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	<title>ThePhotoFinishes.com</title>
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	<link>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat</link>
	<description></description>
	<lastBuildDate>Mon, 06 May 2013 20:07:51 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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		<title>Samsung Cameras: Agile Product Cycles</title>
		<link>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/samsung-cameras-agile-product-cycles/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/samsung-cameras-agile-product-cycles/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 06 May 2013 19:37:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[hardware]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[stillcamera]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[trends]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/?p=1335</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Since its emergence as the premier smartphone player, I pay attention to how Samsung approaches a consumer market. In cameras, Samsung started in 2005 with an aliiance with Pentax for joint development of  high end Digital SLRs dominated by Nikon and Canon. The strategy provided an entree for Samsung into the digital camera world. Since then, Samsung has done well but has not dominated in any digital camera category.
So lately Samsung is duplicating its smartphone strategy of being ahead of the curve in feature innovations and thus deciphering market directions.  Samsung now tries to have  a product  with some of the newest device or camera  features before its competition. For example, just look at the mirrorless ILC-Interchangeable Lens Cameras with APS-C sensors that Panasonic, Sony and Samsung have pioneered. These APS-C sensors average 65% bigger area than the 4/3 sensors that are used by many other mirrorless ILC  cameras. This gives Samsung and other APS-C vendors a leg up in image quality especially if they use BSI-CMOS instead of ordinary CMOS sensors. Now watch what Samsung has done in the past half year in this camera category:



Samsung Mirrorless APS-C ILC Cameras


NX2000 debuts May 1 2013

NX1100 debuts April 11, 2013

NX300 debuts [...]]]></description>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Incoming Image Innovation: Pelican Lens Grid Array</title>
		<link>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/incoming-image-innovation-pelican-lens-grid-array/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/incoming-image-innovation-pelican-lens-grid-array/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 06 May 2013 05:04:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[trends]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/?p=1327</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
Pelican has an array of 16 lens in 4 by 4 rows that will give smartphone cameras another leg up in their contest with compact camera vendors for consumers loyalties.  Compact cameras have the advantage of much bigger and better optical zoom lenses; generally better flash units, slightly better battery life and generally better controls for the operation of the camera including easily replaceable battery, disk card plus a tripod screw mount.
Smartphone cameras have larger and more durable screens, light weight, touch screen easy operations, and the ability to transfer files more easily to other devices or remote clients. The CPU chips, camera sensors and the capacity of the disk cards are roughly equivalent although maximum size of disk card available is larger for compact cameras.
However, compact cameras dominate smartphone cameras in ISO range sensitivity , aperture settings, shutter speed, and white balance settings. In addition,  controlling these settings is doable both manually and with screen settings where as smartphone cameras have only screen settings.  So compact cameras still lead in overall picture taking versatility.
Smartphone Cameras Slowly Catch up
Just two years ago, compact cameras had a distinct advantage in their lenses, camera sensors, and overall performance by a wide margin. But improvements [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Compact Cameras On the Way Out?</title>
		<link>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/compact-cameras-on-the-way-out/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/compact-cameras-on-the-way-out/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 01 May 2013 20:29:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[hardware]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[stillcamera]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[trends]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/?p=1319</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[

