A S C R A P B O O K O F S O L U T I O N S F O R T H E P H O T O G R A P H E R
Enhancing the enjoyment of taking pictures with news that matters, features that entertain and images that delight. Published frequently.
20 February 2020
In this recurring column, we highlight a few items we've run across that don't merit a full story of their own but are interesting enough to bring to your attention. This time we look at Marietta Varga, crime photography, Peak Design Travel Tripod, types of lighting and JPEG AI.
- Stephanie Wade presents images from Another Rome by Hungarian photographer Marietta Varga. She calls it "a cinematic series of images shot on film that eschew the tourist traps of the city -- depicting the striking, geometric buildings not encumbered by crowds." Those "geometric" buildings are Fascist-era architecture started by Mussolini to be the site for the 1942 world's fair. They were finished in the post-war era to be something of a business park.
- In Capturing a Killer: True Crime and Photography, Alexandria Sivak asks why photographers are drawn to crime scenes. "Photographs of true crime scenes developed along with the history of photography itself and the Getty Museum's exhibition Unseen: 35 Year of Collecting Photographs includes two walls devoted to photographers who were not afraid to capture the dark side of humanity," she writes.
- David Berryrieser has published his Peak Design Travel Tripod Review. He tested prototypes for Peak Design during development of the product. "I am very impressed by the stiffness that Peak Design has managed to achieve in their tripod given the compromises necessary to make such a compact, fully featured tripod," he writes.
- Aloha Lavina catalogs several Types of Lighting and How to Shoot in Them. She focuses on "types of natural lighting conditions that can be used effectively and creatively to make compelling photographs."
- Ivan Mehta reports the JPEG Committee Is Banking on AI to Build Its Next Image Codec. "In a recent meeting held in Sydney, the group released a call for evidence to explore AI-based methods to find a new image compression codec," he writes. "The program, aptly named JPEG AI, was launched last year; with a special group to study neural-network-based image codecs."
More to come! Meanwhile, please support our efforts...