Serendipity: noun; the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way.
Both images were taken the same night, and at the same Brooklyn restaurant, Char #4. The place is nice, the service was good, and the food was decent, but the restaurant is definitively overpriced and overhyped. This was my third and most likely last visit.
This week (January 25th) Abel Cine New York is showing Canon’s brand new EOS C300. Abel is also hosting a similar event next month (February 16th) in Los Angeles. More than just another cool camera, the C300 systems confirms Canon’s commitment to the filmmaking industry. The systems comes in two flavors, one with EF mount (EOS C300) which takes your good ol’ Canon still lenses, and another one (C300 PL) with a PL mount. To learn more about this system and what it means for photographers shooting video read my previous post.
Also this week, Canon is showing in Chicago a series of short films shot with the C300, as well as “Behind the Scenes” interviews with the directors and crew members.
For Episode 002 of our bi-weekly series, “Conversations with Friends,” we had the opportunity to sit down with award-winning photographer and wonderful educator, Bobbi Lane, to discuss lighting techniques for video and how to stay current as a professional photographer.
For many photographers and filmmakers it is key to be portable and be able to pack and unpack very quickly, so we decided to bring only two cameras (the Canon EOS 7D with a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L II IS USM lens, and a Canon EOS 60D with a Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM lens), two tripods, two hot lights, and two silver umbrellas.
We tested two lighting scenarios; the first one was a typical cross lighting set up very commonly used by still photographers. Bobbi explained that this “gives you two sets of highlights and two sets of shadows, and does not look natural. It creates more contrast and brings no depth to the subject.” This, she added, is not the best way to do it, and explained that creating dimension with video could be achieved with the equipment we had. “You still need to have the same sensibility in video that you have with stills. A lot of people forget that, and light everything flat.”
Serendipity: noun; the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way.
Storefront decorations, Flatiron Building, Chelsea, New York.
The Flatiron Building was designed by Chicago’s Daniel Burnham as a steel-frame skyscraper in white terracotta, and intended as the headquarters of the Fuller Construction Company. The building was soon dubbed “Flatiron” after its unusual shape, caused by a triangular plot.
The building inspired unforgettable photographs by Edward Steichen
If you are into video editing or video games
Surprisingly, most MacBook Pro users are unaware of a very simple trick to switch Graphic Cards, and dramatically improve performance on demand. Apple MacBook Pro
First, follow these simple steps to see your Graphic Cards:
1. Click on the Apple Logo (very top left)
2. Click on “About This MAC“
3. Click on “More Info“
4. Scroll down to “Graphics/Displays”
As you can see, I have a NVIDIA GeForce 9400M, and a faster NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT. The highlighted Graphic Card is the one your system is currently using.
Now, let’s switch to the faster card.
Important: Make sure you save any documents, projects or websites you are working on. You will need to log out to complete this step.
1. Go back to the Apple Logo (very top left).
2. Click on “System Preferences” and the “Energy Saver“
3. Under “Graphics” select the “Higher Performance” option
4. Click “OK” to log out.
Done. The laptop will do a quick reboot and switch to the faster Graphics Cards, which obviously will need more power and generate more heat, so I strongly suggest you only switch to the faster card when using a Power Adapter
To go back to the slower, more battery friendly NVIDIA GeForce 9400M follow the same steps and under “Graphics” select “Better Battery Life.”
Cool uh? You’re welcome.
For the last 10 years, the Engineering News-Record (ENR), a sister publication of the Architectural Record, has been hosting a very well attended “construction” photography contest. Each year they invite a fresh set of five judges consisting typically of art directors and senior editors from ENR or its sister publications, one construction safety expert, and one outside photographer. Guess who was the outside photographer this year? Oui, moi.
About a month ago I had the honor to review more than 1,200 submissions with Cathleen McGuigan, editor-in-chief of Architectural Record and editorial director of two other McGraw-Hill publications, Gary DiPaolo, our construction safety expert, and two ENR employees, Aileen Cho, senior editor for transportation, and Justin Reynolds, associate art director.
As Tom Sawyer, the photo contest’s director writes on his article “Judging the ENR Photo Contest — Hows and Whys (PDF)”, I was truly surprised to see the overall quality of the images. This year’s online gallery is available here.
On January 26, Canon will be hosting “an exclusive Cinema EOS Event” in Chicago. They will present a series of short movies shot with the brand new, game changing EOS C300 camera, as well as “Behind the Scenes” interviews with the directors and crew members. Canon’s amazing technical staff will be available to answer all your geeky questions.
There will be two screenings (morning and afternoon), and registration is required. Please share your experience with us if you attend.
Adobe’s worldwide upgrade policy was set to change after December 31, 2011. Well, now they are announcing a new “special upgrade offer” for CS3 and CS4 customers.
“We want to make sure our customers have plenty of time to determine which offering is best for them. Therefore, we’re pleased to announce that we will offer special introductory upgrade pricing on Creative Suite 6 to customers who own CS3 or CS4. This offer will be available from the time CS6 is released until December 31, 2012. More details on this offer, as well as any introductory offers for existing customers to move to Creative Cloud membership, will be announced when CS6 and Creative Cloud are released later this year.”
I am wondering if this is a response to unhappy customers, or a clever marketing move. What’s your take?
The complete press release is here.
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All content © 2012 by Eduardo Angel