Smoke Art Photography

Getting the smoke right

Before anything, Graham points out that there is no ‘right’ way to photograph smoke. His technique has developed over a long period of time, and Graham admits to learning and discovering new things every time he sets out to take the photos.
The two key secrets to smoke photography is inverting the image, and using gray smoke. Say what now? How does that work? Well, Graham explains: “It’s quite a simple technique, really. All you need to concentrate on when you are taking the photos themselves, is getting good images of the smoke. The colours are generated digitally at a later stage.”
To get the best possible smoke to work with, Graham uses simple incense sticks known as Joss sticks, which can be purchased from most Chinese supermarkets and in every Chinatown anywhere in the world. Alternatively, any reasonably large incense stick should do the trick.
Once you’ve got the smoke, the rest is all down to freezing the motion, and getting the lighting right. “In my opinion,” explains Graham, “the key technical factor is to adequately light the smoke so that it stands out from the background.”
While smoke in itself can be an interesting subject matter, Graham points out that in his photos, the smoke itself isn’t the subject matter, it is merely the tool used to create unusual photographs: “I am not trying to create pictures of smoke; I am trying to create pictures by using smoke”. This approach means that you have full creative licence to do what you want to manipulate the smoke as much as necessary — the only thing you have to worry about is getting an impressive final result.

Lighting and exposure

The best way to get ‘cleanly’ lit smoke photos is to use a clean environment with controllable light. A studio would be ideal, but anywhere you can hang up a black background is perfectly usable. The most important thing when photographing smoke is getting enough light to freeze the motion of the smoke in mid-air. You can do this by using a lot of light (think direct sunlight falling through a window) or by using one or more flashes. When you’re photographing the smoke, you’ll want to make sure that no stray light hits the front of your camera lens (this will cause glare or solar-flare type effects), nor on your blackened background (because that will bring out definition in the background, which you don’t want either).
When you are photographing, it is easiest to let the smoke rise on its own volition. Instead of trying to manipulate the incense stick, try wafting some motion into the air to disturb the even plume. Alternatively, you can try to create interesting shapes by making the plume turbulent: try introducing a ruler, an upturned spoon, or a sheet of paper into the plume to alter its shape and ‘feel’.
“I want clean lines and shapes”, Graham explains. To do this, he shoots with a lot of light at a small aperture (and thereby a deeper depth of field). “This is very much easier to do if the smoke is allowed to rise naturally.”
With the smaller aperture needed to capture the plumes of smoke properly, you obviously lose quite a bit of light. This is a problem, because in order to freeze the motion of the constantly-moving smoke, you need quite a fast shutter time. In practical terms, this means 1/250 or faster. Simultaneously, you can’t reduce the ISO value on your camera either, because the purile plumes of smokes would be ruined by significant amounts of noise. Needless to say, a coinciding need of low ISO, small apertures and high apertures means that you need a vast amount of light.
Personally, my best smoke photos were taken with a 2000W Bowen studio flash light with a humongous soft-box fitted on the front. I prefer this solution because the softbox gives even lighting, but it can be difficult to limit where the light goes, so the above-mentioned limitations of “no light on your background or photo camera lens” can get tricky. I find that if you put the soft box really close to the smoke, you can get excellent results. Having said that, my smoke photos aren’t nearly as good as Graham’s, and he uses a different approach: “For all practical purposes the light used to expose the image comes from one studio flash unit fitted with a snoot and placed at the side or behind the smoke. I realise that not everyone has one of these units, but an off camera flash gun fitted with or placed beside a baffle to protect the background from direct light works just as well.”
If you’re going to be working with external flashes anyway, you probably need to shoot in fully manual mode: Your internal light meter is unlikely to give you a lot of joy on this one. In addition, it’s absolutely vital to get it right. You’ll need to set your flash output and aperture so the brightest part of the smoke is almost completely white, but not quite. Overexposure means that you will lose detail, and the inverted image will have a lot of black in the smoke, which just looks unnatural. Under-exposure, on the other hand, will make it difficult to see the difference between the smoke and the background.
Once you’re taking photos, it’s worth keeping in mind that you need to keep the room well-ventilated. Not because the smoke will harm you (although it probably will, if you breathe in and get enough in your eyes, etc), but, as Graham puts it: “as the air fills up with the fog of dissipated smoke your pictures will be robbed of light, contrast and sharpness” — never mind your health, think of the photos!


