Live Blogging Test
20 August 2008
10 July 2008
Ping.fm
You may have heard of Ping.fm. If you haven't it is just thing that pulls all your social networks together. You can mass post to all your micro blogs, blogs, statuses and so on. You do however need a beta code so I'll give you one "dreamofping". Test it out, it is free and I am liking it so far.
24 June 2008
Iron Man
Iron an Review/Backstory
On Monday the 16th of June I, and my family saw Iron Man. I usually enjoy comic book movies but this one I liked much more than the others. There was something about it that made it much better than the others (i.e. Spider Man, X Men etc)
The movie starts interestingly with Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) in a hummer with U.S. soldiers. We don’t know why he is there but you can make the assumption of where they are. You know nothing of Mr. Stark at this point other than he’s rich and well known.
If I tell you anything beyond this point it will ruin the movie for you so I will just give some back-story information of Tony Stark. Tony’s father started a company (Stark Industries) many years ago. His father worked on the Manhattan project (if you don’t know what that is wikipedia it). The company was taken over by a partner in the business but Tony returned at reclaimed the business. Anthony Stark lives normal celebrity’s life but after a life changing experience in the middle-east decides to make a change.
I very much enjoyed this movie and compared the The Incredible Hulk it was an Academy Awards film. A review of The Hulk is coming soon.
19 June 2008
Low Light Photography (Manual Modes)
Low light photography is one of if not the biggest challenges of photography. This has a lot to do with technique, and with your camera.
Terms
I'll be using these terms to explain how your camera adjusts for low light and how you can get sharper images at night or in a dark area.
* ISO: Your camera's sensitivity to light
* Aperture (displayed as f/5.6 or similar): How much light your camera lets in also adjusts depth of field (how much of the picture is in focus)
* Shutter speed: how long your shutter will be open, contributes to blurred motion
* Sensor: it is the film of the digital age. What used to be film has been replaced by a digital sensor this processes the image and then is written to the memory card
* RAW: this is a camera format like jpeg but unlike jpeg it is uncompressed and saves all the data from the shot. Most Point and shoots do not have it but most DSLRs do. It provides greater versatility in post processing
* photoshop: I use photoshop as a general term to describe image editors
* Noise: similar to film grain caused by high ISOs or the amount of pixels on a sensor (the closer the pixels the worse the light sensitivity and more grain)
Your Camera
I would like you to go into that scary manual mode on your camera. That's right get out of the auto or program mode. Adjust some things, see what they do.
Shutter Speed
The shutter is the main problem of low light photography. The faster the shutter the less the blur. The problem is that the less the shutter speed the darker the image so we need longer shutter speeds at night or in the dark.
Aperture (fstop)
The hole made up of the aperture blades is called the iris. The iris allows the light into the camera. The smaller the hole the higher the f#. Lenses come in different aperture ranges such as f/3.5 – f/32. That is the aperture range of my 18mm – 55mm Nikkor lens. The lower the fstop the less of the picture will be in focus. If you are shooting macro photography or will be in a dark environment you want a lens that has a very low aperture. A fast lens is about f/1.4, give or take a few stops. The depth of field is the amount of the picture in focus.
How to Hold Your Camera
While settings are all well and good it's important to hold your camera correctly. IF you hold your camera by the corners like thumbs on the bottom of the camera and both index fingers on the top with your arms extended. STOP IT! This is the worst way you can hold your camera. You wand to hold the side of your camera with your right hand and put your left hand under the lens carriage (even if you're a point and shoot user) that's how pro photographers shoot and that's how you should shoot. Keep it close to your body. You want to use a stance similar to shooting a gun. Shooting a gun relies on steadiness and balance. Photography is similar in that you need to be steady so you get less camera shake.
Products that can help
There are maybe three options worth mentioning that can help steady your shots when you need to shoot with a slower shutter speed
Tripod
The one everybody is familiar with the big bulky set of legs that are annoying to carry around and have a set up time that your family doesn't want to deal with. Great option, it's what I use. It's the sturdiest and best for a DSLR.
Monopod
Has one leg and is for a little help it doesn't stand on it's own. Virtually no set up time, lightweight and can be used as a walking stick while hiking. This only helps with vertical camera shake not left right camera shake.
Beanbag
Most pros know about this but not a lot of amateurs. This is a beanbag made for photographers that sit on a table or some other flat surface and can take long exposure shots.
How to adjust settings
Products can help but real photography is in how you adjust your settings. If you know how to adjust setting you can get the look you want as well as reducing camera shake. Here is the order in which I adjust my setting for a night time shoot. I’ll say a cocnert or something low light but not a landscape.