Mobile phones have been cannibals in the gadget market place. They have eaten other devices lunches while increasing their marketshare. PDAs,  GPS units,  book viewers and hand game consoles have all come and now linger on  as Zombie low cost or highly specialized devices as smartphones knock each one off.
The real culprit is  the huge  computing power in smartphone CPU chips which have  have easily doubled in capability every two years. And so smartphones have delivered:
GPS routing with spoken commands and directions on ever more realistic maps[Garmin and TomTom linger in specialty markets}
Game and  movies up to 1920 x 1200 screens with retina caliber accuracy[Nintendo and Sony small game consoles have become smartphones]
Book reading apps with notes, bookmarks, reference links[Kindle and Kobo have become more smartphone like]
And an app for everything else [good bye  Palm PDAs and WebOS].
Smartphones have won the day because of the tidal wave of hundreds of thousands of smartphone apps, the simplicity and lightness of touch screen OS, the ever bigger and  better durability+viewability of smartphone screens even in direct sunlight, and the ability to deliver images immediately to where you want &#8211; clients, friends, customers, etc.
Could Smartphones now do in Compact Cameras?
Well the most popular [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Aviary Web Photo Editor</title>
		<link>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/aviary-web-photo-editor/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/aviary-web-photo-editor/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 09 Apr 2013 16:50:23 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[color corrections]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[software]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/?p=1305</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Aviary provides a web and mobile app based photo-editor which provides a base line of what features to expect in a decent photo editor for both platforms. Now with demise of Picnik , thePhotoFishes has already looked into web-based photo-editors but not photo-editors for mobile apps. So lets take a look at what Aviary has to offer:
I have just been looking at Corel&#8217;s desktop app, AfterShot Pro [a competitor to Adobe Lightroom and Apple Aperture]. I consider these tools the top end of basic photo editing: color corrections, image manipulations[resizing, cropping, straightening, lens corrections, noise and image storage [file format, back-up, non-destructive edits, transfer to print, cloud, website or print]. And the remarkable thing is that Aviary gives up very little to the pro tools. In fact Aviary are ahead in areas like filters, frames, splash, enhance and other effects.
True Aviary gives away things like a straighten tool, clone or healing tools, and the range of smoothing and blurs. Also, the number of keyboard short cuts is greatly limited. But the speed and performance of the Aviary photo edits is refreshingly fast. In short, if you need to edit either mobile or online images &#8211; Aviary is fast and a functional [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/aviary-web-photo-editor/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>3 Free Photo Editors Embellished</title>
		<link>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/3-free-photo-editors-embellished/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/3-free-photo-editors-embellished/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 02 Feb 2013 18:58:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[software]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tips]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[trends]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/?p=1276</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[3 free Photo Editors continue to improve greatly over the past year. They are Artweaver, Photo Filtre and Photoscape.
The following slideshow  summarizes their features as covered here previously.
But here are some newer features that are worthy of  consideration. Again, in alphabetical order.
Artweaver
Artweaver has improved in its 3.1 version a number of the  of the brush types and control available so now it is a pleasure to work with this photo editor in what I call the Corel Painter mode.  I like to create collages of two or more images by painting them onto a blank or patterned canvas.
This is easy to do in ArtWeaver by adding several images onto separate layers- then adding a blank top layer as painting canvas:

See thunderlying layer by turning of the visibility of interceding layers in the Layer  control panel as seen on the right in the screenshot. And user have the choice of blending the  layers together or eliminating some layers for a final top canvas view.
In addition Art Weaver has added plugins &#8211; not Adobe plugins &#8211; but their own. But perhaps the most interesting development is the the ability to do Team Development in Art Weaver with image work stored on the [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Samsung Brings WiFi,  Android to Cameras</title>
		<link>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/samsung-brings-wifi-android-to-cameras/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/samsung-brings-wifi-android-to-cameras/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 15 Jan 2013 21:20:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[hardware]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[stillcamera]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[trends]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[video]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/?p=1256</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[One of the trends that is effecting camera vendors  is that a wide range of electronic device makers outside the familiar ranks are getting into the camera business. Not just smartphones and tablets but laptops, desktops, and all sorts of industrial appliances. This has inevitably had an impact on traditional camera and videocam sales with downward trends in many categories.
So our argument here has been that camera makers have to match the electronic device offensive by meeting  the needs being filled by  these nouveau camera devices. Compact and SLR cameras are going to have to support 4 things:
1)WiFi for instant delivery of camera images/videos to social media, online seervices, Cloud or local storage;
2) WiFi to support remote control of cameras by specialized device but also by tablets and smartphones;
3)Adopt Android   as the OS to allow for touchscreen operations , overall camera control, and apps to be used for pre- and post image/video processing as well as expediting;
4)Provide 4.5&#8243; diagonal or bigger touchscreens to enable useful apps and operations.

Samsung WB150f &#8211; first WiFi compact with wide optical zoom

Well in  2011 Samsung&#8217;s WB150F compact camera boosted the WiFi parade by supporting WiFi for remote control and instant delivery of images to social media and websites. And sitting on a [...]]]></description>
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		<item>
		<title>FotoSketcher PhotoFinishing Fun</title>
		<link>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/fotosketcher-photofinishing-fun/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/fotosketcher-photofinishing-fun/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 24 Sep 2012 21:14:02 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[software]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tips]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/?p=1234</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[For PhotoFinishing, mobile apps like Instagram, FxReviews, and PicSay have re-invigorated a revolution started by such web photofinishing tools as Picnik [see here the new Picniks since Google closed shop ]. The idea was to add visual fun to images which was inspired originally by Photoshop plugins like Impressionist or Virtual Painter or Flaming Pear. But it took the online World to inject new vigor into the photoart finishing scene.
Now a new free PC-based tool, FotoSketcher, picks up that tradition and provides an artistically savvy and fun tool for photo finishers to work with. Lets first take a look at the before and after of  what can be done with FotoSketcher:

From Olympic Pictures at Pinterest, oilpainting on beam, watercolor on athlete.

