On the Nature of Things | Forum

The overall World Press Photo 2011 prize winner was revealed today to be Spanish photographer Samuel Aranda. He takes the gong for his shot of a Yemeni woman cradling an injured relative in her arms during violent clashes between anti-government demonstrators in Sanaa.

The photojournalist, who is represented by Corbis, snapped the picture during an assignment for The New York Times. Aranda will officially receive the 55th annual award at a ceremony in Amsterdam in April and will also gain a €10,000 cash prize and Canon EOS Digital SLR Camera.

Aranda’s work was singled out from among 101,254 submissions to the contest from 5,247 photographers from 124 countries around the world. Between 28 January and yesterday, 19 internationally recognised professionals were sifting through the entries to find the overall 2011 winner and winners across a variety of categories, such as general news, sport, people and portrait.

Last year the overall prize was won by South African photographer Jodi Bieber.

Typhoon wrote:Taking 3D photographs around corners:

Nature Comm| Recovering three-dimensional shape around a corner using ultrafast time-of-flight imaging

the most notable difference from the standard model is a modified infrared cut filter that has greater transmittance of H-alpha (Hα; 656.28 nanometer wavelength) light than that of the EOS 60D. According to Canon, this should allow H-alpha light sensitivity approximately three times higher than that of the EOS 60D.

noddy wrote:http://www.lensrentals.com/blog/2012/03/hammerforum-com

for anyone that has been on photography forums but also translates well to many other walks of life

Leonardo da Vinci sketched out tanks, helicopters, and mechanical calculators centuries before the first examples were built. Now another of his flights of imagination has finally been realized—an imaging device capable of capturing every optical aspect of the scene before it.


Lytro, a Silicon Valley start‑up, has just launched the world’s first consumer light-field camera, which shoots pictures that can be focused long after they’re captured, either on the camera itself or online. Lytro promises no more blurry subjects, and no shutter lag waiting for the camera’s lens to focus. A software update to the camera, coming soon, will even let you produce 3-D images.


Light-field technology heralds one of the biggest changes to imaging since 1826, when Joseph-Nicéphore Niépce made the first permanent photograph of a scene from nature. A single light-field snapshot can provide photos where focus, exposure, and even depth of field are adjustable after the picture is taken. And that’s just for starters. The next generation of light-field optical wizardry promises ultra-accurate facial-recognition systems, personalized 3-D televisions, and cameras that provide views of the world that are indistinguishable from what you’d see out a window.


But light-field cameras also demand serious computing power, challenge existing assumptions about resolution and image quality, and are forcing manufacturers to rethink standards and usability. Perhaps most important, these cameras require a fundamental shift in the way people think about the creative act of taking a photo.
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