The chosen themes often make one think why something isn’t more convenient. Wouldn’t it be neat to have fresh orange juice on tap? Or whether we could indeed have a choice of spray colors from a single can?

Egypytologists could really use with the hieroglyphic keyboard, too!

People who love a good cup of tea might wish they could can the taste, perhaps?

The double beer mug could save a second trip to the bar, right?

His simple picture of a watch combined with a speed dial could imply our hectic lives are way too fast.

All in all, a delightful collection!

The gadget is designed to be easy to use – just dock the smartphone and simply choose between the panoramic or time lapse mode. It slowly rotates at just the right speed to capture the panoramic views or generate  a motion time-lapse video smoothly.  It can be mounted on a tripod.  The Spinpod can also be used as a music holder, sound amplifier and video-chat port!   Connect two of them together for pan and tilt shots.

There is also a dolly system for taking linear and curved time-lapse videos.

Watch the video to see what it can do!

The inventors of this nifty device are Daniel Aharoni and Zhiping Chen, PhD candidates from the University of California’s Physics department.  They launched their Kickstarter project to raise the $75,000 needed to move forward.  So far they have reached 75% of their goal with 17 days to go.

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Early Macintosh Computer

Todd has captured the innards of many obsolete and discarded products over a ten year period.   He explained, “As a kid, I was caught in my room taking apart my toys with a hammer, and in secondary school I almost completely disassembled my 1985 Hyundai Pony car.”  Clearly if an object interested him, it would soon be apart!

Early Macintosh Computer : Exploded View

His new book out  entitled Things Come Apart : A Tear Down Manual for Modern Living features 50 products most of which are smaller items like a coffee maker, electronic devices, cameras and even an electric saw.   He  also includes pictures of 3 much larger items like a bike, piano and a Zenith two-seater light aircraft!   It takes him days to disassemble and lay out the myriad parts of each item.  A 2005 Canon camcorder for example contained 558 parts!

Chain Saw

He photographs every item twice – once with all the parts neatly laid out on a flat surface and a second time in an exploded view.  For the latter, he places the disassembled object on a raised platform, then drops and captures the falling parts preferably in a single  photograph.  He said he had more success with dropping them in groups and combining the images later.  All in all a remarkable effort to achieve pleasing compositions for a delightful series!

Chain Saw : Exploded View

Rotary Phone

Rotary Phone : Exploded View

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Somewhere in that tiny camera is a built-in USB making it easy to connect to computers for image transfers. It operates on a lithium battery.

The pictures are lo-fi but hey, that’s still pretty okay. The camera can easily be tucked into a pocket or kept in a handbag ready to be whipped out at a moment’s notice. It provides  great opportunities for candid shots when others think it’s just a toy camera!

Sunbathers with a tubeworm

He was inspired by the work of Christopher Boffoli and Slinkachu both of whom used such miniatures in still life settings.   He explained, “Imagine the planet is flooded and humans live underwater, that’s the crazy concept I decided to create in my images with miniature people.” What Jason does differently from Boffoli and Slinkachu is that he includes living creatures in his dioramas.

Leave My Garden Alone – Damsel Fish with algal garden.

Planning the shoots and going out to the marine park near Kota Kinabalu in East Malaysia were the easy parts.  He said, “I didn’t want to damage any marine life so had to be careful about where they were placed.”  As the miniatures tended to float, Jason had to weigh them down by gluing coins or weights to the underside of their feet. Sand was then gently brushed over them to hide the additions.  The sea currents also sometimes played havoc with the miniatures, blowing them over on occasion.

Speeding Ticket. Chromodioris Sea Slug

There is a theme he follows : ” First there is the initial invasion of humans, then the creatures fighting back, next the idyllic scenario of people living and working side by side with the underwater creatures, like the workmen helping the shrimp and goby excavate their home. Then finally you have the people cleaning the polluted sea bed.”

Underwater Invasion. Snake Eel

The resulting images are all captivating.  Some are humorous.

Nemo’s Revenge

Others teach us more about the marine world. Now we all know what sea cucumber poop looks like!

Waste Management. Sea Cucumber Poop

But beyond the humor is a serious message.  Jason also brings to our attention  the horrendous problems humans have caused in the oceans such as the illegal and indiscriminate fish bombing method of harvesting fish.

