Image & Video

Ideas and thoughts on photography and movie creation

[visualsproduction]

Professional grade 35mm grain for digital video/film

Some video plug-in vendors have an app that emulates film stock emulations. They have “ultra-realistic digitally created film stock emulations”. The crucial words here are “digitally created”. In other words, for the money you’ll spend, you’ll get something that may or may not look exactly like the real thing.

In video and motion picture, the making of a grain package is a bit more complicated. You’ll need a camera — preferably one that can handle cinematographic quality — and you’ll need to scan the grain effects for different film sizes, including 35mm, 16mm… Additionally, you’ll need to offer the digitized versions in 1080p/i and preferably also in 2K, 4K or 5K formats.

Bottom line: I’m sure digitally created grain products are fine for an amateur, but for video and film shooters who want a better quality, the “looks like” won’t be good enough. Enter the announcement of Crumplepop. On KickStarter, Crumplepop is raising money to scan in real film stock. The reason they’re doing that is because this one has a bunch of upfront costs. “It requires that we purchase 35mm film stock, pay lab and processing fees, and hire technicians. It’s not like our normal CrumplePop effects, which are all digital,” said Gabe Cheifetz at Crumplepop.

So, if you're into video or film making, and want to see an affordable professional grade grain plugin come to market, pay their KickStarter page a visit.

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[visualsproduction]

Kindle version of "GoPro 3D Hero and Cineform Studio Professional workflow"

I just published my first eBook on amazon.com. It's a 6-page analysis of the GoPro 3D Hero system and the Cineform Studio Professional post-production software, and an explanation of the workflow.

I hope people will find it interesting enough to buy the eBook version, but for those who do not but still want to read the contents, here's a link to the free paginated online version: http://photo.it-enquirer.com/2012/03/12/the-gopro-3d-hero-system-from-production-to-post/.

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[visualsproduction]

Creating a texture or background for a design the easy way: scan an "object" -- can be cloth, paper, whatever -- and scan it, and then follow the workflow as explained here.

[visualsproduction]

Sapphire Edge effects for FCPX

FCPX was bad, it was a toy, it was awful — said the "pros". Then came 10.0.1 and 10.0.2. Those updates made FCPX look a bit better in their eyes.

With version 10.0.3, everybody is in awe again, and life is great. Genarts has just released Sapphire Edge. For FCPX, the dreaded NLE AVid was keen on overthrowing. Alas, too late.

[visualsproduction]

Scanning for creative purposes

SilverFast 8 allows you to instantly change an image’s colours. This is how it’s done:

Create a prescan

Make sure the select handles are close to the image borders

Click the Selective Colour Correction tool to make it appear in the toolbar

Hover with your mouse on an area with the colour you want to change

Click on that area — the Selective Colour Correction tool instantly changes colour to reflect your selection

Start dragging the colours on the wheel to add or subtract colours to/from the one you want to change.

For example, try scanning a transparently coloured sheet of plastic or tracing paper, then change the colour — in such a case you could also start with the Global Colour Correction tool — until you’re happy. From that sheet of plastic or paper you can very easily and without effort create wallpaper for a PC or a Mac, an iPhone or an iPad. The possibilities are endless.

[visualsproduction]

Uncompressed video via HDMI and fast offload via Thunderbolt.

Black Magic’s Intensity is a range of devices that capture your video camera’s signal to Uncompressed video. These devices can handle up to 1080HD signals. The most expensive Intensity, the Intensity Extreme, has a Thunderbolt interface.

The Extreme has only one Thunderbolt interface, just like the Sonnet Technologies’ Echo ExpressCard/34 Thunderbolt adapter. As far as I can see, the reason for that single Thunderbolt port is the same as for the Echo: the Intensity Extreme takes power via the Thunderbolt cable.

The Intensity Extreme is an aluminium block and has two HDMI ports.

Black Magic’s other HDMI input device is the HyperDeck, a SSD type video recorder without a monitor. The portable Hyperdeck Shuttle records to uncompressed QuickTime and Avid DNxHD MXF file formats, and operates on batteries or 12V power.

The Shuttle has USB 3 only, but combined with the Sonnet Echo that isn't a problem, provided you use one of Sonnet's new USB3 ExpressCards.

[visualsproduction]

Why a digital camera does and a photo scanner does not need white balance

A digital camera needs to be white balanced because the camera’s whites, greys and blacks should be calibrated to a known neutral value. From there, the camera can figure out how other colors should be rendered. Photo scanners are different (and so are cameras in studio environments).

Most probably, you're using your digital camera under multiple, different light conditions: artificial light, sun light, in cloudy weather, etc. This makes it virtually impossible to calibrate a camera for all known colours, unless you want to create a colour profile as soon as even the minutest change in lighting occurs.

So, the way we all work is to ensure the camera “sees” white (neutral grey, actually) the way it’s supposed to look, and then rely on the camera's colour accuracy to see other colours as they should be.

Creating colour profiles for a digital camera therefore is usually only done when the camera is used in a studio with lighting of which the colour temperature is known.

A photo scanner doesn’t need white balancing. It can be calibrated by using a full-colour target and creating a colour profile for the scanner. The reason is simple: the scanner lamp has a fixed and known colour temperature and this value will not change over time — as long as the lamp works fine, colours will be fine too.

Now, the scanner may be more accurate, but the colours will not because the great unknown here will be the film or print you're scanning, and that in turn is why scanner apps like SilverFast offer so much in terms of colour correction.

[visualsproduction]

When is a scanning service good enough for Art photographers?

Could scanning services — services that will scan your photos for you — serve art photographers who are old enough to have learned about film emulsions?

