Most digital SLRs are capable of shooting hd video and they’re revolutionizing the movie industry. Independent film-makers are now capable of producing more cinematic films because of them. You can take advantage of their capabilities too, whether for home movies or your own productions. But there’s one problem, focusing while recording is a nightmare.

Using a follow focus will help. A follow focus is a device that attaches to your lens and gives you easier control over adjusting the focus manually. But let’s back up for a minute. Up until Sony’s DSL cameras announced an opaque mirror in mid 2011, DSLRs couldn’t exactly autofocus with video. They advertised they could, but it was so destructive to the filming process no one used it. You would have to tell the camera to refocus, the exposure would increase and the focus would go in and out several times trying to find focus before settling. This would happen whether you were recording or not. If you didn’t tell the camera to refocus, the focus would remain the same no matter where you pointed the lens. This isn’t autofocus as we know it.

This means for most of us, we have to use manual focus, but it’s so unnatural feeling to twist the lens for focus the image. What you end up with is over turning it and having to twist back the other way and jerky movement focusing the image – that is unless you’ve spend a lot of time perfecting the process.

A follow focus still means manual focusing your camera, but it makes it more natural feeling. It also lets you set markers to use if you planned your shots. I just ordered one that was too good to pass up, but have not played with it, or any for that matter, yet. This one will be my first follow focus, but that’s mostly because of cost. Jerky gear-based ones can cost hundreds of dollars. An upstart from Kickstarter is aiming to produce one for $50 and it looks solid too. Produced by Wiley Davis, you can check out more info about their design here.

In a nut-shell, the $50 follow focus is a pulley and belt system that wraps around your lens. There are two metal rails that mount under your camera for stability, a pulley slides into a rail, a rubber belt wraps around the lens’ focus ring, and a lever sits behind it all letting you adjust focus.

If you know at this angle you want the focus to be a certain way, you can set it then mark the lever. Do the same for any other location and you have a series of focus settings pre-determined. You won’t have to adjust in and out until you get the best settings.

I see it all the time, people’s flashes going off for night-time scenic pictures or concerts. Guess what, those pictures won’t turn out. Or at least, the flash won’t help and might actually hurt. Don’t be afraid to turn your camera’s flash from auto to off sometimes. The flash has a purpose, but no camera is smart enough to know when to use it. All automatic flash knows is when there is too little light for the perfect picture.

Just last week on vacation, my girlfriend wanted to snap a picture of the beach just after dusk. I noticed her camera’s flash was set to auto. Then I noticed her disappointed expression. The beach was nearly all dark, the beach chairs and huts were bright. You can see in the picture above what turned out.

After advising to turn the flash off, a more properly exposed photo emerged. However, the shutter was open longer than anyone would like for a handheld photo. The camera wanted to leave the shutter at 1/13 (or leaving the shutter open for one thirteenth of a second). Naturally, the photo blurred – actually it’s a smearing effect. The photo to the left is the same photo as above with the flash turned off.

The reason this happens is because the flash is meant for what’s close. Every light has fall off. The light emits the same amount of photons in all directions, however they spread out more the further away they travel. This causes the light to dissipate over distance. As bright as your flash may be, it won’t travel very far. Things like concerts if you’re far from the stage or landscapes have no benefit from the flash.

The other problem with using the flash is your camera may adjust exposure to whatever is closest to the camera. This is because there is more light hitting that object – it’s the first thing the light hits. Using your flash in a concert and there’s a crowd in front of you? You may find yourself only seeing the crowd.

Experiment with using the flash and not. You’ll never know your camera’s limitations by leaving it in auto mode and knowing how to adjust it yourself can result in much better photos.

Image via Wikipedia

It used to be confusing buying a camera then the memory card. There were so many to choose from. Now the majority of cameras accept the sd card – and there are many to choose from. So how do you know you’re buying the right one?

