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  • Interview with an astronaut: What it’s like shooting photos from space

    Jared Polin (aka. Fro Knows Photo) recently scored an interview that has us all extremely jealous here at DPReview. A phone call to NASA to find out if astronauts shoot Raw in space led to an interview with Marine fighter pilot and NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik, who had arrived back to Earth from the International Space Station just three days before Jared spoke with him!

    The entire interview is fascinating from first question to last, but first things first: yes, astronauts do shoot Raw in space. Bresnik himself says he shot RAW+JPEG so he could download the JPEGs onto his laptop and see the shots ASAP, but the Raw files are beamed down to Earth where the folks at NASA process them to their full potential.

    This is far from the only only topic Polin and Bresnik cover, though. They hit everything from radiation damage, to stabilizing your shots in space, to the glass available, to what it was like switching from Nikon D4 cameras to the brand new D5s that arrived on the ISS in mid-November, and much more.

    And all the while, gorgeous photos Bresnik captured while up there scroll across your screen. Photos like the ones below—some of our favorites from Bresnik’s last 2 months on the ISS:

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    Editor’s Note: Bresnik also contributed the #oneworldmanyviews hashtag, which paired shots of beautiful locations captured in space with photos of the same spot taken from Earth.

    For Polin, the conversation seemed surreal. He tells DPReview that:

    For me I was in awe for a lot of the interview. It’s not easy to wrap your head around SPACE and the sheer fact you can transfer the data back to earth. Sure that’s been going on for decades but think about it. 250 miles up in space there’s a station with six astronauts on it, with an entire Nikon setup of D5’s and glass up to an 800 5.6 for god sake. The direct downlinks to NASA transfer data all night long.

    Check out the full interview up top, scroll through the gallery above for a bit of awe, and if you want even more, head over to Bresnik’s Twitter account where you can find enough photos, videos, and timelapses to keep you busy until New Years and beyond.

    And, since Polin says he may actually get to interview an astronaut who is on the space station when he talks to them, we’re curious: what would you ask an astronaut about photography in space? Drop your suggestions in the comments.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Top Portrait Photography Tips of the Year on dPS in 2017

    This week on dPS we’re featuring some of the top articles in different categories that were published on the site over the last year, 2017. Yesterday was the Best Landscape Articles on dPS in 2017, and this one is all about the best portrait tips of the year.

    Here are the top 18 portrait tip articles:

    1. How to Create Portraits with a Black Background
    2. How to Make a Low Key Portrait Step by Step
    3. How to Make Beautiful Portraits Using Flash and High-Speed Sync
    4. How to Create a Dark and Moody Rembrandt-Style Portrait In Lightroom
    5. 4 Beginner Tips for Creating Dramatic Portraits with One Flash
    6. How to Pose People for Group Portraits
    7. Tips for Making Natural Light Portraits
    8. How to Create Good Black and White Portraits
    9. 5 Tips for Creating Romantic Portraits of Couples
    10. 8 Tips for Mastering Your Portrait Photography
    11. Six Ways to Capture the True Character of a Subject in Portraits
    12. A Quick Exercise to Help You Take Better Self-Portraits
    13. How to Create and Shoot Night Portraits
    14. 6 Tips for Posing Hands in Wedding and Portrait Photography
    15. 5 Reasons to Use Lightroom for Portrait Retouching
    16. Basic Portrait Post-Processing Workflow Tips to Help You Save Time and Stay Organized
    17. 5 More Tips for Making Better Black and White Portraits
    18. 3 Tips for Taking Portraits with a Kit Lens

    Tomorrow, look for the most popular articles on post-processing in 2017.

    The post Top Portrait Photography Tips of the Year on dPS in 2017 by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.


    Digital Photography School

  • 2017 in review: a look back at July

    July is traditionally a slow month for product announcements, and this year, the only new camera to be released was the Leica TL2. The TL2 has a higher resolution sensor, more power under the hood and a refined design. Nikon released a new 70-300mm lens and also teased its D850 full-framer, which was officially announced to great fanfare at the end of August.

    There were some cool non-announcements in July, as well. A Sony a7S II beamed down 4K video from the International Space Station (which can now be explored using Google Street View), Adobe leaked what would later become the ‘new’ Lightroom CC and a NASA study pointed out the obvious: that noise from drones is worse than that of cars. Okay, maybe that last one isn’t so cool after all.

