More Photo & Video Opinion

  • 01 February 2012

  • Opinion: Creating freeze frames in iMovie '11

    Reader Gary Duffel finds that iMovie ’11 may not yet be his bag. He writes:

  • 30 January 2012

  • Opinion: This 5.4-Megapixel Micro-Display Is the Future of Electronic Viewfinders

    A Micro Three-Fourths camera can just about do anything an SLR can do, thanks to its interchangeable lenses and a sensor that's larger than what you'll find on the typical point-and-shoot cameras. The only problem is a lackluster electronic viewfinder that just can't match the quality of real light passing through an optical-viewfinder.

  • 27 January 2012

  • Opinion: Using Your Camera's Settings: Program Mode, Shutter Speed, and More

    Attend any digital photography workshop, and inevitably you'll hear questions about digital camera exposure controls. Photographers want to know: How are aperture priority and shutter priority modes different? What does the ISO setting do? When would you want to use Program mode rather than Auto? Knowing which mode to use for specific photographic situations, and how your camera's various controls interact with each other can help you take dramatically better photos, and more easily, to boot. Let's start with a common question: What's the difference between Program and Auto mode?

  • 26 January 2012

  • Opinion: Sony's New Backlit CMOS Camera Phone Sensor Can Shoot HDR Movies

    The boffins at Sony have developed a new back-illuminated CMOS sensor for phones. The new sensor promises better shooting performance in low light and HDR movie making.

  • 25 January 2012

  • Opinion: Sh*t End Users Say

    Killing a video meme with one of our own

  • 24 January 2012

  • Opinion: Use Your Photo Editor to Add Water Reflections

    Most of us use a photo editor for touch-up work--fixing red eye, straightening a crooked photo, perhaps even some color correction. Last week, for example, I explained some simple ways to clean up a portrait by removing red eye, whitening teeth, and erasing skin blemishes. But programs like Adobe Photoshop Elements, Corel Paint Shop Pro, and GIMP can do so much more. What if you wanted to add a reflection to a photo, for example, as if your scene were surrounded by water? Today I'll show you how to do it using Photoshop Elements, and it'll take about five minutes.

  • 23 January 2012

  • Opinion: YouTube Tops Four Billion Views Per Day

    It appears the human race really, really loves YouTube.

  • Opinion: Blu-screen thinking

    With the recent Thai floods resulting in inflated hard-drive costs, we've been forced to look elsewhere for our storage needs.

  • 19 January 2012

  • Opinion: This 35-Foot-Long Film Camera Makes Two-Story-Tall Photos

    Photographer Dennis Manarchy is putting together a truly ambitious project to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the invention of the camera with a film camera that's over 35 feet long.

  • 16 January 2012

  • Opinion: Touch Up Your Portraits Without Makeup

    For many years, professional portrait photographers had a monopoly on delivering photos of you and your family that generally improved on reality. That's my wife has always insisted on hiring a photographer to take my kids' yearbook photos; only they could eliminate red eye, whiten teeth, and erase zits from their cheeks. Well, these days, you can do those sorts of things yourself. Last week, I talked about how to improve your photos by adopting a digital workflow and I mentioned that you should save your "local improvements" for the end of the workflow, after the photo is straightened, cropped, and color corrected. Well, this week I describe how to handle some of the most common local corrections you'll want to make: removing red eye, whitening teeth, and making blemishes disappear.

  • 11 January 2012

  • Opinion: Why the Netflix UK launch is such good news

    Music download and streaming services have shown how copyright and user choice can coexist; it’s finally happening for video too

  • 10 January 2012

  • Opinion: Sony Unveils New Floating-Lens Stabilization and Projector-Camcorders

    Sony today announced several new additions to its Handycam and Bloggie camcorder lines, including a new dual-1080p 3D camcorder that replaces last year's Handycam TD10, five new camcorders with built-in projectors for displaying video on a wall, and three new models that feature the company's new "Balanced Optical Steady Shot" technology, which allows for the entire lens barrel to visibly "float" in order to correct extreme hand shake.

  • Opinion: New Panasonic Lumix Cameras: Big Zoom in a Tiny Room

    A few big lenses in mighty small packages surfaced at CES in Las Vegas today, as Panasonic unveiled five new additions to its Lumix line of point-and-shoot cameras. The highlights are a pair of pocket megazooms that pack 10X-optical-zoom lenses in 0.9-inch-deep frames, as well as two even-slimmer cameras that have relatively wide maximum apertures of F2.5.

  • 09 January 2012

  • Opinion: Establish a Digital Photo Editing Process That Works

    Digital workflow is a fancy term that describes the sequence of things you do between the time you take a photo and when you file it away for some future project. The right workflow can be important, because you'll get better results by using certain tools and filters in the right order. Take your program's automatic color adjustment, for example: If you run it before you crop your photo, the program will try to autocorrect unwanted parts of the photo that might be under- or over-exposed. Crop the photo first, and the software can concentrate just on the parts of the photo that are important to you. Last week we started a discussion of the ideal digital workflow; this week, let's pick up where we left off.

  • 04 January 2012

  • Opinion: Turn Your Photos Into Striking High-Dynamic Range Images With EasyHDR Pro

    High dynamic range imaging is a photography technique that involves taking multiple images at different levels of exposure, and then combining them into a single image containing a greater amount of detail. Photoshop is the usual program for turning photos into HDR images, but it's not the only option. EasyHDR Pro (35 Euros, 46 USD on the date this review posted) is a standalone application that retails for a fraction of the price and lets you create HDR images using a number of sophisticated options. Despite packing plenty of features, it is easier to use than Photoshop because it is purpose-built for HDR.

  • 03 January 2012

  • Opinion: Samsung's Launches First DualView Camera with Wi-Fi

    The first point-and shoot from Samsung's DualView lineup with built-in Wi-Fi will hit store shelves in the coming months, giving users a chance to upload snaps to social networking sites directly from the camera.

  • Opinion: Establish a Digital Workflow for Better Photos

    I've noticed that photographers love to talk about their workflow. Why is a workflow important? In part, because imposing a specific sequence when editing your photos helps you remember to do various things--like color adjustments and noise reduction--that you might otherwise forget. More importantly, the right digital workflow helps you to preserve the best overall quality and really make your photos pop. If you know the basics, like how to read a histogram and how to adjust your image with Curves, then start the new year off right by brushing up on your digital workflow.

  • 29 December 2011

  • Opinion: Photographer Replaces His DSLR's Translucent Mirror With Saran Wrap

    If you are a DSLR owner like me, you are probably also deathly afraid of even looking at your camera's innards. Whenever I change a lens I make doubly sure to keep the body pointed downwards at all times, and I will immediately send it back to Nikon (no matter the cost) if I ever need the sensor or mirror cleaned.

  • 22 December 2011

  • Opinion: Nikons New Adapter Brings Big Glass to its Small Nikon 1 Cameras

    Nikon just launched its new FT1 mount adapter that lets you attach any Nikon DSLR lens onto the Nikon 1 Micro Four Thirds Camera.

  • Opinion: Vitamin D Turns Your Webcam Into a Security Camera

    Recently, I decided I wanted to use a webcam connected to my desktop computer as a security camera, to see what's happening around the apartment when I'm away. I then started looking for programs that would let me do that, and stumbled upon Vitamin D, which can turn one or more webcams into a full-fledged video surveillance system. It's available in a free Starter edition, a $49 Basic edition (reviewed here), and a $199 Pro edition.

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