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I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/03/seasonal_flickr_color_cycle.html
This visualization of the way colors in Flickr images change over the course of the year was created by Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg of IBM's Visual Communication Lab. It's called "Flickr Flow."
The two of us see the world as a stream of color, and in 2009 we finally had a chance to draw the river in our heads. We began with a collection of photographs of the Boston Common taken from Flickr. Using an algorithm developed for the WIRED Anniversary visualization, our software calculated the relative proportions of different colors seen in photos taken in each month of the year, and plotted them on a wheel. The image [above] is an early sketch from the piece. Summer is at the top, with time proceeding clockwise.
The finished infographic, complete with seasonal labels and callouts of representative images, appeared in the Metric section of Boston magazine in March of 2009. You can view a low-res version of it here.
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Digg this!12 Hours, 23 Minutes ago | More »
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I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/03/make_flickr_pool_weekly_roundup_34.html
March 7 2010, 4:00am | More »
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I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/03/diy_ladig_cutout_bounce_card.html
Last month at MacWorld I stopped by the LADIG booth to see what all the fuss was about. Making my way through the swarm of DSLR toting macheads I finally got to the booth to find beaming LADIG members handing out these fantastic cutout bounce cards. If you're unfamiliar with LADIG:
The LADIG (Los Angeles Digital Imaging Group) is dedicated to advancing the art and science of digital imaging in all its forms.
Membership is open to all digital imaging professionals: photographers, designers, illustrators, prepress providers, software and hardware developers, fine artists and corporation communication workers...
The version I got was offset printed on nice card stock. You just cut along the outside edge of the black area and attach Tab A, Tab B, and the Back to your flash with sticky back velcro and you're good to go.
If you would like to print your own, the folks at LADIG were kind enough to mention that they have a downloadable PDF on their website.
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Digg this!March 3 2010, 6:00am | More »
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I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/02/lovely_solargraphy_photos.html
Polar and horizontal mounts of solargraph 35mm pinhole-can cameras. Images captured in Nuremberg, German. Camera: plastic 35mm film cans, paper: Agfa BS310 RC. [Spotted on the MAKE Flickr pool]
More nifty solargraphy pics in the Solargraphy Flickr pool.
Polar and Horizontal Can-Mount
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February 25 2010, 6:00pm | More »
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I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/02/ultra-slow-exposure_pinhole_photogr.html
Finnish photographer Ollipekka Kangas tapes pinhole cameras to trees and sign poles for months at a time, accumulating some pretty crazy imagery.
Basically solarigraphic camera is a pinhole camera, very slow one. These pinhole photographs taken with a lensless pinhole camera with a extra long exposure. I use black&white paper which is 5-10 ASA. Exposure time can be very long, in some photos up to six months. Usually average camera is hidden in city for one to two months. The picture will appear without developing photographic paper with any kind of chemicals. Exposured paper is scanned in darkness and developed in Photoshop. All the cameras are very low tech, cheap boxes, canisters or film cans. I can take only like 5 pictures in month.
Sun draws many interesting traces in photos, you can really see the time passing by. Some times camera is tilted by passerby or tape just goes loose. Double exposures or traces of humidity can be seen in photos.
[via @GreatDismal]
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February 25 2010, 3:00am | More »
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I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/02/scratch-built_slr_camera.html
This discussion board is in French, but it's still fascinating and rewarding enough to scroll through the postings to see the progress pics of this scratch-built SLR camera. Really inspiring. [Thanks, Jacek Tomasiak!]
SLR From Scratch
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February 24 2010, 6:01pm | More »
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I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/02/curtain_made_from_film_slides.html
Becky spotted this "kodachrome curtain" from Flickr user yarnzombie in the CRAFT Flickr pool this week. Besides the coolness of the idea itself, this is a great example of the power of a good photograph to sell your project. Gorgeous shot! [via CRAFT]
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Digg this!February 15 2010, 11:00am | More »
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I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/02/diy_light_tent_using_plain_paper_an.html
Do you have to take some tabletop product shots in a hurry, but don't have access to studio seamless or a light table? Try this hack. Using plain paper and some binder clips you, too, can assemble your very own light tent. [Thanks, Nathan!]