First determine the capacity you need. How many pictures do you want to be able to store? This isn’t always to know what you’re going to get. The more megapixels your camera has, the fewer pictures you may be able to store on a memory card. Most memory cards have a chart on the packaging to give you an idea of what to expect, but they’re only estimates. In the source link at the end of this article you will find a chart showing some estimates as well as some additional information.

Megapixels don’t only help determine the capacity, but also the speed of the card you should get. SD cards come in different classes, or speeds. These classes determine the minimum write speed of the card, which translates to how many pictures you can take in a second and how fast you can transfer these pictures to another device. You should be able to tell the class of the card by a symbol printed on the card. This symbol looks like a C with a number inside the C. The number represents the class number. These classes can be 2, 4, 6 or 10. The number indicates the minimum write speed where a class 2 memory card has a minimum write speed of 2 Mbps and class 10 has a minimum write speed of 10 Mbps. Some companies only make cards at the bare minimum of speeds, others exceed these minimums.

Confused by the classes? If you don’t care about speed, you don’t need to worry about this. However if you want faster burst mode or have a digital slr, you may want to consider a higher class sd card. If your camera exceeds about 12 megapixels, you may want to step up to at least a class 4 card. Some cameras aren’t powerful enough to take full advantage of the fastest cards, however. If using a high megapixel digital slr, you may want to pick up a class 6 or 10 memory card to take advantage of that rapid-fire burst mode.

Video changes the rules a bit more. HD video needs all the speed it can get and I wouldn’t suggest going slower than a class 6, even if the manual says it can use a class 4. I purchased an off-brand class 10 card once and about 40% of the time, my camera will stop recording because the card can’t keep up with my HD video camera.

For more information about SD cards, click here.

I haven’t forgotten about these tips, tricks and reviews. Writer’s block is an evil, evil creativity blocker. I promise to try to contribute a bit more here for all who read my tips.In the passing months, I have learned some new tricks, acquired a new and better job and have explored other fun technologies. This is just a taste of what I may be bringing in the near future while trying to keep the focus on photography and video.

Image via Wikipedia

So maybe you own a digital single lens reflex camera or DSLR and looking to upgrade or maybe you’re just graduating to a DSLR. What do you buy? Though there are many factors to consider, the sensor size deserves it’s own topic. Each manufacturer uses their own variant in sensor size, but they generally break down to Full-Frame sensors (about the size of 35mm film) and APS-C sensors (about the size of APS film).

The smaller APS-C sensors are cheaper and more available, so most of your cheaper DSLRs are equipped with these. On average, these smaller sensors crop your image by about 1.6 times. Not all smaller sensors are 1.6 times smaller either. The crop factor of these sensors gives them the nickname of being crop sensors. Of course you won’t notice the cropping if this is all you use. The cropping takes place through the view-finder too, so don’t worry about cutting anyone’s head off in the frame. What this means is whatever lens you use will appear to be a closer focal length (or zoom if you want layman’s terms).

These smaller sensors also mean the pixels are packed closer together. DSLRs using these crop sensors tend to perform more poorly in low light situations because there is less area for each pixel to capture light. This isn’t always a rule to go by either, though. There are some APS-C sensor cameras that have impressive performance in low light. You’ll notice the difference in performance of these sensor sizes when comparing the amount of noise in photos with various ISO settings.

Another thing to keep in mind if you’re planning to upgrade from an APS-C or other crop factor sensor to a full-frame sensor is that you can’t use all of your lenses meant for a crop sensor for a full-frame sensor. I don’t have personal experience with this, whether or not they will even attach, but it makes sense that the edges of the lens could be captured in photos.

Cameras using full-frame sensors, on the other hand, are much more expensive and so are their lenses. Also since you these sensors aren’t cropping the image, your field of view may feel further away than you might be used to on a crop sensor. Suddenly, you may find yourself needing to step up to a 35mm lens to get the same field of view as your 28mm.

