How to Use a Prism to Make Creative Photo Effects

Prisms

Have you ever seen the beautiful rainbows dispersed by hanging suncatchers and wondered, how would that look in a photograph? Unfortunately, the small prisms used on most suncatchers don’t fill enough of the camera frame to render a detailed image. But where there’s a will, there’s a way!

Triangular prisms, usually found in college science labs have become an increasingly popular tool for adding beautiful reflections and light to a photograph. Plus, because prisms are small, they are easy to pop in a camera bag, ready for your next shoot.

How to Use a Prism to Make Creative Photo Effects

How to Use a Prism to Make Creative Photo Effects

How to Use a Prism to Make Creative Photo Effects

The physics

You may be familiar with triangular prisms from high-school demonstrations on the characteristics of light. The physics goes something like this – when a beam of light (made up of different electromagnetic waves with varying wavelengths) hits a piece of glass straight-on, the light passes right through it.

However, if the beam of light comes into contact with a glass surface at an angle, the wavelengths bend, which is a phenomenon called refraction. Then, when the beam exits through the other side of the prism, the wavelengths bend again. The amount the light bend depends on the wavelength itself. Red bends at one angle, and violet bends another and so each color is dispersed into the rainbow we see when we look through a prism.

As photographers, we exploit the inherent properties of light whenever we take a photo. The assembly of glass elements in camera lenses directs light from a scene, translating it to the digital sensor. But by adding a prism into the mix (in front of the lens) you can introduce some interesting creative effects to your photographs. Light that would usually meet the outer lens element first, hits the prism, dispersing the light before it’s directed into the camera.

What you will need

  • A camera
  • One triangular prism
  • A lens cloth
triangular prism - How to Use a Prism to Make Creative Photo Effects

A triangular prism like this one is available on Amazon for only a few dollars.

This project only has two ingredients – a prism and a DSLR camera. For this project, I used a triangular prism I purchased on eBay for a few dollars. A prism that can be manipulated with one hand is ideal. My preference is one that is approximately 3″ x 1″ (8cm x 2.5 cm). Keeping a lens cloth close by is useful for fingerprints on the glass that can show up in the image.

How to Use a Prism to Make Creative Photo Effects

How to Use a Prism to Make Creative Photo Effects

How to Use a Prism to Make Creative Photo Effects

Method

Using a prism to create interesting effects in-camera requires a little trial and error and a bit of co-ordination. Holding the prism over the front lens element is the easy part. It’s getting the effect right that’s a little fiddly. I’d recommend using a tripod as it can be a bit vexing having to juggle the camera in one hand and the prism in the other. I would also recommend using Live View to give you an accurate indication of what impact the prism is making, without being blinded by wayward reflections from the sun streaking through your viewfinder.

If you’ve ever shot through glass materials before, you’ll know that your autofocus can really start to struggle. First, focus the camera on your subject using autofocus, then switch to manual focus mode. That way, the subject in the background will already be sharp, without having the camera flail around trying to focus on the prism itself.

Slowly rotate the prism, monitoring the effect on the LCD screen. Angling the prism away from the lens, or changing your position in relation to the sun can also add different effects. Experiment with the distance between the prism and the camera lens too. When you find a reflection in the image you like, take a snap!

Now that you have the basics down, try changing up the prism! I am constantly switching between my triangular prism and a glass wine stopper I chanced upon in an op-shop. The hexagonal prism adds a greater kaleidoscopic effect but tends to distort the image more, so it’s fun to experiment and see what works best.

How to Use a Prism to Make Creative Photo Effects

How to Use a Prism to Make Creative Photo Effects

A wine-stopper I found at an op-shop makes for a great tool in prism photography.

How to Use a Prism to Make Creative Photo Effects

You don’t always need sunny weather for prism photography, this abstract image of a crane was taken on a cold, rainy afternoon.

Your turn

So pick up a glass prism and give this a try. Please share your prism photographs in the comments below.

The post How to Use a Prism to Make Creative Photo Effects by Megan Kennedy appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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The first photo shared from a phone just turned 20

14 Jun

Sharing photos from a phone is easy as breathing these days, and we have Philippe Khan to thank for paving the way. In June 1997, he achieved a technological first that would be repeated countless times in the following decades: he shared a digital photo instantly.

It all came together just under the wire in the delivery room where his wife Sonia was in labor with their daughter, Sophie. He connected his Casio QV-10 camera to his laptop, and with a his flip phone rigged up to the laptop by way of a makeshift cable, the system was ready for Sophie’s arrival.

