Video – Page 3 – CanonBlogger

Eureka! Tutorial Tuesdays Triumphant Return!

September 23, 2008 JasonLeave a comment

For those that have been visiting the blog, you know that Podpress, my plugin of choice for putting out podcasts has been broken for some time as the developer has not released an update that makes it compatible with WordPress 2.6 Well, since it has been several months now, I am officially parting ways with it as my method for publishing.

Thanks to the folks over at Blubrry, I have been successfully able to implement a new alternative to embed podcasts into the native feed that already exists for CanonBlogger. So, in the interests of getting the content posted to iTunes and to those feeds that had not been updated from web references, I am going to spend the next few days providing some video content updates. The expanding ease of the .mov format not only in this interface, but also for portability purposes also seems to suggest that I am going to stick to that format exclusively for the foreseeable future.

For those that had been coming to the blog for their content, you will already have seen this video, but for those who have been waiting on the feed for new multimedia, this will be new material. Today, I am re-publishing the tutorial on reducing noise in your images. Enjoy! For the rest of you, see if you can tell the differences between some clouds shot with and without a circular polarizer. Share your thoughts in the comments on which one is with and which is without.

Image A:

Image B:

Hot off the Presses: Canon 5D Mark II announced late yesterday!!!

September 17, 2008 Jason4 Comments

Stop the presses! No What’s This today! CANON ANNOUNCES THE 5D MARK II!!! Here’s the first pics Canon released. The specs are pretty impressive and pricing is already amazingly low! I saw this over on TWIP, and verified it on Canon’s site. Here’s everything about it, specs, pricing, and photos! I didn’t want to jump on the 5d Mark II rumor bandwagon, but with this being public, I must say…”Holy Crap!” There’s also links at the end of this post to some video samples with audio in 3 of them from the camera. They look and sound pretty darn good to me! The last video was taken at night and shows some great noise handling…

Here’s the nuts and bolts of all the specs:

HD Video @ 1920×1080 and 30 fps
SD Video @ 640×480 and 30 fps
video capture up to 4 GB or 29min, 59 sec
Video recorded in .MOV format
Input terminal for microphones
HDMI output
3 Live View Modes
Peripheral Illumination Correction
Two Small raw formats
Silent shooting in Live View
Integrated Cleaning System
21.1 MP
ISO from 50-25,600 (not a typo!)
3.9 fps
UDMA card compliant
15 point auto-focus
3″ LCD (920,000 dot resolution VGA)
150,000 shutter count cycle
Price: $2699!!!!!

I guess the only thing that surprises me is the frames per second for still captures. Yeah okay, it’s capturing 21.1 megapixels and at a full frame, but it is also able to capture 30 fps in HD video! Why is the still frame rate so slow comparatively speaking (at 3.9 fps)?

That being said, the video features are astonishing, as is the low price point! I would expect the older Canon 5D’s to drop into the $1000 range shortly…start checking the auction sites! For the full story that gives all the hype and glamour of Canon news announcements, check out the press release here with all the above shots also in high resolution:

Canon Announces 5D Mark II

Anyone else want to salivate over it with me? What are your thoughts on this new release? Will this answer the gauntlet of the D3 that Nikon threw down a short while ago? I would tentatively say yes – but only time will tell!

Video clips:

http://www.canon-ci.co.kr/product/smov/pop01.html

http://www.canon-ci.co.kr/product/smov/pop02.html

http://www.canon-ci.co.kr/product/smov/pop03.html

http://www.canon-ci.co.kr/product/smov/pop04.html

Just under the wire…

September 9, 2008 JasonLeave a comment

enver did mighty fine yesterday in their handling of the Raiders, so hats off to them for getting the season started on the right note. Go Broncos!

As you may have guessed from yesterday’s post, today is Tutorial Tuesday, and since time is ticking away from me here, I’ll get right to it. The tutorial today does a comparison of reducing noise from the built in settings inside Photoshop versus a third party plugin. Granted, I went through it pretty quick and didn’t go into a lot of detail on the various settings, but I did want to give you the upshot of applying the different types of nosie reduction, so you can see how superior a 3rd party plugin is to pretty much any native reduction method.

The plugin I am using is for Noise Ninja, but I am sure that the others mentioned in yesterdays comments (thanks go out to Michael Palmer, Jen Rinaldi, and Brian Reyman for their contributions) perform equally well. So…without further ado:

Noise Reduction Tutorial (Web based)

Noise Reduction Tutorial (Quicktime)

So, that’s it for today. Tune in tomorrow for the latest edition of What’s This? Until then, happy shooting and watch those apertures!

Oh yeah, one final thing – for those picking up the blog in their feed readers: Is this podcasting plugin that I am using working? (I am trying a switch from Podpress to Podcasting on the blog, and am curious how the feed crawlers and readers will pick this up). Don’t forget too, the poll on the right hand panel has another few days left, so be sure to chime in and share your thoughts on casual shooting trends.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Updating Your Firmware

September 2, 2008 JasonLeave a comment

A few days ago I shared the story of how an IS lens on my beloved 40D was producing some odd noises and the resulting diagnosis was to update my firmware. Rather than do so immediately (as is usually the case for me), I decided to hold off and share it as a video tutorial of sorts on what the process is like. I share a few tips on things to do before hand and what to look for. Then, you see in real time, unrehearsed and unscripted, my firmware update.

As the video shows, it’s a pretty painless process as long as you follow instructions. Unfortunately, because I had to use Quicktime to record it, there is no flash version available. Podpress has not been updated to co-exist with WordPress, so I am continuing to have to post videos and multimedia via link rather than by an available feeder, so apologies there as well.

