Category Archives: Photography

iPhone photo seminar at 5pm Pacific today

Mobile, Photography

Photographer & designer Dan Marcolina is “iPhone Obsessed,” having used his phone + apps to produce a coffee table book (with up-resing courtesy of Photoshop). Now I see that he’s presenting a seminar just over an hour from now (sorry, just saw the invite):

His new book, iPhone Obsessed, covers over 47 apps and the post-processing steps you need to know to achieve works of art right in your iPhone. Dan will cover many of these apps during this live Peachpit Photo Club event.

Having met Dan & discussed the book last summer, I can vouch for him being a really interesting, creative guy; should be a good session.

Photosynth panorama maker for iPhone

Mobile, Photography

I haven’t played with a lot of mobile panorama-creation apps, but I find Microsoft’s free Photosynth app for iPhone pretty amazing. It captures still images as you pan around, automatically stitching (and optionally uploading) the results.
<br /><a href="http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-us&#038;vid=286219d4-1988-4479-816f-12e36d18b514&#038;src=SLPl:embed:&#038;fg=sharenoembed" target="_new"title="Microsoft Photosynth App – April 2011">Video: Microsoft Photosynth App – April 2011</a>
The example of an aviation museum is especially well chosen: I distinctly remember my deep, painful frustration trying to photograph rockets at the Air & Space Museum as a kid. I’d have found something like this unspeakably wonderful.
Aside: How do companies like Microsoft & Adobe profit by developing advanced technology & then simply giving it away? It’s like First CityWide Change Bank: Volume.

Time Lapse: "The Mountain"

Photography

Terje Sorgjerd (see previous) has produced another lovely time lapse, this time taken atop Spain’s highest mountain:

He writes,

A large sandstorm hit the Sahara Desert on the 9th April and at approx 3am in the night the sandstorm hit me, making it nearly impossible to see the sky with my own eyes. Interestingly enough my camera was set for a 5 hour sequence of the milky way during this time and I was sure my whole scene was ruined. To my surprise, my camera had managed to capture the sandstorm which was backlit by Grand Canary Island making it look like golden clouds.

[Via Mark Kawano]

Eye-Fi enables direct-to-tablet transfer

Mobile, Photography, Tablets

As I noted last year, photographers have been incredibly clear in wanting wireless tethering between their cameras & tablets. Forget about using tablets for storage: the big win is using a tablet’s big screen for “chimping” (reviewing & flagging one’s shots).

Thus I’m happy to see that a new 8GB Eye-Fi card enables a direct connection between cameras & tablets.  I’d love to put my iPad in my backpack & transfer to it while hiking around.  Two snags, though:

  • The card is SD format, and my SLR uses Compact Flash. Something tells me a solution isn’t imminent.
  • Wireless transfer requires one’s tablet to be switched on. Long battery life or no, I’m not going to leave the iPad on constantly while hiking, driving, etc. Solving this problem very likely requires support from Apple, Google, and hardware makers.

Still, the development is very encouraging.

Video: Ten Things I Have Learned About The Sea

Photography

Even if you watch just for a minute, I think you’ll find Lorenzo Fonda’s ode oddly captivating:

Seeing these giant containers, it’s funny to think: all this stuff around you–the screen on which you’re reading this, maybe the car you drive, the shirt on your back–it’s all been there, creeping over untold expanses of water.
At one point I planned to join the US Navy. I spent three years in NROTC and generally loved it. Seeing dolphins race ahead of the bow quickens my pulse & takes me down a deep memory hole. The endlessness of the water, the blankness of the horizon, the ceaseless beating paired with beauty (think bioluminescent algae twinkling down the bridge windows after every 13-foot wall of green water)–strange to think of it all again. And strange where life takes us. [Via]

A beautiful Aurora Borealis time lapse

Photography

“Norwegian landscape photographer Terje Sorgjerd,” writes David Pescovitz, “spent one week around Kirkenes and the Norway-Russia border, in -25 Celsius temperature, to make this magnificent time-lapse video of the Aurora Borealis.”

On a related note, “Terje Sorgjerd” is one pretty solid name. He needs to join the Photoshop team & take up residence next to Seetharaman Narayanan, Iouri Tchernoousko, & other greats. [Via]

A photographic (non-CGI) fly-by of Saturn

Photography, Scientific & Technical Imaging

The IMAX film “Outside In” is produced from “hundreds of thousands of still photos” taken by the Cassini orbiter. I have a hard time believing that the footage is real, but I’m hardly an expert. Check it out:

The filmmaking is a non-profit effort being supported by individuals & a few companies. [Via]
Update: See comments for some technical details from the filmmaker & others.

