Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Photoshop Tutorials That I Have Watched
Monday, August 29, 2011
Reuters: Pictures of the Day
Reuters is obviously a good place to look for good pictures. They update this 'best of' site daily. Check it out!http://www.reuters.com/news/pictures
Manipulation by Photography
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Online Video Editing is Real?
I have recently begun consulting and shooting for a new site called www.watchknow.com. It's a great resource for kid's educational videos. It's a video wiki that was developed by Larry Sanger-a co-founder of Wikipedia. The site organizes and rates existing educational videos wherever they are hosted. Last week, Larry put forward the idea that classroom videos could be edited online using the power of an editing wiki in which trusted editors could edit and condense long classroom videos to strengthen the content. The idea is to upload raw video footage to a web server and do the editing there, using a hosted editing application, instead of on your own computer.
Here's what I have found so far in my quest to find a solution.
Most of the online video services that have been offered over the past few years have been taken down. Many are silly 'gag video' editors or are too limited to be of use. Many are here-today-gone-tomorrow kinds of sites. This is a major limitation. We don't want things to spin out of control by depending on a weak service.
I have not had any success finding a working example of Adobe Premiere Express on photobucket's website-or anywhere else as of yet. I am not at all sure that it still exists. It is confusing me. Although Adobe offers partnerships with sites who would like to use the editing feature on their sites. The service has been discontinued on youtube from what i have gathered. I am contacting adobe to see what their response is and will forward any info. However since i have been unable to figure out a single basic edit, I am not ready to endorse.
I found a site called www.moviemasher.com that looks promising. It's an open source - online editing tool that can be installed on your own server. The developer is willing to work with Watchknow as needed.
The big challenges with online video editing that I see are:
1. Finding a permanent, non-novelty oriented service that is cheap or free.
2. Assuring the ability to upload long clips.
3. One must be able to cut out sections in the middle of a clip while still preserving the beginning and end of the clip is desired. It is not enough to just trim one end of a clip. We need to be able to cut out an unwanted segment in the middle of the video.
4. The interface must be simple, and allow for preserving the original clip in case an editor makes a mistake.
5. There should be an 'undo' functionality.
6. I am sure their are more challenges!
Posted above is my video about watchknow for those who would like to know more.
Here's what I have found so far in my quest to find a solution.
Most of the online video services that have been offered over the past few years have been taken down. Many are silly 'gag video' editors or are too limited to be of use. Many are here-today-gone-tomorrow kinds of sites. This is a major limitation. We don't want things to spin out of control by depending on a weak service.
I have not had any success finding a working example of Adobe Premiere Express on photobucket's website-or anywhere else as of yet. I am not at all sure that it still exists. It is confusing me. Although Adobe offers partnerships with sites who would like to use the editing feature on their sites. The service has been discontinued on youtube from what i have gathered. I am contacting adobe to see what their response is and will forward any info. However since i have been unable to figure out a single basic edit, I am not ready to endorse.
I found a site called www.moviemasher.com that looks promising. It's an open source - online editing tool that can be installed on your own server. The developer is willing to work with Watchknow as needed.
The big challenges with online video editing that I see are:
1. Finding a permanent, non-novelty oriented service that is cheap or free.
2. Assuring the ability to upload long clips.
3. One must be able to cut out sections in the middle of a clip while still preserving the beginning and end of the clip is desired. It is not enough to just trim one end of a clip. We need to be able to cut out an unwanted segment in the middle of the video.
4. The interface must be simple, and allow for preserving the original clip in case an editor makes a mistake.
5. There should be an 'undo' functionality.
6. I am sure their are more challenges!
Posted above is my video about watchknow for those who would like to know more.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Is Flash dying? I hope so.
I've been hearing for years that I should learn Flash-at least the video end of it. I even went to Atlanta (on an airplane!) to take a class. I guess I learned something-even though i had to take the class on a PC. ouch. I managed to create a couple of Flash presentations successfully. It took weeks, but I struggled through. I then proceeded to forget most everything I learned and just went back to concentrating on Final Cut Pro video editing. I can DO that. Lately, I've been making some vaguely-informed comments about the imminent demise of Adobe Flash. I have been hearing and reading that Apple has been snubbing Flash for some very good reasons. Reasons that I was unable to articulate. So now Mr. Jobs comes to my rescue. Turns out that I had it about right-security problems-crashing-power consumption-blurry video. Here's the full explanation. It's enlightening. And I hope it's right. I just want to get even with Adobe for all those obnxious auto-update windows and for how damn byzantine Photoshop's controls are. Not to mention how weird Flashworld is for an old video guy. Here's the link. Enjoy :http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/
Friday, April 23, 2010
DSLR Procrastinating
I have been spending way to much time reading about and comparing all the video enabled digital still camera options. I've had Nikon cameras around for most of my life; my dad brought back a really cool Nikkormat system from Japan in the 70's. Thing is, Canon has been kicking Nikon's butt for the last year or so by bringing out more and more great dslrs with superior video formats and better usability. Accessory makers are pulling out all the stops to make them handle and focus better. The prices of the cameras are about one third of that of regular video cameras. Although they aren't going to fully replace traditional camcorders, Canon has serious filmmakers going nuts over the amazing image quality. The season finale of House is being shot on a Canon EOS still camera. Amazing. If Nikon doesn't get with the program this summer with some righteous catching up, I fear i will be mothballing all the Nikon lenses and heading to Canonland-specifically the Canon EOS 7d. Checkout DP Phillip Bloom's site/blog and www.zacuto.com for a great and exhaustive dslr comparison. (links below)
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