Dual Photography


Some bright folk, mainly from Stanford University (one from Cornell), have demonstrated a technique to produce photographic images without the use of a camera. The technique exploits Helmholtz reciprocity to allow an image to be recreated from the point of view of the projector that’s lighting the scene, even though there’s no camera at that location. Additionally, it allows the scene to be relit arbitrarily (now that sounds like something I could use!) Quite deep (man) but very interesting. There’s a movie file too, which I haven’t finished downloading yet and a large PDF of the complete paper.

[Update: make sure you see the movie – it’s worth it. BitTorrent download link]

Nikon D50

Not exactly news, this, but I thought I’d better at least mention that Nikon has unveiled their latest entry-level DSLR: the D50. It’s got a decently-sized 2inch LCD, near-instant startup time, and lots of automated options for the weekend shooter. It’s also got SD, which I don’t suppose is an issue for the intended audience of first-time DSLR folks. It uses the same 6 megapixel CCD sensor as the D70 – maybe that would be the clincher for the uninformed when choosing between this and the Canon 350D/Rebel XT? Oh and there’s a lovely silver version too.

Predictably, DPReview have got the hands-on preview.

Nikon being idiotic, Adobe being hilarious

PhotoshopNews.com has a story about Nikon’s frankly stupid idea to encrypt (yes, *encrypt*) the white balance data in their NEF file format. No comment, really. What I find *really* funny is that Adobe is worried about breaking the DMCA to reverse-engineer the format. Send ’em all to gaol (that’s “jail”, for the non-English readers) for an unspecified, unwarranted amount of time, I say ;)

Photo A Day: Barking Mad!

I’m sooo way behind on my Photo A Day, but here’s today’s. There are shots for the missing days, but I’ve not able to do any editing while I’m away from my desk for the last couple of weeks… some catching up to do.

Adobe Photoshop CS2

Adobe have just released info on Photoshop CS2 with some interesting new features.

Adobe Bridge is the new file browser (which was needing an overhaul) which looks nice. Just from an interface point of view, it was worth an upgrade, but it adds the ability for process multiple raw images, as well as other batch processing and scripting. It can also run as a stand-alone app, which I can see being useful. It’s got some powerful searching possibilities and can even read RSS feeds.

The raw support gets some useful additions with the ability to process multiple files (shown as a filmstrip) and access to curves. The sliders for exposure, shadows, brightness and contrast get “auto” checkboxes which seem to work nicely. As far as I can tell from screenshots, there’s access to Adobe’s shadows & highlights as well as cloning, cropping and rotation inside ACR.

A slightly crazy feature is the Vanishing Point which clones along a kind of 3D framework, as well as letting you paste or paint to perspective too. I won’t bother explaining it any more, check this movie of it.

Noise reduction gets added too – as so often the case, bad news for 3rd party NR software producers.

Other features that come into the same category are the 32-bit High Dynamic Range (HDR) support, which lets you combine different exposures automatically to make a 32-bit image to reach into the detail in the darkest shadows to the brightest highlights, and the one-click redeye correction. Yet another is the optical lens correction for barrel and pincushion distortion.

Of course, there are loads of others, but these seem the most interesting for digital photography. Once the demo comes out, it’s a must-try I think.

Epson P-2000 firmware update

Epson P-2000I’ve been eyeing the Epson P-2000 since it was first mentioned. This firmware update allows RAW files from more cameras, as well as the display of JPEGs from cameras with up to 17.8 megapixel output, meaning it can now deal with files from the Canon EOS-1Ds MkII. Another useful addition is histogram display, all of which make it an even more interesting proposition.

Buy Epson P-2000 at Amazon.

HP lands Snapfish

Following on from Yahoo!’s buyout of Flickr’s creator Ludicorp, Snapfish, the online photo sharing, storage and printing site has agreed to be acquired by HP. Snapfish is definitely a foward-thinking company because if you’re already a member, you will “receive the same high level of quality and service you’ve come to expect since Snapfish’s UK launch in November 2005 [sic]”. In addition, you can “look forward to a whole host of exciting new features and services, designed to improve, enhance and simplify your digital photography experience – whether you print with Snapfish or through your home printer”. Love that last bit ;)

Brighter, sharper, faster: Lensbaby 2.0


Lensbaby 2.0 has been released, and adds some nice upgrades from the version 1 (which I never got around to trying out, although I keep meaning to.) Lensbaby 2.0 adds a brighter aperture of f2.0 (in addition to the f2.8-f8.0 (in steps) of the original. It also uses better optical elements, of coated low dispersion glass. Changing apertures is faster thanks to magnetic positioning of the aperture disks, instead of rubber gaskets. You just drop them in and they jump into position. Anyway, worth a look and maybe I’ll finally get around to trying one.