August 14, 2015
Read Scott Kelby's Lightroom Book Online

Scott Kelby has put his New Lightroom Book Online for Free, so head on over and read it now!

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 10:52 AM
June 03, 2015
Camera Instructor Offers Free and Interactive Online Photo Courses

Camera Instructor Offers Free and Interactive Online Photo Courses

Camera Instructor offers courses on different photography subjects. The only one available at launch is Photography 101, but classes on Portraits, landscapes, and Weddings are on the way.

Pretty awesome resource to have available.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 02:55 PM
May 25, 2015
365-Gigapixel Panorama Becomes the World's Largest Photo

So yea, in case you were wondering 365-Gigapixels is a lot of gigas…. :)

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 01:56 PM
March 25, 2015
Golf Photo Plus 2015 Shoot Out

Finally the GPP2015 ShootOut featuring Sara Lando, Ryan Brenizer & Joel Grimes is online.

GPP2015 ShootOut featuring Sara Lando, Ryan Brenizer & Joel Grimes from gulf photo plus on Vimeo.

As always, fantastic.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 01:17 PM
January 12, 2015
Paris Daily Photo Ends After 10 Years

The End of Paris Daily Photo, after 10 years of posting an image a day. Pretty fantastic, I’m only sad that I just discovered the site a few months ago.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 10:44 AM
October 02, 2014
Camera51 App Automatically Helps You Compose Better Photos with Your Smartphone

Camera51 App Automatically Helps You Compose Better Photos with Your Smartphone

And that’s it, super simple. By applying things like the rule of thirds and the golden triangle to your images, it hopes to take standard smartphone shots to new compositional heights… automatically.

Looks interesting. Not sure I like the ‘pass on years of experience automatically’, but it’s definitely a cool idea.

Android , Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 12:46 PM
August 12, 2014
Photographer and Marilyn Monroe Story

The last sitting is a great bit about photographer Bert Stern and a photo session with Marilyn Monroe. Absolutely fascinating read.

He then looked at his subject and was surprised. Monroe had a scar. She’d had a gall bladder operation six weeks before. He remembered Liz Taylor had been marked as well  a long tracheotomy scar along her throat. He recalled Diana Vreeland telling him, “I think there’s nothing duller than a smooth, perfect-skinned woman. A woman is beautiful by her scars.” He didn’t buy it when Vreeland said those words, but here he was with a half-naked Marilyn Monroe. How could argue with that opinion now?

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 05:16 PM
August 05, 2014
Pentax Q-S1 Announced

After lots of rumors, the Pentax Q-S1 has finally been officially announced. Looks like a sexy little camera.

The Q-S1 features an impressive 40 stylish colour combinations. A 12.4 megapixel, back-illuminated CMOS sensor promises to deliver high-quality images for the photographer in you. Creativity is certainly not compromised in the PENTAX Q series latest installment. Users will be able to use Bokeh Control to produce SLR-like bokeh effects with ease, as well as Smart Effects Modes to add the desired filter effects with the simple turn of a dial. The combination of a well-conceived design and great operability makes the PENTAX Q-S1 an ideal everyday camera for photographers of all levels.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 02:11 PM
July 09, 2014
Behind the Scenes with the Air Force Thunderbirds' Official Photographer

I’m pretty sure that this guy has the world’s greatest job.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 05:01 PM
July 02, 2014
Photographing Fireworks Tutorials

A couple of links for my friends in the US who might be setting up to do some fireworks photography this upcoming Fourth of July. * Joe McNally has a great writeup on how to take some great shots of fireworks. Joe’s the man, so you know he knows what he’s talking about. * There’s also another great fireworks tutorial over at PhotographyBB.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 03:29 PM
June 18, 2014
Lots Of New Goodies From Adobe (Lightroom, Photoshop, Mobile)

Lots of news from Adobe today. Updates to their mobile apps, release of their Creative Cloud 2014 software (for those afraid that the rolling update releases will not force them to add in new features, of which Photoshop just got a few), and more. Best news of all is about the Photographer deal from CC:

Last year, Adobe announced a $9.99/month photography plan for the Creative Cloud in response to photographers that didn’t want to use all of the CC apps. When they announced it, it was a temporary thing. So if you got it, you were in. If not, you weren’t. Well, then they brought it back, but again it was still meant to be temporary. I think that made a lot of people uneasy because they thought maybe next year it would go away, and they’d have to revert back to old versions or spend more money to get the full Creative Cloud. So today, they officially announced that the Creative Cloud Photography plan is permanent. It’s not going away so if you want to sign up this week, great. If not, and maybe you decide to next month it’ll still be there.

Great news all around.

Photography , Software - Posted by Arcterex at 03:54 PM
June 17, 2014
Slide and Clutch: Versatile Camera Sling and Hand Strap From Peak Design

Slide and Clutch is the latest Kickstarter endeavor from Peak Design, who produced some very cool camera clips previously, and make a compelling argument why their camera straps are different and better than the competition.

While I own a Black Rapid camera sling strap and a eBay $3.50 special hand strap, I contributed right away, and are really looking forward to seeing these guys succeed (again). Please have a look at their Kickstarter page and become a backer so I can have these new products.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 03:23 PM
June 12, 2014
Add GPS to your dumb camera photos using your iOS device

Add GPS to your dumb camera photos using your iOS device. A great writeup of my favorite iOS app for geotagging for my photography.

Apple/Mac , Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 04:32 PM
June 11, 2014
Photog Stopped at Six Flags for Wearing 'I Shoot RAW' Shirt

Saw this on Petapixel this morning: Photog Stopped at Six Flags for Wearing ‘I Shoot RAW’ Shirt. This makes my blood boil. The issue is obviously they think “I shoot RAW” has some connotation with guns, but for some reason they refuse to admit that (which is weird), and the park employees are completely hypocritical. Seriously, screw those guys. I’m so glad I’ve never had any issues with harassment as a photographer from douchebags like this.

Grrrr…..

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 10:03 AM
May 16, 2014
Updated Nik Collection by Google Includes Analog Efex Pro v2

Noticed today that Nik introduced Analog Efex Pro v2!. Lots of nice updates there if you’re into photography.

Photography , Software - Posted by Arcterex at 03:16 PM
May 05, 2014
onOne Software's Perfect Effects 8 available for free

onOne Software’s Perfect Effects 8 available for free. Always been a big fan of onOne, so this is pretty cool.

onOne Software is offering its Perfect Effects 8 Premium Edition plugin for free for a limited time. It gives you hundreds of creative presets, fully customizable filters and ability to combine effects. Perfect Effects 8 works as a standalone application (Windows or Mac) or integrates with Adobe Lightroom, Aperture and Photoshop. Go to the onOne Software site to get this fully licensed version - worth $99.95 - for free (a the time of writing).  

Photography , Software - Posted by Arcterex at 11:32 PM
May 01, 2014
Humans of New York On Approaching Strangers

Humans of New York has a great talk on approaching people on the street. He’s done it in the area of 10,000 times, so he knows really well what to say (and not say) and how to present yourself. Great for street photographers.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 05:07 PM
April 24, 2014
DPReview's First Impressions Of the Leica "T"

From the Leica T first impressions review:

Assessing a camera like the Leica T comes with its own set of problems. The first is suspension of disbelief at the pricing - Leica has become a premium, essentially ‘designer’ brand, but even so the idea of spending £2700 for a mirrorless camera with no built-in EVF and a slow zoom lens is difficult to accept rationally. But exclusivity has become part of Leica’s continued existence, and manufacturing this kind of product in Germany (complete with 45 minutes of hand-finishing each body shell) both contributes to, and helps justify, the high price. The design is - quite deliberately - all about desire over reason.

It is a damn sexy camera, but I couldn’t justify the cost.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 03:14 PM
April 22, 2014
Lytro Releases New Camera

Via Engadget: Lytro’s new light-field camera looks like an actual camera, costs $1,599.

“It’s thinner, lighter, and it has a bigger zoom range and a bigger aperture than you could’ve ever gotten conventionally,” said Ng. “We’re doing in software what physical pieces of glass had historically had to do.” Ng added, “To design something like this with a conventional camera would essentially be impossible.”

Looks pretty sexy, and not “OMG WTF is that”. I’m really interested to hear what it does in real life.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 09:40 AM
April 08, 2014
Lightroom Releases Mobile App for iPad and Web

Lightroom mobile was released last night. It’s an iPad app and a webapp, which is run through your Adobe CC account (required). It syncs fairly transparently through the cloud and images appear on the web for display or sharing, or on your iPad for an almost full blown editing experience.

Several aspects are missing from the app. No keywording, colors, or metadata editing, but a basically complete editing experience. Very cool. If you need the other side of the coin, PhotoSmith handles image ingesting, selecting, keywording, adding metadata, and sorting really well, but (as of now) has no editing capabilities. A match made in heaven.

Lightroom Mobile was super easy to setup and install, and as long as you have an Adobe CC account (even the $9.99 photographer bundle thankfully!), it’s free and as far as I can tell un-restricted. A great way to have a portfolio setup on the go and doing some quick and dirty editing.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 10:01 AM
April 04, 2014
Great Nikon Video

Dedicated is a behind the scenes view of the making of a video for the Nikon D4s. Regardless of your camera manufacturer affiliation, it’s still a great look at cameras, gear, photographers.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 03:32 PM
February 18, 2014
TEN MORE Photography eBook Now Free

TEN MORE from Craft & Vision is now free. If you’re into photography then this is a great book to have and add to your collection. Even at it’s full price of a whopping $5 it was well worth it.

The full list of free Craft & Vision eBooks is:

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 09:42 AM
January 09, 2014
Great Photographer Interviews via VSCO

I had no idea that Visual Supply Co (VSCO) had a Journal with fantastic interviews (and pictures) from interesting photographers.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 02:19 PM
December 11, 2013
500px / Blog / Announcing 500pxArt.com

Today 500px (my favorite photography site online) announced an evolution of it’s marketplace, called 500pxArt.com:

500px Art offers 28 options for base materials, styles, frames and multiple sizing options to choose from. Payment processing is available in over 20 currencies and shipping is world-wide (your most requested option is here!). As a dedicated site, 500pxArt.com is accessible to anyone looking to purchase and sell exceptionally beautiful photographs.

Site looks awesome. Remember that you can of course follow my work there at 500px.com/AlanBailward

Photography , Random Linkage - Posted by Arcterex at 10:58 AM
December 05, 2013
Reuters Best photos of the year 201

Another list of Best photos of the year 2013 from Reuters. Some really good ones in there, though be warned, there are a few that are a bit disturbing.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 01:03 PM
December 02, 2013
The Arcanum: An Online 'Hogwarts' Where You Can Learn One-on-One from the Pros

The Arcanum: An Online ‘Hogwarts’ Where You Can Learn One-on-One from the Pros

That system has all but disappeared where most professions are concerned, but photographer Trey Ratcliff wants to bring it back into the world of the arts, and he’s doing it through a newly-formed online “Magical Academy for the Mastery of the Arts” that he’s calling “The Arcanum.”

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 12:01 PM
November 27, 2013
Amazing 80s Era Camera Review by Digital... I Mean Shutter Rev, TV

This awesome review of the Canon Top Twin film camera shows just how good (or bad) the good old days of photography actually were. Really a great look at how things were (at least viewed through our current age eyes).

Funny Stuff , Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 02:26 PM
November 05, 2013
Photography Service Everpix Shutting Down

Sad news today on the Everpix Blog that the photo storage and sharing service is shutting down :( I’ve followed Everpix for a while now and really thought they had “made it”. They were well loved by the photography community.

