Photography

BARCELONA, Spain--H.264 is today's leader when it comes to mainstream video encoding technologies, but it will have to share the stage in 2013 with a successor called H.265 that can squeeze a video into nearly half the file size.

H.264, also known as the Advanced Video Codec (AVC), defines how a video can be compressed for reduced storage requirements and--very importantly given the online video explosion--for streaming across networks. H.265, also called High Efficiency Video Codec (HEVC), uses new techniques to compress video even more.

Qualcomm, a San Diego-based chipmaker that's on the international standards group developing H.265, … Read more

In the current Photoshop CS5, Adobe introduced a technology called content-aware fill that could automatically fill in a hole left when a portion of the image was excised. In the upcoming CS6, the company will take that idea much farther.

In the company's fourth Photoshop CS6 preview, Photoshop Senior Product Manager Bryan O'Neil Hughes showed two new ways to use the tool.

The existing tool fills in holes by making its best guess where to find filler material elsewhere in the image. O'Neil Hughes said that with the new version, photographers will be able to pick the … Read more

Apple updated its Final Cut Pro X software two weeks ago support footage from multiple videocameras, and now Singular Software has followed suit with its PluralEyes plug-in that's designed for just that scenario.

PluralEyes lets video editors synchronize multiple video and audio tracks by analyzing each track's sound, and it's become widely used as a way to ease the tedious, important, but sometimes difficult chore.

"The latest update of Final Cut Pro X added new multi-camera editing features, and these are now fully supported by PluralEyes," said Singular Chief Executive Bruce Sharpe in a statement … Read more

Photoshop CS6 will get a feature designers have long sought, "the ability to easily add a dashed and/or dotted line," according to Photoshop product manager Zorana Gee.

Gee revealed the feature in a short preview of coming Photoshop CS6 attractions posted to YouTube Friday. Two earlier previews revealed new graphics-chip boost for the liquify filter, a darker user interface, a background save option, and new raw-image processing controls.

The feature for dashed and dotted lines lets people change the line style with a single click, Adobe said. In addition, gradient fills and other color effects can be … Read more

By now, the idea of applying filters to give photos a retro look is well established. But for the more serious out there who want to go beyond the obvious smartphone apps, Alien Skin Software plans to release Exposure 4 tomorrow.

The Exposure software brings a certain precision to its task, carefully emulating the look of actual film--early Kodachrome, say, or Kokak Tri-X 400 pushed a stop--for those who remember. It's not a coincidence that the software has the tagline "Taking the digital out of digital photography."

Version 4 of the $249 software brings new abilities in reproducing defects such as light leaks or dust and scratches that film-era photographers usually strove so hard to avoid. And it's got hundreds of new presets for styles such cyanotypes and wet-plate photography.

Digging through the settings is like touring decades of photo history--you get far more than the usual collection of washed-out Polaroid, oversaturated Fujifilm Velvia, and antiquey sepia tones. If you want to hearken back to an earlier time, Exposure 4 is a good way to do so. … Read more

Photography enthusiasts have seen the light when it comes to shooting raw images, but plenty of them have yet to convert to Adobe Systems' DNG format for storing those images.

But Adobe could bring some new sheep into the Digital Negative fold with abilities arriving in Adobe's Lightroom 4 software and its Photoshop CS6 cousin. Adobe isn't evangelizing heavily, but it is offering new features that could convince people that DNG is a better alternative to the profusion of proprietary raw formats that higher-end cameras produce.

Three significant improvements are coming to DNG, two for speed and one … Read more

Sigma has radically repriced its SD1 camera, saying manufacturing improvements let it lower the unusual SLR's cost by two-thirds to $3,300.

Sigma introduced the SD1 in 2011 with a premium price of $9,700--chiefly for its Foveon sensor, given that other specifications were ordinary. Although the sensor is small, about the size of those on mainstream SLRs from Nikon and Canon, it has the unusual ability to capture red, green, and blue light values for each pixel, not just a single color as with conventional sensors.

The Foveon design therefore can produce better detail, at least theoretically, … Read more

The image sensor group that beleaguered photography company Eastman Kodak sold last November has been named Truesense Imaging.

Platinum Equity, which bought the Kodak image-sensor group shortly before Kodak filed for bankruptcy protection, announced the new name yesterday.

Getting a name is a cosmetic detail, but it's an important one for a former business group trying to set up shop as a business. The company sells image sensors for industrial and professional applications such as high-end medium-format cameras and video equipment with high frame rates.

"As an independent company, we now have a great opportunity to expand our … Read more

To IS or not to IS?

That is the question Canon faced when deciding whether to put image stabilization in a trio of new lenses it announced today. Curiously, it reached two different answers.

For a rework of a highly regarded professional-grade staple, the 24-70mm F2.8, Canon decided against image stabilization, evidently discouraged by drawbacks such as weight, complexity, and expense. But for new incarnations of its 24mm and 28mm F2.8 lenses, IS is now an option.

Canon's new EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM follows the pattern of several lens upgrades in recent years: spruce … Read more