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Posts Tagged ‘Came’

How Joe Biden’s drone light show came together — and what it could mean for the industry

12 Nov
A composite of two of the formations seen in the drone show Saturday, following the announcement that Joe Biden was projected to become the next president of the United States.

This past Saturday, major news outlets announced former Vice President Joe Biden and his running mate and senator Kamala Harris as the projected winners of the 2020 presidential election. Biden and Harris addressed the world later that evening with speeches that concluded with a drone and fireworks light show.

The drone show especially excited many in the rapidly-growing industry, after years of negative media coverage and concerns about overregulation. Numerous unconfirmed sightings of drones near airports and aircraft, in addition to rulemaking proposed for Remote ID, reportedly set to be decided by year’s end, are a clear indicator that drones continue to be controversial.

That’s why it’s such a big deal that a formation of drones was used on Saturday night, so close to two people about to become among the most powerful (and most closely-guarded) in the world. After a bit of sleuthing, we were able to confirm that the company responsible for the light show was Verge Aero, based in Pennsylvania.

‘This event is certainly a first on many fronts,’ Nils Thorjussen, Verge Aero’s CEO, tells DPReview. ‘While I’m unable discuss the event in detail, there were many unique challenges we’ve never faced before, as you can imagine.’

Drone light shows have been around for several years, but they don’t come cheap. It takes anywhere from fifty to tens of thousands of drones to form illuminated shapes in the sky, and when the cost of setup, plus travel and accommodation for a staff of trained professionals is factored in, they’re typically very expensive.

Mass light shows with hundreds of drones might be beyond the means of most of us, but, says Thorjussen, ‘we’re developing the tools to make drone light shows more accessible.’

He predicts that ‘soon enough, as with other technologies in the past, they’ll become more affordable and mainstream.’ Good news for an industry that all too often is on the wrong side of the headlines.

To learn more about all the components that go into a drone light show, head over to Verge Aero’s blog.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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How a Studio Photographer Came to Love Natural Light Again

10 May

I’m a studio photographer. There are no two ways around that fact. It also happens to be the way I like it. I prefer the absolute control I have over every single factor in a studio environment. That way, I’m not at the whim of changing light at different times of the day or inclement weather.

How a Studio Photographer Came to Love Natural Light Again - studio portrait of a lady

As a studio photographer, my preferences are for an environment where I control every aspect of the light.

A lot of this might have to do with the fact that I live in the United Kingdom, and for the most part, the stereotypes about the weather aren’t wrong. That and daylight hours throughout the year vary wildly. In the summer, I may have daylight until 11 PM, in the winter, that changes to 3 PM. Locked away in my studio, I don’t have to worry about sudden unpredicted rain (in Yorkshire, there’s a lot of it).

I don’t have to worry about summer temperatures dropping below ten degrees (Celcius) causing severe discomfort for my subjects and myself. Most importantly, I don’t have to worry about the light being even slightly different then I want. In a studio, I decide what I want and if the lights aren’t quite there, I change them until they are as desired.

Of course, I have nothing against natural light. I just have a preference based on how I like to work.

Using Natural Light

outdoor portrait of a girl - How a Studio Photographer Came to Love Natural Light Again

On occasion, I get out to use natural light when there’s something specific to achieve.

This doesn’t mean I have forsaken natural light as some sort of taboo subject. No, I still use it from time to time, but it’s usually when I’m trying to do something specific in a certain location or with a special technique that can’t be done in a studio.

portrait of a man with gray hair - How a Studio Photographer Came to Love Natural Light Again

This image was taken only as a technical exercise because of how the light was behaving in a bit of open shade close to sunset.

Shifting perspective

How a Studio Photographer Came to Love Natural Light Again - window lit studio

The large windows in this natural light studio make the space a veritable playground for any photographer enthusiastic about lighting.

Last year, I booked a natural light studio with enormous windows for the first time and the experience completely changed the way I think about these things. I went in treating the whole thing as an experiment. As such, I had no concrete plans. I was going to go in and explore the space, look for pockets of light, and try to seize whatever opportunity presented itself.

How a Studio Photographer Came to Love Natural Light Again - portrait of a lady indoors

The dim, overcast day made for this glorious soft light coming through the windows.

Long story short, I was hooked in minutes. I’m sure the sight of me bouncing from corner to corner going “Ooo, look at the light here and look it at it over here” was more than a bit comical.

