Technology Explained, Practice
Daniela Bowker
Resolution and pixels and image quality! Oh my! ...

When you hear the term 'high-res' thrown about with such abandon when it comes to images for web use, have you ever stopped to think just how big or how high quality and image meant for the web needs to be?

Resolution and pixels and image quality! Oh my! Saving images for the web
Feature Articles, Photography Theory
Haje Jan Kamps
Low-contrast photographs don't have to be boring

There's an assumption that high-contrast images are more dynamic, more compelling, more inviting. Have a go at some low-contrast photography. You might surprise yourself with the results.

Low-contrast photographs don't have to be boring
Feature Articles, Theory
Daniela Bowker
Seeking balance in your photos

Balance doesn't mean symmetry; it means an internal consistency and tension within your photos. And it's a vital element of composition. 

Seeking balance in your photos
Feature Articles, Photography Theory
Haje Jan Kamps
Training your photographic luck

Great photos might be down to a little bit of luck, but most of that 'luck' you make yourself. Don't believe us? Read on...

Training your photographic luck
Feature Articles, Practice
Daniela Bowker
The ups and downs and ins and outs of ...

Photographing buildings doesn't have to mean wide-angle lenses and fretting about correcting for the keystone effect. Any lens, and angle. Don't believe us? Let us show you!

The ups and downs and ins and outs of photographing buildings

bloggie

Film gets a look in at Sony World Photography Awards

IMG_1365

Although the shortlists for the Sony World Photography Awards have already been announced, there’s still one category for which entries haven’t yet closed. It’s the Moving Image Award, which was introduced this year in recognition of the awesome things people are doing with their cameras that moves beyond still images.

If you get your skates on, you can still submit an entry as the deadline is 1 March (but you do need to be an Advanced World Photography Organisation member). The judging panel will be looking for ‘…an approach that combines the unique strengths of the different media forms and brings them together in a powerful interpretation that goes beyond forms and into the realm of memorable and narrative experience.’ All in a three minute film.

Win that, and along with a shiny Sony NEX-VG10 Handycam you get to attend the awards ceremony at Odeon in Leicester Square on 27 April.

However, we, the general public (or at least a few of us who like photos and pictures and films and happen to know about the competition) get to form our own judging panel, too. We get to decide the People’s Choice award. (Somehow, the term ‘People’s Choice’ makes me think of megalithic supermarkets and bulk quantity dog food. But never mind.) The other judging panel, the one that selected the Overall Moving Image award, will shortlist a selection of films, and we can vote for our favourites on the WPO website. The winner of that one bags a Bloggie camera.

Want to know more? It’s all over on the WPO website.

Sony joins the party at CES

T110

It might not be as impressive as the 16 new cameras that FujiFilm unleashed at CES, but Sony has brought 11 new cameras to the party, along with three Bloggie cameras, and not forgetting its range of TVs, computers, and BluRay players. That’s quite a bit of shininess that they’re hoping will tempt us to part with some, okay, quite a lot, of our hard-earned pennies. Shall we see how tempting it all is?

Starting things off are the three new cameras in the W-series: W510, W530, and W570. They’re designed to be lightweight and easy-to-use, with intelligent automode and an in-camera guide to help the user along. They’ve also Sony’s new Sweep Panorama technology, which all the new cameras have. It creates a panorama by automatically stitching together a series of images made by holding down the shutter and sweeping the camera across the scene.

Sony Cyber-shot W570

Next up is the new T110. The swish-looking one. It has a 16 megapixel sensor, can take 720p HD movies, and has a touch screen.

T110

Onwards to the H70. It has the same 16 megapixel sensor and movie-making capabilities as the T110, but it also has a 25mm wide angle lens with a 10x optical zoom.

H70

And then there’s the J10. It also has a 16 megapixel sensor (enough with the megapixels already?), but it’s piece-de-resistence is its integral USB arm that is stowed away inside the camera. How cute!

Sony Cyber-shot J10 with a retractable USB cable.

Then, heaven help us, come the cameras with 3D capability. I know, you can hear me groaning. There are five of them available: DSC-TX100V, DSC-TX10, DSC-HX7V, DSC-WX10 and DSC-WX7. Whoever decided on that naming convention needs some help, but perhaps not as much as my eyes will. Yep, five cameras that can take 3D stills at 16 megapixel resolution.

The TX10, one of five 3D-capable cameras from Sony

There’s more information over at Sony.