If you look carefully, you can find these guys (and many more)

The inauguration of Senator Barack Obama sure is one of the most important events this year. While many, many photographers (both official and amateur) have tried to capture the right frame, David Bergman has taken 220 photos and stitched them together. The result is just pure awesomeness.

The resulting image has an unbelievable resolution of 1,474 megapixels (equals 59,783 x 24,658 pixels)  is 39 times more than the amazing new MAESTRO Sensor in Leica's new S-model with its 37.5 megapixels. The camera used was a common Canon G10 compact camera, mounted on a GigaPan device.

The GigaPan system allows the photographers to take large panorama images with correct nodal point adjustments in a breeze (well, actually it still takes some time, but is a lot faster and more accurate than taking the same picture with a normal tripod).

Total cost of this setup:
409 $ Canon G10 + 279 $ GigaPan System +  about 200 $ tripod  = around 888 $ for a picture that surely will be seen, and more important greatly enjoyed, by millions of people. Bargain!

The result of this process, 220 images stitched together in about seven hours on a Mac, can be viewed here. Try to spot the brand of the camera crane, the Secret Service agents on the roof or the guy who fell asleep, it's fun!

If you want to find more about the whole process, you can read David's post about this GigaPan panorama here (hard to reach at the moment).

(Via Gadling )

Automaticially mapped pictures on a Flickr-map, based on geodata

Today we'll talk about something which is really usefull for several reasons: Geotagging.

In this post you'll learn about what it is, how you can do it and about the value it adds to your microstock photos.

So what is geotagging?

 It simply is the ability to write the exact location a picture was taken into the file itself, making it easy for programs and web services like Flickr to display them on maps. The data is written into the file either by your camera while taking the picture, or afterwards with some clicking around, placing your photos on maps and afterwards saving these locations into your image files.

What is it good for?

First of all it's great if you do a lot of travelling or just want to know not only when, but where a picture was taken. Even years later you just click on a picture and can see where it was taken on a map, satellite picture of a mash-up of you web-life.

From a microstock-sellers perspective you add value to your images. By giving more information to microstock sites, you'll be one of the first ones whose pictures can be searched on maps.

Imagine this: A client is searching for pictures from the middle of Hyde park, London, UK. So he browses to a map on a microstock site, zooming into the Hyde park in London. When he reaches his final 'position', all pictures taken at this very place are displayed, letting the client choose exactly what he wants, where he wants.

If your pictures already include precise geodata, all you have to do is: nothing! Due to standartized tags within the EXIF files, all programs, web services etc. can display the location of a picture. So while other microstock contributors will have to add these data later on, you'll be ready when the race starts.

In part two you'll learn how you can put geodata into your images, so stay tuned!

So you're uploading your stock images like never before, but what if no one finds them? Cyclops makes it easy for Microstock customers to find images on many sites at once - and with just one click.


As Microstock photography becomes more and more popular these days, the number of available images increases every day (well, second actually). It can be very time consuming for people in search for  one special image to navigate to every stock site out there, doing the same search again and again and again.

Cyclops solves this problem. It a bit like the Google principle: One clearly structured starting page, one text field to enter your search and clearly structured results from many sources.

Furthermore you can assemble your own lightboxes and share them with other, very useful and Web 2.0 like.

The following stock and photo sites can be searched using Cyclops:

• Flickr
  
• Shutterstock
  
• Bigstockphoto
  
• Fotolia
  
• stock.xchng
  
• Cutcaster
  
• Photo.com
  
• stockvault

So you see that's quite a lot, even if big players like Dreamstime or even iStockphoto a missing (to date).

Verdict
The idea came at the right time. Cyclops makes it easy to find what you want with only a few clicks, is very user friendly and offers modern features.

The only thing about Cyclo.ps is the fact that it seems to be quite unpopular so far. But if the ideas are extended fruther, I'm quite sure the site will become a popular and very useful tool for people searching stock images. The modern, stylish and to-the-point graphics, combined with a great layout make this site really worth a bookmark, so check it out!

And they have a green monster, their own interpretation of the cyclops , didn't I mention that before?

Obsessed? Who, me?!? by Pei-Pei Ketron (Website | Flickr )

Of course, like every year before, we all got many new intentions for the year 2009. Besides private and business life, you may have some ideas on how you want to improve your photography.

On the one hand this can be done by buying new gear (even if it doesn't necessarily help you take better pictures) like a more 'professional' camera (DSLR maybe?), new lenses or a new flash.

On the other hand this can be done by choosing new topics or areas you want to cover (for example getting into landscape, macro or portrait photography), sharpening your view for the scenery or trying to improve your technique in general.

However you'll want to develop withtin the next twelve months, always try to improve your photography, gather creativity from other folks pictures (for example in our Flickr group , magazines or just by taking a nice walk outside), by reading magazines or letting nature, cities and people around you inspire you.

So, what's your big photo-plan for 2009? Dicuss here in our forum topic.

'Blue in Yellow ' by tlindenbaum 

When it is snowy, icy and cold, the world outside can be a true winter wonderland for us photographers. But before you head into the wintery cold, you should know some things, so that you might not experience some unpleasant things that can happen to your gear.

1. The Camera

Wheather you have a compact camera, a entry-level DSLR or a upper-level DSLR, your camera remains a piece of high-tech. Compared to those mechanical cameras of the past, the internals of your cam are very sensitive and can be greatly influenced by lower temperatures.

If you want to take your cam for a shooting in the cold, put it out in the cold step-by-step, meaning: Roughly one hour before you go out and shoot, lay your cam on your balcony, your stairs or whereever it is colder than in your home, so that the internals can slowly chill down. Especially for DSLR-owners this can be very important since a frozen mirror doesn't combine well with you pressing the shutter, leading to a destruction of the whole mirror-apperature within your cam. Also take out your battery while you cool down your cam for action (why you'll read later).

2. The Lenses

Since lenses are the most important and mostly most expensive part of your gear, I'll recommend the same process like I mentioned before, just slighty cool down the material so that you won't cause unneccessary damage when turning your zoom-wheel or the focus-wheel. Avoid rapid movement of movable parts and you'll be fine.

3. The Battery

On modern cameras the battery is the most crucial part when it comes down to shooting in colder temperatures. The problem is the following: Without a battery you camera won't take images but cold conditions drain the battery even without using your camera, and they do it like hell. So the best way to stay ready is to use several batteries and wear them close to your body where they receive a bit of free-heating (for example in your pockets). I know this is a bit impractical when you want to be always ready to shoot, but it is still better than standing in the (freezing) middle of nowhere, having no opportunity to use your equipment.

4. The Memory

Memory cards are pretty robust and insensible part of your gear when it comes down to shooting in winter wonderland. If you use several cards, just put the ones not needed immediately in your pocket, so your batteries have someone to chat to.

5. The Grip

Cold temperatures often make you wear gloves which leades to some situations where it'll be harder to reach the tiny buttons and wheels you want to press. Since this situation is just perfect for letting your camera slip out of your hands, down on some icy floor, you'll really want to use a camera strap or something that keeps your camera mostly attached to you and not the destructive, icy floor.

6. The Carrying (Myth-Buster!)

You have surely heard that you should always put your camera under you jacket or in a warm camera-bag when shooting a low temperatures: This is the biggest mistake you can make since it doesn't allow your camera and its sensible internals to get used to the cold (just like I mentioned in point one).

Instead, keep your camera in you hand, attached on a strap around you neck of just somewhere it is now 'protected' by something warm.

With all these things in mind, you are now prepared for taking stunning pictures of a frozen world. If you got really nice examples of winter-photography, just put them into our Flickr-Pool  and show them to others!

Good light,

Alex

Image by Zach Schwoebel 

I hope you are all enjoying the holidays with your loved ones and that you'll have a peaceful and relaxed christmas time.

Don't forget to go out and take pictures of this wonderful time of the year - a christmas walk is just perfect for this!

A very merry christmas to all of you!

Good light,

Alex

This video gives you a brief impression of one of my favorite camera manufacturers: Leica. The name speaks for itself, the cameras are legendary.

It is very interesting to see how quality besides mainstream camera manufactoring is achieving. Just like many top lenses, most of the cameras Leica produces are crafted by hand.

Find more out about the company with the red dot!

As many of you may have noticed, I haven't written in quite a while. This is due to the fact that I recently moved to the UK to study here and that I temporarily had to put more time and efforts in this part of my life as well as some other things that were pretty time consuming.

But there are clear intentions on how Microstock Secrets will continue, and these are both exciting and very close. With the beginning of the next year, the site will be re-launched with more features, more community involvement and just more things you'll (hopefully) love.

Until then stay tuned!

Good light,

Alex

Apple just released a new update for the Mac OS X System which also includes some RAW-Updates. RAW files are supported by the professional photo tool Aperture, the consumer-oriented iPhoto and the system-wide QuickLook preview-feature.

The update can be downloaded with your software update app!

Which cameras are new on the list can be found after the click.

• Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi / Kiss Digital x2 / EOS 450D
• Epson R-D1 / R-D1s
• Leaf AFi 7
• Leaf AFi 6
• Leaf AFi 5
• Pentax K200D
• Pentax K20D

Ever heard about tags? Well you should have, because considering the relevance and amount of tags per image, your Microstock sales rise and fall. In this series I'll tell you about the importance of tagging and how to find the right tags for your images.

To start we need to define what a tag is, Wikipedia says the following:

A tag is a (relevant) keyword or term associated with or assigned to a piece of information (a picture, a geographic map, a blog entry, a video clip etc.), thus describing the item and enabling keyword-based classification and search of information.
Tags are usually chosen informally and personally by item author/creator or by its consumer/viewers/community. Tags are typically used for resources such as computer files, web pages, digital images, and internet bookmarks (both in social bookmarking services, and in the current generation of web browsers - see Flock). For this reason, "tagging" has become associated with the Web 2.0 buzz.
Typically, an item will have one or more tags associated with it.

So what does that mean for Microstock photographers? It means by choosing the right tags the chance of making your customers find your images increases a lot!

Tags are short and very descriptive, you don't often use more than one word per tag. The more relevant tags you enter, the better for your overall sales. Why? Because it is very unlikely that a potential buyer enters more than 3-5 keywords to find an image.

So if your image shows exactly what the person searching wants, but you missed to enter one important keyword, the sale will be left to other contributors.

In part II you'll find out how to find the right tags to describe your image!