Luma Labs:

Going back to the drawing board has given us a camera strap like no other. It provides a unique combination of exquisite comfort, incredible flexibility and amazing stability.

Skillfully turning crisis to opportunity. And a killer name to go by.

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One of my favorite studio branding in the history of movies has a slick new logo.

It has a wider viewpoint that includes the surrounding of the Wasatch mountain range, and appears to depict a sunrise instead of a sunset like the soon-to-be-retired logo it will replace after Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.

Unlike previous attempts with new logos, this new landscape actually looks better, but something caught my eye: highlights on the peaks doesn’t seem to have been rendered accurately based on the position of the sun & the levels on the three peak lines; the rendering would have been possible only if a) there’s a second light source from the left of the picture and b) the sun in the background is set a little higher.

It’s just wrong to my eyes, but then again, I don’t work in Hollywood nor I have been to Utah, so I may not be the best judge of that.

Update: Saw it on the big screen today, and I stand corrected. The lower peaks protrude higher than the curve on the left-flanking peaks, the shadows are indeed natural, though the sun appear lower than it should be. On the other hand, Brad Bird lived up to my expectation, he not only delivers but lifted the bar higher for the Mission: Impossible franchise plot-wise, the mellow-romantic drama from M:I 3 is refreshed with a less-than-perfect actions and failures which makes Hunt and his team more human. I wonder how long till we see M:I 5.

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Great images (some). Ugly truths (most). Poorly curated (all).

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Initiated by the talented shooter, my friend Deny Salman, ‘Indonesian Photography Books’ is dedicated to curating and cataloging photography books from Indonesia, a place of gem hidden in plain sight.

Photographs from HCB’s book above can be seen here.

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Captured by a 17-year-old student from England, Joel Biddle’s images captivated me much more than the rest.

Pretty scary how someone packs so many talents at that tender age. Let’s hope life treats him well so his talents do not shy away from the world.

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Complete with step-by-step howto, video and photographs. This one uses a Sony Pocketable, but maybe a Canon S95 will fit too. View linked page in English.

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90-second short by Wim Wenders, starring Wim Wenders and Wim Wenders’ Leica M8.

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Some might say that the iPhone has certainly reinvented photography but not for the better. With the rise of apps like Instagram, Hipstamatic, PicPlz and countless others, filtered smartphone photography has dominated social networks much in the same way that the iPhone has dominated Flickr.

The problem with apps like Instagram is that some people take photographs of things they normally wouldn’t, slap a filter on it, and think it’s fit for sharing. Whether this is Instagram’s fault or not really comes down to opinion. Would those people be just as likely to share photos taken in front of the bathroom mirror, photos of their breakfast, pets, and more?

[…]

Instagram’s power is in the fact that it creates a communal experience. Part of the allure is the filters, which are possibly among the very best available in any smartphone app, but what good are shared photos if no one is looking at them. Apps like Instagram create an opportunity to share images, but when we take a closer, more professional look at them, do they still meet the grade?

The thing that makes the iPhone a compelling tool for photography is its straightforwardness. You shoot, you tinker, you share, and people can see it immediately. Technicalities disappear behind the final image’s effects & filters; the moment becomes the indisputable story without second guessing the shutter speed and the aperture value.

Camera makers have long fought for technical edge and spent ridiculous amount of money marketing their products that way. It turned the table around and made the cameras, lenses the star of the show with the photographer as the sidekick. Did someone know what kind of canvas, brush and paint Da Vinci used for the Mona Lisa? Does it matter?

What matters to me now is that whatever the reason iPhones are the most popular digital camera in Flickr, it puts a smile to its users and the friends & family surrounds him/her. It made photography fun again.

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Lovely persona behind the military uniform.

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Take a closer look at those pair of eyes. He sees beyond his, or the subject’s points of view, somehow managed to raise the viewing field to that of the spectator’s and infuse a little touch of his magic. He was a complex soul fighting his freedom off it, encapsulating the complex nature of human tendencies into a frames after frames of golden moments.

