Digital Art & Photography

Everywhere you go in the modern world, you cannot miss the work of 3D. 3D can be found in movies, TV commercials and printed materials. It is used in visualisation and product promotion as well. 3D art is now a mainstay art form.

Here is a list of some popular 3D software on the market.

1. 3D Studio Max

2. Maya

3. Modo

4. Lightwave

5. Blender

6. Carrara

7. Shade

8. Cinema 4D

9. TrueSpace

10. Shade

This list is no exhaustive, though. Of the list above, Blender and TrueSpace are both free and can be downloaded from the internet.

3DS Max and Maya are widely considered as the most high end of the commercial lot. But, in terms of capability, Blender, although is free is also very feature-rich and powerful.

This camera is not the most stylish of cameras. In fact, it looks rather plain. But do not let that interfere with an impartial assessment of its performance.

In addition to having an in-built flash, it also include hotshoe for adding a flashgun. The body is also rather sturdy.

This camera has a 10 MP sensor. Supported file formats are JPEG, RAW and AVI. Compared to its previous models, this version has a faster shutter speed. However, the camera has a fixed lens system. This does feel a bit restrictive at times.

In terms of image quality, the result from Ricoh GR Digital III can be very good and should be useful for some artistic and photographic endeavours.

Hardware is not everything, we will still need capable digital image editor software (such as Photoshop or Photoplus) for creating great looking photographs.

When we think of how a camera is like, we often assume that it has to be something that can be held by the hand. We have the idea that a camera mustl have a camera body and a part for the lens.

Could it be that the cameras of the future be looking very different from what they are like now. For one, perhaps it can be something much smaller due to the advanced in technology making everything smaller.

This is a concept camera from a science fiction artbook call Uncommon Paradigm. The camera of the future is worn and is not carried by the hand.

 Image courtesy of Uncommon Paradigm

Could this be a possible direction of future cameras? At the present moment, this may not be possible. In the past, one cannot imagine that film roll will be replaced by digital format. So the future may be more surprising.

GIMP is widely reputated to be the most powerful free alternative to Photoshop. It is the defacto free photo editing software. For 3D enthusiasts, it can also be used to create texture maps as well as post-editing.

As a Photoshop user, I appreciate GIMP’s power. However, I also find the latter’s interface and quirks frustrating too. Therefore, there is a good reason why Photoshop remains the staple program to use amongst creative professionals. If you don’t mind paying for something cheaper than Photoshop and yet is still easy to use, you can look at alternatives such as Photoplus and Corel Paint Shop Pro.

As a workarounds to make GIMP more user friendly, I recommend using a Photoshop-friendly variant of GIMP. Alternatively, you can just get an affordable photoshop alternative with similar interface such as Photoplus.

There are 2 Photoshop-alike versions of GIMP, namely Gimpshop and Gimphoto. The advantage of using either Gimpshop or Gimphoto is that one do not have to mess with multiple-windows. You know how frustating it is to search for the right window.

With the photoshop-alikes, all the windows are contained in a single MDI.

Personally, I think for photo editing, Photoshop still pack more power. It is a great digital tool for a photography enthusiast. GIMP on the other hand is great for creating images for the Web. Nevertheless it still pack punch for photo editing.

That is just my opinion, though.

Under many circumstances, you will need to keep the camera still and stationary. Unless the photographer has super strong and steady hands, it is practically impossible to prevent shakes and vibrations to the camera. Since most of us are not robots, superman or superwoman, thus having a super strong hand grip is impossible.

One way of resolving this common photography issue, is to use the camera supporting tools such as a tripod or a monopod. A tripod is a three legged stand used to support and stabilize a camera. As the name suggests, a monopod is a one-legged counterpart of the more commonly used tripod.

On the market now are fairly new type of tripods known as flexible tripods. In terms of look, they are quite difference from the usual ones. The flexible tripods can stabilise cameras on floor levels that are uneven. It can also be deployed in positions and structures that are not possible with conventional tripods. Some can even grip and position themselves on vertical poles.

One of the original flexible tripod is the Gorillapod. Instead of having hard and stiff legs as supports, the Gorillapod has flexible legs. These legs look like gorilla grips. Perhaps that is where the name gorillapod came from.

Joby is the maker of Gorrillapod. One point to note is the original gorillapod is catered for compact cameras. However, the product range has expanded. It now has many versions for other types of cameras as well. This includes versions for Single Lens Reflex cameras (SLRs), zoom-lens mounted camera and large video cameras. The various versions of Gorillapod have soft rings and rubberized feet. These features serve to enhance the gripping power of the tripods.

These new tripods should prove themselves to be useful for situations that require static positioning of the camera. This includes situations such as night and dim light photography.