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Posts tagged photography
Posted 1 month ago
iPhone 4 camera’s yellow tint: cause and workaround
Anyone who has tried to take a photo in very low light conditions using the iPhone 4’s LED flash is familiar with this issue: the photos come out with a yellow tint.
The Apple discussion forums are abuzz with posts on the issue, with most users suspecting a white balance problem.
Yesterday, the excellent Camera+ app received an update allowing, amongst other things, for the LED to be left on continuously when taking photos. The results? Perfectly white balanced images, without a trace of yellow.
So what gives? Well, I have a theory: the issue with the LED is not one of white balance, but of timing. In very low light situations, the iPhone 4’s camera shutter needs to remain open for longer in order to capture the shot. For some reason however, the LED flash appears to turn off just before the shutter closes, possibly casting a yellow tint over the image as it cools down - or in any case throwing the camera’s white balance out of whack.
As Camera+ demonstrates, if the LED flash is kept on before, during and after the photo is taken, the camera captures a perfect image.
What this suggests is that Apple should be able to fix the problem in software, simply by keeping the flash on just a fraction of a second longer. Until then, Camera+’s solution, while a potential battery killer, provides a neat little workaround for shooting in low light situations.
Posted 9 months ago
Posted 1 year ago
Canon Drops Two New Tilt-Shift Lenses
Love that miniature effect in your photos? Got two and a half thousand euros lying around? Them Canon’s latest tilt-shift lenses might be for you. One regular, one fisheye. Both very, very pricey.
On the other had you could convincingly fake the tilt-shift effect using this photoshop tutorial, but the knowledge of your deception may make you feel all dirty inside.
Posted 1 year ago
Cheap Thrill: 3D Without Glasses
I recently started playing with 3D Stereo Pairs, and what started as a fun little exercise turned out to open up a whole world of beautiful photography. The concept is neither new nor hi-tech, but it’s an interesting one nevertheless.
In a nutshell: 3D Stereo Pairs are just that, two images, presented side by side, taken a few inches apart from each other. Although different ways of presenting these images exist (parallel, over/under, anaglyph, etc.) the most easily accessible is the “cross-eyed” method.
Take the image below as an example. You start off with the two images presented (the stereo pair). Gently cross your eyes until you see three images, and focus on the middle one only. Slowly, as you stabilize your vision, you will be able to get that “virtual” image into sharp focus, and your brain will ‘pop’ it into spectacular 3D. You will be able to see into it, look around it, and get a real sense of depth as if looking into a portal.
The first time might take you a minute or two, but once you get the hang of it you should be able to re-focus on any stereo pair in a matter of seconds. And once you do that, you’ll have access at a whole new world of photography.
Here are a few links to get you started.
Posted 1 year ago
DIY Photography
How to build your own $20 ‘beauty dish’ to greatly enhance your flash portraits. From David Tejads’s blog.
Reviewing technology with an occasional sprinkling of art and humour.
