20 Amazing Digital Art

Artistic work is limitless. In the current age of technology, it is no wonder that digital art has become popular.

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11 Coolest Mirror Designs

1. Police Mug Shot Mirror.

Rikkis, a door-to-door taxi company, used clever posters to promote their services. When viewed in the reflection of the mirror, they gave the consumer the impression that they were posing for a mug shot.

2. "Who tall are you" Mirror

Are you mini like Kylie? Or a mountain like Hulk Hogan? Measuring your height with numbers is SO last decade - we all gauge our heights by celebrity now, darling. This tongue-in-cheek mirror lists 120 celebrities by height. Watch your friends loiter in front of it, trying to be more of a James Dean than a Ben Stiller...

3. London Underground Mirror

This mirror provides a wonderful focal point in any room and helps you plan your journey effectively whilst you make sure you look ready for the day ahead! The Tube Map Mirror is made from high quality 6mm glass mirror which has been produced via Suck UK's own special process. The map itself is displayed in gold and is concealed behind the glass (not printed on the front).

4. Razorblade Mirror

If we didn't know better we'd have said that this was the mirror that inspired Mr Gallagher's 'Morning Glory' lyrics - "all your dreams are made when you're chained to the mirror and the razor blade". The Razor Blade Mirror is the most cutting edge (sorry) mirror we've seen in eons. Put it in pride of place in your sitting room for a hint of Sweeney Todd macabre or what better design for your bathroom's shaving mirror. This mirror is just the thing to have you looking razor sharp all day.

5. Skateboard Mirror

The Skateboard Mirror give you a Hiphop style bathroom. For those who like the quirky side of life, try our skate board mirror... to be admired but definitely not to be ridden!

6. LED Mirror

Scrolling LED message board and clock mounted behind a glass mirror. Shows time and date, programme and save personalised messages of up to 4000 characters.

7. Touch Screen Mirror for playing iPod

New concept for your bath mirror! Maitre mirror from Stocco of Italy comes with a touch screen console that includes a built in radio, clock and barometer, a mirror demister with a sensor. What we like best is its ability to control and playback audio.

8. Silk Printed Mirror

The Silk printed mirror designed by the Juanco - lorbus. A good idea you just face the mirror rule, you can know your height. You don't need line the wall, then measure it.

9. Wiper Mirror

Fitted with a car windscreen wiper you can vamoose that pesky condensation with one fail swoop. No more ugly wet hand marks or toilet paper fluff left on your looking glass and also doesn't it just look pretty slick? Quirky and practical, you'll always be able to see your lovely mug in this mirror.

10. Interactive Mirror

Designed/constructed by Alpay Kasal. This is a patent pending touch capable mirror. The interactive mirror features proximity sensors, gesturing, and both nearfield and farfield infrared. They're meant to be the bathroom of the future, complete with news and weather to accompany your toothpaste in the morning. However, interacting with buttons and animation layered on your reflection and the world behind you is unlike any other touchscreen experience.

11. The Mirror Man

The Mirror Man is the mysterious man of Los Angeles, ambling outside the Griffith Observatory on a pleasantly sunny day in October of 2009.

Snow Leopard for Photographers

UPDATE: It's Saturday afternoon and I've just completed my upgrade to Snow Leopard. It took only 45 minutes on my 13 MBP and the upgrade went perfectly. This saved me about 8 GB of hard drive space and both startup and shutdown times are significantly faster. Lightroom 2 and Photoshop CS4 also startup faster but other than that I haven't noticed much difference. All in all, a very nice $29 upgrade!

It's Thursday afternoon and the release of Apple's latest operating system, Mac OS X Snow Leopard, is just hours away. For photographers running Lightroom or Photoshop on a Mac or MacBook, this is an important upgrade for purely performance reasons.

Macworld has done a great job of compiling all their Snow Leopard articles so you can get up to speed quickly and easily. I don't know about you but for $29 (USD) I'll be upgrading sometime this weekend!

