Tips for low light photography: Capture every Christmas moment
Christmas tends to be a time of pretty lights and low-lit rooms to take full advantage of those lights, which in turn results in images full of random shadows and colours.
To help you out, we have compiled a few tips to give you better photo results when using a camera in low light. First step is taking it out of auto, and then follow these tricks to make sure you capture every moment. If you’re using a smartphone, you can check out our feature six tips on smartphone photography to help you out.
Use the scene modes
The scene modes are a good place to start and many cameras feature an intelligent scene setting, which detects when you are taking a night shot so this feature is worth keeping on.
You can also manually set your camera to night mode, which will more than likely still give you a flash, but it is a step in the right direction for a better shot.
Some cameras also have a low light mode, which not only turns the flash off, but automatically sets the right shutter speed, aperture, ISO, among other features necessary for a good shot.
Set the maximum image stabilisation
As the flash is your enemy when it comes to low light shots, when you turn it off your shutter will need to stay open as long as possible for each photo to get as much light into the sensor as possible.
The only problem is, any movement you make in that time will result in blurring, which you don’t want unless you are looking for a super arty shot.
To help avoid the blur, you need to find the image stablisation setting in the camera and set it to the maximum. The camera will then use a range of techniques and algorithms to counteract any shaky hands.
Alternatively, find somewhere stable to rest your camera – a table or wall, for example.
Avoid zoom
When you zoom in, you reduce the amount of light that can be let into the camera at any one time, unless you have a high-end model, that is.
If you have a camera that allows you to adjust the aperture, you’ll notice the maximum size, which is the smallest number available, will be selectable. For the majority of compact cameras, this won’t be the case when you are zoomed in.
For the best low light shots, you need a large aperture and therefore you need to move yourself closer, rather than hitting that plus button to zoom in.
Consider setting the maximum ISO possible
Since you have taken your camera out of Auto mode, it is likely the device will stop adjusting the ISO for you, or at least let you alter it yourself.
The ISO is the measurement for how sensitive your camera is to light. For low light shots, a higher ISO will give you a photo without using a really long, slow shot, which is difficult to keep steady handheld.
At the top settings you’ll probably see some more noise or speckles on your images, with a lack of clarity and possibly the odd artifact, but if all else fails, you’ll get that night shot.
Try the manual option
You might just be a point and shoot photographer, but if your camera has a manual mode, then it is worth giving it a go.
For low light conditions, you need that large aperture mentioned above and a long shutter speed, meaning you will need low numbers for both settings.
If you are unsure, many cameras will show you how you are affecting the image as you change the settings on the LCD display, so keep an eye on it and stop when it looks right.
Take the time to experiment and you’ll find the best combination of all the techniques above.
PayPal Offering 10% Off iTunes Gift Cards Through Holidays
PayPal is offering 10% off iTunes e-gift cards until December 30 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time. Available denominations include a $25 iTunes e-gift card for $22.50, $50 iTunes e-gift card for $45, and a $100 iTunes e-gift card for $90. The gift cards are not physical but instead delivered electronically via email.
iTunes gift cards can be used to purchase apps, games, music, movies, TV shows, books, and more on the App Store, iTunes Store, the iBooks Store, and the Mac App Store. The credit can also be used towards an Apple Music subscription. The gift cards can be used on iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple TV, Mac, or PC.
Here’s the fine print summarized: Valid U.S. PayPal and iTunes accounts are required. The deal is valid only on purchases made in the United States from the U.S. iTunes Store. The offer is valid while supplies last. Limited quantity is available. Electronic delivery only. No returns or refunds are accepted.
While iTunes gift cards can occasionally be found for 15% off, this is one of the best deals currently available.
Discuss this article in our forums
FBI looks into Chinese hack targeting federal insurance
The US’ Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation hasn’t had an easy time of things in recent years: it’s been the subject of numerous hacks in recent years, starting in 2010. And now, the FBI wants answers. Reuters sources understand that the law enforcement agency is investigating how the intruders got in, and that the FDIC believes the Chinese military sponsored the attacks. While the full details of the initial hack aren’t available, it took a while to recover. The FDIC took until “at least” 2012 to make sure that its systems were clean, according to an internal probe.
