Awkward Family Photos
Snapping the perfect family photo creates stress for anyone involved. Should we go casual and wear blue jeans with polo shirts on a beach or be a bit crazy, wear matching outfits and — wait for it — lean toward the camera? Ah, choices.
This user-powered blog highlights the most well, awkward, family photos submitted by its contributors. Just don’t show this to your mom for portrait suggestions.
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Childhood friends Mike and Doug (who’d rather not divulge their last names) were swapping typically cringeworthy stories about their relatives when it dawned on them: there’s something universal about the awkwardness of family. And, as Mike recalled thinking, “What better way to show that than through the family photo, something everyone can relate to.” So the men trekked back to Mike’s house and began Googling in earnest. “Doug found the one with the family on the tree. That was it,” Mike wrote in an e-mail from his Los Angeles abode. “It was so beautifully awkward … That was the moment we realized there might be something here.” Thus, AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com was born.
The site’s slogan says it all: “Spreading the Awkwardness.” From uncomfortably intimate pregnancy portraits to couples striking bizarre poses, the photos elicit a baffling combination of amusement and unease. Like Postcards From Yo Momma, the site exploits (er, pays tribute to) the embarrassing moments that make us love our family enough to shame them. (See pictures of U.S. Presidents and their children.)
Check out the Awkward Family Photos Album with a few of the fan favs.
iPhone Photo Apps
A neat innovation is the touch-to-focus feature that can help when separating an object from the foreground. Depending on what you touch on screen, the camera quickly makes adjustments for an optimal and properly exposed and focused picture.
Let us now look at some apps that greatly enhance any iPhone’s photographic functionality.
ColorSplash ($1.99)
ColorSplash is an app that does one thing only surprisingly well. Taking photos from your iPhone’s camera roll, ColorSplash allows you to convert photos to black and white while keeping certain details in colour. The effect is known as a “cutout” or “selective desaturation” and helps give some photos a bit of extra punch and personality.
Say someone sends you a photo of their blue-eyed newborn baby; you can quickly convert the photo to a nice, nostalgic black and white photo but leave the baby’s eyes a radiant blue. Send this photo back to the proud parent and they’ll have a unique keepsake.
Surprisingly robust, ColorSplash uses the iPhone’s inherent features such as two-finger pinching to zoom in and out, as well the ability to work in landscape and portrait mode thanks to the accelerometer.
ColorSplash offers a range of four brush types (hard or soft-edged, opaque or transparent) that you can guide with your finger across the phone’s screen. There is a multiple undo function that helps reset any touch up mistakes.
The best thing about ColorSplash is its ability to save the photos in full resolution so that they simply look stunning once you view them on your desktop. It is amazing how you can take a bland photo and make it look interesting by playing around with ColorSplash. It is easy to learn, highly intuitive and allows for photo editing in the iPhone.
AutoStitch ($1.99)
One of the best things about digital photography is the availability of photo-stitching software that merges a series of digital photos into one large horizontal or vertical panorama. During the days of film, such an endeavor would take hours of manipulation in the darkroom with no guaranteed results.
It took a while to get things right in terms of desktop software but now most camera companies have some version of a photo stitching application that can almost seamlessly merge pictures and colour-correct them into spectacular panoramas. Many cameras now integrate the feature and allow for you to take a succession of shots for the purpose of sewing them together digitally but very few of them actually perform the stitching in-camera.
AutoStitch is an amazing application in the sense that it uses the iPhone’s processing power to render and merge multiple photos into seamless wide-angle photos. Everything is done neatly and quickly in the iPhone.
You can take anything from two to 20 images, drag them into a set and then watch as AutoStitch weaves them together on the fly. The result is a stunning panorama that can now easily be emailed, uploaded or printed out.
While not evident when viewed on the iPhone, the photos are crisp and pretty high resolution once viewed on a desktop.
AutoStitch works best with photos taken in bright, even lighting and without much movement. It’s a great way to visualize large landscapes and is particularly useful outdoors although it does have its uses when photographing architecture and interiors.
Polomoid Camera ($1.99)
Polomoid Camera takes photography on the iPhone to a whole new level. Going back to the good old days of Polaroid instant photography, Polomoid gives users a selection of filters that reproduce Polaroid, Lomography, polarizing effect, retro and black and white.
You can also add white borders to your pictures, similar in style to old Polaroid photos plus there is the ability to add dark corners (similar to Lomo photography) as well as adjust picture brightness. Polomoid Camera really extends the abilities of the iPhone camera and gives users the opportunity to transform their photography into truly unique images. You can also write messages or draw on your photos with different colour brushes which is a feature that is both useful and a lot of fun to use.
I used all the filters and found that the Retro Effect filter was the most outstanding. It made my colour photos look like they were taken in the late 60s or 70s. The Lomography Filter was similarly fun to use and approximated the saturated, high-contrast effect of some Lomo cameras. Polomoid Camera extends your iPhone’s photography toolbox and results in photos that are fun to take, look at and share.
