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Posted December 11th, 2008
by Herbert Reich
by Herbert Reich
Born in Philadelphia, in 1890, Man Ray (aka Emmanuel Radnitzky) came to be known as one of the most influential photographers of the twentieth century. Although perhaps best known for his avant-garde black and white photography, he was active in many visual arts, including sculpture, performance art, and especially painting. Like many avant-garde artists, he received little recognition or appreciation for his work at the time, but they have been slowly growing in popularity since.
Upon moving to New York in 1912 and becoming involved with its lively art community, Man Ray’s work began to focus on showing movement despite the inherently static nature of a painting. For example, his 1916 painting “The Rope Dancer Accompanies Herself with Shadows”, great care was paid to the repetitive positions of the dancer’s skirts. As Man Ray continued to explore experimental art, he gradually moved away from painting. At first he merely experimented with different materials-for example, his 1919 painting “Aerograph” was done with airbrush on glass-he eventually left the canvas altogether and moved into experimental art in the sculpture and photography mediums.
Man Ray’s first sculpture, titled “Self-Portrait” was exhibited in 1916. He worked for a while with “found” or “readymade” sculpture-objects chosen by the artist and displayed, with very little modification, as a sculpture. Other sculptures stressed form over subject, such as his sculpture “Enigma of Isidore Ducasse”, in which cloth is draped around an unknown object and tied with rope. In 1920, he assisted fellow avant-garde artist Marcel Duchamp designing and building one of the first pieces of kinetic art in which glass plates were rotated by a motor. In the same year, Man Ray, Duchamp, and Katherine Dreier opened the Socit Anonyme, effectively the first museum of modern art in the United States.
Man Ray began working with photography in 1918. Although he was to become a renowned fashion and portrait photographer, it was the potential of the camera for experimental artistic images that he proceeded to develop. It represented a further step away from static, two-dimensional painting, and he experimented with mechanical and photographic ways of creating images. After moving to the artistic community of Montparnasse in Paris, France, Man Ray spent the next twenty years redefining the art of photography. Man Ray juxtaposed objects, subjects, backgrounds, and lighting in his photographs to alter the meaning and message it would at first glance appear to be sending to society. The Surrealist artist Mret Oppenheim posed for Man Ray in 1934 for a famous series of photographs, in which she stood nude next to a printing press. Later, Ray revisited and reinvented the photographic technique of “solarization”. He developed new techniques of using photograms, which he named after himself, calling them “rayographs”. During his life, he also directed several short avant-garde experimental films.
In 1976, Man Ray died in Paris. He was buried in the famous Montparnasse cemetery. His tombstone bears the inscription “Unconcerned, but not indifferent”. In 1999, ARTnews magazine rated him among the 25 most influential artists during the 20th century due to his exploration, expansion, and blending of the artistic disciplines of painting, sculpture, and black and white photography.
Tags: Black and White Photography, Photography Posted in Photography
Posted December 10th, 2008
by Tim Harris
by Tim Harris
The purchase of a new Canon Camera can at times be trying as there are many technical terms which are foreign to a layperson. For a person to be able to make an informed choice, they will need to learn some of the terms that are commonly used. Terms like Pixels, DPI, PPI and white balance all are used to describe some of the qualities of a camera. This guide will seek to explain to you what a pixel is all about and how this term is used for rating a camera quality.
Pixel is the short for the term PIicture-Element. All Canon Digital Camera takes pictures and format them as small squares. A digital image might look seamlessly like a normal photograph but if you magnify it to a close range, it actually comprises of a mosaic of millions of small and different colored squares stitched together. Each pixel is further defined by 3 numbers from the range of 0 to 255 from the red, green and blue color channels. For example, a pixel can be defined by 35 red channel, 70 green channel and 255 blue channel. By using this coding system, there are 16 million possible combinations of color coding. In computer terminology, pixel colors are referred by an 8 bit (bytes) number. Therefore a computer will recognize the color of a pixel by 3 eight bytes numbers, a number for each of the 3 color channel.
Beside from using pixel counts for the display of digital images, nowadays, Digital Camera manufacturers also uses pixel counts to grade the capabilities of their digital cameras. Canon has digital cameras which range from 5 to 10 million pixels. They are normally classified as megapixels cameras because one mega pixels is equivalent to one million pixels. When we say a camera can take 5 megapixels pictures, this mean the digital image which the camera takes have 5 million pixels in it. The numbers of pixel a digital camera has is not important when the image is used displayed on a monitor. However when you need to print these images, the pixels do matter as the higher the picture count, the sharper and crisper the prints will be.
When taking into account pixel counts, it is also important to differentiate between “Total Pixels” or “Effective Pixels”. Total Pixels takes in consideration every pixel in an image. However, normally in the final image, the edge pixels are not used at all. Thus Effective Pixels refers to the numbers of pixels used after the edge pixels of the image are discarded.
Depending on the size of the pictures that you wanted to print, a 5 megapixels Canon camera, makes very good quality 5″ X 7″ printouts and decent 8″ X 10″ printouts. But if you are going to make 8″ X 10″ printouts most of the time, then a 8 megapixels or 10 megapixels Canon camera will be more ideal choice to purchase.