There are obviously other factors but this is usually how I do it if I just want a clear sharp shot in the dark. I didn’t talk about flash I will talk about using flash well in another post. I will also talk about purposefully blurred shots in a later post. I hope that this helps you to be able to take better low light photographs.
Thanks for reading, and get out of the green box
Jordan
Terms
I'll be using these terms to explain how your camera adjusts for low light and how you can get sharper images at night or in a dark area.
* ISO: Your camera's sensitivity to light
* Aperture (displayed as f/5.6 or similar): How much light your camera lets in also adjusts depth of field (how much of the picture is in focus)
* Shutter speed: how long your shutter will be open, contributes to blurred motion
* Sensor: it is the film of the digital age. What used to be film has been replaced by a digital sensor this processes the image and then is written to the memory card
* RAW: this is a camera format like jpeg but unlike jpeg it is uncompressed and saves all the data from the shot. Most Point and shoots do not have it but most DSLRs do. It provides greater versatility in post processing
* photoshop: I use photoshop as a general term to describe image editors
* Noise: similar to film grain caused by high ISOs or the amount of pixels on a sensor (the closer the pixels the worse the light sensitivity and more grain)
Your Camera
I would like you to go into that scary manual mode on your camera. That's right get out of the auto or program mode. Adjust some things, see what they do.
Shutter Speed
The shutter is the main problem of low light photography. The faster the shutter the less the blur. The problem is that the less the shutter speed the darker the image so we need longer shutter speeds at night or in the dark.
Aperture (fstop)
The hole made up of the aperture blades is called the iris. The iris allows the light into the camera. The smaller the hole the higher the f#. Lenses come in different aperture ranges such as f/3.5 – f/32. That is the aperture range of my 18mm – 55mm Nikkor lens. The lower the fstop the less of the picture will be in focus. If you are shooting macro photography or will be in a dark environment you want a lens that has a very low aperture. A fast lens is about f/1.4, give or take a few stops. The depth of field is the amount of the picture in focus.
How to Hold Your Camera
While settings are all well and good it's important to hold your camera correctly. IF you hold your camera by the corners like thumbs on the bottom of the camera and both index fingers on the top with your arms extended. STOP IT! This is the worst way you can hold your camera. You wand to hold the side of your camera with your right hand and put your left hand under the lens carriage (even if you're a point and shoot user) that's how pro photographers shoot and that's how you should shoot. Keep it close to your body. You want to use a stance similar to shooting a gun. Shooting a gun relies on steadiness and balance. Photography is similar in that you need to be steady so you get less camera shake.
Products that can help
There are maybe three options worth mentioning that can help steady your shots when you need to shoot with a slower shutter speed
Tripod
The one everybody is familiar with the big bulky set of legs that are annoying to carry around and have a set up time that your family doesn't want to deal with. Great option, it's what I use. It's the sturdiest and best for a DSLR.
Monopod
Has one leg and is for a little help it doesn't stand on it's own. Virtually no set up time, lightweight and can be used as a walking stick while hiking. This only helps with vertical camera shake not left right camera shake.
Beanbag
Most pros know about this but not a lot of amateurs. This is a beanbag made for photographers that sit on a table or some other flat surface and can take long exposure shots.
How to adjust settings
Products can help but real photography is in how you adjust your settings. If you know how to adjust setting you can get the look you want as well as reducing camera shake. Here is the order in which I adjust my setting for a night time shoot. I’ll say a cocnert or something low light but not a landscape.
- ISO: Adjust to 800 or 1600 depending on darkness do not adjust to 3200 or Hi
- Shutter Speed: Adjust to a lower shutter speed that you feel confident in hand holding. The lowest I can go is 1/10th 1/6th. Don’t adjust to the lowest but adjust to the exposure needle.
- Fstop: Adjust according to your need and your wanted depth of field.
There are obviously other factors but this is usually how I do it if I just want a clear sharp shot in the dark. I didn’t talk about flash I will talk about using flash well in another post. I will also talk about purposefully blurred shots in a later post. I hope that this helps you to be able to take better low light photographs.
Thanks for reading, and get out of the green box
Jordan
17 May 2008
On My Mind
Things That Take Up My TIme
Tech Podcasts
Today on the series wasting my time I'll be talking about the tech podcasts that waste my time (or at least take it up). These are my favorite ones I listen to so not all of them. Some are from CNET some are from TWIT and some are just independent.
Buzz Out Loud
Buzz Out Loud is a podcast by CNET (Computer networks inc.). BOL is a tech podcast that covers tech news both mainstream and from the tech world.
The podcast is hosted by Molly Wood, Tom Merrit and is produced by Jason Howell. They say that they are CNET's podcast of indeterminate length but they usually last about thirty minutes.
