it was in Milan

By Rawabi

it was beginning of this winter in Florence

By Rawabi

i took this picture from outside vatican on last summer

by Rawabi

Give a look at this LINK, please

Here you can find a lot of different photo galleries

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/02/libya_unrest_and_uncertainty.html

Art Studio

Elyse

Composition

Elyse

Federico J

These are my favorite shots of the week. I have made only minor adjustments in Photoshop with the levels, color balance, and contrast. However, I find that the best photos are not made with Photoshop... but with your camera! :)

 

MadtheHatter

Photoshop Editing

Hi everyone,

I decided to practice my Photoshop skills with a picture of my grandfather that I took several years ago. As you can see the above picture is the original, with my finger on the right side. I first cropped as much of the finger out as I could. I then used the clone stamp tool to fill in the blurred finger image with the dark water color on the left side. I hope you enjoy.

                                                                     Trastevere

By: Dareen



REMIND Today the class in Largo dei FIorentini!!!!

The lesson (feb the 24th)  is taking place at Largo dei Fiorentini.

Cross the river and walk towards Corso Vittorio Emanuele. Before the bridge turn right

There is only one building there.

Fort further information ask to the front office.

Orchids

I shot these photos in macro and then I adjusted levels and curves on Photoshop.
Federico Jarach

In Class Portraits

I like these three pictures I took of Madison, Andrea, and Charlotte. I like how they are all looking to the side and aren't necessarily posing. 

Elyse

Photoshop CS5 basic guide and keyboard shorcuts

• http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/photoshop-cs5-allinone-for-dummies-cheat-sheet.html
• http://www.pxleyes.com/blog/2010/06/the-simple-photoshop-cs5-cheat-sheet/ 

Here are just a couple of useful links with the most important things to know about Photoshop and some of the most important keyboard shortcuts that will increase your productivity.

Malik Sidibé

Malick Sidibé (born 1935) is a Malian photographer known for this black/white studied of popular culture of the 1960's in Bamaki. He was born in Soloba, Mali and completed his studies in design and jewelry in the École des Artisans Soudanais in Bamako.

In 1958, he opened his own studio (Studio Malick) in Bamako and specialized in documentary photography, focusing particularly on the youth culture of the Malian capital. In the 1970s, he turned towards the making of studio portraits.

New Baby Boy !

                                                                  When in Rome !


By: Dareen

Ponte Sisto

Shutter Speed: 1/320sec

Aperture value: F4

ISO: 80

Focal length of lens: 4.70mm

Shutter Speed: 1/250sec

Aperture value: F3.4

ISO: 400

I really like the second picture of the Ponte Sisto Bridge in Rome. I added the first picture so you can see the difference between the Manuel settings that I used. The second picture looks more like a painting to me, rather than a picture. Enjoy.

Lee Friedlander

Lee Friedlander was born in 1934 in Aberdeen, Washington. He began photographing in 1948 because of a “fascination with the equipment,” in his words. Working primarily with Leica 35mm cameras and black and white film, Friedlander's style focused on the "social landscape". His art used detached images of urban life, store-front reflections, structures framed by fences, and posters and signs all combining to capture the look of modern life. He later attended the Art Center School in Los Angeles to become a professional photographer, but soon left. He moved to New York in 1956 and began freelancing. As he sought out magazine assignments, he eventually met a group of photographers who would change his life: Robert Frank, Diane Arbus, Garry Winogrand, Louis Faurer, Helen Levitt, Richard Avedon, and Walker Evans. Friedlander has been awarded John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowships and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. His work has been widely exhibited and is included in the collections of the Baltimore Museum of Art; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, Tucson; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Museum of Modern Art, New York; and the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, among other international collections. The Museum of Contemporary Photography exhibited his series At Work and Sticks and Stones in 2005. Additionally, Friedlander is credited with preserving the work of New Orleans photographer E.J. Bellocq. Friedlander now works primarily with medium format cameras (e.g. Hasselblad Superwide). While suffering from arthritis and housebound, he focused on photographing his surroundings.