Some more information about the shutdown over in this Verge article.

The upside is that the guys involved are talented, so you know whatever they create next will be awesome. Best of luck in the future gentlemen.

Photography , Random Linkage - Posted by Arcterex at 10:49 AM
September 20, 2013
Camera Phones and Megapixels

How many megapixels do you need?

So how many megapixels do you need? Here’s the shortest answer we can muster: for most purposes 3MP is plenty, but you might want to shoot at around 8MP for the crispest possible details. 8MP is a sensible minimum for big prints and 4K TVs, and even higher resolutions allow you to crop photos without sacrificing quality too much. However, make sure that very high resolutions are matched by an equivalent increase in sensor size. 

Photography , Random Linkage - Posted by Arcterex at 03:30 PM
September 09, 2013
Sony Debuts Two Revolutionary Lens-Style Cameras for your Smartphone

Sony Officially Debuts Two Revolutionary Lens-Style Cameras for your Smartphone.

Earlier today, after weeks worth of rumors and leaks, Sony finally announced the ‘lens cameras’ we had heard so much about. No need to parse through rumors and speculate about what’s truth and what’s fiction, the company’s QX100 and QX10 smartphone-attachable lens-style cameras are officially here.

These are the detachable lenses that will wirelessly beam to your smartphone, but also give you high megapixels and high quality glass.

I’m all over this, though there are a ton of questions to answer first :)

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 01:33 PM
August 12, 2013
David duChemin Gives Away His Photography eBook 'Ten'

A fantastic photographer and internet friend of yours truly (kinda) announced today that his first eBook TEN is now free. This is a great deal, and even at the $4 or $5 that his eBooks over at Craft & Vision normally it’s a great deal. It’s an eBook all about creativity and getting out of the ‘gear rut’ of photography and back into the Vision side of it.

Short version, just go download it, hey, it’s free right?

Photography , Random Linkage - Posted by Arcterex at 10:13 AM
May 20, 2013
Flickr Makes Big Site Changes

Flickr’s new stuff:

  • A terabyte of storage
  • A new look

Looks very pinterest-y, with a look similar to google+ and the “masonary” photo layout. Looks good so far, hopefully it’s more than a coat of paint and they’re going to really drive Flickr to be a great site.

Photography , Random Linkage - Posted by Arcterex at 02:26 PM
May 08, 2013
The Grid: Episode 94 - Tom Hogarty from Adobe | The Grid

Adobe talks about cloud only as it effects photographers

Catch the rest of the podcasts as well if you are into photography.

Photography , Podcasts , Software - Posted by cthulhu at 04:50 PM
May 07, 2013
After nearly 10 years, Adobe abandons its Creative Suite entirely to focus on Creative Cloud - The Next Web

After nearly 10 years, Adobe abandons its Creative Suite entirely to focus on Creative Cloud

A post by Trey Radcliff
Ready to pay Adobe $29.99 a month for the rest of your life? hehe… Or wait, how about $49.99 a month for the complete package?

I think it’s pretty crazy… I like the good old days of buying software and owning it forever. For example, let’s say that I drop my Creative Cloud membership and I want to go back in a few months later and, say, CROP AN IMAGE using Photoshop, then I can’t without paying Adobe again? It just seems crazy!

Anyway, we’ll discuss this on the live show soon - see https://plus.google.com/events/c647hgj11keapdsnva92m5d6uao — we’ll bring this up almost straight away with +Thomas Hawk +Frederick Van Johnson and more!

To me, it seems like Adobe seems more interested in having predictable revenue than making customers happy. This tends to happen in organizations with a lot of bloat where eventually decisions are made by bean-counters and committees. Am I wrong? I don’t think so…

Photography , Software - Posted by cthulhu at 03:23 PM
May 06, 2013
Beautiful Steampunk Link Cosplay by Molecular Agatha [Pic] | Geeks are Sexy Technology News

Beautiful Steampunk Link Cosplay by Molecular Agatha

Gaming , Photography , Random Linkage - Posted by cthulhu at 09:53 AM
May 02, 2013
Adobe gives sneak peak of Lightroom-style app for tablets

Adobe gives sneak peak of Lightroom-style app for tablets

A Nice story to make Alan Squee….

Photography , Software , iPad - Posted by cthulhu at 04:19 PM
April 23, 2013
Fake Lytro Part 2

Related to the last post, check out FocusTwist which lets you focus photos after taking a picture. It’s a $1.99 iPhone app available here.

Apple/Mac , Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 12:03 PM
Build Your Own Lytro: DIY Hack DOF-Changeable Photos With Any Camera

From this reddit thread comes this Hack: DOF-Changeable Photos with an SLR. It fakes out the any-DoF effect by using a short video manually focused through the entire depth of field and then some online magic to create the “clickable” image.

It’s definitely not the Lytro “take a picture” method, but it’s pretty neat if you find something that requires this particular style of tech.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 11:48 AM
April 22, 2013
Pro Version of the Hadouken Meme By Fancy New York Photographer Bill Wadman

Hadouken Shoot - Take One is an awesome and professional take on the Hadouken meme. Really cool to see a real photographers take on this, with good lighting, setup, etc. Also Bill Wadman is an expert on making things fancy, so of course it’s awesome.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 05:19 PM
April 19, 2013
Roof Topper Photographers on 500px

Nice selection of Roof Topper Photographers on the 500px blog. Definitely something not for the weak-stomached :)

Photography , Random Linkage - Posted by Arcterex at 01:18 PM
April 08, 2013
Cool New Camera Stabilizer from Freefly

Chase Jarvis goes into MOVI a New Camera Stabilizer from Freefly, including a great movie and behind the scenes movie from the great Vincent Laforet.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 10:36 AM
Free eBook From Craft & Vision: Craft & Vision 2

Saw today that my favorite site for Photography eBooks has a new free eBook, Craft & Vision 2 available.

craft-and-vision2.png

Free is free, and C&V has high quality stuff, so run, don’t walk, to your computer to download this now.

Note: There seems to be some sort of wonkiness going with the checkout system right now so it might not be available for download right away. Yea, looks like we killed it.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 09:28 AM
March 25, 2013
Christian Pesch - Google+ - The Nik Collection by Google: photography first, for...

Found a link on reddit this morning that led me to interesting information on the The Nik Collection (now) by Google.

Short version is that the full collection is now $149 (or if you use DZISER on checkout you can get it for $126.65 USD) instead of the previous $499.

Even better if you have even one of the previous plugins, you get an upgrade to the entire thing free. If you’ve ever seen some beautiful black and white you will want it just for Silver Efex Pro. There’s a 15 day free trial if you want to check out the software first of course.

Google , Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 10:01 AM
March 18, 2013
The 2013 GPP Shootout Via Strobist

The awesome David Hobby posted about how he had A Front Row Seat at the 2013 GPP Shootout which includes, awesomely enough, a video of this year’s photographer shootout, which is awesome. I re-watched the last 3 years of the GPP shootout to prepare :)

GPP2013 Shoot-Out from gulf photo plus on Vimeo.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 02:31 PM
March 11, 2013
Pentax Rumored to announce several new DSLRs

I’ve heard it before, so when I saw that Pentax is rumored to announce several new DSLRs and a new compact APS-C camera, I’ll say what I’ve said before.

Pentax is rumored to announce several new DSLR cameras (as early as this month, as many as 5 new DSLRs) which will be priced between $400 and $2000.

“I’ll believe it when I see it.” I’ve been hurt too many times before to get my hopes up.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 05:21 PM
March 07, 2013
Dove Creates Fake 'Beautify' Photoshop Action Reverts Women's Bodies to Un-retouched State

Saw this this morning: Trojan Horse Hidden ‘Beautify’ Photoshop Action Reverts Women’s Bodies to Un-retouched State. Viral marketing at it’s best of course. While I’m all for people being satisfied with themselves, young girls not being pressured by the media, etc, blaming “photoshop” is just silly. So much of what people consider “unphotoshopped images” these days are really just “bad pictures”. You can do a ton to change perception with just a pose, good lighting, and a pretty model before you start doing massive body alterations with the liquefy filter.

But lets call this what it is, a viral marketing add to get you to buy beauty products from Dove. Altruistic as they are, their goal is to get you to give them money in the end.

Photography , Random Linkage - Posted by Arcterex at 11:18 AM
Picasa web is now redirecting to Google+

Picasa web is now redirecting to Google+, long live picasa web.

I have to agree with Leo on this weeks This Week in Google, I don’t mind so much if all the features are still there (though I haven’t used Picasaweb in ages), but the “plusification” of everything makes me a bit nervous.

Google , Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 11:00 AM
March 04, 2013
Interview with Photographer Joey L.

Great Interview with Photographer Joey L. over on PetaPixel for all you photo buffs out there.

I’m watching the Joey L vs Lara Jade video right now and he’s got some pretty awesome skills.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 10:48 AM
February 15, 2013
Finding Vivian Maier - Official Movie Trailer

Finding Vivian Maier - Official Movie Trailer is out. If you haven’t heard of Vivian Maier and have an interest in photography, definitely check out the trailer, which gives you the story.

Can’t wait to check this out :)

Movies , Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 09:38 AM
February 13, 2013
Guest Post On Venture Beat: The best -- and worst -- iPhone camera apps

I was honoured to do a guest post on Venture Beat for my friend John Koetsier, and after some editing (and a heck of a lot of reformatting), it’s posted:

A photographer and developer with 86 camera apps highlights the best — and worst — iPhone camera apps.

Many thanks to John for giving me the opportunity to do the post!

Photography , iPhone - Posted by Arcterex at 11:36 AM
January 21, 2013
500px Lightroom Plugin Updated And Open Sourced

Awesome news that the (great) site 500px has updated their Lightroom Plugin and open sourced it.

This was an exciting week for 500px Lightroom Plugin! We’ve updated the plugin with fixes & new features and released it open source. Which means better plugin for you and endless fun for developers world-wide.

Photography , Software - Posted by Arcterex at 01:47 PM
January 08, 2013
Pentax MX-1 hands-on preview at DPReview

DPReview has posted their Pentax MX-1 hands-on preview.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 04:23 PM
January 07, 2013
PENTAX Announces New Point and Shoot: MX-1

943_1355868112_MX-1_Silver_3QView_large.jpgThis morning Pentax announced the Pentax MX-1, in both silver and black. Here’s the exerpt from the announcement:

Classically Crafted, Contemporary Quality

With its genuine brass covers and advanced digital compact capabilities, the PENTAX MX-1 is where craft design meets contemporary quality. The MX-1’s fast F1.8-2.5 lens, 4X zoom and large 12 megapixel backlit CMOS sensor allow for bright everyday imagery inside a stylish body. As its brass wears with time, feel the good old days come back to life in your images of today with the PENTAX MX-1.

Some of the highlights of the body are:

  • 1/1.7” 12mp sensor
  • F/1.8-2.5 aperture lens
  • 1080p @ 30fps video mode
  • 28-112mm 35mm equivelant (4x optical zoom, with digital (ugh) of 1.95x to make 7.8x zoom effective)
  • 3” tiltable LCD
  • Face and pet face detection
  • SD/SDHC/SDXC, with 75mb of internal memory, also Eye-Fi compatible
  • Weighs only 12.8 oz (without battery)
  • Sensor shift optical image stabilization

I really wish that they’d taken a bit more of a cue from the Fuji X-100 in terms of the sensor, but the modern styling does look beautiful (if the pictures do anything). Also it’ll be interesting to see how the sensor stacks up in terms of low light. Anyone from Pentax out there want to send me a review unit? :)

Camera , Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 10:35 AM
December 18, 2012
Instagram Vs Flickr And They're Listening

If you’ve been all angsty about the new Instagram terms of service, you’ll want a look at Instagram vs Flickr, however they (Instagram) wants you to know that they’re listening to your concerns.