The FBI isn’t commenting, and the Chinese government tells Reuters that it’s “very hard” to determine where an attack came from without evidence. You’re not about to get firm answers about those hacks, we’re afraid. However, there’s no doubt that online security is still an ongoing problem. Official disclosures show that there were 159 instances of unauthorized access in the FDIC’s fiscal 2015, 20 of which were data breaches.
The corporation is fixing at least some of the underlying problems. It should be conducting vulnerability scans in a sensitive part of its network, and (like other departments) it’s preventing staff from simply walking away with sensitive info on thumb drives. There’s also a question of whether or not the threat is as large as it was in 2010 given a recent US-China agreement that theoretically limits hacking campaigns. Still, it’s entirely possible that the FBI investigation will not only reveal the nature and scope of the FDIC hack, but lead to important changes in government security.
Source: Reuters
New iPhone, iPad, or AirPods? Get Extra Apple-Certified Lightning Cables for Just $6
For those lucky enough to find a new iPhone, iPad, or AirPods under the tree today, now is the perfect time to outfit your home, car, work desk, bedside table, or elsewhere with extra Lightning charging cables.
Apple charges $19 for its 1-meter Lightning to USB charging cable, but you can save yourself $13 by purchasing an Apple-certified 0.9-meter Anker Lightning to USB charging cable for just $5.99 on Amazon.
The cable qualifies for free two-day shipping in the United States for Amazon Prime members. Without a Prime membership, free standard 6-8 days shipping in the U.S. is available on orders over $49 in total.
While counterfeit Apple cables and chargers on Amazon are common, and potentially dangerous, Anker claims its cable is certified by Apple under its MFi Program. MFi-certified products have been certified by the developer to meet Apple performance standards. The Wirecutter, owned by The New York Times, said Anker has the best Lightning cable.
This article is not affiliated with Anker, but MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Amazon and may sometimes get paid if you click one of the above links.
Discuss this article in our forums
‘Star Citizen’ switches to Amazon’s game engine
Star Citizen is still far from being ready, but it now has a more solid underpinning. Cloud Imperium has revealed that it has switched both Star Citizen and Squadron 42 from Crytek’s CryEngine to Amazon’s Lumberyard engine as of Star Citizen’s just-launched Alpha 2.6 release. It was an “easy and smooth transition” due to Lumberyard’s CryEngine roots, but both secures the “long term future” of the games and promises some distinct advantages. It taps directly into the cloud through Amazon Web Services, for instance, and makes Twitch streaming easy.
The studio has already been collaborating with Amazon for “over a year,” so this isn’t a panicked response to Crytek’s financial woes. The timing is more than a little convenient, mind you. It gives Cloud Imperium more of a safety net if Crytek ever has to stop its own development — it won’t have to switch engines while it’s in panic mode. It’s easy to imagine frustration from backers at the thought that the Amazon switch might delay Star Citizen even longer, but that might be better than risking the entire project.
As it stands, Alpha 2.6 is a big step forward: it’s the first release with Star Marine, the game’s first-person shooter component. You now have two competitive multiplayer modes (everyone-for-themselves and a Battlefield-style capture-and-hold mode) for those times when you just want to fight friends instead of exploring the cosmos. Numerous other parts of Star Citizen have received some polish, too, such as first-person animations and third-person cameras. Although this is still no substitute for a finished game, it at least shows that Cloud Imperium is getting a handle on some of the many, many features it has been promising over the years.
Via: Polygon
Source: Roberts Space Industries (1), (2)
Louis CK’s app gives you direct access to his comedy shows
Louis CK helped prove that artists can make good income by selling videos directly to fans, but getting his comedy shows to your phone can be a bit of a headache if you’re unfamiliar with the intricacies of local file syncing. As of this week, though, you don’t have to bend over backwards. The entertainer has released apps for both Android and iOS that let you buy, watch and listen to shows right on your device — there’s no sideloading required, and no third-party studios getting in the way. As Louis explains in a newsletter, this is really a mobile version of his website, just optimized to make your life easier.
The pricing is the same $5 per show (less for most Horace and Pete episodes), and anything you’ve bought before will be available the moment you sign in. You’ll also get notifications for new shows and tour dates.