Bloom enlivened with textured watercolors around and smooth painting  in the center.
FotoSketcher  certainly can give your images a new look &#8211; and in the flower case, I think a better look. Here is how it works.
Using FotoSketcher
Often  I use slightly out of focus or other `focus-challenged`images  for possible rescue with artistic impressionist afforeded by FotoSketcher or Photoshop plugins like Virtual Painter or PaintAlchemy.Look for images that have strong form and design but are tainted by blur or `same-old`drawbacks. FotoSketcher is [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Compact Cameras Go Android</title>
		<link>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/compact-cameras-go-android/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/compact-cameras-go-android/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 12 Sep 2012 04:09:12 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[hardware]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[software]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[stillcamera]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[trends]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[video]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/?p=1194</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Convergence is a way of life in electronic gadgets. For example, still and video cameras have merged in the past 5 years. Another example, video cameras at the high-end may provide the next step up with 4000K movie images to draw upon for stills. But the real movement on the gadget highway has been from PDA to PDA+Phone=smartphone to smartphone+great single lens camera+apps. iOS  and Android phones and tablets  have become the all purpose consumer media gadget . This means supporting not just music  and   conversations in all forms [messaging, email, phoning] but also   picture taking +viewing, video taking +watching . The final magic ingredient is  programmed apps that assist  all of these activities.
The Smartphone/Tablet Advantages
Smartphone and tablets have made a real dent in compact camera sales with declines in both video and compact camera sales of 21% and 10% on tap. This is a deliberate smartphone and tablet strategy to improve camera performance and take share from other gadgets as seen in rapid camera improvements led by iPhone and seen in Nokia Pureview camera phone. The resulting camera capable improvements include:
1)top end smartphone and tablet cameras are more than good enough &#8211; with 8Mpixel, superior single lens performance, image stabilization, quick [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Olympic Games: 150 of the Best Images</title>
		<link>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/olympic-games-150-of-the-best-images/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/olympic-games-150-of-the-best-images/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 13 Aug 2012 20:17:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[comment]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[design]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/?p=1165</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
If you goto the Pinterest site here, you will find 150 of the best photos from the Olympic Games in London. These are compiled from a number of sources &#8211; but the bulk of them come from the LATimes Photography Blog and the London2012.com official Olympic website. There are 3 reasons for this choice of sources of photos.
1)Both sites features some of the better shots from the games;
2)The LATimes  Photography Blog includes the EXIF info for each photo which is quite valuable in figuring how the shots were done;
3)The London2012.com blog has some of the best full-sized enlargements of photos.
And both of the latter two reasons are very significant. I searched the Web and such publications as NYTimes, BBC, Sports Illustrated, ESPN, Sport.Yahoo.com, BostonGlobe, LeMonde, Sydney Morning Herald from Sports crazy Australia  and a lot of others. None provided EXIF data. And none matched the generosity in size of the London2012.com website for the fullsized photos.
Criteria for the Best Images
How to choose 150 of the Best Images? Well compelling action and great composition were the top most criteria. And the crush of sports photographers at the games know their business; so they produced a multitude of interesting shots to choose from. So the the second ranking [...]]]></description>
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		<item>
		<title>Great Olympic Photos from LATimes</title>
		<link>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/great-site-for-olympic-photos/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/great-site-for-olympic-photos/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 10 Aug 2012 16:47:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[stillcamera]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/?p=1159</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
One of the best sites for Olympic photos is the Los Angeles Times  photography blog. First they are covering  some of the fascinating venues as well as all the most popular events. Second, as one might expect from the movie capital of the world, the LATimes photographers show a flare for getting dramatic and graphically wonderful shots. Third and most important, the LATimes photos have not been srtipped of their EXIF info so you can figure how and with what equipment  their photographers  [and some lens shop crews] achieved their dramatic images. Kudos to the LATImes. Go here for the start of the best LATimes photos from each day.
]]></description>
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		<item>
		<title>Superb Adobe Lightroom 4 Review</title>
		<link>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/superb-adobe-lightroom-4-review/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/superb-adobe-lightroom-4-review/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 23 Jul 2012 15:43:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[software]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/?p=1154</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[My father used to say &#8220;know when you have been beaten to the punch&#8221;- and DPReview