Also lets be honest, no one is selling your crappy pictures of a latte no matter how artistic they are.

Photography , Random Linkage , Software - Posted by Arcterex at 03:30 PM
December 06, 2012
Snapseed for iOS Goes Free

Snapseed for iOS (itunes link) is my go-to on-the-go editor, and now a couple of weeks after Nik Software was bought by google, the app has been updated, made free (was $4.99, and worth every penny), and updated with some extra functionality (Google+ sharing) and given a swanky new icon.

Apple/Mac , Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 10:01 AM
November 26, 2012
Nikon D600 Dust Time Lapse

“Dustgate” (my name) is the new drama associated with release of the Nikon D600 and it’s apparent tendency to accumulate more dust on the sensor than normal. A Photographer created a time-lapse showing D600 ‘dust’ accumulation, via DPReview.

Canadian photographer Kyle Clemens just bought a Nikon D600, but rather than get straight out and start shooting with it, he decided to investigate the widely-reported claims of a ‘dust problem’. Clements set his D600 up with a fixed 50mm F1.8 lens, pointed it at a white wall, and shot 1000 images. Then he created a timelapse video which shows the slow accumulation of debris on the camera’s sensor. Although the exposure of the individual frames isn’t uniform, Clements’ video clearly shows a steady buildup of debris over the course of shooting the 1000 frames. 

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 10:37 AM
November 16, 2012
Lytro Light Field Cameras Now Allow (Slight) Perspective Shifting

Perspective Shift and Living Filters are the new toys available to Lytro photographers.

Perspective Shift allows Lytro photographers to interactively change the point of view in a picture after it has been taken. On a computer or mobile device, both the photographer and viewers can move the living picture in any direction; left, right, up, down and all around. When pictures with Perspective Shift are shared to the web, Facebook and Twitter, friends can experience Perspective Shift without needing any special software. Perspective Shift works on any light field pictures previously taken with a Lytro camera and with any new light field pictures.

Wow.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 11:46 AM
November 13, 2012
Videos Poking Fun at Clueless DSLR Users

Funny video Poking Fun at Clueless DSLR Users as part of a mirrorless camera marketing campaign.

I’m secretly terrified I’m all of those people. You guys would tell me if I was, right?

Right??

Funny Stuff , Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 02:31 PM
October 17, 2012
GoPro Releases New Hero3

Chase Jarvis on the New GoPro Hero3 video camera.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 03:50 PM
October 02, 2012
The 10 Steps Every HDR Photographer Goes Through

Great stuff: The 10 Steps Every HDR Photographer Goes Through:

Well I hope this article made some of you laugh a little as I (somewhat) vaguely described my journey as an “HDR photographer.”  I went through all these phases and I think a lot people reading this have gone through plenty of them as well! I still have Photomatix in my dock and I still take bracketed exposures ‘just in case’ when I can’t capture everything in camera. But now, more often than not, I continually surprise myself by seeing how powerful and efficient programs like Lightroom are at bringing in all those details. I don’t think I’ll ever abandon HDR completely, there are just too many situations that demand it in my opinion. I just know that it’s not always needed and I can now freely laugh at the views I had in the past.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 04:30 PM
September 17, 2012
The Importance of Google Acquiring Nik Software

Nice take on the acquisition from Trey Ratcliff: The Importance of Google Acquiring Nik Software.

This is an exciting move from Google, and another indication that Google takes photography very seriously. Most of the silicon-valley-bubble-press probably does not know much about Nik Software, and doesn’t realize that this is a company built by and for professional photographers. Even though their software is designed for “pros”, I’m confident in saying that 90% of their customers are amateurs who are using these same tools to make them look like pros! Nik makes amazing tools, and I am really looking forward to seeing them bleed into my daily life of using Google+.

Personally I’m a bit worried. I really, really love Nik and their SilverEfex and HDR Efex, and with google’s purchases it’s always a toss up between “take this and make it more awesome” and “kill it”. I’ve got my fingers crossed for the former.

Google , Photography , Software - Posted by Arcterex at 12:20 PM
Canon EOS 6D Announced

Via a Facebook post this morning: Canon announces EOS 6D enthusiast-level Wi-Fi capable full-frame DSLR via DPreview.

Short story is 20mp, full frame sensor, ISO up to 51200 (or 102400 in the high extended noone-will-ever-use-it mode), 3.2” LCD, 97% viewfinder, .71x viewfinder magnification, 1080p video in all the expected FPSs, SD/SDHC/SDXC storage, WiFi and GPS built in, and pretty much everything else that you’d expect.

We won’t know how good it really is until the full hands on and detailed reviews are done, but looks pretty nice that’s for sure! Wonder if this is the start of the end of the APS-C “pro-sumer” cameras, as this will premier at $2099, which is definitely pushing it into the realm of mere mortals (though the sub-$1000 are still going to be more common with the more budget concious photogs out there).

Update: I spoke too soon, DPreview does have a preview up for those wanting a closer look at the new kit.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 11:25 AM
September 11, 2012
Free 27 Minute Beginner Photography Course From Trey Ratcliff

Trey Ratcliff, of Stuck in Customs, has released a beginner photography level 27 minute video which is pretty cool even if you know what you’re doing behind the lens.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 02:38 PM
August 31, 2012
The Facebook Timeline of a Photograph

This has been passed around a bit over the last couple of days. The Facebook Timeline of a photograph is a fun look back through history, all the way back to 1000 AD.

Photography , Random Linkage - Posted by Arcterex at 12:39 PM
August 27, 2012
On Why You Can Trust Your Professional Photographer

Found Yes, You Can Trust Your Professional Photographer via @worstofmayhem. Basically it is a photographers reaction to an article which basically indicates that you can’t trust your photographer because they are probably an idiot who just took a class, quit their job and are now charging exorbitant rates yet has no skills.

Ahh… stupid people. We really cannot legislate against stupid people. Anyone who watches a YouTube video and quits their job to become a photographer with no experience is… well… a stupid people.

It’s a good read, especially if you’re a photographer (or play one on tv).

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 01:51 PM
Craft & Vision 3 Year Announcements

If you’re vaguely into photography you’ve heard about Craft and Vision, by Mr. duChemin and their excellent eBooks for photographers. Well, Craft & Vision is 3 Years Old and have a slew of announcements including a quarterly magazine, that the C&V community (previously a paid, closed service) is free (Sept 1 anyway), and others. Great way to start off the Monday morning.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 10:44 AM
August 24, 2012
Quikdraw A New Innovative Lens Holster For the DSLR

While I’m not sure that I’d use something like this, the Quikdraw lens holder does look like an interesting concept, especially for event photographers.

Currently they’re at $39,000 of their $100,000 goal, with 23 days to go. Fingers crossed for Riley Kimball to make it!

Via f-stoppers.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 09:07 AM
August 15, 2012
Government "Run Hide Fight" Videos Target Bombers + Photographers

Dear America… the people who put out this sort of Government “Run Hide Fight” Videos are part of the reasons that you are mocked. This video seriously sounds like something out of the book 1984. I’m not as offended by the implication that people “taking suspicious pictures” are terrorists as the idiocy of it all.

I say fight back against the idiocy. Report everything. See someone leave their car to run in and get a coke? Report it. See someone wearing jeans on a day when the temperature is over 20C? Report them. See someone you’ve never seen before near your building? REPORT THEM.

Sigh.

Photography , Random Linkage - Posted by Arcterex at 04:05 PM
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer Joins Flickr

Thomas Hawk welcomes Marissa Mayer to Flickr:

Pretty much ever since the day Marissa Mayer joined Yahoo as CEO I’ve been doing a search for her name as a member of Flickr. I’ve been heavily invested both in terms of personal energy and emotion in Flickr as a place to showcase my photography on the web and have been critical over the years of how Yahoo executive leadership has handled the site.

Update: Not her) :(

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 11:05 AM
July 26, 2012
Canon EOS M With Canon Lenses

Very cool review with images of what the new mirrorless Canon EOS M attached to every canon lens in production

Via reddit’s r/photography.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 12:27 PM
July 23, 2012
Canon EOS M Hands On Preview

DPReview has a Canon EOS M hands-on preview for those looking for info on the new Canon Mirrorless system.

The EOS M features a compact, magnesium-alloy body, and will be available in four colours - black, white, silver and red. It has no built-in flash, but instead a hot shoe on the top plate, and in many markets (although not the US) it will come bundled with the new AAA-powered Speedlite 90EX unit. There’s neither a built-in viewfinder, nor connector for an external unit - composition is solely using the camera’s rear screen (which is fixed, rather than articulated).

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 02:15 PM
July 20, 2012
Canon Mirrorless EOS M Revealed

SLR Lounge has at least some rumors of an interesting new looking [mirrorless camera from Canon called the Canon EOS M]](http://www.slrlounge.com/hot-off-the-press-canon-mirrorless-eos-m-revealed).

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 09:11 AM
July 17, 2012
Thomas Hawk: An Open Letter to Marissa Mayer, CEO Yahoo Inc.

The photographically prolific Thomas Hawk has An Open Letter to Marissa Mayer, CEO Yahoo Inc.:

Dear Marissa,

Congratulations on your new position with Yahoo. I’ve been a huge fan of Google for a long time and have admired the work that you’ve done there. Google Maps, specifically, has been a big part of my life. Google Maps is the primary reason I switched from an iPhone to an Android phone in fact. The ability to add my maps as a layer on a mobile device when I go to photograph a new city is, for me, an incredibly important feature.

Yahoo has, with Flickr, the core to launch a serious contender to both Google+ and Facebook. Flickr is not “just photos.” Within the DNA of Flickr is a highly social property with serious potential if given the right resources and attention. Flickr Groups could become a powerhouse for groups all across the web that have nothing to do with photography. Competition is fierce though and time is short. Google Events is the first step towards creating a more meaningful group experience at Google and they did Google Events really, really well. It almost feels like it was built for, yes, wait for it — photographers.

This is not the first letter Thomas has written to various Yahoo CEOs.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 01:40 PM
July 12, 2012
Photosmith v2.1 Updated and Delayed

I’ve written about Photosmith before as the program that I’ve wanted to build myself ever since I discovered Lightroom and a smartphone. Now PhotoSmith version 2.1 is released promising to fix pretty much all of my complaints about the program when I initially purchased it. Better use of previews, more stable syncing of large collections, and tons more.

Sadly you can’t (currently) get the version 2.1 update due to some release issues that were found right after it went live, and I know that the photosmith team is working hard to determine where the errors are coming from and fixing them ASAP. Ping them over at @photosmithapp with some words of encouragement.

