Wouldn’t you love to take pictures or video while riding your bike? Have you been looking for a clever device to attach your gear to your bicycle? Look no longer.
Adorama recently released the Flashpoint Bicycle Bracket, which allows you to simply mount the device to your bicycle’s handlebars. Once mounted you have to attach a ball head first in order to then attach your still or video camera.
The Bracket is made of high-grade alloy.
Available for 25.4mm and 31.8mm handlebars.
Price: $37.95
Amazon: $36.95
for 25.4mm handlebars
Amazon: $36.95
for 31.8mm handlebars
So, you shot pictures copiously with your iPhone 3G. After shooting 20-50 so-so shots, you get one of your cat on a Roomba that you have to show everyone; you know it’s going to be a hit and you want to print it.
Here’s the issue: at 2 megapixels, and 300 ppi (pixels per inch–many refer to it as dpi, but really mean ‘ppi’), you can get a 5.8″x3.8″ print–not even a standard 6×4″ print. It’s true that you could reasonably print at 240 ppi and the difference wouldn’t be visible, so you could yield some extra increased paper real estate in both directions, but we’re going to stick with the tried-and-true 300 ppi resolution here for the sake of this discussion.
So, what do you do if you want an 8×10″ print or larger? Are you out of luck? No, not really…thanks to a great Photoshop plug-in called Genuine Fractals
from OnOne. I have been using GF since a very early version and have consistently got great results. The product which has passed through the hands of several companies until it found a home with onOne, has been in the market for something like 10 years now and has proven its worth to me over and over.
Note that you will face the same enlargement issues when you shoot with a DSLR or a point & shoot. While you might easily print an 8×11, if you want to go bigger, you might have to use GF to help you with that.
Now it’s true that Photoshop and most other image-editing programs have their own algorithms for interpolating or ‘up-sampling’ images to larger sizes. However, none of them, in my experience, does as good a job as Genuine Fractals does. You can visit their website for more details and a comparison of GF to Photoshop’s own interpolation capabilities. So, while ‘bicubic smoother’ in PS CS4 won’t cause you complete embarrassment, it also won’t do your image as proudly as GF will.
Basically, Genuine Fractals which comes in a Standard ($159.95, for a limited time only $129.95
– please remember to use our Amazon portal to purchase if you decide to buy it) and Professional Edition ($249.95
), applies fractal algorithms to your image to which insert extra information and thereby blow-up your image to much larger sizes with no (or very little, depending upon how large you go) visible distortion. The ‘Pro’ version gets you CMYK image blow-up capability plus integration with LightRoom and Aperture. Personally, I think the standard version has everything you need, assuming you use Photoshop.
onOne claims that you can blow up a 2MP to something equivalent to 30″x42″ at 300 ppi. Based on my own results with this amazing plug-in, I can believe it. I have blown up 2-3MP images to at least that size and carefully viewed the image for artifacts and aliasing and have been pretty amazed at the results. I have shown blown-up images of my enlarged photos and artwork to many people and have gotten nothing but compliments (of course, that could be to spare my feelings as well, I guess). But even if you don’t want to go this big, just being able to blow up your 4″x6″ to 12″x18″ without distortion would be pretty welcome, no?
The product’s stability as a plugin within Photoshop is very good and the user interface by and large is also pretty good. I can’t vouch for how well it co-exists with Photoshop Elements or Aperture, though, since I haven’t used it with those programs.
GF 6 is compatible both with Photoshop CS2-Cs4, and Photoshop Elements 5-7, but only the professional version is compatible with Lightroom 2.x and Aperture 2.x.
Chances are, if you shoot on average 1 or more pix with your iPhone a day (as the statistics indicate most iPhone owners do) and many more than that per month with your digicam or D-SLR, than you probably will have at least a couple a year that are important to you to save and to view at larger sizes. If that’s true, then–whether you print images yourself or send them to a printing service electronically–you can benefit from spending $159 on GF. Keep in mind, as implied in the preceding sentence, that you can use GF not just on your iPhone pictures, but on any digital image. You can take a 12MP image and blow it up to 75×115″, again with no apparent loss of quality.
You can download a trial version and try it out before making a purchase decision. Check it out…
[This article was adapted from a post which originally appeared on iPhonePhotoVideo.com. It is published here with their permission]
Contrary to the iPhone being a lousy HDR camera platform, the iPhone is a good companion when you head out with your DSLR to capture HDR images. Why?
My typical setup for an HDR shot in the field looks like this:
- Setup the DSRL on a tripod
- Use the spotmeter in my Canon 5D to meter the lightest and darkest parts of the scene
- Sit down and do the math how many shots it takes, what to set the Auto Exposure Bracket (AEB) settings to and how many AEB shots it will take.
The calculation can become quite challenging based on the limitations of your camera equipment. My Canon 5D only allows for 3 shot AEB with a maximum bracketing distance of 1 EV between each shot. If you need to bracket 7 EVs, you need 3 AEB shots with what settings for each shot? I guess you get the gist of the problem.
Two iPhone applications can help you with the math. My favorite is EVcalc – simply set the desired Aperture, the initial speed and the bracketing distance, then let it calculate the corresponding brackets. It’s quite simple and fast. The only improvement I would have wished for is to be able to pick the max EV and AEB settings for my camera from a picklist. But since I know these anyway, it was not too much of a problem. And the price is right: It’s free.
