DJI Lowers the Inspire 2’s Top Speed, Will Give You a Refund if You’re Upset

When DJI debuted its fancy new Inspire 2 drone for filmmakers, it boasted some impressive features. Not least of all, DJI claimed it could do 0-50 mph in 4 seconds, and topped out at a whopping 67 mph. This is no longer the case.

In an announcement posted to DJI’s Newsroom last night, the Chinese company revealed that it would be cutting the Inspire 2’s top speed to 58 miles per hour, and slowing down its acceleration so that it would take 5 (not 4) seconds to reach 50 mph.

These changes come “after further optimization and testing of various components of the craft, camera gimbal and propulsion system” by DJI’s engineers, and are being implemented “to ensure speed does not compromise video quality and stability.”

This spec adjustment probably won’t upset too many of DJI’s customers who have already ordered their Inspire 2; however, DJI is offering any pre-order customers who are angry a full refund. If you’ve ordered an Inspire 2, expect DJI to email you with the details.

(via The Verge)

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Canadian Photojournalist Denied Entry into the US, Has Phones Searched

For award-winning Canadian photojournalist Ed Ou, his October 1st trip to the United States started out like any other assignment. But while his plan was to cover the Standing Rock protests for the CBC, he never got past the US border agents.

Ou is no stranger to run-ins with foreign authorities. According to the Columbia Journalism Review, he’s been detained or arrested in Turkey, Egypt, Somalia, Djibouti, and Bahrain. But he never expected that same treatment in the USA.

As first reported in The Washington Post, Ou was on assignment for the CBC, on his way to cover the Standing Rock protests as part of a long-term project about health care for indigenous people in North America. But when he got to the border, he was detained and interrogated for over 6 hours, had his journals photocopied, documents confiscated, and his phones tampered with.

Ultimately, Ou, a photojournalist who has been published in The New York Times, Harper’s, TIME, and many others, was denied access into the country and told not to try again. In the end it was revealed to Ou that he was on some sort of “person of interest” list, and that the details are classified.

Journalistically speaking, the main concern Ou and the CBC have is the warrantless phone search. As The Washington Post points out, if Ou had been in the US, officers would have needed a warrant to search his phones. No such protections exist at the border. It’s unclear if any sources were compromised—Ou encrypts his phones by habit when he’s crossing a border—but it’s certainly possible.

The ACLU, which is helping Ou respond to this issue with Customs and Border Projection (CBP), called the search “unjustified and unlawful.” They are demanding that the government destroy any copies of Ou’s data, explain why he was stopped in the first place, and assure the journalist that he won’t deal with similar treatment in the future.

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Image credits: Public domain photograph by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

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Not a ‘Sell Out’: Casey Neistat Explains Why He Sold Beme to CNN

The news that Casey Neistat and his team at Beme was going to be joining CNN to do … something? … and that this acquisition cost CNN a reported $25 million has been met with mixed reactions. Here to set the record straight on a few FAQs about the deal is Neistat himself.

Neistat took to YouTube today to comment on all of the news surrounding Beme’s acquisition by CNN. These kinds of conversations—discussing the what, why, and how much around a major deal like this—are often 90 percent or more speculation. Neistat wants to help clear some of that up, in 5 parts.

The parts are: The Vlog?, Fear, The Future, Money, and Thank You.

In the first part, he goes back over why he ended his vlog. In the second, he covers the fear he felt creating Beme, a company he can now say succeeded thanks to the acquisition. In the third, he re-states what we already know: neither he, nor CNN, nor anybody else has any idea what exactly Casey and the Beme team will be making at CNN yet. In the fourth, he reassures people that this doesn’t mean he’s now filthy rich. And, finally, in the fifth and final section, he thanks his viewers, without whom none of this would be possible.

You can watch all five parts and hear the story from the man himself up top. For our part, we wish Casey luck.

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Select and Mask vs Refine Edge, or: Why Select and Mask Kind of Sucks

Adobe is dedicated to updating Photoshop consistently, but those updates don’t always go so well. A lot of people have rolled back their healing brush tool, and ever since Select and Mask replaced Refine Edge this summer, people have been complaining. Meanwhile, Nate Dodson over at Tutvid has been desperately trying to make this new tool work.