Digital Photography Tips: Capture Summer Action
1. Moving Targets
Soccer games, summer air shows, and trips to the local dog park all have one thing in common: They’re ideal opportunities to take pictures. And they all require you to switch into the role of an action photographer, as the fast-moving subjects tax your camera’s ability to freeze the action and make sharp, dynamic exposures. But no matter what you’re shooting, getting good action photos depends on knowing the right camera settings and practicing a few simple techniques.
2. Shut Down Shutter Lag
Shooting action photos–such as a fleeting moment involving wildlife–requires you to freeze the action that you see in the viewfinder. Unfortunately that can be tricky with digital cameras due to shutter lag, which is the wait between the time you press the shutter release and when the camera actually takes the picture.
All cameras have some sort of shutter lag. On some cameras the lag is almost imperceptibly short, but on others it can be long enough to make you miss a great shot–like this bird, which nearly flew out of the frame while I waited for the camera to take the picture.
Here’s why: When you press the shutter release, the camera has to focus the lens, measure the white balance (so that the colors look right in the final image), and perform a host of internal housekeeping duties, such as preparing the sensor to capture the image. If your camera suffers from noticeable lag, you can do a few things to minimize the delay when you press the shutter release.
3. Preset the Focus
The first thing you can do to minimize shutter lag is to set your camera’s white balance control to one of its preset values. Most cameras let you choose from among a handful of settings such as daylight, indoor, sunset, and cloudy. Just dial in whichever setting is appropriate for the situation before you start shooting. If the camera doesn’t have to measure and calculate the white balance using the automatic setting, you save some time. Admittedly, you don’t save much–a few hundredths of a second–but that can mean a lot when the action is fast. Remember, though, to change the white balance setting when the lighting conditions change. (If you forget, all is not lost. Read “Perfect the Colors in Your Photos” for tips on fixing off-balance photos.)Â Often, the biggest time waster when you’re trying to snap a photo is waiting for the camera to lock the focus–especially if the camera has trouble finding the subject and has to hunt for the appropriate focus.
You might already know that if you press the shutter release halfway down, the camera locks the focus. As long as you hold the button down lightly, the focus will stay locked while you compose the photo or wait for the perfect moment to take the shot. If your subject is darting around in front of you, lock the focus and keep tracking the action. At the right moment, finish pressing the shutter and you’ll get a much more immediate reaction from your camera.
Another option is to skip the autofocus entirely and set the focus manually. I recommend this approach if you know that the subject will always be very far away, such as airplanes at an air show. In that case, switch the focus to infinity. Just remember to set it back to autofocus when you take pictures of things that aren’t quite so distant.
4. Tweak the ISO
Sometimes, in spite of having an ideal subject, you still can’t get the photo you want. Your subject might be front and center in the scene; but due to poor lighting, the shutter speed is so slow that everything is a blur.
The fix? Find your camera’s ISO control and increase it a couple of steps. ISO measures your camera’s sensitivity to light; shooting at ISO 400 instead of ISO 100, for example, means that you can possibly catch a photo at 1/60 second instead of 1/15 second. That’s the difference between being able to read the letters on a player’s jersey and ending up with merely a blur.
The downside to increasing the ISO is that you’ll have more digital noise in the photo, but if increasing the setting makes the difference in getting a sharp photo, it’s probably worth it. This wolf never stopped moving, for example, so a high ISO froze the action at the cost of making a grainy photo. Like white balance and manual focus, ISO is a setting that you should remember to change back after your action-photo shoot.
5. Now, Take a Picture!
Now that you’ve set up your camera, it’s time for some action. There are two kinds of action shots. The more common type, frequently seen in sports photography, uses the highest shutter speed available to freeze the action. If the shutter speed isn’t quite high enough, the subject might be a little blurry–which can look creative and cool sometimes, too.
Alternatively, you can go for a slower shutter speed and let the picture tell the story for you. Nothing says “This girl was really fast!” like some motion blur.
When you’re shooting fast action, shutter speed is the most important camera control you have, so use the camera’s action or sports mode, or set the camera to shutter priority and dial up the shutter speed as high as possible.
What’s a fast shutter speed? If you’re at a car race, an air show, or a sporting event with lots of fast action, I recommend 1/1000 second or faster. In fact, no shutter speed is too fast if it lets you get a shot that you wouldn’t be able to get otherwise.
6. Capture Some Motion
A more creative option is to use the motion in your scene to your advantage. Employing a technique called panning; you can pivot your body as you take the picture, keeping the subject centered in the viewfinder throughout the exposure. You’ll end up with a compelling photo in which the background is blurry but the subject is sharp–and the whole photo conveys the impression of speed and excitement, like the one here.
7. Pan for Action
To pan, make sure that the camera’s shutter speed is low enough to blur the background, but not so slow that camera shake ruins the shot. I recommend trying either 1/15 or 1/30 second.