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Digg this!February 10 2010, 6:00am | More »
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I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/01/flashback_infrared_photography.html
MAKE Volume 12 hit newsstands in November of 2007 and featured a special themed section called Upload, focused on digital arts and crafts. Richard Kadrey offered this cool little tutorial on getting started with infrared photography. Enjoy! You can also still pick up a back issue of MAKE Volume 12 over in the Maker Shed.
Looking at the Low End
Infrared photography reveals a world invisible to the naked eye.
By Richard Kadrey
For the human eye, the lowest visible wavelengths are red light measuring about 700 nanometers (nm). Below that, infrared radiation runs from about 750nm down to 1mm. When photographed in this part of the spectrum, leaves and grass glow with energy, as if the entire natural world is lined with fiber optics. Skin is luminous and perfect, like alabaster. Infrared photography gives you an inhuman view of the world, and it's a beautiful one.
In the beginning, infrared photography was nothing you needed to know about. It was a high-tech procedure reserved for laboratories and mapping satellites. Even when artists got their hands on the stuff, it required special film that had to be kept in an ice chest until it was used, and special processing that required access to a darkroom with the right chemicals, and all the expenses those items entailed.
Digital photography has made infrared accessible to everyone. That's great news to those using IR for the first time, because this is when you're liable to make the most mistakes. Better yet, you don't need an expensive camera to take great shots. In fact, cheaper and so-called "dinosaur" digital cameras can be the best ones for IR shooting. The reason is simple: most high-end cameras come with a built-in infrared-blocking filter (sometimes called "hot glass") that sits right in front of the camera's sensor chip. Cheap cameras don't always have this IR filter, and they're easy to hack if they do. But remember when picking your cheap camera to make sure it has a Preview mode. This will allow you to see your infrared shot and make adjustments on the fly.
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Digg this!January 27 2010, 8:00pm | More »
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I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/01/photographing_snowflakes.html
A few years ago I picked up Ken Libbrecht's Field Guide to Snowflakes, thinking any self-proclaimed snow junkie like myself should own it. A renowned snow scientist and physicist, Libbrecht's great little book taught me about snowflake fundamentals and helped me identify different types of flakes and learn what each shape tells us about the weather. Then my friend Katie got me Libbrecht's The Art of the Snowflake: A Photographic Album, a stunning coffee table book filled with snowflake photographs (like the one above) Libbrecht has taken using his snow photography rig. Recently I stumbled across his site, which details each component of his photo-microscope rig, including cost (although this part is a bit dated), perfect for trying to come up with the setup for cheaper. Check it out if you have any interest in snowflakes or micro-photography.
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Digg this!January 14 2010, 8:00pm | More »
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I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/01/diy_beauty_dish.html
Australian Flickr user Andrew converted a regular flash into a beauty dish by adding a 7" stainless steel dish, a lid from a food tin, a "4n20 Pies giveaway stubby holder" and some pieces of Mechano.
Here's an example of the effects he got with his dish.
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Digg this!January 4 2010, 3:00am | More »
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I posted to hackaday.com
http://hackaday.com/2009/12/28/lightdrawing-robot/
December 28 2009, 12:00pm | More »
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I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/12/futurepicture.html
Ever take a photograph, and realize after the fact that you focused on a tree in the background instead of your subject's face? Wish you could go back and fix it? Well, unfortunately you can't if you used a regular camera, however if you had a plenoptic camera it would be no problem. Instead of capturing a flat, 2D array of pixels, a plenoptic camera uses an array of microlenses to capture 4D lightfield data. This data can then be processed to create a final image that is focused on any part of the scene.
Daniel Reetz and Matti Kariluoma wanted to experiment with light field photography, but you can't really buy one of these cameras, so they built one themselves. Instead of using a single camera and microles array, however, they decided to use rapid prototyping equipment and a bunch of point&shoot Canon cameras loaded with the SDM firmware, and the result is the Large Light Field Camera Array. Plans aren't available yet, however they are pledging to release the whole thing as an open source/hardware project. Looks great, guys! [via teamdroid]
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Digg this!December 18 2009, 12:00pm | More »
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I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/12/how-to_build_your_own_field_camera.html
British camera restorer Rayment Kirby has a cool tutorial on how (and why) to make your own antique-style field camera from wood and brass. Mr. Kirby seems to follow the convention that the "Field" of "field camera" is an eponym and should be capitalized, whereas the Wikipedia article does not. Can anyone clarify? Was there a "Mr. Field?" Or a "Mrs. Field?" (Please, no cookie jokes.) [Thanks, Billy!]
