Photography Links - April 19, 2024

Here are some links to articles about photography that I found interesting or useful.

Spring trees

“Beyond Physics.” How Google Pushes Phone Photography Past Its Limits. "We visited Google’s top-secret Pixel design studio to talk to Isaac Reynolds, the man in charge of building cameras for Pixel devices." Six months in, I continue to be impressed by the quality of the photos I am getting with my Pixel 8 Pro. 

Fujifilm Launches New Service in Canada to Digitize Old Media. "Fujifilm has launched a service through its Printlife branding called Capture Canada, which offers consumers there the opportunity to digitize prints, film, slides, and videotapes by mailing them in." I may use this at some point. 

Scientists reveal SUV-sized camera that will change our grasp of space. "The United States' SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory is finishing the over 5.5-foot-tall, 6,200-pound (1.65-meter and 2,800-kilogram) LSST Camera, which will snap cosmic images at the much-anticipated Vera C. Rubin Observatory located in the lofty Chilean mountains. The lab posted new images online showing the over 12-foot-long (3.7 m) camera, with its imposing lens, in a clean room."

Long Before Photoshop, the Soviets Mastered the Art of Erasing People from Photographs — and History Too. "Like their counterparts in Hollywood, photographic retouchers in Soviet Russia spent long hours smoothing out the blemishes of imperfect complexions, helping the camera to falsify reality,” writes David King in the introduction to his book The Commissar Vanishes: The Falsification of Photographs and Art in Stalin’s Russia. “Stalin’s pockmarked face, in particular, demanded exceptional skills with the airbrush. But it was during the Great Purges, which raged in the late 1930s, that a new form of falsification emerged. The physical eradication of Stalin’s political opponents at the hands of the secret police was swiftly followed by their obliteration from all forms of pictorial existence."

World Photography Organisation announces professional finalists for Sony World Photography Awards 2024. "This year over 395,000 images from more than 220 countries and territories were submitted to professional categories, a new record for the 17-year-old competition. Organizers have whittled those entries down to three finalists and an assortment of shortlisted images in each of 10 categories: Architecture & Design, Creative, Documentary Projects, Environment, Landscape, Portfolio, Portraiture, Sport, Still Life and Wildlife & Nature."

Top tips on how to take great vertical landscape photos. "Landscapes can be portraits too. Our inspired vertical landscape photographer gives some wonderful insights into how."

How to Fill the Frame for Stunning Photos (A Quick Guide). "Photography is an art form where every detail counts, and one of the most powerful techniques at your disposal is filling the frame – that is, ensuring that your main subject takes up the majority of your photo."