Japan’s public television broadcaster, NHK, has developed an array of video cameras that are synchronized to create “bullet time” shots like those popularized in the film The Matrix.

Video shot using the system can be used to create an effect where the subject freezes and the camera angle pans around it, commonly called “bullet time” after a famous Matrix scene. NHK has used the system with a dozen cameras synched together.

Jay Alabaster

The system links its multiple cameras, each on motorized mounts, so that they can be operated by a single cameraman. One of the cameras is chosen as the master, which the others use for positioning and auto focus. Once the video is shot it is sent directly to a computer system, which can generate a clip in about a minute.

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The lo-fi film lovers at Lomography have really outdone themselves this time with a 35-millimeter SLR camera called the Konstruktor that you have to assemble yourself. No, this isn’t some kind of half-baked camera product. The idea here is to have fun building your own personal shooter while learning how the mechanical bits in a camera actually work.

For $35, you get a box filled with everything you need to put the DIY camera together, including a 50-millimeter lens, a film holder, a top-down viewfinder, and the camera body itself. So you really are basically building the camera from scratch.

Lomography

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Samsung Electronics has expanded the S4 family yet again with the 16-megapixel Galaxy S4 zoom, a lighter version of last year’s Galaxy Camera.

The Galaxy S4 zoom can be described as an S4 mini with a 10x optical zoom attached to the back of it, according to Ben Wood, director of research at analyst firm CCS Insight. The camera-phone’s arrival scoops a reported Windows Phone version of Nokia’s 41-megapixel 808 PureView and should leave camera makers like Nikon and Canon a little concerned, he said.

In less than two weeks, Samsung has launched two tablets and four smartphones, including the Galaxy S4 zoom. The company is expected to launch more products at an event in London on June 20.

"It currently has the scale and confidence to put multiple new products into the market. By doing that it is leaving competitors with little room to maneuver,” said Wood.

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Panasonic and Fujifilm say they have developed a new image sensor using organic materials that is far more sensitive than anything currently on the market.

The companies said their organic CMOS sensor has a dynamic range four times that of common sensors on the market today. The greater range, or light sensitivity, will mean less noise on dark portions of images and fewer washed-out portions in bright areas.

The sensor uses an organic film that converts light to electric signals developed by Fujifilm, together with semiconductor technology from Panasonic. The organic layer replaces the silicon used in CMOS sensors today and is just 0.5 microns thick, a fraction of the thickness of existing sensors, allowing it also to capture light from a broader angle.

The organic sensors can also devote more surface area to capturing light than current sensors, which must devote some space to shielding between pixels. The companies said this gives organic pixels a 20 percent higher sensitivity to light.

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Advanced compact cameras combine small size with big features, and are ideal for photographers who want manual controls in a fairly pocketable package. They don’t have all the bells and whistles of a DSLR, and their lenses won’t give you the reach of a megazoom, but advanced compacts offer the perfect balance between portability and features.

Fitting neatly into the advanced compact category is the Nikon Coolpix P7700, and while it’s a little larger than some of its competitors, it also has a 7.1X zoom lens with a more-than-respectable reach of 28-200mm (35mm equivalent). Similar in many ways to its predecessor, the P7100, this new model brings several important updates. Among them is a 12-megapixel CMOS sensor and, therefore, the ability to capture full 1920 by 1080 HD video. Other upgrades include better performance, a faster lens, and a fully articulated LCD.

Hardware and design

The P7700 is larger than many of its counterparts, measuring 2.8 by 4.7 by 2.0 inches and weighing 13.9 ounces fully loaded. It’s too big for shirt and pants pockets, but you can stow it in larger jacket and coat pockets. Its larger size means that you don’t need small hands to operate the camera. The P7700 is solidly built and comfortable to hold thanks to its grip and its small thumb rest.