But anyway, enough falderal, here’s the video:

[display_podcast]

I should have some more pics, a Wednesday “What’s This?” and fun stuff again tomorrow. Thanks for stopping in, and until then, happy shooting and watch those apertures!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Tuesday Two Minute Tip

July 22, 2008 Jason2 Comments

That’s right, I’ve finally gotten back in the saddle for some good old fashioned Photoshop fun. Today, it’s a quickie, but then again, that’s how we like our information on the web: short, sweet, and to the point. Today I give a little tip on how you can use the Clouds filter in Photoshop. This technique works in pretty much any of the last 3 iterations of the software (I am assuming it works in CS – I got into the game in CS2 worlds…).

Anyway, take a gander on the download feed listed at the end of the post. The result of the tip is actually at the top of the post so you kind of get a little teaser there! (Yes, I am a tease!) Not much else today, as I am still swimming in a sea of boxes. I’m hopefully a little ahead of the game now for video tips and tricks, as next weeks is set to auto publish Tuesday morning.

I do have my “Shoot the Day” pics for Photoshelter, and will hopefully have those processed (at least a quick process in DPP) and ready to share tomorrow, so stop on back to check those out. In the final news tidbit – don’t forget the Photo Contest here at CB. Stop over and share some pics along the lines of a “Freedom” theme, and you could win a $25 gift card to B&H! 2nd place and 3rd place prizes will be awarded too!

So, until next time, happy shooting and we’ll see you back here tomorrow!

Wed Edit: The linked video is not displaying for some reason so for the time being, it can be downloaded directly here

CB Episode #48: Clouds Filter

[display_podcast]

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Digital Frames

May 7, 2008 Jason2 Comments

Too often we take our work and share it out on the web in galleries, on blogs, and at various community forums to see the background colors don’t really do our shots much justice. I’ve seen forums with blue background colors, others with yellow, and much much more. This has the net effect of casting a hue across every image in that space. Your images take on that hue to a certain degree, and it can often negate an image more than many realize.

Forum administrators and bloggers are starting to realize that neutrals are the best way to go, but there are still some web outlets that hang on to some rather outlandish color schemes. To accommodate the creative (and sometimes sensitive) differences that exist, it can often help to present your images with some digital framing. That is the focus of this weeks’ tutorial, and I share a rather simple but effective technique to create a digital frame to enhance or accentuate and draw attention to your imagery.

As I mention at the end of the post, there are some automated ways to create digital frames via plugins and actions. The one I reference can be found at www.atncentral.com People labor often in anonymity and share their work with the world and give it freely for others to use. Enjoy the benefits of generous folks and for those occasional ones that ask for donations, kick in a buck or two – it always helps to keep the creative spirit alive. In the meantime, keep on shooting (happily), and watch those apertures (carefully)!

Flash Version: Digital Framing

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Calendar Templates, Part II

April 29, 2008 Jason2 Comments

This week I wrap up the tutorial started last week on creating a Calendar Template using Photoshop. One of the things I found most useful was performing the screen captures of each month prior to beginning the place functions inside Photoshop. As you can see in the tutorial, the results came out really nicely.

This whole project started from wanting to make a single-page calendar and in looking at the design offerings on Mpix, thought “Hey! I could make that!” The second half of the genesis came courtesy of Matt Kloskowski over fro the Photoshop Guys where he did a tutorial a while back on making a desktop calendar for a single month. So…I put the two ideas together and this is the end result of that effort. I figured it may also have some interest for other photographers in making calendars incorporating either their own prints or those of their clients. Clearly, this is a “down and dirty” version, but if anyone is interested, I do have a pretty high resolution sized template that I would be willing to share on request.

In other news, I’d like to give some shout outs to Brian over at Professional Snapshots, who just last Friday celebrated the birth of his new daughter Isabelle! Congrats to Brian, even though this means he has pretty much lost the ability to sleep through a night for at least the next 18-24 months! Yeah, this may be your fourth, but I’ve heard the stories from siblings and neighbors! Enjoy!

Also, don’t forget to stop over at Jason D. Moore’s weekly summary of all things photography! I always head there to make sure I’m not missing anything interesting.

Last, but not least, the tutorial links: Flash first and QT second…

Calendar Templates, Part II

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Creating templates

April 22, 2008 JasonLeave a comment

Hey all, today is tutorial Tuesday, and I share a technique I used recently in creating a calendar template to import client photos in. I could only get about half way through the tutorial before I had to stop (I am trying to keep video tutorials at or under 5 minutes), so this will be part 1 of a two part series. Today I show you how I created the graphics with some guides, and keeping things all manageable on just a couple levels. As usual, the tutorial is linked in both Flash (web based) and QuickTime (iPod/iTunes friendly) formats at the end of the post.

Additionally, I’ve got a few rather unique shots (I think anyway) from my outing to Magnolia Gardens this weekend. There was a heavy thunderstorm the previous day, so lots of opportunities for some macro and water works. Here’s two I thought that the viewing audience might enjoy:

That’s about it for today…a few photos and a tutorial for your viewing pleasure. A multimedia blowout this week thus far, with an article yesterday, photos and videos today, and who knows what tomorrow has in store…more articles, and maybe….an audio podcast *gasp!* (Likely not with the latter though – so no promises!) Until then, happy shooting and watch those apertures! 🙂

CB Episode 038: Calendar Template

Podcast: Play in new window | Download