From the curators:

Images in this collection show the drama—both human and artistic—that infuse Kubrick’s work. Included are: the photograph used on the cover of the Kubrick book, Drama & Shadows, of a young woman making her way down a steep set of stairs while carrying a pile of books precariously tilting books; showgirl Rosemary Williams intently applying makeup as the equally intent young Kubrick photographs her. His subjects are as varied as the city he worked in: he catches Broadway actress Betsy Von Furstenberg studying her lines; prizefighter Walter Cartier in the corner between rounds; Dwight Eisenhower, also between rounds—after World War II, before he became President of the United States—when he was Columbia University’s president, and performers from Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

Also by Kubrick: Chicago, 1949. (via DF)

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… the laws of physics get in the way of our fantasies. The major camera makers are doing a fine job of pushing the boundaries of what’s possible, but there are still fundamental limits. Ultimate low noise requires large sensors with large pixels. Large sensors require large lenses. Fast lenses for large sensors are inherently big and heavy.

And yet:

The camera has a 12 Megapixel 2/3 inch EXR-CMOS sensor. This means that the sensor is 8.8 X 6.6mm (typo corrected) in size, about double the surface area of most pocket digicams. The lens has a 7.1 to 28.4mm focal range, which translates to 28 – 112mm in full frame 35mm terms. This means a 4X multiplication factor compared to standard FF 35mm. By comparison a Micro Four Thirds camera has a 2X factor sensor, while a typical digicam sensor might have a factor of 5X to 7X.

Another thing — the zoom ring:

One of the X-10’s singular features, which will appeal to many photographers, is that the lens zooms via a twist ring on the lens barrel. This ring is also the camera’s On / Off switch. To operate, simply turn the ring, which switches the camera on with the lens at first at its widest focal length. Then, if you wish, continue to rotate the ring until you have the framing that you want. This is a very appealing feature compared to the stepped electric zoom function of most other cameras in this class.

The OFF detent is nicely firm and the zoom feel is very linear, with a smooth helical gear moving the lens from 28mm to 112mm in less than 45 degrees.

It didn’t take more than a couple of days of shooting to determine that having a manual zoom ring on the lens, combined with the On / Off switch, is one of the cleverest new camera designs in ages. Kudos to Fuji for coming up with something that is not only unique but really photographer friendly and useful.

Design turns problems into solutions, obstacle into advantage, but most importantly breeding imagination through limitation — in Fuji’s case: physical size vs. optical excellence. As I have said repeatedly on the excellence of Fuji’s new X-series team, they seem to have nurtured some great design virtues and approach in their X products, and the results are paying off.

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Katie Sackhoff:

“It’s interesting that everyone thinks there is something hidden in that Last Supper photo, like if you look hard enough, you can find a hidden message in it. To be honest, I think we would have had to be in on it to create a hidden message, and we were all just there having a photo shoot.”

Da Vinci was a genius. (via @Shanghaidaddy)

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Adobe has released videos from its AdobeMAX event, including coverage of the image deblur feature for removing camera shake that has generated so much excitement. The company’s video shows feature in much better detail than the audience-shot version currently on the web. Shown as a prototype of a technology that is being considered for future versions of Photoshop, the function analyses the movement of the camera during an exposure and then corrects for it.

One of the image depicts an Adobe employee sitting onstage which Adobe admits was synthetically blurred ‘to be entertaining and relevant to the audience’:

The image of Kevin Lynch was synthetically blurred from a sharp image taken from the web. What do we mean by synthetic blur? A synthetic blur was created by extracting the camera shake information from another real blurry image and applying it to the Kevin Lynch image to create a realistic simulation. This kind of blur is created with our research tool. Because the camera shake data is real, it is much more complicated than anything we can simulate using Photoshop’s blur capabilities. When this new image was loaded as a JPEG into the deblur plug-in, the software has no idea it was synthetically generated.

The thing about synthetically processed example is that it rarely represents real world situation. Common blurriness doesn’t have patterns but organically produced defects caused by muscle movements, camera shake and all sorts of natural elements, in which altogether creates a unique shake pattern beyond synthetic reproduction.

If you look closely on how Jue Wang did the demo, you’d notice that the deblurring technique involves analyzing the image and loading a certain pre-medicated deblurring recipe. It is an impressive feat, I won’t deny that. But until I try the technology on my own, with my own image without any intervention from the lab, I’ll stick to my breathing technique and increase my arm’s muscle strenght.

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The iPhone 4 is the world’s most popular digital camera according to flickr. Coming to the new iPhone 4S is an all-new camera system:

Great photography isn’t just about megapixels — it’s about light, too. The all-new, advanced optics in this camera work together to make sure whatever light you have gives you the best image possible. The custom lens uses five precision elements to shape incoming light, which makes the entire image sharper. The larger f/2.4 aperture lets in more light, so photos look brighter and better. And the advanced hybrid infrared filter keeps out harmful IR light, so you’ll see more accurate and uniform colors.