Digital manipulation

Now that you’ve captured the photos, it’s time to take it to your digital darkroom. Crop your image to a composition that works for you, and then use levels or curves to adjust the contrast of your photos. You’ll want to make sure that the background is completely black (hold the alt key while adjusting the black-point levels slider in Photoshop, it gives you a preview of what you’re actually doing), so it turns into a pure white when you invert the image.
Once you’re happy with the background, invert your image, and decide if you like the black or white background best — stick with whatever you prefer, but often the white backgrounded images have a lot higher impact. If you have stray smoke, dust, or details in the background you’re unhappy with, use a brush with the same colour as the background (i.e white or black) or clone tool to get rid of them.
To colourise the smoke, use the hue and saturation tool. You can apply the colour to the whole image in one go easily, because your pure white or black background will be unaffected by this tool (if it does make changes, then your background needs some work first). Alternatively, you can colorise part of the image, or use multiple colours, by making a selection of a part of the smoke, and use the ‘feather selection’ command to create a gradient. Using the Hue and Saturation tool now results in colorising parts of the smoke image only. Nifty, yes?

Smoke Art Photo Gallery

 information from  pixiq.com

Black and White Photography

Black and white photography

Funnily enough, in the age of digital SLR's and highly colored computer graphics, black and white photography seems to be re-emerging as a strong trend. Many new photographers presume that all they need to do is take the shot in black and white to start with, using the onboard monochrome camera setting. If only black and white photography was that easy. Like any style of photography, it takes practise. Otherwise, you could end up with a photo that seems flat and lifeless.

Black and White Photography Tips

 1.Shoot in RAW

I know many readers of DPS can’t shoot in RAW (because their photo camera doesn’t offer it) or don’t shoot in RAW (because they either don’t know how or don’t like to) but for the most control in the post production phase of converting your color images into black and white ones – you’ll want to shoot in RAW if your photo camera does allow it. Of course shooting in JPEG doesn’t stop you shooting in black and white – but if it’s an option, give RAW a go, you might be surprised by what it offers you in post production

 2.Low ISO

Shoot with the lowest possible ISO possible. While this is something that most of us do in color photography it is particularly important when it comes to black and white where noise created by ISO can become even more obvious. If you’re after this ‘noise’ (or grain) you can always add it later in your post production – but it’s harder to go the other way and take noise out. 

3.When to Shoot 

Many digital photographers actually prefer to shoot images for Black and White in low contrast situations. So an dark or overcast day can be a great time to shoot out door shots.
Ironically these are the days that those who shoot only in color sit at home complaining about the ‘poor light’. So next time you find yourself with a dark and gloomy day – shoot some black and white shots.

 

4.Composition 

 

Most of the general tips on how to compose or frame a good shot apply just as well to black and white photography as they do when shooting in color – however the main obvious difference is that you’re unable to use color to lead the eye into or around your shot. This means you need to train yourself to look at shapes, tones and textures in your frame as points of interest. Pay particularly attention to shadows and highlights which will become a feature of your shot

Black and  White photogpahy gallery

Gary Winogrand

Toni Frissell

Maurizio Polese

Sally Mann

Gabriele Caretti

 

 

 

 

information from smashingmagazine.com

 

Tilt-Shift Photography

Tilt-shift photography refers to the use of camera movements on small- and medium-format cameras; it usually requires the use of special lenses.
“Tilt-shift” actually encompasses two different types of movements: rotation of the lens relative to the image plane, called tilt, and movement of the lens parallel to the image plane, called shift. Tilt is used to control the orientation of the plane of focus (PoF), and hence the part of an image that appears sharp; it makes use of the Scheimpflug principle. Shift is used to change the line of sight while avoiding the convergence of parallel lines, as when photographing tall buildings.
Another, less cost-intensive technique called “tilt-shift miniature faking” is a process in which a photograph of a life-sized location or object is manipulated so that it looks like a photograph of a miniature-scale model

Tilt-shift miniature faking


A common technique for making an image of a full-size scene resemble an image of a miniature model is to have the image progressively blurred from the center to the top or bottom, simulating the blurring due to the limited DoF of a typical image of a miniature. The blurring can be accomplished either optically or with digital postprocessing.

