Visualnary

Geert van Schoot made a beautiful video showing how simple it is to swap the PL mount to a Canon mount.

I’ve been using Final Cut Pro since version 1.25. The past three years I’ve been patiently (well, increasingly impatient) waiting for it to support R3D files. Two NAB passed without an update. Adobe Premiere started supporting R3D (very well, I might add). Sony is supporting it. Avid is. Even some freeware editors are. Then NAB 2011 came and went, still nothing new from Apple. Now finally, after many years of re-coding, Apple has released the new “Final Cut Pro X”. Turns out, that you have to write it like this:

Recently I gave a little seminar on RED post workflow, with R3D files at its very core. I showed the scope of creative choices that you can do after the images have been shot. Traditionally in film, you would set the general look during exposure, and later you could adjust the look up to a certain level. Comparable to .jpg in photography. But no professional photographer shoots .jpg anymore (of course with a few exceptions when speed is of essence).

RED‘s R3D raw format offers to the cameraman/DP what so long was reserved only to stills photographers — raw data off the sensor, giving a whole new level of creative choices in post production. On said seminar I took some timelapse shots of clouds that I had shot over the past two years. We tried hard to break the files by pushing them to extreme extremes. But all we succeeded in was getting such unusual imagery, that I had to make a quick video of it the same evening. Enjoy.

Music by Hird of Sweden. You can see the film in HD quality, fullscreen directly at Vimeo, or visit me for a 2k or 4k version

The source material was conservatively shot, keeping as much information in the digital neg as possible.

Artefact has just published some details about their WVIL (Wireless Viewfinder Interchangeable Lens) concept camera, with some very interesting ideas behind it, both on the design and UI front. The concept is to be able to detach the lens from the main body, thus enabling you to put yourself into the picture, having full remote control over the lens from the camera’s body in your hands.

Add to that a full feature set of computational photography (think iPhone with photography apps on steroids), and you have an idea what the next generation of consumer cameras may very well look like.

But I also wonder how this might affect photo journalism. It may also be a welcome tool for portrait photography, as the photographer no longer has to be hidden behind the lens, but could actually directly interact with the subject.

I’ve said it many times before: What exciting times we live in as image capturers.

I came across about.me, a newly started website showcasing your one-page web identity, with a hip, customizable look, and integration of all major social websites. It is a good exercise having to compress yourself to a few sentences. If you click on the picture, you’ll see my about.me page (a self portrait taken from a RED stills grab in 4k). Be sure to check out what some other people have done – very educational and inspiring.

Over the years, usage of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer has thankfully declined from almost 90% at the beginning of my blogging career. Now Firefox has almost caught up, and Opera is at a surprizing 3rd place. If you bundle Firefox and Mozilla, since they basically rely on the same technology, Explorer already has lost it’s place on the throne. As an occasional web designer, I greet that with open arms.

I also get almost 10% of visitors using Google’s Chrome, a nice sign of having an audience that tries new technologies. Thanks!

Browser statistics for visualnary.com in per cent:

We are a small shop, yet we are in line for an EPIC-X camera. Why did we not stick with the RED One?

• Faster boot-up time (under 10 seconds; R1: about 90 seconds)
• Uses less power (A camcorder sized battery now lasts about 1 hour; R1: A full sized V-lock battery gives 45 minutes)
• Smaller, lighter, compacter
• Up to 13 1/2 stops of native latitude
• Up to 18 stops latitude in HDRx™ mode Continue reading

Sorry for the lack of posts of late, it’s been a very busy time, a lovely summer break and finished off with a hacker attacking this site (and a number of others I am helping with). Sorry about that, all should be back to normal now.

Copyright is at the core of any creative’s profession. It makes sure we get paid for what we do. I am not going to enter the discussion on what is wrong with current copyright laws (and it sure does need some fixing), but have a brief discussion on what to do if someone actually steals your content. Lorelle from WordPress has written a very good and practical article on the issue, focusing on a blogger’s perspective.

First, gather evidence. Second, get in contact with the offending party, I would always stay civil. Do all your communication in writing. If the party chooses to ignore your demand, you can either hire a copyright lawyer, or if you are a member of a professional body/union, get them to sort it out for you. I think it is important to not let it slip.

A czech user has just uploaded a 720p video taken by the newest iPhone geration:

As expected, you can see compression artifacts in the grass and blow-out highlights in the clouds, but taking into account that this HD video was shot on a freaking telephone this is amazing. Will be interesting to see what this will do to citizenship journalism, as well as amateur film productions.

Occasionally I work for news, and am always surprised at how suddenly all feeling of comradeship or sometimes basic common decency go out the window the moment there are more tv cameras than there is space for them. You are being shuffled around, elbows punched into your side, verbal abuses hurled.

Fortunately, I have never been attacked by a member of public, but not all cameramen have been so lucky. There is a blog just about those episodes where tempers run too high: the Schmuck Alert Central.