derrick
As somebody who hates flash*, this is a subject near to my heart. Harry Benson, known among other things for his photos in the immediate aftermath of Robert Kennedy’s assassination, offers tips on using natural light in dimly lit environments. It’s mostly common sense. Shoot in aperture priority mode, use a fast (insanely fast, in the case of his 50mm 1.2 prime) lens, utilize the light that’s available to the best possible effect and, perhaps most importantly, don’t be afraid. Still a good read. Two things he doesn’t mention; things that are equally obvious; Use image stabilization if you have it and the single most important tip: use a tripod if it’s even a little bit viable.
*: And by “hate” I mean “doesn’t know how to use very well at all.”
The Impossible Project had 31.536.000 seconds to re-invent Instant Photography. Big countdown. Big announcement imminent. Then, nothing. Reports are in that the new instant film may never see the light of day. What’s the holdup? Nobody knows, but the news doesn’t sound good. The project “encountered an unexpected problem with one of the components vital for production,” says a spokeswoman. “This undesirable fact is now engaging all of the Impossible team’s attention and is forcing a rescheduling of the project’s timetable. As such, the NYC press event on 22nd February has to be postponed.” That would make the timing of Polaroid’s announcement of a new line of instant cameras rather unfortunate.*
*: It’s worth noting that Polaroid isn’t really Polaroid any more. Polaroid went bankrupt in 2001 and its assets were liquidated. A bank bought them and created a new corporation to exploit the name and technology. This group licensed its name to everything it could extract a dime for, stopped making film and cameras and went bankrupt in 2008 after its parent company turned out to be a four billion dollar ponzi scheme. The Polaroid assets, including its fine art photography collection, were auctioned off to some company nobody’s ever heard of for two pittances and a goat. This company, PLR IP Holdings, intends to recoup its investments by auctioning off the right to use the name Polaroid to different companies for different applications, including gaming peripherals and USB speakers. The right to slap a Polaroid logo on instant cameras went to the Summit Global Group, and they’re the people who thought it would be a good idea to create a new instant Polaroid camera that would use the Impossible Project’s possibly impossible instant film.
Perusing the amazing Project Gutenberg, I stumbled across a motherload of vintage photography ads. From the No. 1 Autographic Kodak special pictured aside to the photo oil colors I’ve mentioned before, this is a real treasure chest of nostalgia.
A lot has changed in the last 90-odd years. f4.0 was considered fast back then, for one, and “practically free of double image” was considered high praise for a lens. Most of these ads are for products produced by boutique manufacturers long since forgotten: Ica-Contessa, Willoughby’s (the world’s largest camera supply house), Wollensack, Glundlach, and more. They’re all here.
Click on the image to launch the vintage photography ad slideshow.
A hundred years ago, the first infrared photo was published in the Journal of the Royal Photographic Society. To say that the world hasn’t been the same since is a bit of an exaggeration, but it’s certainly looked a bit trippier since. Like so many things, once the purvey of the rich and dedicated, IR photography is almost trivial now. Your camera sensor is already sensetive to IR light, if less so than visible light. So all you have to do to take an infrared shot is filter out the actual, visible colors. I guess it goes without saying that there are filters for that
Even if you don’t have a camera that takes filters, you can play around with IR photography yourself. All it takes is about four layers of Congo Blue
(Photo via Wikipedia)
Holgas are known for their optical shortcomings and the interesting effects those shortcomings produce; Light leaks, plastic lenses, shutters that can only be called such by the greatest possible stretch of the imagination – all part of the Holga experience. This though – this takes the cake. The Holga stereo pinhole camera
The Guardian, that stalwart bastion of not being the Times, together with iStockphoto, bastion of not being fotolia, is holding a photography competition. The theme: the British Zeitgeist. I’m not entirely sure if the irony there is on purpose or not. First of all, the zeitgeist in Britain is apparently that only terrorists take pictures. Also, zeitgeist is. . .erm. . .not a British word.
Snark aside; the prizes ain’t great – in fact, they won’t even buy you a decent camera, but the terms are fair; you keep the rights to your pics. My assumption would have been that iStock would get to license them inb seven sizes starting at a dollar each.
That follow focus hack form last week? I got that. I mocked it, but I got it. This though – words fail me. It would appear that the inventor used a hand drill to make this thing. I’ve always loved the spirit of invention that permeates photography. People make diffusers out of milk packs, barn doors out of cardboard, monopods out of string. Some of these hacks have been so elegant that they’ve become viable commercial products. Somehow I don’t think that the hand drill focus crank will be joining those hallowed ranks any time soon.
Several thousand people showed up in Trafalgar Square today to assert their right to take photos in public. The event, which lasted more than one hour, was a clear success for photographers’ rights. It was covered by multiple news organisations such as BBC News, Sky News and ITV. Journalists for The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph were also present. As was Anonymous, apparently.
Many years ago I realized that taking a stereo photograph of a stationary object is as trivial as taking a picture, locking the settings, moving your camera a few inches to one side, and taking the same picture again. The first shots I took I used a tripod and a ruler laid against the front of it and it worked out fairly well. Unless you have a controlled environment, though, this is all really elaborate and burdensome. Some years later, I thought to myself, “How precise do I really need to be?” Turns out you can get a fairly decent 3D effect freehand. It’s pretty simple, actually. Stand squarely in front of your subject with your feet about two feet apart. Favor your left foot. Frame your shot and lock the settings, Take the pic. Shift your weight over to your right foot and take the shot again. Mission accomplished.
The very first color photograph was taken by a true polymath, James Clerk Maxwell. Maxwell’s work on electromagnetic theory paved the way for the theory of relativity. In his off time, he taught for free at the local community college, engineered bridges, and discovered additive color. His work on the perception of color led him at the ripe old age of 30 to create the world’s first permanent color photograph. Well, kind of permanent, anyways. His technique involved taking three pictures of the subject, each with a colored gel, red, green, and blue. To display it, one had use lamps to project colored light through the three monochrome transparencies. It was all pretty cumbersome.
1861: The world’s first color photograph – a tartan ribbon
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