Here’s the official changelog:

Changes:

  • Added Pick & Reject flag sync with Lightroom v4 or higher (LR 3.x cannot sync flags)
  • Added Filtering by Flag
  • Added display dimming during long syncs to save battery power
  • Added support for emoji characters in metadata presets
  • Added support for grid sorting based on subsecond capture times
  • Improved handling of iPad sleep mode during sync
  • Improved display speed of large keyword sets

Top bug fixes:

  • Fixed rotation problem with certain images displayed stretched
  • Fixed EXIF date/time parsing for many file types
  • Fixed bug where sync would stop unexpectedly for large datasets
  • Better handling of Facebook sessions when flipping between tabs
  • Fixed formatting of user names for Flickr
  • Increased Flickr upload timeout to allow for large uploads without timeouts
  • Fixed occurrence of "null-null" display in Grid group headers
  • Fixed hangs & crashes when purging offline photos
  • Fixed color label order in QuickTag bar and sorting to match Lightroom's order

Plugin:

  • Added ability to use LR cached previews during sync, speeding up sync
  • Added checking and notification of sqlite and exiftool executables needed for preview
  • Added support for searching for filenames by image sequence number (needed for jpg proxy workflow)
  • Added advanced sync conflict detection
  • Added write permissions check for remote updates
  • Added additional networking retries to help re-establish sync communications
  • Added keepalive thread to better handle large sync operations
  • Re-enabled matching by file date/time with the 2.1 version of the app
  • Text/formatting updates to Plugin Manager screen
Photography , Software - Posted by Arcterex at 12:29 PM
June 20, 2012
How to Destroy Your Photography Career

How I ruined my career:

It wasn’t just an image here and there, either. I took complete shoots and blog posts from other photographers. I even stole a blog post about starting a photography business. The saddest part is that the blog post gave advice like “operate with integrity” and “respect your fellow photographer,” which I obviously was not doing by stealing others’ hard work.

Youch.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 12:14 PM
June 07, 2012
ScanCafe Deal From 1000memories - $0.19/scan For 1000 Images

Cool deal, if you’re looking for image scanning services, you can get a deal with ScanCafe through 1000memories which gets the price down to $0.19/scan for 1000+ scans. Included is saving the images to your 1000 memories “shoebox” account.

I’ve written about 1000memories.com back when they updated their site in April.

Photography , Random Linkage - Posted by Arcterex at 11:10 AM
June 03, 2012
Amazing Photoshop Transformation Videos

Nice collection over at mashable of 9 Astounding Photoshop Transformation videos.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 06:01 PM
May 30, 2012
Lightroom 4.1 Now Available

Great news lightroom folks, Lightroom 4.1 Now Available.

Lightroom 4.1 is now available as a final release on Adobe.com and through the update mechanism in Lightroom 4. The goal of this release is to provide additional camera raw support, lens profile support and address bugs that were introduced in previous releases of Lightroom. In addition, Lightroom 4.1 introduces the following new features:[…]

The standard array of new cameras and lenses supported, bugs fixed, and other minor tweaks.

Photography , Software - Posted by Arcterex at 03:48 PM
May 28, 2012
Objects of Beauty, 4. - "He who brings good"

Once again Vancouver photographer David DuChemin makes me want to sell almost everything I own, pack my bags, leave my life, my job, and everything I know behind and take a camera around the world.

I really really want to do this, and have no idea if I ever will be able to.

His post this morning, Objects of Beauty is a great look at his life. That bastard :)

Photography , Random Linkage - Posted by Arcterex at 10:57 AM
May 21, 2012
Pentax Announces The K-30

Got an email today announcing the Pentax K-30.

  • 16 MP CMOS sensor
  • 1080p HD video
  • Advanced auto focus and image stabilization
  • 100% FOV viewfinder

Full specs here.

DPReview also has a preview of the K-30 for something more in depth. To me it looks like it’s not the high end K-5, but has a lot of the updated hardware from the K-01.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 04:36 PM
May 17, 2012
The Making of the Leica M9-P

Gorgeous video of The Making of the Leica M9-P, a gorgeous camera.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 10:37 AM
May 07, 2012
Microsoft RAW Viewer

New(er) download of the Microsoft Camera Codec Pack to view supported RAW images within the Explorer. Not great new functionality if you’re a photographer and using Lightroom or Bridge or the like, still good to see it’s available for 64bit now as well.

Microsoft , Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 10:49 AM
April 25, 2012
Flickr Announces New Uploader

Insisting that they’re not dead yet, Flickr has updated their image uploader. Well, it’s not live yet, but the sneak peak they give shows a pretty sexy HTML5 utility that looks like a pleasure to use. Faster, easier workflow, and bumped max upload sizes (30/50mb for free/pro respectively). Should be live for all users “soon”.

Photography , Software - Posted by Arcterex at 02:06 PM
April 24, 2012
Yosemite Time Lapse Video - Range of Light

Yosemite Range of Light is an amazing time lapse video of Yosemite by Shawn Reeder.

Simply stunning. Definitely watch this on the largest screen you can in high def.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 12:59 PM
Rare Nikon 6mm f/2.8 Lens

Preposterously large and rare Nikon 6mm f/2.8 lens for sale in London posted over on The Verge. All I can say is “hello lovely…”.

Seriously though, that’s huge. And remember that’s a 6mm in 35mm format, so it’s a “real” 6mm, not 6mm x 1.5x. I have no idea what you’d even use that thing for, other than an exercise in frustration not shooting your own feet (or in this case, your feet, legs, and waist).

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 09:08 AM
April 19, 2012
500px Releases Android App, updated iPad App

Great stuff from 500px (the awesome photo sharing site) today. First of all they have released the 500px Android app for both phone and tablet, giving android users all the loving of a full on site browsing and if you log in, all the voting, sharing, etc goodness from the site.

Secondly the iPad app has been updated with retina display graphics for the 3rd generation iPad (both for the UI and images, which got a 30% bump in pixel density), new UI and native twitter sharing.

Great stuff! As always you can find my portraits up on my account on 500px.

Android , Photography , iPad - Posted by Arcterex at 04:30 PM
April 17, 2012
A DSLR Hot Shoe Mount For Your .... Smartphone?

So the Flash Dock is a hot shoe mount for a DSLR camera to attach your SmartPhone (iPhone is shown, I assume any Android or other smartphone will do). Why would you want to do that you ask? Well, their site makes some compelling arguments, beyond of course, “why don’t you just keep it in your pocket dumbass” :)

Via tuaw.

Photography , iPhone - Posted by Arcterex at 01:41 PM
Canon 5D Mark II vs. Mark III vs. Nikon D800 High-ISO Video

Pretty amazing vide of the Canon 5D Mark II vs. Mark III vs. Nikon D800 under candlelight shot at alternating higher and higher ISO.

A couple of interesting things to note.

  • It’s interesting that either the ISO sensitivity is higher on the Nikon or something is off, as it is letting in about a stop or 2 more light (at least it looks like that visually).
  • The 5D Mark 3 looks like it’s doing a lot more noise reduction at higher ISO (looking at detail in the lashes vs the Nikon). That said….
  • HOLY CRAP is the response I had at the video from the 5Dm3 at high ISO. It maintains the “not high ISO” look amazingly well.

Via the Brooks Review.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 12:26 PM
April 10, 2012
500px Launches Mid-Level Hosting Plan

The Verge has the details of 500px launching a $19.95 image hosting plan to compete with Flickr Pro.

I think this is a good step, 500px is an excellent site and they need to be able to make more money to make the site better. Personally I agree with Thomas Hawk on Flickr being dead, but even dead they have a lot of momentum and name recognition on the web.

You of course can check out my 500px portfolio or all my images on 500px.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 02:05 PM
April 04, 2012
The Strobist April Fool's Joke That Almost Was

David Hobby writes about his Ambitious April Fool’s Joke which was almost pulled off. So, so close.

Eight hours behind, I remember getting very little sleep that night, alternating between the glee of launching an epic, intercontinental April Fool’s Day prank on Joe — and wondering what it would be like to spend the rest of my life looking over my shoulder. Because Joe is a very accomplished joker in his own right. And I am pretty sure he has a long memory.

Make sure you read the full story.

Funny Stuff , Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 10:50 AM
April 03, 2012
CameraPlus App Guide

Someone has gone and created an excellent guide for the Camera+ app on the iPhone.

Photography , iPhone - Posted by Arcterex at 08:58 PM
Instagram for Android

Instagram for Android. Yup, it’s here. Looking forward to seeing even more awesomeness in my feed.

You can get more info about it on Mashable or Engadget. Though honestly, there’s not so much to it that you need too much other information :)

Download from google marketplace Google Play here.

Update: It’s now top hit in Google Play. Yay!

Side-Rant: So lets say you’re an android user without access to the link above and want to search for Instagram on Google Play. You go there, search, and look at the search results. See instagram there? Nope, not at the top of the search results, maybe it’s just some keyword spam in there, it must be in page 2. Nope, how about page 3? 4?… not anywhere in the search results (as of 10am PST anyway). My Android Friend tells me that it could take up to 1-2 (or 12) hours to have new apps indexed, which to me sounds a bit odd for a search engine that prides itself in fast indexing. Seriously, this is a high profile app and you’d think that it should be right up there fast :)

It does luckily show up as the third hit if you just do a normal google search…

Android , Google , Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 09:43 AM
March 28, 2012
How Civil War-Era Tintype Photographs Were Made

How Civil War-Era Tintype Photographs Were Made a great video via PetaPixel. Wow, makes me feel completely spoiled.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 03:30 PM
March 20, 2012
Canon v.s Nikon Video By Joey Lawrence

Canon v.s Nikon. Ok, even if you’re not a photographer you’ll love this one.

Funny Stuff , Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 09:58 AM
March 05, 2012
Lightroom 4 Final Released!

So just as I was heading to bed I see both Twitter and Facebook blowing up (as the kids say) about the fact that Lightroom 4 was released. The initial beta wasn’t that long ago and based on the What’s New in Lightroom 4 from The Lightroom Queen not a huge amount has changed since then. Mostly little tweaks.

The biggest news is the price. Lightroom 3 was $299 to $149, half price. The upgrade cost got a similar cut to $79. No doubt they are combatting both piracy but also the low price of $79 that Aperture sells for in the Apple App store.

Has Adobe no shame about these things? Seriously, releasing this at 11:30pm when I’m about to go to bed. Seriously uncool!

Photography , Software - Posted by Arcterex at 11:35 PM
March 02, 2012
Lytro Light Field Camera Review at DPReview

Another Lytro Light Field Camera Review at DPReview.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 02:38 PM
March 01, 2012
Canon EOS 5D Mark III Hands-on Preview

Digital Photography Review has the Canon EOS 5D Mark III Hands-on Preview now that it’s been officially announced

Most of the key specs are substantially upgraded compared to the 5D Mark II. The new sensor, coupled with Canon’s latest DIGIC 5+ processor, offers a standard ISO range of 100 - 25,600 that’s expandable to 50 - 102,800. An 8-channel sensor readout enables continuous shooting at 6 fps. The shutter is rated to 150,000 cycles and has been refined for quieter operation; the Mark III also inherits the ‘silent’ shutter mode previously seen on the 1D-series (which delays mirror return for more discreet operation). Viewfinder coverage is a full 100%, and the 1040k dot, 3:2 aspect ratio 3.2” LCD screen has improved anti-reflection properties and a hardened glass cover to protect against scratching. And let’s not forget that 61-point focus system from the 1DX - the first time Canon has put its top-spec AF sensor into a non-1-series camera since the film-era EOS 3

A quick look over the specs shows that the Nikon D800 is still king of the megapixels (36 vs 22), but the price is about the same as the the D800 ($3500ish). Overall it looks like a nice upgrade for Canon folks, though I doubt that Nikon users will be jumping over for this (ditto for Canon users jumping for the D800). Interesting to hear what the guys on the Digital Convergence Podcast have to say about it!

