To Those in San Francisco Bay Area
I will be hanging out here for a couple of days (till Friday night). If anyone wants to meet up drop me an email at eric@ericisaac.com
Speak soon,
Eric
August 13, 2008
August 12, 2008
SFSC: A Room With A View - San Francisco, CA
Arrived in CA last night into SJC. Drove through Cupertino and prayed in the direction of Mecca (aka Apple Corporate Offices on One Infinite Loop). Next day took the scenic route with Art Director, Stylist, and Nauseous, Car Sick Model. Check into hotel and find I have the best view in the world which I find quite fitting for me
Went out for dinner and drinks at Puerto Allegre and a beer at Delirium in The Mission.
August 5, 2008
While we’re waiting for the 99 MegaPixel backs…..
While we’re waiting for the 99 MegaPixel backs,
Here’s a little fun project: Jailbreak yor 3G iPhone:
http://cnettv.cnet.com/9742-1_53-50003159.html
greetings, Nils
AFi7
Hi teckieees,
just worked on a bridal spread for a conde’ nast mag and I had the opportunity to rent the AFi7 (75s )
with 80mm and 120mm macro manual focus lenses.
What a studio Camera!!!
The Photographer decided to shoot the whole story in B&W.
He used the 120 for most of the day except when he needed a full length shot.
The camera is very user friendly, simple interface, easy “gears only” lock button,
a kind of a awkward design until you get familiar with it. The grip rotates (45degree, 90, 180).
Battery life is kind of short ( I had rental batteries, not exactly brand new).
The prism is also strange because everybody tends to rotate the camera to end up with the 45 prism
angled in a strange position.
The autofocus is fast and very accurate on the 80, which is also a beautiful lens.
the 120 is really beautiful: manual focus, great glass, nice and crisp but not too
contrasty(i know that it’s bad english, but yoknowwhatImean) like the H1/2 lenses.
The photographer was very happy about the work we did and the amazing results
with the B&W temporary conversions. ( I say temporary because i like to do my B&W
conversions in Photoshop). You have a beautiful curve you can work on(LC11.1) and make it just perfect.
Then go in photoshop and apply settings that replicate the panchromatic response to B&W filters:
Deep orange, red, green and blue. They have a very different look, I find some ideal for people
and others for landscapes.
……..you know how things look on an Eizo… everybody was blown away, just because few minutes earlier everybody was saying that digital B&W sucks…….I know we’re missing the silver!
The back is fast and the previews render in a split second even on a Mac Book Pro
( 2.2 GHz , 4 G Ram), can check focus with loop and even if you forget the detail pane open,
the application doesn’t flinch……and you can apply changes on the fly!
LC 11.1 is very stable and it’s a pleasure to work on ( selective sharpening, amazing grain control…..
…and more). FW 800 is great, just found out about the fw800 drives that come standard with a mac aren’t fulll speed, if oyu want real fw800, ( anybody heard of it?)
Processing on a Quad 3 Ghz Mac Pro ( 6 G Ram) while batching
JPEGS:
LC11.1 : 46 secs
ACR( photoshop/bridge/LR): 8 secs
TIFFS:(one frame)
LC11.1 : 30secs
ACR: 8 secs
michele
LowNoise_HiQuality
Technical Question:Tiff has invalid color count?
The situation is: I retouched an image using photoshop cs2. The image was originally a tiff. I used layers to retouch and mostly cloning and healing brush. I flattened the image and saved as a tiff, and gave to the client. The stock agency keeps sending the file back because “One channel is coming back saying it’s an invalid color count?”
Any suggestions? Or how to correct?
If I’m on the wrong type of blog.. please let me know and or point me in the right direction. Thanks!
July 31, 2008
SFSC: Miami Beach
Okay, no hot model shots, and it is oh so muggy, but the view from the balcony ain’t half bad. Now if only the stylist would get cracking, I’ll wrap this puppy so me and Eric I. can scout the next meetup location, which is starting to look like a waterfront locale. so ships ahoy mates and I’ll see you back in NYC.