 By Sireno

James Nachtwey

The famous photographer James Natchtwey graduated from Dartmouth College, where he studied art history and political science. A few years later, in 1980, he moved to New York to be a freelance magazine photographer. His first foreign assignment was to cover the issues in Northern Ireland in 1981 during the IRA hunger strike. After this experience he focused only on documenting wars, social issues, and conflicts. Nachtwey has been a contract photographer with Time magazine since 1984. He has had solo exhibitions in New York, Paris, Rome, and around the world. He has received numerous honors such as the Common Wealth Award, Martin Luther King Award, Dr. Jean Mayer Global Citizenship Award, Henry Luce Award, Robert Capa Gold Medal (five times), the World Press Photo Award (twice), Magazine Photographer of the Year (seven times), the International Center of Photography Infinity Award (three times), the Leica Award (twice), the Bayeaux Award for War Correspondents (twice), the Alfred Eisenstaedt Award, the Canon Photo Essayist Award, and the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Grant in Humanistic Photography.

History of Digital Photography

Early Protoypes and Models

• In 1981, Sony built the first digital camera prototype, called the Mavica. While it was more of a video-type camera that could capture still images, the Mavica used CCD technology to save low-resolution images to two-inch floppy disks. This camera was not available to consumers, and its images were best seen through a television monitor instead of a printer.
• The next player on the digital camera scene was built by Kodak and Nikon, who in 1986 jointly created the first megapixel camera as we know it today. This camera could take high quality 5" x 7" photos - much better than the Mavica's low-quality images.
• The first digital camera to actually sell in the United States was the Kodak DCS-100, available in 1990. This professional grade 1.3 megapixel camera retailed for over $13,000 and was marketed towards photojournalists.
• In 1994, Apple produced the first digital camera that could be hooked to a computer. Available long before USB had been developed for the home market, the Quicktake 100 connected to your PC via the serial port.

Modern Digital Photography

• In 1994, Epson produced the world's first consumer level photo printer, which printed at a whopping 720dpi. This model paved the way for many more household printers by companies such as Hewlett Packard, Canon, and Lexmark; the advent of home photo printers helped digital photography explode in the home market over the next decade.
• Next up were a series of two and three megapixel cameras that not only took amazing photos, but were getting small enough to be easily portable by consumers. First out of the gate in this arena was Nikon, with its Coolpix line in 1999. The Coolpix 700 had a fixed focal length lens, while the advanced 950 model sported a zoom feature.
• The year 2003 marked the beginning of the consumer-based digital SLR era. Before this point, digital SLRs were expensive affairs mostly intended for professional photographers. However, with the advances made in digital photography technology, it was only a matter of time until these cameras made their way into our homes. Canon's release of the Digital Rebel, the first lightweight affordable digital SLR, allowed amateurs and home users to finally take professional-grade images without spending thousands of dollars.

Today, digital cameras sell for as cheap as $10. High end consumer models are equipped with photosensors that capture up to 22 million pixels. That's quite a long way from the $13,000 Kodak available in 1986!

Depth of Field

In optics, particularly as it relates to film and photography, depth of field (DOF) is the distance between the nearest and farthest objects in a scene that appear acceptably sharp in an image. Although a lens can precisely focus at only one distance at a time, the decrease in sharpness is gradual on each side of the focused distance, so that within the DOF, the unsharpness is imperceptible under normal viewing conditions.


In some cases, it may be desirable to have the entire image sharp, and a large DOF is appropriate. In other cases, a small DOF may be more effective, emphasizing the subject while de-emphasizing the foreground and background. In cinematography, a large DOF is often called deep focus, and a small DOF is often called shallow focus.

The DOF is determined by the camera-to-subject distance, the lens focal length, the lens f-number, and the format size or circle of confusion criterion.

For a given format size, at moderate subject distances, DOF is approximately determined by the subject magnification and the lens f-number. For a given f-number, increasing the magnification, either by moving closer to the subject or using a lens of greater focal length, decreases the DOF; decreasing magnification increases DOF. For a given subject magnification, increasing the f-number (decreasing the aperture diameter) increases the DOF; decreasing f-number decreases DOF.

When the “same picture” is taken in two different format sizes from the same distance at the same f-number with lenses that give the same angle of view, and the final images (e.g., in prints, or on a projection screen or electronic display) are the same size, the smaller format has greater DOF.

Many small-format digital SLR camera systems allow using many of the same lenses on both full-frame and “cropped format” cameras. If the subject distance is adjusted to provide the same field of view at the subject, at the same f-number and final-image size, the smaller format has greater DOF, as with the “same picture” comparison above. If pictures are taken from the same distance using the same f-number, and the final images are the same size, the smaller format has less DOF. If pictures taken from the same subject distance are given the same enlargement, both final images will have the same DOF. The final images will, of course, have different sizes.

