In this and a continuing series of articles in the coming months we’ll bring you the news and innovations from the recent Consumer Electronics Show (CES) held earlier this year in Las Vegas. While the show floor was dominated by “smart” this and that, from phones to TVs and tablets, we’ll concentrate on those items of most interest to photographers. This report is on the new and recently introduced D-SLRs and interchangeable lens mirrorless cameras.
As we go to press we're about to depart for photokina, the worldwide photo and imaging show held every two years in Germany. This is the World Cup of imaging, a show so large that visiting all the exhibits takes up every minute of the five days in which the show is held. Virtually every manufacturer and supplier in the photo/imaging realm shows up there, as well as...
The print completes the creative circle you began inscribing when you first viewed the image and snapped the shutter. The beauty of black and white printmaking is that you can share that vision through interpretive techniques that include expressive use of tonality, artful contrast and exposure control. Yes, digital images can be viewed on a screen and shared through the Internet to a worldwide audience. But nothing quite matches the intimate beauty of a carefully produced print, one that can be hung on a wall in your home or a gallery.
When teamed together properly, your image files, monitor, image-processing software, and printer can produce prints that you will be justly proud to show. My aim here is to provide tips that will give your prints that extra touch so you can produce wall-worthy work that displays the characteristics of color, tone, and contrast that fully expresses your vision.
When the term pro gear is used these days it means more than a high-priced camera and fast lens, or a strobe setup that can fire three heads at once and still have juice to spare. Pros these days also have to be concerned with fast computers, terabytes of backup, and large-screen monitors that display images in all their glory. They also need the software to run it all, and the...
What happens when you let
loose a team of crack photo and digital imaging reporters onto the floor
of America's biggest photo and digital imaging show? Read on.
Watertight Gear Cases Seahorse cases provide watertight protection for all sorts of gear, with their newest model being the SE 710 Hurricane Series computer case. The case comes with a fitted, shock absorbing bottom, a lid organizer to...
Like most everything else these days the cost of "art" inkjet printing paper seems to be going through the roof, so printmakers are seeking alternatives without sacrificing quality. The perceived issue with some so-called "third-party" papers (those that do not carry the printer maker's brand, thus lack a profile installed with the original start up...
Starting with the 2014 CES trade show, held at the turn of the year, and continuing through press time for this issue, we’ve seen a goodly number of new products come to the fore. All this is only the start—this being a photokina year we’ll see a whole new round of products, including CMOS-sensor medium formats, with prices to match, coming our way. I trust that this report will give you a good sense of what’s here and what’s coming down the pike. So, here are my quick picks of those products that caught my eye, plus a snapshot of some of the trends.
Fill flash can be used for a quick fix for contrast problems that can be solved without further image processing. It is a powerful aid that can even trump today’s in-camera or post-process heightening of shadow detail. It can handle the problem with one exposure, and not rely on HDR or other curve adjustment tricks. Keep in mind that the sensor in your camera has a certain dynamic range that cannot be expanded even with such processing magic, and with too much work on the shadows some noise may creep in.