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Tag : photography

Michiel Munneke Steps Down As Director Of World Press Photo

michiel_munneke World Press Photo Supervisory Board Chairman Pieter Broertjes and Michiel Munneke announced that Munneke will leave his position as Managing Director per 1 November 2014.

Munneke holds a master’s degree in Communications from the University of Amsterdam, he started his career at World Press Photo in 1994 as an intern and was hired one year later as a project manager in the exhibitions department. In 1997, he became head of the contest and education departments, where he managed the Joop Swart Masterclass and laid the groundwork for the organization’s current educational programs by initiating several workshops for local journalists in Africa, Asia and Latin America. He was then appointed deputy managing director in 1999 and managing director in 2001. The supervisory board has great respect for the way Munneke developed the organization into a strong international brand that enjoys high esteems with both the photographic community as well as the public.

Broertjes: “Under Munneke’s leadership, the organization has grown: revenue and staff has doubled, the yearly photo contest has been reformed, a multimedia contest has been added, and the educational programs are now an essential part of the yearly schedule. Munneke is leaving behind a healthy organization that is ready for the future.”

Munneke: “I have spent my whole working life dedicated to this wonderful foundation and the last 12 years as its director. I feel honored to have led this great Dutch initiative for more than a decade. Over the past year, we have developed a new strategy and now it’s time for me to pass the torch and make my next step.”

About World Press Photo

World Press Photo organizes the leading international contest in visual journalism. The foundation is committed to supporting and advancing high standards in photojournalism and documentary storytelling worldwide. Its aim is to generate wide public interest in and appreciation for the work of photographers and other visual journalists, and for the free exchange of information. The activities include organizing annual photojournalism and multimedia contests and global exhibition tours. The Academy programs strive to stimulate high-quality visual journalism through educational programs, grants and by creating greater visibility through a variety of publications. World Press Photo is an independent, non-profit organization with its office in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, where it was founded in 1955.

World Press Photo receives support from the Dutch Postcode Lottery and is sponsored worldwide by Canon.

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Sigma DP Quattro series announced

sigma_dp2 Sigma DP Quattro has been officially announced recently, it’s the next generation of its DP series of APS-C sensor, fixed focal length cameras after the revolutionized Sigma DP2 Merrill. The Sigma dp Quattro has turned many heads with its radical design that incorporates the new Foveon X3 direct image sensor paired with the newly developed TRUE III (Three-layer Responsive Ultimate Engine) image processing engine to deliver high-definition, 3D-like photographs with outstanding rich color details.

Sigma DP (dp1, dp2 & dp3) Quattro series comprises three fixed focal length cameras, each of which features a different basic focal length for a different fundamental photographic approach: the wide-angle dp1 Quattro at 19mm, the standard dp2 Quattro at 30mm, and the medium telephoto dp3 Quattro at 50mm (respectively equivalent to 28mm, 45mm, and 75mm on a 35mm lens). Moreover, the three models share an exciting new camera body that brings out the best performance from the lens and image sensor.

The dp2 Quattro (featured here) with a solid and lightweight magnesium body has 29 million high resolution effective pixels (The Quattro sensor uses three layers to detect color information, top layer captures 19.6 million pixel resolution, with lower two layers capturing 4.9 million pixel resolution each) with a fixed 30 mm f/2.8 lens, improved optics with auto-focus performance and better high ISO capabilities than its Merrill predecessors.

The Camera has already acclaimed the Best Design award in the Technical & Design category at the TIPA Awards 2014.

Sigma dp2 Quattro Camera images

The price and availability date are yet to be announced, sure AAB world shall have it here in Kuwait on it’s release.

Check the official announcement [here]

News 1

Goan 1st Lady Photographer Palmira Coutinho passes away

palmira_coutinho Ms Palmira Coutinho, Goa’s first professional lady photographer passed away at the age of 89 due to ill health. She was recipient of the Goa State Cultural Award in Photography. She had the proudest moment when she appeared on the cover of the internationally acclaimed British Photographer, David Bailey’s book “Locations: The 1970s Archive”.

An interesting spotlight of her exciting career was when she went clicking during the 1974 Exposition of St. Francis Xavier in Goa, which she photographed. It was then she was spotted by renowned British Photographer David Bailey. Consequently, he visited the Hollywood Studio and shot her picture, perhaps just for curiosity sake, as he had met the only professional woman photographer in Goa, who after her husband untimely death in an accident single-handedly raised her seven children while simultaneously photographing and managing the studio. Years later, he remembered Palmira and traced her through the internet after BBC had done a documentary on him, and decided to interview her for a special series. Palmira was in for surprise, when she received an autographed book brought out by Bailey, containing photographs taken at her studio, with her picture on the book’s cover.

