If you can’t wait for the conclusion, please download the scientific paper titled Understanding and Predicting Image Memorability at a Large Scale right on. But wait, at the end of this post you can even test whether your photographs are memorable or not, based on the work of researchers from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial […]
Well, did a routine medical the other day. The whole program. One value was a bit elevated and required follow-up tests. In the course of more exact health screening at the hospital I came across two familiar names: Canon and Olympus. And you can also find Nikon Instruments‘ microscopes, super-resolution systems and other medical equipment […]
By KAREL VAN WOLFEREN Pixel peepers of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your mind! Quite literally. All those infected by the bokeh bug ought to know that the verb form of this Japanese term, bokeh suru, means that you are losing it. The bokeh mania will be with us for some […]
The camera that sees at night. 12.2MP on a full-frame sensor with a maximum ISO sensitivity of up to 409,600… Flabbergasted, to say the least. Add the 5-axis in-body stabilization, 4K internal video recording and the solid lineup of new and legacy glass that excels on the α7 series… The Sony Alpha α7SII is available […]
By KAREL VAN WOLFEREN Sony has inched closer to making it possible for us to realize even modest large format photographic quality from a camera body we can hold in the palm of our hand. Medium format quality is already within reach of its new 42MP sensor, and Hasselblad will have to come up with […]
The recent National Geographic Travel Contest, edition 2015, made me think. How come that the first prize of such a certainly prestigious contest goes to a black-and-white photograph, a photograph of divers swimming near a humpback whale off the western coast of Mexico. What a capture. The winner a black-and-white image; this in the days […]
Dear all, apologies for not having written and posted anything for so long. Appreciate your the emails received, rest assured all is fine over here, it’s just there are times in one’s life when one has to set priorities that are not always compatible with everyday life. And then there is the family. What’s more […]
It was one of those moments I wished for an even wider lens. 28mm were just too narrow. Trying to capture the scope of environmental disaster in the pristine Maldives would even ask for panorama format. Alas, the 28mm had to do to document the poisoning of the Maldives’ unique coral world. I’m talking about […]
One of the great achievements of the first truly digital camera system, Four Thirds, was the invention back in 2003 of the supersonic wave filter, the first dust reduction system ever that cleaned the sensor at each camera startup. Right, it came with the honorable Olympus E-1. Today that’s standard equipment — not entirely foolproof, […]
Another outing with the Nikkor 50mm F1.8G special edition (the one with the silver ring), this time the Vienna Ball Bangkok. It’s a solid no-nonsense performer with buttery smooth bokeh and reasonably fast autofocus. Very light with just 190 grams, it doesn’t feel like a cheap build at all. Knurling used in manual-focus lenses is […]
Try finding a place today without GPS — gosh, has technology made life easier. The world is so much less complicated to navigate but, arguably, harder to know. Just the other day I’ve decided to walk to a place in Bangkok I’ve been driving to countless times before. By walking there I was able for […]
By BENGT NYMAN Bird photography is one of the most challenging and rewarding kinds of photography. Free range, hand-held, birds-in-flight photography requires long reach, high resolution, fast and accurate autofocus and effective vibration reduction. Today this equals big and heavy equipment, similar to that used for professional sports photography. However, as opposed to sports, BIF […]
The new Lightroom 6 has face recognition, Panorama Merge (stitch together multiple images, including RAW files to create unique panorama shots), faster performance for importing and perfecting your photos, Advanced Video Slideshows and more. You can order Adobe Lightroom 6 for Mac and Windows from Amazon, B&H Photo or Adorama. For a comparison sheet with […]
It’s the missing link between “traditional” photography gear and the disruptive technology brought along by smartphones: no doubt that a DSLR or top mirrorless camera excels a portable device’s camera in every way possible. That’s not because of the former’s larger sensor or better processing speeds, it primarily comes down to optics. There is no […]
$900 off Nikon D750 kit (B&H Photo / Adorama), or body only $300 off (B&H Photo / Adorama). Plus, Adorama offers more Nikon D750 kits, including exclusive value bundles. For details go here. Or check out the extended huge Nikon savings from B&H Photo and Amazon. Offers expire April 25, 2015.
