Samsung has announced the start of mass-production of its S5K3P3 image sensor for mobile devices. The new chip is 20 percent thinner than previous generations. At under 5mm thickness, the new sensor can be used in ultra-thin smartphones without creating the protruding camera modules we’ve seen on some of the latest Samsung Galaxy models. Read more
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
I have a confession to make: I used to be a pixel peeper. There was a time when I’d spent hours zooming in and inspecting photos at 1:1 or even 300 percent. I was looking for a technically perfect photo. Back then, most of the work I was shooting was aimed at micro stock outlets. At most of them, the inspectors and image editors were not easy to get around. Noise, camera shake, out of focus, chromatic aberration, white balance, basically any issues would end up in an image rejection. That actually helped me. I learned the technical side of photography, but I also became obsessed. I became a pixel peeper.
Luckily I don’t care about it anymore, and you shouldn’t either, unless you are shooting commercially. I mean sometimes, depending on the type of work you are doing, a thoughtful examination could be needed. However, like every obsession, pixel peeping can be a detrimental habit.
If you find yourself analyzing 100 percent crops, debating about pixel counts, hitting the forums too often and compulsively reading gear reviews, please stop. Especially if the majority of your work is about documenting travel, street photography, and whatnot. This is not what photography is about.
Yes, I get it, photography is part technology and science, but overall it’s art. Counting pixels or buying the latest camera is not going to help you to find your vision. Those are mere tools meant to aid you in expressing your voice, your art, in a wonderful medium.
I encourage you to leave the verbal flux behind and go shooting. Photography it about communicating emotions, a moment in time, the essence of a place, the soul of people.
If you’re still unconvinced, think about this. Let me start by asking you how much of your work is being shared online? Have you ever realized that the average monitor can only display 2 megapixels? And many of our photos are being seen only on tablets and phones. None of those are even close to being even viewed at 100 percent. Let’s throw in print as well; let’s say you want to enlarge your photos to 8×10, or you want to decorate a room and print a 16×24. Grab a photo that you think is not sharp or noisy and make a test. I think you’ll be delighted by how awesome it looks.
In the end, as photographers and storytellers, what we pursue is capturing a moving picture, perhaps communicating an emotion. Of course you can go after excellence and be meticulous, but always keep in mind that what you are trying to express with the craft is way beyond just a technically perfect photo. A great subject, an inspiring place or a story will always generate a reaction, an emotion in your viewer. Such an image will never be judged as too noisy, a bit shaky, and so on. In exchange, there are gazillions of perfectly technical photos floating around without any kind of content. Photos that, even though technically perfect, nobody cares about.
It is true that we have much better technology now than we had in the past. Sensors with low light capabilities, bodies and lenses with image stabilization, and software are all better than ever. But for some, it seems to never be enough; there will be always something new, something better, and we tend to get lost in the technical side instead of pressing the shutter. Many moons ago, I was always looking at these things, to the point where I didn’t even want to shoot beyond ISO 200. It was a big mistake. I lost a lot of moments and opportunities that I would’t get again. That will never happen now; I prefer to capture the instant, the character of a place, the spirit of humankind – without having to worry about pixel counts.
Forget about pixels, awaken the artist within. Go out and shoot something that moves you. You know you can.
The post Forget About Pixels – Awaken the Artist Within by Daniel Korzeniewski appeared first on Digital Photography School.
Fujifilm has filed a patent for an image sensor that uses a novel layout, with green and clear rectangular pixels which are larger in area than their neighboring blue and red pixels. The idea behind it is apparently to reduce luminance noise at the expense of color noise, on the grounds that the human eye is less sensitive to the latter. Learn more
News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
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Congrats! You’ve got a golden ticket.
If you manage to be good and live through this tour, you’ll be the proud owner of your very own Candy Factory Photo Lab!
The Impossible Instant Photo Lab takes any photo from your phone and turns is into a real live physical polaroid.
This portable lab uses the traditional photo chemistry inside of Impossible Project Polariod film to make you a beautiful analog print.
Pull up any photo on your phone, edit it to your liking, then print!
Combine the thrill of instant prints with the camera you always have on you. We’d take that over a chocolate river any day (and we love chocolate).
Check Out The Impossible Instant Photo Lab
$ 299 at the Photojojo Store
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Nikon has announced its new D5300 midrange DSLR which, as you might have gathered, is the follow-up to the D5200. New features include the omission of an AA filter from its 24MP CMOS sensor, a larger 3.2in articulated LCD and also a slightly larger optical viewfinder, 1080/60p video, and built-in Wi-Fi and GPS. Nikon claims that the D5300’s Expeed 4 processor improves performance (allowing for 5 fps burst shooting) and photo quality, while reducing power consumption. You’ll be able to pick up the D5300 this month, in your choice of black, red, or gray. Click through for more details.
News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
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iPhones, and internets, and ion implanters! Oh my!
In this tech-savvy world we can return to 100%-analog-photog-goodness and transform them to digital with some simple scanner-wizardry.
This handy guide will show you how to scan your film, merging all of the sweetest parts of analog with the ease and shareability of digital.
The best part? You don’t have to know a thing about rocket science to follow along.