As digital cameras have evolved over the past decade, and LCD screens have increased in size and resolution as camera bodies have shrunk in size, it’s increasingly rare to find models with optical viewfinders. Although the P7100 was one of those rare cameras, Nikon eliminated the viewfinder on the P7700 so that it could incorporate a faster lens without increasing the camera’s size. It’s a fair trade-off given that the P7700’s high-resolution (920,000-dot), 3-inch LCD is bright and clear, and works well under almost all lighting conditions. Nikon also upgraded the LCD from the P7100’s tiltable design to a fully articulated screen for easy shooting from any angle. The LCD folds into the camera body for protection, which is a great benefit. Just keep in mind that the P7700 won’t power up unless the LCD is in an open position.

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A while back, while shooting a video, I wanted to execute a dolly move—a smooth pan across a scene, made possible by mounting a camera onto a wheeled platform and rolling that platform sideways. I had neither the right equipment nor the necessary crew, so I improvised by balancing the camera on top of a wooden toy bus belonging to my daughter.

If no rolling toys are underfoot, iStabilizer’s $60 Dolly is an actual tool for the job, designed for shooters using small devices such as an iPhone, iPod touch, or compact camera. This small, configurable platform features four wheels and an articulating arm that lets you move the camera smoothly—on a flat surface, of course.

I attached my iPhone 4S to the included iStabilizer Mount, a spring-loaded clamp that securely grips the phone’s sides. Any phone up to roughly 2.8 inches wide (including the case if you use one for your phone) will fit. One thing to watch out for: You need to be careful when inserting an iPhone not to position the Dolly’s clamp over the phone’s volume buttons—especially considering that these buttons act as shutter releases when using the Camera app.

Alternatively, you can remove the iStabilizer Mount and use the Dolly with any small camera that accepts a standard 1/4-inch threaded mount. My Nikon D90 DSLR was too heavy for the arm to support in any position other than straight vertical, but my more-compact Canon PowerShot G12 did fine unless I extended it too far to the side (which caused the Dolly to tip from the weight).

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The Samsung EX2F fits neatly into the advanced compact camera category but offers more than just a balance of manual and automatic controls. It’s outfitted with a superfast f/1.4, 3.3X (24-80mm) wide-angle zoom lens and built-in Wi-Fi. Samsung seems to have an edge over other manufacturers when it comes to integrating Wi-Fi into its cameras, and the EX2F is no exception.

Snapshooters shouldn’t be intimidated by this camera’s “advanced” compact camera designation. Automatic and “smart” modes expand the EX2F’s appeal to a wide range of photographers. With its manual controls, this camera is also a good option for people who want to develop their photographic skills.

Hardware and design

Well-built and sturdy, the EX2F measures 4.41 by 2.46 by 1.08 inches and weighs about 10 ounces. Available in black or white, the EX2F is a little too big to fit into shirt pockets or most pants pockets, but you can easily tote it in a jacket or coat pocket.

The EX2F has no built-in viewfinder and no optional electronic viewfinder; the optical viewfinder accessory listed in the camera’s user manual has been discontinued, too. If you’re set on having an optical viewfinder, look for a third-party hotshoe-mount model. The good news is that the EX2F’s 3-inch, fully articulating AMOLED (Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode) screen works well under almost all lighting conditions. If you see any glare from the sun or indoor lighting, just tilt the screen until it disappears. The articulated LCD is also great for shooting overhead and at low angles, as well as for folding back into the camera body to protect the screen from scratches and smudges when the camera is not in use.

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The Olympus PEN E-PL5 shares the same 16-megapixel sensor and processing engine as its big brother, the OM-D E-M5. But it houses those electronics in a smaller, lighter, and less expensive package. And that alone should earn consideration for this handsome micro four-thirds camera. The $699 list price for the kit—which includes a 14-42mm f/3.5 II R zoom lens and flash—is about $500 less than the equivalent OM-D kit.

Physical features and ergonomics

The E-PL5 features a hinged 3-inch LCD that moves up and down allowing for easy composition when holding the camera at a low angle or above your head. It even swings all the way up, allowing for self-portrait compositions. The screen itself has decent resolution at 460,000 pixels, and it includes touchscreen capability.