Cropping an image and enlarging to the same size final image as an uncropped image taken under the same conditions is equivalent to using a smaller format under the same conditions, so the cropped image has less DOF.

When focus is set to the hyperfocal distance, the DOF extends from half the hyperfocal distance to infinity, and the DOF is the largest possible for a given f-number.

The advent of digital technology in photography has provided additional means of controlling the extent of image sharpness; some methods allow extended DOF that would be impossible with traditional techniques, and some allow the DOF to be determined after the image is made.

St. Vitus Cathedral

Here is the inside of the St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague. The first picture is taken with the white balance on auto and the second with the white balance on "shade." I thought the difference between the two photos was interesting, and I asked multiple friends and they all like the second one better. I'm on the fence.

Elyse

Pics in Paris

I spend the weekend in Paris and these were a few of my favorite shots...

Photos by MadtheHatter

joan fontcuberta's 'Sputnik - The Odyssey of the Soyuz II'

Joan Fontcuberta’s best-known works examine the truthfulness of photography.

He states that the propaganda and dictatorship of Spain under Franco in his first 20 years led him to be sceptical about authority, which is reflected in his work. His background in communications and advertising led him to contemplate the relationship between photography and truth, and Fontcuberta believes that humour is an important component of his work.

Sputnik - The Story

According to Joan Fontcuberta, this extensively researched book details the life of Ivan Istochnikov, a Russian cosmonaut who disappeared during the flight of Soyuz 2 in 1968 and was then removed from history by the Soviet bureaucracy. Photographs of Istochnikov were retouched to remove his likeness, his family was moved to Siberia, and his friends and colleagues were threatened.

On October 25, 1968 the Soyuz 2 was launched from the Baikonur aeronautics center with the cosmonaut-pilot Colonel Ivan Istochnikov on board. The spacecraft was to be the target of a space manoeuvre carried out by the Soyuz 3 which, piloted by the Lieutenant Colonel Giorgi Beregovoi, was going to attempt an orbital docking of the two capsules.Political pressure prevailed over technical considerations and the space race had already claimed some victims. For example, the flight of the Soyuz 1. Starting off badly, it eventually ended in tragedy when the cosmonaut Komarov crashed on his return due to a malfunction of the parachute. For the next mission, precautions were carried out to the extreme and all signs pointed to a satisfactory result. But it was not to be.

After a failed attempt at space docking, the Soyuz 2 and the Soyuz 3 drifted apart and lost contact with each other. When they found each other the next day, Istochnikov had disappeared and his module showed signs of having been hit by a meteorite. In truth, what had really happened was never known for certain and the enigma inspired a series of conjectures. However, the Soviet authorities were determined not to admit to an another failure. They came up with a solution appropriate to their style by declaring that the Soyuz 2 had been an unmanned flight. Officially, Ivan Istochnikov had never existed and to prevent anyone from contradicting this version, they confined his family, blackmailed his colleagues, manipulated files and retouched photographs. Reality had surpassed the most fantastic science fiction plot. However when fear ended, so did the pact of silence. With Perestroika, the secret documents were declassified and investigators could reconstruct the course of events. With the information currently available, the Sputnik Foundation asked the academic Piotr Muraveinik to curate a touring exhibition which would tell the story of this thrilling and tragic episode in the history of cosmonautics.

Sputnik - The Reality 
The story of the Soyuz II is an elaborate hoax, entirely fabricated by Joan Foncuberta. The photographs accompanying this book show the original photographs of Ivan Istochnikov with family and colleagues, and then the apparently retouched versions where Istochnikov has been removed. In fact, the photographs without Istochnikov are the original photographs, in the retouched images Fontcuberta has actually added his own image, as the heroic cosmanaut Istochnikov, to the photograph. Several lines of evidence available since the first exhibition of Sputnik in 1997 in Madrid suggested that the story and artifacts form an elaborate hoax:
· The name ‘Ivan Istochnikov’ is a Russian translation of Joan Fontcuberta's name; in specific, ‘Joan’ and ‘Ivan’ both translate to ‘John’ and Fontcuberta and Istochnikov both mean ‘hidden fountain’.
· The photographs of Istochnikov show Fontcuberta's face.
· The official website for the Sputnik exhibition in Madrid in 1997 relates the story of Ivan Istochnikov and the Soyuz II but has the words ‘PURE FICTION’ in light red on a dark red background at the bottom of the webpage. 

