German Designer Unveils Concept for 'Instagram' Glasses | source: www.dpreview.com

German designer Markus Gerke has unveiled a design concept for wearable glasses that could simulate the effect of Instagram filters. In one of the weirdest design concepts that we've ever seen, Gerke's 'Instaglasses' would feature a built-in 5MP camera and microcomputer, and would be able to simulate the effects of different Instagram effects filters at the push of a button, before capturing and uploading the scene to Instagram.

The concept of glasses with built in camera and computers isn't completely off-the-wall. Military pilots have been using helmet-mounted displays for some time, and both Google and Olympus are actively experimenting with consumer-oriented 'smart glasses' which could overlay a variety of different types of information directly into a wearer's eyeline. 

Gerke's concept envisages the 'Instaglasses' simulating, capturing and uploading photographs taken with Instagram-type filters.

Could photo effects filters make their way into similar devices in the future? For now, Gerke is at pains to point out that his concept is merely that: a concept. A note on his website reads: 'Please note - [this is] only a design concept. I will not produce it and I don’t want to make money with it. I only want to show how it could look like. Thanks for watching'.

Into the dark: A history of night photography | by Bill Kouwenhoven | source: British Journal of Photography (www.bjp-online.com)

Electric lighting in the early 20th century allowed photographers to shoot hitherto unrecorded scenes. The shot, taken by Alvin Langdon Coburn, shows Broadway in around 1910. Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, from the The Elisha Whittelsey Collection.

Shooting at night pushes photography to the limits of the medium, leading to a particularly close association between art and technology in this fascinating genre, finds Bill Kouwenhoven.

Hipstamatic plans launch of Foundation for Photojournalism | by Olivier Laurent | source: British Journal of Photography (www.bjp-online.com)

Hipstamatic plans to open the Hipstamatic Foundation for Photojournalism to "support photographic storytellers" who use smartphones to tell their stories, BJP can reveal

New Hipstamatic tools inspired by photojournalist Ben Lowy | source: www.dpreview.com

An Afghan man launches a kite from a ridge overlooking Kabul. This Hipstamatic photo by Ben Lowy is part of a series that attracted attention last fall when the New York Times Magazine opted to publish Lowy's camera phone images over photographs from his DSLR equipment. (pic: Benjamin Lowy/Reportage, for The New York Times)

Instagram is debasing real photography | by Kate Bevan | source: www.guardian.co.uk

The Instagram/Hipstamatic/Snapseed filters are the antithesis of creativity, and make all pictures look the same.

Old or new … is this photograph an old scanned image, or is it a modern one with the faded colours added by a filter? Photograph: Kate Bevan

Photoshop CS6 Blur Gallery Tutorial | by Ellen Anon | source: www.dpreview.com

The new Blur Gallery in Photoshop CS6 offers tools that provide intuitive and creative ways to manipulate depth of field and create bokeh effects.

One of my favorite features introduced in the Photoshop CS6 beta is without a doubt the Blur Gallery. This collection of three brand new filters allows for photo-realistic depth of field adjustments via an interface which allows you to place and manipulate controls directly on the image area.

Sigma Corporation of America announces APO Macro 180mm F2.8 EX DG OS HSM | source: www.dpreview.com

World’s first 1:1 180mm F2.8 macro lens arrives in the US in July for street price of $1,699

Cosina announces Voigtländer Color Skopar SL II 28mm F2.8 lens | source: www.dpreview.com

Cosina has announced the Voigtländer Color Skopar SL II 28mm F2.8 manual focus prime lens for Nikon and Canon DSLRs. The latest in Voigtländer's SL II range, it offers a wideangle 74.8° field-of-view on full-frame DSLRs or short-normal angle of around 53° on APS-C cameras. The lens will sell with a recommended retail price of €529 for Nikon, which includes an AIS chip to allow use of all metering modes, or €549 for the Canon version. No US price is yet available but we'd expect prices around $500.

Click here for specifications and further details

Add clarity to your images in Photoshop | by Matt Bennett | source: news.dphotographer.co.uk

Make your images pin sharp in less than three minutes

Technique: Digital Photo Collages | By Barney Britton | source: www.dpreview.com

Sometimes even the widest angle lens isn't wide enough to capture the scene in front of you. Or even if it is, maybe the final exposure doesn't match your experience of scanning a wonderful view and focussing in on small details, as they make up the larger picture.

Extreme contrast edits in Lightroom 4 and ACR 7 | By Martin Evening | source: www.dpreview.com

With the launch of Lightroom 4, Adobe formally introduced a new version of the raw processing engine that powers both Lightroom and Photoshop's Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) 7 plug-in. Known as Process Version (PV) 2012, it represents quite a radical shake up in the way you can now process your Raw (and non-Raw) images.

The 15 Minute Makeover: Photoshop Beauty Retouching | By Jean Miele | source: www.dpreview.com

Skin needs to be retouched. Even beautiful skin with great makeup. The problem with most of the Photoshop techniques I’ve experimented with over the years (burning & dodging individual pores, Surface Blur filter, Dust and Scratches filter, etc.) is they take too long, aren’t very convincing, or - worst of all - make the subject look like a victim of plastic surgery gone bad.