Have you ever had to buy presents for a friend or family member that likes photography, or thinks of you as the photographer in the group who will know best what will make their selfies and cat pictures that much better? Here is a quick guide from James Popsys on what to get them if you don't want to spend that much money.
I regularly view vlogs and how-to videos on YouTube. It's a vital resource for any photographer or videographer, and we all know that it's been a compliment to our businesses in the visual arts industries. I've noted that the vloggers don't just monetize their YouTube channels with the ads that are displayed before the video starts. No, they use affiliate links to all the gear they used to make the video in the description below the video on YouTube. What will it mean for us if Amazon starts their own video platform like YouTube?
We’ve noticed the trend. Video is becoming the way most people communicate online these days. How can you as photographer use video as a tool to influence the personal brand you are constantly building, and how can you expand your product offering to clients? There are various types of videos you can focus on to produce, and the aim should be to make videos that you would like to make for a client. Therefore, it needs to be professional, and something clients might actually use as their marketing and advertising materials.
Netflix is using AI to follow viewer habits. The AI then chooses the best image or photograph to present and advertise movies that it thinks you would like. It makes sure the movies put their best foot forward and shows you the best side of it, based on your preferences. If you're an action movie type, it's going to choose photos of the movie that best shows this side of the movie. If you're one for romantic films, it'll show images that portray emotions that you'll experience watching the film.
Adobe has called the new additional Effects menu category "Immersive Video." They've made it easier to apply transitions and to add text or logos that look natural to the viewer. I'm a regular screen viewing type of person, and I can't imagine buying some head gear so I can walk around in a virtual space, but in an industry that moves as fast as the video and photography industry, I think we should know what the latest developments are and how the software we use enable us to edit great videos. Clients are going to start asking for 360-degree videos, and you will either be able to do it or not. This video shows what you'll be able to do in Premiere Pro when editing "Immersive Videos."
When was the last time you stood in a queue or sat on the bus and not taken out your phone to flip down your social feeds, be it Instagram, Snapchat, or Facebook? And, if you can't remember or think about a certain time the past year, you need to think about consciously setting up a stage or time of your day where you actually do nothing, and get bored. Why? Because your best ideas come from your mind being free and unfocused, where it can run off to new areas of thought and consciousness and potentially release a new idea or concept for your next shoot or project. This video explains it in more detail. Pay attention to better not pay attention.
I had the feeling they would do it. When I saw Instagram take it from Snap, and then use it for Whatsapp and Facebook too, it became tangible, something you could take and use if you have a platform with creators who make content as a career path. YouTube is giving creators the ability to create "reels," their name for what Instagram calls "stories." It won't appear on top of the app window at first, but they told TechCrunch that if it takes off they'll consider moving it to a more hands-on part of the app.
Casey Neistat's latest vlog is a review of the Rylo 360-degree camera. What makes this different than the 360-degree cameras currently on the market is that it comes with software that makes it easy to pick your shot (in other words, the frame that'll fit your 16:9 or 4:3 frame) and compose your video like that. Rylo is a start up, and although Neistat can distinguish which market it is for, I think it definitely can become something many videographers, especially YouTubers, and travel shooters will use.
Eric Flores Garnelo has made a short film using mainly cinemagraphs to create the scenes. The audio is well produced, and the production of the scenes are done with craftsmanship. Watching each of these shots with only one item moving opens up the capacity to contemplate. Being a photographer, the first phase was to think how he did it and what it must have taken to actually get the shot. Secondly, it takes you deeper, into the human condition and the small moments during the day that can seem insignificant, but holds so much beauty if we just opened our eyes.
It's something every single person using Photoshop today has battled with, and although it has become easier to use over the years, it's time-consuming, tedious, and often difficult to do well depending on the image you're working on. Making selections is the tool we use to isolate certain parts of the image. To either reuse or edit in a different fashion to the rest of the image. Using machine learning, an update coming to Photoshop makes it possible to click and select. That's right, no more pen tool, or magnetic lasso tool or the selection of the negative space to feather and smooth the selection. This video shows how it will work, and in my opinion, it can't come soon enough.