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 09:49 PM
February 23, 2012
12 TOP Google+ Photos for February 21

12 TOP Google+ Photos for February 21. All I can say is “wow”.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 01:39 PM
February 22, 2012
Nikon D800 vs. Nikon D700 high ISO comparison

For all the photographer pixel peepers out there, have at it with the Nikon D800 vs. Nikon D700 high ISO comparison. All I can say is “wow”. I’m not saying that the high (25600 ISO) is noise free, but it looks a bit like my 4 year old DSLR’s ISO 800.

Note that images under ISO 3200 aren’t included in the comparison as there is “no visible noise”. Amazing.

Hardware , Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 09:39 AM
500px Major Revamp [Update: Back online!]

500px, a site that’s (in general) hailed as the new and modern version of flickr is currently (9:23am PST Wednesday) down with the message “we’ll be back shortly”. Really looking forward to what’s coming. You can get updates from the @500px twitter account.

Update: Back online now, and looking good!

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 09:22 AM
February 21, 2012
Flickr Freshening Up the Look for 2012

Thomas Hawk, a long time Flickr proponent and recent Flickr-hater (well, hater is a bit strong, lets say “google+ advocate” has broken some news that Flickr is Freshening Up the Look for 2012. Really interested to see if this is true, and the changes if it is. I haven’t uploaded anything of substance to flickr myself lately, as it just feels…. “old”. A complete revamp like this could really inject some life back into it.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 02:16 PM
February 13, 2012
Photoshop Plugin Exposure 4 Released

Exposure 4 is here!

Come and get it! Exposure 4 is now available. We have lots of pretty examples and videos. If your brain is exploding with anticipation, then maybe you should go straight to our store.

My brain is exploding. Looks like a great upgrade to version 3.

Photography , Software - Posted by Arcterex at 01:00 PM
February 06, 2012
Nikon D800/D800E Info Leaks (Updated - Now Official)

I’m not sure if the Nikon D800/D800E is Finally Out title is accurate, as I don’t think it’s official yet, but it does look like a lot of info (including images of it all) has leaked out.

After months of waiting and following terribly teasing rumors and small photo leaks, Nikon finally announced the D800! For the full specs, details, photos, pre-order information, and to find out what that ‘E’ means, read below. And don’t forget to keep checking back for updates as they roll out when the announcement goes live tonight!

So is this going to be your next camera? Is this an appropriate follow up to the now 4 year old D700?

Update - Looks like it’s all official, and DPReview has a hands on with the D800.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 05:46 PM
February 02, 2012
PENTAX Announces the K-01--a More Powerful Mirrorless Camera

Press release from Pentax: PENTAX Announces the K-01—a More Powerful Mirrorless Camera

One of the immediate highlights and benefits of this cameras mirrorless body design is its compatibility with all PENTAX K-mount lenses spanning decades. You won’t have to worry and wonder whether an investment in a camera of this magnitude will force you to abandon some of your favored lenses. The fact is this camera was built to be compatible with your existing equipment.

$700+ is a high cost when for a few hundred more you can get a full featured (and not that much bigger) DSLR in the K-5. The fact that the mirrorless camera will use all your existing K-mount Pentax lenses reaching back decades is awesome however. Would much rather it had a viewfinder though, even just a rangefinder style.

Engadget has more here.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 12:25 PM
January 26, 2012
Photoshop CS6 and Camera Raw Sneak Peek

Quick video from G+ with a look at the new Photoshop CS6 and Camera Raw. Not a huge amount of new details, as expected Camera Raw follows the new setup that Lightroom 4 showed up with, and the only real details about Photoshop itself is that it’s going to default to a darker theme.

Photography , Software - Posted by Arcterex at 09:14 AM
January 17, 2012
This Is What Madeline Schichtel Did In 2011, 1 Year In Under 8 Minutes

Think you're all cool with your Project 365 (photo a day every day)? Bah, so old school and lame! Check out instead This Is What Madeline Schichtel Did In 2011, 1 Year In Under 8 Minutes, the same idea but applied to video, and with sound. Very nifty!

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 10:51 PM
Alien Skin Exposure 4

Good blog post about some Exposure 4 Details at the Alien Skin blog. If you don't know, Exposure is a very sweet Photoshop plugin to add texture and effects to photos, and it looks like version 4 is shaping up to be pretty sweet! It'll be available in February 2012 for $249, or $99 upgrade costs.

Photography , Software - Posted by Arcterex at 01:18 PM
January 06, 2012
Shooting the Nikon D4 With Joe McNally's

The master of small flashes (photographic stuff I mean, you pervs), Joe McNally has his review of Shooting the Nikon D4.

The D4 is an entirely new chapter in the history of the pixels. It arrived in a nondescript box. We all stared at it, like it was something that got sent from a sci-fi movie, and if we opened it, we would find the still beating heart of an alien life form.

Anyone want to contribute a bit of $ for the "Buy Alan a new DSLR Rig" fund?

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 11:43 AM
January 05, 2012
One Self-Portrait a Day Since 1999

Beautiful video and story by Jeff Harris, who has been doing One Self-Portrait a Day Since 1999.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 05:01 PM
Fallout On the "Mirrorless Camera" Article from Trey

Trey has some follow up from his article yesterday on why DSLRs are a dying breed. The article, Scott Bourne and Other Fallout from DSLR Dying article... & Saving Money is great, and a good read.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 03:27 PM
January 04, 2012
"DSLRs are a dying breed" - Trey Ratcliff

So Trey, the HDR / Stuck in Customs guy has an interesting blog post of interest to the Photographically-interested folks out there: DSLRs are a dying breed.

I can't picture myself investing any more money in DSLR bodies and lenses. The new Nikon D4 that is coming out? Not interested.

I don't know if I agree with him 100%, more so with the time frame of 5 years or so than that DSLR technology will fade away just like Film did and non-smartphones are. The biggest issue I have with all of them is the viewfinders (I have yet to find a non-optical viewfinder that doesn't suck), but as he says, this too shall pass.

Kudos to Trey for starting a really interesting conversation :)

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 11:30 AM
December 20, 2011
New Polaroid Blends Digitial and Instant

Cool little video from a photographer that I greatly admire, Chase Jarvis, announcing the Polaroid Z340 Camera, a digital camera with instant printout. Or maybe an instant camera with digital? Either way it's a fun video and an interesting looking product.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 09:49 AM
December 14, 2011
The Hipstamatic D-Series - Social Analog Camera App

Today there was the announcement of The Hipstamatic D-Series - bringing analog back, one exposure at a time. Basically it's a new twist on social networking + camera apps + "toy camera" apps + the iPhone.

The idea is that you set up a group of people who share a "roll" of 24 exposures (argh, why do we have real world limitations in a digital world without the concept of a limit on the number of exposures). Each users' images contribute to the roll and are synced up with everyone else. Release date of tomorrow (Thursday the 15th).

The business model will be the same as hipstamatic, selling camera upgrades and film types, and you get a free camera with connections to your facebook account.

This is a neat idea, sort of a more concentrated and realized version of Color which took a similar tack of sharing photos, except it was a geo located sharing not a social network sharing.

There are a few barriers to having this work I think. The 24 exposures thing, having enough friends who use the app (but not so many that the "camera roll" is used up in 2 or three shots). That said, it's still a neat idea and I plan to download it as soon as it's up and available :) The possibilities for sharing day to day activities with friends who aren't around town are pretty interesting though. Imagine you live in say, Vancouver and have friends you would love to keep in touch with more in say, Philadelphia and Lexington. It'd be pretty cool to share a roll with them and see day to day type images as their day progresses and sharing your own. Now that's something I can get behind.

Photography , iPhone - Posted by Arcterex at 09:59 AM
December 09, 2011
A Polaroid A Day for 6,000 Days

Pretty amazing story: Days of his Life in Polaroids

His first photo was of his then girlfriend Mindy Goldstein and a friend on March 31, 1979. His last, 6,000 shots later, on October 25, 1997 - his birthday was of Livingston on his deathbed, dying from cancer.
Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 11:17 AM
December 07, 2011
HDR: Before and After Shots

HDR: Before and After is a pretty impressive collection of HDR images showing the before/after in a cool flippy javascripty thing. A nice illustration of when HDR does work and what you can do with it.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 03:35 PM
December 06, 2011
OpenPhoto Opens it's Doors

Six months ago I mentioned the OpenPhoto kickstarter project, and now, six months later, they open the doors (if you have an invite code). The full writeup is over at Hacker News and according to @openphoto they're a bit overwhelmed right now (but are saving invite requests).

Huge kudos to these guys for making this happen and it's a very cool project. My best wishes to them!

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 03:36 PM
November 23, 2011
Luminance iPhone App Free For A Limited Time

I have an admission to make.

My name is Alan, and I have an addiction to iPhone photo editing apps.

I get the free ones, sometimes pay for them. I love them, the presets, the 70s/80s/90s/Sepia and Black and White and every preset you can imagine.

But I never use them.

This one, however, looks different. Luminance, the universal photo editing app is FREE for a limited time, and after downloading it and having a quick run through, I have to say I'm impressed. An easy to undo timeline, about as many editing options as you'd get out of Lightroom with adjustments to white balance, exposure, hue/sat, split toning, and a host of others, all with easy to understand UI, or just a bunch of what looks like nice presets. So if you're like me people, go off and download this one.

Hey, what could it hurt right?

Photography , Software , iPhone - Posted by Arcterex at 11:30 AM
November 18, 2011
National Geographic Photo Contest 2011

Amazing images from the National Geographic Photo Contest 2011 over at The Big Picture.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 01:28 PM
October 19, 2011
Lytro Now Ready For Pre-Order

Remember the Lytro? That camera that you can focus with after the fact? Well, it's now for sale, $399 for an 8G model, $499 for a 16G. Interesting (revolutionary? odd?) format as you can see in the images on the camera page. Still, I was expecting a pro level cost for something the size of a truck when this came out, the fact it looks like a real consumer product and under $500? Amazing.

I'm really interested to see how this works in real life (as with all things). The 8G model will store 350 images, my math is fuzzy so you'll have to figure the megapixels, as the details page says it's 11 "Megarays", which I assume sort of translate to MP.

I can't wait till some pro folks get their paws on this one.

Gadgets , Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 02:34 PM
October 18, 2011
Canon EOS-1D X Announced

Via my buddy Duncan from Lens & Shutter, looks like the Canon EOS-1D X professional DSLR has been announced. Surprised it's not the mythic 1DS Mark 3, however the new machine looks pretty impressive. Here are some high points:


  • Available early 2012
  • 18 Megapixel full frame sensor
  • Full HD video
  • Dual Digic 5+ processors (17x faster)
  • 61 AF points
  • 10-12 FPS (remembering that this is full RAW on a huge sensor)

The DPReview overview has a lot more in depth details if that sounds delicious to you :)

Another page has a lighter weight look at the features, along with icons for dummies like me to easily understand what's going on :)

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 09:13 PM
September 28, 2011
Color Efex Pro 4 Released

Photogs out there will be happy to see that Nik has released Color Efex Pro 4. You can see some of the new bits in a video by Scott Bourne over at PhotoFocus.

Photography , Software - Posted by Arcterex at 03:46 PM
September 08, 2011
Adobe Carousel - Lightroom for iOS?

Adobe Carousel seems like a really interesting product, except for the (monthly subscription) price. If my quick read is correct, it lets you view and edit your images from your lightroom library from any iOS device.

Photography , Software - Posted by Arcterex at 04:38 PM
August 30, 2011
Flickr Announces GeoFences

Flickr has rolled out a new feature called GeoFences, which basically allows you to define areas on a map where your geotagging of photos will not show up. You can set it up from the
Geo Preferences page in your account.

Note though, this feature isn't perfect yet, Thomas Hawk notes that it has a huge security flaw in that anyone can download the original image and view the geolocation data from the EXIF data.