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Digg this!December 17 2009, 4:00pm | More »
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I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/12/cold_cathode_light_painting.html
Using a cold cathode tube artist Dana Maltby paints colorful, surreal images full of undulating trails and kaleidoscopic detail. Learn to build your own cold cathode setup with this quick tutorial. [via diyphotography]
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Digg this!December 14 2009, 5:30am | More »
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I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/12/mark_mawsons_underwater_paint_pictu.html
Mark Mawson takes lots of cool pictures, but I am particularly charmed by the simple beauty of this floaty paint in water series. [via Neatorama]
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Digg this!December 13 2009, 9:00pm | More »
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I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/12/making_your_own_camera_film.html
Dale tweets:
Analog Award! A machine for making your own film for a camera. It's a beautiful machine, too
DIY Film
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December 12 2009, 3:45pm | More »
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I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/12/flashback_make_your_own_sun.html
Ever have the perfect shot framed with the exception that the sun is in the wrong place? Not to worry — you can always fake it. Back in MAKE Volume 13, in the Upload imaging section, Charles Platt taught us the quick and easy way to make your own sun. Check it out.
Make Your Own Sun
Create dramatic back-lighting effects with image editing software.
By Charles Platt
Taking photographs directly into the sun can create dramatic effects, but typically causes lens flare and tends to disrupt the color-balance circuitry in a digital camera (above left). How can we keep the highlights on the rocks and the backlighting of the cactus spines, while eliminating solar effects and restoring the blue sky? The technique described here won't salvage any pictures that you've taken already, but it will help you to avoid the problem in the future.
Step 1: Block the real sun.
When you're taking the picture, hide the sun, simply by sticking your fingers into the frame.
Step 2: Erase your hand.
After taking the picture, open it with a photo-editing application and replace the fingers with blue sky, using the Clone tool followed by the Gaussian Blur filter (in Photoshop) or any other technique that creates a smooth result. If you're on a budget you may find that Photoshop LE is affordable, especially on eBay.
The foreground looks unreal without any source of light, so with the next step let's make our own sun, which we can keep under control so that it doesn't ruin the picture.
Step 3: Insert a fake sun.
If you have Photoshop, use the Marquee tool to select the upper two-thirds of the sky, and use the Feather option to soften the edges of your selection. Now go to Filter → Render → Lens Flare. A little flare will help to make the picture look realistic.
Step 4: Adjust the brightness.
Make a circular selection, centered on the fake sun, and feather the edges a lot. Increase the brightness of this area. You can make repeated selections of different sizes and adjust their brightness until everything looks right.
Some will say this is cheating, but old-school photographers used all kinds of fakery with an enlarger in a darkroom. The difference is that digital processing is quicker, cheaper, easier, and a lot more fun.
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December 9 2009, 8:00pm | More »
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I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/12/rpm_pinhole_cameras_kits_and_free_p.html
RPM cameras sells handmade mat-board pinhole cameras, optionally cased in leather as shown above. They'll sell you a kit for half the price of a finished camera, and they also host a free tutorial on how to build a simple version for yourself. [Thanks, Billy Baque!]
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Digg this!December 2 2009, 4:00pm | More »
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I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/11/steve_irvines_ceramic_cameras_1.html
We blogged about one of Steve's cameras back in 2007. Looks like he's completed at least one more since then, and there's a group of four presented on his website. Really beautiful work. [Thanks, Billy Baque!]
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Digg this!November 28 2009, 9:00pm | More »
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I posted to hackaday.com
http://hackaday.com/2009/11/19/axe-your-camera-again/
November 19 2009, 4:43pm | More »
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I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/11/homemade_medium_format_camera.html
Peter Johansson is building a professional-grade medium-format camera. Like, from scratch. He's about 80% done and has done a wonderful job documenting the build. [Thanks, Billy!]