Malik Sidibé _ African Photographer

http://www.repubblica.it/persone/2011/02/07/foto/malick_sidib-12153547/1/

Give a look to this gallery

CAMERAS-CMOS-CCD-LENS-STRUCTURE

2, image sensor, sound sensor

IP Camera image sensor has two modes, CMOS and CCD.CMOS is complementary metal oxide semiconductor, CMOS silicon and germanium are mainly used by these two elements made of semiconductor, through the CMOS on the negatively charged and positively charged transistors to the basic functions. These two complementary effects of the current generated by processing chips can be recorded and interpreted as images. The main advantages of CMOS than the CCD is saving the power. Unlike CCD, CMOS.But CMOS main weak point is when dealing with rapidly changing images, as the current transformation is too frequent, so make the CMOS becoming overheating. Dark current suppression is a real problem, if the inhibition is not good, it is very vulnerable to produce noise.

CCD image sensor from the silicon substrate was in the two-dimensional arrangement of the photodiode and the transmission circuit. Photodiode the light into electric charges, then transmitted by the conversion circuit and output.
Typically, transmission equipment,if need excellent image quality, CCD image sensors are used, while the focus on power consumption and cost of products, select the CMOS image sensor. But new technology is to overcome the inherent weaknesses of each type of device body, while retaining for some of the features a particular purpose. This part of the same with analog cameras. Sound sensors that pick up sound, or call the microphone, the same principles of traditional microphone.

CMOS Sensor vs CCD Sensor – Which one is better for Digital Cameras

Todays Digital cameras are extremely common and prices have gone down because of the introduction of CMOS sensors, which are cheaper to produce then CCD Sensors.

CCD stand for (charge-coupled device) and CMOS stand for (complimentary metal-oxide semiconductor) both work in the same way and convert light into electrons. Once the Sensor accumulates enough charge, it is transported and read an converted from analog to digital from pixel to digital value which we see on our LCD screens and outputed to print.

• CCD are said to creat higher quality and cleaner files than CMOS
• CMOS is power efficient compared to CCD Sensors.
• CMOS are cheaper to produce thats why most cameras use CMOS
• CCD technology is older and been optimized for better quality.
• CMOS is gaining ground with the CCD technology and soon will outdo CCD
• CCD has advantage in Dynamic Range and Noise over the CMOS
• CMOS has the advantage over CCDs because all camera functions can be placed on the image sensor.
• CMOS has natural blooming immunity (Antiblooming, the ability to gracefully drain localized overexposure
  without compromising the rest of the image in the sensor) CCD requires engineering antiblooming also known as simple as over exposure
• Both image chip types are equally reliable in most consumer and industrial applications.
• Both types of sensor accomplish the same task of capturing light and converting it into electrical signals.
• CMOS image sensors are designed for a large, consumer or near-consumer application.
• CCD image sensors, on the other hand, are more general purpose.

Andrea Ruggeri

Tomorrow february 9th

the italian photographer Andrea Ruggeri is going to talk about his photograpy work from 2:15 to 3:15 pm
In class_Via del Mattonato

http://www.fredparker.com/ultexp1.htm

Conte Primoli

Primoli has been described as ‘photography's missing link’, bridging the gap between Nadar and Henri Cartier‐Bresson. A photographer of considerable range, he recorded picturesque Roman street scenes, political events, and the leisure activities of Europe's glitterati, earning a posthumous reputation as a progenitor of action photography and the photo‐essay. Yet his specific interest in instantaneous photography marks him as a particular kind of amateur photographer. Serious amateurs, technically astute practitioners who flourished during the 1890s, were often men of fortune and leisure. Primoli's pursuit of the instantané, precursor to the snapshot, is typical of the interests of this little‐studied group.

Read more: Count Giuseppe Primoli Biography - (1851–1927), homme de lettres, glitterati, instantané, Un fotografo fin de siècle: il conte Primoli 

http://arts.jrank.org/pages/11276/Count-Giuseppe-Primoli.html#ixzz1CtpAhUBi

Boccia