In the gold rush, neither the gold diggers nor buyers of the gold made the most money. It was the grocers and hardware stores who made the money, those who sold food, shovels, buckets, hammers, nails and tents. Similar dynamics can be found in today’s photography industry. It’s neither the photographers who make the big […]
By ERWIN PUTS When you review the development of the camera technology since 1960, one can discern a 15-year cycle. The period of the full mechanical precision engineered camera started around 1950 and ended in 1966 when Konica announced the Autoreflex. The trend to automation culminated in the Canon A-1 in 1978 and found its […]
Not much is left of the traditional camera. Give or take a few years, and mechanical shutters may be a thing of the past. Even though, what is photography without a shutter’s distinct sound. Countless variations of the “click” have persisted into the smartphone age, as the signal that an instant has been frozen in […]
By the time you’ve read this post, the net growth of this planet’s population has increased by about one thousand human beings. That’s right. One thousand, in the course of a few minutes. That’s 1.5 million more people every week. The planet and its resources don’t expand. Human population does, at a frightening pace. This […]
He was a class of his own: complicated, choleric, visionary, always borderline, conscious and breaking new ground. The movie director known for masterpieces such as 2001: A Space Odyssey, Eyes Wide Shut and A Clockwork Orange rewrote filmmaking, often to the horror of his bosses. First and foremost though Stanley Kubrick was a photographer. He […]
There’s a perpetual air of mystery surrounding the abandoned buildings of the world. Dutch photographer Hans van Vrouwerf aims to clear that mystery. He explores the rotting, decaying buildings left to the wild. Those asylums, factories, churches and other buildings exposed to the elements are treasure troves for photographers with unique settings, light and ambience. […]
Be it New York, Paris or the Victoria Falls in Africa, chances are a company from Russia has made most stunning panorama visuals of them. AirPano developed a unique technology to visually reinterpret sights we’ve seen a million times, but hardly ever in such, well, realistic virtuality. We had a quick talk with Sergey Semenov, […]
Expelled from Hungary at the age of 17, Endre Friedman bounced from Germany to France learning photography along the way. When he arrived, the man we know as Robert Capa was born. Possibly the greatest war photographer in history, Capa’s contributions are as broad as his interests. The biography of Robert Capa is as captivating […]
Welcome to a THEME 2.0 facelift! We’ve polished the site a bit, made it look fresher, airier and newsier, rounded some edges and, yes, it’s now responsive. Let know what you think. Miss the old ways? Another alternative I’m still looking at is making the site lighter with less content, focused on the live feeds […]
Another invention that will make life even harder for journalists and media professionals — an app called Meerkat, allowing people to transmit live video from your smartphone. One reason for the rapidly growing popularity of the app is certainly its ease of use. Authenticate via Twitter, and the live transmission can be started with just […]
He catapulted himself onto the Olympus of media with a fake fake — presenter Jan Böhmermann of German television broadcaster ZDF made history with the faking of a fake video. You’ll say what’s the news, everything can be manipulated these days. We don’t trust the authenticity of photos any longer, but don’t we trust TV […]
It’s always a gamble with new technologies. If you were an investor in the 90s and believed in the then nascent digital imaging technology, chances are you got your fingers burned. It was two U.S. scientists who developed the first imaging sensor already in 1969, but it took until 1986 when Eastman Kodak launched the […]
Just announced is a special from Zeiss — save up to $300 on the beautiful Touit glass for Sony E mount. Beware, this is a limited time offer… You can get both the 12mm F2.8 and 32mm F1.8 instant rebates from either B&H Photo or Adorama (12mm / 32mm).
Does a photo have to be shot by a pro photographer to be more memorable? Or you could ask: who’s driving the extinction of pro photographers? Because the question is legitimate whether advanced camera phones have stunted our abilities to recognize professional photography. A new study by the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) explores the […]
Basically, with a digital pro camera, you’re getting the approach to film in a digital package. Meaning: you want an as neutral as possible file, an as accurate as possible rendition of what you’re capturing. Problem is, digital imaging technology has advanced so much that it’s kind of obsolete to process files in-camera with algorithms […]