with Amadou Diallo&#8217;s update on Adobe&#8217;s Lightroom 4 has certainly done that. Note this is an update review so users are expected to be familiar with Lightroom 2 or 3 and the program&#8217;s role as a single image, non-destructive photo editor and image archiving program. Lightroom&#8217;s  rivals are principally Apple&#8217;s Aperture and Corel&#8217;s new  AfterShot Pro. If you are looking to do multimage layering  and photocompositions, then look to Adobe Photoshop or Xara Desgner Pro. 
Meanwhile, DPReview has one of the best looks at what is new [and there is much] in Lightroom 4 including its new, lower $150 price.
]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Photoscape Image Compositions</title>
		<link>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/photoscape-image-compositions/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/photoscape-image-compositions/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 10 Jul 2012 17:52:29 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[software]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tips]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/?p=1139</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Photoscape keeps moving up the rankings as a photo editor the more often it gets used. Now  let this reviewer admit, Photoscape initially took a big dive in estimation when no masking and no layering capabilities were to be found. In contrast Art Weaver, another free photo editor, provides both layering and selections/masks plus a trim and faithful clone of the basic Photoshop interface.  And essentially Photoscape has not changed. Like Professor A.K. Dewdneys 2D Planiverse &#8211; the &#8220;restricted &#8221; world of Photoscape has an ever growing number of surprisingly savvy capabilities.
My latest &#8220;discovery&#8221; &#8211; image compositions:

Again, like the Photoscape&#8217;s GIF Animation  tool,  Photoscape&#8217;s Image Combine tool has a very familiar interface On the left sidebar is a treeview of your file directories with thumbnails just below for the current directory. Atthe topof the screen is a thumbnail container which you drag and drop images from the treeview to add to the emerging photo composition. And Photoscape is very fast and responsive.
Alternatively one can drag and drop the thumbnails onto the main image canvas in the center and Photoscape will automatically add and size the image in the emerging photo composition. At the top of the right Control sidebar, are the three [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>PhotoScape for GIF Animations</title>
		<link>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/photoscape-for-gif-animations/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/photoscape-for-gif-animations/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 28 Jun 2012 19:14:55 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[software]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tips]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/?p=1121</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[GIF Animations have become ever more popular now that Flash animations are verboten on Apple hardware. Another reason is that many GIF animations have a &#8220;silent movies&#8221; fashionable styling  . Finally in a sea of images, a few moving ones catch the eye.  So the other day I was tearing through my backup disks looking for the old reliable Ulead GIF Animator. But no such luck &#8211; so I googled GIF Animation but could not find a free version of GIF Animator [shareware only]. However,  surprise, surprise Photoscape &#8211; the free photo editing  program covered in the PhotoFinishes earlier this year, did have GIF Animations.
Okay &#8230; given the time constraints, lets have a look because Photoscape, previously covered in a review of tools for quick Web image editing , still gets the bulk of the load for fast resizing and cropping of Web images. But  Phtoscapes GIF Animation capabilities were blithely ignored. Not any more