Techniques

Optical

Miniatures can be simulated optically by using lens tilt, although the effect is somewhat different from the shallow DoF that normally results in close-up photography.
In a normal photograph, i.e., one not using tilt,

• The DoF extends between two parallel planes on either side of the plane of focus; the DoF is finite in depth but infinite in height and width.
• The sharpness gradients on each side of the DoF are along the line of sight.
• Objects at the same distance from the camera are rendered equally sharp.
• Objects at significantly different distances from the camera are rendered with unequal sharpness.

In a photograph using tilt,

• The DoF extends between two planes on either side of the plane of focus that intersect at a point beneath the lens .
• The DoF is wedge shaped, with the apex of the wedge near the camera, and the height of the wedge increasing with distance from the camera^.
• When the plane of focus is at a substantial angle to the image plane, the DoF can be small in height but infinite in width and depth.
• The sharpness gradients are at an angle to the line of sight. When the plane of focus is almost perpendicular to the image plane, the sharpness gradients are almost perpendicular to the line of sight.
• When the plane of focus is at a substantial angle to the image plane, objects at the same distance from the camera are rendered with unequal sharpness, depending on their positions in the scene.
• Objects at greatly different distances from the camera are rendered sharp if they are within the DoF wedge.

Despite the differences, for a scene that includes relatively little height, lens tilt can produce a result similar to that of a miniature scene, especially if the image is taken from above at a moderate angle to the ground. For a completely flat surface, the effect using tilt would be almost the same as that with a regular lens: the region of focus would be sharp, with progressive blurring toward the top or bottom of the image. The image of Jodhpur was made from such a scene; although the blurring was accomplished with digital postprocessing, a similar result could have been obtained using tilt.
Miniature faking using tilt is less effective if a scene includes objects of significant height, such as tall buildings or trees, especially when photographed at a small angle to the ground, because there is a sharpness gradient along surfaces that are obviously the same distance from the photo camera.
Though probably less common, similar difficulties arise if an object has significant extent along the line of sight, such as a long train receding from view, again photographed at a small angle to the ground, because parts of the train that are obviously at considerably different distances from the camera are rendered equally sharp.
With a view camera, tilt can usually be set with movements built in to the photo camera; with a small- or medium-format camera, a tilt-shift lens or adapter is usually required.

Tilt-Shift photo gallery 

information from wikipedia.org and smashingmagazine.com

What you see is what you get - KODAK eyeCamera

On April 1, 2009 Kodak had introduced a KODAK eyeCamera 4.1 photo camera... The 4.1 version, obviously it is the April Fool, but I like this product or concept... It looks like super cool! Click 2 enlarge!
"What you see is what you get" Viewfinder - Now you can take that photo at the exact moment you see that special scene.
Facial Recall Assistant - Handy for parties and reunions.
Image Stabilizer - After a glass of wine or two, this feature will ensure that all of your photos are razor sharp, maybe even sharper than you remember.
Selective Auto-Focus & Zoom - See something you like? Just look, focus, zoom & snap! This is a new feature so use it wisely. It might get you in trouble at the beach so practice at home first.
Wink and Shoot Shutter - Taking photos is now as easy as a winking! We use our patented eyeVu technology to activate only on a wink, not a blink. When you have a cold and are sneezing it is advised you not wear your KODAK eyeCamera 4.1 photo camera or you will get pictures of your feet (think about it).
Digital X-Ray Vision - No way? Yes way! In partnership with the Superman Corporation located in the Fortress of Solitude, we co-developed this amazing feature at a bargain price. But remember, even though you will be able to see through walls and closed doors you will not be able to walk through them.
Panoramic Mode - Achieved merely by employing classic Kodak ease-of-use and turning one's head 360- degrees
The KODAK eyeCamera 4.1 photo camera is social media compatible so you will be able to stream your life 24x7! Easy photo uploads to Facebook, Flickr, KODAK Gallery, and Twitter are a snap. Now you can impress your friends with an endless stream of photos to accompany the running commentary of text updates you currently provide.