Internal Trauma. Definitely a Bomb

The dumping of fish nets and toxic waste materials is of grave concern as the uptake in the food chain will ultimately affect humans too.

Toxic Waste.

Jason is planning a future book on his delightful dioramas. But first he has a couple of upcoming books which will be published this fall.  One is NATURAL WONDERS – Mountain, Rainforest and Reef and SENSATIONAL SEAS OF SABAH.  So look out for them!

Then check out the aptly named Etsy store called the Monoculo Shop. The artisans are Spanish based designer and sculptor, Sandra and Michelangelo Diaz who work together to come up with unique handcrafted items.

Their camera lens stool with storage above is a replica of a real one!  The comfy seat means it is both a functional and decorative item.  Perfect for a photographic studio too!

Their DSRL Paparazzi lamp below is made from white cedar. Its lens hood can be reverse mounted or removed for two different styles.

They also have different cushion slipcovers with felt appliques of classic cameras like the Polaroids.   Imagine a set of these on a photographer’s couch!

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What Oefner does is to use centrifugal force to disperse paint placed on a drill head.  The video below shows how fleeting the moment of dispersal is.  He explains how he does it, “To capture the moment, where the paint forms that distinctive shape, I connected a sensor to the drill, which sends an impulse to the flashes. These specialized units are capable of creating flashes as short as a 1/40000 of a second, freezing the motion of the paint.”

The resulting paint splatters are a beautiful harmony of physics and art!

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Samsung Galaxy S4 Camera – Setting the scene

The Samsung Galaxy S4′s built in native camera features a number of fun and novel modes. However, as we’re aiming to demonstrate the S4′s camera capabilities at their best, we’ll be using the professional camera replacement App called ‘Camera FV-5‘ for Android – available on Google Play. Camera FV-5 allows us to control more of the cameras imaging parameters which have a direct effect on the final image quality. We’ll explain some of the useful and easily set controls as we go through the images.

Samsung Galaxy S4 Camera – Taking control

The first parameter we want to control is the ISO which we set to 100 ISO. This ensures we keep any image noise/grain to a minimum. You can also control this with the S4′s native camera. We shot the image above with natural daylight using a black backdrop and a light diffusing enclosure. Camera was set to auto white balance (AWB).

To give an idea of the detail the Samsung Galaxy S4 camera is capable of capturing the image above shows a cropped in detail of the same shot at actual size. We also had to compress the image  to make it a manageable size to load online. Even the beautiful 5″ AMOLED display on the Galaxy S4 could not display the full latent image quality.

This time we shot the image above using our Steady Stand SS200 on the Tabletop Studio Pro TS320 with the red and blue translucent backdrops to give a purple background to compliment some of the stones. We used 2 x 3watt LED gooseneck table lamps from IKEA called JANSJO. (£10/$10) a piece). As these are not daylight balanced lights we thought this would throw the Auto White Balance (AWB) on the camera for sure. Not so! We were amazed at how accurate the AWB is on the Samsung Galaxy S4 camera! Our Canon 5D MKll Full Frame DSLR would never cope with this on AWB.

The shot above is a closer view of the same piece and the image below shows a detail of the same shot at actual size.

Samsung Galaxy S4 Camera – Achieving the best image quality

For product photography with any camera, keeping your camera steady is essential. When you set the Samsung Galaxy S4 camera to 100 ISO the only other parameter it has to adjust the exposure is the shutter speed. A low 100 ISO will result in a longer shutter duration so a tripod or stand is a must have. The aperture on the S4′s lens is a fixed wide aperture like most Smartphones. We used the really neat Joby Grip Tight Micro tripod and the even neater Modahaus Steady Stands and Tabletop Studios for this shoot. The stamps above were shot using the Steady Stand SS100CC which can be easily modified to accomodate the Samsung Galaxy S4. Albert Einstein kindly demonstrates the image at actual size below. Respect!

Samsung Galaxy S4 Camera – Taking more control

Smartphones are undoubtedly getting very smart! However, shooting on a white background will invariably outsmart them! This is where we take a bit more control over exposure parameters.