The other application is HDR Helper. It pretty much does the same as EVcalc, with one added feature: You can also change your ISO sensitivity in your HDR setup. This might be important for some photographers, especially when you shoot handheld, but I don’t need it, thus my preference for EVcalc. But if you want ISO support in your HDR calculations, $1.99 is a good price for a very capable iPhone HDR companion app.
[Posted with permission from iPhonePhotoVideo.com]
I’m not a big fan of iPhone cases (add too much bulk), but if I had one, it would probably be the Griffin Clarifi. Why? Because it has a little built-in macro lens that can be moved over the iPhone lens. With Clarifi, you have a better chance at taking good and sharp close-ups and macros, since the slide-on lens reduces the closest focus range for the iPhone camera from 18 to 4.1 inches. This is especially useful for barcode and text photography or for some of the uses that are outlined in our post about other uses for the iPhone camera.
The Clarifi case is constructed of polycarbonate with access to power switch, headphone jack, volume controls and features Griffin’s EasyDock; remove the case bottom to charge and sync, put it back on when you’re ready to go.
Price: $34.99, Amazon: $21.00
Let’s face it – the iPhone camera is not that great. We all hope for something better once iPhone 3.0 comes out.
In the meantime, there is some help. Pro Camera is one application with advanced features compared to the regular camera app and it has become my new default camera application. First of all, it supports a very basic image stabilization (in Canon-speak) or vibration reduction (in Nikon-speak): it utilizes the accelerometer to help you level your shots before you take them and has an user-definable anti-shake delay function so it won’t capture your shot until you hold your iPhone still. The results are noticeably better as you can see from the 100% crop from two images taken in my home office.
ProCamera also includes a timer for delayed shots or self-portraits. In addition, as is also visible in the image above, it applies color temperature correction to your shots, which makes them look a bit cooler. This might not be to everyone’s liking, but can be changed in Photogene (see our review) on the iPhone or your favorite photo editor on your PC or Mac.
One feature that takes getting used to is the background save function. While it’s great to have a buffer, so you can keep snapping pictures and don’t have to wait for every photo to be saved before being able to shoot again, you have to wait until the last photo has been saved before you can quit the app. Quit the application too early and you lose all the photos that have not been saved yet. I wish there was a warning when you try to quit before all pictures are saved. Fortunately, there’s a setting to turn this off, if you do not like photo buffering.
Price: $2.99 from iTunes.
Reposted with permission from our sister blog, iphonephotoshow.com
If you are like me, you have a lot of old hard drives lying around – some of them still in use, some of them rarely used and some not at all. Whenever I have the need to quickly access one of them, the main question is always how to best connect them to my Mac or PC.
Vantec has a clever solution for this. Simply insert any 2.5-inch or 3.5-inch SATA I/II hard drive into Vantec’s NexStar Hard Drive Dock, connect it via USB2.0 or to an eSata port and you are ready to view, transfer, copy, or backup files.
Price: $46.99 (without hard drive), Amazon: $36.97
Hi-Den launched the newest member of its Vision family, the Hi-Den Vision Tiny Photo Player. Measuring just 4.8(W) x 10.1(L) x 1.6(H) cm and weighing a mere 50g, this battery-operated projector can be carried everywhere with you. Simply use the USB port to connect an external hard-drive, thumb drive or any memory card via a card reader, then plug the unit into any HDTV and you can view your images at resolutions up to 1080p. The unit comes with a remote control which allows you to put on slideshows, select transitions, randomize or sequential playback aso.
Price: $42.00 directly from Hi-Den.
We recently launched our sister blog, called iPhonePhotoShow.com. There we will cover all things photography on the iPhone, from iPhone trends to taking and editing photos on the iPhone to companion apps, little iPhone helper applications that aid you with your photography regardless of the camera you use. And much more!
Check it out or better, subscribe to it!
This is the number one questions I get asked with regards to memory cards. When do I erase my pictures from my memory cards?
The answer is short: When I have at least two copies of every images that is on the card. In reality, whenever I return from a photo shoot, I import the card(s) I used into Lightroom. As part of the Lightroom import, every image is copied to a “workspace” which resides on a RAID-1 external drive which consists of 2 physical disks (a Western Digital MyBook Studio Edition II
, to be precise). In addition, Lightroom places a copy of every original onto my Drobo
which is attached to my file server. Thus, I create 4 copies ever time I import an image.
Then, and only then, do I format my memory card. I never erase any picture – I just put the card back into the camera and then format it in-camera. That way, the card is freshly formatted and ready to go the next time I grab my camera.
If you are like me, your memory cards lead a hard live. They’ve been sat on, washed in the laundry, lost, broken and had to endure much abuse. That is, until I discovered memory card holders.
The one featured here is the Lowepro Pixelpak. It’s small and compact, but can still hold 8 SD cards. One of the insets can be taken out, so you have space for a PCMCIA card adaptor or business cards. It protects cards from moisture and shock. It is made from plastic, but the cover is brushed aluminum, so you can find it easier in dimly lit places.
Size: 3.9W X 0.6D X 2.6H inches
Weight: 0.2lbs
Added bonus tip: Insert the cards with their label facing up before taking off on a field trip. When changing cards in the field, put the used cards back into the case with the label facing down. This way, you will always know which cards were used and which ones are still available for use.
Price:
Holder for 8 SD cards: $19.99, Amazon: $11.49
Holder for 4 Compact Flash cards: B&H Photo: $19.99