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Digg this!November 1 2009, 9:00pm | More »
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I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/10/how_to_diy_photo_reflector.html
Jared from InventGeek begins a series of photo gear projects with his recipe for a 40" pop-up reflector -
So photography is not only a hobby of mine, but also more or less absolute necessity for what I do here on invent geek. That being said I have always been appalled at the high prices for photography equipment and accessories and I find myself thinking that I could make this a lot cheaper than that! Well its time I put my money where my mouth is I guess and finally start equipping my studio with the types of equipment I both want and need to create more consistent and higher quality imagery for our projects. So I have started a new series of projects in preparation to the launch of a new sister site in our how to network for photography, studio and lighting equipment and accoutrement that I am putting together. So we will be doing many projects across the board and wanted to start with something easy and yet worthwhile.
As he notes in the
step-by-step - the spring steel
fish tape required for the project, can unravel quite energetically when released from its coil - so be sure to protect eyes, skin, and other valuable objects should you give this one a go.
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Digg this!October 16 2009, 8:00am | More »
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I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/10/knex_lightbox_tutorial.html
Kristin Boehm has posted a great detailed tutorial on how to make a lightbox out of K'Nex pieces for product photography. She was digging for the perfect materials and stumbled across a box of K'Nex from her childhood, and the rest is history.
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October 14 2009, 9:00pm | More »
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I posted to instructables.com
http://www.instructables.com/id/Portable-Paperless-Digital-Copy-Machine/
Don’t wait in line to feed coins into the library’s
photocopier! Here are instructions for making a portable, paperless,
digital copy machine.Your materials should cost less than $20, maybe
less than $10, and the labor time is only a few hours. I am assuming
that you already have a digit...
By:
DHagenOctober 11 2009, 1:03pm | More »
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I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/10/nikons_small_world_gallery.html
1st Place, 2009 - Dr. Heiti Paves, Tallinn University of Technology, Tallinn, Estonia.
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Digg this!October 10 2009, 7:03pm | More »
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I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/10/how-to_copy_stand_on_the_cheap.html
Instructables user Light_Lab writes:
I collect lots of documents as part of my work; recently I decided I should let the sheets of ‘tree stuff’ return to the environment and clear up my living space and office by scanning everything I could. I had recently got rid of a flat bed scanner; it was far too slow and I hardly ever used it. I needed something that was convenient and fast; it didn't need to make ultra high fidelity scans, just readable would do.
Check out the tutorial for this easy and cheap copy stand.
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Digg this!October 9 2009, 2:00pm | More »
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I posted to hackaday.com
http://hackaday.com/2009/10/09/beauty-in-destruction/
October 9 2009, 8:04am | More »
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I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/10/nikon_coolpix_s1000pj_teardown.html
Our friends over at iFixIt.com just couldn't keep their screwdrivers and spudgers off of the new Coolpix S1000pj, the digital camera with a built-in video projector. They just had to find out how Nikon fit all that bleeding-edge tech into that tiny camera case.
Here's some of what they discovered in their testing and teardown:
* A room has to be quite dark to view the projector's image properly. We expected as much given the size of the projector, but the image quality is mediocre at best. Anything that's projected looks like it was shot in the '70s.
* Surprisingly, both the front and rear outer cases are machined out of aluminum. It's quite a solid camera.
* The speaker pumps out some pretty solid sound when the camera is in projector mode.
* Like most compact digital cameras with no externally telescopic lenses, the S1000pj's internal zoom lenses move perpendicular to the front face.
* Light has to travel through at least four glass lenses until it shines on the CCD sensor. What a journey!
* Disassembling this camera is not for the faint of heart -- Nikon definitely did not intend this device to be user serviceable. We had to de-solder a bunch of components including the camera cover actuator, projector LED, and flash bulb.
* Light for projecting images is supplied by a very powerful LED that even has its own heat sink to conduct heat to the aluminum front panel.
Nikon Coolpix S1000pj Teardown
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October 7 2009, 8:00am | More »
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I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/10/water_on_lens_exhibition.html
Gorgeous underwater photo exhibit...