Just like motor vehicles have critical parts that are crucial to the safety and functioning of the vehicle, so too do photographers have gear that they need to work every time to get the shots they desire. It’s what makes you able to get the shots you want and it also gives you your unique style which translates into your photography and work. Second to that, you get the items that change and improve your process of making images. And with the style of photography I pursue, often straight from my bike, the Capture Pro Clip is one of those game-changers.
"Mindhunter" is one of the recent Netflix releases that has me hooked. It has psychology, mystery, analysis, and how the FBI and police went about training for the serial killers who didn't have a motive. It's based on true events, and because the series is set in in 1977, which has different cars and fewer people and buildings than we have now. In this video, you'll be able to see how these shots were altered in postproduction to give the story the 1977 setting. Buildings and trees are added, marks on roads replaced and colors changed to give the series its moody, raw film look.
If you've seen our latest comparison between the iPhone X and the Panasonic GH5, you see that the iPhone suits the run-and-gun type of shooter who makes videos on the go where you want the gear to get out of the way with a small and light form factor. In this video, the team at AmnesiArt made a professional video for Elise Lepinteur, the protegee of Christopher Adam, a worldwide famous pastry chef based in Paris, France.
I recently got myself the Fujifilm X-T20 for traveling. The next trip was to Vietnam with my family and I knew it was going to be a showcase of people, culture, and life that I am unfamiliar with, and therefore something I wanted to document. The reason I chose the X-T20 was that it’s small, light, packs a punch with colors, and its ease of use, very reminiscent of the film cameras back in the days. What I didn’t get was a Fuji X-mount lens to go with it, but I got a Fotasy adapter to fit my old Nikkor 50mm f/1.4, my Vivitar 28mm f/2.5, and Tamron 80mm-210mm f/3.8-4 to the X-T20.
Every video project is different. You can have a client looking over your shoulder at every instance, or you can have a client not giving you any direction of what they want, which leads to multiple re-edits to produce a video they like and need. This means that where you can save time, you should. And one of the areas you can cut down is to know your NLE (non-linear editing system) and optimize it to suit you and the project you are busy with. In this video, Pond5 shows how you can streamline your editing and speed up your workflow.
Whether you are a photographer looking to get into video or a professional video editor, these small changes can change the time you spend editing in Adobe Premiere. I enjoy editing, don't get me wrong, it's just that I would like to speed up the mundane parts that make sense when you want to focus on the creative storytelling aspect of your video.
I often wish I could’ve been a fly on the wall when directors like Steven Spielberg pitched "Back to the Future," or when Ridley Scott said he wanted to direct "Blade Runner." It’s just a super way to see how the masters get the go-ahead from the producers. Often it’s just your personality that resonates with the person, or perhaps you have a great skill that people know you for. The portrait of Steve Jobs that was used for the cover of his biography as well as for the Apple website from the day he died was taken by Albert Watson. In this video, he gives us an idea of what it was like to shoot one if the world’s most well-known tech leaders.
Photo editing, retouching, and removing something from the shot isn't easy to do especially if it's a complex part of the hair, but it's common practice for a professional photographer to be able to do it if the shot and client requires it. It involves masking the new hair refining tool brush over and selecting the best feathering to make this selection as true as possible. Have you ever thought about removing something from a video? This is what Adobe is working on and this video shows a sneak peek of what Cloak will be able to do.
It's incredible to learn about all the technologies that are built into smartphone cameras that weigh as much as a paperclip. But, with all this technology, is it still you taking the picture or are you just a moving tripod carrying a computer around to take the picture for you?
We love gear. But this is next level stuff. If you’ve seen the smoothness of the shots used to introduce the Microsoft Studio Surface, you’ll know what I’m talking about. The guys at Motorized Precision who introduced KIRA robotic arm at NAB 2017 are taking pre-orders for the MIA, their latest robotic arm. It’s smaller, about as portable as a fridge is on wheels, and can plug into any traditional single phase wall socket. It holds up to a 22lb camera package, the arm itself weighs 120lbs and it comes with a standard six-meter track. If you want to see what it's capable of go watch Thor: Ragnarok, which used the KIRA for many of their shots. The video shows what the KIRA 1.0 could do.