Photoshop Express 2.0: Powerful noise reduction on iOS

Mobile, Photography

After more than 20 million downloads, the free Photoshop Express app has added its first paid features. As PM Jordan Davis explains, Adobe Camera Pack in Photoshop Express 2.0 for iOS* adds three new features:

  • Reduce Noise: Even the best phone cameras can introduce small amounts of grain and speckling—called noise—into images. The Reduce Noise feature quickly smooths out those flaws to improve your photos. (See screenshot with aggressive settings applied.)
  • Self Timer: Set a camera timer to 3- or 10-second intervals before the photo is snapped. Now you can be in the picture too!
  • Auto Review: Use the Auto Review mode to make sure you get a good shot and delete it if you don’t. Auto Review gives you a quick look at your picture before the action passes you by.

The app remains free, and the Camera Pack is a $3.99 in-app purchase.

The noise reduction code is based on the outstanding technology introduced in Lightroom 3/Photoshop CS5.  Squeezing very computationally intensive algorithms to run well on handheld processors was no easy feat, and I think you’ll be pleased with the speed & quality of the results.  We look forward to hearing your feedback.

* Photoshop Express for Android has not yet been updated

Photoshop Express: 20 Million Downloads & Counting

Mobile, Photography

Wow–quite a milestone. PM Jordan Davis reports:

Photoshop Express for iOS and Android devices hit 20 million customer installations today. We want to thank all our customers who have downloaded and used the app to shoot, edit, apply fun effects, and share photos from their smartphones and tablets. If you haven’t yet tried it, Photoshop Express is available for free on the Apple iTunes Store and Android Marketplace.

Thanks for your support, and your feedback is always welcome.

Photograph Iceland with Julieanne Kost

Photography

If you take this trip in August, you’re going to make me seriously jealous.  Adobe photography evangelist Julieanne Kost writes:

I’m hoping that YOU will be able to join me this summer (August 21 – August 27) on an incredible journey through the Icelandic landscape. This really is a unique opportunity to experience Iceland and all that it has to offer – glacier lagoons, Icelandic horses, waterfalls, and mud flats  are just a few of the things we may see on our excursions.  We will follow the weather and the light, photographing Iceland’s ever changing landscape with long hours of exquisite sunrise and sunset while the Focus on Nature team takes care of every little logistical detail  so that we can photograph in a relaxed, low pressure, unhurried, environment. We will come home not only with improved technique, but reenergized and inspired.

 

Interesting 3D Photo app

3D, Mobile, Photography

I can’t readily pronounce it “endlessly useful,” but 3D Photo‘s ability to map a live camera feed onto 3D shapes is rather cool:

[Via]
It can be hard to take tablet hardware, which is largely designed for low-power media consumption & gaming, and make it perform well for general-purpose imaging operations. Lately I’ve taken to joking that, “Well, my year-old iPad can run a beautiful 3D pinball game fullscreen at 30+ FPS, so maybe we should let people draw with friggin’ 3D pinballs, because apparently those can be made to go fast.” Look for Adobe Avian AngerPaint™, coming soon to an app store near you!

Photography: The sacred & profane in Eastern Europe

Photography

I’ve spoken admiringly in the past of Bruce Haley‘s photojournalism. Now he’s produced a new monograph called Sunder:

Produced between 1994 and 2002, the images in SUNDER sweep the viewer along on a far-reaching journey through numerous former USSR and Iron Curtain countries, stopping at landscapes of ruin and moments of grace in equal measure. Haley’s explorations were intuitive, responding to a deep curiosity to taste the last drops of the would-be Utopian ideology that dominated global politics during the first thirty years of his life.