Photography , Software - Posted by Arcterex at 03:23 PM
August 24, 2011
Sony A77 DSLR Announced

This morning Sony announced (officially) the SLT-A77 flagship APS-C DSLR. DPReview has the full press release.

The long-promised A77 makes use of Sony's translucent mirror technology to offer an impressive 12 frame-per-second shooting rate, despite its 24MP APS CMOS sensor
Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 11:51 AM
August 18, 2011
Huntington Beach Panorama Tutorial

I thought I was "ok" in photoshop for doing photography adjustments, but after watching this video of the adjustments to a Huntington Beach Panorama I realize I am but a worm.

If you know all about panorama blending you can maybe fast forward to about the halfway mark, for me I was pretty shocked at how easy/awesome you can make a shot look with the stuff he did in the second half, blending a silver efex pro black and white layer in luminosity mode to bring out subtle detail. Well worth the watch if you're moderately interested in photography and photoshop.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 09:37 AM
August 16, 2011
Thomas Hawk On The Top 10 Ways to Improve Google Photos

Top 10 Ways to Improve Google Photos by the well known Thomas Hawk.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 11:31 AM
August 15, 2011
Incredible Photos that Capture Day Turning into Night

Incredible Photos that Capture Day Turning into Night. Nice, and completely doable without the gear that was used (4x5 camera with a 40 megapixel back and a cherry picker).

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 01:11 PM
August 08, 2011
When Bored At Work, Build A Camera

When Bored At Work, Build A Camera:

Then the idea hit me like a ton of bricks. I WOULD MAKE THIS PIECE OF GARBAGE INTO A CAMERA. I told everybody that I would do so, and nobody believed me.

Via DIYPhotography.net

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 01:52 PM
July 29, 2011
Cool Use of On Camera Flash

Strobist points to a pretty cool use of a "few" cameras with on camera flash. Just a few mind you.

Funny Stuff , Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 02:46 PM
July 26, 2011
Windows Live Photo Gallery now supports raw format

Aryk passed on that now Microsoft Live Photo Gallery now supports raw format, so you photogs who don't have a raw processor, or just want to view your RAW files from the explorer, will be able to. Bonus: it works for 64bit as well (previously not available for free without going to a 3rd party codec pack). Good stuff!

Microsoft , Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 01:18 PM
July 20, 2011
‪Standing Your Ground‬‏ As A Photographer

Great video called‪Stand Your Ground‬‏ about a group of photographers on the streets of London who had the audacity to question the security firms and rent-a-cops asking them to stop shooting photographs and video when filming on the streets. Interesting results.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 01:22 PM
July 05, 2011
Thomas Hawk Compares Photo Sharing

Thomas Hawk does a cool Google+ vs. Flickr vs. Facebook vs. 500px vs. Twitter comparison.

I will try to compare, the best I can, the attention that the same photograph received from each of these sites over the course of 24 hours. If as a photographer you are looking at photo sharing sites, in part, as a way to promote your work to a wider audience, the engagement your photographs receive online may be of interest. This case is very specific and of course everyone's circumstances will differ, but this is my experience.
Photography , Random Linkage - Posted by Arcterex at 04:34 PM
June 24, 2011
Bruce Gilden: Asshole or Genius?

Fascinating interview/video of Bruce Gilden a famous New York City street photographer that has a ... "unique" way of doing street photography. Watch the video for some great examples of what he does and how he works.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 01:33 PM
Disposable Camera Captures Its Own Trip Across the United States

Disposable Camera Captures Its Own Trip Across the United States. Awesomely cool. A disposable camera was mailed in such a way it could be used while "packed" and postal workers were asked to take pictures with it as it went across the US. Easier to view the images in the link than explain it.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 08:13 AM
May 26, 2011
Flickr Blog on Data Deletion

After the kerfuffle a while back about flickr accounts being deleted without warning or chance of retrieval, the flickr blog has responded with their new policies and procedures.

Photography , Random Linkage - Posted by Arcterex at 01:34 PM
May 23, 2011
loc.alize.us - Explore Your World

Just discovered loc.alize.us, a cool site that combines Flickr images and their geotagging, all wrapped up in a nice web 2.0 frontend. Very sexy.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 05:33 PM
May 20, 2011
Photographer Takes What He Thinks Are His Last Photos Ever

Trading fear for photos on a stricken plane is the story of a photographer on a plane that had an engine die and shot what he thought were his last shots ever. Dude is hardcore. Check out the reddit discussion on the link.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 11:46 AM
May 18, 2011
Fujifilm X100 Review @ DPReview

DPReview has their in-depth Fujifilm X100 review posted. You'll remember the x100 as the gorgeous rangefinder style digital camera that was announced last year and had the camera nerds frothing at the mouth.

Anyone spare a thousand dollars to help me get one? Anyone?

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 09:39 PM
May 05, 2011
Amateur Photographer Shoots Largest Ever Photo of the Night Sky

Amateur Photographer Shoots Largest Ever Photo of the Night Sky. Amazing (and zoomable). Via reddit. Remember you can zoom out and rotate around the inside of the "sphere" in the image. Again, mindblowing.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 10:29 AM
April 15, 2011
SF to Paris in Two Minutes - TimeLapse Video

SF to Paris in Two Minutes on Vimeo. Awesome. Make sure you go through the last few seconds for a few quick shots of the setup.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 01:24 PM
March 08, 2011
Fuji X100 Official Promotion Video

I know it's a promo video, but those photogs in the crowd who know what the Fuji X100 is will appreciate it. The beauty of this camera is amazing (sadly so is the price). Anyone who wants to get me a review unit I'd love you forever! Check the Fuji X100 Official Promotion Video over at RiceHigh's blog.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 11:36 AM
New TWiT Photography Show - MostlyPhoto Beta 1

If you're photographically inclined, you might be interested to check out the new show from the guys at TWiT, in it's "episode zero" format - MostlyPhoto Beta 1 with @mostlylisa (Lisa Bettany) and @treyratcliff (Trey Ratcliff of Stuck in Customs). I'm only about halfway through but it's nice to hear they're not concentrating on gear, but more on what you can do with the gear you already have. Lots of talk about HDR in the initial show (not surprising because Trey is there) and as a bonus at around 28 minutes in you get to watch Trey do a "live" HDR of one of Leo's photos.

Sadly there's not an RSS feed yet, or anything to subscribe to. Looking forward to it going live so I can add it to my own list of photo podcasts.

Update: Beta 2 - Thanks Foz!

Photography , Podcasts - Posted by Arcterex at 08:53 AM
March 03, 2011
Audio slideshow: Human Planet

BBC has this Audio slideshow that is awesome. Must watch for any photography geeks.

Accompanying the film crews was photographer Timothy Allen. His stunning still images captured unique glimpses of people living in the world's most extreme environments. Take a look at some of them, and listen to him explain how he snapped the most arresting shots.
Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 03:57 PM
February 18, 2011
Great "Then and Now" Photos

The collection is called Back to the Future, by photographer Irina Werning, and while I've seen a lot of great pics of people doing the same pose and clothing as a duplicate image from when they were a kid, these shots' attention to detail is amazing.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 01:04 PM
January 04, 2011
Wifi Memory Card Eye-Fi's New Direct Mode

Eye-Fi has announced a new set of cards with a new Direct Mode which allows wireless transfer of images taken on your camera (with Eye-Fi on it of course) to your iOS device running the Eye-Fi app. 9-5 Mac has a good rundown.

My only reason for not getting the Eye-Fi card is the monthly cost for their geo-tagging service, however with a vacation on the horizon, I might change my tune :)

Update: Looks like I was wrong about the geotagging cost, some cards come with a lifetime included geotagging service.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 02:56 PM
January 01, 2011
Firmware Hack to Bring 4K Video to the Canon Rebel T2i/550D

A second photography related link tonight, check out this Firmware Hack to Bring 4K Video to the Canon Rebel T2i/550D. If you have one of these cameras, and are a bit brave, you might have fun playing with this. 4K video is .... well, damn high resolution lets just say :)

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 08:47 PM
Using Chickens as Steadicams

Just in time for the videos you might be making over the holidays, Further Research into Using Chickens as Steadicams has reached a point where you probably want to read the page. Oh sure it's all for fun, but still, it's pretty damn cool :)

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 08:46 PM
December 15, 2010
30 Years of BAD Pictures

Cool video/slideshow of Bruce Dale's National Geographic pictures called 30 Years of BAD Pictures. Awesome stuff.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 03:16 PM
December 01, 2010
Nikon D7000 Review @ DPReview

DPReview has posted a nice in-depth review of the Nikon D7000.

Nikon surprised many people by pushing its enthusiast DSLR distinctly up-market just as Canon was doing the opposite with its 60D. The result is such a highly specified camera that it's generated almost as much interest from existing and would-be D300S customers as from the traditional D90 audience.
Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 10:52 AM
November 09, 2010
Best Underwater Photographs 2010

The latest In pictures feature has some pretty great shots.

Photography , Random Linkage - Posted by Arcterex at 08:22 AM
October 12, 2010
Funny Wedding Photography Video

Pretty much any photographer will recognize this video, though I have a feeling that this will fall true with pretty much anyone who is self employed.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 10:17 PM
October 04, 2010
Bullet Time Surfing

What do you do if you have 52 Canon 5D Mk 2s? You make a video of surfers in bullet time style!

Hat tip to the reddit article.

Note the other cool video is this behind the scenes one.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 09:44 AM
September 30, 2010
3D Van Gogh

A new twist on old pictures.... 3D Van Gogh, using tilt-shift to give a bit of an update to the old master.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 08:33 AM
September 25, 2010
Bernie's Better Beginner's Guide to Photography

Bernie's Better Beginner's Guide to Photography looks like an excellent resource for beginning photographers looking for a solid understanding of the basics.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 11:11 PM
September 20, 2010
Pentax Announces New Gear

I know it's not one of the big two, but Pentax is my camera maker of choice and I figured I'd throw up their two announcements here. First is the K-5, a new pro level body with a 16.3 mp sensor, ISO 80-12800 (@6-7FPS) and 1080p video at 25FPS. Second is a nice addition to their lens lineup the 18-135 F3.5/5.6 zoom, what appears to be a nice walkaround lens, and other than being a bit slower, could be a great replacement for my 16-45 f/4.

Canon and Nikon people, you may continue about your business (though with the vague feeling that maybe, just maybe, in-body shake-reduction that allows you to have 50 year old lenses with 2-3 stops of shake-reduction is a good thing and something you're really like to try out.... Just sayin' :)

Update: DPreview has the news and a short hands on the K-5.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 08:11 AM
September 17, 2010
iPad Light Painting

Cool light painting technique using the iPad. Not what you expect.

Photography , Random Linkage - Posted by Arcterex at 03:31 PM
September 07, 2010
John Chiara's Photographic Process

Hows this for crazy? John Chiara's Photographic Process is to use a large format camera. Large as in "size of a desk" large.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 02:11 PM
August 20, 2010
Reddit Photo Lessons

Cool, the photoclass subreddit has started a series of photo class lessons online. Check out Lesson 1 - What is a camera and Lesson 2 - Different types of cameras.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 08:49 AM
August 11, 2010
Use Your iPhone's Volume Buttons in Camera+

One of the more interesting developments recently in Camera+, a nifty little iPhone app from Tap Tap is the newest update was supposed to include "volumesnap", a setting to allow you to use the iPhone's volume buttons, making it easier to take pictures and having your phone feel a bit more like a real camera. Sadly this update was rejected recently.

