I can haz Video

Thanks to Russian programer Valexvir, my 40D can now record video. it's 1024x680 and looks just stunning.
There are a few issues with it but for free you really can't complain.

Without further, adieu I present: WRONGVERIE



Created with the help of Karl Rasche and his windows laptop and typing hands.
Music: "The Stars" by Moby
Shot with a Canon 40D and 24-70mm f2.8L.

Some interesting things I found out making this.

• The Framerate does not save correctly, I think I will have to use an external program to fix that.
• You can have manual control! Turn C. fn4:7 to 1, then hold down the DOF preview button to get desired fstop. The last shot in the view is f22 the others are f2.8
• If you press nearly any button on the camera the avi file will be corrupt
• My sensor needs to be clean, the dust was really showing up in some shots.

Next Up:

Stereo Movie's from my Loreo 3D Canon Lens!

Through the Viewfinder

The inspiration for this post comes from cardboard. Strobist and cardboard go together like peanut butter and jelly. If you add in some duct tape you have just about any light modifier. Any time I have a camera out you can be sure my 16 month old son Elijah is going to be reaching for it. He likes anything with buttons and especially things with buttons that he is not supposed to play with. To try and solve this for a moment I grabbed some cardboard that had a hole in it, folded down the sides and make a fake camera. The hole lined up nicely to be a right eye viewfinder.



Before handing it over I started looking at the world though this cardboard viewfinder. It amazed me how quickly I became disconnected from the world around me and became a viewer. It's much the same feeling I get when shooting with my SLRs. It's also something I find to be completely missing from shooting with a Point & Shoot.



I have many cameras and they are used for different things, most of the images in this post are shot with my LX3 point & shoot. It's tiny, Strobist friendly, and shoots RAW. I can fit it in a cargo pocket and not worry about it, Try that with a 40D. It just amazed me how different the feeling is when you shoot looking though a frame vs. looking at a screen. I would think the screen would feel more disconnected but it doesn't. Even as I write this post I am still playing with the cardboard view finder. The aspect of the hole is about 1:1. It's not an aspect I shoot a lot but I found myself wanting too after using the viewfinder. I also saw scenes that I wished I could press the shutter down and save.

I encourage those of you reading this to grab some cardboard, cut a hole in it and look at the world. You never know what you might see.

Upcoming Reviews

I am going to be doing full reviews of each of these apps in the coming weeks. Just a quick preview of what's on the docket and handy links to the app store if you don't want to wait for the review.


Photogene
Photo editor for the iPhone, Color Corrections, frames, text bubbles.



CameraBag
CameraBag is a dedicated filter program, with 9 filters. This image is the 1974 filter on a current pic of downtown Los Angeles.



Pano
My favorite panorama software for the iPhone.



Polarize
There are many polaroid apps on the iPhone, infact both CameraBag and Photogene have a filter for it, but this is my favorite, the look of the frame, the style of image.



StereoMaker
A very interesting app, it allows the creation of parallel and cross view stereo images on the iPhone.



Night Camera
This app is as close to Image Stabilization as we have on the iPhone, it waits till your hand is steady before taking the photo.


Ceiva Snap
This app is great if you have Ceiva digital picture frames, it lets you upload to all of them at once.



ieasyphoto lite
I use this for it's self timer, it's free and has many other features but the self timer is easy and has a nice loud countdown.

Welcome and Welcome Back

This post is aimed at everyone who just got there first Digital SLR. You may have shot film before but things are very different in the digital realm. I am going to go down a quick list of things you should know about your new camera and photography in general.

• Shoot in RAW, This will need to be a post of it's own, but just do it. You should Rendering: Rendering the Print: the art of photography read by Karl Lang. It explains this better than I can. In short you will kick yourself later for shooting jpgs.
• Get Adobe Lightroom, with out this you are going to waste a lot of time in the software that ships with your camera. It's better, it's not a replacement for photoshop, it's something else. Lightroom is your darkroom, Photoshop is an airbrush and scissors. You use photoshop after you develop your image.
  
• Stop using the Auto mode. In full auto you have a very fancy and fast point and shoot, move that dial elsewhere. Same goes for auto white balance, don't bother with it and shooting RAW it really doesn't matter anyway.
  
• Shoot, Shoot, and Shoot some more. Storage is cheap and with a Digital SLR feedback is instant.
• Never leave your camera at home, Seriously, don't. If you do you will miss things you want to shoot.
• Always have the batteries charged and the memory card empty and ready to go. This relates to the one above.
• You need to use Autofocus. If you come from a film SLR background you need to know a few things about modern Digital SLRs. The viewfinders suck. You have to buy a $8000 Digital SLR to get the same viewfinder as a $300 film body. Trying to do manual focus through a crop frame viewfinder is hard, and you will miss a lot. These cameras are built around autofocus and do not have a split prism viewfinder. So get used to using it. There are times when manual focus is the way to go, but if you are just getting started with Digital SLR, now is not the time. If your camera has a Live View mode you can manual focus that way for decent results.
• Start Reading. Start with your camera's manual or at least a dummies guide to it. Then head over to my Recommended Books section, and get some books to read. If you are new to terms like fstop, Tv, Av, and M then get Understanding Exposure to start with.
  
