I don't know about you but I've been a little overwhelmed about the power of artificial intelligence and the speed it's replacing jobs that can be automated. Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have recently stated that a basic salary should be paid to every citizen in America to make sure that people who have lost their jobs due to automation can keep on their feet and do whatever it is they've always wanted to do.
I've been focussing on my video transitions lately. I've noticed the big guys like Peter Mckinnon and Casey Neistat use transitions to create interest and make the videos a pleasure to watch. Now I already shoot for the edit, but I've never really focused on what else I can do to give my videos more punch, until this video. Zach Ramelan shows how you can use audio swells to achieve it. TV Shows have been using it for years, and you don't really notice it until you're told what it is.
It's an ancient art-form, and it's something you need to know to get your location photography set ready for action. Have you ever needed to put up a scrim while being able to tighten it after the knot's been made? This video is for the photography and film industry
Have you ever been so immersed in your shoot, directing, getting the model to do what you intended and more, and forgetting about time and matter and anything other than what you are doing right now? If not, this video will tell you more about flow and give you some indication of how you can achieve it. Evan Puschak, who is the guy behind The Nerdwriter Youtube channel, really get’s into how you too can benefit from it, create great work and get over a creative block should you ever be experiencing one.
Agoraphobia is the extreme or irrational fear of crowded spaces or enclosed public places. I didn't know there was such a fear, or what it was until this video shed some light on it. Jacqui Kenny speaks about how she can't really function in busy places, almost like her imagination will get the better of her. I never thought having super creative imagination could be a burden, now I know it can be. Because of this impediment she explores the world from her living room.
There's a trend with our social networks these days. All the networks and apps call it "stories." It's on Facebook now, just like it is on Instagram, Whatsapp, Messenger, and Snapchat. It's a way of showing others your day, or, documenting it with video and photos and making it a story. This media that has been added to our daily feeds of consumption is obviously difficult for people who haven't learnt to filter out information that they don't need. I follow over 400 people on Instagram, so if each one has a story for me to watch my day will be filled up watching stories which is a lot of time to spend on things that might not have a positive effect on our daily productivity or work.
I am a fan of good music. We all are. What I like even more is when a music video is directed to the music I like in a creative way that leaves me questioning how it was done, and how I can use the same tricks in my editing if at all possible.
When flying from a distance, DJI's Goggles stream the drone's capture at 720dpi, and when you're closer, you can get up to 1080dpi with DJI's new OcuSync Wireless Technology. It's a different take on what goggles can be. It boasts two screens, one for each eye, each with a higher resolution (1280 x 1440) than the Oculus Rift (1080 x 1200), but what is most impressive is how it can be controlled by the tilting of your head with Head Tracking.
We've all seen the Instagram feeds where people post a daily painting, photo or post that displays their art. I've attempted it and lasted about a month before I missed a day or didn't have the time to post. As inspiration I follow the people who make it though, like the woman who made a paintings for ants and posted them to Instagram every day, and the guy who made a movie poster every day for a year, and then the daily vloggers like Casey Neistat who once posted a video once a day. The determination is what inspires me the most, and seeing the development of that person's skills and the following grow and the success coming from that.
If you want to be a photographer or filmmaker you need to know your art form's history, and how it came about. You need to know what has been done in the past that gives you the opportunity to hold these devices our hands today. What makes it so incredibly special is that within just over a hundred years we have seen the invention of the first motion picture camera and the progression in technology to what we have today. This video is a quick summary of how the technology came about. Edison and his assistant W.K.L. Dickson developed the way to display still images consecutively, creating the illusion of motion, a technology still used today.
I recently moved to Paris from Cape Town, South Africa. I don't speak French yet, but I have made some friends here due to the photographic industry mixing with the fashion and beauty industry quite a bit. I decided that I needed to get out and meet some photographers and maybe learn and share what I know while having a good time. So as any person would do, I went online and searched the Facebook groups focused on photography in Paris, but it didn't give me anything I felt I wanted to join. What I did find, however, was insight into a photographer's life in a big First World city, so I joined an event and had an epic day.
Most of us use Instagram to display our work. It has a great social aspect to it where people can follow your growth and see what you provide as a style. It's where clients go to see if you have what they want with regards to their brand image or way of portraying themselves. It plays an important role in a photographer's working life. As a social platform, they have copied from Snapchat with their stories and now they've copied Pinterest too. Although I don't like copying, let's see what it will offer.
Directed by Alexandre Courtes, the music video for "Go Up" performed by French-duo Cassius (featuring Cat Power and Pharrell Williams) is a simple concept of having two screens above or next to one another, but the way the shots play with each other to portray a different idea is edited together in a superb way. If creative ideas come from putting two opposing or contrasting ideas together then this is it.
The video has some great points with practical tips on how to get your creative juices flowing and basically setting yourself up with some barriers to challenge yourself and making the best of the situation. Peter McKinnon goes through a list of things he does to challenge himself to keep being creative and to get out of the comfort zone and push your creative being to another level.
When the initial iPhone came out with a camera that took rather decent photos I was so excited about it. To have a camera in your pocket whenever you needed one was now possible. Then the social networks became visual feeds and the phones started focusing more and more on the cameras to make them shoot printable photos and 4K video. Many have said the iPhone was a camera that you could make a call with. But, what if they removed the camera from the mobile phone? According to The Verge, the end-game of cameras is having no camera at all.
You can have your images judged by AI. Just don't blame me if you don't score as high as you thought you would. These developments are supposed to help people decide what images work best for the message you are trying to convey, so it's good to know it's there and to try it out. It's in the beta phase now, and the website is similar to that of EyeEm, the stock image library built in Berlin, where the images are analyzed and tagged automatically depending what is featured in the photograph.