Luckily there is a way to
How to use your iPhone's volume buttons for shutter control in Camera+ even without the update, and it works fine even on older (3G) iPhones. Simply:


  1. Open up safari on your iPhone and go to cameraplus://enablevolumesnap
  2. There is no step 2, it's now enabled and you can now open up Camera+ and the volume buttons will trip the shutter when you're in picture taking mode.

If you find you don't like this (for example, if you want to change the music volume while you're taking pictures), just go to cameraplus://disablevolumesnap and it will, unsurprisingly, disable the feature.

Photography , Software , iPhone - Posted by Arcterex at 09:17 AM
August 10, 2010
Statistical Analysis of the Attractiveness of User Profile Pictures

Another great Daring Fireball Linked List link to a Statistical Analysis of the Attractiveness of User Profile Pictures, asserting, among other things, that iPhone users have more sex (presumably with other people that is).

As an iPhone user, I must agree with this.

</troll>

Some other interesting stuff as well, including analysis of sexiness by camera make, class, flash or no flash, etc.

Funny Stuff , Photography , Random Linkage - Posted by Arcterex at 10:51 AM
August 05, 2010
Macro Eye Photography Gallery

Wow, I'll never look at eye photographs the same way again.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 02:42 PM
August 03, 2010
Photo Tampering Throughout History

Great post with examples of Photo Tampering Throughout History. That iconic image of Abraham Lincoln that everyone knows? More like just his head Lincoln.... :)

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 08:53 AM
July 28, 2010
View From a Car Carrier

Fantastic shot and description over on flickr called View From a Car Carrier. Read the description to see what it's like steering one of those huge cargo ships. I also encourage you to go through the rest of the My Office Window set of images showing the varied life of a cargo ship driver who does nothing but ferry these boats in and out of the harbor. This was featured on the flickr blog today.

Photography , Random Linkage - Posted by Arcterex at 11:07 AM
July 21, 2010
Online Lightroom 3 Workshop for Everyone Participating in The World Wide Photo Walk

If you're participating in the Scott Kelby World Wide Photo Walk, you'll be getting a Free Live Online Lightroom 3 Workshop after the walk is over. If you're not, and are into photography, come on out and give it a shot. I'll be at the Abbotsford location if anyone wants to meet up.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 03:02 PM
Panasonic officially announces DMC-LX5

I'm not sure where the LX4 went to, but Panasonic officially announces DMC-LX5 premium compact, successor to the very popular LX3. Improvements include a longer zoom (24-90mm), keeping the wide aperture (f/2.0-3.3), and various other UI and form changes to tweak things.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 09:46 AM
July 09, 2010
The "Holga D"

The discussion thread on reddit on the Holga D is pretty awesome. Sadly it's just a concept imagery, but you have to admit, the idea of a digital camera with a crappy lens and no LCD is a pretty awesome concept. Honestly, if the price were right, it would sell. Some good links in the comments for things like a Diana lens for your DSLR (along with lots of snarky remarks).

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 08:18 AM
July 07, 2010
iPhone-only Fashion Shoot

Proving that you don't need a "pro" camera to shoot fantastic photos, and if you know what you're doing, you can do a iPhone-only pro-fashion photo shoot.

Of course, as cool as it is to see great shots coming from an iPhone, and as true as the "you don't need a $7000 camera to take great pictures" rule is, this video shows that if you have a bazillion dollars worth of lighting gear, a professional model and make up artist, you can get great shots as well, which maybe isn't what they were trying to do :) Still, it's cool. Love the moment in the video at 3:54ish when the phone rings :)

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 03:56 PM
June 16, 2010
Top 10 Ways To Make A Photographer Fall In Love With You Or Hate You

Two good posts for the photographers out there (or if you're being photographed).

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 12:01 PM
June 08, 2010
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 Released

I think for me this might be even more exciting than the new iPhone release, seeing on my ride in this morning that Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 has been finally released. Very exciting, and the blogs and podcasts are all abuzz....

Photography , Software - Posted by Arcterex at 07:58 AM
June 07, 2010
Another Great Stuck In Motion Video From Stuck in Customs

Trey Ratcliff, of HDR Tutorial and Stuck in Customs fame, has released another fantastic Stuck In Motion Video. Check out the notes for how he does this. Great work as usual.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 01:35 PM
May 26, 2010
Phase One acquires Microsoft's Expression Media software

This is interesting if you're in the Photography world.... Phase One has aquired Microsoft's Expression Media software. If you remember, "Expression Media" used to be iView MediaPro, a pretty damn good bit of software. It's interesting that a) Microsoft would sell off software that fills a gap in what they have available (though maybe it's not a core competancy of theirs, so they felt it better to put it in the hands of a company that truely knows Photography software), and b) someone aquires software from Microsoft, and not the other way around. It'll be interesting to see what happens here. I've used PhaseOne a bit, and it was more a RAW engine, so maybe grafting that onto the Digital Asset Management (DAM) software in iView-now-Expression Media is something that will put a third pony into the Aperture / Lightroom race.

Photography , Software - Posted by Arcterex at 10:03 PM
May 11, 2010
The Art of Photographic Composition

Fozbaca tweeted out this great article: Master the Art of Photographic Composition. Awesome example images and good stuff!

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 04:08 PM
April 30, 2010
Adobe Creative Suite 5 Now Shipping

MacRumors says that Adobe Creative Suite 5 is Now Shipping, so you can grab 'em to check them out.

Photography , Software - Posted by Arcterex at 11:48 AM
April 20, 2010
The BeetleCam Project

The idea of putting a camera onto a remote control car and calling it The BeetleCam Project is cool, but the pictures it gets are even cooler. Love the lion image, looks like she's about to give the "Beetle" a good smack to see what it is :)

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 09:47 AM
April 12, 2010
Adobe Photoshop Creative Suite 5

Yup, it's released. Been a busy day though so I haven't had a chance to look too deeply in. You can check out the discussion of it over on Digital Photography Review, where they highlight the features that are most likely to affect photographers. There's also the 61 minute launch event, and the full CS5 press release.

Pricing and Availability:

Adobe Photoshop CS5 and CS5 Extended are scheduled to ship within 30 days with availability through Adobe Authorized Resellers, the Adobe Store and Adobe Direct Sales. Estimated street price for Adobe Photoshop CS5 is US$699 and US$999 for Photoshop CS5 Extended. Upgrade pricing and volume licensing are available.

Photography , Software - Posted by Arcterex at 01:16 PM
March 23, 2010
Lightroom 3 Beta 2 Now Available

Saw on Camera Dojo that Lightroom 3 beta 2 is Now Available. Native canon/nikon tethering, improved performance, and support for managing video files. Looking forward to playing with this!

Photography , Software - Posted by Arcterex at 10:42 AM
March 21, 2010
Watch "Captured By The Light" (Photography Seminar) Free

Hows this for a good deal, if you're into photography you can watch Captured By The Light, a 2.5h webcast, free. Sweet! Kudos to David Ziser for making this available.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 12:41 PM
March 19, 2010
Stellar Work From Stuck In Customs

I don't normally pimp random photos, or Trey Ratcliff's work in general, as I assume that everyone already reads his blog. However the latest shot is frikkin' amazing, and best viewed large and on black (click the image to view it). Amazing detail and beautiful HDR work.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 08:54 AM
March 10, 2010
Pentax 645D Announced

The Pentax 645D has been Announced. Again. I think. The 645D is a medium format digital camera with 40mp of resolution, backwards compatibillity with film Pentax 645 lenses, and a price point of under (a bit) $10,000. A bit pricey, but compared to the Hallelblad at $23,000, not all that bad if you're in that business :)

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 10:39 AM
March 04, 2010
Judge Joe Brown & Cheap Wedding Photographers

Kudos to Nicolesy for this great find: Judge Joe Brown & Cheap Wedding Photographers. I'm not sure if His Honor Brown really knows his camera gear or is just repeating what his staff has researched for him, but it's entertaining and surprisingly not dumbed down camera lingo. Well worth the 10 minutes to watch the segment, regardless of your opinion of stupid shows like the "Judge [name]" and it's ilk.

Yet another reason I'm terrified to become a wedding photographer :)

Funny Stuff , Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 02:47 PM
February 23, 2010
80 Awe-Inspiring Photographs Taken With a "Nifty Fifty"

Little bit of photographic inspiration if you're stuck with just a 50mm lens and want to see what you can do with it.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 09:36 AM
February 19, 2010
Mr. Pixel and Mrs. Grain [Funny Photography Video]

Pretty funny series of videos of Mr. Pixel and Mrs. Grain, a couple in counseling. If you're not into photography, you can probably skip this one.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 09:31 AM
February 18, 2010
The One Who Got Away

Fascinating and beautiful collection of photos of The One Who Got Away.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 09:08 AM
February 17, 2010
A Good Lightroom Vs Aperture 3 Discussion

If you're a photo geek, you probably have heard of, and most likely use, either Aperture or Lightroom. You've also probably heard that Apple released Aperture 3.0 recently. Lightroom killer tips has taken a stab at starting some good discussion with 5 Reasons To Stay with Lightroom (and not switch to Aperture). The author is biased (duh) and is responding to this article on switching the other way (Lightroom 2 to Aperture 3). From the LR Killer Tips article:

Obviously there's been a lot of buzz around lately about Apple's Aperture 3. I read an article yesterday titled "Five Reasons For Switching from Lightroom 2 to Aperture 3" by a gentleman named Marco. So I figured I'd take a stab at my own rendition of the "5 things" article (no offense to Marco) and write about 5 reasons to stay with Lightroom.

Personally I think it's not a cut and dry thing. Both programs have their good sides and downsides, and quite frankly, I'd love some features from AP3 in LR and vice versa. In reality though, use what works best for you (as always), but don't go flip flopping every time there's a new software release, cause (most likely) your time and effort is worth way more than that :)

Photography , Software - Posted by Arcterex at 04:33 PM
Authors@Google: Trey Ratcliff

The most awesome Trey Ratcliff (@stuckincustoms), famous for his HDR photographs and tutorial, did a talk for the Authors@Google series, embedded below.


The full talk is almost an hour long, and while I have yet to watch it yet (silly work disturbing my video watching), I look forward to seeing it.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 09:47 AM
February 11, 2010
In Photography, Rules Aren't Laws

Nice article on how In photography, rules aren't laws. Some great advice and inspiration in there for people who are exploring the world of photography.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 03:52 PM
A "No Retouch" Photo Gallery

Interesting article on an artist's decision to not retouch images of super models he took for a gallery show.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 01:21 PM
February 09, 2010
First Large Format Skydiving Photographs

Very cool for the photo geeks out there: First Large Format Skydiving Photographs.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 10:27 AM
Apple Releases Aperture 3

So looking through the What's new in Aperture 3 page, it looks like some people's dreams will come true, with "Faces" and "Places" from iPhoto appearing, brushes for retouching (echoing the local adjustment brushes from Lightroom), presets (they didn't have those before?), and what looks like a gorgeous full scren browser for browsing and viewing. Rounding out the major features is new slideshows with advanced affects, ability to combine video and audio with your photos, etc (sounds like they mixed in some Final Cut/iMovie in there as well).

All I can say is I kinda wish I a) wasn't already invested in Lightroom (come on Adobe, bring us Lightroom 3!!!) and that my main and most powerful computer wasn't a windows machine.

