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Install A Blacklight Filter On Your Smartphone Camera For 3 Cents

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Black Light can be used for spectacular photography or just for having some photographic fun, but if you just want to try out a quick trick for testing your home for bacteria there is a way to do it for a couple of cents.

Turns out that a certain mix of sharpie ink will block all light but back light. The folks at Hefty.co made a quick tutorial on how it’s made.

You would need a blue Sharpie and a purple Sharpie and some tape. Applying two blue tape layers and one purple tape layer will act as a filter for the smartphone flash. In total darkness shining that flash onto anything will reflect any black light (or fluorescent emittance) from found objects.

Re: why smartphone photography stinks for you. A Response

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I’ve read the latest article by JP Danko about why smartphone photography stinks. I disagree, and here is my response.

I do hate the term “tog”. I cringe every time I see or hear it.

Your definition of real camera does sound little bit pretentious to my ears as it leaves out pretty much all point and shoots and (however heretic it might sound) lofi/lomo cameras. Disregard the phone aspect for now. All the autofocus, auto exposure cameras with little to no control about anything are left out. This includes cameras like Olympus Mju, many Polaroid Land cameras, Instamatics and Brownies… why I mention them? Cause it seems like your generalization is presuming only digital media. These analog cameras I mentioned are directly comparable with some of the current phone camera offerings. Take Kodak instamatics and Brownies. Cheap, low quality shooters that were spewed by the millions yet they provided the public with much appreciated democratization of photography. Because of their limitations in exposure their photos looked very much the same, yet they defined the visual style and taste in such strong way, that most popular (and praised by you) app like Instagram and Hipstamatic base their success on this established visual style. Just look at the names. Our family memories are defined by low quality cameras yet we continue with this tradition even now, when the access to quality digital apparatus is easier than ever before. But people did not seem to mind the lens quality of the Instamatic or automatic land cameras. As those pictures were viewed as rather small prints today photography is viewed on small screens.

Why Smartphone Photography Stinks

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First – to be clear – I’m talking about the process of using a smartphone camera for photography – not the pics, pix, snaps, shots or whatever it is smartphone togs, shooters or iphoneograperhers call photographs captured with a mobile phone camera.

(Does anyone else really really hate the term “tog” or is it just me?)

Anyway, also for disclosure – yes, I am almost middle aged and I clearly don’t understand modern photography and will be left behind by the new wave of mobile phone photographers because I refuse to adapt.

Right, now that that’s out of the way – here’s why smartphone photography stinks…

DxO ONE Camera Boasts a 1” CMOS 20.2 MP Sensor and Attachs to Your iPhone; Coming Tomorrow

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For the past week DxO has been sharing mysterious teasers on its New Shape of Photography website, announcing its new vision of photography will launch on June 18th.

It didn’t take too long, however, before the secret was revealed and the full specs of the upcoming camera were made available prior to the official release.

The camera, claiming to include the world’s most advanced image processing, can be used as a standalone camera or connect to an iPhone/iPad to offer a large interactive viewfinder and ‘other powerful DSLR features’.

While DxO’s desire to pour its extensive knowledge into creating its own camera is understandable, how will this move affect the credibility of the company’s sensor and lens ratings?

Video Showing How Light Travels In a Digital Camera

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http://youtu.be/ezIZjFt80kQ

Even with digital images existing for over 40 years, the process of light becoming an image inside a box still somewhat magical. This movie takes the Nokia Lumia 1020 and breaks down how light transverses the lens, shutter, hitting the sensor, goes into the imaging processor and finally arriving at the LCD. Some of the early stages if entry also show the different lens elements and the images stabilization mechanism.

While the process of smartphone-photography is not 100% similar to the process on a DSLR, it gives a pretty good idea on the light path while keeping it magical.

[Behind the lens of a 41MP Nokia Lumia 1020 via popphoto]

P.S. If you are a Lumia fan, you can see 50 of them in action here.

Apple Introduces the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, with Phase Detection Auto-Focus, Optical Image Stabilization, 240 FPS Video, and More

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For the past few years now, Apple’s keynotes have highlighted how the iPhone has now become the world’s most popular camera. With today’s event, the company shifted the focus towards the fact that it’s the worlds most widely used video camera; and that’s exactly what the technology behind the iPhone 6 focuses on, as well.

Screen Shot 2014-09-09 at 12.29.44 PM

Let’s start off with the still photography. It shouldn’t be surprising that the new iPhone 6 still retains an 8 megapixel camera; the pixel size hasn’t gotten bigger than the iPhone 5S’s 1.5 microns, and the aperture remains the same at f/2.2. So what’s different?

Pentax K-S1: A DSLR Camera Built for a Generation of Beginners

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Typically, DSLR cameras aren’t really ever about fashion over form. Almost every high-end model out there comes in a bulky black, various buttons surrounding an LCD screen, and an interface that just assumes you know exactly what you’re doing. And then there’s the Pentax K-S1, a mid-range DSLR camera that’s set to come in colors as vibrant as the entirety of Guardians of the Galaxy.

Yesterday, I posted an article about Instagram, and it talked about the new generation of photographers growing up today with smartphones. If it wasn’t for smartphones, many of those people probably wouldn’t have ever gotten into photography, and the minimal touch screen interfaces they’ve been accustomed to are all that they probably know when it comes to using a camera. For older generations, that’s the equivalent of using a disposable or a compact point-and-shoot. With Pentax’s new K-S1, Ricoh attempts to build a bridge that fills that learning gap and draws younger photographers closer to the DSLR world.

A Closer Look at iOS 8’s new Camera

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yjupb6Cl9rE

Apple’s new iOS software‘s been in beta mode for about a few weeks now, and that’s been plenty of time for developers (and tech enthusiasts) to get familiar with the features iOS 8 has to offer. One area iOS 8 brings the most improvement to is the Camera app itself, and we now have a much better idea of what the features it comes with are like.

Over on YouTube, you can check out a number of videos that go over how the camera utilizes time-shift and manual exposure. As expected, Apple implements the features so they can be used in the easiest way possible. The time-lapse is started up by swiping to its respective panel and simply pressing record. As for the manual exposure, the controls are activated when you tap to focus; the exposure then gets adjusted by swiping up and down.

Restoring and Digitizing Old Photos Using a Smartphone

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I was going through some old photos of my family overseas. My dad’s kept them in a hard brown briefcase since before I was born, and we decided to find a way for them to be able to be cherished more freely. I wanted to share a few tips I noted down along the way as I was restoring those photos. And you don’t need an elaborate setup. Grab your phones, guys.

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