To get ready for the photo, start tracking the moving subject in the viewfinder while it’s still off to the side, and turn your body in a smooth motion as the subject crosses in front of you. As it reaches the point closest to you, gently press the shutter release and continue to pan with the subject as it moves off in the other direction. For the best results, you should follow through, in much the same way a golfer or a baseball player keeps swinging even after hitting the ball.
8. Choose an Action-Friendly Camera
When shopping for an action-savvy camera, keep your eye on two features in particular. First, make sure that the camera lets you set the shutter speed directly–this setting is usually called shutter priority mode. An alternative is an action or sports mode; these settings choose the highest available shutter speed for you automatically. It’s also a good idea to look for a camera with a wide range of ISO settings, which will allow you to dial in faster shutter speeds even in low-light conditions.
Of course, a digital SLR is your best bet for such features, but many full-featured point-and-shoot cameras work great for soccer games, pinewood derbies, and air shows as well. A camera like the Nikon Coolpix P90 combines the best of both: It’s an SLR-like point-and-shoot with full shutter control and other useful action features such as integrated optical image stabilization.
Shift Happens: Kodachrome’s Final Exposure
When legendary National Geographic photographer Steve McCurry captured the piercing eyes of a young Afghan girl in 1985, the film in his camera was Kodak’s legendary Kodachrome.
Kodachrome was the first commercially successful colour film, and for 74 years it remained an icon of the photographic world. But by the end of the summer, you’ll never see it again. And for some photographers, it signals the end of an era.
“It strikes more of an emotional chord,” said Chris Stambaugh, president of Professional Photographers of Canada. “It was unique.”
Kodachrome was renowned among the most rugged of professional photographers as a film that would stand up to almost any environmental condition while consistently maintaining high quality in the final image.
“It was able to withstand extreme temperatures without shifting colours or deteriorating,” Stambaugh said.
And while digital cameras have tried to catch up, for most consumers Kodachrome will be irreplaceable.
“The image quality and resolution of a film like Kodachrome still can’t be touched (by digital cameras).”
It became such an institution, that Paul Simon wrote a song about it. Kodachrome, which appeared on his 1973 album, There Goes Rhymin’ Simon, was about remembering the best moments of growing up.
“I got a Nikon camera / I love to take a photograph / So mama don’t take my Kodachrome away,” crooned the songster. The song reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and was even used in a Kodak ad campaign in the 1990s.
“Very few products in this world have been around 74 years,” said Audrey Jonckheer, a spokesman for Kodak. “We kept Kodachrome alive as long as we could.”
But what made Kodachrome unique also sounded its death knell.
The professional-quality film was able to last hundreds of years without losing image quality once it had been processed, and boasted highly accurate colour reproduction and stability in the most extreme environments.
This made it more complicated to process, however, and each roll of film had to be mailed back to Kodak to be processed. Photographers often waited weeks for their film to be returned.
As years wore on and consumers became more accustomed to one-hour developing at their corner store, this became a serious drawback. More colour films — most only almost as good — became available with simpler processing techniques and sales of Kodachrome began to dip.
“In the end, photographers made this decision for us,” Jonckheer said. “Most of them have moved on to newer films and/or digital.”
Indeed, even Stambaugh’s shop made the conversion seven years ago.
McCurry, now one of the film’s most famous users, will expose one of the last rolls of Kodachrome this summer.
The resulting images will be donated to the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film in Rochester, N.Y., along with the very last rolls of Kodachrome to be produced.
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Film or digital?
For Ottawa photographer Dave Weatherall, there will always be a soft spot for the good old days of loading 24 exposures at a time into the back of a camera.
“With film your storage capability is limited,” he says, and that means old-school photographers treated their photos with much more thought.
“You have to decide what moments you want to capture,” he says.
But how far can digital go?
Do the camera manufacturers even know?
“The one ironic thing I’ve always found about digital photography marketing is the touting of ‘film-like quality’,” says Weatherall.
“How do we know when they’re capable of producing better than film-quality images, and what does that even mean?”
Considering the average frame of Kodachrome could store approximately 20 megapixels of data, and the average consumer digital camera now is capable of about half that, we still have a ways to go.
Sony Cybershot W290 Digital Camera Review
If you’re looking for fun in-camera extras and editing tools in a point-and-shoot digital camera, the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W290 is a great option. A wide-angle lens, a sharp 3-inch LCD screen, and a 720p HD movie mode also add to its overall appeal, but we have seen better image quality from similarly priced cameras in 2009.
The 12-megapixel Cyber-shot DSC-W290 ($250 as of 7/10/2009) has a 5X optical-zoom Carl Zeiss lens, starting at 28mm on the wide-angle end to 140mm on the telephoto end. It’s a bit thicker than many competing point-and-shoots, but still pocketable: about 4 inches wide, 2.5 inches high, and an inch deep.