Learn How to Scan Film!
p.s. Our buddies at Printstagram make some of the bestest Instagram prints we’ve seen! You can make it happen right from your phone.
We all know the benefits of analog photography: slower pace, limited number of frames, and those old cameras are just plain fun to use.
The only downside? Your inner tech maven is crying out for all of those lost shares on Facegram, instabook, and PinTube! Or something like that.
This guide will equip you with the tools to get started on making film grains best friends with digital pixels.
There are a few brands of scanners, but they mostly fit into two categories for consumers: flatbed scanners and dedicated film scanners.
This article will be dealing specifically with an Epson V600 flatbed scanner, but many of the techniques will still apply, especially to other flatbeds!
Here’s a quick rundown of the pros and cons of a flatbed scanner.
Here’s what we need to do to the film in order to ensure the best scan.
Dust bunnies sound cute, but for scanning, they are not your friend! Use a dust blower, a clean microfiber cloth (Extra emphasis on clean! There’s nothing worse than scratched film), or an anti-static brush to get rid of any dust that may have settled on the negative.
Tips for preventing dust:
One of the greatest challenges with scanning is film flatness.
The scanner works a bit like your camera; it focuses on the film to take a “picture” of it. If your film isn’t flat, it’s harder for everything to be in focus. A little curl is manageable.
Place film under a book to flatten unruly negatives, but make sure they’re in a sleeve so they don’t get dusty or scratched.
Each negative holder is a bit different, but here’s how it’s inserted into ours.
This one’s as easy as it sounds! Each scanner has a specific orientation for the negative carrier depending on the film type.
On the Epson V600, there’s an “A” on the negative carrier that should line up with the “A” on the side scanner bed.
If your scanner doesn’t have markings, make sure to place the negative carrier under the slot of glass in the top of the scanner.
This step will also be specific to your scanner. We’re using the included Epson Scan software in Professional Mode.
Here are the main points:
There are a few third party software options for scanning as well, and our favorites are VueScan and Silverfast.
The advantage to these programs is that they offer more customizability and control over the scanning process. Plus, they have some neat tricks such as setting the film stock to try to get the most faithful result. They’re both friends with PC’s and Macs!
Once the scan is completed, you have a few choices of where to go next. You can take the scan “as is” and go from there, or import into Photoshop, Lightroom, and other editing programs to make some slight changes.
Sometimes a few tweaks are needed after the fact so that the imagined picture lines up with the actual picture!
Some post-scan adjustments
This isn’t to change the look of the film, but sometimes this information gets skewed in the scan and needs to be returned to the appropriate value.
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The latest generation tablets and even phones are great for presenting your images. But if your workflow involves evaluating detail and critical focus on a mobile device the situation is less than ideal. This is because the standard image viewers, such as Apple’s Photo app or Android’s Gallery app, don’t display the actual images but a version that has been reduced in size to maker better use of the devices’ limited resources. Actual Pixels is a free app for iOS that allows you to view images on your iPhone or iPad at a 100% magnification. We’ve checked it out for you.
News: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)
Mastery of Adobe Photoshop CS5 requires a solid foundation in the fundamental tools and techniques used by the pros to create eye-popping effects, achieve stunning visuals. Total Training for Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended: Essentials is intended for the beginner to intermediate user as a guide through comprehensive tutorials on color correction, layout techniques, special effects and image touch up. This series will give you the confidence and know-how to achieve fantastic results using Photoshop CS5 new interface and enhanced tools. The updates to Photoshop CS5 include the Adjustments and Masks panel, the 3D commands, annotations and an improved interface. In addition you will learn non-destructive color effects and color correction, how to set file format and image compression for use on the web and how to create and apply special effects. By the time you’re finished watching Total Training for Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended: Essentials, you will be proficient will the skills required for managing and manipulating images in Photoshop. You will know all about photo retouching, color correction and how to use the Quick Mask mode, work with selections, re-size images and many more valuable and time saving techniques to use when working with Photoshop CS5. Five New Features covered in this title: 1. The Refine Radius Tool 2. Content-aware healing and fills 3. The Mixer Brush 4. Live Workspace updates 5. Mini Bridge
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If you are designing a document in Microsoft Publisher 2010 that is meant for on-screen display rather than as a hardcopy, change the ruler measurement units to pixels.
Are you designing a document in Microsoft Publisher 2010 that is meant to be displayed onscreen rather than printed?
If so, the default ruler measurement units of inches or centimeters may not make much sense. With a simple tweak, you can change Publisher 2010’s on-screen rulers to show measurements in pixels….
Read more at MalekTips.
New Computer and Technology Help and Tips – MalekTips.Com
Turning off Word 2010’s vertical scroll bar may make it easier to view/edit documents without having to scroll horizontally.
If you have a smaller monitor or zoom past 100% to view and edit your Microsoft Word 2010 documents, you may be forced to scroll horizontally as the entire page width cannot be viewed onscreen.
If you need just a few more pixels to keep from having to scroll through your documents horizontally, how about removing the vertical scroll bar? If you don’t need it to navigate through your documents via the mouse (remember Page Up and Page Down work as well as your cursor keys), hide it by doing the following:…
Read more at MalekTips.
New Computer and Technology Help and Tips – MalekTips.Com