The Human Brain, Sort of a Virtual Darkroom

The Human Brain, Sort of a Virtual Darkroom

More precisely, the human brain can develop a negative! Now this is just freaky and it works: Instructions: Stare at the red dot on the girl’s nose for 30 seconds. Turn your eyes to a plain surface (your ceiling or blank wall). Blink repeatedly and quickly while still looking at the plain surface. The brain […]

Are Airport X-Ray Machines Really Safe for Digital Cameras?

Are Airport X-Ray Machines Really Safe for Digital Cameras?

Right, as a film shooter back in the day, who wouldn’t be wary of airport X-ray scanners. It often took a great deal of effort to convince staff that under no circumstances I’ll let my precious rolls of film through that machine. That was in the days when we were served metal cutlery in planes […]

Whenever Truth Matters: Izitru Rates Authenticity of Digital Images

Whenever Truth Matters: Izitru Rates Authenticity of Digital Images

Welcome to Izitru, a new photo hosting service that applies image forensic technology to analyze whether an image originates in-camera or is changed substantially by editing means. To get the service’s highest seal of approval an image must pass six forensic tests. You’ll say every digital image today is in some way post-processed. Some, however, […]

Lens WTF?! “Modulation Transfer Function” (MTF Chart) Explained

Lens WTF?! “Modulation Transfer Function” (MTF Chart) Explained

For some those MTF charts are the holy grail when buying a lens. If as a photographer sharpness is important to you, then you must understand this stuff. Right, sharpness means different things to different people. MTF however is like a universal language. It’s the terminology used by lens designers. In the end it’s all […]

Want One! Walley POS-86, Probably Greatest Camera Ever

Want One! Walley POS-86, Probably Greatest Camera Ever

“Greatest” camera ever in the totally literal sense. Well if you wanna go retro, this is “living” the reverse trend in consumer electronics — or maybe it parodies the endless production and marketing of prosumer cameras: (via Walley Films)

Steve McCurry’s Quest for the Perfect Filson + Magnum Camera Bag

Steve McCurry’s Quest for the Perfect Filson + Magnum Camera Bag

Magnum photographers Steve McCurry and David Alan Harvey are on a quest to solve a fundamental functionality roadblock in the world of professional photography. One thing they never want to worry about is whether their equipment is protected and accessible at all times, reports Time magazine. “A big part of what we do is cart […]

Build Your Own $30 Raspberry Pi Digital Camera

Build Your Own $30 Raspberry Pi Digital Camera

Those tiny Raspberry Pi computer modules are great little devices, able to perform so many tasks. Since March 2013 the Raspberry Pi camera module is available, for $30 the piece… Or get the more fancy Rasperry Pi NoIR night vision module without IR filter for $38… Equipped with an imaging sensor, this hobbyist cameras can […]

What Neil Young’s Soul-Redescovering PonoMusic Tells Us About the Internet and Photography

What Neil Young’s Soul-Redescovering PonoMusic Tells Us About the Internet and Photography

Grand old Neil Young needs no introduction, but his latest project does: Kickstarter’s PonoMusic campaign that’s all about the mission to provide the best possible listening experience of your favorite digital music. Shortly after kickoff the project already got 1 million dollars pledged, then 2… There’s obviously no shortage of lovers of music who miss […]

On Moore’s Law and Camera Size

On Moore’s Law and Camera Size

Don’t get me wrong, am an admirer and fervent user of these compact new system cameras that are technological proof of Moore’s law, the law that says the number of transistors on integrated circuits doubles approximately every two years in a computer. And with cameras becoming, in fact, more and more computerized, one of the […]

Brave New World — When a Machine Shoots What We Do…

Brave New World — When a Machine Shoots What We Do…

Who knows, a machine wanting your job? Here’s the 3D MFP — Office Photography Machine with push button simplicity and colorful, professional photography results. It’s the next generation of (office) imaging devices: Ortery’s 3D MFP studio is a one stop solution for all internal imaging needs. Machines can be set up in a centralized location […]

Visual Compendium — The Evolution of the Camera

Visual Compendium — The Evolution of the Camera

Here’s something for the photography connoisseur and camera aficionado alike: a meticulously illustrated catalog of 100 landmark cameras, culled from over a century of photographic history, depicting both professional and consumer models and tracing photography’s history from the first models to today’s digital wonders. 18″ wide and 24″ high, this poster is more than just […]

Bing’s New 3D Photosynth

Bing’s New 3D Photosynth

For once Bing’s ahead of Google with something. Check out the new Bing Photosynth, a pretty groundbreaking experience that analyzes digital photographs to generate three-dimensional views of real world spaces. In essence Bing a.k.a. Microsoft tries to create a digital replica of the planet with an immersive 3D way to traverse and explore the world. […]

The Future of Photography

The Future of Photography

Here’s some food for thought: random quotes on the future of photography, collected from the Net. The future of photography is certainly more software-based. As technology marches on, some of the romance in photography dies. We’re still playing with film metaphors, not yet fully aware of the capabilities of these optical computers and sensor arrays […]

Mama Mama Don’t Take My Kodachrome Away!