Tags: arts, Cameras, canon, canon camera, digital camera, entertainment, Photography, shopping Posted in Photography
Posted December 9th, 2008
by Tim Harris
by Tim Harris
When Harold Edgerton invented the modern electronic flash in 1931, the world of photography was revolutionized. The principle behind the electronic flash is that when you charged up a capacitor or condenser and release the energy through a flash light bulb (A glass bulb containing inert gases), a split second burst of light will occur. This output of light occurs instantly when you send power to the flash light bulb. Therefore you can control this output of light through regulating the duration of electrical pulses to be sent to the flash light bulb. Before the advert of modern electronics, the duration of electrical pulses used to be controlled by a component called the thvristor. Today, modern electrical circuitry has taken over the function of this component.
On the whole there are two ways to control the amount of light which enter the camera. By adjusting the shutter speed you can determine how long the exposure time is. The other way is to adjust the aperture of the lens. By doing so you will how much light will get to enter the camera. However Flash photography is different from normal photography. This is because of the speed of a burst of the flash light. The time taken for a burst of light takes only micro seconds. This time frame is so short that the speed of a mechanical shutter is no longer a relevant factor in determining the amount of light entering a camera except when the camera is programmed under the FP mode.
The speed of the camera’s shutter is only important when the ambient light is a continuous source. But the duration of a flash pulse is too brief for the camera mechanical shutter to even react to the change of light. Therefore the way to control the quantity of a flash pulse entering the camera is by:
Changing the lens aperture size. The aperture is the physical diaphragm of the camera lens and this control the quantity of light which enters the lens.
Adjust the distance between the subject and flash unit. This method is an application of the laws of physics. The further an object is from a light source, the less illuminated the object is.
You can also regulate the amount of light from a flash unit to a subject by using a diffuser. Of course, you have to consider the trouble of lugging around all these items on location.
By regulating the duration of electrical energy to be sent to the flash unit. By control the energy pulse, you control the duration of the flash burst. This allows you to determine how much light will be emitted to enter the camera. Nowadays, this is the principal way to control the electronic flash output.
In conclusion, this is the main principle of flash metering. The precise measure of flash metering is difficult and it requires years of experience before anyone can accurately judge the right duration for the electrical pulse to be sent to the flash unit. Nowadays, we are fortunate as camera like the Canon EOS digital camera fulfill this function automatically with modern electronics.
Tags: arts, Cameras, canon, canon camera, digital camera, entertainment, Photography, shopping Posted in Cameras
Posted December 8th, 2008
by Daniel Edwards
by James Charcha
Yes, digital photography for beginners is possible. However there are some differences between taking a photograph with a digital camera and with a conventional camera.
Naturally once you have a firm grasp of these differences you can really start to take advantage of them. It really doesn’t matter who you are, with a little dedication you can learn this stuff.
Never be limited again
Probably one of the most powerful advantages of the digital format is the fact that you are practically no longer limited with the number of photos you can take. No more paying for prints that didn’t come out right or you just plain and simple didn’t really want!
It is a good idea though to make sure you keep your photo collection tidy by removing or editing those photos that just don’t quite cut it or are too much the same. This really is essential since otherwise you will probably never find your good photos.
Ways to best go about storing your digital photos
One great way to save on space is to save your images in a lower resolution format. Lower resolution images can take up considerably less space, although you will lose some quality so you may want to experiment a little bit.
You will only need a high resolution for your photographs if you need a crisp image for a large printed photograph. If you are only going to use the pictures online or with a computer, you can use a lower resolution setting.
You can also increase the compression the camera uses for your images. Your images will take up less room in the storage space when you compress the pictures.
You should increase your storage space because eventually, you will run out. This will instantly bring your level of fun down if you were planning to take pictures and you cannot because you just ran out of memory.
How to avoid running out of battery
Healthy batteries for your camera is simply essential. Just like with running out of space running out of battery power can be a real nightmare.
The first and most obvious thing to do is to only use the camera’s built-in LCD when you 100% need it. In many cases it is also possible to turn off things like auto focus as well, but this may result in being more of a hassle, still you’d have to try it.
Use rechargeable batteries and keep a couple charged batteries on hand, in case you notice your batteries going low before you can recharge them.
All amateurs, no matter what their level of experience, can enjoy digital photography for beginners. You can be proud of your images, right from when you first get your digital camera.
You may feel that you are very much a beginner in photography right now, but in the near future if you’re dedicated and determined you will find that with practice and trial and error you will be taking shots like the pros.
Tags: art, Cameras, Digital Photography, education, entertainment, family, hobbies, hobby, leaning, lessons, lifestyle, outdoors, Photography, photos, recreation, technology Posted in Photography
Posted December 7th, 2008
by Jerremy Grey
by Jerremy Grey
For those of you who are unsure exactly what a digital camera is; it is a camera that can capture images without having to use film. A digital camera although with many functions does not need the complicated mechanical components of a standard film camera.
