Photography links

[MacHeadCase]

OK let's start a thread on essential links for anyone being serious about photography.

Camera reviews:
Interested in buying a new digital camera but want to make sure of what you're buying by reading some unbiased reviews? Look here:

• Jeff Keller's Digital Camera resource page (http://www.dcresource.com/): this website was started by Jeff Keller, the same guy that started the PowerWatch website which was a news and reviews website dedicated to the PowerComputing Mac clones. This was during Apple CEO Gil Amelio's reign, right before Steve Jobs was ushered back in Apple's fold.

When His Steveness made it back to Apple in 1996 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs), his first move was to stop all the Mac clone licensing because the clone makers were building better Macs at better prices than Apple was and the clone makers were cannibalizing Apple's Mac sales instead of growing the Mac's market share like it was hoped when the project was first started.

So Jeff saw that there was no future in the PowerWatch website, decided to slowly let it go and started at the same time a website on digital cameras, his other passion at the time. His digital camera reviews were outstanding and would routinely use the same shots so the reader could see the difference in performance between camera models and brands when trying to make a choice for purchase purposes.

• One of the best known in camera reviews, Digital Photography Review (http://www.dpreview.com/) (or dpreview for short). The reviews are extremely thorough. Well worth a looksee.

• Let's Go Digital (http://www.letsgodigital.org/en/index.html) is interesting because you can do some side-by-side specs comparison on camera models. If you're into comparing hard facts instead of visuals to make your choice.

• The Digital Picture (http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/) has it all: camera reviews, lens reviews, accessories reviews, software reviews, etc. Look it over. A wealth of info there.

• Other websites that have good reviews are Camera Labs (http://www.cameralabs.com/), Megapixel (http://www.megapixel.net/html/reviews.php), Frary Photography (http://emedia.leeward.hawaii.edu/frary/photo_index.htm) (look at the right sidebar for the various links) and Bob Atkins (http://bobatkins.com/photography/reviews/index.html). These websites are also well worth a look.

• The Digital Outback (http://www.outbackphoto.com/reviews/reviews.html) website has reviews on cameras, lenses, photography software and some articles on photography tips. So take your time and check it out.


Lens reviews:

• One of the, if not THE best website for lens reviews is Fred Miranda (http://www.fredmiranda.com/reviews/). Also has great reviews on accessories such as flashes, tripods, ballheads, camera bags, printers.

• Both Bob Atkins (http://bobatkins.com/photography/reviews/index.html) and The Luminous Landscape (http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/index.shtml) have extensive reviews on lenses, film camera bodies, printers and scanners, tripods and tripod heads, photography software, etc. but are bit of a nightmare in terms of website organization, but well worth the time for the info you can find there.

• Frary Photography (http://emedia.leeward.hawaii.edu/frary/photo_index.htm) (look at the right sidebar for the various links) reviews not only cameras like I posted above but lenses, flashes, etc.

• DPreview (http://www.dpreview.com/lensreviews/) has recently started publishing lens reviews. There isn't much up there yet but very concise, as their camera reviews are.

• Camera Labs (http://www.cameralabs.com/buyers_guide/lenses/best_DSLR_lenses.shtml) has also a few reviews up.


Photography articles:

• Fred Miranda (http://www.fredmiranda.com/ArticlesMain/index.html) has great articles for tips, tricks and info.

• What Is... Exposure Bracketing (http://www.photoxels.com/tutorial_exposureBracketing.html).

• Cleaning cameras (http://photo.net/learn/cleaning-cameras) (the comments give great info on this topic).

• Focus testing (http://photo.net/learn/focustest/).

• Lens Aberrations (http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/lenstech.htm)

• What is Bokeh (http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~parsog/Guy/bokeh.html)?


So, I'll let you guys breathe a little and post some later.

Please feel free to add info in the thread if you have anything you want to share with the rest of the community. :)

[Kilted]

And for inspiration

http://www.anseladams.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=7

My hero :)

[MacHeadCase]

Ah yeah, Ansel Adams... :coolthumbup:

[Steven Owens]

Another great site is Steve's Digicams (http://www.stevesdigicams.com). He reviews cameras, lenses, and printers.

[MacHeadCase]

OMG.