    The sun finally came out in the Seattle area in July, so it was time for us to hit the streets and take some photos

    The sun finally came out in the Seattle area in July, so it was time for us to hit the streets and take some photos with the latest and greatest lenses. On the ultra-wide side of the spectrum we shot with the Tamron 10-24mm F3.5-4.5, Sigma 14mm F1.8 and Panasonic’s 12-60mm F2.8-4 lenses. Our own Carey Rose also shared his experiences using the Panasonic Leica 15mm F1.7 Micro Four Thirds lens. We also took some shots with the very impressive Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 as well as the Tamron 18-400 F3.5-6.3 and medium format Fujifilm 110mm F2.

    We managed to squeeze in a few reviews as well, including those for Nikon’s excellent D7500 and Fujifilm’s slightly more pedestrian X-A3. We also took a look at Fujifilm’s Instax Square instant printer, and Carey professed his love for the Olympus TG-5 rugged camera. We also took a closer look at dynamic range measurements from Canon’s EOS 6D Mark II, and Dan made mojitos.

    See all July 2017 content

    Nikon announces development of D850

    One of the most anticipated cameras of the last year (or more) is a replacement to the Nikon D810. In July the company said that the D850 was coming and that it could capture 8K time-lapses, but that was it until the official reveal the following month.

    Read full article

    Nikon and Sony patent lenses for curved sensors

    Nikon and Sony revealed patents on the very same day, both for possible future lens designs built for curved sensors. Only time will tell whether or not they turn into real products, but in the meantime they certainly sound very interesting. Sony’s design covers a monster 400mm F2.8 medium format lens, while Nikon’s patent describes a more modest 35mm F2.

    Read more about Nikon patent

    Read more about Sony patent

    TSA requiring passengers to remove cameras from bags

    Photo by Ralf Roletschek

    The days of keeping your camera in your carry-on bag may be over in the US, as the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is requiring passengers in standard security lines to put anything bigger than a smartphone into a separate bin. Those with PreCheck status are not affected by the change.

    Read full article

    Shooting stars with the Sigma 14mm F1.8 Art

    Photographer Jose Francisco Salgado took Sigma’s new 14mm F1.4 DG HSM Art lens to the Badlands of South Dakota to shoot the stars. The results are pretty stunning.

    View the gallery

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Apple admits to slowing down older iPhones as the battery gets weaker

    Photo by Marcelo Silva

    If you like to use your iPhone as a daily shooter, you may have noticed your older model (iPhone 6, 6s, and SE) slowing way down, making it far less usable. The good (or is it bad?) news is you’re not imagining it; it turns out Apple has purposely slowed down your phone’s CPU. But according to the Cupertino-based tech giant, the change is not meant to encourage an upgrade… it’s in your best interest.

    This controversy began on Reddit earlier this month, when user TeckFire pointed out that his iPhone 6s had become very slow, only to speed back up again after the battery was replaced. TeckFire published Geekbench scores as proof, and other users followed suit, showing that Apple was more or less cutting performance in half—that’s not a small performance decrease:

    You can imagine the initial response to these revelations. The headlines ran something like this: Apple is secretly slowing down old iPhones, are they trying to force users to upgrade to a new phone? We’ll never really know if Apple’s intent is nefarious, but according to the company itself, it most certainly is not.

    In a statement to The Verge, Apple admitted to the slowdown, but claimed it was done in users’ best interest:

    Our goal is to deliver the best experience for customers, which includes overall performance and prolonging the life of their devices. Lithium-ion batteries become less capable of supplying peak current demands when in cold conditions, have a low battery charge or as they age over time, which can result in the device unexpectedly shutting down to protect its electronic components.

    You can read the full statement on The Verge, but the gist is simple: yes we’re slowing down older phones, but it’s not because we want to force people to upgrade, it’s a feature to ensure ‘the best experience for customers.’