Photoscape GIF Animatorin action
To my surprise Photoscape&#8217; Gif Animations were very easy to do as seen in the screen shot. Just drag and drop one or more images from the the convenient treview listing of directories and files. Photoscape will convert JPGs , PNGs, and BMPs to GIF [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/photoscape-for-gif-animations/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>How LeapMotions 3D Pointer Tool  Changes Everything</title>
		<link>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/how-leapmotions-3d-pointer-tool-changes-everything/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/how-leapmotions-3d-pointer-tool-changes-everything/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 24 Jun 2012 17:03:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[trends]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/?p=1118</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[TheVerge gadget website finally caught onto to what theOpenSourcery readers have known about 3 weeks ago. The next dynamite NUI-Natural User Interface that is going to sweep the Consumer Computing scene is LeapMotion&#8217;s SuperKinect, 3D pointer tool which will hopefully do away with  both the mouse and  all variety&#8217;s of trackpads  over the long haul. But all this is a test of Post PC versus Classic PC technology innovation across the Computing industry and graphics Software in particular.
Clearly everybody knows now that there is a game changing UI and pointing technology that is cheap, super versatile and going to hit the PC market [Linux, Mac, Windows] sometime between December 2012 to February 2013].  Now three questions immediately arise:
First: What Does Microsoft Do About LeapMotion?
Lets face it LeapMotion&#8217;s 3D Tool obsoletes the current Kinect technology. It also may be a rescue agent for Windows 8 that has collected the ire of classic Windows 7 developers because  touch screen operations are given preferential treatment in the new Metro Style  UI to the disadvanatge of  classic Desktop UI user. With a LeapMotion device attached suddenly Windows 8 users don&#8217;t have to Metro-envy.
But Microsoft has to resolve more than what to do with future [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Smartphone Camera Attachments</title>
		<link>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/smartphone-camera-attachments/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/smartphone-camera-attachments/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 01 Jun 2012 12:46:29 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[hardware]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[stillcamera]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[trends]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[video]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/?p=1109</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[There is no doubt that smartphone users are attached to their cameras &#8211; a good camera made a big difference in iPhone 4 and the new iPad sales. And smartphone users snap a lot of photos :

On Flickr the iPhone 4 and then iPhone 4s currently rank as the first and third most popular cameras. And with the Nokia 808 Purview camera-phone coming to market in Europe, phones and novel cameras will get ever closer entwined.
There is an attraction to making the final delivery of images directly from the camera that the point and shoot plus SLR camera makers are just getting a notion of how important it is to consumers. Hence the introduction of WiFi connections to compact cameras continues apace as they add 2 functions: 1)improved delivery to email, DropBox, Facebook, YouTube and 2)better remote control possibilities being offered by some vendors.
Low Hanging Fruit: Better Lenses
However, the low hanging fruit for smartphone cameras has been better lenses. This reviewer has been surprised given the popularity of camera phones  that no major smartphone vendor has offered a series of attachable lenses to broaden the limited range of smartphone camera shooting capabilities. Some smartphones do offer digital zoom, but the [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Photoshop 6 Beta &#8211; the 3D Commands</title>
		<link>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/photoshop-6-beta-the-3d-commands/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/photoshop-6-beta-the-3d-commands/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 13 May 2012 02:39:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[3D]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[design]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[trends]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/?p=1086</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Lets be honest, this reviewer was not looking for much in the PS6 3D set of commands. After all this was just going to match the  4year old 3D and beveling commands of Xara&#8217;s Designer Pro at double the price and half the speed. And the first part of our tests seemed to confirm that:

The fruit of 3D labor of  about 2 hours &#8211; text extrusion, Pinterest logo be-bevelled, and a cone mesh. The only one of the 3 active 3D layers not easily doable in  Xara Designer  Pro was &#8211; the cone mesh. And sure enough, the ops were slow relative to the blitz speed of Xara.
In fact lack of Ooomph is the next important story in PS6&#8242;s 3D command set:

The story of the 3D tests was the slowness of the commands relative to Xara and PS6 itself. Also the number of tests that PS6 just refuesd to do altogether. See the screen shot above. During a total 3 1/2 hour testing session, I saw the above refusal more than a dozen times. Now the OS is Windows 7 the latest patches and the machine is Pentium Dual-Core  2nd edition from 2 years and change ago.  But getting PS6 3D to do [...]]]></description>
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		<title>DPReview Advantage</title>
		<link>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/dpreview-advantage/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/dpreview-advantage/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 27 Apr 2012 23:14:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blogroll]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[stillcamera]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/?p=1079</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[There are a number of websites that provide excellent camera reviews such as Popular Photography Magazine, Digital Camera Review, and Imaging Resources . But my favorite has been and continues to be DPReview. The English website is very thorough in their testing, has a great Blog where photographers worldwide chat politely [something the reddit.com website could use a lesson in]about the latest and greatest while DPReview itself stays fairly well current with the latest cameras, software and photo accessories.
But the key feature of DPReview is its Camera Image Comparison  tool.