What it means plainly is that the iPhone 4S is a serious image-making tool; they understand what makes a camera great, what feature is relevant and useful to take great photographs and they aren’t shy to invest and innovate beyond the realm of the market today.

I never heard a camera manufacturer that says ‘more megapixels doesn’t make a camera great, they make it worst’. Apple did, and they’re also right about one thing: “It just might be the only camera you’ll ever need.”

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The initial introduction of Adobe Creative Cloud is centered around an innovative collection of Adobe Touch Apps that re-imagine creative software for the mobile age and enable tablet devices to be an integral part of the creative process. Adobe Creative Cloud will become the hub for viewing, sharing and syncing of files created by Adobe Touch Apps and Adobe Creative Suite, and includes 20GB of cloud storage. It will quickly develop into a service that will deliver access to Adobe’s flagship creative applications and services and become an essential resource for anyone interested in creativity

No pricing scheme it being introduced now, but it is clear that Adobe is reimagining its future — in a big and bold way.

Remember the saying about ‘skating to where the puck is going’ (Wayne Gretzky)? This is Adobe laying its bricks of the past, for a future in the web of clouds.

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Swedish Nature Photographer of the Year, Terje Hellesö, on a radio debate accusing him of doctoring a number of his images, particularly the one featured above:

“No no no, of course not. Not under any circumstances,” he said.

Four days later:

“Not all the pictures are manipulated, just a few of the lynx pictures.”

A week after that:

“The jury believes that there are likely to have been images manipulated even before 2011, meaning that he can not retain the title,” the agency explained in a statement on Monday.

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“Then I stopped people who were running who were totally anonymous and asked them if they could sprint, because I didn’t want that they were only hot and wet, I wanted that they were breathless. So this is what you see in the picture; the mouth is nearly open because they are trying to get their breath. I told them to run run run and when they were very tired and couldn’t run more, come back and I would take the picture. It produced some totally crazy pictures.”

The series isn’t titled ‘Before and After Sprinting’, no?

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“Then they found out he had taken multiple photographs of the cow skull and clearly it had been moved,” he says. “Well, people who were opposed to the Roosevelt administration seized on this. They became outraged, they felt manipulated, deceived; [there were] allegations that Rothstein had actually brought the cow skull with him from Washington.”

And you think Photoshop is bad.

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By Johny Stiletto, from his book Vintage 80’s: London Street Photography. (Via CR)

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Capa would’ve missed that shot if the iPhone and Instagram existed that time. (Via Kottke)

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Instead of digitizing their existing print edition to the iPad, they will be publishing a mix of the best from their print content and ‘some unique content’ for a quarterly update for the iPad.

First ‘teaser’ issue is out now.

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Speaking of the X Series, here’s some futuristic-looking vintage cameras collected by creative director and illustrator, Jon Ashcroft:

Taking pictures with these monstrosities was a complex process that required the user to adjust a number of functions in order to get the desired outcome. All those complex adjustments meant a great deal of information had to be present on the cameras and thus we have a typographic gold mine. Etched exposure knobs, aperture rings, film speed suggestions, canister loading instructions and of course the manufacturers logo mark.

It looks to me that we have gone backwards, not forward in terms of camera aesthetics today; none of them make ‘em like that anymore. (Via Theo Inglis)

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Notable features:

• ƒ2.0–2.8, 28-112mm metal-housed/manual barrel zoom lens with built-in image stabilization & up-to 1cm macro capability.
• Lens ring on/off switch & a bright optical viewfinder
• High-sensitivity, ⅔” EXR-powered CMOS sensor with bespoke pixel array
• Black-coated magnesium body

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Hosted by the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand and OnAsia, the competition aims to promote excellence in photojournalism in the Asia-Pacific region for an up-to $3000 of prize money.

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It’s very confusing, and all the more so as it’s the users who really get to test this stuff. Obviously there’s a certain amount of reticence to test the limits amongst people with less money than sense and simple lore tells you that pride comes before a fall. The camera that’s never taken to sea will never be filled with saltwater when a seal fails. Some of us have to work close to the limits; we need to take pictures at sea, in rain and snow or even underwater and many of us will have suffered casualties.

It’s funny how a camera, which is very much an outdoor gear, requires all the cases, straps — protections — to be used in its natural habitat: the outdoor, with its unpredictable weather and element of surprises.

