Source: CNET
Written by Stephen Shankland

Think of it as digital photography 2.0.

In the last decade, photography has been transformed by one revolution, the near-total replacement of analog film cameras by digital image sensors. Now researchers and companies are starting to stretch their wings by taking advantage of what a computer can do with sensor data either within the camera or on a full-fledged PC.

Visualizations of mathematics create remarkable artwork

Source: Science News
Written by Julie J. Rehmeyer

“Coral Star” shows the motion brought about by one particular dynamical system.
By Michael Field

Mathematicians often rhapsodize about the austere elegance of a well-wrought proof. But math also has a simpler sort of beauty that is perhaps easier to appreciate: It can be used to create objects that are just plain pretty—and fascinating to boot.

That beauty was richly on display at an exhibition of mathematical art at the Joint Mathematics Meetings in San Diego in January, where more than 40 artists showed their creations.

World Digital Camera Market to Reach 122 Million Units by 2010, According to New Report by Global Industry Analysts

Press Release: San Jose, California (PRWEB) February 26, 2008—The world digital camera market stands enthused by the effervescent level of technology development and product feature innovations. Technical innovations in the field of batteries, photo printing, storage devices and internet technologies are expected to propel the growth of digital cameras. Wireless communications enabled digital cameras, for instance, are growing in popularity, given their cutting edge advantages and benefits, such as, added convenience, effectiveness, and functionality in the form of e-mail transmission ability, enhanced storage media, compatibility with PC image processing, and higher image resolution.

Source: CNET
Written by Stephen Shankland

It’s one of the oldest, most common problems in photography: that picture you thought would be the prize shot is out of focus.

Refocus Imaging, a Silicon Valley start-up, thinks its technology can be used to make cameras that can fix that problem–after you take the photo.

Source: CNET
Written by Stephen Shankland

Geotagging, in which digital photos are labeled with the location where they were taken, is mostly unfamiliar to photographers today. But new developments are likely going to put the technology on the map.

As company exits film business, plants will close in Norwood, Waltham

Source: Boston Globe
Written by Hiawatha Bray

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Polaroid Corp., the Massachusetts company that gave the world instant film photography, is shutting down its film manufacturing lines in the state and abandoning the technology that made the company famous.

Source: USA Today
Written by Brian Bergstein, Associated Press

A new development making raw image processing available at retail for the first time!

Press Release: Noritsu Koki announces an agreement that establishes technical cooperation between Noritsu Koki and Adobe Systems. This agreement enables photo retailers with Noritsu input terminals (CT terminals) and Noritsu minilab systems to accept and process raw image data, which is widely used in digital SLR camera photography. This is the first time that raw image data will be supported at the retail level, opening the door for retailers who want to easily provide high quality photographic prints from raw image files.

The winners of the Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest 2007 have been announced and posted on their web site. The Honorary Chairman, Benoit Mandelbrot himself writes: “It was an astonishing event, both at the International Congress of Mathematicians and at the museum downtown. I am an inveterate optimist, but never expected to see a crowd standing in a long line to be allowed to admire mathematics in any of its forms.”

In digital photography, 2007 was a strong year for higher-end digital SLRs.

Source: CNET
Written by Stephen Shankland

Already, single-lens reflex cameras were disproportionately popular as photographers moved to models that responded quickly and worked better in dim conditions. The bulk and expense were worth it.

Move allegedly designed to reduce risk of fires on aircraft

Source: ComputerWorld
Written by James Niccolai

New rules will go into effect on Jan. 1 that prohibit air passengers in the U.S. from carrying spare lithium batteries in their checked baggage.

The new rules, announced Friday by the U.S. Department of Transportation, are designed to reduce the risk of fires in aircraft. Lithium batteries have been identified as a possible cause of several aircraft fires.

Source: Newsweek
Written by Perter Plagens

How is that even remotely possible? The medium certainly looks alive, well and, if anything, overpopulated. There are hordes of photographers out there, working with back-to-basics pinhole cameras and pixeled images measured in gigabytes, with street photography taken by cell phones and massive photo “shoots” whose crews, complexity and expense resemble those of movie sets.

Step into almost any serious art gallery in Chelsea, Santa Monica or Mayfair and you’re likely to be greeted with breathtaking large-format color photographs, such as Andreas Gefeller’s overhead views of parking lots digitally montaged from thousands of individual shots or Didier Massard’s completely “fabricated photographs” of phantasmagoric landscapes.

METACOW: A Public-Domain, HighResolution, Fully-Digital, Noise-Free, Metameric, Extended-Dynamic-Range, Spectral Test Target for Imaging System Analysis and Simulation

Geek Alert: the following would really only excite a “color geek”…

Source: Summit Daily News
Written by Leslie Brefeld

Since Ansel Adams developed the zone system of manipulating the lights and darks of a photograph at the turn of the 19th century, darkrooms have been facilitating the production of this mainstay of popular art.