Posted in Photography Tagged: Apple, Mac OS X, Snow Leopard

Canon’s New EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM Lens

Last month Canon quietly announced a new technology they called Hybrid Image Stabilizer, an optical image stabilization technology that compensates for both angle camera shake and shift camera shake. Yesterday morning they announced the first new lens which uses this technology, the EF 100mm f/2.8L Macros IS USM.

This is Canon's first image stabilized macro lens and they state that it features a 4-stop correction during normal shooting. According to their press release the lens includes low friction ceramic balls which support the moving elements when compensating for camera shake during macro shooting.

The Hybrid IS technology is supposed to correct shift movement and angular movement during macros shooting with 2 stops of image stabilization at 1.0x magnification. If these claims are true this will be a significant advantage for macro shooters and they may not need to lug around a tripod all day long.

The new lens also features ultra low dispersion (UD) elements that should correct chromatic aberration for high resolution, high contrast images and a nine blade circular aperture for really nice bokeh. The lens also includes a three position focus limiter to tailor the focus system range to the desired subject and dust and water resistant seals.

Given the fact that this new lens runs about $1050 (USD) and is over $400 (USD) more than the existing EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro USM costs, I would have at least expected Canon to throw in their customary lens pouch and hood, both of which must be purchased separately.

My friends at Adorama have this lens available for preorder today if you're interested. I'll probably wait a few months and rent this lens to see if it lives up to the hype surrounding it's launch. It's the only L Series prime under 200mm to offer image stabilization and might make a very nice portrait lens with a fairly fast aperture (f/2.8) and good bokeh.

Posted in Photography Tagged: Canon, Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM

Comparing the Canon 5D Mark II, 7D and 50D

Unless you've been living off world for the past few days, you know that Canon has introduced a new DSLR camera, the EOS 7D. In the coming days there will be reviews galore posted on the various industry watching blogs with in depth discussions of this new model's features and benefits. Folks that recently purchased the 50D or 5D Mark II may start to feel "buyers remorse" and "upgraders envy" over the perceived differences between their camera and the new 7D. The amount of forum traffic on DPReview.com will jump as folks begin to post their rants and raves about this new camera.

To help cut through some of the rhetoric I thought I'd post a quick and dirty comparison of the 5D Mark II, the 7D and the 50D cameras based upon the information currently available. Basically, the same comparison I recently posted on the new G11 and G10 cameras. Let me state for the record that this comparison is from a still photographer's perspective only. The video capabilities of these cameras are cool but not where my interests lay.

List Price:
5D2 - $2700 (USD)
7D - $1700 (USD)
50D - $1200 (USD)

Sensor:
5D2 - FF (5616 x 3744) (21 MP)
7D - APS-C (5184 x 3456) (18 MP)
50D - APS-C (4752 x 3168) (15 MP)

Processor:
5D2 - DIGIC 4
7d - Dual DIGIC 4
50D - DIGIC 4

ISO:
5D2 - 50, 100 - 6400, 12800, 25600
7D - Auto, 100 - 6400, 12800(H)
50D - Auto, 100 - 1600, 3200(H), 6400(H), 12800(H)

Metering:
5D2 - 35 Area Eval, Center Weighted, Partial, Spot
7D - 63 Area Eval, Center Weighted, Partial, Spot
50D - 35 Area Eval, Center Weighted, Partial, Spot

Auto Focus:
5D2 - 9 Point / 6 Assist
7D - 19 Point (new technology)
50D - 9 Point

Exposure Compensation:
5D2 - -2 to +2 EV in 1/3 EV or 1/2 EV steps
7D - -5 to +5 EV in 1/3 EV or 1/2 EV steps (really???)
50D - -2 to +2 EV in 1/3 EV or 1/2 EV steps

Continuous Shooting:
5D2 - 3.9 fps
7D - 8 fps
50D - 6.3 fps

Raw Formats:
5D2 - RAW, sRAW1, sRAW2
7D - RAW, sRAW, mRAW
50D - RAW, sRAW1, sRAW2

Viewfinder:
5D2 - Pentaprism, 98% Coverage, 0.71x Mag
7D - Pentaprism, 100% Coverage, 1.00x Mag
50D - Pentaprism, 95% Coverage, 0.95x Mag

Battery:
5D2 - LP-E6 ($66 USD)
7D - LP-E6 ($66 USD)
50D - BP-511A ($46 USD)

Weight:
5D2 - 850g
7D - 860g
50D - 822g

Conclusions:
The flame wars have already started on the new EOS 7D as they do anytime Canon releases a new DSLR camera. The comparison between the 50D and the 7D is very easy to judge in most respects with the 7D offering some very compelling new features such as the increased resolution, the dual DIGIC 4 processors, the very high 8 fps continuous frame rate, the 100% viewfinder, the new metering system and the brand new auto focus system. If the high ISO performance of this new 18 MP sensor is at least as good as the 50D's, then the new 7D is a sure fire winner for anyone looking for 1.6x crop body.

The comparison to the 5D Mark II is much more difficult, which is generally the case when comparing a full frame sensor to an ASP-C sensor. The single biggest difference between these two cameras is the huge difference in the size of the sensors and should not be underestimated. Having said that, the new 7D does have a much more modern auto focus and metering system, both of which would be very welcome on a future full frame model.

Final Thoughts:
In the words of David duChemin, "Gear is Good, Vision is Better". It's not the camera that makes the photograph, it's the person behind the camera. Don't get all caught up in the hype over a new camera. A new camera will NOT make you a better photographer. Only YOU can do that. And it's not done by reading the rants and raves on every new piece of gear that comes out each week. So shut down that MacBook, grab your camera and get out there and make some magic happen!

Posted in Photography Tagged: Canon, Canon 50D, Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 7D

Composition, Balance and Visual Mass

In previous articles I wrote about the concept of balance in relation to the colours orange and blue, and in relation to composition in the square format. Today I think it will be interesting to explore the concept of balance in relation to photographic composition in more depth.

Central composition

This is a portrait that I created with a central composition. There are a couple of interesting things going on here. One is that the composition is virtually symmetrical. One half of the image is a mirror image of the other, with a few variations. In this case, that reinforces the sense of balance created by the central composition.

What happens if we crop the image to move the girl's face off-centre, closer to a third? Let's take a look. Here I've cropped it to the 4:3 aspect ratio:

Do you see the difference? In this example the eye is encouraged to move around the frame more by the off-centre composition. Placing the girl's face off-centre has created a more dynamic composition.

The first version is about balance, the second is about being off balance and adding a kind of tension to the image. The subject is the same, but one simple variation in composition creates two different effects.

Tonal contrast

The portrait is also an interesting study in tonal contrast. The light tones of the face and scarf contrast with each other. Roughly one-third of the image is made up of light tones, and the rest dark tones. What we're looking at here is an example of what some photographers refer to as visual mass. Light tones pull the eye more than dark tones. Therefore, to create a balanced image, there needs to be more dark tones than light tones. If the ratio was around equal, the image wouldn't feel so balanced.

This is what happens if we crop the portrait to a square. The ratio of light to dark tones is about even. But the sense of balance between dark and light tones in the original has been lost:

Here's another example of balancing the visual mass between light and dark tones:

Now, here's another example to illustrate the same concept:

The photo is split into three bands. The strips of dark tones at the top and the bottom are balanced by the band of light tone in the middle.

There are other ways this image is balanced too. The mountains occupy the bottom part of the frame, and are balanced by a large expanse of stormy sky. The mountains have more visual mass than the sky, therefore the photo benefits from having more sky in it.

The telegraph pole in the bottom right third is the focal point of the image. It has a lot of visual mass, assisted by its placement on the thirds. The visual mass of the telegraph pole is so strong that even at this small size it is balanced by the rest of the image.

Finally, an image with a composition that at first glance seems to be at odds with what I said earlier about tonal balance:

In this image, the light tones of the salt flats are balanced by the brooding dark tones of the mountains and sky in the distance.

The thing about visual mass and balance is that they are difficult concepts to condense down into rules like the rule-of-thirds. Every scene is different and the best composition may depend as much upon your intent (ie. would you like a balanced image, or a less balanced one with more dynamic tension?) as it does upon the subject.

One of the best ways to improve the composition of your images is to read as much about these concepts as you can, absorb them, and then compose according to 'feel'. Does the image feel right when you look through the viewfinder? As your understanding of composition improves, so will your photos.

Mastering Photography

My latest ebook, Mastering Photography: A Beginner's Guide to Using Digital Cameras introduces you to digital photography and helps you make the most out of your digital cameras. It covers concepts such as lighting and composition as well as the camera settings you need to master to take photos like the ones in this article.

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

Composition, Balance and Visual Mass

A Set of Imaginative Images to Spark Your Creativity

This week's theme seems to be all about sparking up the fires of creativity. A few articles this week have touched on this theme including:

• Creative Reasons to use Intentional Camera Movement
• Don't Know What to Shoot? These 4 Photography Exercises Will Keep You Motivated
• 5 Ways To Break Out of a Creative Photography Rut
• How to do Surreal Digital Infrared Photography Without Expensive Gear or Camera Conversions - a little bit out of the box, try something new IR photography. Watch for the follow up on processing IR images tomorrow!

So I dug around 500px and Flickr for some super creative and inspiring images to spur you into action. Enjoy!

A Splash of Rose by Anthony Chang on 500px

The Parting ii by Luke Sharratt on 500px

Frankenstein by Escalonilla PixeL a PixeL PasO a PasO on 500px

Coffee Portrait by Jatuporn Khuansuwan on 500px

Swing Me by Steven Butler on 500px

Tie by Anil Akkus on 500px

Evoluci n Noct mbula by Juan Gonz lez on 500px

Pencil Vs Camera - 73 by Ben Heine on 500px

Customized Exhibition Uniform by Ben Heine on 500px

Light driver by Peter Majkut on 500px

OK, I'm not seeing you!! by Christopher Riestajuana on 500px

Willunga Shining by Bipphy Kath on 500px

Daisy by Kunal Prasad on 500px

What's my motivation? by Max Ellis on 500px

Flurry II. by Christopher Chung on 500px

You make my head spin.... by Sander Van den Berg on 500px

The Spin by Bipphy Kath on 500px

NOTICE from the editor

Please practice full precautions and safety measures if you plan on attempting fire spinning. I have done it and can tell you the steel wool molten, burning bits fly a long way! Read up on this technique before you go to it or risk setting something on fire or burning yourself. This is real molten (melted) steel, do not mess around it is dangerous.

transient happiness by Beauty on 500px

Feelin Blue by Alistair Campbell on 500px

Violet Vision by Devin Manky on 500px

Wishmaster by Renee Robyn on 500px

Call of Duty by Renee Robyn on 500px

Beginning of the End by Renee Robyn on 500px

Editor's note: Renee is a personal friend of mine, in fact she took my own headshot! Her work is amazing. Most of them are composites of several images, and hours spent in Photoshop. The one above "Wishmaster" is a self-portrait. I couldn't do a collection on creative images without including some of her work. I don't have it in me to create this kind of photography, but it sure is fun to admire.

First time under by Neil Kremer on 500px

Fly by Tina Terras & Michael Walter on 500px

Deliverance by Benjamin Von Wong on 500px

afterglow by Beauty on 500px

Homage to Escher. by Alexei Sovertkov on 500px

Ground Perspective II by Vadim Za on 500px

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