The basic benchmark would be our own human body, a camera should be able to withstand reasonable low, or high temperature, dust, moist, weather, water, physical abuse, as much as a human body can withstand. But the truth is far from it.

How long do you think it will take for our personal electronic devices — cameras included — to be outdoor-friendly? Will that day ever come?

Ruggedness is overrated.

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The Tim Hetherington Grant, which is the result of a joint-initiative between World Press Photo and Human Rights Watch, will be awarded to a photographer “to complete an existing project on a humanitarian or human rights theme.

Deadline is October 15, 2011.

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China may be a single-party nation, and the Hans may be the cradle of her population, but she is also home to 56 ethnic groups, a land of concealed diversity.

Chen Haiwen, 54, and 14 other photographers embarked on a project to document this in 2009, and a book “Harmonious China — Features of China’s 56 Ethnic Groups” was published as the result. Follow the jump to see snapshots of the book, which is now available on the iTunes App Store as a $1.99 iPhone App — China 56 Ethnic HD.

One year in making, the book was compiled from over 57,000 captures by the traveling 15-crew production team.

(via Adi Harsono)

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Dave was approached by a photo printing company Clickpixx and tasked to come up with a commercial of some sort, so he came up with the idea to create photographs and film the actual prints from Clickpixx and turn it to a stop motion short.

Obviously, when you spend enough time to create 2,335 photographs, put some chirping birds and nervous giggles to it, things can hardly go wrong.

Check out the how the video was made.

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Spontaneity means surprises, and the Lomo was born for it.

Read his interview in Escape into Life.

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Nicholas is a Buddhist monk who carries a Leica around.

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Great, but somewhat unnecessary.

What’s better than this?

A camera lens that doesn’t need a hood or a cap.

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Shot with a Hoya IR Filter R72.

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For us shooters, Apple has documented what digital camera RAW formats are supported in 10.7.

Plus: the new MacBook Air should be a good piece of gear to let the Lion roars.

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Unpublished and almost unknown, Christie’s is auctioning the then-eighteen-years-old Mike Mitchell’s select work from the British band’s first visits to the U.S. in 1964:

I had heard their music and just knew I had to be at that concert. I asked one of the magazines I worked for if they would get me a press pass but I was really “shooting for myself.” The pictures were taken by an 18 year old kid who had led a very sheltered life and had just come to realize photography could take him anywhere. I wasn’t approaching it as documenting an event ; I saw it as an opportunity to do great portraits.

57 years later, his sheer will turned fifty of his select prints at Christie’s with a starting bid of $100,000.

Update The entire catalogue was sold for a total of $361,983 ($68,500 for the photo above), and TOP has a great scoop on the story.

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The photo was taken at the Columbia Shuttle Flight Launch on April 1981.

Thirty years, three months later, the same father-and-son team attempted to recreate the memorable shot at NASA’s historic Atlantis Space Shuttle launch on July 8, 2011.

The Atlantis is the last active Space Shuttle orbiter, and the July 8 launch is the last flight before NASA shuts down their Shuttle program. As Wikipedia has it: “Atlantis launched successfully for the final time on the 8 July 2011 at 1629 GMT.”

What a moment. (via reddit)

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Natsumi describes it nicely:

When I take my levitation farther away from the camera than 10 second distance, I ask someone (mostly my friend) to press the shutter release button. First, I ask my friend to be a stand-in in a proper position to get a composition and a focus.

I like the human way, but jump to her page to see the non-human options. (via kottke)

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Rose: “What intestinal strength that you have to rely on to make the decisions you did?”

SMI: “You love the country so much, and you believe that you can build something good.”

Independent voters, academics, creative folks; people who are the outcasts of the Indonesian political system, is rounding up support for the former Finance Minister of Indonesia, Sri Mulyani — currently one of the Managing Directors for the World Bank — to run for Presidency in 2014.

In a thirty minute interview with Charlie Rose, she revealed why she’s more than just a symbol of hope for Indonesia, but Indonesia’s gift for the emerging nations of the world.

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In what will become a multi-month series, I’ll try to demystify the experience, sharing insight and nuances on how such long-term projects originate until the magazine arrives in your mail slot, starting now with a latest story I’m about to begin for National Geographic.

I’ve met and befriended John during his visits to Indonesia in recent years, and he has, on many occasions, shared some tidbits and interesting anecdotes of his daily passings, intrigued by the nature of the stories, I made a little suggestion that he should publish a weblog and write about it.

So he did.

He opens his doors to an otherwise insiders-only details on the often-asked question of “What is it like shooting for the National Geographic Magazine?”. While dreams can be big and impressions, bigger, like many real things in life, it “is not always what we might think.”, he said.

Go grab a cup of coffee. Your day is going to be exciting.

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Mark Toia:

The mission was to see if you could make a beautiful TV commercial in 24 hours. Think of and idea that night, shoot in a 6 hour window, edit it, grade it, master it out to HD the next day.

A little long for a Leica Commercial, but the whole cut is a nice ‘Visit Jakarta’ clip, for it features Jakarta’s must-see spots: The ‘Bunderan HI’, Sunda Kelapa Harbour, Kafé Batavia, Jalan Surabaya Antique Market.

I would add Chinatown (old town area), early breakfast at the marketplace is To. Die. For.

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This is she:

Its funny how what you do can show you who you are. I always thought of myself to be the opposite of perfectionist as I live in complete chaos most of the time. However, when I now look at these pictures and see the attention to detail in them, I have to question my self image…

I first linked her project back in February, now thanks to the Internet, Irina received the 2011 Emerging Photographer Fund from David Alan Harvey’s Burn Magazine.

With the $15,000, she could really use the fund to seriously turn back time and fast forward to her future.

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“…the position is actually a terrible one. The work is “drudgery” and poorly compensated to boot. Monetarily.”

She was Miss Moscow.

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Being an extremist in many aspects of life, fortunately I never became enthralled with the notion of needing a slew of gear. This helped in many ways, one key aspect being less weight to carry — there’s nothing worse than toting a brick on your shoulder all day.

My kit is substantially smaller than John’s, but then again, it’s not about who is more extreme but about ‘finding the kit that works & make it as minimal as you can.’

His post, Overcast Skies, Rock n’ Roll & The Blues Brothers, is a great morning-coffee read.

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For all of you non-jailbreaking iPhone photographers, your iPhone is going to be a fully-functioning instant, always-on-the-go pocket camera with the iOS 5:

Since your iPhone is always with you, it’s often the best way to capture those unexpected moments. That’s why you’ll love the new camera features in iOS 5. You can open the Camera app right from the Lock screen. Use grid lines, pinch-to-zoom gestures, and single-tap focus and exposure locks to compose a picture on the fly. Then press the volume-up button to snap your photo in the nick of time. If you have Photo Stream enabled in iCloud, your photos automatically download to all your other devices.

Now, the questions are: 1) Can we launch a third-party camera app from the Lock screen? 2) Do we still need this?

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From the maker of MoviePeg™, comes the Red Pop; an iPhone 4 dock-connected grip handle that’ll turn your iPhone into a proper point-and-shoot by adding a physical camera-shutter button.

The FAQ seems to have answered most of my initial curiosity; the good news is they are working with ‘other app developers’ to make it work with ‘your fave app’, besides the free Red Pop app, but the FAQ is yet to uncover the technical aspects of the product itself:

• Will the iPhone fall-off when we hold the grip vertically upside-down?
• Does it work as a capture button only, or it also works as an AF/meter function on half-press like most modern camera?
• When the app crashes, do we have to manually open our fave camera app from the homescreen, or can we push the Red button to automatically launch it too?
• Will it recognize which app to use if we have more than one non-Red Pop apps?
• The grip comes with a wrist strap; can we carry the iPhone on our wrist without falling-off or am I asking too much?
• Will the Red Pop works with the 3GS, and to-be-announced iPhone xx where it has a different form factor and build with the iPhone 4?

The only way I could justify a $75 purchase of this thing is that if it answers most of the above questions with a simple yes; carrying an expensive add-on to my iPhone means an increased footprint inside the pocket/bag/pouch (excess baggage), it also means I have to make sure I don’t loose it (extra care & attention) and it has to work better — way better — than my current favorite always-available-camera setup: the iPhone 3GS + Hipstamatic.

With the latest Hipstamatic update, we can shoot continuous frames without having to wait for the rendering to finish, and since it only captures a square-formatted images — along with the clever back-camera style design — and the brilliantly located yellow capture button, I can comfortable snap pictures with just one hand and one thumb.

A properly designed shutter button would make the experience more pleasant, but to justify the $75 and the ‘more’ factor above, it needs to do more than just ‘a pleasing experience’.

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(via)

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