Photography

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Manfredi Gioacchini Used an iPhone to Document Climate Change in Antarctica

Andrew Orr ·

Documentary photographer Manfredi Gioacchini is documenting climate change in Antarctica. His tool? An iPhone.

“Most of the usage was related with video recording, in fact the audio of the new phone is incredible,” says the photographer. “That’s important in matters of the climate change… capturing the sounds of icebergs breaking down…”

He also managed to take advantage of the phone’s Night Mode, though it wasn’t necessary for most of the trip, since the sun never dipped below twilight. Scroll down to see Manfredi’s photos for yourself.

Important work, and also beautiful.

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Smartphones Could Help Death Photography Make a Comeback

Andrew Orr ·

The New York Times has a piece today about death photography, and how it’s returning with the help of our ubiquitous smartphone camera.

“But we are returning to the older ways,” she went on, “a movement backward that some say began in the ’70s, with the back-to-nature movement and midwifery and natural births. The natural death movement is part of that. And these photos are unsurprising, too, because we carry our smartphones all the time, and it’s almost like if there isn’t a photo it didn’t happen. Now everyone is a photographer.”

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Join the Mimeo Photo Contest to Win a Signed Print From Photographer Nigel Barker

Andrew Orr ·

Last year I reviewed Mimeo Photos on macOS, and I was pleased with the photo printing service. The company announced a photo contest judged by Nigel Barker, and winners can receive one of his signed prints and more.

The top 9 finalists will win a 20in x 30in print of their own image and a $25 Mimeo Photos voucher towards prints.

One lucky winner will get to choose from one of the below 20in x 30in signed Nigel Barker prints, a 20in x 30in print of their own image, and a $50 Mimeo Photos voucher.

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Twitter Will Stop Transcoding JPEG Images Which Lowered Quality

Andrew Orr ·

Twitter engineer Nolan O’Brien said that Twitter will preserve JPEGs as they are uploaded. This means that uploaded images will retain their original quality.

It’s a small change that has the potential to make a big difference to the way photographers view and use the platform. Nolan’s thread has inevitably kick-started a conversation about plans for other image formats and user-requested changes, so Twitter could make itself even more photo-friendly soon.

Another interesting note is that Twitter automatically strips EXIF data from photos, which I didn’t know. This is nice because this metadata can contain private information, such as where the photo was shot.

Hurry, Pixelmator Photo on iPadOS is Free Right Now
Cool Stuff Found

Hurry, Pixelmator Photo on iPadOS is Free Right Now

Andrew Orr ·

Normally US$4.99, Pixelmator Photo is free right now. It’s a photo editor that promises a full collection of nondestructive color adjustments, full support for RAW images, and machine learning that can improve your photos like a pro photographer. It’s an exclusive app for iPadOS. Here are some of the other features: Batch edit photos using the entire collection of editing tools available in the app; Enhance automatically takes care of all the subtle improvements that go into every great shot — white balance, exposure, shadow, and highlight detail — so you can focus on adding your own creative finishing touches; Presets for film emulation, vintage looks, and more.

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App Sale: Right Now Affinity Photo is just $9.99

Andrew Orr ·

Adobe recently released Photoshop on the iPad. If you’re not happy with it you might like to look at an alternative called Affinity Photo. Right now it’s 50% off at US$9.99, whereas after a 30-day trial Photoshop is US$9.99/mo.

Photo for iPad offers an incredibly fast, powerful and immersive experience whether you are at home, in the studio, or on the move. With meticulous attention to detail each tool, panel and control has been completely reimagined for touch. All rendering, adjustments, brushes and filters have been fully hardware accelerated using Metal. The result is an all-new way to interact with your images, with performance you will find hard to believe.

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The iPhone 11 Camera is Completely New

Andrew Orr ·

In Part 1 of a multi-part series, Sebastiaan de With wrote an article about the iPhone 11 camera and how it’s completely new.

It’s true: The great advances in camera quality for these new iPhones are mostly to blame on advanced (and improved) software processing.

I’ve taken some time to analyze the iPhone 11’s new image capture pipeline, and it looks like one of the greatest changes in iPhone cameras yet.

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VSCO Hasn’t Released a Film X Preset Since January

Andrew Orr ·

The story I’m linking to is a bit of a behind-the-scenes look at the effort VSCO puts into emulating analog film. The company releases these special presets as part of its VSCO X membership, which costs US$20/year.

Its Film X filters recreate the look of long-gone analog films like Ektar 100, Portra 400, and Kodak Tri-X (a favorite of the late street photographer Garry Winogrand). It’s a long process that involves not just coding, but locating old film stock and reverse engineering the pictures captured on it.

It’s interesting to read, but I’d also like to take this opportunity to say that I’m a VSCO X member and VSCO hasn’t released a Film X preset since January. We were promised one new preset every month. Time to cancel?