Since the images that a digital camera captures are in electronic form, it is a language recognized by computers. This computer language is called pixels, tiny colored dots represented by ones and zeros that make up the picture that you just captured. Strangely, both types of camera focus light onto a surface that captures an image using a set of lenses. All the budding digital camera enthusiast needs to know is that despite the difference in how the image is captured, the ultimate effect is the same.
Images seen on good and more expensive digital cameras are captured using an alternative method of a charged coupled device commonly known as a CCD which you may have heard of. Less expensive digital cameras us a complementary metal oxide semi-conductor or CMS device which does the same work of capturing an image and although some believe it could replace the CCD, this is not likely.
The price of a digital camera nowadays have been depreciating, one of the main reasons of this is because of the introduction of CMOS image sensors, this is because CMOS sensors are less expensive and are easier to manufacture than CCD sensors. It would take a knowledgeable person to see the difference between an image captured with a CMOS against the superior CCD system.
If you find yourself in the market for a digital camera then some useful information is listed below.
From the point of view on having good quality photos, look for a high megapixel camera as it will be worth it and you may find a model that is being superseded at a discount as well.
Where you have a choice, optical zooms are better than digital ones - always.
Don’t waste your money on standard disposable batteries as rechargeable ones nowadays are very affordable and long lasting which could save you hundreds of dollars on standard ones.
If you’re a photo freak, be sure that you have enough memory in your camera to take all the wacky, freaky, funny and just about any photo you can. If you are a keen photographer then you will need a larger size storage card if you don’t want to run out of space after a hundred shots so look for cards over 512MB.
If your camera is going accompany you wherever you go, then you will need to consider its size. These smaller cameras are very discreet and don’t make you feel as if you are on a safari but you can still take professional looking pictures.
These are just the basic things you have to look for in a digital camera when you buy one. With their range of features and ease of use, digital cameras are the future of photography.
Tags: computer, digital camera, Photography Posted in Photography
Posted December 6th, 2008
by Tim Harris
by Tim Harris
This guide will seek to provide you with an explanation of the various concepts and terms which are used which respect to Canon EOS flash photography.
Flash and Strobe
The main differences between a strobe and a flash are the use of terminology according to UK or US English. In the US, a strobe is a flash unit whereas in UK a strobe refers to anything emitting blinking lights. Another confusion in terms is the between “Speedlight” and “Speedlite”. Both are trade names of Nikon and Canon respectively used for their series of flash units.
Guide Number
The guide number is the maximum range of a flash unit when it gives out its flash pulse at its maximum setting. However, if you are using automatic flash metering, the number is not relevant. This number only becomes important when you are involved in manual flash settings.
EV (Exposure Value)
EV or Exposure value is the value used for deciding the sensitivity of the AF (Auto Focus) system or exposure metering which respect to film types or lenses. You need to combine the aperture and shutter speed together to get this value. For example, 1/125 and F2 is equal to EV9 which is also equivalent to F4 and 1/30.
Dedicated or Non dedicated flash units
Camera Manufacturers like Canon manufacture their own line of flash units to cater for their own range of cameras. The Canon line of flash units is known as the Speedlite series. These flash units are able to communicate with camera system thus allowing the photographers to enjoy more precision photography. They are called dedicated flash units. Non dedicated flash units are those flash units which are manufactured by third party manufacturers. They are usually generic and are not able to communicate with the camera system.
Shoe Mount
The rectangular slide-in socket which is usually located on top of the mirror or prism housing is known as the shoe mount. This mount is usually used for affixing the external flash unit to the camera. Sometimes it is called a Hot Shoe Mount as it has an electrical trigger to initiate the flash unit once the external flash is fixed to the camera. The Canon EOS Cameras have 4 additional contact points in the shoe mount which helps to transmit flash data from the trigger.
The Redeye Effect
When the light from a flash unit is reflected back into the camera off the walls of the retina, this will produce the Redeye effect which we always see in pictures taken in low ambient light conditions. This due to the fact that the low ambient light condition causes the pupils of the eyes to dilate bigger and the color red is because the retina walls are lined with red blood vessels.
Redeye Reduction
To overcome the problems of Redeye effects, you can increase the distance between the flash and the lens of the camera. Or you can also reflect the flash light off the walls instead of direct illumination on the subject. An alternative way is to get the subject to look at a bright light just before taking their picture. What this does is to cause the pupils of the eyes to dilate smaller resulting in less reflection from the retina.
Tags: arts, Cameras, canon, canon camera, digital camera, entertainment, Photography, shopping Posted in Cameras
Posted December 5th, 2008
by Shane Butler
Now this is kind of stretching it for staying on the subject of photography but I thought this was such a cool thing for young kids I decided to tell you about it.
If you’re kids get excited about Santa (or if you do), then you’ll want to check out this great service that’s been around about 9 years.
At Santa-Claus.com you can arrange for Santa to write a personalized letter to your child and throw in some fun extras. OR… you can even arrange for the good ol’ beared fella to call your house or cel phone anywhere in the USA or the UK!
So set up something extra fun for the kids this holiday season and have your camera ready and focused for some great, natural, smiles.
Tags: christmas, Photographing Children, santa Posted in Photographing Children, Photography