Unfortunately, the compact body doesn't have enough room for a built-in flash. Olympus ships a separate unit in the kit that slides into the accessory shoe on the top of the camera. This is a change that Olympus made in the previous model, the E-PL3, to save space. But it’s a tradeoff that I’m not crazy about. I like having a built-in flash in compact cameras. It’s one of the reasons why I’ve hung on to my older E-PL2, which has a pop-up flash. And that camera doesn’t feel that much bigger as a result.

In fact, I think the older E-PL2 is easier to hold than this new model, at least with my large hands. Even though the E-PL5 has an interchangeable front grip (included in the kit), I still had a hard time gripping it in my right hand. Complicating the cramped ergonomics, my thumb has accidentally pressed both the movie record and the info buttons on the back of the camera while trying to achieve a firm hold for picture taking. It’s possible for a compact camera—like this one—to be too small for some people.

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Canon surprised and delighted digital photography enthusiasts when it released the first digital Rebel DSLR in 2003—the first DSLR with a sub-$1000 price tag. Since then, the entry-level Rebel line has evolved even while the pricing has remained about the same.

The latest Rebel model, the 18-megapixel Canon EOS T4i, incorporates several significant updates—including a hybrid CMOS sensor, a revamped autofocus system, and enhanced movie options—that not only make the camera a better performer for capturing still images but also increase its value in the video realm.

The T4i is the first touchscreen DSLR you can purchase in kit form with the 18-135mm IS (image-stabilized) STM (stepping motor) lens, which keeps things quiet when shooting video. That kit sells for $1149. Another kit with a standard 18-55mm II IS lens is available for $899. The price for just the body is $800.

Because its predecessor, the Rebel T3i, wasn’t discontinued when the T4i was released, the older camera may still be available at an even lower price. But the T4i is certainly worth the extra cash for those who appreciate the latest DSLR technologies and features.

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Not surprisingly, manufacturers often pare down the body and feature set on entry-level cameras. But while Samsung has streamlined some aspects and features of the NX1000 ($500), the least expensive of its NX line of mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras, it hasn’t scrimped on the sensor size or resolution. Like the NX20, the small NX1000 is built around Samsung’s 20 megapixel APS-C sized sensor, and its feature set—including WiFi—is pretty much the same.

The downsizing becomes evident in other areas. The NX1000 has no built-in flash although it comes with a tiny accessory flash; no viewfinder (nor the option to buy one); and it doesn’t have the high-end AMOLED (Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode) monitor of the top-of-the-NX-line NX20. But by eliminating those features, the NX1000 is on the shelf at a more affordable price than its siblings.

Build and hardware design

Available in black, pink, or white, and bundled with a 20-50mm lens (the white model comes with a matching white lens), the NX1000 weighs 0.48 pounds (without the battery or media card) and measures 4.59-by-2.46-by-1.44 inches, making it one of the smaller cameras in its class on the market. Still, unless it’s equipped with Samsung’s 16mm pancake lens, it’s not pocketable—and even with the 16mm pancake lens, it is probably a tight fit in a jacket or coat pocket. The unit is sturdily built, though, and its grip is reasonably comfortable. One-handed shooting is possible but it’s best to also balance the camera with your left hand wrapped around the lens barrel when taking pictures.

Samsung first entered the mirrorless interchangeable-lens camera (also known as compact system camera) market a couple of years ago, and has followed up with several models, including the 20-megapixel NX20. The Samsung NX20 ($1100 with 18-55mm lens) currently occupies the top slot of the company's NX line, with the entry-level NX1000 at the other end of the spectrum.

A few of the NX20's standout features include an APS-C-size CMOS sensor, an electronic viewfinder, a built-in pop-up flash, and an AMOLED (Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode) LCD—the latter trio of features not always found on cameras in this price range. As a bonus, the NX20, like most other current Samsung cameras, is equipped with Wi-Fi.

The basics

Slightly larger than other mirrorless cameras in its class and compared with its NX1000 sibling, the NX20 has a DSLR-like look and feel. The body measures 4.8 by 3.63 by 1.56 inches and weighs about 0.75 pound (without the battery, SD/SDHC/SDXC media card, or lens). The camera's midsize grip provides a solid handhold, but it's too big to fit easily inside a pocket. Although photographers with large hands will be comfortable holding the camera, they may find the buttons a little too small for easy operation.