Since these cameras are more expensive, they are aimed at more advanced users and may require a little bit of a learning curve. That doesn’t mean an amateur can’t use one as auto features are usually still available, but it may be overwhelming to have access to so many manual features.

Is the difference really that big? See for yourself and you be the judge. Search for samples of both cameras and compare the differences. Pay attention to the ISO settings in the examples too and compare visible noise. Find display models to play with as well and bring your own memory card so you can examine the photos in full size. You can’t make such a major purchase because someone told you to, you have to like it too.

Image via Wikipedia

When digital single lens reflex cameras, or DSLRs, started adding features to record HD video, there was an explosion in high quality, amateur productions. However, the better control over the image and depth of field at an affordable price had it’s challenges. That’s when an independent film-maker sought out to add in some missing features and enhancing others. The result is Magic Lantern, a free and open-platform “firmware” that sits on top of Canon’s. This incredible enhancement to Canon’s lineup was originally designed for the Canon 5D, has recently been adapted to the 550D (T2i), and now is being developed for the 60D.

I was reluctant to install it on my Canon 550D (or T2i) because I was afraid to risk damaging such an expensive piece of equipment. But I also needed some of these missing features and took the plunge. I followed the directions carefully and was surprised at how easy it was to install Magic Lantern. The best part is, it installs to your SD card, meaning that once the memory card is removed, so is Magic Lantern.

There are too many features to go through here and the firmware is always being improved upon, but I will go through the ones I use most often. Most of the features I am still learning as well, or haven’t tried out yet.

Manual Audio Controls

If you have already tried filming something for production with a DSLR, you may have noticed audio isn’t as clean as you’d hoped. This includes with the on-board mic as well as using an external. This is because Canon, as well as most other camera manufactures I would expect, use auto gain control (AGC). What this means is the software in the camera is adjusting the volume on the fly so that nothing is too quiet or too loud. The problem with this method is it causes unnecessary noise (think static or hiss). It wasn’t until the release of the 60D Canon allowed it’s users to turn this feature off, but the 60D’s amplifier still adds noise regardless (Magic Lantern can’t help with this for the 60D for this fact).

You used to have to record audio separately to have a clean audio recording for your video on a Canon DSLR. Thanks to Magic Lantern, you can turn off the AGC and manually adjust the audio levels.In addition to manually adjusting the gain, you can also select the on-board mic to record to the left or right channel while an external records to the other. This helps give you options if you wish to mix more of a stereo sound or if one mic’s levels get too hot and you need to mix with another.

You can also monitor the audio with headphones, this is done differently on the 5D and 550D because of physical differences. If for nothing else, this feature in itself is worth adding Magic Lantern to your 5D or 550D.

Better Focus Options

Sometimes determining focus can be a challenge, especially on a tiny screen. It may look in focus until you bring the footage back to edit and you realize it could have been sharper. Magic Lantern adds two useful tools to help see exactly what is in focus.

First you have movable and sizable “zoom windows” that show a one-half or full size zoom on screen as a picture-in-picture view. This will give you a closer look at what the camera is pointing at to see first-hand how sharp your focus is.

The other tool you get is Focus Assist. If you’re familiar with zebra stripes for exposure, this is exactly that for focusing. What is in focus will be outlined with multi-colored lines. However, dark shots will fool this feature. Using the Focus Assist is nice to setup your shots, but I find it distracting during recording, so you may want to turn it off again before pressing record.

Video Bitrate Controls

This is one topic I’m still learning, but shouldn’t go unmentioned. Magic Lantern gives you control over the qscale, which I would suggest looking more in-depth about at Magic Lantern’s wiki. Adjusting the qscale lets you set a target bitrate for the video to record in, but it will still record in a variable bitrate. This comes in handy if you’ve run into problems where the camera has to stop recording randomly. This happens because the memory card is too slow for the bitrate being used.

