Friday 14th March 2008

Dust, for all Nikon DSLR owners, except the D300 ad the new D60, has become a concern for most. How to detect it, the effect, how to get rid of it on images and out of the camera. This week we are looking at this in some depth with a number of articles:-

  Just what are they discussing ?

Image taken with Nikon D2H, 80-400VR lens at 195mm, ISO 400, 1/250th F7.6

We have also produced an animated explanation of chromakey and lumakey, showing how photographers as well as TV and film companies can get benefits from these techniques.

Have you noticed some daffodils out, there are a vast variety of types of daffodil, in fact so many that they are split into 13 classifications depending on their flowering characteristics. They flowerer at slightly different times, and can be seen in the UK countryside from the end of February until the beginning of May. They are one of the national emblems of Wales and have been made famous worldwide by the poet Wordsworth, where he saw them in Cumbria, which inspired this poem, they can still be found today. Our article gives some background information but also covers where you can photograph them on display in large quantities. Read More.......

Newsletter Review. We have now produced a weekly edition of this newsletter for 3 months, the equivalent in volumes to over a year if it had been a monthly publication. Like many projects it has both grown and is taking up more time than expected. We would like to offer you the chance to have your say on where you think the newsletter should go from here. To find out how you might do this read more .......

Location Guides this week include:

The Daffodil Way,  Gloucestershire, a guide to a walk that allows you to see wild daffodils in their natural habitat. Walk all of its 8 miles or a part.

Wallace Monument - Stirling, Scotland.   A tower with fantastic views over the town of Stirling and the Forth Valley.

BT Tower - London.  Although you can't go up it anymore its still a photographic challenge. This also lists a number of other specialist telecom towers in other parts of the UK.

Harlech Castle - North Wales.  Sitting on top of a 200 foot rock, is a solid castle that allows you to not only see how they worked but also offers photographic opportunities.

In the News This Week  
NEW Bottletop Covers for Lastolite HiLite. Lastolite have launched 4 new background covers for their Hilite background system, for both sizes. The Bottletops are elasticised and slip over the HiLite to produce an instant change of colour. They also come complete the train. The four new colours are Black, Grey, Chromakey Blue and Chromakey Green. They are priced at £54.99 each for the 5ft x 7ft and £64.99 each for the 6ft x 7ft model.

Take a look at our article on Chromakey this week, to find out how you might use one of these.

Lastolite HiLite Bottletop Covers
Marumi Dr14 Ring Flash. Kenro have announced the UK release of a New Marumi Ring Flash the DRF14, which will retail at £128. It's designed for close up, macro, medical, scientific and forensic photography with the flash positioned on the end of the camera lens providing even illumination. It comes with a standard mount of 52mm and step up rings to allow it to be fitted to 55mm, 58mm, 62mm and 67mm lenses. It comes with direct hotshoe synchronisation with flash duration of 1/7000th second and recycle time of 4-6 seconds between shots. It is compatible  with the Nikon DSLR range including the D300 and D3. See here for more details.

Image 'Modified' or 'Manipulated' - which is the dirtier word. The Sunday Times has recently published an apology within its pages after it used a library photograph to illustrate an article on health problems at Maidstone Hospital. It used a picture of a nurse wearing an unhygienic uniform.  They apologised for the fact that they had assumed the person in the picture was a model who had signed a model release, but in fact it was a picture of a senior nurse employed by another NHS trust and who had never worked at Maidstone Hospital. On top of that when she was originally photographed her uniform was clean but to illustrate the article the photograph was 'modified' to make it look unhygienic.  Even if it was a model, should the picture still have been altered to suit the purposes of the user. Just goes to show you can't take things at face value today as digital photography allows the image to be more than it should be.

   

 

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