TWiP #157 – Superphones, Supermodels, and Super spills

Canon’s Wonder Camera Concept. Using a Superphone to shoot Supermodels? And BP’s continued media black-out.

Hosts: Frederick Van Johnson, Alex Lindsay, and Catherine Hall

NEWS & DISCUSSION

Photog Detained By Cops and BP Security Guard in Texas

BoingBoing – Xeni Jardin – A freelance photographer who was taking pictures of a BP refinery in Texas was detained by a BP security official, local police and a man claiming to be with the Department of Homeland Security, according to nonprofit news org ProPublica. The photographer was working on a story about multiple large toxic releases at the BP refinery which happened just before the big Gulf oil blowout.

Canon Wonder Camera Concept Uses Video to Take Photos

Canon at the Shanghai World Expo has shown a rare camera concept that outlines its plans for the future. Only called the Wonder Camera so far, it would completely drop the notion of separating stills and video. An extremely high-speed focus would always keep the shot in focus and, along with large amounts of storage, would provide static images simply by picking one of the video frames.

A Professional Fashion Shoot With an iPhone 3GS

When photographer Lee Morris posted images of a professional model from this set on his site, some of his readers claimed they were the best photos he’d had ever taken.

The joke? They were taken on an iPhone 3GS (not even iPhone 4!) to silence those who, week after week, complained that their cameras weren’t nice enough to take pretty pictures.

The vimeo video clip is about 10 minutes long, but it’s a fun watch all the same. Not only will you discover Morris’ secrets behind the shots (a beautiful model, retouch artist, plenty of lighting—that’s the most important part — and a strip of Velcro to mount the 3GS to a tripod) but you can enjoy a possibly staged but still funny moment when the photoshoot is interrupted by a phone call.

Adding a Carl Zeiss SLR Lens to Your iPhone 4 – Is This for Real?

The Unofficial Apple Weblog – If the 5x digital zoom on the iPhone 4′s 5 MP digital camera doesn’t make your heart pound with joy, maybe you should dig out some of those lenses from the SLR film camera that you’re not using anymore and use ‘em with your iPhone.

Starting with a Manfrotto Model 797 Modopocket tripod, the rest of the rig appears to be some sort of clamp holding the lens and (on the camera side) a T-mount adapter. I’d be willing to venture that there’s some sort of lens in the T-mount so that our friend, the iPhone, doesn’t have to squint to see through that nice Carl Zeiss lens.

LISTENER QUESTIONS

Question #1:

From Alejandro Rossano: I have a question regarding focus points, I usually only use the middle focus point to focus and then recompose. Is there a difference between focusing and then recomposing and selecting the focus point to mark where your subject is?

Catherine: I highly suggest moving your focus point screen around. So you get in the habit when you are shooting things that are moving. Sometimes you may have to recompose because the focus points are not over the entire screen. Just get use to it (moving the focus point around).

Alex adds that if your are shooting a short depth of field focusing and moving the camera a few inches could throw the subject out of focus.

Question #2:

From Rick Moore: I really like the tap focus on the iPhone and also tap exposure. So when do you guys think we’re going to get these features on SLRS?

Frederick: I would like it to! Recalls when Ron Brinkmann had an artist rendering on his blog of an iPhone on the back of a SLR body. Alex adds that the important part of the camera is the sensor and lens and he would love to see an iPhone as the interface since it has more power than the processors in existing DSLRs. That would also open source the UI development too.

Question #3:

From Mark Lane: I’ve been using Digital Photo Professional to edit my RAW photos, but did not understand until recently that when I edit them, it is not saved within the CR2 file but rather in the DPP library. I’m now wanting to purchase Lightroom, but would first like to know how to move my files from DPP into Lightroom keeping the enhancements I’ve made and not having to export them as Tiffs. Any ideas as to how to do this?

Alex: I don’t think it’s possible. Frederick says Mark should check to see if the software can export in Adobe’s DNG file format.

PICKS OF THE WEEK

Frederick – www.ThisWeekInPhoto.com/tour
Alex – Panasonic Lumix GH1
Catherine – D1000 Air Electronic Flash by Profoto (about $3,500 USD for a kit)

WRAP UP
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Join the Flickr critique group. You can also join our Facebook group.

Frederick Van Johnson – www.frederickvan.com or www.twitter.com/frederickvan

Alex Lindsay www.pixelcorps.com or www.twitter.com/AlexLindsay

Catherine Hall www.catherinehall.net.com or www.twitter.com/catherine_hall

CREDITS

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Show notes by Tom Newman at www.fogviewphotos.com or www.twitter.com/fogview

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