In her career, Palmira has photographed Mother Teresa, former Portuguese President Mario Soares, Pope John Paul II and former President of India Zail Singh, amongst other personalities.

May her soul rest in peace.

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Dynamic Range in Photography

In principle Dynamic Range describes the brightness range of the scene we are photographing. It also means Dynamic Range is the amount of visible detail that can be seen or recovered between the lightest part of a photograph and the darkest. A scene with high dynamic range will have large difference in brightness between the darkest zones and the brightest. Photographer’s mentions dynamic range related to scene’s contrast or tonal range, which means the same.

Camera manufactures also talk about Dynamic Range with regards to the camera sensor. In this case, it’s the ability of the sensor to record these very high brightness ranges. This means that cameras with a larger dynamic range are able to capture both highlight and shadow detail simultaneously. DSLR’s have a larger dynamic range than point and shoot cameras because their sensors have larger pixels. Also generally, a full frame sensor can provide a broader dynamic range and better low light/high ISO performance yielding a higher quality image than a crop sensor.

Dynamic range is measured as EV values or stops. The dynamic range of the scene and the dynamic range of your camera are two different things.

Histogram_Sx

Let’s look at the illustration (above) and understand how to read the histogram in relation to dynamic range:

1. The histogram is a graphical representation of the tones in your picture, showing the number of pixels at different brightness level from pure black on the left to pure white on the right.

2. The ‘Shadows‘ in your picture are roughly the left quarter of the overall brightness range.

3. The histogram peaks in the Midtones with an average amount of shadow and highlights. The histogram shapes will vary depending on exposure.

4. The ‘Highlights’ are in the right quarter of the brightness range.

5. The dynamic range of the scene you are photographing is shown by the width of the histogram known as contrast range or the tonal range

6. The dynamic range of your camera can record, is shown but the width of the histogram scale. If the histogram won’t fit, it’s a warning sign.

Professionals always advice to shoot in RAW format, for a very simple reason a raw digital image shall have a wider dynamic range or color gamut than the eventual final image format, and it preserves most of the information of the captured image.

While we understand the importance and advantage of Dynamic range, we also need to understand few issues when using dynamic range and the likely solution to the same.

Issue 01 – Landscape

In landscape, the sky is often much brighter than the landscape itself and no single exposure can capture both.

Solution: Landscape photographers use graduated filters to block some light and bring the bright sky back into camera’s dynamic range.

Issue 02 – Sun & Shade High Contrast
Bright sun under clear sky can produce a difference between light and shade that’s just too large for the camera to cope with.

Solution: Shoot RAW, RAW files contains extra highlight and shadow detail that you can recover later in post processing

Issue 03 – Portraits faces in shadow
Backlighting will either leave your subject’s face in shadow or if you increase the exposure will make the background blown out.

Solution: Fill-flash to lighten your subject’s face and bring the scene back into camera’s dynamic range.

Issue 04 – Dawn and Dusk and in Extreme Contrast
At sunset and twilight the sky is often so much brighter than the rest of the scene that you can’t capture the full brightness range even with camera. Also in extreme contrast situation where you have a wide extraordinary range of contrast in a scene, a range far greater than any camera’s sensor can capture. A type of situation where you have enough shadow and highlight, the camera is going to have trouble capturing the ends of that drastic range. If you choose to meter for the highlights (the bright areas), you’ll lose pretty much all the detail in the shadow areas of the scene. Try it the other way—meter for the shadows—and it’s likely you’ll end up with what are commonly called “blown out” highlights.

Solution: Use HDR, shoot the scene in a series of different exposure commonly called Bracket to capture both shadows and highlight details and then use HDR software to merge them into one image

Knowledge Base 0

Two Hasselblad Lunar Camera Fetches $54,500

Hasselblad-Lunar-Drawing-680x446 Two photo enthusiasts at the world-famous three day-long annual Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance exotic car festival began bidding against each other for the chance to own an ‘Ultimate luxury’ olive wood-handled Lunar camera, crafted by the iconic camera brand. When the bid reached $28,000 neither party wanted to lose out on a Lunar, so a deal was struck for an extra camera to be auctioned – for a joint record-busting price that raised a total of $54,500 for a spina bifida charity.

The deal also included a unique set of Classic Motorsport photographs shot over decades with a Hasselblad camera by Concours Show founder and chairman, Bill Warner. Warner said: “Hasselblad is simply the ultimate camera. It’s the Mercedes-Benz, the Porsche and the Ferrari of cameras, all in one.