    Photo by Jun Seita

    The unfortunate part of all this is that the explanation came after the controversy broke. If Apple had been transparent about this fact—explaining the benefits of a new battery and how the old battery could actually cause damage to your phone if the CPU was left to run at full capacity once the battery reached a certain performance threshold—iPhone users could have seen it as a positive. As it stands, it’s unlikely Apple’s statement/explanation will satisfy every old iPhone user out there.

    Speaking of whom, if you’re using an iPhone 6, iPhone 6s, or iPhone SE and notice a performance slowdown, it might be time for a battery replacement. Apple charges $ 80 for the service (unless you want to do it yourself and void the warranty), and your phone’s CPU should start running at peak again after the upgrade.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • This stunning timelapse captured SpaceX’s glowing Falcon 9 launch

    Last Friday, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Airforce Base on the California coast. But the light show it created in the evening sky looked less like a rocket launch and more like an alien light show, stopping traffic on the highways as people pulled over to take cell phone pictures and video of what they thought might just be the beginning of an alien takeover.

    Fortunately for all of us, it wasn’t just bystanders with smartphones who pointed their cameras skyward on Friday the 22nd, photographer Jesse Watson had already prepared to capture the launch, and came away with this stunning timelapse of the entire thing from Yuma, Arizona.

    As he explains in the video’s description, this was actually the first rocket launch he’s captured:

    I found out about this specific launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base a few days prior to the event. I wanted to capture this amazing spectacle in a fashion that I haven’t seen previously, as most of what I have seen is cell phones video or news reels.

    […]

    I have never shot a rocket launch before, so I did not know exactly what to expect as far as exposure or precise location of the rocket in the horizon. I wanted to be prepared to capture comprehensive coverage of the spectacle. Therefore I packed four cameras and five lenses, to cover wide to telephoto details of the scene. Three of the cameras were rolling time-lapse and 1 was setup for telephoto video.

    That’s how he captured the 40-second timelapse above: using two Nikon D810s, a Sony a7S II, and a Sony a6500 sporting a Nikon AF-S 14-24mm F2.8G, Sigma 85mm F1.4 |Art, Sigma 150-600mm F5-6.3 |Contemporary, and a Veydra Mini Prime 25mm T2.2 for Sony E-mount, respectively.

    Check out the results for yourself up top, and then head over to the Vimeo page for a full gear list in the description.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Confirmed: DxO says new Nik Collection to be released in 2018

    Great news for fans of the Nik Collection of photo editing plugins: two months after DxO acquired the collection from Google, the company has publicly announced plans to release a brand new version of the Nik Collection in 2018.

    The statement went out over Google Plus (go figure), where the DxO team welcomed the Nik community into the fold with the following announcement (emphasis added):

    Dear Nik Collection users,

    We at DxO are very pleased to welcome the Nik community! We wish you a very happy holiday season and a healthy and prosperous New Year: may you be inspired to take spectacular photos in 2018!

    Like you, we are passionate about photography and image quality. That’s why we view this opportunity with Nik as a commitment to ensure that you — that all of us who enjoy taking photos — are guaranteed to have the very best solutions at our disposal.

    You’ll be happy to know that our developers are enthusiastically working on a new version of the Nik Collection to be released in 2018!

    The statement then goes on to entice Nik users to download DxO PhotoLab (formerly DxO OpticsPro), where they can once again take advantage of Nik’s ‘U Point technology’ to edit their RAW and JPEG files.

    Of course, none of this should be new information for dedicated DPReview users. We already knew that U Point was coming to DxO’s own photo software, and DxO founder/CEO Jerome Meniere told us the company planned to develop a new “Nik Collection 2018” for mid-next year, but last week’s public announcement that development is under way has photographers online buzzing this week.

    Now, if only they’d tell us when exactly the new version will come one… and how much it will cost.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • A happy ending: Police recover stolen limited edition Leica from The Camera Store robbery

    Shattered glass from the break-in. Photo: The Camera Store

    You could look at the story of the recent robbery at beloved Calgary camera shop The Camera Store as a play in three acts. Act 1: the store is robbed of over $ 27,000 USD worth of high-end camera equipment. Act 2: Local and worldwide media attention helps police nab two suspects and recover most of the gear in just 48 hours.

    And now, Act 3: The final piece of stolen equipment—a rare, limited edition Leica M-P Edition Safari—is returned to the shop, making this particular theft a complete failure.

