The folks over at PhotoshopTalent.com and TutCast.com show how to use distort and displace in Photoshop to add realistic texture to an image. In this case, the demonstration uses a flat flag image, and adds a nice dynamic flowing look.
FotoTV has been invited to visit the Fotolia Workshop “SPEND A DAY WITH YURI ARCURS. LEARN TO SHOOT WHAT SELLS” on the 6th of December 2008 in Berlin (Germany). The result is an amazing movie about Yuri Arcurs the most successful Microstock photographer worldwide. The clip contains very interesting statements in regards to Microstock photography and Yuris know-how, his way of working with models and workshop participants and provides impressions of the entire Fotolia workshop.
Part 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8XmMmSceK4
Part 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkN5icUfxW0
Yuri Arcurs from Crestock has produced some wonderful videos that show behind the scenes of his studio at Aarhus in Denmark. These videos show a lot of great insight to how he’s using his studio and his photography work flow, specifically in relation to his stock photography. Thanks to Yuri for sharing with the world!
The videos include:
Tags: Photography Tutorials, stock photography, Studio Photography
Beginning the week of January 26th, Instructional Technology will be offering professional support for campus technologies, multimedia and more via Open FLEX Lab Hours in both the Beck Instructional Lab and the MultimediaProduction Center. Beck’s Open Lab Hours (FLEX Lab) will remain the same and the MPC will be opening its doors for the campus community. If you need help with a computer related task or project, stop by to receive one-on-one help from the Instructional Technology staff of experts.
Open Lab Hours for Spring 2009 will be:
Beck:
Mondays 1:30 pm - 4:30 pm
MPC:
Tuesdays 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Wednesdays 11:00 am - 1:00 pm
If you have questions about any of the Open FLEX Lab Hours, please contact Nancy Cross, Brian Palmer or Nick Smerker. To find out who will be available during which hours, visit: mellon.washcoll.edu/staffprofiles.html
Tags: Help, JIT Training, Just-in-time, live support, MPC lab
Do you utilize YouTube to host videos you create and want to share with the world at the best quality? Has someone else created a YouTube video, but you are only interested in a portion of it for your blog or website? Here are 2 tips that help ensure your audience has a better YouTube expereince:
Tip 1. Forcing the browser to use the High Quality version of the video
You may notice just under the lower right coner of the video window, some videos have an option to “Watch In High Quality”. By default, these videos will play as a 320×240 FLV file at 320Kb/s. Check out this sample:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBGeNeofk0A
The user could click on this link to “Watch in High Quality” which will reload the video and play the MP4 version , which is 480×360 at 512Kb/s. By adding &fmt=18 to the end of the URL, you’ll make the URL you share with others bring them right to the high quality version. Here’s the same video in the High Quality view:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBGeNeofk0A&fmt=18
What else are you gaining besides increased video resolution? The video is compressed with H.264 compression, so you get better video even at the same data rate. You also go from a low fidelity mono audio feed to stereo @ 44.1Khz sample rate.
&fmt=6 increases the resolution from 320×240 to 448×336, Flash 7 video @ 900Kbps; audio @ 44.1KHz 96Kbps Mono CBR.
&fmt=18 increases the resolution to 480×360, H.264 video @ 512Kbps; audio @ 44.1KHz 128Kbps Stereo. Note, the bandwidth may be lower, but it’s utilizing a more efficient compression codec.
UPDATE: &fmt=22 increaes the resolution to 720p HD video if the source was uploaded at a high enough resolution.
Tip 2. Advancing the video to a specific playback point.
If you evern wanted to link to a video in YouTube that was lengthy, but had a very interesting part partway through, there is a hack to allow you to begin playback at a precise time. You can specify the minutes and seconds of the start time like this:
add #t=53s to the end of the URL to start at 53 seconds into it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBGeNeofk0A#t=53s
add #t=1m57s to the end of the video URL to start playback at 1 minute 57 seconds:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBGeNeofk0A#t=1m57s
Think of this as bookmarking your video clips! Now you can link to a video, and have an index of the segments included, which link right to that precise moment!
Tags: 720p, high quality, tips & tricks, video bookmarking, video tutorial, YouTube Hacks
Soundsnap is the best platform to find and share free sound effects and loops- legally. It is a collection of original sounds made or recorded by its users, and not songs or sound FX found on commercial libraries or sample CD’s.
It was originally started by a small group of sound people from all over the world. Our common belief is that sounds and samples should be free for everyone to use in their projects, commercial or not.
Tags: free samples, legal, royalty free, sound effects
Not ready for criminal behavior, but still really into street art. Light writing, shown in this how-to video, is an urban art that doesn’t damage public (or private) property, so it’s totally legal. Learn how to do a new form of art called light writing or light graffiti by watching this instructional video. Using a camera set to a low shutter speed you can write graffiti in the air using streaks of light.
Tags: abstract art, dark, fine art, graffiti, light painting, light writing, lightwriting, long exposure, night, Photography
Chase Jarvis does it again, explaining how he executes a high speed photography production with post production composting to produce magical results.
Tags: Chase Jarvis, Compositing, High speed photography, Photoshop
Shortly after Nikon released their D90, a DX format 12MP Digital SLR capable of shoot 720p video, Canon fires back with the impressive 5DMKII. I’m not going to go into why this is a great still photo camera, or list all of the details around this 1080p video capture beast. But I will mention that for $2700 and the cost of some lenses, you’ll be able to shoot beautiful photos AND footage you’d expect from a video camera priced 10-30x as much.
Check out this short film, created by Vincent Laforet, who was supplied with a pre-release version of the camera body for a few days. You’ll see why everyone is drooling over it.
Then take a look at an interview with Vincent to see why he, a Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist, is excited about the camera.
Tags: 1080p, 5D Mark II, Canon, DSLR, Video Photo
A short film that gives a rare glimpse into an industry that few fully understand… The Harvest
Tags: film, humor, The Harvest, Video