First user can see the same shot taken by four different cameras of identically the same diorama. This is great because it allows apple and apples like comparisons. Even better users can move the exposure square any where on the diorama to see color rendition, sharpness of lines and edges, and noise and other aberrations. Users can also switch between jpeg and raw [if available] and among the various major ISO setting supported by the camera.  This is priceless.
&#160;
For example , I was recently looking up a review of the latest Pansonic Lumix ZS20 compact camera. The Lumix line has been my compact camera of choice over the past 5-6 years for quick and [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Smartphone Camera Performance</title>
		<link>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/smartphone-camera-performance/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/smartphone-camera-performance/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 15 Apr 2012 22:13:32 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[hardware]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[stillcamera]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[trends]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[video]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/?p=926</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[With so many smartphones coming out in all sorts of versions its hard to compare products. Here are two places that I go for phone comparison data and particularly for the still camera and video camera performance benchmarks.
 PhoneArena

It is fairly simple to setup the comparison &#8211; and the review ratings are often bang on. However I await data for smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S2.  Also what I really want is a comparison of the still camera and video taking capabilities of the latest smartphones. And I have found a second site for that
GSMArena offers  just great camera comparisons like the following:


Note the camera comparison is truly robust &#8211; click on the Gray Chart tab on the bottom of the image and a new image is brought up for further side by side comparison. Ditto for the Color Poster tab. Note the green rectangle in the middle of the image. That is movable with the mouse &#8211; just click and drag for more comparative views of the image. Finally the drop down widgets allow users to change the selected smartphones being compared very easily.
And there is a video comparison as well:

Again the tabs along the bottom of the image allow you to change the comparison [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Why Did Google Close Picnik?</title>
		<link>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/why-did-google-close-picnik/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/why-did-google-close-picnik/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 15 Apr 2012 21:04:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[software]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[trends]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/?p=1063</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
Back in 2008 this blog identified Picnik as one of the best online image editing sites in the business.  Two years later in 2010 we were no less enthusiastic about Picnik after Google bought the software and added it to Picasa. And ye Editor is not alone as other recent reviews  put Picnik well above such competition as Splash up and even Photoshop Express &#8211; see here and then here. And Picnik puts the $1 billion dollar Instagram to shame. So why get rid of a very good thing?
Google Motives
Here is the official announcement on the Picnik site:

And here is Google&#8217;s official explanation:
Since joining Google in 2010, the Picnik team has been working on Picnik while helping to create photo editing magic in Google’s products. But now we get to focus. Picnik will be closing its doors on April 19, 2012. Below you’ll find some frequently asked questions to help you through the shutdown process. If your question isn’t answered, visit the Forum to get more help.
But there are other possibilities. Google is locked in a mortal battle with Facebook for Social Media Eyeballs and Time. Hey the Campbellford Library now has displaced Google with Facebook as its home page for [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Burst Mode Exposures</title>
		<link>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/burst-mode-exposures/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/burst-mode-exposures/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 08 Apr 2012 02:01:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[tips]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/?p=1053</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Burst mode exposures are thought of as an action shot specialty. Any sports action shots provide good example &#8211; from diving board shots thru Nascar rumbles to rodeo competitions. If you use burst mode at anywhere from 3-8 frames per second[the upper limit for most good SLRs], you will likely find 1 to 2 super frames within the burst mode sequence. The following is an example from a rodeo this past summer:

Kids Bull Riding
But recent results from a a local photo contest for the past few years suggest burst mode shooting works well for portraits as well. It allows you as photographer to naturally follow the subject and not force or elicit a specific raction but rather catch the changing human mood as swiftly as it changes. Yes, you could use video frames for the same purpose but without the precise exposure control of a &#8220;still&#8221; shot or a size greater than 2.5Mpixels. The example below shows just such a sequence from the Maple Syrup Festival Photo Contest.