information from  likecool.com

Flee photo camera - trow to take a pic

You are in the neighborhood park for a Sunday evening stroll. Families sit around picnic baskets, kids run around, guys play a game of touch football, and the health conscious are out for a jog.
Your eyes catch an orange object flying in the setting sky. The object traces an oblique trajectory and falls to the ground. An athletic looking man runs towards the fallen object and picks it up. He then checks his mobile phone, cracks a smile, and runs back a couple of meters.

The man tosses the object up in the air again and repeats the previous exercise. You are very curious now and want to check what’s going on. You edge closer to the man and try to peer over his shoulders. This is what you see: aerial photos of the park appear on the mobile screen at different time-intervals. And that is when you figure the whole thing out.

The orange object being thrown about is actually a camera that takes pictures and sends it back to your mobile phone. The phone receives the pictures via a Bluetooth transmitter. This flying camera is a concept design by Turkish designer Hakan Bogazpinar and is titled ‘Flee’.

There are cameras that can be bounced and cameras that can be lobbed ahead for surveillance. The Flee takes the concept of throw-able cameras to a ‘higher’ level. The Flee has two components: a digital camera and a Bluetooth receiver. Flee’s digital camera is a circular container that is enclosed in a round, lightweight ball made up of a crack resistant material. The ball is orange in color.

The circular digital photo camera is made up of a lithium battery, memory chip, Bluetooth chip, a CCD, and the lens. The orange ball photo camera is attached to an intelligent tail design that keeps the camera in an upright position while in flight. The tail design resembles that of a table fan.

The Bluetooth receiver unit will be plugged in your mobile phone and will decode and store images. Using the throwable ball camera is as easy as playing catch. Hold the ball in your hand and toss it as high as you can. Once the ball is an upright position it will start clicking pictures at specific time intervals and, as mentioned above, transmit it to your mobile device via the Bluetooth transmitter.

Think of all the fun pictures you can click from an angle that is not possible with the current lot of digital cameras. The Flee is in a concept stage and has not been developed into a practical reality as yet.

information from walyou.com

Underwater Digital Camera Mask

The Liquid Image Underwater Digital Photo Camera Mask is a unique two-in-one mask and photo  camera solution that allows you to take hands-free photographs and video underwater. Suitable for use in the pool or the sea, the camera mask could ensure you never miss that magical underwater moment. Taking photographs or video is so simple; you line up your shot using the crosshair marks on the mask and push the capture button.
The photo  camera mode is indicated by LED lights within the viewing area of the mask. The photo camera has 16 MB SD RAM of internal memory but if you need more room for images and video, the Micro SD Card slot will allow you to upgrade the memory when required. The supplied software will allow you to manipulate your images and video and a USB cable is also supplied so you can then share them with family and friends. It has an LCD display and is powered by 2 AAA alkaline 1.5V batteries.
The mask is water proof to 5 meters (15 ft) but has been successfully tested to 35 meters (115 ft) and images can be captured to a distance of 1.2 meters (5 ft). The 3.1MP model holds up to 33 high resolution images (or 55 low resolution) and retails for AUD$99.95  whilst the 5.0MP model holds up to 29 high resolution images (or 45 low resolution) and retails for AUD$159.95.

information from gizmag.com

Future photo cameras: Sony Spin N" Span

When selecting their gadgets, some people will go all-out to make sure that the product they purchase is “green.” Unfortunately, what this means a good deal of the time that they pay a hefty premium, and the wonderful gadget is actually more of a pain to use than the other power-hungry options. This new Spin N Snap photo camera from Sony definitely falls into the “pain to use” category.

