A little tool for all you flickr lovers a Profile Widget banner generator. Throw in which ever photos you wish to display - such as most recent, most interesting, random recent, and random interesting, select if you want a photo count included and bobs your badger as we say around here. The banner will automatically update itself every hour.
It shows a selection of ten of your photos and some statistics about your Flickr usage. And that's about it to produce a rather nice looking banner that comes in one size - 500 x 100. What I couldn't get it to do though was display a banner without the stats. Code is provided to place the banner on your website. [The image above is just a jpeg and doesn't use the generated code.]
Tourist remover - just released from Swiss software engineering company futureLAB. It's an online tool that removes unwanted moving objects (like tourists or moving vehicles) from photographs. Interesting.
The process is fully automatic but you need 3 to ten photos of the same object taken in succession for the software to churn out a 'cleaned' image at the end. It is packaged with Snapmania - another photo organiser/sharing thingy - but I cannot seem to find any reference to it on the site.
Sorry for the UK focus on todays posts - but here is another. A price comparison site that some might find useful. Concentrating on the digital camera market Camera Price Buster is a "one stop shopping website" that lets anyone locate the least expensive prices on UK digital cameras and accessories.
When I visited a few moments ago there were two special deals available. Enter the specified code and receive a 10% discount on purchaes from Jessops (excluding cameras) or a £20 discount on purchases at Curreys over £300.
A quick look at the Canon EOS350D sees a price range from a high £579.99 at Play.com down to £429 at Warehouse Express. A site to bookmark...
The New York Times' most recent edition of "Talk to the Newsroom" features Assistant Managing Editor for Photography Michele McNally. It's a must read for anyone interested in photojournalism. The questions are pretty wide-ranging, covering everything from why there aren't more pictures of wounded Americans in Iraq (the answer is diplomatic, but the subtext is pretty clear: the Pentagon doesn't let those shots happen) to why the quality of color news photos often suffers (it's difficult to register a high speed press as large as a house). Personally I would have liked to see a more direct answer to the reader who commented "I would rather see a clear black-and-white photo than one in color that is seriously out of register, which most of them are. Doesn't the technology exist to correct this problem? If not, let's go back to black and white," a sentiment I share--leave the color to USA Today--but she has some very insightful things to say about how images are chosen, the very limited roll of Photoshop in the newsroom, and what it takes to shoot for the NYT. Her advice to young photographers, in particular, bears repeating:
The most important work a young photographer can do is existential. You must figure out what kind of photographer you want to be, what do you want to say and how are you going to do it better than others have done before you.
Recognize that the career of a photojournalist is a difficult one personally, so you must love what you are doing. Be certain of your mission, but be prepared to constantly grow. Work hard, very hard. Be forever curious, persistent and gracious. When people let you into their lives, realize that it is a gift.
Don't let technical issues come between you and a great picture; make it second nature. Recognize the role of aesthetics in storytelling. And shoot, shoot and shoot some more.
This came into my inbox today, and I couldn't believe we hadn't posted it. In fact, I initially brushed it off because I was certain we had. But we haven't, so thanks to T for reminding me! If you haven't seen it yet--it's been up for a while--Darren Rowse's Digital Photography School has a great article on shooting, er, photographing, pets. One of the things I really like about Darren is that he breaks it down into ten simple rules of thumb. The most important ones in my opinion are "catch them unawares," "get in close," and "start with your pet's personality." Great pet portraits start with those things. Figure out how to build a composistion out of them, and you'll be on your way.
One other important thing to think about is lighting. Darren recommends against flash except for dark-furred critters because animals get such ghastly red- (or green-, or yellow-) eye. I'd like to modify that to this: try not to use direct flash as your primary light source. Getting your animal to arrange itself in natural light the way you want may be a futile effort. Be prepared to bounce or fill to get the light you want where you want it.
Pickle is in beta, so it's new. If you are interested in signing up, Pickle is offering expanded user limits for the first 25,000 registered users. For the basic free service this means a 200MB monthly up load limit rather than 75MB and a 100MB size limit rather than 10MB. If you go for the paid service the cost is $19.95 rather than $49.95. The advantages of the paid service are unlimited mailboxes, ad-free usage and password protected sharing.
It is the use of email that sets Pickle apart from other services. You or other people can email photos and video clips to a specific email address which then appear on a special project page. This could be cool for joint events music concerts, sports events, weddings and the like. As is the norm images can be tagged.
Pickleboxes are like photo albums for video and photos and can be viewed as a slide-show
You can upload via email or use specific upload tools
Each account has a main address for uploading too via email, but each PickleBox also has its own email address so you can send pictures from your mobile for example.
Picklemails are emails you can send of your images or group of images
Picklescope is a list of your friends and family's shared videos and pictures shown all on one page
The screen-shot is of the upload processes from my test homepage/picklebox. One of the images was sent in via email.
Overall the service works smoothly, seems intuitively designed and dead easy to use.
Engadget reviews the 7.2 megapixel Sony DSV-T30 [link]
Download Squad looks at AllYouCanUpload a new image hosting site from CNet [link]
The staff photographer for the Baltimore Sun runs a lighting blog. Strobist has some interesting tips. [website]
Food blogger DessertFirst relates her experiences at a professional food photo shoot workshop [website]
A new image format is to be part of Windows Vista - Windows Media Photo. It is expected to offer better quality at half the size when compared to the JPEG format. It may also be released as an add-on for Windows XP. [details]
Improve your workflow and increase your creativity by attending the Phase One RoadShow seminar. See how Capture One software creates outstanding Photoshop-ready files. June 14, 2006 Park Royal Studios, London NW10 7AE [website]
So what is all this about then? Apart from a slightly risque name... Rasterbator takes an image and from it 'creates huge, rasterized images'. 'The rasterized images can be printed and assembled into extremely cool looking posters up to 20 meters in size.' Which may be handy to some.