Michael Hejtmanek, President of Hasselblad Bron Inc. said: “We knew our new, retro-look Lunar range was compelling – especially the rich-veined olive wood edition with its advanced technology and supreme ergonomics – but for a pair of them to raise $54,500 for Spina Bifida Jacksonville at this auction is just outstanding.”

The Lunar Limited Edition is available to only 200 pieces worldwide featuring a bold red Italian leather grip with yellow gold top plate, the Lunar Limited Edition from Hasselblad is the ultimate good fortune indulgence.

However I personally feel it was still an extravagantly ridiculous shopping, not much information regarding to the Photo enthusiasts has been published yet.

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Star Trail Photography

ShutterXpose organised Star Trail Photography and Steel Wool painting (one of the spectacular form of light painting) workshop for it’s members. The weather was perfect and we planned for a long stay at the desert followed by finger licking BBQ dinner arranged by our members. The whole experience was quite successful and lived upto its expectation.

In this post, I would discuss on Star Trail Photography. I plan to post on Steel Wool photography soon.

Photographing a Star Trail is highly rewarding as well a challenge, but with bit of patience the whole experience would be fascinating. The challenge here is you don’t know exactly what the photograph will look especially if you are an amateur and have no previous experience shooting in the dark. The streaks of light which you see in the image here is the light left behind on the sensor from the stars as it travels across the sky with a camera on long exposure. The images which you capture are stationary stars and the rotation of the earth that makes them spin.

If you are planning for star trail photography, you need to find a place typically at the outskirts of the city, so as to be away from the city lights and smoke pollution. Check the calendar to find a day with a moonless night, you can use several smartphone apps like Moon Free or Moon Calendar to help you around.

There are two different approaches to do Star Trail Photography.

One method is to have a single shot, where you mount the camera on a Tripod, compose the shot, dial the shutter to the Bulb mode and keep the shutter open for almost an hour so that the stars create a trail as the earth rotates on its own axis. However the biggest concern is the digital noise due to high ISO and certain cases sensor heat-up in lower end camera models.

The second method is to take multiple frames and “Stack” them later using computer application, which is my preferred method.

Mount the camera on a sturdy tripod, compose the shot, dial the shutter to 20-30 second duration and capture as many as 100 or 150 or even more frames by using a Remote Shutter Release cable so as to avoid any shake, if you have a Mirror-up option in the camera you may use this option so as to capture almost sharp images. Shooting short exposures means less noise, you can shoot with a wide aperture and a faster ISO so that you will be able to capture more stars than the previous method. It is advisable to know the limitation of your camera to handle noise.

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Knowledge Base / Photo Shoots & Workshop 2

Lightroom Workshop

Lightroom Workshop This workshop is for beginers and intermediate user who usually shy away from shooting RAW and using Post Processing tools, the workshops aims at enhancing your knowledge of RAW processing using the Develop Module in Lightroom 4. LR4 powerful process engine improves your images straight from the camera to a more professional feel and sharp image.

Topics covered

Day 01 (31st May, 2013)

* Importing & Organizing Image

* Learning the Menu, Shortcuts, Toolbar feautres

* Developing and Editing Image

– White Balance – Exposure – Tones – Sharpening – B/W Conversions – Image correction –

* Slideshow & Printing

Day 02 (07th June, 2013)

* In-depth on Library Module

* In-depth on Developing & Editing Image

* Using Presets

* External Editing using Plugins (Potraiture, Color Efex, Photo Ninja, Photoshop)

* In-depth Exporting

What to bring:

* Your own Laptop (fully charged for the session)

* Make sure you have installed LR 4 (demo can be downloaded via http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/tdrc/index … oshop_li...)

This course doesn’t cover in-depth knowledge on any of the above mentioned plugin, however steps to export to different plugin application and basic steps of tweaking in different filter shall be covered.

Venue: Better Books Library, Hall 1 – Basement. Near to Gulf Mart (earlier Sanbouk Supermarket), Salmiya

Time: 09:30 am – 12:00 noon

Workshop Fee (both session inclusive): Members (Kd. 15), Non-Members (Kd. 20)

How to Register:

* Shutterxpose members can confirm their attendance in Flickr Group. Payement to be done on or before 31st May, 2013

* Non-Members can Register by sending a confirmation email to admin@shutterxpose.com. Payement to be done on or before 24th May, 2013

* No Refund on No show

Enquires

* For any further enquires, Please send an email to admin@shutterxpose.com

Photo Shoots & Workshop 2

Nikon D7100 DX Camera Announced

Nikon has just announced the Nikon D7100, an update to the existing Nikon D7000 DSLR camera. Many DX users were anticipating for the high-end line up in the form of a D400 which was quite actively rumored to be on the horizon, but now seems to be just a rumor.