There isn't a lot of information about this Adobe App and whether this technology will be added to the desktop software yet, just that it's called Sensei and they have this video to show its potential. It uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to make your selfie or basic smartphone photo look like it was taken by someone who knew what they were doing.
This video describes the relevance and importance of black n white films. And all the points can be said for black and white photography. We mostly shoot in color, because we can. Our cameras give a very sharp photograph and the raw file gives us the ability to change it to make sure everything is evenly exposed. But when we think about the images that we hold dear, it's often printed photos of our parents, grandparents and family members.
If you're a photographer you've used bokeh. It's a defining element in your work and your style is partly due to it's existence, whether intentional or by accident. Do you know how to pronounce the word that you so often use? Here is a fun video by Photo Gear News to show us how.
When you think of video online, YouTube is surely on top of the list. If anything is happening virally, you'll be able to find it on YouTube, or it's embedded in your favorite site with their red and white play button to start watching. In the past, any contributors were able to receive money from videos since YouTube introduced their partner program five years ago. This opened their advertising platform to anyone and everyone to get some money when ads played before and during the video they uploaded. This changed today.
Adobe's software bundle is something almost every artist or creative professional in the visual art industries uses. We can't really go without it, and on a personal note, it's like a marriage. Photoshop has done some amazing development with their software, and now, they've teamed up with Cornell University to develop new imaging technology that makes it possible to transfer a photo style from one image to the next, and still make the image look realistic.
In this video, directors tell us how they define what it is to make a movie. They give advice to the viewer, the next generation of filmmakers. The filmmakers in the video are all masters of composition, rhythm, and flow of their movies. This also makes them great at evoking emotions because of it. But essentially, it's all about the story and not the medium. It's the same with photography. It's very hard to make a wrong decision when buying a camera today. With any camera brand you buy, you will get great image quality with beautiful color, quick auto-focus, and superb image stabilization. But can you tell a story with your mind and then use the camera as a tool to tell that story?
Super 35mm 4K comes to Canon 5D Mark III in a new Magic Lantern module. They announced it on April Fools which might have had you thinking they're playing around, but actually, it's real and you've been played by Canon all along! Why have this capability in a camera and not give it to your people?
If you're starting out and you want to improve your portrait photography, or just be able to take someone's portraits, Peter McKinnon's video takes you through a quick crash course in how you can do just that.
Once you've had the opportunity to feel the power of the community and your following, going without it must be hard. Casey Neistat is back with his daily vlog, and one of his latest videos is a review of the Samsung S8, which, according to the review, gives you more than an iPhone 7. The general feeling of the vlog now is that he's more relaxed, and is more responsible to his viewers. He obviously sees the vlog as something new, and has numbered the them from 01, starting again. He wears a helmet on his boosted board with a reflective jacket, and he states that he won't fly his drone as freely as he used to, due to so many people getting them and that he doesn't want to influence someone flying in places where people can get hurt.
Photography isn't something you decide as a career path. You rather find photography and then setup your life to do it as a job. It has that effect and it's why it's such a beautiful art form. You'll never be a successful photographer if you are not passionate about it, which is different to deciding a financial adviser or insurance broker. I might be stereotyping, but I am sure there are many who love their job, but also many who do not, but at least get a good paying salary at the end of every month, so they keep at it.
The most creative ideas are often the most simple ones. Here is a video a team from France put together showing you ways to enhance your portraits using cheap and basic tools that you can find at any grocery and hardware store. You don't have to worry, there is no French explanations, it's all done visually and is quite easy to follow.
Fujifilm will soon release a firmware update for their flagship cameras, the X-T2 and the X-Pro2. The first update is due end of March, and the second one will be released end of May. The update, as stated by them, is reflective of user requests that they have received. What I found interesting, and a first brands that I know of to do so, is the possibility of adding voice notes while paging through your images.
Look Up Tables (LUTs) are generally used to changes certain colors and their ranges in video using Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro or any professional video editing software. We often edit our photos with actions and presets in Lightroom or Photoshop, but it is possible to edit these photos using LUTs too. This video by Peter McKinnon shows how to do just that. The next time you like a certain look of your videos because of a LUT you applied to it, know that you can use it on a still image too.
Alexander Khohlov, a multi-award winning photographer from Moscow, has done the incredible. He has put together a team to style people and dogs to suit each other. Although the dogs aren't the model's pets, it's a very well executed project with regards to photography, styling, and hair and makeup, and it's set up in a studio which draws the eyes to the characters, the person, and the dog in the photograph.
We've been hearing rumors that Canon will be releasing a firmware update for the Canon 5D Mark IV that will make it possible to capture in C-Log, Canon's own log file format, and that they will be making it available during NAB in Las Vegas next month. Whether the Canon EOS-1D X Mark II will get the same update is still unclear, but reliable sources have made it known that the 5D Mark IV is definitely getting updated.
Have you ever thought about it? Light is the fastest traveling thing that we know to exist. Joe Hanson, Ph.D, presents ideas for the YouTube Channel "It's OK To Be Smart." He takes us through the history of light.
If you follow the super-brand Gucci on their social networks, especially Instagram, you would've noticed them posting memes. Instagram is a photography and video platform, but there is quite a considerable amount of humor profiles with followings that most of us dream of achieving.
Vlogging for photographers has become a great marketing tool. It's a video, so it's showcasing your editing capabilities, it's giving an idea of what it's like to work with you as a photographer, and it shows that you know what you are doing and based on your following, have a large amount of influence in the industry.
The video showcases and discusses the latest desktop computers and what features you can get with regards to screens and processor capabilities in the category. I've used a laptop for most of my photography and videography career. The idea of not being able to take the machine with me when I need to go has been my reason for not getting a desktop machine, and the work I do requires me to get up and go when a job arises.