The tool is available for use on line or you can download a desktop version. After you have cropped the image and selected a desired size, the rasterbated image will be sent to you as an easily printable pdf file.
The website offers a huge gallery of rasterized images (which failed to show anything in IE7 but was OK in Firefox) from which the image shown here was taken.
If I read the page correctly the PCWorld list of Top Ten Point and Shoot cameras will change automatically over time depending on spec changes and price. At the moment the list is headed by the 6.2 megapixel HP Photosmart R717. But this is just one point ahead of the Canon PowerShot A520 with 4 megapixels.
An email newsletter that covers "a whole world of things you can do with your photos and with your camera that nobody ever told you about. We find the most kick-ass photo tips, DIY projects, and gear and bring them to you".
That is what PhotoJoJo offers. Personally I prefer reading websites via RSS feeds which is handy that PhotoJoJo offers this too. Subjects covered recently include making a Photo Sudoku, making a cd jewel case photo calendar and making photo blocks. Basically fun little projects that utilise your photographs in unusal ways away from the computer!
I am unsure as to the name of this effect but it is a fascinating never finishing 'delve' into images. Choose a point on the photograph and you move from one idea and colour through into another in a never-ending chain. Does it actually have a name?
Yet another photo sharing site has hit the web looking for a slice of the Flickr pie. Most of the time, I just ignore them any more, but tabblo has a few features that really set it apart from the rest of the crowd. First are its eponymous tabblos (a play on "tableau"). Unlike most sharing services where the display of your images is governed by the site's theme, Tabblo offers you a range of layout options for displaying your images, rnging from standard gallery type layouts to layouts with text and even Polaroidish frames. In the beta, at least, there are no bandwidth or storage limits--they plan to make their money off of print orders--or ads. And here's possibly the best part: you can import your entire Flickr photo stream if you're thinking about giving it a whirl. Personally, I think this is a smart move. As social photo networks grow, more and more pople are going to have connections to more than one, and making users choose just one doesn't make sense.
It doesn't matter how hard you try playing around with photoshop - if you do not start with a decent image to start with you will never end up with a decent image. This is the crux of a post by Aaron Hockly on this DogCaught blog.
He writes "In the computer field, there's a term called GIGO, meaning "Garbage in, garbage out". Applying this to photography, the meaning is that if one starts with a poor photo, digital processing won't be able to turn it into a great shot. It is far better to begin with a properly exposed and technically correct photo than it is to start out needing to "fix" things just to make the photo usable."
After reading the rest of his thoughts have a look at his photo gallery. Who could fail to be inspired living where he does? Coupled with the stunning scenery there is also a little railway...
Citizen Image becomes the latest player in the image brokering game
today. Their catalog is obviously still small, but it looks to me like they're doing things right. Unlike some other
sites, they're doing more than just stock photo. That looks like it will be their bread and butter, but photographers
and buyers will have serveral licensing options, ranging from one-off royalty-free stock photos to royalty-based
exclusive rights for editorial and artistic shots. Prices are a little steep for those used to iStockPhoto's $1 small web pics, but with a no-nonsense 50% of purchase price
and/or gross royalties payment policy, CI should be attractive to photographers, especially with what looks like a
minimum payout of $10, and if that keeps quality up, the pics should be attractive to buyers, as well.
According to the Photo Marketing
Association (a.k.a PMA), May is National Photo Month. and to help us all get int the spirit, they've ramped up their
website TakeGreatPictures.com and sent around a press release through
the usual outlets with "five settings that make for better [digital] photographs," things on your camera
you'll want to learn to adjust if you don't know already. The website's still in its infancy, but has some nice
features like Family Photo
Projects, and some good interviews in Master
Photographers Tell You How.
Be careful with the advice in the press release, though. I'm all for knowing
as much about your camera as you can. And knowing how to use your flash, erase pictures, and set ISO are certainly
important. So is understanding picture quality, so I'm with them 80% of the way. I can't, though, agree that altering
picture size depending on what you think you might print is a good idea. In fact, it's generally a pretty bad idea.
Shoot your camera at it's native resolution, and let your software handle the scaling later; you'll be glad you did.
Cameras do a really good job with many aspects of image manipulation, but interpolation algorithms aren't usually one
of them. And besides, maybe one you see the picture, you'll
Sorry for the UK focus on todays posts - but here is another. A price comparison site that some might find useful. Concentrating on the digital camera market 
The New York Times' 
This came into my inbox today, and I couldn't believe we hadn't posted it. In fact, I initially brushed it off because I was certain we had. But we haven't, so thanks to T for reminding me! If you haven't seen it yet--it's been up for a while--Darren Rowse's 
Photo sharing... blah blah... photo storage service... blah blah blah... yawn.
Engadget reviews the 7.2 megapixel Sony DSV-T30 [
So what is all this about then? Apart from a slightly risque name... 
If I read the page correctly the 
An email newsletter that covers "a whole world of things you can do with your photos and with your camera that nobody ever told you about. 
I am unsure as to the name of this effect but it is a fascinating never 
Yet another photo sharing site has hit the web looking for a slice of the Flickr pie. Most of the time, I just ignore them any more, but 
According to the Photo Marketing
Association (a.k.a PMA), May is National Photo Month. and to help us all get int the spirit, they've ramped up their
website 