Nate says he’s watched hours upon hours of tutorials on how to use Select and Mask—in his words: “every tutorial I can find on how to use this tool”—and he has not been impressed. Too many are too simplistic, not really testing out the tool’s capabilities or bumping up against (and highlighting) the tool’s limitations.

That, in part, is why he put together this comparison video. Unless you’re willing to downgrade Photoshop versions, you’re stuck with Select and Mask. Nate’s aim was to find out if (and how) Select and Mask is as usable as Refine Edge before it.

The full video is nearly 40 minutes long, but those 40 minutes are well used. Nate breaks down how to use Select and Mask to the best of its abilities, and shows you example after example so you see where the tool excels and where it … doesn’t. You learn which options to use, how the effect your image, and much more.

We won’t break down every little bit of advice, but here is the main highlight:

Select and Mask is a “horrible selection tool.” Instead of using it to make selections from scratch—just don’t do it, it’ll disappoint you every time—you should treat it as the Refine Edge tool with a few additional features.

Make your selections first, then open up select and mask to further refine an already refined selection. Using just that bit of advice, Nate was able to go from issues like the image above, to this (still imperfect) quick selection:

This is far from the only piece of advice Nate offers, it’s just the jumping off point. You’ll definitely want to check out the full video up top to see exactly how Nate goes about making more accurate selections and refining those selections using this tool.

Because, unless you’re willing to roll back and use the old Refine Edge tool—which is only slightly better anyway—this is a video you’ll probably want to bookmark for future reference.

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These Models Were Photographed 14 Years Apart With The Same Lighting

What if you could see yourself in 14 years? Would you want to know what you look like? Urs Recher is a Switzerland-based photographer who recently pursued a personal project that fascinated me.

Back in 2002, he shot beautiful portraits of two models. This year, he shot the same models again with the exact same setup! The only thing that separates the shots is time.

That’s Vanessa above. Here’s Caroline:

I had to reach out to him and ask him a few questions and he kindly indulged me with the answers.

Tell me more about the project, how did it come about?

I started the project with Caroline.

The first time I booked her was in 2002, just for a test shoot on location; and I found her face just stunning. So I booked her again, this time “for real” in my studio for some portraits. One of these portraits is now shown in the time travel portraits.

In the following years, I booked her regularly (my portfolio is full of her) and I saw the slow transformation from a teen girl to a woman. So I asked her, if she would allow me to shoot her again – identically like 14 years ago.

With Vanessa it was very different. I shot her only once or twice in 2002.

Then, just when I was busy with “Time Travel Caroline”, Vanessa “found” me on Facebook and contacted me for the first time after 14 years. Of course I invited her immediately to the studio again.

Tell us more about the models!

Well, you certainly understand, that I cannot give their exact data. They are both Swiss, like me, but never worked too serious as models. Vanessa was only active for a few years, while Caroline was constantly busy shooting. But modelling was never a full time job for her either.

Caroline was actually a little too short to become a “normal” model, but I still think she has the most amazing face.

People are going to ask, what about the camera and the lighting?

The portraits are shot with digital medium format cameras. Only the resolution increased. The focal length used was 120mm.

The light was 100% the same.

Caroline: A 220 cm parabolic reflector (Broncolor Para). Black flags left and right of the face, the white background was far enough that no light effects it. 

Vanessa: Left and right of the face, small softboxes directed towards me. This creates the darker contours of the face. A beauty dish from below at very low power. A small white paper and a very little flash above the camera as fill-in lights.

Any final thoughts?

Personally I think, that I get more from non-professional models when working on such projects. Agency-models might be more experienced and easier to get “beautiful” pictures, but I doubt, that they would give me so much of themselves in a portrait series like this.

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About the author: Pratik Naik is a photo retoucher specializing in commercial and editorial work. To see his work, head over to his website or give him a follow on Instagram and Facebook. This post originally appeared here.

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