The whole experience was like a four hour treasure hunt. It seemed like everywhere I turned, the light was doing something new that was worth exploiting. I can easily compare the feeling to the enthusiasm I felt when I first got a camera and just randomly walked around taking photos of everything and burning through film like it didn’t matter.

As an added bonus, the changeability of the light (one of the factors that kept me firmly in the studio) made new opportunities all the time. On several occasions, I’d move from one spot to another, only to see what the light was doing in the first spot later on and I’d go straight back to it and get completely different results.

girl next to a window - How a Studio Photographer Came to Love Natural Light Again

A short while after the previous image was taken, the sun came out a bit changing the light from this window completely.

There is one thing that I found very hard to replicate in a studio environment. This particular studio is in an old industrial mill and the windows (there are a lot of them) are gargantuan. This gave the light a beautiful soft quality that would be hard to replicate with artificial lighting.

Needless to say, I loved my first time in a natural light studio and have since made it a point to go back and try to find other natural light venues as well.

lady in a gold top - How a Studio Photographer Came to Love Natural Light Again

Even from further away, the light from the windows was still soft and provided gentle tonal transitions.

New ideas

An unexpected side effect of this experience is that I every time I come out of one of these places, I leave with a head full of ideas on how I can apply what I’ve seen the light doing in the studio.

darker portrait of lady in yellow top - How a Studio Photographer Came to Love Natural Light Again

Using a strobe with High-Speed Sync functionality allowed me to darken the studio’s windows for a dramatic background while lighting the subject the way I would in a normal studio environment.

On top of that, I have always forsaken the option of mixing natural light with flash. For whatever reason, I never really felt that it was worth the effort. My opinion on this has changed dramatically since my first visit to that studio. Now I’m always looking for new ideas on how I can use and exploit natural light at any time of day and mix it with studio strobes if need be.

portrait of a girl with long blond hair - How a Studio Photographer Came to Love Natural Light Again

Also made using High-Speed Sync, the flash allowed me to fill in the shadows created by the backlighting from the windows. The result is an even exposure throughout the frame and no blown out windows.

Am I a Convert to Natural Light?

I’m still a studio photographer, there’s no doubt about that. I still prefer the control the studio provides and I will still default to that. However, I won’t be going out of my way to avoid natural light settings in the future.

Between the multitude of opportunities these experiences provided me and the ideas I took away from them, I will be making it a point to regularly shoot in natural light just to shake things up a bit if nothing else.

The end

The point of all this? Good question. If you’re like me, and you find yourself stuck in a rigid pattern, such as my adherence to studio work, I encourage to make the conscious choice of going out and pursuing the exact opposite.

You might very well find that your convictions towards whatever it is you’re stuck to aren’t founded as solidly as you had thought. If nothing else, it will give the opportunity to learn something new and to grow as a photographer and nobody can argue that that’s a bad thing.

The post How a Studio Photographer Came to Love Natural Light Again appeared first on Digital Photography School.


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How water droplets came to life for a Gatorade ad

13 Jun
Image courtesy UNIT9 and Gatorade

Video production outfit UNIT9 pulled off some neat visual tricks in a recent project for client Gatorade. Using a custom-built ‘rain rig,’ precisely timed water droplets fall to the ground in the shape of a figure. Strobes illuminate the droplets and give the effect of freezing them, and frame-by-frame the water figure appears to run, jump and kick right in front of our eyes.

The figure’s movements were informed by motion-capture, and the rain rig had to be timed to turn water pressure on and off at millisecond intervals. The camera, strobes and rig were all synced to work in concert with each other, and each frame was processed to correct for gravitational acceleration of the drops as they fell.

Photo courtesy UNIT9 and Gatorade
Photo courtesy UNIT9 and Gatorade
Photo courtesy UNIT9 and Gatorade

Manipulating falling water to this extent hadn’t been done before, so the rig was custom built. It’s a neat piece of innovation that plays with the most basic principle of video capture: string together a certain number of still images every second in front of a viewer’s eyes and they’ll look like a moving image. For a behind the scenes look, check out the video below and visit UNIT9’s website.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Book and Bed Hostel: Your Dream to Sleep in a Library Came True

27 Dec

[ By SA Rogers in Boutique & Art Hotels & Travel. ]

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Every true bibliophile has gazed up at the seemingly endless shelves of books in a good bookstore or library and imagined gathering up a stack, finding a quiet nook and turning in for the night. In Japan (where else?) you can actually do just that in a library-themed hostel, though you might be too excited about your reading materials to get much sleep. The Book and Bed Hostel by Suppose Design Office features semi-private sleeping nooks built right into the bookshelves, so you can climb out and look for more books as often as you want.