3 Kids on a park bench
Now the photographer has her choice from not just  the above 4 images but actually 10 framess to choose from &#8211; some really great family candid imagess. In [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Photoshop CS6 Beta &#8211; The Blur Gallery</title>
		<link>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/photoshop-cs6-beta-the-blur-gallery/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/photoshop-cs6-beta-the-blur-gallery/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 26 Mar 2012 19:10:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[design]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[software]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/?p=1037</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
The Blur Gallery appears to be incomplete in the first beta of Photoshop 6. And I sincerely hope so and shall show you why here. You can find the Blur Gallery under the Filter Menu &#8211; choose anyone of Field Blur, Iris Blur or Tilt-Shift Blur &#8211; and then screen above will appear. The sidebar on the right will be temporarily replaced with the Blur Gallery options &#8211; Field Blur, Iris Blur and Tilt-Shift Blur plus an empty Blur effects Tab.
Tilt-Shift Blur

As you can see from the +screenshot above the Tilt Shift blur just does not work for the image used. Areas are blurred that should not be and areas are left unblurred which should be blurred. Now I tried adding two more Tilt Shift Blurs to the image at the top and bottom using the tilt=rotate capability so the blur gradation lines were horizontal  and thus the blur at the top could be corrected. But that simply did not work &#8211; the three Tilt Shifts combined in very strange ways but not the accumlated blur I had hoped for[the last blur pinned on dominated the other two]. Now there maybe a CTL+?? trick when applying a second or third button but [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Photoshop 6 Beta &#8211; Cropping and Photo Composition</title>
		<link>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/photoshop-6-beta-cropping-and-photo-composition/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/photoshop-6-beta-cropping-and-photo-composition/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 25 Mar 2012 19:28:12 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[trends]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/?p=1022</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
Photoshop CS6 beta has been released for free public tasting and trial runs and after two years there are lots of new features to like, especially for dyed in the wool photofinishers. But the most obvious change in Photoshop CS6 is that the UI has been streamlined to look more like Adobe Lightroom 4 or, dare I say it, Corel PaintShop Pro x4 [see our upbeat review here]. Users have even more control over the layout of their Photoshop 6 workspace but that is another story.
The real story for Photoshop is the return to providing more refined photo editing and finishing features. The past few editions have seen the addition of features that some of my graphic artists friends absolutely love but this photofinisher has yet to use &#8211; like the complete 3D set of menu options. Credit competition from Apple&#8217;s Aperture 3, Adobe&#8217;s own Lightroom 4 and Corel PaintShop Pro X4  which all  have also improved dramatically in the past year and all emphasize photo finishing.
Cropping in PS6 Beta
This first of several tutorials on  the Photoshop CS6 beta will look at the humble cropping tools. Note the plural &#8211; the Perspective Cropping tool now has its own place on the toolbar[second inline [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Autodesk Sketchbook vs Corel Painter 12</title>
		<link>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/autodesk-sketchbook-vs-corel-painter-12/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/autodesk-sketchbook-vs-corel-painter-12/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 09 Mar 2012 18:56:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[software]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/?p=979</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
Most photo editors have good brush capabilities. Adobe Photoshop takes it to a new level and allows users to customize their brushes much like Photoshop Styles &#8211; to a surprising extent. But the best painting tool on the market has been Corel Painter with its huge set of brushes, their amazing set of properties, their interaction with Wacom plus other pens/stylii plus their ability to interact [or not] with the previous brush strokes and the underlying paper/media used. That is the Corel Painter advantage. So why the comparison with Autodesk Sketchbook ?
Autodesk Sketchbook Pro 2011

As one can see from the screenshot Sketchbook hardly has the brush and media prowess of Painter. the choice of brush type is not nearly the same as in Painter, the brush properties are even slimmer. Why would  Autodesk even want to offer such a limited product? Well there are three potential answers to the question. First, Autodesk&#8217;s other CAD and 3D tools require more natural painted surfaces and 2D paint objects than ever before. Second, the price at $55US is compelling versus the $277 price for Corel Painter 12 on Amazon. Finally, Sketchbook has added UI features that make Sketchbook very quick and easy to use.
First [...]]]></description>
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		<title>The New ThePhotoFinishes.com</title>
		<link>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/the-new-thephotofinishes-com/</link>
		<comments>http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/the-new-thephotofinishes-com/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 03 Mar 2012 17:26:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blogroll]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.thephotofinishes.com/picthat/?p=899</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The new ThePhotoFinishes.com recognizes the reality of the past year, almost all of the postings for the site have been to the Picthat blog.  In our theOpenSourcery com web development site, the consistent recommendation has been to use a CMS with WordPress being the top choice. So now we are eating our own stew and have made the blog the home page for thewebsite. ThePhotoFinishes is using the latest WordPress 3.31 blog edition and as promised here is the new look for the website using the Magazine Basic theme. The old website point of entry can be found here and material will be [finally!!] updated and/or imported into the new digs.
]]></description>
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