This class of compact cameras generally does not have as wide a selection of lenses as classic DSLRs do. Samsung offers nine lenses, including the 18-55mm kit lens and others ranging from a 16mm f/2.4 pancake lens to a 85mm f/1.4 prime to a 50-200mm f/4.0-5.6 image-stabilized zoom. A 1.5x crop factor is applied for the effective focal length (meaning the 50-200mm lens actually delivers a focal range of 75-300mm). Available accessories include an external flash, microphone, and remote shutter release; an HDMI cable is necessary for showing stills and videos on an HDTV.

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Pentax has created an ecosystem of rugged, weather-resistant DSLRs and lenses. The new Pentax K-30 fills a particular niche, as an affordable, versatile camera that you can take just about anywhere. With its weather-sealed, dustproof, coldproof construction, you might actually wait until the rain starts before you go outside to take pictures.

All of that ruggedness comes at a reasonable price, too: The current street price for the K-30 is around $750. And just as important, the accompanying weather-resistant (WR) lenses won’t break the bank either. The 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 AL WR and 50-200mm f/4-5.6 ED WR zoom lenses each sell for less than $200. The lens we tested with the K-30 is the latest 18-135mm F/3.5-5.6 ED AL (IF) DC WR, which is selling in the neighborhood of $530.

Performance on the inside

The K-30 is built around a 16-megapixel APS-C CMOS sensor that produces JPEGs and DNG files. Exposure accuracy is good, assisted by the 77-segment metering system. Burst mode tops out at 6 frames per second, which is plenty fast for most action situations. And when it’s time to review your images, they appear on a 3-inch, 921,000-dot fixed-back LCD.

The glass pentaprism viewfinder is bright and provides a 100 percent field of view—a feature you don’t often see in sub-$1000 DSLRs. The 11-point phase-detection autofocus system includes nine cross sensors. And to help keep those images sharp, image stabilization is sensor-based, providing the benefits of IS with any lens you mount on the camera.

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Technological advancements have wrought awesome and unprecedented change in the video and photography markets. Almost any camcorder can record at 1080 resolution. Heck, even newer Internet Protocol security cameras are capable of producing high-resolution video. Digital still cameras, meanwhile, snap pictures with even higher resolution. The software for editing all those photographs and video has kept pace, too

Here are our picks of the best photography and video products of 2012.  

Adobe Creative Suite 6 (artistic software) 

Number 16 on our top 100 list, this suite is full of technological triumphs, from its support for GPU acceleration in Photoshop CS6 and Premiere Pro CS6, to Dreamweaver CS6’s ability to output smartphone apps for almost any mobile operating system by transferring their production to the cloud.

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Eye-Fi’s new Mobi wireless SD card promises to make the business of wirelessly transferring photos faster, easier, and cheaper. While no longer a revolutionary concept, transferring via Wi-Fi and its attendant setup  still can be a glitchy proposition for cameras without networking capabilities built-in. Eye-Fi has now taken this technology one zero configuration step further. The Eye-Fi Mobi lets you connect directly to your smartphone or tablet, providing instant sharing opportunities as well as backup protection for your pictures.

While some shooters are content with smartphone images, others seek to reduce the hassle factor of using their higher quality camera to share images on the go. The Mobi bypasses the computer and the cloud by transferring all the action to a free Eye-Fi app for iOS, Android, or Kindle Fire. Just enter the card’s unique 10-digit code to pair the card with one or more devices—no other setup is required. Once done, you can transfer high-resolution photos and videos to your device’s camera roll or gallery and send them on their way to friends and family or save them for editing.

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A team of researchers at Nanyang Technological University is developing a graphene-based camera sensor that’s 1000 times more sensitive to light than most commercial CMOS or CCD sensors. The NTU researchers say the new graphene-derived sensor can detect a broad spectrum of light—from the visible to mid-infrared—which could allow it to take photos in nearly-complete darkness.

