Totally Sweet Photos
Photo “Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, CA” by Tom Harrison

iPhone does HDR Photography with iOS 4.1

In today’s Apple September Event keynote, Steve Jobs announced that Apple will be releasing an update to iOS4 that, among other things, adds the capability for High Dymanic Range photography.

When you shoot a photo with the HDR feature enabled, the iPhone will actually shoot a 3 exposure bracket and combine them to get an HDR image. Steve’s examples in the keynote showed images taken with the iPhone in difficult lighting situations: bright skies over a landscape, and portraits of a man and woman in the shade on a sunny day. The results look really nice.

iPhone HDR in iOS 4.1

Image via “Live Apple fall 2010 event coverage by Ryan Block for gdgt.

iOS 4.1 will be available next week.

Canon Announces EOS 60D and New Lenses

Canon has announced the EOS 60D dslr, four new professional lenses and upgrades to their 1.4x and 2x extenders.

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Nikon Releases D3100 and Four New Lenses

Twice a year the photography market gets a wave of new gear, and this August while the Canon shooters are waiting to hear about the imminent 1Ds IV, Nikon has dropped a new entry level camera and four new lenses on the market. Now we’ve got a D3100 DSLR and 24-120mm f/4, 85mm f/1.4G, 28-300mm and 55-300mm lenses. It’s all available for pre-order at the usual spots like B&H and Amazon… I’m not seeing any of this gear in Adorama’s inventory yet though.

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Choose the Best Time to Shoot Photos with the Blue Hour Site

The Blue Hour site is a web application that lets you find out when the blue hour will occur at any place on earth, on any date you choose.

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Laser Beams Can Kill Your DSLR

In “Examples of How Laser Light Can Destroy a DSLR Camera’s Sensor”, Scott Beale of Laughing Squid highlights two videos showing laser beams causing damage to 5D Mark II sensors. It appears that when using a DSLR to record video or compose with live view in an environment such as a club, parade or other laser show, directly exposing the sensor to the laser light can put a pretty big dent in your wallet in just a fraction of a second.

The comments on this Reddit post discuss the technicalities of what is going on, and the level to which the damage is permanent.

Laughing Squid picked up the story from “Lasers can kill a DSLR’s image sensor” by DoobyBrain.com.

How to break your 5D in a second from Agua on Vimeo.

Advice on Making Creative Photographs from Ansel Adams

Silber Studios has published a short, previously unreleased video of Ansel Adams discussing how to make a creative photograph. The video was loaned to Mark Silber from Adams’ son Michael.

Adams’ advice is simple, yet incredibly profound. If you find yourself caught up in gear, software, actions, presets and other such things, it would benefit you greatly to sit back, watch this short video and take the master’s words to heart. When it comes to creative photography, none of these things matter if you have not first connected with your own vision. A good photo is not made in Photoshop, it’s not even made in the camera. It’s simply something you see with your mind, and then use photographic tools to take that image from your mind’s eye and record it on a medium which others can see.

How to Get Pro Results with Cheap Equipment

Check out these tips from Chase Jarvis on getting high quality, professional results from cheap and D.I.Y. gear.

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What is VR / Image Stabilization?

A description of image stabilization/vibration reduction: how the technology works, and what kind of results it can produce.

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Make Water Look Smooth with Long Exposures

Learn how to give the surface of water a smooth, flowing texture using a tripod and long exposures.

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How to Photograph Fireworks

With the Fourth of July approaching fast, make sure you are up to date on the most effective techniques for photographing fireworks. This article will show you how to get those shots.

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