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Scottish photojournalist Harry Benson, who’s captured some amazing frames of The Beatles, world leaders, and historic events, gives the New York Times his best tip for shooting at night or in low natural light.

He doesn’t lighten or otherwise touch his photos with image editors, and his secret to shooting in low light is simple:

Don’t be afraid. You’ll be surprised just how good your photos will be. Make sure there is some light on your subject’s face. But be brave about it. The thing about is that I’ve been awakened to see just what digital cameras can do in low-light situations. It digs right into spaces that I never thought a camera could penetrate.

The post offers a few nitty-gritty details for manual-settings types, but he’s right—the best photographs I’ve seen from parties, weddings, and news events come from shooters who simply stand steady, shoot what they can frame, and shoot a lot.

Filed under: Apple Corporate

“A Reuters employee who was investigating Apple’s legendary secrecy visited Foxconn’s walled city-like facility in Guanlan, China, and was reportedly roughed up by security.”

The reporter took a taxi to the facility and left the taxi to take photographs of the front gate and security checkpoint. When a guard shouted, the reporter hopped back in the taxi. The guard then blocked the taxi from leaving.

This is where it gets hairy. The reporter stepped out of the cab and insisted that he was within his rights to take photographs because he was standing on a main road. The guard grabbed his arm as a second guard arrived and both attempted to drag the reporter into the facility. The reporter asked to be released and when the guards refused the reporter jerked free and began walking off. That’s when one guard pursued and kicked the reporter in the leg. The other guard threatened to hit him again if he moved. Within a few minutes a Foxconn security car showed up but the reporter refused to get in. That’s when the reporter called the police.

The police arrived, the guards apologized, and the reporter left without filing charges. Then the policeman told the reporter, “You’re free to do what you want, but this is Foxconn and they have a special status here. Please understand.”

In June 2006, Foxconn came under fire for its labor practices at an iPod facility. As a worker reported:

“We have to work too hard and I am always tired. It’s like being in the army. They make us stand still for hours. If we move, we are punished by being made to stand still for longer…We have to work overtime if we are told to and can only go back to the dormitories when our boss gives us permission…If they ask for overtime we must do it. After working 15 hours until 11:30pm, we feel so tired.”

In response to the media outrage, Apple audited the facility a month later. But that wasn’t the end of the Foxconn woes. In July of 2009, 25-year-old Sun Danyong, a Foxconn employee, reportedly committed suicide following the disappearance of an iPhone prototype. After losing the prototype, Danyong supposedly had his apartment illegally searched, and he was allegedly treated roughly by Foxconn security personnel.

A contract from Apple for a part in or assembly of one of its iPhones, iPods, or Macs can mean tens of millions of dollars for a company. In 2008, TechCrunch reported that Foxconn was producing as much as 800,000 iPhones per week. It’s unfortunately not surprising that the fear of losing an Apple contract over leaked information can lead to some abusive security measures. While its quite evident that Apple would never suggest illegal ways of maintaining that security, it seems like Foxconn will do what it deems necessary to ensure it doesn’t incur the wrath of one of its largest clients – especially when Foxconn is investing $1 billion in a new factory in China that could be used to produce the next generation of Apple products.

TUAWFoxconn: Apple supplier in China roughs up reporter originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 19 Feb 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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More and more you’ll find yourself not being the only photographer at an event. Divvyshot offers a simple way to not only share your own pictures, but to create open albums others can contribute their event photos to.

Divvyshot has a painless one-step signup process—it’s right on their front page, no annoying email confirmation!—and a polished and easy to use interface. Nearly all the settings for your albums are represented as icons across the top of your album page: click the padlock to lock the album so only friends can contribute to it, click the person icon to lock viewing the album to friends, click the globe to share your photos on Twitter, Facebook, Divvyshot, and with email notifications.

You can easily view the photos in the album in a variety of ways like by who uploaded them, what activity is going on at the event, or view the whole album. Uploading is fairly standard unless you’re sporting a browser that supports HTML 5 like the new version of Firefox, then you can—as the screenshot above demonstrates—drag and drop pictures right out of folders on your computer and into the album.

