Keith Bolling Media

No-Budget Movie Shot with a Canon 5D mkII makes $200,000 Through iTunes

2011-07-27T15:35:00.001-07:00

If you look at the Top 100 Movies chart in the iTunes Store, you might not notice anything out of the ordinary, but one of the movies (#43) is actually a no budget film shot using a single Canon 5D Mark II. For Lovers Only” is a romance filmed by Mark Polish and Michael Polish — known as the Polish brothers — over the course of just 12 days with a single actress (Mark himself played the male lead). The film has already generated over $200,000 in profits after being spread through word of mouth via social networks.

The brothers said that their hotels and some meals were comped; they shot and edited with equipment they already owned; and they don’t consider the few grand worth of meals, taxis and the like to be part of an actual budget. “There was not one dime that came out of our pocket specifically for this movie — besides the food we ate, but we had to eat, anyway,” Michael said.
In the end, Michael and Mark even had to make up some names for the film’s title sequence, which they wanted to stretch out to a reasonable length in order to fit the score that had been written by their friend Kubilay Uner. [#]

This is a great example of how the landscape for movie making, distribution and viewing is rapidly changing, allowing anyone armed with a prosumer DSLR and a whole lot of talent to potentially strike it big.
How the Polish Brothers Are Raking It In With a Stealth, No Budget Movie (via planet5D)

Spoof Video Pokes Fun at DSLR Rigs

2011-07-01T11:30:00.000-07:00

In 2008, the Nikon D90 became the first DSLR to offer HD video recording, a feature that has become pretty standard on new DSLR models. Third-party companies have also taken advantage of the HDSLR craze by offering a boatload of specialized HDSLR filmmaking products, including camera rigs that are constantly becoming larger and more crazy-looking. DSLR film school Neumann Films created this funny short film poking fun at huge and expensive rigs.

The gear game of DSLR cameras is getting out of hand. When a camera rig costs more than your camera something is wrong. These were the thoughts that fueled the creation of our latest video “DSLR Camera Rigs”. [#]

So this is what goes on at the brainstorming sessions of rig makers…

How to Make Your Own Cinemagraphs

2011-06-30T11:27:00.000-07:00

Photographer Jamie Beck has done quite a bit lately to popularize the “cinemagraph“: Harry Potter-esque photos that are given an extra dimension by adding a dash of animation. If you want to learn how to make your own, Photojojo recently published a great tutorial on how to make them using Photoshop. Photographers Fernando Baez and Christopher Mathew Burt have also published tutorials and some helpful tips.

Image credit: Photograph by Jamie Beck

Wave this Programmable “Light Saber” to Light Paint Words and Images

2011-06-29T11:27:00.001-07:00

Gavin of Sydney, Australia created an awesome 2-meter long programmable staff that makes painting giant words and images as easy as waving/walking the staff around during a long-exposure photograph. The staff, which he call the LightScythe (we would have called it the “Lightsaber”), was inspired by the Wi-Fi light painting project we shared here earlier this year.

The hardware is pretty simple. There’s a 2m programmable LED strip inside an acrylic tube, which is controlled from a small receiver and battery pack. A laptop PC with a wireless Xbee link sends the image data to the scythe at a specified time. [#]

The best part about this project is that everything — the hardware and the software — is open source, allowing anyone with enough technical know-how to make their own. If that’s you, head on over to the project’s page to get started!

LightScythe (via DIYPhotography.net)

Google Adds TinEye-style Image Search

2011-06-26T10:51:00.000-07:00

Bad news for TinEye but good news for photographers: Google is adding reverse image search to their ever-growing list of products, allowing photographers to search using their photos to see the different places they’re being used online. You can search for images by entering a URL, uploading from your computer, dragging and dropping onto the search page, or via Chrome and Firefox extensions. The feature will be rolling out to Google’s users over the next few days — once you see the camera icon in your search bar you’ll know you have it!
Search by Image (via TechCrunch)

DIY Photo Booth with a DSLR and iPad

2011-06-25T10:50:00.000-07:00

German wedding photographer Rocco built this ingenious do-it-yourself photo booth using a Nikon, an iPad, and a remote shutter release. Guests can step on a pedal to trigger the shutter, which snaps a well-lit photograph (there’s a Speedlight on each side) and beams the image to the iPad via an Eye-Fi card and the app ShutterSnitch. While this photo booth doesn’t print out photo strips, it could be a great and fun way to give an event’s attendees some extra high-res photos without any extra work — well, besides building the thing.
Professional Image Maker with iPad control (via Engadget)