There is a question about how the app works on iOS: is Louis giving Apple a cut of in-app sales like other developers, or raking it all in? We suspect the former (at least if he wants to abide by App Store guidelines). If so, it might be best to buy that stand-up special on the web if you want to make sure that Louis gets his full share.
Source: App Store, Google Play
Astronaut and climate scientist Piers Sellers dies at 61
It’s sad when humanity loses pioneering astronauts who claim important firsts, but it’s equally tragic when we lose those astronauts who quietly accomplished a lot both in orbit and on the ground. And unfortunately, we just lost one: Piers Sellers, a NASA astronaut and climate scientist, has died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 61. You may not have heard of him, but the UK-born explorer was a major force in NASA for decades.
He first built his reputation at NASA as a scientist, studying the relationship between the living world and the atmosphere for the better part of two decades starting in 1982 — first through computer modeling and later through leading the Terra satellite team. He only flew to space for three missions in 2002, 2006 and 2010, but he spent a sizeable 35 days in space that both had a meaningful impact (he helped build the International Space Station, for instance) and influenced his work back on Earth. From 2011 until his death, Sellers oversaw NASA climate and weather researchers with a strong sense of advocacy. After seeing how “fragile and infinitely precious” Earth was, he pressed for efforts to minimize global warming and preserve the planet.
Sellers sadly didn’t fulfill his goal of seeing fundamental answers to climate change within his lifetime. However, he’s leaving a large legacy behind him, including more than 70 papers and other work that helped scientists understand the Earth. Also, he’s a point of pride for the British. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, and was one of the UK’s most prominent spacefarers ahead of Tim Peake’s 2015 launch. It’s clear that the world will be poorer without him.
[Thanks, Kristy]
Via: The Star
Source: NASA
Firefox will support Windows XP and Vista until September 2017
Numerous web browsers have already stopped supporting Windows XP and Vista, but not Firefox. To this day, Mozilla’s latest software can work with your decade-old PC. However, even that team has its limits — it’s phasing out support for XP and Vista starting next year. Mozilla will start by moving users on these operating systems to the Extended Support Release in March 2017, limiting them to feature updates that can be “several cycles” behind the curve. And while the company plans to unveil a final support end date in the middle of that year, it’ll effectively cut the cord in September, when it stops delivering security updates.
This doesn’t mean that Firefox will stop working on XP or Vista in September, of course. But when security flaws are hard to avoid, it’ll be impractical to keep using Firefox on those platforms when you could remain permanently vulnerable to exploits. There aren’t likely to be many people who both run a 10-year-old operating system and care enough about their web experience to use a recent browser, so the impact may be limited. However, it’s still a big deal if you’re stuck on a work PC or otherwise haven’t had a chance to upgrade to a newer version of Windows. Like it or not, you’ll probably have to consider a new OS (or a new PC) if you want to experience the modern internet next year.
Source: Mozilla
AsteroidOS review – the future of Android Wear?
With Android Wear 2.0 being delayed until the next year, and seemingly no new smartwatches planned from OEMs like LG, Motorola, and Huawei, things in the Android Wear universe has come to a standstill. If you can’t wait for the Android Wear 2.0 update, or are just looking to breathe some life into your smartwatch, you might want to give something new a try. Currently compatible with a limited number of devices, including what was the first Android Wear smartwatch to be launched, the LG G Watch, here is a quick look at AsteroidOS!
AsteroidOS has been created by Florent Revest, a French computer science student, and is a completely standalone linux-based wearable OS that is not based on Android Wear in any shape or form. It is also entirely open-source, which will allow other developers and manufacturers to freely modify it as they see fit.
Before diving into the review, something to keep in mind is that AsteroidOS is still in the alpha stages of development, so understandably, not everything will work perfectly. You will notice a lot bugs and freezes, but it does run well enough for you to get an idea of what this new take on the wearable operating system has to offer.
There is an app you can download from the AsteroidOS website, that will allow you to manage certain functions and pair it to your smartphone for notifications. So far, the smartwatches that AsteroidOS can be ported to include the LG G Watch, the LG Watch Urbane, the Sony Smartwatch 3, and the ASUS Zenwatch 2, but that list should continue to grow.