    Act 3 took place just before Christmas, when the Calgary police executed a search warrant—ostensibly at the home of one of the two suspects arrested previously, 60-year-old Tan Xuan Hung Bui and 36-year-old Justin Ross—where they found the stolen Leica M-P Edition Safari worth $ 13,000 CAD (~$ 10,250 USD).

    Posing with the recovered Leica M-P Edition Safari Photo: The Camera Store

    The Camera Store announced the recovery on its blog at the same time as the news broke in The Calgary Herald. And, as promised, the tipster who alerted the police to the sketchy online gear sale that led to the two suspects’ arrest will receive a $ 5,000 CAD (~$ 3,800 USD) shopping spree at The Camera Store as a token of thanks.

    According to The Calgary Sun, the ‘winner’ is “a gentleman from Edmonton.”

    But this happy story is not without its one gray cloud. That rare Leica M-P, a collectors item, was scuffed somewhere between its theft from and return to The Camera Store. Then again, given the amount of attention this particular story has gotten, maybe that’ll make the camera even MORE valuable.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Video pits the GoPro Hero6 against the ‘GoPro Killer’ Sony RX0

    A new video from YouTuber and former host of DigitalRevTV Kaiman Wong compares the Sony RX0 and the GoPro Hero6, putting Sony’s miniature camera up against GoPro’s latest flagship action cam.

    Many are hailing the 1-inch sensor Sony RX0 as a “GoPro killer,” and despite the fact that it isn’t even explicitly marked as an action camera, both the RX0 and the Hero6 are capable of shooting in similarly challenging environments. Each camera ultimately brings its own features to the table, raising the question Kai’s video attempts to answer: which one is better?

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • Google’s new AI ranks photos on their technical and aesthetic quality

    Image: Google

    We have seen several attempts at automated image assessment from both technical and aesthetic points of view in the past. For example, Google researchers have previously used convolutional neural networks (CNNs) to assess image quality of specific image categories, such as landscapes.

    However, these previous approaches could typically only differentiate between low and high image quality in a binary way. Now, a Google research team has developed a methodology that can provide a more granular assessment of the quality of a photograph that is applicable to all types of images.

    The NIMA: Neural Image Assessment model uses a deep CNN that was trained to predict which images a typical user would rate as looking technically good or aesthetically pleasing, using that information to rate an image on a scale of 1 to 10.

    To achieve this, it relies on state-of-the-art deep object recognition networks and uses them to develop an understanding of general categories of objects. As a result, NIMA can be used to score images in a reliable manner and with high correlation to human perception, which makes it a potentially very useful tool for labor intensive and subjective tasks, such as automated image editing or image optimization for user engagement.

    The NIMA team says that, in testing, the model’s aesthetic ranking of images closely matches the mean scores that were assigned by human judges. What’s more, the technology is still in its infancy; further retraining and testing should improve the model even further. Once systems get better, future applications could include image capture with real-time feedback to the photographer, auto-culling, or providing guidance to image editors to achieve optimized post-processing results.

    More detail on this fascinating new system are available on the Google Research Blog.

    Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

  • 4 Tips for Creative HDR Styling with Aurora HDR 2018

    Arguably the best software for making high dynamic range photos is Macphun’s (soon to be Skylum) Aurora HDR 2018. This image editor can be used as by itself or in conjunction with their popular Luminar photo editor (as well as a plugin for Photoshop, Lightroom, Aperture, and Elements). Within Aurora HDR are tons of photo editing tools including their popular presets (filters). But you don’t have to use Presets to creatively style your HDR photos.

    Here are four tips beyond using presets for achieving creative images.

    1. Make your images pop with subtle HDR enhancements

    4 Tips for Creative HDR Styling with Aurora HDR

    Before – the middle image of a 3-shot bracket.

    Instead of going right for the Presets at the bottom of Aurora HDR, dive right into the HDR Basic panel on the right-hand side of the software. Start with the Contrast and HDR Enhance sliders to enhance textures and details in your photo. Then play with the Smart Tone to tame down the shadows that can be created by increasing the contrast.

    Next, head to the Color panel right below HDR Basic and adjust the Vibrance and Saturation. Keep these color adjustments minimal if you’re going for a more subtle, realistic look. Based on the color edits that you make, you may also need to balance out the color temperature if your image appears too cool or too warm.

