Latest Gear Live Videos
Gnomedex 8.0: Kris Krug: Making Better Photographs
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Productivity,
Kris Krug is here at Gnomedex to talk to us about taking better pictures. He goes into tips:
- Light in the Eyes: You want to try and get light in the eyes.
- Evaluate the Light: Sun? Shade? Incandesent? Halogen? Look around and find highlights, spotlights, and shadows, and then put your subject in good light. Look for reflection and light in the eyes, and if possible, use lamps.
- To shoot in low light: Turn your ISO UP, Increase your aperture (make number lower), decrease your shutter speed, focus manually if autofocus fails you, tinker with manual settings/metering, brace on things (tripod, wall, gear bag)
- Reflections are Yummy: Look for puddles, glass, metal, shiny floors that may have reflections in them, and then take an image of that reflection.
- Focus on a theme: Black and white, portraits, funny faces, laptop stickers, over-exposed. This will give you a goal.
- Learn Your Camera: Isolate the variables like depth of field, shutter speed, aperture, ISO, etc. ALso, Tinker, tweek, shoot a bunch of photos, share them, get feedback, and feel free to change up your style. Share your gear by finding someone you can test out lenses, flashes, etc. with. Last, but certainly not least, set the white balance.
- Take a look at your background: No trees sprouting out of peoples heads, less busy puts more focus on the subject.
- Fill the frame: Hold your hand out, and if your subject isn’t bigger than your hand, you are too far away.
- Get High! Swing Low: People look better from above, so stand on things, lay down, get the angle, and change your perspective. This is why people are always taking MySpace photos by holding their phone above themselves.
- Tips for being a good subject: Laugh, smile, have fun. Make eye contact with the camera. Stand in the light.
- Camera buying advice: Lenses are more important than the body. You should spend 2/3 of your camera budget on your lens. Don’t fall for megapixels. Look for manual controls. Cameras from Canon, Nikon, and Fuji are great.
You can find Kris at Static Photography. This dude is an amazing photographer.
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Princeton Tech PPF-OVO Digital Photo Frame
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Cameras, Smart Home, Misc. Tech,
It’s about time somebody came up with a digital photo frame that doesn’t look like a box.The PPF-OVO is an egg-shaped liquid crystal frame from Princeton Tech that doubles as a clock. With a 1.5-inch display, it has a resolution of 128 x 128 pixels with a 2MB memory and a USB 2.0 interface. The 61 x 61 x 81mm OVO can run for about 5 hours on a 2 hour charge and is compatible with Windows Vista/XP. It comes with a rechargeable lithium ion battery in your choice of several colors and carries a price of $38.00.
Read More 
| Crunchgear
Fujifilm FinePix Z200fd Cam
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Cameras, Corporate News,
Fujifilm has unveiled its 10 Megapixel FinePix Z200fd. Only 19.8mm thick, the cam has a 5x Fujinon optical zoom lens, 52MB internal memory plus xD-Picture card, SD and SDHC compatibility, and a 2.7-inch high resolution screen. It also has dual image stabilization, face detection technology, VGA movie capture, PictBridge for direct printing, and the new mode of Folder Select for categorization. No price has yet to be announced, but availability is expected this fall.
Read More | Fujifilm
Facecloud Welcomes All Photo Bugs
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Cameras, Design, Internet,
If you can’t seem to compete on Flickr, you might want to check out Facecloud’s beta. The site welcomes both amateur and pro photographers. You can upload family photos, artsy stuff, or your cat staring into your camera. To kick off the site, they are sponsoring a Spring Photo Contest. Prizes are in real cash: $100.00 for first place, $50.00 for second, and $30.00 for the third place winner. Upload your images through March 31 and they will be judged on the basis of merit and member comments.
(Thanks, David)
Read More | Facecloud
CES 2007 Video: Ontela Sends Photos From Phone To PC
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Gizmatic, Short Bytes, Cell Phones, CES, CES 2007, Features, Software, Videocasts,
We met with Dan Shapiro from Ontela here at CES and learned more about their coming mobile photography technology. The average consumer takes more than 150 pictures with their cell phone each year, and does nothing with them - they sit on the phone, unprinted, unsent, and unappreciated. Ontela’s technology automatically transfers photos from your phone to your home computer using your phone’s internet connection.
The Ontela technology is brain dead simple: the trigger for the transfer is as simple as clicking the shutter button. Once you have taken your photo it’s sent to the computer, effectively giving you a computer hard drive sized memory card. You can also choose to have the Ontela service transfer the photos to Flickr, Kodak, or other services for you automatically.
The technology is being sold to carriers and is not available yet, but will be appearing in phones soon - stay tuned for more information on this fantastically simple way to get your photos off your phone, and in to your life.