Overall image quality was rated as Good, according to PC World Test Center jury evaluations. The W290 fared well in terms of overall exposure in our tests, but image sharpness and distortion were shortcomings. The identically priced Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS25, for example, outscored this Sony in most imaging categories.
In informal hands-on tests, I found that the W290 takes good high-ISO shots in low light, although noise is visible at ISO 3200 and ISO 1600–not enough to ruin the shots, however. The W290 also takes about a second or more to save photos at high-ISO, low-light settings. During hands-on tests, it also became evident that the Cyber-shot W290’s optical image stabilization is effective with a small level of shake, but struggled to take a sharp image when the camera was shaken more vigorously.
The W290 has only ten scene modes, which is a low count compared with competitors in its price range, but that also means it’s bloat-free: You get all the essential and often-used modes, such as high ISO, Landscape, Snow, Fireworks, and Soft Focus.
As usual with Sony cameras, the camera settings are easily accessible via a mode dial on the back, and the user interface is helped by the excellent and intuitive on-screen menus. What’s more, this model has a dedicated “Smile Shutter” button on the top of the camera (next to the shutter button); this lets you quickly turn on the camera’s smile-triggered shutter feature. Smile Shutter automatically takes a picture once the subject smiles, and you can even adjust the sensitivity of the smile trigger in the camera.
The smile-triggered shutter is pretty commonplace among point-and-shoots these days, but a few features in the W290 set it apart from other pocket cameras. First and foremost is the range of creative image-editing features you get in this camera. Instead of applying “live” effects to your photos, many of these features can be applied after you take your shots: You can add fish-eye effects, radial blur, or red-eye correction; isolate one color in your photos while turning the rest of the image black and white; and apply a “retro” effect that mimics a pinhole camera.
But by far the weirdest–and the most fun–in-camera feature is the “Happy Faces” mode, which lets you add a fake smile to underwhelmed photo subjects. You can see for yourself how the “Happy Faces” mode can put a smile on the face of the Mona Lisa and on a serious-looking Barack Obama.
The advantage to adding these effects after your shots are taken is that you preserve the original image; cameras such as Panasonic’s Lumix DMC-FS25 and Canon’s PowerShot SD780 IS have pinhole-camera simulators and color-isolation modes, respectively, but both cameras apply those effects to the source image as it’s being shot.
Battery life is a huge plus: the Cyber-shot DSC-W290 fired off 342 shots on a single charge of its lithium ion battery, good enough for a PC World Test Center score of Very Good. Unfortunately, you need to remove the battery from the camera to charge it; the camera comes with a plug-in battery charger.
The button layout is straight-forward: On top of the camera are the power button, the shutter button, and the Smile Shutter button. On the back, next to the big and clear 3-inch LCD, are the zoom toggle, the mode dial, the playback button, and a four-way directional pad for menu navigation (doubling as one-touch access to the flash settings, macro mode, self timer, and display settings), as well as a menu button and a delete button. One lack: The camera has no optical viewfinder.
On the bottom of the camera is the A/V-out port for transferring photos and movies to your PC; unfortunately, it’s a proprietary connector on the camera’s side of things, so you can’t swap in a mini-USB or micro-USB cable for that task. Another downside is the plastic battery door on the bottom of the camera–it feels as if it could snap off way too easily. Besides the battery itself, this compartment holds another proprietary item: a Memory Stick storage slot. (You don’t get a Memory Stick card with the camera.)
In addition to the scene modes, four top-level shooting modes are also accessible from the mode dial. Easy Auto Mode automatically optimizes in-camera settings for a scene and hides all the more-complicated settings from the shooter. Intelligent Auto Mode combines automatic scene optimization, optical stabilization, and face detection. Program Mode lets you adjust white balance, exposure compensation, dynamic range settings, ISO levels, and metering options; however, you don’t get anything in the way of shutter and aperture controls, but that’s common in a camera of this price and size. Lastly, Movie Mode lets you shoot 720p high-definition clips or 640-by-480 standard-definition clips, both as MPEG-4 files at 30 frames per second. You can’t use the zoom in movie mode, which is common in point-and-shoots.
The Cyber-shot W290 may not have the sharpest image quality in its price range, but casual photographers looking for a big display, ease of use, and good battery life will likely be pleased with it. Those looking for fun in-camera features and editing tools will be delighted.
Dazzboard whisks media from phone to Web
Imagine uploading your photos from your digital camera and from your mobile phone to Facebook and Flickr [and TinyAlbum!] using the same software interface. Now imagine downloading a YouTube video to your phone by clicking a browser bookmarklet. 
You can do both in Dazzboard, a new media Webtop in open beta that fast-tracks your photos, songs, and videos to and from your mobile device to your computer or the online world.