The strongest selling point for Divvyshot is the ease-of-use factor. The interface is simplistic, the next step needed to complete a task is clear, and it definitely passes the non-techie relative test—if Uncle Bill can check his email he should have no problem uploading pictures to Divvyshot.

Have a favorite service for sharing event photographs? Let’s hear about it in the comments.

GMAIL USERS: You can now follow Mashable’s official Google Buzz profile here: http://www.google.com/profiles/mashable

Earlier this afternoon, Google announced Google Buzz, a semantic approach to social status updates that live inside Gmail. The demonstration video showed off some of what you can do with Buzz on your desktop — but what seems really exciting is what Buzz can do in your pocket.

Android and iPhone Optimized Sites

If you visit http://buzz.google.com on your iPhone or Android device, you’ll be taken to a WebKit-optimized interface for using and connecting with Google Buzz.

When you do that, you’ll either be asked to log in to your Google account or, if you’re already logged in, you’ll be taken straight into the main Buzz screen. Here you can see Buzz from the people you follow and from nearby locations, view your own posts, and find other people.

The web-based interface fits in perfectly with the Gmail-optimized webpages that iPhone users are accustomed to using — Buzz is merely a new tab in the interface.

Sharing with Friends

You can view Buzz surrounding your followers in a real-time stream. The concept is very similar to something like FriendFeed or Cliqset, in that each status update can become its own conversation.

You can also share and view photographs via Buzz.

The Buzz About Location

One of the most compelling aspects of Google Buzz is its integration with Google’s Latitude service. Using your device’s GPS or Wi-Fi connection, Buzz will find your location (or show you nearby locations) and you can send an update and pin yourself to that location. Unlike Foursquare, where you can just check in to a location, if you want to indicate that you are someplace currently (or leave an opinion about an establishment), you have to send a Buzz message.

The Nearby tab is pretty cool because it shows you information from the public stream about what’s going on nearby. If you’re in a new city or simply trying to find out what’s going on in your neighborhood, this could potentially work like Gowalla or Loopt Mix.

Overall

Like Buzz in general, Buzz Mobile is still very much in development. The web app, while well-designed, doesn’t let you actively manage any of your accounts or connections. It’s also somewhat limited, for the time being, in what you can do — based on what type of access you or your followers have been given.

Once everyone has Google Buzz in Gmail, we’re sure that the mobile options will become a bit more well-rounded. As it stands now, there’s lots of potential, but not a ton of substance.

Have you used Google Buzz for your iPhone or Android device? Let us know!

Tags: buzz, geolocation, google buzz, web applications

The FBI this week released a “digitally-altered” image showing what Osama Bin Laden possibly looks like now he’s older.

While the FBI claims to have used “cutting edge” technology to create the image, a Spanish politician has noticed that the poster is a modified version of his campaign photo — he now finds his face in America’s most wanted list.

While on the surface it’s an amusing misstep by intelligence agencies, Gaspar Llamazares, the former leader of Spain’s United Left coalition, calls the move “shameless”. His safety is at risk, he told the BBC, and he no longer feels able to travel to America now his likeness is on a wanted poster: “Bin Laden’s safety is not threatened by this but mine certainly is”, Llamazares said.

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Left, Bin Laden in 1998; middle, the FBI image; right, Gaspar Llamazares

The FBI is quoted admitting to the error, saying that the artist found the photo on the web and didn’t know it was of a Spanish politician:

When producing age-progressed photographs, forensic artists typically select features from a database of stock reference photographs to create the new image…it appears that in this instance the forensic artist was unable to find suitable features among the reference photographs and obtained those features, in part, from a photograph he found on the internet.

The forensic artist was not aware of the identity of the individual depicted in the photograph. The similarities between the photos were unintentional and inadvertent.

We don’t think it matters that the man in question was a notable politician: using photos from an image search to create a most wanted poster is surely putting the subject at risk, is it not?

Tags: FBI, Photoshop, trending

Pomegranates are a delicious but extremely frustrating fruit to eat. Using the technique outlined here you’ll put more pomegranate in your mouth and less all over the kitchen.