The scientists etched a nanostructure onto the surface of the graphene sensor that “traps” light-generated electron particles that in turn become a digital image. In addition to its increased sensitivity, the researchers say that the sensor uses 10 times less energy compared to more conventional sensors, and that device could be at least five times cheaper to mass-produce, too.

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Sweden’s parliament has voted in favor of a law that bans taking pictures and filming in a private environment without first getting permission from people in attendance. Critics say the law is too ambiguous.

The Swedish Committee on Justice said the law, which goes into effect July 1, is needed since photographs or movies secretly shot in private settings can seriously violate an individual’s privacy, and protection has been inadequate.

Technical advances also have exacerbated the situation because it is possible to shoot in almost any location, at any time and under any conditions, and then immediately publish the images and videos on the Internet, the committee said.

To break the law, photos or videos have to be shot without permission, and the subjects must be in a private environment or place where the expectation of privacy is obvious, like a home, bathroom, or changing room.

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Extraterrestrial mining company, Planetary Resources has been counting down the days on its Twitter feed to unveil of a big secretive announcement.

Could it be the discovery of a new space civilization?! A revolutionary form of interplanetary propulsion?! Am engineering breakthrough that will make a space elevator possible!?! As it turns out, it is the announcement of a new Kickstarter that will allow you to take a picture of yourself from space.

The campaign aims to fund a fleet of orbiting space telescopes, which—for donations as small as $25—will give users the chance to take their own “space selfie.” A space selfie is a photo of a photo taken from miles above the Earth. Expect a lot of cat pics in space to come out of this.

If the Kickstarter literature is a little too TL;DR-y, here are the main deets. The company is looking to raise $1 million by June 30. The money will be used to launch and maintain a fleet of bread-box-size ARKYD satellites that the company will use to identify potentially mineral-rich asteroids to be exploited—down the line—for their bounty. Here's a video explanation by Planetary Resources:

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Like many longtime Flickr users, I was overjoyed at the prospect of Yahoo lavishing its fading photo service with some love after a prolonged period of not-so-benign neglect. The first step in Flickr's reinvention occurred in January with the release of Flickr 2.0 for iOS, and now Yahoo has let loose a wholesale overhaul of Flickr’s Web-based photo storage and sharing service—along with the release of an Android analog to its well-received iOS mobile app.

Yahoo has imparted a striking, bold look to the updated Flickr site, emphasizing social networking while showcasing large, high-resolution images and offering subscribers a whopping terabyte of free storage space. It’s a far cry from the utilitarian but tired interface of the past, which featured tiny thumbnails, vanilla text and links, and severely limited uploading options.

Whether you admire or despise the Flickr update depends in large part on who you are and what you expect from the photo showcase. As a photo enthusiast and Flickr subscriber since 2007, I’ve had my share of complaints about the service, and like many users, I've looked forward to this long-awaited upgrade. Here’s my first take.

Vivid new look

The new Flickr home page for the Web in many ways echoes the front cover of the mobile iOS app, emphasizing social networking features. Two-thirds of the horizontal interface is consumed by enormous images from your contacts and also from unknown people whom Flickr thinks you will like. Meanwhile, links to Groups, Explore, the Flickr blog, and other potential contacts Flickr suggests are listed on the remaining right-hand rail of the page. With the raft of new photo-centric communities springing up, it makes sense for Flickr to toss its lens into that arena.

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James Guerin

If you’re someone who can appreciate the cameras of days past, you’ll definitely enjoy one of James Guerin’s DIY pinhole cameras. His newest custom build, the 8x10" Pinhole Camera, shoots 20 images all at once using its 20 lenses and 20 different compartments. Twenty!

James built the camera after seeing various collages online, made of overlapped images from an entire roll of 35mm film. Of course, getting the overlapping, multiple-image effect from a single camera meant you have to consider the distance between each shot—a rather labor-intensive process.

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The Khronos Group has announced plans to create an open and royalty-free application programming interface for controlling mobile and embedded cameras and sensors, giving developers access to features such as burst modes and flash.

The Khronos Group may not be a household name, but the organization is to be reckoned with since it develops standards such as OpenGL. But standardized APIs to accelerate image and vision processing isn’t enough as the industry lacks a camera interface with low-level control of the camera sensor, lens and flash, it said on Tuesday.