Name a truly great British film and chances are it was made at Pinewood Studios, the most cinematic landmark Old Blighty has. Its reputation has resonated worldwide thanks to the biggest names in cinema filling its spaces and next month you will be able to get an insight into the craft and guile that goes on in there, when the Movieum of London in the city’s Southbank showcases underwater photographs from movies such as Casino Royale, The Da Vinci Code and Elizabeth: The Golden Age, as well as television features and music videos.
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Digg this!October 4 2009, 6:30am | More »
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I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/10/gorgeous_delta_iv_heavy_launch_phot.html
From Gizmodo:
Photographer Ben Cooper took this photo of a Delta 4-Heavy rocket launching at Cape Canaveral using a sound-activated camera. And when your camera is that close to a launch, your lens probably won't survive.
This Insane Photo Destroyed a Camera Lens
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October 1 2009, 8:01pm | More »
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I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/10/vertical_panorama_of_redwood_tree.html
How do you photograph a 300' tall tree in a dense forest with no clear sight lines? Wildlife photographer Michael Nichols did it by taking a bunch of close-ups using a special camera rig and stitching them together digitally. NPR has the full story. [via Hack-a-Day]
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Digg this!October 1 2009, 12:00pm | More »
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I posted to hackaday.com
http://hackaday.com/2009/09/30/laser-triggered-photography/
September 30 2009, 8:30am | More »
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I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/09/diy_street_view_camera.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890
As part of a course at the United States Military Academy at West Point, maker Roy D. Ragsdale developed a prototype Street View-like camera using a laptop, $300 in off-the-shelf components, and open source software. A Python script captures eight 1280x1024px JPEG files that are then stitched together and uploaded to Google Earth.
Construction was straightforward. On a flat octagonal heavy-cardboard base, I glued small posts for the cameras' clips to latch onto. I aligned each unit and then placed the USB hubs and the GPS receiver in the middle. I secured the cables with Velcro and sandwiched everything with another piece of cardboard. The whole thing's the size of a small pizza box, weighing less than 1 kilogram. Excluding the notebook (a 2-gigahertz machine with 512 megabytes of RAM running Ubuntu Linux), the hardware cost about $300.
[thanks, Erico]
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Digg this!September 30 2009, 7:00am | More »
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I posted to hackaday.com
http://hackaday.com/2009/09/29/build-a-google-style-panorama-rig-for-300/
September 29 2009, 6:57pm | More »
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I posted to blog.makezine.com
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/09/how-to_use_hard_drives_for_image_st.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890
Instructables user BobS made a gyroscopic image stabilizer from two harddrives and some spare parts. I'll save this one for my next helicopter trip over the Serengeti.
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Digg this!September 26 2009, 12:00am | More »
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I posted to instructables.com
http://www.instructables.com/id/Copy-Your-Old-Slides-The-Easy-Way/
I have many slides from years ago and have enjoyed viewing them from time to time. But I always came away wishing I had them on disc, a CD, Flash Drive, or whatever so that I could see them more often. In those days, slides were much cheaper than prints, so I took a lot of them. Checking on line f...
By:
CreativemanSeptember 23 2009, 10:17pm | More »
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I posted to instructables.com
http://www.instructables.com/id/Universal-2-Gyro-Image-stabilizer/
This image stabilizer can be used with any lens and camera. It works the in same way as the Hubble telescope keeps pointed to the same object during multi day exposures.
This stabilizer can be used succesfully with moderately long exposures and moderately long focal lengths.
Needed: 2 discarded ...
By:
BobSSeptember 23 2009, 1:11pm | More »
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I posted to instructables.com
http://www.instructables.com/id/0-camera-level/
A nikon SLR 3 way camera level out of things at home
that is sturdy enough to take on and off with out breaking off
if you are the minoraty who does not have a level at home check lowes or homedeport .. there $4-6 ... still cheaper than the $30 camera level that only measures the horizon
ALL IMAG...
By:
biozzSeptember 23 2009, 2:28am | More »
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I posted to instructables.com
http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-a-Photography-Studio-Softbox-Directional-a/
Photography is essentially the capturing of light from over a moment into a static, 2D image. Light captured in the photograph is controlled by 4 parameters:
1. Aperture size. This is the size of the "window" inside the camera allowing light to strike the film/photosite . Bigger window...
By:
Steve GlenSeptember 22 2009, 11:57pm | More »