Mama Mama Don’t Take My Kodachrome Away!

An unnamed Asian buyer purchased a rare Leica camera, one of only four of its kind in the world, for $620,000 at a Hong Kong auction. The 1932 Leica Luxus II, shown on the left with its case, fetched HK$4.84 million on November 22 in an auction where about 80 cameras and accessories went under […]

Google’s Magic Picture Machine — Photo Editing Goes Beyond Science Fiction

Google’s Magic Picture Machine — Photo Editing Goes Beyond Science Fiction

Science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke said that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” But even Clarke never envisioned Google’s Magic Picture Machine. They’re unlike anything else out there, the new Google+ photo and video features. Shall we take a moment to marvel at the technology behind it? The popularity of Google+ still […]

An Appeal to All Camera Manufacturers for Simplicity

An Appeal to All Camera Manufacturers for Simplicity

It’s one of those articles — published by Luminous Landscape — that really feel the pulse of many photographers and come at the right time. Mark Dubovoy’s essay An Appeal for Divergence and Simplicity pulls all the right strings, at the right moment, given that Nikon looks destined to fulfill his wishes with its new […]

A Quick Primer on Photography Lighting

A Quick Primer on Photography Lighting

Here’s a nifty infographic by B&H on how light affects your subject (or is it object? I vote for the latter…). It’s about understand the effects of various light modifiers on a subject. Explains B&H: We’ve been hard at work trying to demonstrate to you the effects of various lighting modifiers. So we created this […]

The Virgin Leica M

The Virgin Leica M

Or virgin Leica? This one-of-a-kind variant of the M Typ 240 is a clinically clean design by and true to the style of Apple’s chief designer Jonathan Ive. Designed by Ive and Marc Newson, this purist Leica M will be given to the highest bidder this November in New York at Sotheby‘s “Jony and Marc’s […]

Z-Depth Map — Expanding EXIF Data for More Powerful Post-Processing

Z-Depth Map — Expanding EXIF Data for More Powerful Post-Processing

By JAWAD RIACHI I’ve recently downloaded DxO Optics Pro (demo version) just for the sake of experimenting with the software on some photos I shot with a small Micro Four Thirds camera. The camera I used had a fairly sharp wide angle lens (14mm F2.5). When I uploaded the photos into the software, DxO Optics […]

Lumia 1020 on Assignment — “This Nokia Performs Like a DSLR”

Lumia 1020 on Assignment — “This Nokia Performs Like a DSLR”

Who cannot help but laugh at the breathless excitement over doing “serious” photography with a smartphone, with or without any gimmicky filters, right? Yet today we have serious photographers, including some leading photojournalists, doing assignments with crappy iPhones, making the resulting photos technically even worse by using gimmick filters and post processing add-ons that produce […]

How to Wax Your Own Domke Lookalike Canvas Camera Bag

How to Wax Your Own Domke Lookalike Canvas Camera Bag

Good camera bags are expensive. You might have payed thousands of dollars for your gear setup. It’s only logical to carry the precious hardware in a worthy bag. There are all kinds of bags, the options are overwhelming, but still not good enough for photographer Allen Mowery who was “just sort of shot in the […]

Next Stop in the Digital Imaging Revolution: The Shutter

Next Stop in the Digital Imaging Revolution: The Shutter

Digital photography has come a long way since the 90s, the early days of consumer digital photography that were filled with cameras that broke new ground, though not necessarily in directions that were widely adopted. After more than a century of “conventional” film photography, also the old mechanical ways became questioned: be it the sensor, […]

The Konstruktor, 35mm Do-It-Yourself SLR Camera

The Konstruktor, 35mm Do-It-Yourself SLR Camera

Lomography is all about going back to the basics, about analog photography stripped down to its bare essentials without the bells and whistles fancier gear comes with. Right, you don’t want to see MTF charts of those plastic lenses, but then again, once you use a, say Konstruktor, you might be amazed by the image […]

I Could Not Find My Dream Camera, I Decided to Design One

I Could Not Find My Dream Camera, I Decided to Design One

By JAWAD RIACHI I have been lately disturbed by the recent trend of camera manufacturers. So many cameras in so many different forms are being introduced to the market, all at different prices, yet I cannot find one which I can connect with. I want a small form cameras with high image quality and preferably […]

Photoshop Live

Photoshop Live

This one’s really cool: an Adobe charm offensive. After all the negative press Adobe recently got for its Cloud(y) future, here’s some splendid creativity in action. It’s part of Adobe’s Creative Days — well they better try to appease photographers! And this is one smart prank, Adobe: