Ben Zank's Photostream ISO 12233 Test Chart The ISO standard for measuring resolution of “electronic still imaging”" cameras is 12233, available only from the International Standards Organization for only 116 Swiss Francs (about $US93 as of this writing) and under copyright protection. But the design of the test chart seems not to be protected; its description has been available on the Web in an Excel spreadsheet. I have semi-manually converted this to an Adobe Illustrator file which is displayed here. Click here for a printable PDF version. In principle, you should be able to print this chart and perform resolution tests on your camera. Advanced resolution tests It seems that most folks, for example Imaging Resource, use this chart for visual assessment of resolution, but it's designed to do more. Buying a real ISO 12233 chart The proper way to perform these tests is to order both the ISO standard and a properly-made test chart.
Big Bang: Abstract Photograms Created by Exposing Photo Paper to Fireworks What kind of imagery results when you mix photo paper and fireworks? That’s a question photographic artist Ross Sonnenberg has been exploring for the past few years. He creates one-of-a-kind camera-less photograms that look like abstract images of galaxies, but are actually random and colorful patterns created by the light of firecrackers. He has been creating images for two projects: Color Bang, which features this technique done on smaller pieces of photo paper, and Long Bang, which uses the technique on much grander scale. Here’s a video in which Sonnenberg introduces his technique: He writes, I have always been fascinated by the planets and stars, looking through telescopes and wondering what these far off places might look like. Here are some of the photos in the Color Bang series: You can find more of these images over on Sonnenberg’s website. P.S. Image credits: Photographs by Ross Sonnenberg and used with permission
Kyle Thompson Self Portrait Photos Are Awesome A couple of years ago, Kyle Thompson became interested in photography. Unfortunately, his anxiety prevented him from talking to people, so he opted to experiment with self-portraits. He would spend hours, even days, walking alone through forests and exploring abandoned houses. During college, Kyle was interested in photography but had no idea what to do with his life. He didn't think he could survive as an artist. This photo was taken with the use of flour. He climbed to the top of a mountain in Bolivia for this one. After finding a broken plane in an old corn field, Kyle used smoke bombs to capture this fantastic shot. His work is incredibly unique. Yes, more flour. After posting some of his work to Reddit, it got over 4 million views. He said he was even recognized in public. Those are not headlights. After his work went viral, Kyle decided to dive into photography full time. Kyle's unique self-portraits were captured with a Canon 60D, a 50mm 1.8 lens, a tripod, and a timer.
Recreate a fish-eye effect with Photoshop | Photoshop Music downloads might have lessened the pleasure of browsing album art, but the iconic covers that appeared on many records from the mid to late 1960s are still revered today. A side effect of this is the massive barrel distortion that spherizes the content and the large circular blackout around the edges of the image itself. To create an image in this style you could use an expensive circular fish-eye lens, but an equally effective look can be achieved in Photoshop simply using the Spherize filter. Read on to find out how it's done with Photoshop Elements 8 (you can also use all versions of CS up to and including Photoshop CS6) - there's a sample image for you to use below. Click here to download image 01. Open fisheye_before.jpg. 02. Duplicate the 'Background' layer (Layer>DuplicateLayer). 03. After applying the fish-eye effect you'll need to enlarge the canvas so you can add a realistic soft edge around the curvature of the distortion. 04. 05. 06. Now read:
Interview with Eric Kim (Video) on fear, books and why? | F8 Recently Eric Kim and I ran a street projects workshop in Hong Kong (my blog review of that workshop can be found here). After the workshop finished we had a few days before Eric departed for his next workshops in Australia so I took the time to get him in the studio and my aim was to produce a short but slightly more serious interview with him to help him out and let people see a bit more depth. In this piece, Eric talks about his fears when shooting street, some highly recommended books and reminds all photographers to ask yourself why do you shoot? Something I ask everyone I teach the moment I meet them… Gary Tyson is a former British Army Photographer/videographer now based in Asia, shooting a variety of projects ranging from commercial to sports photography, corporate, travel an event videos, as well as being an avid street shooter wherever he goes. For more information about Gary or F8 Photography please see our links below to public facebook page and website. Written by Gary Tyson
Magnum's Bruce Gilden Delivers a Brutally Honest Critique of Art Photography Author’s note: The following video does contain some explicit language and one instance of nudity at 3 minutes. Proceed with caution, especially if you’re at work. Bruce Gilden — a Brooklyn-born photographer who has won numerous awards and is now part of the Guggenheim Fellowship thanks to his street photography work — recently sat down with VICE to do a little art critique. Although ‘critique’ might be a nice way of putting it. Gilden’s no-nonsense personality makes for a blunt and honest review of art photographs the likes of which you probably won’t see anywhere else. It’s worth noting again, as we did at the top, that the eleven minute critique is rough at times. If you aren’t weak-hearted, need a laugh, and want to learn something along the way, press play at the top. (via aPhotoEditor)
Comparing the Image Quality of Film and Digital There have been a few film versus digital articles here and there on the interwebs, but seems like very few have approached the subject in a scientific fashion or with the advice of both film and digital experts. However, with the help of Joe Cornish (a landscape photographer who made his living shooting on medium and large format but now shoots Phase One IQ280s), Chris Ireland (who sells Phase One cameras), and myself, Tim Parkin, (I shoot film and run a drum scanning service), a definitive test was born. The first part of the test compared large/medium format film with medium format digital, and a subsequent part was a comparison of high end DSLRs using the Nikon D800E. The results may surprise a few people. Here’s our comparison of the Nikon D800E and a Mamiya 7 medium format camera (both using ~25mm equivalent lenses): Nikon D800E DSLR (left) and Mamiya medium format rangefinder (right) First of all here’s the full photo view showing the cropped area we’ll be looking at:  Wow! P.S.