“It enables developers to flexibly control the operation of the camera and sensor to generate innovative sequences of images that can be processed by leading-edge applications. For example, you can fire off a sequence of shots with the focus point adjusted in each shot - which lets you isolate objects at various depths from the background,” said Neil Trevett, president at Khronos and vice president of mobile content at Nvidia, via email.

The newly created Camera working group will get to work in June, and any interested companies are welcome to make contributions, influence the work and gain early access to draft specifications by joining Khronos. Companies such as Apple, ARM, Google, Qualcomm and Samsung Electronics are already members.

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Cormac Relf

Photography lenses can easily be really expensive. So if you’ve got an awesome camera body lying around but no glass to go with it, you could always try and build a lens of your own like photographer and student Cormac Relf did.

DIYer Cormac built his lens out of a glass reading puck—which your grandparents might have lying around as a magnifying glass for reading tiny print—along with some construction paper and pieces of cardboard.

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Conventional wisdom has it that you should keep the background in your photos out of focus to draw attention to the subject in the foreground. Generally that’s good advice, but sometimes you might want everything to be in sharp focus, from the foreground elements all the way to the distant background. If you have a camera that lets you adjust the focus manually (think DSLRs and advanced compacts), you can accomplish this effect using a technique called hyperfocal photography.

Despite the intimidatingly technical name, hyperfocal photography isn’t especially complicated. The term simply refers to taking a picture in a way that delivers the maximum possible depth of field.

Sounds easy—after all, you already know that large f-numbers yield deeper depth of field. So picking the biggest f-number available (say, f/22) would automatically give you a hyperfocal photo that’s uniformly in focus, right?

Not so fast. There’s a little more to the story of hyperfocal photography. It also requires you to shoot at something called the hyperfocal distance.

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Blurry photos are generally a bad thing. But although it's true that—with rare exception—no one likes camera shake in their photos, sometimes blur is intentional, such as when you shoot a photo with shallow depth of field so that the subject is sharp and the background is out of focus.

Within the blurry background, you often have lights or reflections—especially at night. In fact, the quality of the background on those highlights is something that photographers consider when taking the shot, and you can affect the look of your photo by tweaking that blurriness. There’s even a name for this effect—it’s called bokeh, and it comes from a Japanese word meaning “blur” or “haze.” Here's what I'm talking about; consider this detail from the background of a photo.

In a nutshell, bokeh refers to the visual properties of blur. But before I go any further, first, some simple science: Where are the blurry dots coming from? Without getting too technical, I can say that bokeh happens when light rays pass through the camera lens and diffract around the lens aperture. As a result, the shape of the aperture gets repeated all over the background of the image. Often, the blur is not quite round, because the aperture isn’t perfectly round; typically it’s made from seven or nine metal blades—small metal surfaces that open and close inside the lens like a diaphragm—that approximate a circle. But if the aperture is shot wide open at the smallest f-number, then the blur will be a perfect circle.

So how do you shoot to get this effect? The most important thing you need is a scene that includes fairly small lights or reflections. The lights of a city at night, Christmas tree lights, or bits of light reflecting off leaves are all good candidates. Large lights or reflective surfaces won’t work if you shoot them too close.

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Composing a compelling photo can be a challenging artistic endeavor; after all, what looks great in real life can be flat and uninspired when captured as a photo. It’s not enough just to capture what you see with your eyes; you need to reinterpret the scene for the medium that we used to call film.

Thankfully, photographers have had almost two centuries to codify successful compositional techniques into a set of rules. You almost certainly know the most common rule of composition, the Rule of Thirds: Divide what you see in the viewfinder into thirds, like a tic-tac-toe board, and arrange your subject at one of the intersection points. And most cameras–including the iPhone–let you turn on a grid or guide lines to make the scene easier to frame.

Many other rules of composition are less well known, but they’re easy to apply and will add a lot of variety to your photos. Here are the top five to try out in your own photos for whatever camera you use.