For those of you who have never eaten a pomegranate, the frustration comes from the structure of the fruit and what a pain it is to get to the good stuff. An orange, for example, is easily peeled and the delicious part is right at hand. A pomegranate fruit has several internal chambers filled with seeds that are stuck to a membrane and each other. The seeds are what you want to eat but it’s a huge pain to get them out without crushing them, making a mess, and getting the pile of seeds you’ve scooped out completely covered in white flakes from the membrane.

The secret? Quarter the pomegranate and then place it into a large bowl of water. Pomegranate seeds sink and everything else—skin, membranes, etc.—float. Brush the seeds free from the skin and membrane and they’ll sink right to the bottom. Check out the full guide and excellent accompanying photographs at the link below.

Have a tip for eating a tricky food? Let’s hear about it in the comments.

Online hotel review service Oyster features a Photo Fakeout category in their blog that gives a reality check to hotel reviews, pitting a hotel’s promotional images with actual photographs.

The only disappointing thing about Oyster’s Photo Fakeouts is that there aren’t more of them—and that this isn’t the dedicated feature of any site we can find. Popular travel planning and review site TripAdvisor allows for user-submitted photo uploads, which are nice, and I’ve sometimes had good luck searching Flickr for the name of hotels, but it’d be great to see something like these Photo Fakeouts in an easily searchable database.

As weblog Of Zen and Computer points out, it’s worth noting that pictures can be manipulated to look bad in much the same way as they can to look good. That said, sometimes the difference is clear and egregious, and it’s nice to get a reality check before you book.

If you’ve got your own methods for searching out the reality of your hotel before you book, let’s hear your tips in the comments.

Lightboxes aren’t just for the professionals any longer. Using them to illuminate your Craigslist and eBay listings can help make a sale, and amateur photogs can get professional-looking shots with one. Create your own using K’nex and a little know how.

At first the idea of using our favorite childhood toy to make a light box may feel slightly silly, but the slim design of the pieces would be beneficial in keeping unwanted shadows or darkness out of your final photograph. Plus, it’s a fabulous excuse to bust out the toy box again. Here’s what you’ll need:

Hit the full post on DIY weblog Spin Hand Spun for all the assembly details, including how to grommet your fabric to encase your structure.

Do you use a light box to give your photographs a professional touch (maybe a simple cardboard one perhaps)? Share your expertise in the comments.

Windows/Linux: Free, open-source application PhotoFilmStrip creates video from photographs quickly and easily, complete with effects, a soundtrack, and smooth zoom in/out effects (commonly referred to as the Ken Burns effect).

The cheesy cat video above demonstrates PhotoFilmStrip in action. Creating your video from still images with the app is a breeze. Just drag and drop pictures you want to use into the application, select the effects you want to use (if any), determine the settings for the pan and zoom Ken Burns effect, and, when you’re done, add some background music and export the video to DVD, XviD, or one of the other supported formats. (It can even export in HD.)

PhotoFilmStrip is a free, open-source application for Windows and Linux only. (Mac users, iMovie actually comes with its own Ken Burns effect for still images.) As FreewareGenius points out, it doesn’t have a lot of bells and whistles, but it handles what it does really well. If you give it a go, let’s hear how you like it in the comments.

Not long ago, we received several tips that the popular Twitter-based photo sharing site TwitPic was blocked in China. The trigger for this seems to be a gas explosion in central Beijing that occurred less than 24 hours ago.

We’re still trying to piece together the series of events that led to this TwitPic ban, but here’s what seems to have happened. Earlier today, at least five people were injured in a gas explosion that destroyed a restaurant, the Xinjiang Kashgar Delicacy City, in the heart of Beijing.

Currently, the cause is unknown. Regardless, it’s shaken up the city, especially since October 1st marks the 60th anniversary for the founding of the PRC and security is already high.

A Twitter user was there, though. Maggie Rauch took the following TwitPics of the event:

In total, she took 7 pictures, all of which have spread across the web. The first picture already has over 15,000 views, and it makes sense why.

However, if you’re in China, you cannot access these images, at least on the TwitPic.com domain. Our sources, along with other media outlets, report that the site is indeed blocked within China by its firewall.

Was China reacting to these viral photographs, or did they block TwitPic for another reason? Will it be available soon or stay behind the firewall? These are questions we’re still asking.

Thanks to Mona Nomura and others for the tips.

Tags: censorship, china, twitpic, twitter