I was snooping around Hasselblad's website and followed a link from their Master Award 2008 winners list and I came upon Hans Strand (http://www.hansstrand.com/Hans_Strand/Gallery.html), one of the winnners.

Breathtaking. :O

[iKitten]

^^ Yes, it is!

[Sherman Homan]

Some nice shots here, even if it is Wired magazine...
http://www.wired.com/culture/art/multimedia/2008/06/gallery_top_10_water_photos

[MacHeadCase]

Wow! Those are awesome, Sherman! Thanks!

[MacHeadCase]

Nifty kewl! I stumbled upon this article, Digital Forensics: 5 Ways to Spot a Fake Photo (http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=5-ways-to-spot-a-fake). If ya wanna fake it, make sure it's good. :tongue:

Composite images made of pieces from different photographs can display subtle differences in the lighting conditions under which each person or object was originally photographed. Such discrepancies will often go unnoticed by the naked eye. ...

[MacHeadCase]

Now this is sooooooooooo cool. If ever your camera gets stolen consider this, Lost cameras "phone home" to catch thieves (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080606/wr_nm/column_pluggedin_dc).

Alison DeLauzon thought the snapshots and home videos of her infant son were gone for good when she lost her digital camera while on vacation in Florida.

Then a funny thing happened: her camera "phoned home."

Equipped with a special memory card with wireless Internet capability, DeLauzon's camera had not only automatically sent her holiday pictures to her computer, but had even uploaded photos of the miscreants who swiped her equipment bag after she accidentally left it behind at a restaurant. ...

The special memory card (costs more than ordinary cards, but this is one situation where it is worth it!) is an Eye-Fi (http://www.eye.fi/). If the card finds a wireless network, it will automatically upload photos to your computer and chances are you'll get freebie mugshots of the robbers... ;)

[Rxx]

OMG.

I was snooping around Hasselblad's website and followed a link from their Master Award 2008 winners list and I came upon Hans Strand (http://www.hansstrand.com/Hans_Strand/Gallery.html), one of the winnners.

Breathtaking. :O

Those are incredible.

[MacHeadCase]

I can't try this app out, it's for Leopard-only users, but I'd be curious to see if it supports different PPIs... Looks pretty good from the screenies though, it does seem to support masks.

Iris (http://nolobe.com/iris/).

Blog entry (http://nolobe.com/blog/2008/06/16/iris-10/):

I am very pleased to annouce the release of Iris 1.0, an all-new image editor for Mac OS X.

Iris has been created for previously overlooked Mac users who simply wanted an accessible and easy to use image program that provides professional results, without the professional price tag.

Iris takes a different approach to traditional image editors like Photoshop. Instead of spewing confusing palettes everywhere Iris presents everything in an elegant one-window interface. ...

[Sherman Homan]

This product surprised me because Iris used to be the top end of color proofing printers. That company was bought by Xerox ~1999 and like everything else in the digital world at that time was phenomenally over priced. It seems to have vanished, this is a totally unrelated product.
I downloaded the demo and I am playing with it now.
First reaction is that they seem to think that "spewing confusing palettes everywhere" is a bad thing. Their palettes are locked to the image you are working on. So I don't think I am going to be able to give an unbiased report...! I keep wanting to move the palettes around!

[MacHeadCase]

Yeah you do have a point.

[MacHeadCase]

Make your own camera harness (http://www.motherearthnews.com/Do-It-Yourself/1981-05-01/Make-a-Camera-Harness.aspx). Good for Stretch and his big bad lens of his. :)

For a more uhm padded approach, this is the one I bought (http://kgear.com/images/H717SLRabig.jpg) a couple of years ago: it's from Kinesis (http://kgear.com/h/H717.html) and I'm very happy with it. It helped a lot when I rented that huge and heavy lens. Besides the owner uses a Mac. And his server runs on OS X. :biggrin:

[MacHeadCase]

Gallery of Sawn-In-Half Cameras (http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/06/gallery-of-cut.html)

[MacHeadCase]

Kevin Michael Connolly: The Rolling Exhibition (http://www.therollingexhibition.com/)

[iRye]

MHC, I really like your nature photos! :)

[MacHeadCase]

Thanks iRye.