Framing: Wander through an art gallery or museum, and you’ll see that artists have traditionally liked to surround their images with fairly ornate frames. Even though frames have gotten simpler in modern times, framing is still important—it helps set the subject off from the physical world. It sets boundaries. And that same technique is actually quite powerful within the photo itself. Study photos with a critical eye, and you’ll find that pros use many elements in their work as natural frames to surround and isolate the key subject in a scene.

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It’s hard to believe today—especially since you can just look up at the sky and see our crater-covered moon with your naked eyes—but there was a time when people weren’t intimately familiar with what the surface of our nearby neighbor looked like. Before the Renaissance-era invention of the telescope, the moon was generally thought to be a perfect, unblemished sphere. These days, with even a moderate telephoto lens, you can photograph the moon and see the surface details for yourself.

What you’ll need

To shoot the moon, the technique is the same whether you have a compact digital camera or an SLR model—the only caveat is that no matter what kind of camera you choose, it should have a manual exposure mode, in which you dial in the aperture and shutter speed separately. So although many compact cameras will work just fine, if your camera is a true point-and-shoot with just a bunch of scene modes to choose from, you won’t have much luck shooting the moon.

Something else to keep in mind: The bigger your zoom, the more dramatic your moon photos will be.  After all, your subject is 250,000 miles away, so a wide-angle lens will have a hard time capturing the scene. If you’re lucky enough to have more than 400mm, that’s awesome. That might sound like a mighty big lens, but keep in mind that many common “megazoom” compact cameras can reach up to 1000mm—it’s almost like having a telescope nailed to the front of your camera.

If your camera doesn’t reach quite that far, don’t worry; you can still get a great photo, and you can crop it afterward to put more emphasis on the moon.

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Cameras are very good at freezing moments in time. Browse through your photo collection, and no doubt you’ll have lots of examples in which a fast shutter speed captured an instant and preserved it, seemingly in amber. What’s missing from photos like those, though, are any sense of drama. If you’re shooting moving subjects—at a car race, a sporting event, or an airshow, for example—then you might want to preserve some of that action. You should learn to pan your camera.

Panning is a technique that lets you capture the essence of motion in a photo. By shooting with a somewhat slow shutter speed and tracking the action as you take the picture, you blur the background while freezing the subject. With a little practice, the results can be striking.

Unfortunately, panning does require a little practice. It’s unnatural and a bit counterintuitive; for as long as you’ve been taking pictures, you’ve probably tried to hold the camera as still as possible. Now I’m asking you to move the camera while you take the shot, albeit in a careful and controlled way.

Choosing the right camera settings

Let’s start with the camera settings. If you can control the exposure (like on a digital SLR or compact digital camera), you’ll want to slow down the shutter. Ideally, you want a shutter speed that’s slow enough to blur the background as you move the camera during the exposure, but fast enough that the subject you’re tracking will be fairly sharp.

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Portable electronics have the same Achilles’ heel as the invading aliens in M. Night Shyamalan’s movie Signs: water. It’s not a good idea to get your digital SLR wet. Taking photos in a rainstorm can end the life of your camera. So how do you protect your camera while taking pictures in a spring shower or a summer deluge? Dress your camera in a rain cover—usually, waterproof fabric that keeps water away from the lens and body, while leaving both the business and control ends open for business.

The good news? There's a surprisingly wide variety of covers to choose from, and many come in a number of sizes to fit various lens lengths and flash attachments. I tried each one with my Nikon D7000 and a variety of lenses.

AquaTech Sports Shield

AquaTech’s Sports Shields (both the Professional and Basic varieties) are made of lightweight waterproof fabric that folds up quite compactly. Installing it (I tried the Basic design) is reminiscent of putting a sweater on a dog; you unzip the Sports Shield’s two zippers, pull the lens through, drape it over the camera body, and zip everything up. To keep water from leaking in the front, a Velcro strap tightens around the lens hood.

In addition to the cover itself, you’ll need an eyepiece that replaces the one that comes with your camera. AquaTech sells models for most popular digital SLRs for $30. The Sports Shield stretches around the eyepiece for a watertight fit there as well.