• Shoot, Shoot, and Shoot some more. Yes this again, take more pictures. Now show them to someone who is not emotionally connected to you have have them tell you what's good and whats not. Flickr is good for this, so are photography groups and company photography mailing lists.
• Work with ambient light to get started with, shoot outside where there is more of it. Once you know how everything on the camera works without thinking about it you can start looking into lighting. When you are ready, hit up Strobist.
• Talk to people who have been doing this a while before you buy anything else. Lenses, Flashes, Gels, Tripods, etc... Use there knowledge to your advantage.
• Go out shooting with someone who's work you like or even a group of photographers you know. Watching other people shoot the same subject can really open you eyes to other viewpoints.
• Save Your money and buy good glass, Glass can last you a lifetime, but bodies keep getting better and cheaper.
• Borrow gear as you can from friends to try things out. If you have no friends into photography or they all have different systems hit up Samys Rental Dept. or RentGlass.com
• Have Fun, don't get caught up in the technical side so much that you forget to have fun out there.

Aebleskiver

Aebleskiver
Originally uploaded by The Eye of Brad

Breakfast is a great invention. I am a big fan of sleeping, even bigger fan of sleeping in. About the only good thing about waking up on the weekend is Breakfast. It helps that my Wife is a trained Chef. As you would imagine this gives me lots of opportunities for food photography.
My wife decided that this morning would be a good time to try and make Aebleskivers. Our kitchen contains just about every pot, pan, gadget, and spice you would find in a commercial kitchen or good restaurant. Now a special pan is required to do this and she did get one last week so I knew they would happen sooner or later. Now you could just toss them in a bowl or plate and eat but that's not how we roll around here. She made up a show plate with powdered sugar and raspberry syrup and before I thought twice I proceeded to start eating it. After finishing the first of the four Aebleskivers I looked down at the artwork I just just smeared and said doh. That was one really nice plate to not photograph. Luckily for me she was already making the second plate and it was better than the first.
This would be a good time to point out the two types of photography I do, candid and planned. When I do planned shots there is usually lights involved, gear, diagrams, and my big SLR Cameras. For candid work I have started using a small camera called the LX3. It's a point and shoot with Full manual controls, a hot shoe, and a wide f2 Leica lens.
The Aebleskiver breakfast shot is candid. It's mostly natural light was done with the LX3. I have a 8'x4' window behind me with the blinds rotates to block direct sun and bounce it at the plate. There is a xenon light fixture directly above the plate adding some rim and top fill. The camera has a very good macro focus and at f2 you do get some bokeh even with such a tiny lens.
As always it was shot in RAW mode. I used lightroom to develop shot. I did remove some saturation from the background and darken it a bit. I also tweaked the colors of the crust vs syrup to give them a bit more separation.
I am happy with how this came out for a candid and was even happier when I stopped shooting and ate the rest of my breakfast. Good Eats.

Product Review System

One of the main features of this blog is the product reviews.  As I prefer to take pictures and edit them more than write lengthly reviews  you can expect clear, concise, and to the point reviews. My goal is not to waste you time, it's to help you decide if something is right for you. 

For iPhone Applications I use a 0 to 5 scale, with 5 being the best. Every app gets rated on the following categories:

• Usefulness
  
• User Interface and Ease of Use
• Stability
• Worth the Money (Free apps do not get a pass on this, some apps are not worth free)

This adds up to a total of 20 points. If an app scores 15 or above it will get my "Certified by Brad" stamp. Think of it as the good housekeeping seal or tomatometer, just arbitrated by Me.

Do you have an iPhone application or product you would like reviewed? send me an e-mail or post it in the commends and I will add it to the queue.

brad..herman ( a t ) gmail.com 

Pool Shoot

Nick vs Balls
Originally uploaded by The Eye of Brad

Over New Years I had the chance to shoot at my brother-in-laws house. He has this fantastic red pool table in the lounge that I thought would look great in some shots. It was a very quick setup start to finish it was done during half time of the USC / Penn State Game. It was also when Elijah was taking a nap so it worked out well. Nick is going to be the father of a newborn in a few months and I wanted to get a nice before picture of the lounge while it still had that bachelor flare to it. If I had more time and had looked more carefully at the images I shot I would have changed a bunch of things but I got what I got and I know for next time.

Lighting:
key: 430ex @ 1/4 with lumiquest sb3, camera right, cactus v2 trigger
ball light: sb900 @ 1/4 with 8" honl snoot camera left, optical trigger
wall back light: 285hv @ 1/16 with honl bounce card and red gel, optical trigger

My cactus triggers where there usual flakey selves and I got a few shots missing my key, I noticed afterwords that I really liked that look. What I should have done is pulled the SB3 off the key and put a honl 1/8" grid spot on it and moved it to the left of the pool table just to light his face with some fall off to the body and arm. It would have been a great dynamic photo. I will have to take that shot someday if I get a chance.