    4 Tips for Creative HDR Styling with Aurora HDR

    Add the HDR Basic and Color Filters.

    4 Tips for Creative HDR Styling with Aurora HDR

    2. Add a Polarizing and Graduated ND Filter Effect

    Landscape photographers are well aware of the effects of the polarizing and graduated neutral density (ND) lens filters. If you aren’t familiar with them, here’s a quick rundown. A polarizing filter helps darken skies and minimize reflections and glares of light bouncing off of surfaces such as water or glass. Similarly, the graduated ND filter helps balance out exposures by darkening backgrounds that are much brighter than foregrounds. In essence, both of these filters are often needed to obtain the best landscape photos.

    If you don’t have these filters or happen to forget them, Aurora HDR’s post-processing effects can produce very similar results. Simply click scroll to the Polarizing Filter panel and apply as much of the effect as you wish. In the example below, increasing the polarizer makes the blues really pop, especially in the sky.

    Further down, you’ll find the graduated ND filter effect, known simply as Top & Bottom Tuning. This allows you to adjust the exposure, contrast, vibrance, and saturation of the top and bottom areas of your image separately. If you happen to have an untraditional horizon, click the Set Orientation button to fine tune the horizon’s rotation and make your graduated ND filter effect blend more realistically.

    4 Tips for Creative HDR Styling with Aurora HDR

    Polarizing Filter and Top & Bottom Tuning (ND filter)

    Skylum Aurora HDR Creative Styling Tips

    3. Replace the sky

    4 Tips for Creative HDR Styling with Aurora HDR

    Before – the middle image of a 5-shot bracketed set.

    If you’ve ever photographed a sunset and wished the sky had been more colorful, you can actually make this edit rather quickly with Aurora HDR. All you need is a clear photo of the ideal sunset that you want to swap into your bracketed image. You can pull that ideal sunset image from your own archives, or use a stock photo like the one that I’m using from Pexels in the example below.

    Start by running your brackets through Aurora HDR and making any desired adjustments to the resulting photo. Below, I’ve applied a Warm Skylight filter. Next, go the Layers section in the right-hand panel and click on the plus sign. Select “Add Image Layer…” This is where you can select your ideal sunset photo and import it as an image layer.

    Once your new image has loaded, you can apply any filters or adjustments as desired. Next, click on the paintbrush icon next to the image layer. A small drop-down menu will appear with four options: Brush, Radial Mask, Gradient Mask, and Lumosity.

    4 Tips for Creative HDR Styling with Aurora HDR

    If your image has a straight horizon with no big obstructions, the Gradient Mask will easily mask your ideal sunset into your bracketed shot. But in my case, I have a big building in the way, so the Brush is my best bet. After clicking on Brush, a thin bar of options will appear on the top panel. This is where you can control whether you’re painting over the image, or Erasing (backtracking on any mistakes). You can also control the size, softness, and opacity of the paintbrush.

    When I’m done painting in my new sunset sky, I’ll press the blue Done button. Check out the before and after images below!

    4 Tips for Creative HDR Styling with Aurora HDR

    4 Tips for Creative HDR Styling with Aurora HDR

    4. Add a texture overlay

    4 Tips for Creative HDR Styling with Aurora HDR

    Before – the middle image of a 3-shot bracketed set.

    Using a similar technique to sky replacement, you can add textured overlay layers to your photos for a more creative effect. All you need is a textured photo, such as the weathered paper image below. Simply import that image as a new layer. You can then selectively mask it by using the Brush, Radial Mask or Gradient Mask tools (explained above). Or you can apply the texture equally to the whole image by adjusting the opacity. The resulting image had a moody, vintage look to it.

    Skylum Aurora HDR Creative Styling Tips

    Over to You

    Have you used Aurora HDR 2018 to enhance your images? What tools have you found to be the most useful for achieving more creative photos? Let us know in the comments below!

    Disclaimer: Macphun, soon to be Skylum, is a dPS advertising partner.

    The post 4 Tips for Creative HDR Styling with Aurora HDR 2018 by Suzi Pratt appeared first on Digital Photography School.


    Digital Photography School