Buzz Out Loud Links
Wiki: http://buzzoutloud.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page
Live video stream: http://www.watchbol.com/
Show notes blog: http://www.cnet.com/8300-11455_1-10.html
The Real Deal
The Real Deal is a podcast by Tom Merrit and Rafe Needleman. This is another podcast by CNET but very different from BOL or The Buzz Report. The Real Deal is there to eliminate some of the FUD (Fear Uncertainty and Doubt) surrounding one tech topic a week.
The format is usually them giving the technical definition and then breaking that down into plain english English. The topics could be copyright, law which isn’t directly a tech topic, but it is connected to it, or something like social bookmarking sites which is a tech topic itself.
I like this one because it helps me to understand some of these things that they talk about in other podcasts. It will turn you on to some great sites and give you a better understanding of how stuff works or what exactly stuff is.
The Daily GIz Wiz
I must preface this by saying that this podcast isn't for everyone. The reason I say this is because the humor is interesting and a bit different (not bad just interesting).
The is podcast (as the name suggests) features one gadget a day. It is by the TWIT broadcating network created by Leo Laporte. The podcast is hosted by Dick Debartolo and Leo Laporte.
They feature the gadget then read listener email. It is a fun show in my opinion. It is only a few minutes every morning.
MacBreak Weekly
MacBreak weekly has both an audio and video version. I will be talking about the audio version.
The podcast is a obviously a weekly podcast with a panel of hosts (Leo Laporte, Merlin Mann,
Andy Ihnatko, Scott Bourne, Alex Lindsay, and the occasional guest)
It is about Apple in general not just the computers but ipods, iphones and whatever apple is up to that week.
net@night
net@night is a weekly show hosted by Leo Laporte and Amber MacArthur. They talk about what's on the net. Great sites, interesting videos, podcasts or whatever is on the net.
They typically do an interview with someone who is the creator of a new website that they find interesting.
I enjoy the show it has turned me on to a few sites which I'm sure you'll hear about in the next couple of weeks.
net@night link
http://twit.tv/natn
Thanks for reading. I hope this will open you up to some new podcasts.
Jordan
Things That Take Up My TIme
Tech Podcasts
Today on the series wasting my time I'll be talking about the tech podcasts that waste my time (or at least take it up). These are my favorite ones I listen to so not all of them. Some are from CNET some are from TWIT and some are just independent.
Buzz Out Loud
Buzz Out Loud is a podcast by CNET (Computer networks inc.). BOL is a tech podcast that covers tech news both mainstream and from the tech world.
The podcast is hosted by Molly Wood, Tom Merrit and is produced by Jason Howell. They say that they are CNET's podcast of indeterminate length but they usually last about thirty minutes.
Buzz Out Loud Links
Wiki: http://buzzoutloud.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page
Live video stream: http://www.watchbol.com/
Show notes blog: http://www.cnet.com/8300-11455_1-10.html
The Real Deal
The Real Deal is a podcast by Tom Merrit and Rafe Needleman. This is another podcast by CNET but very different from BOL or The Buzz Report. The Real Deal is there to eliminate some of the FUD (Fear Uncertainty and Doubt) surrounding one tech topic a week.
The format is usually them giving the technical definition and then breaking that down into plain english English. The topics could be copyright, law which isn’t directly a tech topic, but it is connected to it, or something like social bookmarking sites which is a tech topic itself.
I like this one because it helps me to understand some of these things that they talk about in other podcasts. It will turn you on to some great sites and give you a better understanding of how stuff works or what exactly stuff is.
The Daily GIz Wiz
I must preface this by saying that this podcast isn't for everyone. The reason I say this is because the humor is interesting and a bit different (not bad just interesting).
The is podcast (as the name suggests) features one gadget a day. It is by the TWIT broadcating network created by Leo Laporte. The podcast is hosted by Dick Debartolo and Leo Laporte.
They feature the gadget then read listener email. It is a fun show in my opinion. It is only a few minutes every morning.
MacBreak Weekly
MacBreak weekly has both an audio and video version. I will be talking about the audio version.
The podcast is a obviously a weekly podcast with a panel of hosts (Leo Laporte, Merlin Mann,
Andy Ihnatko, Scott Bourne, Alex Lindsay, and the occasional guest)
It is about Apple in general not just the computers but ipods, iphones and whatever apple is up to that week.
net@night
net@night is a weekly show hosted by Leo Laporte and Amber MacArthur. They talk about what's on the net. Great sites, interesting videos, podcasts or whatever is on the net.
They typically do an interview with someone who is the creator of a new website that they find interesting.
I enjoy the show it has turned me on to a few sites which I'm sure you'll hear about in the next couple of weeks.
net@night link
http://twit.tv/natn
Thanks for reading. I hope this will open you up to some new podcasts.
Jordan
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