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All great debates are framed by at least two compelling, often contradictory choices: Mac vs. PC, Beatles vs. Stones, oatmeal raisin vs. chocolate chip. If you have a digital SLR or an advanced compact camera, you can make just such a choice when it comes to what format in which to save your photos. Most cameras default to the common JPEG format (and if you have a smartphone or very basic point and shoot, that’s probably your only choice). There’s a good chance your camera also offers a Raw option as well, though. You’ve probably heard that it is a higher quality option than JPEG, but comes with tradeoffs of its own. Should you take it?

There’s no one right answer; it depends upon how you tend to edit and use your photos. It might be helpful to take a step back and discuss the differences between the two formats.

The difference between Raw and JPEG

First of all, Raw isn’t a single, universal file format. Raw is a general term that describes a file that saves all of the “raw” data from the image sensor without processing or discarding anything. Every manufacturer has its own proprietary Raw format and it can even vary from model to model. Nikon’s Raw format is called NEF, while Canon uses CRW and CR2. Raw files pack more color information than JPEG; typically capturing 12 bits per color, that’s a lot more data than JPEG’s 8 bits per color (it’s the difference between 4096 and 256 color variations of each red, green, and blue pixel). And that’s not all; Raw files contain all of that color information, while the JPEG format compresses and strips out some data on the way to saving it. JPEG is, after all, a “lossy” file format, and it makes smaller files by discarding color data that is considered less important. Anytime you re-save a JPEG file and use the compression or quality slider in a photo editing program, you’re re-compressing the photo by asking the computer to discard even more color information.

On the other hand, JPEG files have some advantages over Raw. While Raw files are unprocessed, your camera optimizes JPEG image for sharing with the assumption you’re not planning to edit it afterwards. JPEGs get color balanced based on the camera’s white balance reading, and the images are sharpened as well (you can usually tweak how strongly photos are sharpened by adjusting the camera’s settings).

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This time of year tends to slow down my progress whenever I’m outdoors; my wife, it seems, can’t pass a flower without taking a picture of it on her phone. Indeed, no matter what kind of camera you own—SLR, compact, or smartphone—spring is a great time to take photos of flowers, insects, and other small details of the natural world.

Macro mode

You can get some really nice close-up photos (technically referred to as macrophotography) with almost any camera by remembering a few rules. So what do you need to know?

For starters, every camera lens has a minimum focusing distance. You can’t cheat the laws of optics; get too close to your subject, and the result will simply be blurry. The iPhone, for example, has a minimum focusing distance of about 2 to 3 inches. That’s great, especially since you don’t need to do anything special to trigger close-up mode.

Many compact digital cameras, on the other hand, won’t automatically focus once you get within a foot or so of your subject. In order to take a macro photo just inches away, you’ll need to turn on the camera’s macro mode, which is usually a button or menu setting with a tulip symbol. The macro mode rearranges the camera’s optics to focus very close up, but remember to turn it off when you’re done—a camera in macro mode won’t be able to focus sharply on subjects that are at a normal distance.

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In the days before digital photography, seemingly every corner store had rack upon rack of film on display. Each roll of film was marked with a speed—measured in ISO—such as 100, 200, or 400. Higher-speed film was handy for low-light photography, but it had a serious disadvantage: grain.

Film grain was every photographer’s nemesis. Instead of smooth, natural textures, grain put ugly blotches all over a photo. And though the days of grainy photos are far behind us, digital photos have a similar problem: digital noise.

You’ve undoubtedly seen noise in your own photos. On the plus side, noise tends to be very small; and when you view a many-megapixel photo on a computer screen, pixel-size noise is so small that it usually disappears into the background. You might look at a very noisy photo and not even know it. Noise becomes apparent, though, when you zoom in—if you crop it down to a small detail, for example, or if you attempt to make a large print. Let’s learn how to control noise.

The science of noise

Noise is an appropriate term, because it describes what happens visually in a photo: Tiny, fairly regular but unintended splotches of color mar the photo. The source of the problem is “noisy data”—unreliable or contaminated data. And that’s what is going on here.

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