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Sunday Photoblogging: Where To Focus?

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American


The web is all atwitter with news of this new Lytro camera, wherein you do not have to "waste" any time deciding where your focus plane should be in your photo, because the entire thing can be in focus.

According to the New York Times Gadgetwise Blog:

When viewing a Lytro photograph on your computer, you can simply click your mouse on any point in the image and that area will come into focus. Change the focal point from the flower to the child holding the flower. Make the background blurry and the foreground clear. Do the opposite — you can change the focal point as many times as you like. Try clicking around this photo, taken by Lytro founder Ren Ng with his new camera.


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It's neat, I guess, but I find that explicitly deciding where to put the focus is half the fun! For an example, check out these two photos I took this week while walking around Beverly Hills:

Find the rest of my Beverly Hills photos here (Picasa). or here (Google+)

Jason G. Goldman is a science journalist based in Los Angeles. He has written about animal behavior, wildlife biology, conservation, and ecology for Scientific American, Los Angeles magazine, the Washington Post, the Guardian, the BBC, Conservation magazine, and elsewhere. He contributes to Scientific American's "60-Second Science" podcast, and is co-editor of Science Blogging: The Essential Guide (Yale University Press). He enjoys sharing his wildlife knowledge on television and on the radio, and often speaks to the public about wildlife and science communication.

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