Studio@jumpers-inn.de

Had this little argument with my friend Tilo who claimed that using a UV filter on your lens will make the images less sharp and generally be bad. So I made a little comparison shot. Left is with UV filter and right is without. Looks pretty identical to me. So if the UV filter is affecting image quality it is under some other circumstances, which are probably pretty rare. If anyone has some suggestions on how the influence of the filter can be made visible, please comment!

Left: UV filter attached, right: no UV filter attached

Full resolution images can be seen here and here.

UPDATE: Used some Google-Fu to see if there are other people wondering about the same thing. Some interesting results came up. The overall statement seems to be: UV filter is theoretically affecting the image quality, but in 99% of the cases this is not noticeable. In very extreme light conditions the effects can be visible though.

Now for some finer points:

• http://www.cameralabs.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14617 - seems to indicate that aperture plays a role for sharpness with the filter, will have to test that
• http://www.petapixel.com/2011/06/16/experimenting-with-stacks-of-uv-filters/ - using a big stack of filters obviously affects image quality a lot!
• http://www.lenstip.com/113.1-article-UV_filters_test_Introduction.html - very detailed UV filter test, the first I found so far with some illustrative images of the mystic “flares” everyone seems to be getting all the time, supporting the overall statement above

Ever wondered why those product shots look that much better than the pictures you take of your grand-granddad’s heirloom watch? Most probably because of the light. As we all know, lighting is everything in photography. A lightbox is a neat little gadget that helps you light stuff you want to take a picture of. Well, it’s not suited for everything because of spacial restrictions, so people will most likely not fit in there. But everything else does, like watches, food or that amazing shell you found on the shore last vacation. This little article shows how I built myself a cheap lightbox, so maybe you can take inspiration from this. There’s of course countless other build instructions on the web on how to do this, so feel free to fire up Google and get creative!

Here are the first results I got from my lightbox. Not great, but ok I think. I need another flash light…

This is my personal short review of the Blender Institute training DVD  6:  Blenderella, Character Modeling in Blender 2.5.

Summary

What is it all about? Obviously character modeling. More specifically the DVD focuses on polygonal quad-based modeling using the latest Blender version. There are a lot of different ways one can go about character modeling, for example using a sculpting program like ZBrush or Scultpris and then at some point switching to a modeling application. This not the approach presented here, rather the other popular way is characterized, which is starting from reference images inside the modeler and then using polygonal modeling techniques like extruding and subdividing to form the mesh. While this approach is less intuitive it generates really nice geometry which is very suitable for animation later on. The DVD covers the complete workflow from adjusting and setting up the reference images to finishing up the model with intricate detail. Not covered are rigging, animation, texturing and rendering. (continue reading…)

The Inkling is a nice piece of technology as it seems. It is essentially a set of pen and capture device where the capture device tracks the movements of the pen. You simply attach the capture device to a regular sheet of paper (up to A4) and use the pen to draw normally on it. Then later you can download the tracked pen strokes to your computer and get a vector graphic out of your sketch. The trailer video unfortunately doesn’t show any real footage of the device in action, so I don’t know how well this really works. Depending on the final price though, it might be something nice for people that sketch a lot when on the move.

Just thought this app looks pretty interesting. Essentially it’s a remote control for your Canon DSLR for Android devices. It is still in beta and only a very limited selection of devices is supported (meaning only the Galaxy S2 – good I own one – and some Gingerbread tablets). The idea is acutally pretty cool though, I could imagine this to be pretty useful in some situations. Guess I’ll check it out when it’s out of beta