Dynamite Walls [Flickr]

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Christmas break [Flickr]

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UV filters can summon ghosts

I recently got my hands on Canon's new 5D Mark II, and it's a beauty. However, when testing low light video recording with a Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II lens, I noticed something interesting:


Note the "ghosted" image of the Christmas tree's lights as the camera pans right. This is caused by using a UV filter on the lens that isn't coated to reduce reflectivity.

Light is reflecting, presumably from the mirror/sensor, back at the inside of the UV filter. That light then bounces back at the sensor, creating the ghosted image.

Here's the same shot, but without the UV filter.


The ghosts are gone!

I suppose that this could happen with any lens, but that it's aggravated in this case by the fact that the outer lens surface on the 50mm is recessed, making it further away from the filter.


So what to do? The 1.8 is pretty fragile, and I don't like the idea of using it without some protection, be it from fingerprints, scratches or worse yet, a good crack.

B. Weiner on Photo.net agrees, and recommends a good multi-coated UV filter. According to Mr. Weiner, "[m]ulticoating cuts down the reflection by a factor of greater than 10 relative to an uncoated filter."

So there you go. If you want to avoid ghosting when using a lens with a recessed outer lens element, you should spring an extra few dollars for a multi-coated UV filter.

As a side note, one point that I find interesting is that this normally would have taken me a very long time to notice, let alone correct. The reason that the ghosts are so apparent is because the camera shutter stays open while recording video. It is far less noticeable when taking still pictures, as the shutter doesn't need to stay open nearly as long, minimizing the effect of the reflections on the shot.

All that is left behind [Flickr]

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Like a bat outta hell [Flickr]

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Blue door [Flickr]

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Smokey sunset patrol [Flickr]

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Pontiac Catalina [Flickr]

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Eldorado [Flickr]

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2007 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Phtography

Renée C. Byer has won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography for her heartbreaking photo essay that ran in the Sacramento Bee. It follows the story of Cyndie and Derek Madsen as they cope with Derek's struggle with cancer, and ultimately his death. The series is incredibly moving, and does a fantastic job of telling their story.

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Row 2, seat 6 [Flickr]

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Sweet machine [Zooomr]

Sweet machine Hosted on Zooomr

A photo from Zooomr while we wait for Mark III.

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Jamaican sunset [Flickr]

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Sierra clouds [Zooomr]

Sierra clouds Hosted on Zooomr

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Stock photo agencies, meet your new content providers

Dan Heller has some interesting things to say about the future of the stock photo business. He writes that the Internet has provided a venue that places increased importance and value on user generated content, and this environment will spur forward-looking stock photo agencies to move into the consumer arena to take advantage of it.

In 2000, I wrote an article called, "The Five Truisms of the Photography Business", and Truism #1 is "There are more people who have photography as a hobby than as a profession." While an obvious statement on its own, it has enormous weight when you consider how the Internet has brought down the barriers that have kept consumers out of the photo business in the first place. Now that they're here, they have fundamentally altered the photo industry, whether intentional or not, and whether other photographers like it or not.

Heller points out the blurring of the line between stock photo sites such as Corbis and Getty and social photo sharing sites like Flickr and Zooomr. His timing is uncanny, as evidenced by the latest mini-brouhaha surrounding pro-consumer blog The Consumerist's use of Flickr photos in its posts without attribution or permission. The Consumerist's situation is not unique, as websites, companies (1, 2) and even Flickr's own users have confused Flickr's vast database of images as a grab bag for free stock photography. He also points to situations where photo sharing sites have jump started photography careers, such as Microsoft's acquisition of photos from Flickr user Hamad Darwish to be used in their new Vista operating system.

Heller submits that this movement represents the natural progression for the industry, provided they can overcome three barriers: "fear of change, narrow business sense, and tunnel vision in products and services." I would tend to agree. What do you think? Give the article a read and decide for yourself.

Link (via Thomas Hawk)

Mooninites Unite! [Flickr]

This seemed appropriate, considering the brouhaha in Boston. Here's a photo of Ignignokt & Err all carved up for All Hallow's Eve 2005. Albeit brief, the time they spent on our porch was glorious. They brought joyful smiles to many a young child's face. Fortunately, they weren't mistaken for something far more sinister, despite being advanced beyond all that you can possibly comprehend with 100% of your brain.

Frightening, aren't they?

Before I go, I'll leave you with one of my favorite quotes to come out of all of this. From Boing Boing:

On MSNBC about 45 minutes ago they had some woman in a power suit pontificating about it all saying that there is no way you can "over react to a situation like this" and that "when you [sic] idea of a prank is someone elses [sic] idea of terrorism you have a problem." No, the problem is when a goofy cartoon character made out of a home made Light-Bright giving you the finger if your idea of terrorism you are the one who needs a Bahamavention.

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Will pose for apples [Flickr]

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Deluxe wheel [Flickr]

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Suspended in a sunbeam

We succeeded in taking that picture [from deep space], and, if you look at it, you see a dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam.

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Merrick [Zooomr]

Merrick Hosted on Zooomr