Focusing with water and sound waves

Using liquid as lenses to be employed in imaging equipment is not a new idea. Such concepts were conceived several years ago, although it has yet to be made commercial. This hasn't stopped researchers from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute from taking this notion a step further by incorporating sound waves to manipulate water droplets to obtain a clear image.

The researchers explained that high-frequency sonic sounds are directed at the water droplets which then oscillate and change shape. This creates both focused and out-of-focused pictures which are directed to a device that can record at 250 frames per second. This gadget then analyzes the pictures and discards those which are blur, while sharp shots are presented smoothly as a video.
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Photoshop plug-in puts artists on notice

Whether it's rescuing a photo mucked up by a camera's image processing or boosting interest in an otherwise stale photo, Alien Skin's Snap Art 2 plug-in for Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Elements aims to let users quickly turn mouse clicks into brush strokes.

The software announced and made available Monday gives users 10 natural media, hundreds of styles (oil paint, watercolor, pencil , pastels, etc.), and several canvas textures. The example above was done using the Impasto selection, giving it the look of thick paint, which would be great for hiding photo flaws. There are more than 700 presets that can be tweaked, and this version allows for greater control over detail retention than the last did.
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Photographer's mathematics

A shutterbug friend once told me that photographers cannot do math to save their lives. The only algorithms they can churn out are shutter speed ratio and aperture ratios, or the required resolution for different print sizes. However, blog site Photographer's Math may just prove my friend wrong.

What is the equation for a nature photographer? The writer of this blog thinks it's a hunter minus the guns, but adding lenses to it. A monopod is conveniently seen as a tripod divided by three.

This blog provides much laughter (if you are a photographer), but some posts actually do make sense. To salvage an important shot, convert the image to black-and-white and add some vignette effects to make it look artistic. How many of us have tried that? I confess I have.

Via 1001noisycameras

Photo + Monopoly = Photo-opoly

What is the best gift for a photographer who likes to play Monopoly? Photojojo has an interesting twist of the original real estate game where instead of the names of places, you replace them with your favorite snaps instead.

Bundled the US$30 package are the game board, player pieces, property deeds and pieces, a photo-cutting guide, stick of glue, and even a marker pen to doodle on the board. The rules of Photo-opoly are similar to Monopoly's, although Photojojo encourages you to come up with your own to make the game more fun.

So, how much is the picture of Uncle Fred scratching his bum worth? You decide.

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