These usually have a library full of carefully conserved slides and negatives. To digitize those, a scanner is all it takes, but a high-end scanner like the Hasselblad Flextight X1 or X5 is pretty expensive. So will a scanning service do? Three issues you should consider before entrusting a scanner service with your photos are:

The scanner used

The maximum resolution they can deliver

How 'pure' they keep the files.

[visualsproduction]

Connecting a Thunderbolt Mac to legacy devices

The Sonnet Echo ExpressCard/34 Thunderbolt Adapter is an aluminium brick of about 10cm (L) x 4cm (W) x 3cm (H). It weighs heavy, which gives it a nice feel of sturdiness. It comes without Thunderbolt cable, with one Thunderbolt port and an ExpressCard/34 slot. I tested this new device with a Sonnet ExpressCard/34 SATA Pro card, the fastest eSATA card Sonnet has, with two eSATA ports on board. The theoretical throughput on this card is 200MB/sec read and about 150MB/sec write performance.

My first real test with the Echo Adapter was a performance test using BlackMagic Design’s disk speed app (available as a free download from the Apple App Store), and another speed test with AJA System test app.

The results were mildly disappointing, but I can’t really tell what is to blame. I expected to get a read performance of close to 200MB/sec. That proved to be the case. My LaCie 4Big threw the data in my face at 185MB/sec maximum speed. That’s close enough for me. The iStoragePro did a lot worse at only 140MB/sec. The write speeds were less of a success. The 4Big managed to write at 80MB/sec; the iStoragePro got a miserly 60MB/sec. Whatever I tried, I couldn’t get the speed any better.

[visualsproduction]

Which do you prefer: sliders or color wells?

To correct or edit an image, which is better? A set of sliders without visual feedback? The sliders tell you the value you're changing, but you can't tell the impact because there is no visible updating of the working screen. 

Or would you prefer a color well with clear visual feedback in which direction you're changing a color, as well as immediate updating of the image under scrutiny? I know I would prefer the latter.

[visualsproduction]

Printing an image directly from a scanner

SilverFast PrinTao lets you print your images directly from folders, but also from a scanner. It's a fairly complete layout system that allows you to create your individual layout or templates directly.

Integrated colour management ensures true-to-colour printing and with the optional upgrade to SilverFast PhotoProof, it offers to create contract proofs according to international standards.

[visualsproduction]

The differences are clear. An archival quality TIFF version looks darker but contains more detail than a regular 48-bit TIFF. It's also twice as big...

[visualsproduction]

Scan to web

OK, so scanning isn't hot these days, but scanners are still around, and so are analogue photographs, and it's not because they're analogue, they are suddenly worthless images. Many analogue photos can get a second or third life as stock photograph or even web illustration.

Users of SilverFast know they have a powerful tool for colour accurate scans, but colour accuracy is something they can get out of Vuescan as well -- although with a bit more effort to get it right. SilverFast 8, however, adds output presets that shorten the time to create an end-result that is fully tuned to the output medium.

The SilverFast Web output preset allows users to choose the size of the resulting web image in one of the workflow steps — so far nothing special. However, a user can preview what is meant by “small” or “medium” size in his/her browser by clicking a preview button, after which a default image appears in the selected size.

This gives a good idea of how big the resulting scan will look. It’s this detail that makes SilverFast 8 so more efficient and time-saving than its competition

[visualsproduction]

Even an ex-Beatle needs to know about storage systems

Beatles drummer Ringo Starr asked and received advice of Audio Analysts, a Colorado-based provider of concert touring audio systems, about which storage system he should use for one of his tours.

They recommended Sonnet's Fusion R400Q [now Fusion R400QR5] for his 10th All-Starr tour, having used the system successfully in previous tours. Curious that Starr got advice on a storage system, and not on a musical system or something more closely related to his own core business.

It proves how deeply IT has penetrated every aspect of our lives these days...

[visualsproduction]

Sonnet Thunderbolt Echo adapter's support for ExpressCard/34

Sonnet just recently published the list of ExpressCards their new Echo adapter, which functions as a bridge between Thunderbolt and the rest of the world, supports.

While the list contains only Sonnet products, it is expected the Echo will also support many third party ExpressCards.

eSATA Sonnet Tempo SATA Pro ExpressCard/34 Sonnet Tempo SATA 6Gb/s ExpressCard/34 Sonnet Tempo edge SATA 6Gb/s ExpressCard/34 Sonnet Tempo SATA ExpressCard/34 Sonnet Tempo SATA edge ExpressCard/34 FireWire Sonnet FireWire 800 Pro ExpressCard/34 Sonnet FireWire/USB ExpressCard/34 Gigabit Ethernet Sonnet Presto Gigabit Ethernet Pro ExpressCard/34 Memory Card Readers Sonnet SDXC UHS-I Pro Reader/Writer ExpressCard/34 Sonnet Pro Dual CompactFlash Adapter ExpressCard/34 Specialty Product Adapters Sonnet PCIe Bus Extender

[visualsproduction]

Controlling high-end scanners

A major problem with old scanners such as the top of the line Heidelbergs is that software to control these scanners no longer runs on modern OSes.

The original manufacturer scanner control software can be replaced by SilverFast from LaserSoft Imaging. SilverFast is the only app available for Heidelberg CHROMAGRAPH 3300/3400, TOPAZ, TANGO/XL, NEXSCAN and PRIMESCAN scanners on Windows (2000, XP, Vista and Windows 7) and Macintosh OS-X (10.3 – 10.6).

Heidelberg scanner owners at least no longer have to mainatin an old Mac or Windows system specifically for driving their Heidelberg scanner. They can install and control their scanners from modern machines. The benefits are known: no more support nightmare, better workflow, more efficient, etc.