July 30, 2008
couple of apps that aren’t as exciting as LR2
Hey guys I’ve just released a couple updates of some apps I built and find handy. Job_folders is designed to keep your captures organized by creating a bunch of folders. And theCataloguer is designed to create a searchable text list of all your job folders. theCatalogue is saved to the shared folder. Enjoy
July 29, 2008
Cool Stuff Of The Week: Week of July 27th, 2008
This weeks cool stuff is all about software applications whether it be OS X or online applications.
First off, OS X Leopard has been out for a few months now and its starting to come around with support by applications like Adobe LightRoom 2.0, which was also released today. OS X Leopard also adds the functionality of Spaces, a workspace management system that allows you to separate your tasks. Lets say that you are on a job teching. You also happen to be retouching and backing up. On the other hand you cannot stop updating your facebook profile and checking ebay for discount photo gear. Now you can separate the two with Spaces providing your “browsing” environment in a separate workspace from your “shooting” environment.
Also part of Mac OS Leopard is screen sharing which can change the way we see workflow today. Ever been on a shoot where the art director is unavailable? I mean besides emotionally, he cannot be physically present on set every moment. Slows things down right? Well with Screen Sharing, users on Leopard can share each others screens across the internet and your LAN. We can see the real world application of this product to speed things up, no longer does the art director need to be in the room to approve and image and through iChat starting a Screen Share also initiates voice chat, allowing photographer to communicate with Client. This application would also be useful when trying to keep clients away from a set. Simply setup a computer with a monitor in a separate room and share your screen so that they can watch as you shoot. Certainly it will make your tech breathe a little easier not having 25 people breathing down her neck for the entire shoot.
Social networking is big right now and can really help grow your business. For us it has become a very important tool for bringing the information to our subscribers without the needless annoyances of newsletters and bulk emails. While that can also be helpful we like the idea of being able to broadcast our content through other media. Facebook is one of the largest social networking sites right now, so we proudly use this site to broadcast our content and announce our kick ass events. Plus its a great way to connect with other people who pay attention to our site. So we’d like to ask you to be our friend. Click here to view our profile and us as your friend.
Yet another way to keep up, which we find is an even less intrusive way is using Twitter, another application under the subcategory “microblogging”. We use this to update our status through facebook and if you follow us on twitter, you’ll be able to get a quick update when we update our blog. You can see our twitter page here. If you aren’t a twitter user you should be.
And finally, another great application that we love is the Art Director’s Toolkit, which we find useful when your art director starts drawing on your $3000 Eizo which was witnessed just last week. ADT provides you with a few tools, the most important of which is a slide ruler that detaches from the application and stands in front of other applications so that you can do measurements. This is good for: checking gutter widths, alignment of products and logos, etc. Other utilities include number conversions, text alignment, layout grids and spreads, and many more all of which is bundled for the low cost of $39.95. You can read more about ADT here. Thanks to Ethan Clarke for the tip.
Don’t forget to send your favorite cool stuff to ebisaac@realworldworkflow.com.
And Then There Was Leaf: Leaf AFI 10 System - 56MP
Hasselblad has their new 50MP and Phase has their new 60MP and nestled somewhere in between is Leaf’s new AFI 10 System featuring a 56MP “True Wide Frame” (TWF) sensor. We really do love the Leaf AFI with its extremely expensive lenses and its somewhat awkward body design. It is truly a quality system and with the TWF utilizes the full angle of view of those great Schneider lenses that it uses and also implements the Verto Internal Sensor Rotation, which eliminates the need to rotate the back. This DALSA chip is exclusive to Leaf.
This marks the third 50MP plus digital back announced this month. You can read more about the New Leaf AFI System here.
Adobe LightRoom 2.0 Released: Shows Vast Leaps in RAW Editing Software
Adobe LR 2.0, released this week, offers a few great new additions:
- 64-bit support with OS X.5 Leopard
- Graduated Filters in RAW Files
- The ability to mask effects (such as contrast, exposure, etc) applied to raw images
- New Digital Asset Management features allowing more efficient retrieval of images off of other drives (much like what Aperture has to offer)
- Enhanced Batch Processing
- Streamlined Photoshop Integration
The purchase price is $300USD, upgradable from 1.x for $99USD. You can read more about it here.