Which brings me to the next feature that could save your production if your recording does stop randomly. ML adds a feature to automatically start recording again if this happens. You will lose a second or two between the recordings, but it may be a small enough gap to be useful. I wouldn’t rely on this if your memory card just can’t keep up, but it does help.

Of course the higher the bitrate, the better the quality. But it also means requiring a more expensive memory card to keep up and higher file size. ML also gives you control over constant bitrate recording.

Exposure Control

You still get zebra stripes and histogram as any camera recording video should at this caliber. What you might not expect to see is a waveform monitor being added with Magic Lantern. Now you can see in a graph how well your scene is exposed without having to worry about trusting the on-board lcd.

Expanded ISO Settings

This isn’t exactly a make or break feature, but ML brings options to set the ISO in between the values Canon gives you. Tired of jumping from 400 ISO to 800? Set it to 500 if you’d like. A full list of ISO settings is listed below:

0 (Auto), 100, 110, 115, 125, 140, 160, 170, 185, 200, 220, 235, 250, 280, 320, 350, 380, 400, 435, 470, 500, 580, 640, 700, 750, 800, 860, 930, 1000, 1100, 1250, 1400, 1500, 1600, 1750, 1900, 2000, 2250, 2500, 2750, 3000, 3200, 3500, 3750, 4000, 4500, 5000, 5500, 6000, 6400, 7200, 8000, 12800, 25600

I’d like to note that many users of Magic Lantern have reported a higher level of visible noise and artifacts when using an ISO value other than a multiple of 160. Again, in case that was too confusing, if your ISO setting is not a multiple of 160, expect more noise and artifacting.

Kelvin White Balance

This one is for the advanced users, but is still easy to use. Now you can have exact Kelvin color temperatures rather than presets such as “incandescent” or “sunny.” Just open up the ML settings and choose a color temperature or let it choose for you with the auto white balance. If you’re not so sure why this matters, you have more control over accurate color with this or just adding a color tone on top of the image.

HDR Bracketing

Canon already includes bracketing, but it is limited in the 550D to just a few steps. Magic Lantern removes those barriers and lets you choose how many photos to snap and at what steps. This feature does not apply to video, but is a real help in producing HDR photos.

Closing

These features are just a taste of everything Magic Lantern has to offer and my only regret is in waiting so long to try this great enhancement out. If you’d like to try Magic Lantern for yourself or just see more of what it has to offer, just visit their website here.
http://magiclantern.wikia.com/wiki/Magic_Lantern_Firmware_Wiki

Image via Wikipedia

If you haven’t noticed, I’ve been at a little bit of a writer’s block and decided to expand to off-topic subjects. I still would like to focus on photography and video, but without my readers suggesting topics, it can be difficult to find new direction.

I am a proud owner of an Android phone. In fact, I am on my second one (and still trying to sell my Samsung Moment if anyone is interested). Google’s mobile operating system is powerful, but might not be for everyone. For those willing to take the steps to get even more out of it, continue reading. And for those of you nervous and uncomfortable with taking these steps, it really is easier and less painful than you may think. The beauty of open-source software such as Google’s Android OS is the legal ability to do what you please with it. The developer communities for the operating system has made incredible improvements to an already great software. And for those of you nervous and uncomfortable with taking these steps, it really is easier and less painful than you may think.

First step: Rooting your phone

Before you can do anything to the Android OS, you need to root the phone. For those of you reading unfamiliar with what “root” means in tech lingo, it means to gain access to the top-tier of folders (in a nut-shell). For example, when you open an app to explore the files on your sdcard, you’re just limited to the sdcard, when in reality, there are folders that exist before accessing the sdcard. This is important because you can’t even touch the Android software if you can’t gain access to it.

Every phone is different. Not one method of rooting your phone works for all phones, many manufacturers find ways to prevent this from happening because you can damage the phone if you don’t follow the steps properly. This causes people to return the phone for service, which costs the companies money. It can also violate your warranty, so be warned. However, there is almost always a way to return the software back to the way it was out of the box so no one will ever know.