The idea behind this photo camera is to manually charge it up before each use, thus eliminating the need to plug it in, or change out the batteries to get power. The end of the digital photo camera is a green ring, you’ll need to spin that ring either by manually turning it with your finger, or by running it across the table. It takes roughly 15 seconds of spinning for the wheel to harness the energy required to snap a single photo. Personally, when I want to take a few pictures, I don’t feel like standing around rubbing my camera on the wall to get it charged up. Then you don’t even know how well your shot turned out, as there’s no LCD screen to preview your pics.

information from http://photo-photo4u.blogspot.com/

Eazzzy! photo camera

Designer Sungwoo Park's prototype Eazzzy! photo camera consists of a USB stick with a lens and one button, and offers "the feeling of not knowing how your shots turned out à la analog film" with the convenience of USB transfer; not to mention a groovily ironic, retro-styled shape in several bright colours. And you can undoubtedly expect the images to turn out fashionably lo-fi, as you'd get that with anything of that size.
Though I wonder if it'd be just standard cameraphone lo-fi or whether they'd put an artfully crappy lens on the thing (as with cult film cameras such as the Lomo and Diana). They could, of course, program the firmware to oversaturate the colours, or overexpose the centre of the image and vignette the edges, though that would run against the cult of authenticity from which the lo-fi fad stems, thus being the photographic equivalent of alternative rock recorded for major labels in expensive studios, with special ProTools plug-ins thrown in to make it sound grungier.)

information from dev.null.org

Hasselblad Celebrates Centenary of Founder's Birth

In recognition of founder Victor Hasselblad's birth on March 8, 2006, the company unveils the 503CWD Anniversary kit, a prestigious high-end photographic system that offers state-of-the-art digital technology integrated with a classically designed Hasselblad 503CW body. The camera combines the black and chrome V body, with its central shutter-based lenses with the technology of the CFV digital back..

Hasselblad Celebrates Centenary of Founder's Birth with Launch of Limited Edition Hasselblad 503CWD Digital Camera

In recognition of the centenary of Victor Hasselblad's birth on March 8, 2006, Hasselblad unveils the Hasselblad 503CWD Anniversary Kit, a prestigious high-end photographic system that offers state-of-the-art digital capture technology elegantly integrated with a classically designed Hasselblad 503CW body.

Combining the rugged reliability of the black and chrome V System body, with its range of high performance, central shutter-based lenses, and the technology of Hasselblad's new CFV digital back, the exclusive Hasselblad 503CWD perfectly melds the heritage of the old Hasselblad with the focus of the new Hasselblad on digital high-end photography to create a new digital workhorse. Of undoubted appeal to the Hasselblad connoisseur, the camera delivers the perfect blend of versatility and simplicity in a compact, professional tool that gives the user complete control over digital image capture and is a pleasure to operate.

Christian Poulsen, CEO of Hasselblad, comments: “Hasselblad's reputation for excellence and outstanding quality was built on the V System. Therefore the Hasselblad 503CWD – a truly professional tool that is fully compatible with the Hasselblad V system, offers great value for money, and is built to the same exacting standards that have become the signature of the Hasselblad company - is a fitting tribute to the design process that Victor Hasselblad started himself in the 1940s. Having been passionate about photography, Victor would also have loved the concept of digital photography, and in the 503CWD kit, with its stylish retro body and advanced digital capture technology offering the ideal balance of old and new
Hasselblad, he would recognize the culmination of his own work.”

The 503CWD Anniversary kit will be supplied as a limited edition of 500 cameras, each one numbered and engraved with Victor Hasselblad's signature. Reassuringly solid, the kit comprises a 503CWD body with waist-level finder, specially marked focusing screen and chrome winding lever, a Zeiss Planar CFE 2.8/80mm lens and a CFV digital back, and will be supplied with a beautifully produced book marking Victor's anniversary.

Not only does the Hasselblad 503CWD satisfy the aesthetic needs of V System fans, but it also boasts very advanced and, in some aspects, unique digital technology, such as Hasselblad Natural Color Solution, Instant Approval Architecture, and versatile storage and workflow, alongside files captured on a CCD 50% larger than a full frame 35mm DSLR.