Bluetooth pairing works only with the LG G Watch however, and even then, it can be quite finicky. The connection isn’t always stable, and notifications tend to disappear after a few seconds, with the watch going back to saying that you have no new notifications. So far, there isn’t a way to interact with, or even read, notifications either.
When the watch is connected to the phone, you have several options within the app itself. You can change the weather to the city of your choice, locate your watch, take a screenshot, and tinker with the notification settings. The weather settings and the find my watch options are currently the only features that work for now. The app also tells you the remaining battery life of your smartwatch, but it isn’t accurate at the moment, so you are better off checking the device’s battery life on the watch itself.
Since it is touch based, all the navigation is done via swipes. If you swipe down on the display, you will get access to some quick shortcuts for screen brightness, Bluetooth, and enabling or disabling vibration, and you can also see the remaining battery life here. If you tap on the lock icon, it will put the watch to sleep, and a double tap on the display will wake it up.
Swiping to the left will show you your notifications, assuming that notifications work properly. Swiping right works like a back key, unless you are already on the main home screen , in which case a swipe to the right will take you to the Recent Apps screen. Here, you can quickly jump between apps, and easily close these apps with a long press on them, and tapping the x that appears.
No third party apps are available at the moment, but there are a few basic applications that are pre-installed that you can access by swiping up on the screen. These include a calendar, calculator, alarm clock, timer, stopwatch, a music player, and a weather application. All the apps are simple and minimalistic, with white text and graphics, and colorful backgrounds.
You can also access all the watch settings here, which has all the basic functions that you would expect, like the time, date, language, Bluetooth, screen brightness, and the options to power off or reboot the watch. There are also some customization options here for wallpapers and watch faces, and it comes pre-installed with a surprisingly decent amount of them, given that it is such an early build.
So, there you have it for this quick look at the AsteroidOS! If you are looking to install this new wearable operating system, you can find all the information you need here. Keep in mind though that the installation process isn’t easy, and some amount of technical prowess is definitely recommended.
Another thing to consider is that this isn’t daily driver material just yet. Instead, what you will get instead is a fair idea of what the experience is like, and what to expect going forward. It doesn’t overwrite Android Wear either, so you can easily go back to the regular OS by simply rebooting the watch. Asteroid OS is a wearable operating system that looks like it has a lot of potential, and is definitely worth keeping an eye on to see where it can go from.
Fitbit drops its attempt to ban Jawbone device sales
For once, the he-said-she-said legal fight between Fitbit and Jawbone appears to be simmering down. Jawbone tells us in a statement (below) that Fitbit has dropped its US International Trade Commission patent case, which sought to ban sales of Jawbone devices in the country. If you ask Jawbone, this ends “baseless” allegations that were meant solely as a “burden.” This doesn’t mean that the company will respond in kind (its accusations of trade secret theft will see trial in 2017), but it’s one less battle to worry about. But why did Fitbit change its mind?
We’ve asked Fitbit for comment and will let you know if it can offer its own statement. However, its ITC filing suggests that Jawbone isn’t exactly scoring a resounding victory. Fitbit says it’s dropping the case because, for all intents and purposes, Jawbone is no longer a significant threat. Jawbone’s shares are “worth nothing,” Fitbit claims, and the company has supposedly either filed for bankruptcy or is defaulting on its debts.
Jawbone maintains that it has no plans to declare bankruptcy. However, there’s no doubt that it’s hurting between its smaller market share and reports (however flawed) that it’s having trouble making payments. Simply speaking, Fitbit isn’t concerned that Jawbone is about to stage a comeback — its market lead isn’t about to disappear any time soon.
“Fitbit has moved to drop its patent case against Jawbone, which had been set for trial in the International Trade Commission in March. By dismissing this action, Fitbit is no longer seeking to block importation of Jawbone devices, including Jawbone products in development. Jawbone believes this case — involving patents already found once to be invalid — should have been dismissed long ago by Fitbit. Fitbit’s pursuit of these baseless claims for so long was to burden Jawbone– an issue to be raised in Jawbone’s antitrust claim against Fitbit. Jawbone’s trade secret case in California state court against Fitbit will move forward to a jury trial in 2017.”
AIVAnet 