We shot the beaded necklace from overhead using the Steady Stand SS200 using natural daylight from a window to camera right. The side walls of the Steady Stand help diffuse and soften the light which results in soft shadows falling to the left of the piece. The Camera FV-5 App allows you to set the meter to spot metering. You also have the option to set exposure compensation to plus or minus 4 stops. In this case we used spot metering with exposure compensation set to plus 4 stops. Had this been a more open necklace with more white background showing, plus 4 stops may not have been enough to obtain a clean white background. Camera FV-5 gives you the option of using an Exposure Lock feature. This means you can introduce a piece of black card or material into the frame. Position the exposure reticule over the black card until correct exposure is visible on screen then lock the exposure. This then leaves you free to remove the black card and reset the focus point independently. This post on Smartphone photography tips shows this trick in more detail although we use an iPhone in that example.

The Amethyst bracelet above, designed by the talented Natalie Hambro, was also shot in the same daylight setting. In this instance we used the black card exposure lock trick described above. As we mentioned the Samsung Galaxy S4 Camera has a fixed aperture lens.  f2.2 BTW. A wide aperture like this at close quarters results in a shallower depth of field as the image above shows. In many cases this benefits the composition as it naturally draws the eye to the areas of sharp focus first. You can increase the depth of field by backing off from the piece so there is less of it filling the frame. With 13 megapixels to play with you’ve enough resolution to pixel dump if you’re shooting for web display. In theory, using the cameras digital zoom has the same effect on resolution and subsequent image quality. In my past experience, this is not the case, so I’d be wary of using digital zoom.

Samsung Galaxy S4 Camera – How does it measure up?

I’m totally blown away with the quality of this camera/Smartphone! Before I start sounding like an Android fanatic, I have to confess something. If I could be accused of being fanatical about any products it would be Apple products. I am very fond of my iPhone, iPad and iMac. It’s the system I know and work with, and at one point in time I believed was ahead of the game. Not so any more. Sure, iTunes has more Apps than Google Play. But how many Apps do you need? Camera FV-5 is superb for stills photography. It’s never crashed on me. I look forward to exploring its HDR and interval timer capabilities. I eagerly await the iPhone 6 and I hope it steps up to the mark as Samsung have raised the bar considerably with the Galaxy S4. My iPad is feeling decidedly heavy and bulky these days! Samsung, HTC, Sony and Windows are all in the game and that’s good for all of us. Vive la difference!

Samsung Galaxy S4 Camera – Image processing

The Samsung Galaxy S4 camera has some great image processing capabilities on board. For more advanced features I’d normally reach for my Snapseed App. Right now it doesn’t support the Galaxy S4 at full resolution. I’m pretty new to Android Apps but have discovered Photo Editor for Android which supports the full res image from the S4. If anyone out there knows of any other image editing Apps that support 13 mp we’d love to hear from you.

Shooting with the Samsung Galaxy S4 Camera is a piece of cake!

Check out our other Guides and Blog posts for more tips on product photography tips and the versatile Modahaus system. You can connect with us via Email signup, Twitter or Facebook to keep fully up to date.

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It can also  be used underwater to a depth of 10 meters or 33 feet deep. This will greatly expand the repertoire of outdoor fans!  The lightweight case is flexible and allows for full tactile control of the camera as well as all the necessary accessories like flashes and tripods.

The Outex, which is rather like a wetsuit, is equipped with a window for the camera.  It is also a modular system so users can purchase exactly what they need with the option to add more in the future.

Outex began as a Kickstarter project, the brainchild of JR deSouza and his cousin Roberto Miglioli. They were keen photographers who wanted a waterproof system which did not cost the earth. They have had great success as the Outex is now used by photographers from publications such as National Geographic, Outside Magazine and Vogue.

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Red wine

His visually appealing collections entitled Pure Liquids and Painted Beats explore his fascination with capturing liquids in motion.  He demonstrates “there are so many ways to express something in a photo”  with his red wine photograph above.  The shape of the liquid makes it clear what it is. 

Vodka martini

Ise’s interest in photography began in his childhood.  He received his first camera at age 6. His father,  a semi-professional photographer, gave him one of his old cameras, an older dSLR , a Nikon D2H, in his teens.

Water