Apple/Mac , Photography , Software - Posted by Arcterex at 08:05 AM
February 03, 2010
Great Photoshop Tutorial From Miss Aniela

Bending over backwards in Photoshop. Literally is a great post from a flickr superstar, photographer and model. Miss Aniela shows how she created a very cool image from another fairly "meh" one. An interview with her was done for TWIP a while back and can be found here.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 04:59 PM
February 02, 2010
How to Shoot (Photographs) Like A Terrorist

Light Chasers Photography has a great article on How to Shoot (Photographs) Like A Terrorist. An excerpt:


Bring the largest camera (or lens) you have
We all know that terrorists want attention - that's why they plant bombs wreak as much havoc as they can. They want people to notice them so they can get their message heard. This means that terrorists don't want to bring around small, inconspicuous cameras - they don't attract any attention. If you want to look like a terrorist, bring out the biggest hunks of plastic, metal, and glass that scream out "I'm a photographer terrorist."

In all seriousness, it does show just how stupid the whole "if you're taking pictures of things, you're probably a terrorist and should be harassed by the rent-a-cops".

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 10:00 AM
January 25, 2010
Seven Things To Ask Before You Take Your Next Photograph

Nice list from Scott Bourne for you photogs out there: Seven Things To Ask Before You Take Your Next Photograph. Via Andy Ihnatko who also added a few of his own on there :)

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 04:10 PM
January 18, 2010
1001 Noisy Cameras Going Ad-Free

One of the (sad IMHO) realities these days is that if you have either a site that gets a non-trivial amount of traffic, or want to have the time available to you to run a site as more than a hobby, you need to run ads. Google ads are the most common, and are easily blocked with Adblock. Note: I both use adblock and also run google ads on this site. Anyway, the very cool site 1001 Noisy Cameras is going ad-free.

The site is a plethora of camera related news, with an amazing amount of content each day and while I had to put 'maybe' in the poll, I definitely wish them the best of luck and look forward to seeing how the endeavor goes.

As an aside, over here in UFies land, the income from having ads on the blog is somewhere between $0.07 - $3.50 a day on average (that's $0.008/h to $0.44/h) . Though I do appreciate everyone who goes to visit some sponsors :)

Photography , Random Linkage - Posted by Arcterex at 01:59 PM
December 18, 2009
Huge Set of Free Lightroom Presets

X-Equals is giving away their +X=IMAGE KIT, 2 years set of presets for Lightroom. Hat tip @nicolesy.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 02:52 PM
December 08, 2009
Buy 200GB of Google Storage, Get a Free Eye-Fi Card

Aryk pointed me to a deal that Gizmodo blogged, where you Buy 200GB of Google Storage, Get a Free Eye-Fi Card. The eye-fi geo card details are here.

This pains me a bit. On one hand, I don't need extra storage from Google. On the other hand, 200G of online storage would be kinda nice. On one hand I know this deal is basically hoping that you forget to cancel the 200G of space and keep on paying the $50/year, but hey, you get a $60 wireless eye-fi card for $50, plus online backup.

Some more info here as well, including some of the fine print. One of the items indicates ("...includes one free year of Web Share and Geotagging ($24.98 value)") that the Geotagging is actually a service, not built into the card.

Google , Hardware , Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 10:13 AM
November 30, 2009
Spectacular Light Painting Images

I normally don't like these "N Amazing Photos of [whatever]" type links, but DPS's link of 25 Spectacular Light Painting Images is pretty spectacular.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 04:05 PM
November 29, 2009
Romeo+Juliet Meet Canon and Nikon

Great video of Canon and Nikon, a modern day Romeo+Juliet.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 11:05 AM
November 18, 2009
Leopard seal teaches photographer how to catch penguins

BoingBoing has a great story about a Leopard seal teaching photographer how to catch penguins, told by a National Geographic photographer who went to get some shots in the arctic.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 01:21 PM
November 12, 2009
Help-Portrait Photography Project

I've seen a few of these types of projects lately. Check out Help-Portrait... there are a couple of videos on there that are pretty powerful, make me want to go and grab my gear.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 01:12 PM
November 04, 2009
Droid Camera vs. iPhone

Andy Ihnatko has a great set of images comparing Droid Camera vs. iPhone with surprising results. Remember of course that more megapixels doesn't mean a better image all the time.

Photography , iPhone - Posted by Arcterex at 01:58 PM
November 02, 2009
Nikon iPhone App

Learn And Explore for the iPhone from Nikon, has become available in the US app store. Nice little app for my Nikon shooting friends.

Photography , iPhone - Posted by Arcterex at 03:53 PM
October 29, 2009
Outsourcing Photo Scanning Services

Macworld has a great review of different outsourced scanning services (for negatives, slides, and prints) and compares a couple of the big ones in terms of time, quality, etc. Good stuff if you have a shoebox of slides that you need to do something with.

Other than it looking way too "CG" for a lot of it, looks potentially interesting (assuming they didn't give away the entire plot in the trailer of course).

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 01:11 PM
October 22, 2009
Adobe Ships Lightroom 3 Free Public Beta

Whoah, what a way to start the morning! No, I don't mean that it's Windows 7 release day, I mean I was perusing my RSS and saw: Adobe ships Lightroom 3 free public beta over on 9 to 5 Mac. I'll have more links soon as the coffee kicks in. Here is the release notes (PDF). Main changes are "architecture for the growing size of image libraries" (cool, though catalogs and smart folders work well for this) and better noise reduction (sweet), posting to internet sharing sites directly, better watermarking, and a bunch more stuff.

More info on the Adobe Labs page.

Some demo Videos found as well.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 08:49 AM
October 21, 2009
New Flickr Feature: People

Flickr! It's made of people! just launched. a facial recognition system similar to Adobe Elements, Picasa, and iPhoto (and probably others). Very cool feature, I'm looking forward to playing with it.

Now I just wish support for this sort of tech was built into Lightroom and Aperture!

Update: Note that this isn't a facial recognition system, but just a way to tag people's faces manually in images.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 04:48 PM
October 20, 2009
Nocturne - Vincent Laforet

Anyone who is into photography probably noticed the new Canon 1D Mark IV was released and here's a pretty awesome video by Vincent Laforet called Nocturne, shot in ISO 6400 with the Mark IV.

Not the camera I'd want slung around my neck all day, but I don't think I'm on the level that I need a Mark IV :) Dana also points that there is some back story here about the short film.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 02:23 PM
October 13, 2009
HDR Spotting Gallery of HDR Photos

Trey Ratcliff, of the excellent Stuck in Customs HDR blog and tutorial has created a very cool looking HDR Spotting, a Gallery of HDR Photos by the community. HDR doesn't appeal to everyone, but this is a nice resource to see (and be inspired by) some of the "good" ones.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 09:56 PM
October 06, 2009
Flickr Bits

Two bits of Flickr news tonight:


  • First is a collection of cloud images called The White Sea. Absolutely stunning.
  • Second is the announcement via Thomas Hawk that Starbucks has joined. Now I'm not exactly sure why, other than a PR and "making good with the community" (why the photo community? not sure), but it's interesting to see how they do and what they do.

Have a good night ya'll.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 08:29 PM
October 05, 2009
Launch Photography at Cape Canaveral

Found via the Tack Sharp photography podcast is a great collection of Launch Photography of the Space Shuttle and other rockets. Some really good examples of creative views of the same scene.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 09:45 AM
September 30, 2009
Panasonic Suspends LX3 2.0 Firmware

Maybe that recent update for the Panasonic LX3 wasn't so great. Seems they are suspending the LX3 firmware update and have announced version 2.1 for October 20th. Via 1000 noisy cameras.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 03:37 PM
September 29, 2009
Leica M9 Review

Steve Huff has posted a fantastic 13 page Leica M9 review. Wonder if I can just email them and if they'd send me one to play with?

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 04:05 PM
September 28, 2009
Panasonic updates firmware for DMC-LX3

Just a quick note that if you're one of the lucky ones with an LX3, there's a firmware update to version 2.0 ready for you. The list of improvements is impressive as well, faster AF, a new aspect ratio, new scene mode, etc.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 11:55 AM
September 16, 2009
Taking Street Photos

Almost every photographer I know (mostly noobs like me) says that their weak point is taking pictures of people and especially strangers, and I also have never had the balls to ask some random strangers to take their picture. Zack's Street Portraits video shows how to do it and how damn easy it is.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 08:30 AM
September 15, 2009
Flickr Releases Galleries

The Flickr Blog has details of Galleries, the latest feature on the site. In a nutshell, galleries are like sets of other people's images. Currently you can use Sets to collect images of your own, Galleries allow you to collect up to 18 images from other people.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 08:12 AM
September 09, 2009
Leica Announces the M9

The camera nerds will probably drool over the newly announced Leica M9, and balk at the price. Still, full frame sensor, classic range-finder body, compatibility with what people claim to be the best lenses in the world, etc etc. Anyone got a few months of mortgage payments spare that they can give me to buy one? Pretty please?

More details and pricing ($7k!!!) here.

Update: Hands on preview over at DPreview.

Gadgets , Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 11:54 AM
September 02, 2009
Is It Wrong To Lust After The Panasonic DMC-GF1?

I just saw the Panasonic DMC-GF1 Hands on Preview at DPReview. I have the LX3, but this one is a) 4/3rds sensor and b) not that much bigger. Seexxxxxxy.......

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 02:51 PM
September 01, 2009
Canon EOS 7D DSLR

The latest from Canon has appeared. Check out the Canon EOS 7D at DPReview. Updated are the viewfinder (100% @ 1.0x magnification), integrated speedlight control, 18mp sensor, 8fps, 24fps full HD movie mode, DIGIC 4 (that's one better than DIGIC 3), and other bits. See the link for way more details.

Gadgets , Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 04:48 PM
August 31, 2009
New Leica Gear 9/9/2009

Well, not only is there going to be an Apple Event in September, looks like Leica is set to unveil new products on 9.9.09. The video says "a collection of ground breaking products", and there's a webcast. Personally I'm excited in so much that I greatly admire the craftsmanship, quality and history, but I'm pretty sure I won't be able to afford it whatever it is. Maybe a new M9? A full frame version of the digital rangefinder? Who knows....

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 03:44 PM
August 19, 2009
Canon PowerShot G11

DPReview has the press release and images of the Canon PowerShot G11. This comes of course, right after my dad got himself the G10. Same lens, a downgrade from the 15mp sensor in the G10 to a "high sensitivity" 10mp sensor (maybe they listened to people talking about the insanity of huge megapixels on a tiny sensor), better anti-noise (they claim 2 stops) and various other things. No HD video yet either...

Interesting to see what the people screaming in the forums about how Canon was right and DPReview and their unjustified crusade against high megapixels in P&S cameras have to say...

Update: Engadget has a hands on with the G11.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 12:10 PM
August 14, 2009
Models Without Makeup

Models.com has a Keep It Real post with a bunch of supermodels without makeup. Look good too, and as they say, more human than the normal plastic people you see in the supermarket rags. That said, they were also still done in an "artsy" way, with good lighting and using a vintage 70's black and white look to minimize and hide some of the imperfects (instead of airbrushing the smeg out of them on the "well lit" covers). Still, good to see some of these (unrecognizable) people looking more human.

Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 01:57 PM
August 12, 2009
Time-lapse Video Of Macworld Magazine Cover

Macenstein has a cool Time-lapse video of a Macworld cover creation. As a photography it's particularly interesting in their lighting setup and the amount of post processing that's involved to get the shiny gadgets to look so shiny. Also I didn't realize what was all involved in setting up and tweaking all the stuff on the cover, fonts, and text and layout and whatnot.

Apple/Mac , Photography - Posted by Arcterex at 10:43 AM