But in the name of digital, the art of photography is undergoing a revolution.

InfoTrends Study Shows Significant Changes in Pro Photography Workflows as Image Capture Volumes Increase

InfoTrends Press Release: According to a recent InfoTrends survey of over 1,000 professional photographers across specialties, the increased use of digital photography is leading to new opportunities in the imaging industry. It’s no surprise that the percentage of total digital images captured by pros has grown from 82% in 2006 to 89% in 2007; however, a pronounced increase in the number of digital images captured per week by the average pro suggests that software, service, and printing solution providers are likely to benefit in the long run.

Bill Crow, the Microsoft Program Manager for HD Photo (originally code named Photon) says on his blog, that the final versions of the plug-in for Adobe Photoshop CS2 and CS3 are available for download. The download is free.
The plug-ins are available for both Windows as well as Macintosh. For the Windows, XP SP2 or Vista is supported. For Mac, both 10.4 (Tiger) and 10.5 (Leopard) are supported. The plug-in development was done by Microsoft in conjunction with Pegasus Imaging Systems.
HD Photo, which uses an expanded color space named scRGB has the capability to encode high-dynamic range (HDR) images in a wider color gamut color space.

Epson has posted “Public Beta” print drivers for recent Epson Stylus Pro printers to provide full Macintosh 10.5.x (Leopard) compatibility.

These drivers provide enhanced functionality as well as the potential for 16 bit/channel printing–just as soon as imaging applications can actually send 16 bit data. Neither Photoshop CS3 nor Lightroom 1.3 do yet.

The drivers that are currently available are:

The MPS Digital Photography Department of the School for Visual Arts (SVA) is presenting a lecture by renowned landscape photographer Stephen Johnson, a pioneer who has helped shape the technology for today’s (and tomorrow’s) digital photographers.

Source: Detroit Free Press
Written by Patricia Ansetett

A little-known field of ophthalmology soon will get work space in Ann Arbor that matches the stature a University of Michigan team has achieved.

A $1.5-million grant awarded in October by the Harry A. and Margaret D. Townsley Foundation will help U-M build a state-of-the-art Ophthalmic Imaging Center in the new Kellogg Eye Center under construction.

Scheduled to open in 2010, it will house six camera rooms, a photo studio, a waiting area and a larger work space.

DxO Optics Pro v5 features a breakthrough RAW Engine, dust/blemish removal, improved user interface, support for the Canon EOS 40D as well as expanded Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom® compatibility, and an exciting new ‘Snapshot’ feature 

Press Release: Paris, France – DxO Labs has announced the immediate availability of DxO Optics Pro v5 for Windows, the latest version of its award-winning flagship automatic image quality enhancement software application for Digital SLR camera users. DxO Optics Pro v5 can be purchased via download on the company’s e-store (www.dxo.com) as well as from several well known retailers (a full list of resellers is available at http://www.dxo.com/intl/photo/Resellers). DxO Optics Pro v5 for Macintosh is scheduled to be available towards the end the year. All purchasers of DxO Optics Pro v4.5 on or after August 1, 2007 are eligible for a free upgrade to DxO Optics Pro v5.

Source: George Jardine on Lightroom and Digital Photography
Author: George Jardine

Amidst all the attention over the new 1.3 update, we forgot to post a link to another new Lightroom video tutorial by George Jardine. This one offers some more great tips on working with the Library module and some of the less well-know aspects of photo synching behavior in Lightroom.

“A new tutorial that covers the Sync command, and a few ins-and-outs of working with Lightroom’s selection logic.”

Photograph © 2006 George A. Jardine

In this tutorial I outline the basics of Lightroom’s Synchronize command. You’ll learn how to apply Develop settings across multiple photos, in both the Library and the Develop modules. I also cover some of the new selection logic in Lightroom that is required to make working with large numbers of files, well…. logical!”

Duration: 11:56

Read full story and download the video tutorial…

This is an opportunity to take a workshop with Jay in his own environment, a historic landmark bank building in Lower Manhattan.

This is a workshop about seeing and expanding your capability. It is not about performing or getting your ego stroked. It is definitely not about technical things and absolutely not about Photoshop. You will shoot, get critiques, look at Jay’s work and talk about photography all day long.

Source: DVD Talk

DVD Talk recently had a chance to sit down with some of the key talent behind Disney and Pixar’s Ratatouille [review] to see what they’ve cooked up for the film’s release on DVD and Blu-ray on November 6th. The visit kicked off with a set of roundtables with some of Pixar’s digital wizards at their headquarters in Emeryville, California: