So, here are 10 minutes of total fractal travel:

The zoom is so intense that the original fractal is larger than the known universe, but the last image gives details smaller than the smaller of nuclear physics particle.

Astonishing mathematics via Boing Boing.

Most of it comes from the use of masterful algorithms of cleaning, cropping, re-cropping, aligniment, correction, optimisation that are usually included in some very complex and very expensive pro software scanning tools. Thanks to Scan Tailor, this is no longer the cas. It is open source and it does it all like the pros.

Scan Tailor

Use Google.

Now, Google is able to search images by size. Just enter your screen size and you will be treated to a galore of images. If you also search for the word “wallpaper”, you are sure to find exactly what you need.

For my own 24″ screen, I could find brightly colored pictures or elegant designs. All designed to be wallpapers, even when no wide-audience web site had found it yet.

Free wallpapers on Google

did I mention that it also works for dual-screen wallpapers? And did I mention that it’s free? (for a commercial use, this would not be an acceptable practice)

• An HP LaserJet 1005. The lowest B&W laser I could find at HP (I am faithful to this brand even if the last LaserJet 1022 failed suddenly far before the end of its normal useful life). It’s a Windows-based printer used on the local network, but it seems that printing over the LAN is nearly instantaneous. Magic!
• An Epson Stylus Photo R1900. Replacing an eon-old Stylus Photo 750, it should bring color photo printing in A3+. It’s amazingly silent.

On the image on the left, Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa has been converted to black and white (A), using color data and textures from a similar image (B), the algorithm built a color image again (C) not too far from the original (D).

Analyzing this work, I’d say that part of the differences between the result (C) and the original (D) come from the quality of the conversion to Black & White which led to an image quite hard (a bit more contrast than needed).

Impressive result on photos, you can expect to see it applied to moving images (and movies).

Source: Futura-Science.

A quality lens

The first advice I should give it to choose a high-end lens. Even if the trans-standard zoom lens of the kit for most digital SLR cameras provide very good results in an exceptionnally compact form factor, that we all love to use. But these are also the result of so many compromises where image quality cannot be always the only factor.

Professionnal zoom lenses (the most expensive) are often capable of really impressive achievements, but prime lenses (with a fixed focal lenght) can reach quality levels that no zoom lens can reach. Some say that this is their unique (and only) selling point: Quality.

Thus, in the Minolta-Sony lens catalog, I rushed onto the white tele-lenses from the APO G pro family that, even today, produce exceptionnally good images (for a price no less astonishing if you don’t purchase them second-hand). But each serious camera/lens manufacturer has a few very nice lenses in its catalog.

Stop down your lens a little

Even the best lens is not perfect and its best is not reached at full aperture. Typically, you must stop down 2 or 3 stops to reach its best quality (check with the magazines quality analysis to know your glass top level).

Small ISO’s

In analog as in digital, it is difficult to avoid noise and loss of resolution when you pump the ISOs up. The rush for more sensitivity brings you defects that can go up to ugly. You must know your camera and the sensitivity range where images are the best (further than some values -400 ISO, 800 ISO, 1600 ISO- noise levels will become too annoying) and always stay under this limit whatever the temptation. Even better, try to use the basic core sensitivity of your camera (often 100 ISO, sometimes 200 ISO; check your user manual).

Say no! to vibrations

There are few things that can degrade sharpness as efficiently as vibrations while shooting. Vibrations of the camera, of the photographer, of the subject. If the latter allows it, use a tripod. It will allow you to stop down your lens, to keep a low ISO sensitivity and still be able to shoot.

If low speeds are impossible for the subject, choose a shutter speed as quick as necessary to stop the subject’s movements. For example, birds hardly accept less than 1/250s (many will prefer 1/1000s to freeze the attitudes).

No JPEG

In digital imaging, there is one common image format that degrades the local sharpness quite efficiently: JPEG file format. If the compression level is not too high (maximum quality) it can stay acceptable, but it will be best to work from a RAW format image. It’s richer and kept all the details available.

In the spotlight: Sony Alpha 900 Canon EOS 5D Mk II Nikon D700 FX Download Nero for free

Perfect light exposure and careful image processing

But after shooting the image, it is still possible to crunch its quality down. First, be sure to perfectly expose the image. Some people will say that you can always correct later, but once you miss some information no post-processing will ever re-create it. If under- or over-exposure removes some information, it’s just lost).

Having a well exposed RAW image, be sure to limit processing to the strict minimum. Start withminor exposure and color processing. Don’t use any other tool (or minimally, and then…)

Touch up image size after pre-processing (in most case, you will also like to keep an original at full high-resolution before you proceed), then apply sharpening/accentuation (see below).

Save the image in a file format that will preserve all the details: Again, I recommend to forget JPEG and to prefer TIFF.

Sharpen/Unsharp

Nearly all digital images require some sharpening to bring some additional appearance of sharpness. But you must be very cautious here. So many good images have been lost by unwise sharpening.

Under Photoshop, use the Unsharp tool (USM).

To start with the USM filter, you can use the ones suggested by PhotographyJam, depending on the objective:

Light!

