Not everyone own or carry digital SLR camera all the time and most of the time the camera we have is the either point and shoot camera or our phone camera. As long as you are not shooting for any kind of photography competition, these point and shoot cameras work just fine. However due to the limited features and capabilities you will have to do a little extra work on the images taken by your cell phone camera. Here is an example of this image:

This image was taken by me using my phone. The object (jeep) in the middle of this picture was or sale by my friend who deals in scrap business and wanted to sell one of his jeep. He is a fan of jeeps and due to the nature of his business he often spots some restorable jeeps in scrap yard which he restores and sells it. Anyway that’s another story, here what he wanted from me to take a good picture of the jeep for posting on online classifieds. Since the jeep was standing in a not so good looking background and being in a hurry I did not wanted to drive this jeep to a good location. I took the picture and told him that I’ll email him after editing it. Apart from usual brightness and contrast correction that most of us do, you can do something more if you want to highlight any object in picture. Here the main object to be highlighted was the jeep and rest of the not so good looking was not at all important. Here’s what we need to do.

1. Open the image to edit in Adobe Photoshop and view the image in 100% zoom level which means viewing it in its original size. Always take the higher resolution picture, almost double the size of picture actually needed. For example for online catalogue, 640×480 pixels is good size so for editing use at least 1280×960 pixels image. We need to work on large size image so that for final use we can resize the image to required size and thus hide minor flaws in editing.

2. Now from tool box select the Lasso Tool. I used Polygonal Lasso Tool; you may use other 2 lasso tools if your image allows them. Basically the simple Lasso Tool is for very fine image with lots of irregular edges and it’s hard to use. The Polygonal Lasso tool is for those images which have lots of straight line edges like the image I am working on is a Jeep with lots of straight edges. The last one is Magnetic Lasso Tool which requires least effort but works only on simpler images with not much irregular edges and cleaner background.

3. Using your Lasso Tool, select the object to be highlighted. No need to select with too much precision but, still don’t do a lousy work here in selecting either!
4. Now click Select and then click on Inverse. This will select the outer region which we actually need to work on.

5. Now click on Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Slide the radius until the background turns blur to desired value. The background should be blurred to that extent that it should still give the hint about the background but not completely.

6. All Done! Resize the image to smaller size to hide flaws if occurred during selecting. If you selected very precisely then you might not need any resizing at all. Save the finished image. Isn’t it looking cool now?

Every home has got few old thick (sometimes dusty) photo albums kept safely somewhere which comes out only when relatives, friends and guest gather. Since these photos are not on your hard disk drive but on paper and that too quite an aged, it’s sure that whenever the album is taken out, it gets slightly damaged. Not only when you see them but keeping the printed photos in no matter how much care, these photos tend to lose the gloss. What if you don’t have the negatives of all these photographs? Will you let the old memories go in dustbin after some years? Definitely not! What you need to do is preserve these photographs in digital format so that these photos last forever without losing their originality. There is a service called Gophoto which will handle the entire photo scanning process for you and saving you from the trouble of scanning each and every photo. So how this works? Very simple, all you need to do is mail them your old photos/negatives and they will scan each and every photo and upload it on their website which can be viewed only by you. During this process they also correct minor flaws in photos like red eye or color/contrast etc. Very old photos that develop scratch or any other defect will also be checked. Now when you check your photos on their website you can reject the photos that you don’t want to share and select only those which you want to keep, and guess what, you pay only for those photos which you keep! After the scanning and correction work is complete, Gophoto will return your original photos along with a free CD/DVD which will contain all photos in digital format so that you can view them on your computer or TV anytime and anywhere you want.

Going out for an adventurous holiday but afraid to take your expensive digital still camera with you as it may get spoiled? Water, dust and mechanical shock are few things that your camera may be subjected to in journey and these things will definitely harm any digital camera. Why refrain yourself from shooting nice pictures when you have the new Casio Exilim EX-G1 digital camera which is shock-resistant, waterproof, dustproof.

The EX-G1 is designed with shock-resistant elements throughout the camera, both inside and out, creating a smart look in a slim-line camera with functional beauty. In addition to capturing high-resolution 12.1 effective megapixel images, the EX-G1 also features modes such as interval shooting and multi-image capture which utilize the camera’s endurance qualities. The interval shooting function can automatically take still photos or movies at fixed intervals, enabling users to capture great shots while engaged in active sports such as snowboarding or cycling.

Through rigorous testing, the EX-G1 has been designed and created with a shock-resistant shell which passes drop tests including multiple falls from seven feet. Featuring a two-layer construction with a stainless steel outer-casing, the EX-G1 inner body withstands shock and water damage. The camera’s intelligent design is constructed with a resin cover to protect the body side near the shutter and a resin lens ring to protect the lens.

The technologically-advanced design features waterproof performance and corresponds to IEC/JIS Protection Class 8 (IPX8) waterproofing. The EX-G1 can be used at depths at 10 feet for 60 continuous minutes. Water will not penetrate the camera even when directly sprayed with jets of water from every direction corresponding to Protection Class 6 (IPX6). Capable of withstanding temperatures as low as 14°F, Casio’s EX-G1 boldly captures images where any adventurer goes.

PENTAX has announced its 10.1M compact digital camera ‘Optio E60′ which will be available in October in North America for under $140.

Newly equipped with an optical 3X zoom lens featuring a wide angle of view (equivalent to 32mm to 96mm in 35mm format), the Optio E60 features a variety of modes including auto picture, face recognition, high-sensitivity digital shake reduction, and a popular green mode that sets exposure, sensitivity and other parameters with just a touch of a button for the newest of digital users.

Fujifilm Korea announced the launch of its 11M high-end digital camera ‘FinePix S100FS’ featuring Film Simulation (FS) modes that allows photographers to select the ideal film mode with a choice of four modes that optimized for portraiture, low-contrast, vibrant colors, or general use.

The FinePix S100FS is equipped with a 28mm~400mm F2.8-F5.3 14.3X optical zoom lens, Fujifilm’s 8th generation 2/3-inch Super CCD sensor with 11-megapixel, third generation RP III processor, a 2.5-inch tilt LCD and ISO capabilities of up to ISO 6400.

Scheduled to be released on 14th March, it is expected to be available for below 900,000 KRW.

PENTAX plans to roll out its 14.6M high-end DSLR ‘K20D’ in Japan market, which is expected to be available on March 7th.

Equipped with a high-performance 23.4mm x 15.6mm CMOS image sensor and a 2.7-inch 230,000 pixel LCD, the K20D features Live view function and image stabilization technology ‘Shake Reduction’. Supporting up to ISO 6400, it can shoot continuously up to 38 photos.

No words on pricing yet.