First thing I suggest if you are interested in pursuing these steps is to search on your favorite search engine how to root your phone then follow those steps. For example, I currently own the LG Optimus S so I would search “how to root LG Optimus S.” The best part of this search is you’ll more than likely find everything else you need in the same website to make the most of your Android phone.

Installing Custom Recovery Mode

I will keep this section short because this, like rooting your phone, is a different process for each phone. You need to install a third-party recovery mode in order to install any of these hacks or mods. There may be several custom recovery modes for each phone too, so be sure to read up on what is different between each one. Some phones require a more advanced understanding of commands through a DOS prompt to install, others can be installed with an easy to use program.

Choosing a ROM

Once you have rooted your Android phone, installing a ROM is the easiest way to get the most of your phone rather than applying separate hacks/mods to the phone. A ROM is more or less a pre-packaged, custom version of the Android operating system. Most of the time, it is based on the already installed one with some minor tweaks to improve performance or better personalize it.

Before installing any ROM, be sure to read through the forums that relate to the software for other people’s experiences and directions to making it work properly. Some ROMs are an on-going development project and have bugs, others are as stable as the currently installed Android software.

Themes

Sometimes you’re just happy the way everything runs, but might want some more personalization with the interface. That’s when theming comes into play. Once again, you have to have a custom recovery and have been rooted to apply these, but themes are entirely separate from ROMs. Some ROMs have their own theme built into them, but can usually be replaced.

So, what is a theme? It is new look of the Android interface. Your imagination is almost always your limit. You can create your own with a little know-how on the development side, or apply any of the dozens already made.

NOTES

Before you root your phone, or do anything, make sure you find directions to return the phone back to it’s original state in case you need that. You may need to return the phone back to it’s original state before bringing it in for service. Once you have rooted your phone and installed a custom recovery, be sure to backup your phone before you do anything else. This is extremely important as it gives you a starting over point if you do run into problems. The steps to make a backup are different for each recovery, but they should be easy to follow. Restoring your backup DOES NOT return the phone back to it’s original state, you would still be rooted and have the custom recovery, which would interfere with your carrier’s maintenance and update services and could be a violation of your warranty. Some third party ROMs have software from your carrier removed to better boost performance, this can also interfere with service maintenance (such as bringing it into a store or troubleshooting by phone).

A good starting point for searching for quality Android modifications, hacks, ROMs, virtually any need you have for your Android phone is XDA-Developers. The forums will have almost everything you need. If you have no luck finding what you need there, Search for it on your favorite search engine as suggested earlier in this post.

Not every phone has a strong developer community. Some have little to no support. However, almost every phone by HTC, if not all, have a thriving developer community. The popular, flagship models usually have a lot of resources available as well. If you are a developer, feel free to leave your page below for others to use. Spam will be filtered.

The new, up and coming band Say It In Six is ready to launch into the Chicago area music world. The photos from their very entertaining photo shoot can be found here. I also filmed one of their practice sessions so the world could get a taste of what’s to come and I was blown away. Watch the video here.

Image via Wikipedia

Alright, perhaps I could have prevented some of my site’s downtime had I done more research on the topic. But neither my new nor old web host helped either. I don’t blame my old one being difficult, they don’t want to lose money. I didn’t think my new one was lacking in help either until I got everything in order, now I wonder if I made a good decision.

It started with a year of frequent downtime from my old host (Host Department). Yes, they were quick to fix it, but after five years being a customer of theirs, I have never had a year with so much downtime and I felt it was time to switch. I decided to wait until just before my account was up for renewal, I didn’t wait until the last minute – I thought a week was enough time for the process. WRONG! According to my new host, you need ten days to switch. They couldn’t explain why, though.

Well, when I switched, this information wasn’t provided to me. I followed the online setup process from iPage.com and selected I was transferring my site. Either I over-looked it or there was no information about the requirements/rules to switching hosts and I thought everything would be taken care of by the new host. My new hosting service was set up, I had a week left on my old one and I was paying significantly less with my new service.

