Digital Photo Digital photography, from cameras to iPhoto and beyond

Q&A: Lytro's Charles Chi talks light field, battery life, and licensing

Posted by Tim Moynihan on

Lytro executive chairman Charles Chi

A few weeks back, I worked on an article regarding the increasing popularity and versatility of CMOS imaging sensors, as well as the major reasons why the sensor technology is finding its way into everything from DSLRs to cell phones. For the article, I spoke to a number of technical experts and advisors from Canon, Nikon, and Sony, as well as Lytro executive chairman Charles Chi.

For a small company whose first-generation camera has yet to come to market (it's available for preorder on the Lytro site, and due in the first few months of this year), Lytro is making big waves. There's a major reason for that: Lytro's camera will be the first consumer device that allows users to focus (and refocus, and refocus...) an image after it's shot, employing what is called a light-field sensor.

I used only a small portion of my interview with Chi in the CMOS story, but given the massive amount of buzz surrounding Lytro in the past few weeks—the company won Last Gadget Standing honors at this year's CES, its "shoot first, focus later" camera will be available to the masses soon, and stories are trickling out that Lytro CEO Ren Ng met with the late Steve Jobs to discuss using the company's imaging technology in future iterations of the iPhone—the entire interview transcript may be of interest to our readers.

What follows is the entire phone conversation I had with Lytro executive chairman Charles Chi, in which he discusses the sensor and long-life-battery technology embedded in each Lytro camera, the possibility of licensing Lytro's camera module out to cell phone makers, and the future of the sensor industry.

Software

First Look: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 Beta

Posted by Derrick Story on

The latest iteration of Adobe Lightroom reveals both refinement and new features. There’s plenty of competition for top billing, but the star of this show is how Adobe has integrated video management into the software alongside its excellent still photography tools.

Now, video

Lightroom 4 will allow you to import video clips from digital cameras, which reside in the Grid view with photos. A neat trick, however, is that users can scrub through the clip by simply mousing over it. It’s fun and a helpful time saver.

Lightroom automatically chooses the image for the thumbnail view, but you can change that. It may sound like a small thing, but when there are dozens (or hundreds) of videos in your library, the ability to select the best poster frame for each is important.

Grid view showing video clips in Lightroom 4.

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Cameras

Establish a photo editing process that works for you

Posted by Dave Johnson on

Digital workflow is a fancy term that describes the sequence of things you do between the time you take a photo and when you either showcase it or file it away for some future project. 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 image quality and really make your photos pop.

1. Start with the right file format

Your digital photography workflow actually begins way back at the camera, when you get ready to take your picture. The key question: What image format should you use? If you are striving for the best possible image quality and you have the time and patience to tweak all (or at least most) of your photos on the computer afterwards, then I recommend using a Raw format if your camera supports it. Raw images represent the best quality photo your camera is capable of capturing. Not only does a RAW file have no image compression, noise reduction, or automatic color adjustments, it preserves the full range of colors and brightness that the camera captures—much of which is discarded if you shoot in JPEG format. Raw gives the best results, but only if you are willing to spend the time afterwards teasing it out of the photos in an image editor.

If you don't have the time to invest in optimizing all of your photos, then you can shoot in JPEG instead. Your photos won't require as much editing, because they will start out with some automatic tweaks. That said, you can still edit them if you want to, though the image files won't have quite the same potential for greatness.

2. Check the histogram

This is what a histogram generally looks like, both in your camera's LCD and in software. This one comes from Adobe Photoshop Elements and is used as an example.After you take a photo, eyeball the histogram on the camera's LCD. In fact, you might want to turn on the camera's histogram overlay and leave it that way, so it's always visible when you review your photos. (Check your camera's user guide to see how to enable the histogram display.)

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Cameras

Get two more lenses from your 50mm lens

Posted by Kevin Lee on

Editor’s Note: The following article is reprinted from the Geek Tech blog at PCWorld.com.

A 50mm lens is just about the second thing every photographer should have in their kit after a camera body. It's compact, sharp, and versatile, and it's possibly the least expensive lens you will ever buy. But did you know you could also turn it into two additional lenses for less than $100?

Camera pictured with telephoto lens a adapter and reverse ring adapter.

That's right—for some relative chump-change, you could turn a prime lens into a multitasker. Transform your 50mm into a macro lens for those extreme close-ups, or into a telephoto lens to see farther away, with just a few reasonably priced attachments. It's a great way to have a little fun with your DSLR and save yourself from having to buy specialty lenses. It's also a perfect way to pack light if you are going away for the holidays.

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Software » Photography Software

Smart tips for sharing holiday photos

Posted by Alexandra Chang on

By now you’ve probably attended a couple holiday get togethers—maybe even hosted one yourself—and have had plenty of photo opportunities by the tree, at dinner with friends and family, or out in the winter landscape. And once the holidays hit, that means even more memorable shots of the kids opening presents and dad devouring latkes. Instead of storing those photos within the confines of your camera's memory card, you’ll probably want to share them with family and friends.

While you can certainly email batches of photos, that can get tedious and time-consuming. And it’s not always the best idea to post your holiday photos on Facebook for all 500 of your “friends” to see. Your photo-sharing needs will depend on how private you want to keep your holiday shots, whether you prefer a paid or free service, how you want your photos displayed, and your preferred method of sharing—via Web or iOS device. Here are some ways to share your holiday photographs.

Go basic and free

There are plenty of free photo-sharing sites available on the Web, but not all of them offer user-friendly features. While free sites won’t give you as much customizable features as paid services, or display photos in the most elegant manner, they’re great for basic sharing.

A Flickr user's photostream.

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Cameras

Tips for taking better holiday photos

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Software » Photography Software

Control Photo Stream with iPhoto and Aperture

Posted by Derrick Story on

Considering how many photos are captured daily with iPhones all over the world, Apple’s Photo Stream (the imaging component of its iCloud offering) is a useful tool for getting pictures off our mobile devices and on to our computers and tablets. The challenge with Photo Stream is that it’s an all-or-nothing proposition. Either it’s on and sharing every shot you take, or it’s off and not helping you at all.

But there is a way to control this flow on your Mac. By using iPhoto as the dam, and Aperture as the final destination, you can enjoy the benefits of Photo Stream without drowning in a deluge of snapshots.

iPhoto does a great job of helping you manage your Photo Stream.
Photo Stream basics

You can enable Photo Stream on your iPhone after you sign up for iCloud. The images are available on iOS devices that use the same iCloud account, as well as your Macs. The destination for the images on your Mac is either iPhoto (9.2.1) or Aperture (3.2.1).

Enable Photo Stream on your iPhone

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Cameras

Five tips for great Thanksgiving photos

Posted by Dave Johnson on

Editor’s Note: The following article is reprinted from the Digital Focus blog at PCWorld.com.

It’s that time of year again—the local pancake house has put pumpkin pancakes back on the menu, and my family is gearing up for the day when we’ll have a turkey feast, a panoply of pies, and, yes, give thanks for another year. If Thanksgiving is a special day to get together with friends and family and share those things as well, then you probably want to capture moments throughout the day with your digital camera. Here are some suggestions to help you shoot photos you that can treasure for years to come.

1. Make a list

Photo courtesy Flickr user emerson12.First and foremost, it’s a great idea to write down a list of the photos you’d like to capture. In the hustle and bustle of the holiday activities, there’s a good chance you’ll simply forget to take some pictures until it’s too late. Take the food, for example: You probably want to shoot the turkey and the pies before they’re cut into. Make a list of the important scenes. I like to shoot the fully dressed table, laid out with the turkey and fixings, before the guests invade. I also like to get a few different perspectives of the pumpkin pie, such as from directly overhead and from the side. If there are any groups or combinations of guests you want to shoot, make a list of those as well. Tack the list somewhere you’ll see it—like on the fridge—and cross the shots off as you go.

2. Work the lighting

Photo courtesy Flickr user tinaxduzgen.I know that you’re busy entertaining guests, making the big meal, and keeping the family dog from stealing sweet potatoes off the kitchen counter. But amidst all that, you should also remember to optimize the lighting for your photos. As I’ve said many times before, the camera’s flash is really a last resort—your camera will give much better results with ambient light. Turn on as many lights as possible and pull back curtains to let outdoor light flow into the house.

Cameras

Five ways to create and send holiday photo cards

Posted by Lauren Crabbe on

The holidays are fast approaching and so is the pressure to send out your annual greeting cards to update family and friends about your fabulous life and beautiful children. We looked at five of the best, most user-friendly options that make it easy to design and send photo cards. Starting with the Apple programs you already have on your Mac or iOS device, and ending with sites you may not be familiar with, here's a walk through a veritable winter wonderland of photo card-making options.

iPhoto

When creating a card in iPhoto you can easily drag and drop photos from your library.

If you already use iPhoto to manage all of your images, it might make the most sense for you to stick to this program. Start out by selecting a photo event with your desired shots. After you’ve found your favorites, click on the Create button located at the bottom right of the window, then select Card. This takes you to a carousel of cards, where you can choose from three different layouts—Letterpress, Folded, and Flat—and more than two dozen design themes. (Depending on your chosen theme, you can include between one and 13 photos on a single card.)

Once you pick out a layout and theme, you can add text, edit your photos within the frame, import new photos, and even add effects like Black & White, Sepia, and Antique to the photos. You can also edit the fonts and the layout of the text in your cards—choosing the paragraph alignment, and the spacing of the lines and letters. When you’re ready to go, just press “Buy Card” and choose how many cards you would like. iPhoto unfortunately does not offer a discount on bulk orders. They will send them to your address in standard or express shipping, after which you will have to label them and send them out yourself. For more information, check out this in-depth guide to making cards with iPhoto.

Cameras

How to photograph star trails

Posted by Dave Johnson on

Editor’s Note: The following article is reprinted from PCWorld.com.

You probably know that Polaris—the North Star—remains stationary in the night sky, and all of the heavens rotate around it. If you could lie under a cloudless sky at night for several hours, you would see the stars spin around the sky like they were tracks on an old vinyl record. Perhaps it has occurred to you that this would also make a great photograph. In the past, I've told you about how to take other sorts of night photos, so this week let's see what it takes to shoot star trails.

The beauty of stars

Photo courtesy Flickr user Oliver Winter

I have to admit that I find star trail photography to be intoxicatingly beautiful. Not only do these photos capture the essence of motion in a still frame, but they also hint at the enormity of the galaxy we live in, and the mathematical precision of the universe.

The trick to capturing star trails, obviously, is to shoot a sufficiently long exposure to capture the motion stars make in the sky as the Earth rotates on its axis. (Yes, to be clear, star trails are formed by the relative motion of the Earth, not the stars. The stars are relatively fixed in space. But I digress.)