Slashdot Mirror
Picture Blocking Beer Cooler Keeps Your Face Out of Embarrassing Photos
cylonlover writes "It may sound like something dreamed up by a cheesy men's magazine as a joke, but apparently this is a real thing that actually exists. Ostensibly, the Norte Photoblocker is a functional beer cooler surrounded by four sensors that can detect the flashes from cameras or cell phones. If a flash goes off in the direction of the Photoblocker, it fires its own flash to flood the resulting photos with bright white and obscure anyone nearby. Now you can go about your usual business of cheating on your spouse, being an idiot around your boss, or drunkenly harassing fellow party-goers without worrying that some wildly irresponsible person will tag you in a photo and posts it online."
Because there is no way to take a photo without a flash.
I dream of a nation where a man is not judged by his skin color but by an number assigned by a credit rating agency.
This will go great with my strobe light at my next party!
Yeah, but let's be realistic. There's a lot of things we might do in jest among friends that could be detrimental in the future. People snapping pictures surreptitiously at parties or "spy shots" should be kicked out, like what happened to Phelps.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
Can I get this for my license plates?
would the first stray flash trigger a duel to the death?
I'm not sure if you've ever actually been to a bar or real party (read: rager) but most of those environments are dark enough that without flash, your pictures are nearly useless when attempting to identify people.
Not so for me. I use a Nikon D700 camera with a 85mm f/1.4 lens and need no flash to shoot in near-darkness. I have many images to back up that statement.
Place nail here >+
You don't have to be an idiot for a picture to be a problem. After all, there was the somewhat recent case (even featured here on Slashdot, sorry I'm too lazy to dig up links) of the kindergarten teacher that was fired over a photo of her at a party, drinking from a cup that allegedly contained alcohol (gasp). She was of course legal, and was doing nothing unusual, merely smiling and drinking, but it was deemed "inappropriate" for her position, whatever the fuck that means.
There's a plethora of such cases. Or the numerous stories (again, featured on Slashdot too) of companies that troll social networking sites (or employ third parties to do so for them) to look up info on applicants and potential hires. Simply being at a party, drinking, is often frowned upon as the companies have outright stated when interviewed on this subject. There's also the issue of not everyone in your social circle may respect your wishes about no pictures (yes, I think that makes them jackasses), and this is especially true of parties where attendants may not all be your personal friends. Friends of friends, acquaintances, the types that are even more especially likely to not know and/or respect your picture wishes.
All of this, of course, are symptoms of a much larger blight on our society, but nonetheless, the point still stands: a picture of you drinking at a party does not necessarily have to show you being an idiot, to affect your life. Especially your professional life.
Already available if you have a soldering iron.
http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to-add-led-lights-avoid-speed-detection-while-driving-222857/
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
My wife is a professional photographer and consultant, I sometimes use her equipment to take some shots. But I can give you some hints based on what I know:
You will need a DSLR camera. Sometimes you can take good shots with a compact camera, sometimes you can't. Professional-looking equipment is also part of the show, so people will bother you less if you look like a professional.
You usually won't be able to make good close-ups from far away without a tripod (and you probably won't get inside with a tripod), so you'll need to be close to the stage. Work with your camera in manual mode or speed priority, use a lens with a good aperture (be aware that below f/1.8 many not-so outrageusly expensive lenses may suffer from severe chromatic aberrations), use a sensible ISO value for the lens aperture and the kind of venue, and be aware that you probably won't take good pictures using the camera on your hands with speeds below 1/20s. If many variables confuse you, you may try a fixed aperture lens - you can probably find something like f1.8/50mm cheap, that will allow you to do good close-ups. As I said, I've used a common 18-55mm/3.5-5.6 with good results, but with a f/1.8 lens you'll be able to take dark photos and capture all the essence of the moment.
Some (good) photographers use speelites (those flashes you put on top of your camera) for floodfilling. You point your flash to the ceiling, and on a minimal setting, so it will "light up" the scene or the background without causing too much damage. Many use filters to scatter the flashlight and/or a small reflector to minimize impact on the public. Some (bad) photographers just think they need it, and spend all the time they have ruining other people's photos with light contamination.
One final note regarding equipment - live concerts are terrible for cameras, be aware that you may have to send your machine and lenses to be cleaned every year or so. The cigarrete smoke and from special effects machines will slowly make your machine dirty.
Now the good stuff - how to get in & get away with it: Get a professional-looking DSLR! If it is a local venue, you can contact the organization previously and ask for permission to take pictures, They usually allow it if you give them a copy of the resulting pictures. Many times you can score a free ticket if you already have portfolio. If the organization doesn't respond you, sometimes contacting the band directly works, but don't expect a free ticket. If nothing works, park near the venue and try to go in with the camera, they probably won't stop you if you look like a "photographer".
With smaller bands, they won't care if your photographing or not, specially if not using a flash at all. In bigger venues, expect to have a limited time to take pictures (usually the 2 first songs). I've actually seen concerts where the band stopped the concert until everyone stopped flashing their eyes.
Authorization from the organizers usually will allow you to go to the "special zone" between the stage and the public, but not much more. Every other situation may or may not give you access to that, so ask politely to whoever is doing security there.
Don't take my experience as a gospel (I'm from an european country, it may be different where you live), specially because my experience is mainly extreme metal concerts. Last advice - the mosh pit isn't the place to carry expensive equipment, so be careful if you cross it.
Personally I'm glad that these companies do this filtering, because it saves me the potential trouble of going to work for them, finding out they've got a stick up their corporate asses, and then having to look for another job and quit. However I understand other people might be in more need of a job, so I fully support finding anyone who hires and fires based on such things and photographing them in compromising positions.