I wanted to get started transferring my files to the new host, but my ftp (similar to www, but to access the back-end of a site) was still pointing to my old host. I asked why and what to do with iPage’s support. I did mention I was transferring as well. All I was told to do was ask my old host to change some server information and things would begin to point to the new locations. Yet again, no mention of other steps involved to transferring my domain. I thought this step took care of that.

When talking to my old host about changing the server info and mentioning I was switching services, it felt like I was talking to a robot. “Yes, we will take care of that for you. Is there anything else we can do for you?” Gee, uh, when you put it like that, it sounds like that was easy and things will all be taken care of. A reminder that my account would auto renew unless I closed it manually would have been nice, however. Luckily I noticed I was charged for it that same day – well, actually that didn’t matter. I immediately went online, closed my account and talked to support about refunding my money.

Once again, my old host was Host Department (hostdepartment.com). Once I closed my account, I called the phone number on their site about the refund. Whoever I spoke to in India couldn’t do anything for me. He told me I had to talk to the chat support on their website. I followed those directions, chat support told me to send an email request for my refund. I emailed my request to get no response. I continually called, emailed and chatted online with support with no results. They claimed they received no emails from me. After a week of fighting, I was able to speak to a manager. His resolution? Reactivate my account, which was not what I wanted. I finally got through to him about refunding my money, however in order to transfer my domain, I would need to still pay to renew it through them. He argued there was no other way, forcing me to give up that portion of my renewal.

Another week goes by, no mention of a refund. I decide to call daily about it until they gave in. Once they did, I was charged an additional $10 and some change as a maintenance fee. This fee was not mentioned when the manager quoted what I should expect as a refund. After that charge, I could not get a hold of said manager and got the run around again. A battle lost for me.

My recommendations if you are thinking of switching hosts:

Give yourself closer to a month to switch. My new host said it takes ten days to transfer domains, 24-72 hours to get you set up with the new ftp. However, you will have to ask your current/old host to switch the DNS servers to the ones provided by the new host in order to access the new ftp.

Make sure you get specific instructions laid out to transfer your domain. I was not familiar with the process, having never switched before. I thought changing the servers was all there was to it and that’s what they made it sound like. Once that was apparent, I found out there was a special request form I had to fill out from my new host to have the domain transferred. I am not sure if this is the same everywhere, but I would think something similar is.

My new host also told me once a domain name has been registered or renewed, you can’t transfer it for 60 days. I don’t know how truthful this is across the board, but keep it in mind. If it takes ten (10) days to transfer your domain, makes sure you have that form sent in at least 11 days before your domain renews.

You don’t HAVE to transfer domains when switching hosts either. You can buy your .com from one place cheaper than what you would at a new service. The hosting might be cheaper at company A but the domain might be cheaper at company B. You can do business with both. I switched because my domain was included in my cheaper hosting package.

Before you cancel any services with your old host, make sure you backup all your files that make up your website, including any databases you might have set up. With just one missing piece, your website may become useless on the new host. This is very important. and with larger sites, backing up your site could become lengthy, especially if your ftp timeouts after so long as a safety precaution. That would force you to back up your site in sections at a time. This and the time required to process any transfers is why I would recommend about a month or longer to work on switching services.

I hope this saves someone the trouble I had when going through this process. Some of my information may be mixed up or slightly off as this is all from personal experience. It wouldn’t hurt to research a little more just to verify. And if you have any additional information or corrections, feel free to leave that in the comments.

I’ve been debating with myself on posting these photos or not for far too long now! In early October 2010, I took my first visit to the Morton Arboretum just outside of Chicago with the attempt to capture some beautiful Fall photos. Unfortunately, I went a little too soon for the leaves to have changed how I would have liked. I was still able to capture some amazing photos and you can see them here or just click the photos link on the top left of the page.