Hasselblad Natural Color Solution

Color management solutions have in the past imposed limitations on professional digital photographers, because of the forced choice of a specific color profile to suit the job: for example, capturing various skin tones, metals, fabrics or flowers. To combat this, Hasselblad has developed the Hasselblad Natural Color Solution to be used with its FlexColor imaging software. Working with the powerful, new Hasselblad Natural Color Solution enables professional photographers to produce outstanding, reliable out-of-the-box colors, with skin tones, special product gradations, and other difficult colors accurately reproduced.

Instant Approval Architecture

Some of the potential benefits of capturing large numbers of images can be lost if the photographer cannot quickly review and select the best images to present to the client. Hasselblad's Instant Approval Architecture (IAA) assists by labelling images according to technical parameters and allowing the photographer to downgrade visually poor images, having previewed them on the clear, bright OLED viewing screen. Sorting the red, amber or green flagged images is then very quick. Audible and visible signals facilitate the selection process by giving instant feedback during a
shoot.

Three modes of operation and storage

Optimum portability and image storage are critical for the professional photographer. Hasselblad 503CWD offers a choice of the portable CF card storage, the flexible Imagebank, or the tethered operation with extended, special capture controls. With these three operating and storage options, the photographer is able to select a mode to suit the nature of the work at hand, whether in the studio or on location.

For the studio photographer, the most accurate colours and highest degree of control can be achieved by using 3F RAW (3FR), Hasselblad's raw file format, in Hasselblad's workflow software, FlexColor. The file format also includes lossless image compression, saving 33% of storage space. In tethered operation tools such as live video and overlay masking bring increased productivity to advanced set composition. The newest FlexColor version allows the photographer to manipulate color temperature and compare image details across multiple images for precise image selection. Alternatively the 3FR files can be converted directly into Adobe's raw image format DNG (Digital NeGative), which can be opened directly in Adobe PhotoShop CS2.

information from dcviews.com

Paul Smith introduces the limited edition Fisheye camera

Paul Smith collaborated with Lomography cameras to make this special item, which has amazing fish-eye barrel distortion.Paul Smith's limited edition Fisheye photo camera is a show stealer, but for all its good looks are worth, it is also pretty difficult to use. Included is a bulb setting for long exposures and a switch for multiple exposures on the same frame.You also have the ability to use hotshoe flash or the built in flash. It adopts the old school way of capturing images with a 180-degree wide-angle lens onto 35mm film. Everything is going to appear rather round. If you want to see what you are capturing before you shoot, just use the fisheye feature. This is a pretty neat option. The looks are definitely for those who love style. Check out the Paul Smith stripes and designer cover lens. The price is a little steep at $150, but by now we know that all pretty things come with a large price tag.
Unfortunately, the Fisheye photo camera doesn't include a matching designer case. That shouldn't stop you from buying the photo camera and feeling like you are looking at the world through the eyes of a fish.




















information from luxurylaunches.com

THE SPECIAL EDITION OF THE 4X5 ALPENHAUSE POLAROID CAMERA

Take a close look at these 10 heavenlike Polaroid 4x5 inch special gold edition photo cameras, hand-assembled, hand-numbered and signed by Steven Icanberry from Alpenhause Kamera Werke exclusively created and designed for PolaPremium customers.

This unique photo camera is by far the most beautiful, portable and powerful 4x5 inch Polaroid camera of all times. Built from the famous Polaroid 110 A "Pathfinder" with its legendary 127mm, f/4.7, 4-element Rodenstock Ysarex and double-window viewfinder/rangefinder on top of the camera, featuring automatic parallax compensation, this camera is a must for any affectionate Polaroid-lover, -collector and - photographer. From this iconic camera Steven Icanberry carefully hand assembled 10 Limited Edition 4x5 inch Polaroid cameras, covered with genuine leather, signalling its royalty with a strong shiny red color, shimmering and glistening majestically with a golden body. Each of these precious sparkly cameras is hand-signed and numbered to add to its immense value.