Super-groovy grey cards from Photocritic

Obviously I’m in a slightly spend-thrift mood at the moment. Following on from yesterday’s t-shirt, these much cheaper and probably more useful (unless of course I had no clothes, or something) grey cards have just caught my eye. Just what we need for making sure our white balance is spot-on.

There’re three A6-sized cards – one matt black, one white, and a neutral 18% grey – all neatly stashed in an envelope. The corners are rounded, there’s drilled hole for lanyard-securing purposes, and on the back of the cards there are instructions for how to use them as well as a rather useful cheat sheet of the aperture scale, zone system, and a pre-shoot check-list. How rather nifty!

All of this for only £6.99, which is bargain-tastic, methinks. Shipping in the UK is free; Europe costs €1.60 and the USA US$2.25. Available here!

Even more – if you want a swift introduction into how use a grey card, take a look at this video.

Oh Gap, get it together!

Imagine how surprised you might feel if you were to walk into a multi-national clothing store and find that a picture you took is being used as the base for a design on one of their garments. I’m guessing my surprise levels would register at ‘Astonished’. They’d probably be followed by anger at rating ‘Livid’. Well, Chris Devers has just found out that the Gap has reproduced his photo of a rather lovely Jaguar E-type on some kiddies’ clothes. (Yes, it’s pretty obvious the design came from his photo.) All credit to him, he seems remarkably calm. Given the circumstances.

Chris has set out just how you can determine that it was his picture that is the base design for that used on a Gap ‘thermal body double’ vest. They’ve used it on a baby-grow, too.

Sheesh Gap! Yes, it was licensed under Creative Commons, but it was non-commercial and with no derivatives. I’m pretty convinced that you’ve managed to violate both of those terms by selling a derivative of the image on your clothes. Would a phone call, or an email, be too much trouble? Perhaps they’re just too big, and too busy, and too important to worry about the rest of us?

Chris is waiting for a response from Gap. And biting his tongue in the process. I’ll let you know when I hear any more.

(Obviously the image is Chris Devers’. And a headsup goes to A Photo Editor.)

Laptopogram-tastic!

Fancy having a go at producing a photo that doesn’t require a camera? No, I haven’t lost the plot, of course you can. All you need is a laptop (or a TV, or a mobile phone, or one of those new-fangled iPad malarkies, or any electronic gadget that involves a screen and a backlight, really) and some photographic paper. How cool is that?

You hold the photographic paper to the screen, expose it briefly, and then develop it. You should be left with an image of whatever was on the screen. I have to say it again: How cool is that?

Aditya Mandayam dreamed up the process when on a residency with Benetton at their lab, Fabrica, in Treviso. And I thought Benetton was where my Ma bought me clothes when I was younger. Want to learn more? About laptopograms that is, not Benetton. Go here.

(Thanks Photojojo!)