His laptop was connected to a server at home, already configured to send email notifications to friends and family once his photo and text were transmitted. He snapped the photo, and an email with a link to the photo was sent out to 2000 people. There are a lot fewer cables involved in the process today, but basically, we’re doing the same thing in delivery rooms twenty years later. New parents everywhere thank you, Philippe.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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iOS 11 brings photo updates to iPhone and iPad

06 Jun

In addition to hardware updates, Apple provided some details about the next generation of its mobile operating system at today’s WWDC. When iOS 11 arrives this fall it will bring an updated Live Photos feature with a few new tricks up its sleeve, more options for shooting in Portrait Mode on the iPhone 7 Plus, and more efficient image compression for the 7 and 7 Plus. There’s also the possibility that it might connect to your camera more easily.

Live Photos will allow users to customize the thumbnail image representing the short video clip, and will support Boomerang-app-style looping video along with a ‘long exposure’ effect. Machine learning will help expand the Memory videos feature, making the automatically compiled clips playable in portrait or landscape format, and able to identify and include more subjects like pets. If you own an iPhone 7 Plus you’ll notice more options when using Portrait Mode including the ability to use optical image stabilization, use flash and apply HDR.

Apple also adopts new file formats for iPhone 7 and 7 Plus: images will use High Efficiency Image File Format, or HEIF, and videos will use H.265, or HEVC. This will save storage space, but we’re curious how sharing and support from image editing apps will jibe with the new format. Per Wikipedia, HEIF can be used to compress full-resolution images while keeping a lower-resolution JPEG for on-screen display purposes. It also allows storage of multiple images in a single file, which could mean preserving the original and processed versions of HDR and Portrait Mode images.

And for the first time, iOS 11 will allow app developers to use the NFC reader for things other than Apple Pay. It’s not yet clear whether this will extend to allowing the communication of connection profiles as used by many cameras when establishing Wi-Fi connections.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Affinity Photo comes to the iPad

06 Jun

Affinity Photo makes its way to mobile for the first time today as an iPad version of the popular editing program makes its debut. It offers non-destructive adjustments and support for Raw editing, along with a wide array of tools for making selections and applying effects. Take a look at the full list of features on Affinity’s website.

The app is compatible with the iPad Air 2, 207 iPad and iPad Pro 9.7″ or 12.9″. A special launch discount brings it down to $ 20/£20 for now.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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It’s a photo album… and a camera: the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-N1

01 Jun

In the mid-2000s camera manufacturers had to find ways to differentiate themselves from the competition. Kodak brought Wi-Fi to the camera world with its EasyShare One, Panasonic released the DMC-LX1 that had a 16:9 sensor and Samsung put selfie mirrors on the front of its compacts. Not to be outdone, Sony released its Cyber-shot DSC-N1 in October 2005, which was a compact camera and a 500-shot photo album in one.

On the front panel, the N1 had an 8.1MP, 1/1.8″ CCD with a top ISO of 800, a 38-114mm equivalent lens, 5-area AF system and a battery that lasted for roughly 300 shots (which is quite respectable). Images and VGA video could be saved to internal memory or a Memory Stick Pro Duo slot.

Photo quality was typical for 2005, which is to say, good until about ISO 400 or so.

The real action takes place on the back of the DSC-N1, where you’ll find a 3″, 230k-dot RGBW LCD. The display was touch-enabled and offered features that we take for granted today, like touch AF, menu operation and image playback.

Enough beating around the bush: here’s what made the DSC-N1 unique. Every time you took a photo, a VGA-sized version would be saved to the camera’s internal memory bank. Album photos are saved ‘first in first out’, which means that older photos will be automatically deleted from the album if you don’t protect or copy them first.

Images were organized by date and time and you could view slideshows of images from that date or the whole album. Slideshows were accompanied by fancy transitions and generic background music. One nice thing was that you could replace the built-in music with your own, drawing from CDs or MP3s.

As the photo above says, you could ‘paint’ on top of a photo using an included stylus. You could pick a color and a line size and draw away or add ‘stamps’. Thankfully, an eraser was also available.

Sony offered an optional dock, known as the Cyber-shot Station, which let you charge the battery or display your slideshows on a TV.

Read DCResource DSC-N1 review

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Did you have a Cyber-shot DSC-N1 or the DSC-N2 that followed it? Share your memories in the comments! As always, suggestions for future tbt’s are appreciated.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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