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The hostel has two locations – Tokyo and Kyoto – with rates starting at just $ 40 (4,445 yen) per night. In the true spirit of a hostel, everything is set up dorm style with shared bathrooms and nothing but curtains separating you from your neighbors, but considering the theme of the place, you probably don’t care. Book and Bed isn’t really about enjoying privacy or getting a good night’s sleep.

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The Tokyo location features over 1,700 titles to choose from, stacked on floor-to-ceiling shelves. Climb the library ladders to reach the highest ones, and check out the featured books that have been hung from the ceiling as decor. Each sleeping nook is fitted with a backlight and an outlet, and there’s wifi, though you’ll probably be too busy reading to use it.

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The Kyoto hostel is located just steps from many popular local attractions, like the Yasaka Shrine and the Nanzenji Temple. There’s a special selection of Kyoto-centric books in both English and Japanese. Both hostels offer striped robes and totes reading ‘Have a Book Day’ for purchase as souvenirs. You can see more photos on the Book and Bed Tokyo Instagram account.

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“Book and Bed is an ‘accommodation bookshop.’ The perfect setting for a good nights sleep is something you will not find here. There are no comfortable mattresses, fluffy pillows nor lightweight and warm down duvets. What we do offer is an experience while reading a book (or comic book.) An experience shared by everyone at least once: the blissful ‘instant of falling asleep.’ It is already 2am but you think just a little more… with heavy drooping eye lids you continue reading only to realize you have fallen asleep.”

book-and-bed-hostel-9

“Dozing off obliviously during your treasured pastime is the finest ‘moment of sleep,’ don’t you agree?”

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[ By SA Rogers in Boutique & Art Hotels & Travel. ]

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Take an entertaining look back at the cameras that came before SD cards

13 Dec

Looks like we’re not alone in our love of cameras from the early days of digital photography: YouTuber The 8-Bit Guy has published a thoroughly entertaining look back at cameras that used floppy disks and other memory media that preceded the humble SD card. He revisits the Sony Mavica FD-7, Mavica FD-85, Panasonic SD4090 and the Mavica CD-350. Take a look at the video and see if it sparks any memories of cameras from your past, and then head over to our Throwback Thursday feature on the floppy-disk-using Mavica FD-91.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Moon Phase – Mother Came to See Me! Happy!

15 Nov

The mysterious Count Kinkel has abandoned the confines of his castle and come to Japan in search of Mistress Luna. Deception flies thick in the night as false hope draws Hazuki out of Mido family protection. An awful truth comes to light and loyalty is tested, as Kouhei and his grandfather charge into a hopeless battle. But when the Master is foresworn, so shall be the servant… Where does Elfriede’s loyalty lie, now that the photographer has set her free?
Video Rating: 0 / 5

Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman document the strange series of events that unfolds when a gifted 8-year-old artist named Abby contacts Nev, a 24-year-old photographer (and Schulman’s brother), through Facebook.
Video Rating: 4 / 5

 
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“It Came From Outer Space” (in 3-D) part 1

19 Apr

A classic 50’s Alien film, original’y released in 3-D! “It Came From Outer Space” Stars Richard Carlson, who also stared in a later UNIVERSAL Sci-Fi film “Creature from the Black Lagoon” 3-D, wich would go on to be one of the most sucsessful and famus SCi-Fi films of all time. The film is directed by Jack Arnold who also directed many other sci-fi films such as “Creature from the Black Lagoon” 3-D, “TURANCULA”, and “The Incredibale Shrinking Man”. PLEASE NOTE: the following feature is prosented in anaglyph 3-D (red and blue) and require anaglyph 3-D glasses.
Video Rating: 4 / 5

Real Time 3D Demo written in C++ using OpenGL and GLSL. More info (french) : yannick.gerometta.free.fr Executable : yannick.gerometta.free.fr Source : yannick.gerometta.free.fr Bump Mapping, Parallax Mapping, Parallax Occlusion Mapping (Relief Mapping), Dynamic Cube Environnement Mapping, Cel Shading, Bloom, Depth of Field, Shadow Mapping, Anaglyph Rendering, Fur Rendering, Grass Rendering, Water Reflection / Refraction, Chromatic Aberration. Authors : Vayer Clément, Martin Samuel, Leroi Morgan, Gerometta Yannick
Video Rating: 4 / 5