But in any case, to reach all the other aims, you will need light. Enough light. But also, as any photographer will tell, a nice light, lighting oriented to best serve your subject. Your first and last concern will be light to have not only a sharp image, but a beautiful photograph.

Source: DaniellaSpinat.com.

• Les Numériques (en français): would better use Picasa to share the images prepared with Photoshop Express, and would want to see Raw files management, curves and histograms, and masks.
• Ars Technica (in English): it is rahter a cross between iPhoto and Adobe Bridge, but they love the basic features and (including color correction).
• Baekdal.com (in English) : disappointed; This is not an image editor, by far – just a fun way to apply a few corrections/effects. Woudl rather recommend Splashup, he feels is superior.
• Photojojo (in English): This is certainly not Photoshop but it does very well what it offers (basic image edition/correction).
• LifeHacker: Not the Full PS Package, but Good Web-Based Editing
• Pixinfo.com (in Hungarian): Honest! I didn’t understand what they think about it…

To notice: Photoshop Express is free, limited to 2GB of online storage (easy to reach) and in English only for now.

The biggest single US dollar bill

This is not even really a bill since it’s more a tool to manage gold exchanges in an economy that was based on gold: a gold certificate. It was never circulated in the public since 1034, and is only visible in museums.

Source: PurpleSlinky.com.

The weird Zimbabwe bills

In a country where the economy totally collapsed, the Zimbabwe dollar has no value left: Inflation reached several tens of thousands of percents (much more than what hit the German economy of the 30’s), crushing the mere value of any bill in just days.

As a matter of fact, this 10 million dollar bill does not allow you to pay anything (valued a few euros a few months ago, it’s really worthless now).

Canon color management guide (2MB PDF file)

Out of stock already.

The HP online color thesaurus is a great way to identify these and to get the precise formal definition of such colours. You type in a name, and it will give you the color, similar ones and anonyms.

Today is Blog Action Day: The day that bloggers chose to try and help save the planet from the impact of Human activity. For my own part, I decided to collect a few ideas to save energy in your computer usage:

• Upgrade your gear
• Dim your screen
• Consolidate and virtualize computers
• Turn off peripherals
• Kill unnecessary processes
• Get a smart power switch
• Enable energy saver settings
• Unplug energy vampires
• Spin down your hard drive
• Shut down the computer

Another trick: Power saving remote computing.

Beyond the comparisons already shown, here is a major update offered by Tom’s Hardware for 12 color laser printers:

• Dell 3110cn
• Dell 5110cn
• HP Color LaserJet 2600n
• HP Color LaserJet 2840 All-In-One
• Konica Minolta MagiColor 2550
• Konica Minolta MagiColor 5440DL
• OKI C3200n
• OKI C7350n
• Lexmark C534n
• Lexmark C762n
• Samsung CLP-600N
• Samsung CLX-3160FN All-In-One

Today, I just want to point to one single impressive post there: Drawing on the Renaissance.

• Previous articles about inkjet printing
• 2005 highlights about inkjet printing (including prints longevity).

Canada’s National Archive experts are worried that we don’t have enough knowledge about how inkjet prints age. They fear that most of them will die early because the dried ink is much more exposed to external stresses than the pigments of traditional photo paper.

So, they turn to Henry Wilhelm of Wilhelm Research to get some additonal information.

Source: New York Times.

In software, if this was not reason enough to think seriously about it, we should also think about the impact of printing onto black & white printers (they are color-blind too and this affect 100% of B&W printer users). Most of the problems could be alleviated by following some simple rules that should be part of any software requirements.

My proposal:

• Color coding is usable provided that you type in the color name inside the colored cell. For example compare the following and what would happen if the colors were missing:
  •     
        
        
  • Green
    Red
    Blue
• Think color in shades of grey: Light pink, light yellow and light green will probably be similar; Prefer red, light yellow and dark green (normal, light and dark will print better).
• Use redundant information to complement color information. For example, in colored graphs, lines may be mixing color-coding and dotted-line-coding and other visual cues not relying on color.
  • Difficult to print and read:
    
    
  • Better:
    
    
• When you test the application (or better when you validate the specification), you should always have a test with a screen used in black & white or shades-of-grey mode. Things that you may not easily notice will quickly pop to your eyes (like in the examples above).

If you start incorporating these in your requirements, your software will be better, your communication will be more efficient (remember that most color-blind people either do not know it or do not tell about it).

And I have seen many people improve significantly this at the individual level just by looking at their own PowerPoint charts or Excel graphs to improve them in a matter of seconds. Why not try it now?

They oppose three impressive printing machines:

• Epson Stylus Photo R2400
• HP Photosmart pro B9180
• Canon Pixma pro 9500

I will not hide the conclusion, the HP B 9180 runs ahead for its excellent price, its auto-calibration, its ability to keep heads unclogged by auto-cleaning every 6 hours, its Ethernet connectivity (on top of the USB) and its photo quality very similar to the others (the differences really became small at this level).

Link: Comparison of 3 A+ pigment inkjet printers.