Bryan Hughes & I have been trying for ages to get down to the bottom of Bixby Canyon to visit Bruce & his beer fridge*. Hopefully we can do that soon & maybe share a trip report.
* But not, presumably, “goddamn barbecued monkey leg”

Crazy 360-degree dodgeball video

3D, Photography

Photographer Ryan Jackson strapped together four cheap GoPro video cameras into an interesting Frankenstein, shooting a cool 360-degree panoramic video. “The short version of this story is that I shot with four GoPros, extracted still images from video, stitched the stills together into panoramas then recombined them back into video. For the much more detailed and nerdy answer, read on.” [Via Manu S. Anand]

Photoshop Express 1.5 arrives for iOS

Mobile, Photography

I’m delighted to report that Photoshop Express, Adobe’s free photo capture & editing tool that’s been downloaded over 15 million times (!), is now available in enhanced version 1.5 form via Apple’s App Store.
This release reworks the photo capture experience, adding support for batch capture of photos plus a highly useful review mode, and it includes full Retina display support. iOS 4.2 compatibility brings benefits like an improved ability to upload images in the background.
After going a bit quiet (publicly, at least) following the previous release, the Express team is now cooking with gas, and we have other cool enhancements queued up for the near future. In the near term, please let us know what you think of the new release, and what you’d like to see us do going forward. Thanks for your interest & support.

A few interesting iOS apps (video & utility)

Mobile, Photography
  • Video-recording app Precorder takes a cue from the world of reality TV production: rather than recording everything to disk in hopes of getting some good nuggets, it buffers a video stream (a la DVRs).  It’s constantly saving the few seconds of video before you hit record, so if something interesting happens, hit record & capture it.  If not, no worries: there’s nothing to delete.  I tried it with the kids yesterday & it worked nicely.
  • 8mm Vintage Camera brings the trendy retro aesthetic to handheld video, “capturing the beauty and magic of old school vintage movies. By mixing and matching films and lenses, you can recreate the atmosphere of those bygone eras with 25 timeless retro looks.” [Via]
  • Written by Lightroom team vets Troy Gaul and Dustin & Dylan Bruzenak, Handoff “simplifies sending things from your computer’s web browser to your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch” via a combo of app + desktop browser extensions.  Looks clever and useful.

New Adobe TV videos for photographers

Adobe TV, Photography

As always, good tutorials are making their way onto Adobe TV. Some recent examples:

• Photoshop Basics Series: Creating an image reflection

Presenter Dennis Radeke says, “Many times, I’ve seen great work that was somewhat spoiled by the fact that it employed a reflection as part of the design. Creating a reflection on any image is a fairly easy thing to do and in this episode we’ll look at some techniques to make a convincing and realistic reflection within Adobe Photoshop.”

• Sync Your Photos from Lightroom 3 to Your iDevices

In this episode I’ll show you how to set up the Hard Drive Publish Service to allow you to continue to manage your photos in Lightroom, but also sync them to your iDevices via iTunes without using iPhoto.

• Photographers – Mini Bridge

Every now and then it’s much easier to show someone than to try to explain it to them. After a few emails from Beau about how to use Mini Bridge? I just decided to make it the topic of this week’s Creative Suite Podcast.

• Adobe Lightroom 3: Needle in a Haystack

When you need to find a specific image among a huge number of images, filtering can provide an excellent solution. This jump-start will provide you with a sense of the power of filtering to find an image within Lightroom.

• Photoshop User TV – Episode 206

The countdown to the new set is winding down. In the meantime, check out this interview with Adobe’s Julieanne Kost.

 

New Lightroom presets from Julieanne Kost

Lightroom, Photography

Our friend/Adobe evangelist Julieanne has whipped up some great new Lightroom presets.  You can view the whole list of presets on her blog, or use these links to jump right to those you find most interesting.  Each entry includes an explanation & download links:

Videos: Russell Brown on HDR, iPad portfolios

Mobile, Photography

By very popular demand, Russell Brown has recorded & posted his tutorials on creating tablet-ready portfolios & great-looking (non-cheesy) HDR images. Enjoy.

Mobile portfolios:

HDR

App Idea: Photo Defiler

Instagram, Mobile, Photography

The other day while using Instagram, it occurred to me: To really do proper retro photos, I need a way to obscure half the image with my dad’s finger.  In that vein, how about an app that would fill your images with cliched errors?  A few ideas:

  • Head Clipper: Use face detection to identify people in an image, then partly lop off their domes.
  • Shadow Caster: Hey, where’s the photographer? Ah, there’s his handy shadow!
  • Back Lighter: Fill light/Shadow-Highlight is passé; we need a way to silhouette subjects into oblivion.
  • Grass Expander: Auto zoom out, then use Content-Aware Fill to surround one’s subject with even more grass & extraneous details.
  • Blink Synthesizer: If society has figured out how to put human eyes onto Muppets, surely we can shut the eyes of at least some people in a group photo.
  • Face Blurrer: A bit o’ witness protection.
  • Digital Intruder: My dad’s finger on millions of handsets around the world. You’re welcome.

Not quitting my day job,
J.