The new D7100 boost of 24.1 MP DX-format CMOS sensor without an OLPF (AA) filter, better ISO Range, EXPEED 3 image processor same as on the D4, D800 and D600 Full Frame Camera, High speed 6 frames per second, 2,016-pixel RGB (3D Color Matrix) metering sensor, 3.2-inch LCD display that is accompanied by an OLED display within the viewfinder itself and the Twin SD, SDHC, SDXC memory card compatibility.

If you intend to continue using DX body or if you are a new photographer looking for a DX camera, the D7100 is worth a buy in terms of specs, also note the earlier Pro-DX body has never had any updates in the last 4-5 years and the chances for a Pro-DX body release (if there has to be one) looks quite in the distant. The D7100 is available for Pre-order with Nikon 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR DX Lens for $1599 and the body alone for $1199.

Check Nikon Press Release [link]

Download Nikon D7100 Brochure in PDF format [here]

News 0

Is This The Greatest Image on Earth?

Dubai-360_panorama_view — Click on the image to view the Dubai 360° Panaroma View

A 2.5 Gigapixel 360 degree Panorma gives “Cruise-eye view” from the pinnacle of the world’s tallest building.

It is arguably the greatest image on earth – a 360 degree panoramic view from the very top of the tallest building on earth, Dubai’s Burj Khalifa. The giddying image shows the view across the city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates from 828 metres above sea level captured in high resolution using some of the most advanced techniques in digital photography. It’s the view actor Tom Cruise made famous as he sat at the tower’s peak during the filming of Mission Impossible Four, ‘Ghost Protocol’.

The image has been released to celebrate the second Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Photography Award (HIPA), which will take place in Dubai in March. The award, the world’s richest photography award, will see prizes totalling $389,000 and attracts entrants from 99 countries. The grand prize awarded by HIPA is $120,000.

“This is an extraordinary image taken from an extraordinary location. It reflects the goals of HIPA, to extend the boundaries of photography and celebrate images of unusual beauty and quality that are truly outstanding,” said His Excellency Ali bin Thalith, the General Secretary of the award. The panorama takes in Dubai’s many landmarks, including the iconic Burj Al Arab hotel, the world’s biggest mall, the Dubai Mall and the Meydan Racecourse and shows the remarkable growth of a city still on a fast track to developing as a business hub and tourist destination.

The image is composed from over 70 individual photos. Dubai based photographer Gerald Donovan created the shot using a mechanised panoramic tripod head to take a series of 48 panoramic images, each shot at a resolution of 80 megapixels. These were then stitched together with manually shot images to ‘fill-in’ gaps caused by equipment installed at the top of the tower such as the lightning conductor and aircraft beacons. The result is an image that can be zoomed, tilted and rotated, giving viewers a sense of how it must feel to sit atop the world’s highest building.

The top of the Burj Khalifa, developed by global property developer Emaar Properties, is over 200 metres above the highest point reached by the building’s elevators, which reach the 160th floor at speeds of some 10 metres per second. The tower’s celebrated public observation deck, At the top, Burj Khalifa is on the 124th floor. The journey to the pinnacle involves a steep ladder climb within the 200-meter spire that crowns the building.

Check the video

News 3

Kuwait Enters 50th year of Constitution with a Guinness World Record

Kuwait on Saturday entered the Guinness World record books with a massive display of firework. The show which costed KD 4.16 million (roughly around $15 million US) was spectacular with 77,282 fireworks launched using pyrotechnic over a period of one hour to secure the biggest and expensive firework feat ever. Thousands of people gathered around the Gulf road to catch the glimpse of fireworks, kite and laser show display staged to mark the 50th anniversary of the constitution. The road leading to the venue were closed from early afternoon, I decided to reach early for a change and found a convenient location to witness the event right behind the KFC outlet (Zone 5). Before the late evening firework I was lucky enough to watch 3-4 sorties of fire planes soaring the sky and display of kites beautifully flown by professionals pillion riders on Jet skies. Finally as other photo geek members and family joined, the place was flooded with people occupying every inch of land, there was a long wait before the firework began and I wished there were more entertainment on the sea side. I did manage to capture the couple of flying mannequin and other dressed up sea-creature character with security personnel as they were cheered by crowds walking the Gulf road. I rushed back to my spot to capture the firework which started couple of minutes after 8 pm to witness the greatest and most spectacular fireworks ever, with plenty of photographers and other watchers around, the place was truly a celebration. At the end of the show, the 3D projections displayed the Guinness World record banner for the maximum number of firework as well as for the longest line (from Kuwait tower to Green Island divided into 9 zones) as a representative from Guinness World Record announced over the national Kuwait Television.

Images of the event: (For more images click here)

[foogallery id=”3005″]

Events & Activities 2

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