Sigma, hot on the heels of the outstandingly successful 35mm f/1.4 Art lens, has been releasing and announcing new lenses in their Global Vision realignment like crazy. Recently they released the 30mm f/1.4 lens for APS-C cameras, and I had high expectations for it after being told that the president of Sigma was aiming it to meet the performance set by the 35mm. So did it? [more]
This might be an extreme take on the all-too-common client request of “get it done quickly,” but it serves as an excellent benchmark of what can be done in a short amount of time. Odds are, you won’t ever be asked to do a full post-production retouch in such a short amount of time, but the idea behind what Aaron Nace of PHLEARN is showing here is solid: with the right tools and knowledge you can streamline your workflow with extreme effectiveness. [more]
In efforts to make Flickr “awesome again,” Yahoo unveiled today their new and re-imagined Flickr with a new design and new features. Some of the major design changes include a new homepage featuring large images posted by your friends, new beautiful profile photosteam and new photo pages. Flickr also announced each user will get 1 Terabyte of storage for free, with the ability to upload hi-res photos, and many of them. [more]
Food styling can take place in the production kitchen and in front of the camera. How do you know when and where to style your food? The answer will depend on what food you are shooting. For food with long shelf lives, like cupcakes, the dish will generally be camera ready when it leaves the kitchen. If the dish involves a sauce and a variety of garnishes, the styling will occur both in the kitchen and in front of the camera. Here is a behind the scenes look at a dish that involves styling in both locations: The Meatball Sandwich.
Filmmaker J.J. Abrams; Star Trek, Star Trek Into Darkness, Super 8, Lost, Revolution, Fringe, the upcoming Star Wars movie (the man is everywhere these days,) gives us a peek into his process during a recent sit down interview with the British Academy Of Film And Television Arts.
Abrams discusses the transitions between television to the big screen, balancing hyper-reality with intimacy, why television leaves room for surprises, the best advice he’s ever been given and what advice he would give to future filmmakers. [more]
Original BBC Article (w/video)
Prof. Miles Padgett and his team of scientists at Glasgow University’s School of in Scotland have created a technology which can generate a 3D image using just four stand-alone pixels by capturing light frequency waves beyond what the human eye can see.
Whether I’m going out for a short hike, a weekend camping trip, shooting the zombie apocalypse, or assisting someone for their personal project, there are many times when I’ve needed to be light and fast in my video rig setup. Besides going with a single camera and lens, the accessories I choose enable me to be versatile and get better clips in the end. Here’s my top 8 list of items that keep me on the move while I’m shooting video. [more]
I find athletic themed shoots to be especially interesting considering the amount of effort and expertise that goes pulling off that one perfect shot. Follow James Quantz Jr in this behind the scenes video as he takes on the challenge of shooting the South Carolina Gamecocks. [more]
A couple months ago, I made a post explaining the uses of the Canon Professional Services that is available to all Canon photographers using more than a couple pieces of professional equipment. The post got some backlash from some non-Canon users, exclaiming that their service was nothing special. Well, I’m back again, to drop the bomb on what makes it a class above the rest. [more]
Before we even get started on this video be sure to hit the closed captioning option on the Youtube video because the interpreter doesn’t get it all. For those of you that don’t know, Liu Bolin is also called “The Invisible Man” due to his series of images where he is painted to match his surroundings. In this video he talks not only about his process but also about his motivation. Like most great artists Bolin starts off by coming to an understanding of what he is trying to say. Not only [more]
Bulb ramping is a technique used by time lapse photographers to adjust the shutter speed throughout the time lapse to compensate for natural changes in exposure. If you’re looking to shoot timelapses of sunrises, sunsets or any change from day to night, this technique is critical. In his latest tutorial video, BC based photographer Joel Schat takes us through the steps needed in order to create a bulb ramping time lapse with ease. [more]
Recently, NPR featured an article about a woman that was kicked off an American Airlines flight for singing a Whitney Houston song, but there was something else that caught the attention of at least one of their writers. During the video, crew members can be repeatedly heard telling people they aren’t allowed to film or photograph onboard the plane. [more]
Winners of the 4th International Earth and Sky Photo Contest, hosted by The World at Night (TWAN), were announced this week with some awe inspiring photographs.
TWAN is an international effort to photograph nightscape and time-lapse videos of the world’s landmarks. According to TWAN’s website “The contest was founded by TWAN and Dark Skies Awareness project in 2008 as a regional [more]
Today, for the first time I watched this fantastic one-take music video for Brooklyn based band, Eytan and the Embassy. On the Vimeo page for ‘Everything Changes’ they tout the video as “18 Costume Changes — 1 Music Video — 0 Edits!” It has been online for 10 months, is a Vimeo Staff pick, but only has 20,000 views. Well I think it deserves more! Check out this video and click through for a BTS video as well. Enjoy! [more]
Okay, so maybe you won’t get the entire Stanford experience, but they do have their entire 2011 “CS 178″ Digital Photography course available online for free here. It’s jam-packed with more technical knowledge than most will ever be able to remember, including the scientific formula for DOF, diagrams showing the physics of light going through the lens, and even a downloadable animation of how to assemble an entire Canon 10D.