There is a catch: the USB leash. You’ve got to plug the device into the computer via USB. The trade off is being able to manage the phone’s media content from a computer dashboard, which is infinitely more comfortable than managing it from the device’s tiny interface. If you’re not on the move, dashboards like Dazzboard offer most of the convenience of mobile management, and are overall much easier on the eye.
Here’s how Dazzboard plays out. After registering for a free account, plug your device–like your mobile phone, digital MP3 player, or Sony PSP (or all three in succession)–into the computer by way of a USB cable. You may need to switch some devices, like BlackBerry and Windows Mobile phones, into mass storage mode for this to work (see FAQs). Dazzboard’s ‘universal’ device manager recognizes the device and lets you bilaterally interact with music, photos, and videos. You can upload content to the Web or to the PC, or quickly transfer media from your computer or from the Web to your device.
Dazzboard.com is a little clunky to maneuver. You’ll need to click the black bar on the screen to open the device manager, and click again on one of the three media types to view the device’s contents. If you want to add to it, you’ll click a task on the right pane, which will transfer content from your computer to the phone. Uploading the media stored on the phone to a social Web site is perhaps even less intuitive. You’ll need to click the file, then select the “transfer to” button, where you’ll be able to log into Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, and YouTube to post photos and videos (we were only able to transfer MP3s back to the PC.) After queuing up the transfer manager, you’ll need to click over to the Transfer screen and manually start the transfers. The media uploaded quickly, albeit to a Dazzboard folder in Facebook instead of to an album we chose, and did not automatically display the event in the profile feed.
In addition to the device manager, Dazzboard also poses as a media library where you can search a handful of photo, video, and music uploads to transfer to your device. Dazzboard also includes a few links out to other popular sites, but the handy bookmarklet it peddles will be its main vehicle for transporting Web content to your phone. You’ll be prompted to drag the button to your bookmark bar and click it whenever you visit a site with compatible content. Requests will fill a transfer list and wait patiently until the next time you plug in your device.
In this early public beta stage, Dazzboard is burdened by some notable requirements and limitations. That USB dependency is the primary one. Dashwire, a Windows Mobile dashboard, had the right idea to sync content through a small client on the phone. This didn’t require any proximity, and so gave its mobile maintenance a remote management flavor. However, the mobile client is platform-specific, which makes programming a pain. Dazzboard would do better enabling an ad-hoc Wi-Fi network to get the device and computer talking.
In addition, Dazzboard requires the Windows Media Player 11 browser plug-in, which it will prompt you to download if you don’t have it. You’ll also need to download Dazzboard’s Windows plug-in, for Firefox 3.0+ and Internet Explorer 6+. Its current list of supported devices is modest: Storm is the only BlackBerry product to make the list, and Windows Mobile phones will work only if mass storage mode is on, but not Active Sync (yet). iPhone isn’t supported, and neither are most popular cameras, including our Canon Power Shot SD850 IS. Dazzboard is working on compatibility for Mac OS X.
Although it wasn’t supported, we were still able to transfer all three content types flawlessly onto a BlackBerry Bold. We didn’t have any success viewing the phone’s media, however. There’s a chance you’ll luck out with your unsupported device if you try it, but of course, no guarantees. Despite the hiccups and hurdles, Dazzboard offers an intriguing solution for households and individuals with more than one device. We’ll be keeping our eye on Dazzboard as it adds support for more devices and polishes its beta.
Microsoft To Offer Office Software On Web
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) said Monday it would offer a free, Web-based version of its Office tools, the company’s most significant acknowledgment that it needs to alter a decades-old model of selling boxed software as it battles competitors like Google Inc. (GOOG).
The announcement is the latest milestone in an 18-month-old strategy by the world’s largest software firm to offer more of its core products via the Web. The Office suite of products includes the Word word processing application and Excel spreadsheet.
In offering Office over the Web, the Redmond, Wash.-based company is trying to grab a larger slice of a burgeoning market for online software services without damaging the profitability of its products, the large majority of which are still run on PCs or corporate servers. Most of Microsoft’s profitability comes from two business units, the ones that make its Windows operating system and its business tools - like Office.
The move ramps up competition between Microsoft and Mountain View, Calif.-based Google, which said last week it was developing an operating system that would challenge Microsoft’s Windows software. Previously, it had launched a free, online applications service, called Google Docs, which offered many of the same functions as Microsoft’s Office.
Microsoft for its part is trying to muscle in on Google’s core market: Internet search advertising. Last month, Microsoft launched a new search site, called Bing, which has attracted users, though it remains far behind Google’s dominant product.
Microsoft is also working on another project, code-named Gazelle, that is a hybrid of of an operating system and Web browser.
Stephen Elop, who runs Microsoft’s Business Division, said in an interview that making some of its Office products available free should help the company expand its overall business customer market.
While traditional office productivity tools, like spreadsheets, are experiencing slower revenue growth than some newer products, Microsoft has an opportunity to reach more customers with hosted business services such as email and collaborative applications, he said.
“These are new opportunities to grow profit and revenue in absolute dollars,” Elop said.
Between 20% and 25% of the revenues associated with Office come from consumers, Elop said.
Microsoft doesn’t break out total Office sales, but the products account for the bulk of the $19 billion sales from its Business division in 2008.
Sandeep Aggarwal, an analyst with Collins Stewart, estimates that Microsoft gets roughly $4 billion in revenue from consumer users of Office, the ones most likely to use the new Web-based version of the software.
Tom Austin, a vice president with technology research firm Gartner, said Microsoft’s Office strategy indicates it is trying to shift the profit-generating engine of the Office business unit toward hosted services, like email, rather than tools like word processing programs.
Austin said Microsoft appears willing to accept lower profitability on its Office products in exchange for greater reach, which it can use to boost overall revenue by selling business customers email and other collaboration services.
Microsoft said its Office Web applications would be available through Windows Live, which has more than 400 million customers. Consumers will get access to the Office Web applications for free.
Large volume license customers for Office will be able to get the services on premise and via Microsoft Online Services, where customers will be able to buy a subscription as part of a hosted offering.
Microsoft doesn’t expect all its customers to abandon paid versions of Office, Elop said. He pointed to areas of new functionality, such as the ability to edit video in Powerpoint, which was best used on desktop-based software, that might persuade customers to pay to use higher-end versions. Elop says the majority of customers will continue to pay for Office for some time.
Microsoft said it would cut the number of Office editions to five from eight. Starting Monday, a select group of people will be able to preview the new Office 2010 as part of its preview program.
Henry Hadlow’s Photoshopped Photography - Tell A Lie
We’ve already seen Photoshop slip into popular culture: back in January the work of German artists who adbusted a beauty billboard poster with the graphic-design software user-interface details to make a comment on ‘Photoshopping’, and a couple of months before an advertising agency in Jakarta photographed a real-life user-interface.
Graphic designer Henry Hadlow continues this discussion about the use of Photoshop with the ‘Tell A Lie’ art project. For this project he has photographed real life imitations of common uses of Photoshop to make a point about falsehood in photography. On his site he says:
“The most controversial lies told with photography today are those told by news photographers who manipulate their work photographs to tell a different story, for example, Liu Weiqiang’s faked photograph of antelope and the rail link with Tibet.
Working with my friend Ed Cornish, we decided to flip this lie on its head and use a camera to mimic common Photoshop effects.”
Moon landing was ‘huge leap for photography’, says Hasselblad
A small step for a man was a ‘huge leap for photography’ says Hasselblad which is marking the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing this month.
Hasselblad, whose cameras were used by astronauts, is celebrating the Apollo 11 anniversary by taking selected photographers on an expenses-paid trip to NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.
Recalling the history of its cameras in space Hasselblad said: ‘In 1962, astronaut Walter Schirra took his Hasselblad on board the Mercury-Atlas 8 and took the first images of earth from space. Hasselblad followed NASA, on space flight after space flight, with Hasselblad cameras proving that they could meet the stringent demands made by extraterrestrial travel.
‘And in 1969 when the world watched in awe as the Apollo 11 astronauts became the first men to set foot on the moon, those astronauts also carried Hasselblad cameras, capturing some of the most definitive images man has ever captured.’
Hasselblad CEO Christian Poulsen added: Obviously, lunar travel posed even more demanding challenges than shooting inside a space capsule, with extreme temperatures and dust… placing serious strains on equipment. Lunar photography leaves no margin for errors, no room for second chances…’
Hasselblad added: ‘The research and development that was required to meet the challenges of space travel benefited not only extraterrestrial photographers, but even those with both feet firmly on the ground. The advancements gained during the space camera design process were implemented into the standard Hasselblad line as well.’
Hasselblad customers who buy an H3D11-50 or H3D11-60 camera until 21 August will be eligible to take part in the trip to Florida, which will include a weekend of seminars, training and photography, followed by a competition.
The event takes place from 24-26 September.
Canon PowerShot SX1 IS Review
Design – Very Good
From a distance, Canon’s latest Super Zoom appears to be identical to its replacement, the Canon PowerShot SX10 IS. However, when compared side-by side, there are three primary architectural differences brought on by the Canon PowerShot SX1 IS. For starters, the camera rocks a stealthy all-black color scheme, whereas the PowerShot SX10 IS was a two-tone grey and gunmetal combination. We prefer the badass all-black scheme of the PowerShot SX1 IS. Secondly, you’ll notice a 2.8-inch widescreen LCD in the back of the PowerShot SX1 IS, filling in for the PowerShot SX10 IS’s modest 2.5-inch display. Lastly, check out the HDMI terminal and aspect ratio button. The Canon PowerShot SX1 IS adds full 1080p high-definition to the menu this year, so a Mini HDMI port was in order.
Aside from those three minor structural alterations, the Canon PowerShot SX1 IS was in fact identical to the Canon PowerShot SX10 IS when it came to handling. The camera still felt slightly larger than the Nikon Coolpix P90, yet a tad more durable. We actually dropped the Canon PowerShot SX1 IS right after unboxing it and the camera emerged unscathed by the hardwood floor. Since both cameras were hatched from the same design mold, we got the large shutter button zoom toggle, electronic viewfinder and rear-mounted Control dial, three features that were welcomed on the PowerShot SX10 IS. One thing we were baffled by was the PowerShot SX1 IS’s lack of lens threads for filters. Here we have this nice 20x optical zoom Canon lens, but no ability to toss a UV or amber filter on.
On top, the Canon PowerShot SX1 IS features a hot shoe for mounting Canon proprietary flashes, and the camera also has a flip-up flash for basic lighting fills. The PowerShot SX1 IS ships with a wavy lens hood to shield light, but we ended up shooting without it because the hood ducked into a few of our shots, even when mounted correctly. The same deal happened with the Canon PowerShot SX10 IS, so we’d recommend against its use. In addition to the HDMI terminal, the PowerShot SX1 IS offers Digital (USB), AV out and DC in ports that are covered by burly plastic shields. Be careful when accessing the battery hatch because the four AAs will shoot out and plunge right to the ground if you don’t have your hand covering the open hatch. We can tell you that from experience. All in all, we liked the design of the PowerShot SX1 IS, and feel the same about the PowerShot SX1 IS.
Interface – Very Good
Parallel to the Canon PowerShot SX1 IS’s external construction was the emulated interface, carried straight over from the PowerShot SX10 IS. The only difference this time around was the 2.8-inch swivel widescreen LCD in place of the 2.5-inch swivel display. The 230,000-pixel display remained the same, and we were disappointed with the quality of the LCD due to noise and lack of clarity. For capturing RAW images, the 2.5-inch screen would have better suited the 4:3 aspect ratio of the still images, but the screen’s 16:9 aspect was built for shooting HD video, which says a lot about the direction compacts are headed these days. On the plus side, the swivel LCD enabled us to capture angles we didn’t know were possible, so we have to give the PowerShot SX1 IS some props there. We liked the aspect ratio button, allowing us to shift between full-size RAW 4:3 shooting and full 1080p 16:9 video modes. However, if we weren’t careful, this feature could sneak up on us and we would end up shooting widescreen JPEG images or 640x 480 standard-definition video, which happened a few times.
Using the Control dial a second time around was just as rewarding, however we noticed that it took a little more fine-tuning in order to be able to control the intensity of its behavior. We could spin the dial slowly and nothing would happen, but then we’d give it a good crank and it would jump six or seven options. This vexing situation was mostly prominent while we attempted to select a Scene mode. The good news is that the Canon PowerShot SX1 IS is equipped with Canon’s x-axis/y-axis function menu, in addition to a fully-stocked Mode dial and comprehensive Administrative menu. All options were laid out intuitively, and the Manual Focus and ISO quick functions were nice additions to have on the Control dial. Exposure Compensation was a press of a button away, along with AF frame selector and Display options.
The Canon PowerShot SX1 IS’s viewfinder was one of the better electronic displays we’ve seen in this class, and the picture was not too shabby. It was difficult to utilize the Manual Focus Assist function while using the viewfinder because the small screen and compromised resolution were a deadly combination, so there were certainly instances where we preferred the LCD to the viewfinder. Playback was chock full of our favorite features like Auto Rotate and offered full image data with histograms. There’s no doubt that the Canon PowerShot SX1 IS offers one of the best interfaces in its class.
Features – Very Good
Like the Canon PowerShot SX10 IS, the Canon PowerShot SX1 IS was spewing features at us left and right. This is one of the most feature-rich fixed lens Super Zooms on the market. The big surprise this time around was the PowerShot SX1 IS’s full 1080p HD video mode. Similar to the Canon Eos 500D (Rebel T1i), the PowerShot SX1 IS performed very well in optimally lit shooting environments, but choked in low light, as we’ll see a little later on in the review. The sound quality was probably the most impressive facet of the 1080p video mode, and our only complaint was that we could hear the lens zooming in and out in our clips. Sound was natural and resisted clipping, and the PowerShot SX1 IS definitely offered one of the best HD video modes we’ve seen in this class to date. However, when the lighting dipped below a certain lux level that is not agreeable with the PowerShot SX1 IS, we were treated to almost complete darkness and an unruly swarm of noise. More anon in the Image Quality Section.
For the budding photographers out there who are looking for their first photographic moped to train on before the inevitable DSLR superbike, the Canon PowerShot SX1 IS was brimming like a cauldron filled with options and controls. With a full Manual mode, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, Program AE, Auto, Custom mode and a cluster of Scene modes, we never hit any roadblocks along the way. However, we did pick up on a very peculiar and silly trait this time around, and that had to do with the PowerShot SX1 IS’s one-second shutter speed cap in all shooting modes except the Long Shutter Scene mode. Yes, a one-second cap! What gives!? We’re out at night with the PowerShot SX1 IS mounted on the tripod, we crank the aperture down to f/8.0 for increased depth, shoot the ISO down to 80 or 100 for maximum detail and then we go to flick the camera down to a 30-second or 60-second shutter and bam! It doesn’t exist! The fact that a camera this advanced could not surpass one second in Manual mode blew us away. We had to shoot in Long Shutter mode, which did not allow us to capture in RAW. What a total bummer. The PowerShot SX1 IS offers a great manual focus system with Focus Assist, has Auto Exposure and Focus Bracketing, offers a slew of color filters and effects, but the thing can’t travel past a one-second shutter speed unless its in a JPEG-only Scene mode. Sheesh.
White Balance options were plentiful and the Manual White Balance mode was highly effective. We could point at a scene and click the White Balance right into the proper color temperature in a matter of seconds. The Focus Assist function could even be used with the Auto Focus, creating a small, magnified preview window of the focused area of the image. We of course got our taste of the Color Accent and Color Swap Scene modes, along with more popular ones that were readily available on the Mode dial like Sports and Portrait. We could even use the Color Accent and Color Swap modes while recording HD video, which was a major plus. Aside from the mysterious one-second shutter speed cap, the Canon PowerShot SX1 IS was a veritable tool belt stocked with photographic artillery.
Hardware - Good
Canon decided to switch it up this year and toss a 10-megapixel 1/2.3-inch CMOS chip inside the PowerShot SX1 IS, while last year’s PowerShot SX1 IS was given just a plain old 10-megapixel CCD. The other major stocking stuffer we got this year was the ability to shoot in RAW. Better yet, Photoshop CS4 has added the Canon PowerShot SX1 IS to its list of compatible RAW cameras, so files can simply be dragged and dropped right into the program. Canon did an admirable job honing the PowerShot SX1 IS as a set of training wheels to a real DSLR, for beginners can now get a taste of working with RAW files in post.
We’re still unsure why Canon opted to stick with a 10-megapixel sensor when everything around it jumped on the bandwagon and boosted the jets up to 12-megapixels. Regardless, it’s not the size of the pixel count, but how you use it, and the PowerShot SX1 IS was a slight improvement over the PowerShot SX10 IS, though only when it came to RAW shooting.
The 20x optical zoom was another welcome feature carried over from the PowerShot SX10 IS, and we’re glad Canon kept the 35mm focal length chart on top of the lens barrel, which ranges from 28mm to 560mm. The 28mm wide-angle lens came to the rescue in tight spots, but it was next to impossible to tame a full telephoto magnification at 20x. The Optical Image Stabilization huffed and puffed, but in the end, a tripod was needed for extreme zooms, especially in shooting environments with lower light levels.
Canon also stuck with four AA batteries for power, which is convenient for on-the-fly juice, but can be pricey in the long run. Images are captured as JPEGs or RAW files to SD/SDHC cards, and we were given the option to record to both simultaneously. Fortunately, videos used H.264 .MOV compression, so we were able to play and edit our clips right from the get go.
Image Quality - Good
This is a tricky one. Canon move to a CMOS chip with RAW capability was a good one, though the PowerShot SX1 IS still behaved like a point-and-shoot at times. We saw a definite improvement in our RAW images, but JPEG images were nearly identical in quality to the Canon PowerShot SX10 IS. So, RAW was really the only way to shoot with the PowerShot SX1 IS. But even then, we discovered some unwanted noise and fringing. What’s really interesting is that the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3 exhibited far less fringing than the PowerShot SX1 IS, and both cameras were tested side-by-side. Contrasts were difficult for the PowerShot SX1 IS to handle, but we saw that with the PowerShot SX10 IS and EOS 500D. Low light shooting was not a problem, thanks to Long Shutter mode, but we’re still irked about the PowerShot SX1 IS’s inability to offer a shutter longer than one second in the manual modes. Therefore, our low light samples had to be JPEGs while the rest of the sample images were shot in RAW and converted into the highest quality JPEGs.
Video quality was excellent in daylight and shooting environments that offered plenty of luminance, however, low light sensitivity was ghastly. We experienced the same performance with the Canon Eos 500D, though the 500D provided a more detailed image, thanks to its larger sensor. The Canon PowerShot SX1 IS just couldn’t suck up enough light when the lights went down, and most of our video clips were just indiscernible collages of dark noise when they should have been easily visible. For beginners, the Canon PowerShot SX1 IS will do the trick, but anyone looking for advanced imaging at an intermediate level or beyond will not dog this camera. We really had to work in order to squeeze as much quality out of the images and video clips as we could. Nearly all still images were captured at 80 ISO because the PowerShot SX1 IS dumped on the noise at higher levels.