Headphone Controls to Double as iPhone Remote Shutter Release

2011-06-24T10:51:00.000-07:00

One of the exciting features of iOS 5 announced by Apple last week is the ability to use the iPhone’s “volume up” button as a shutter button when taking pictures. What’s also neat is that this design choice also means that the “volume up” button on Apple’s headphone remotes can also trigger the shutter, allowing them to be used as remote shutter releases. Say hello to stealthy and/or non-blurry iPhone photographs!

(via Wired)

Inside an Online Camera Store’s Bait and Switch Scam

2011-06-23T10:46:00.000-07:00

When I first started out getting into digital photography, i fell prey to a shady online camera store. I ended up cancelling the order after they kept bait and switching my order – but my credit card info was "stolen" shortly after, and im pretty sure the camera store was the only shady place i used it. Be careful out there

Photographer Nasim Mansurov’s friend recently ordered Canon 5D Mark II from online camera store AjRichard for just $2,350, but was then called by a sales rep and told that the battery and charger weren’t included. The final order came out to $2,629, which included some unneeded accessories and 3-day shipping. When the order finally arrived in 2 weeks, he found that it was a 5D Mark II + 24-120mm kit box with the lens removed.

Nasim then decided to call the retailer himself to see first-hand what the purchasing process is like, recording the resulting conversation. Here’s a funny snippet of the salesperson trying to sell him an “error free” memory card:

[Nasim]: So when you say “error free”, what does it mean?
[Salesperson]: Error free means you are not going to get any glitches if you do action shots and someone running, you are not going to get any blur in the picture or anything like that. And you are not going to lose any pictures.

He ended up having a $2,499 sneakily increased to $3,549 (including a quick $150 for “insurance”), but luckily he was using a fake name, address, and credit card. Head on over to Mansurov’s blog post to read the full account and a transcript of the conversation — just remember: if something seems too good to be true, it probably is!

Ajrichard – Beware of Buying Gear from Unauthorized Sellers (via Photography Bay)

A Glimpse Inside the Camera Bag of a Newspaper Feature Photographer

2011-06-22T10:46:00.000-07:00

The Arizona Republic features photographer Michael McNamara shot this photo of his camera bag showing the gear he uses for his work. His photographs are used for food, fashion, and lifestyle pieces, and usually requires lighting.

I use a Think Tank Photo Airport Security roller. I use a Canon 5D mk2 and a 1D mk2N for my bodies. I have the standard 16-35, 24-70 and 70-200 zooms, and also have a 50 macro, 100 macro (both for food), 50 1.4 and an 85 1.8 (mainly for portraits). I have a 580EXII and five 550EX strobes.

The “Holy Trinity” of Canon zoom lenses and six strobes. Lovely.
In the Bag: Speedlight Mania (via The Click)

Google May be Working on a Secret Photo Sharing Service Called Photovine

2011-06-21T10:45:00.000-07:00

Even though it seems like the photo sharing market is saturated with services competing for the world’s photos, the incredible growth of many young companies (e.g. Instagram) shows that there’s still plenty of untapped areas for growth, with mobile sharing being one of the big ones at the moment. A trademark for “Photovine” filed by Google earlier this month seems to suggest that the search giant is looking to expand beyond Picasa.

The trademark application is for:

Communication services, namely, transmission of visual images and data by telecommunications networks, wireless communication networks, the Internet, information services networks and data networks [#]

Google also appears to have acquired the Photovine.com recently. Apple recently announced a cloud-based sharing service of its own, called Photo Stream, which shows photos beamed wirelessly from users’ iPhones and iPads.

Since Google is also a major player in the smartphone market with its Android operating system, it will be interesting to see whether Photovine turns out to be a similar service that shares photos beamed from Android devices.

‘Photovine’ Trademark Application (via Fusible via Engadget)

Image credit: Vine Maple and Sword Ferns by brewbooks

Time-Lapse of the Milky Way Over the Plains of South Dakota

2011-06-20T10:44:00.001-07:00

Shoot a stunning time-lapse video of the Milky Way, and there’s a good chance it’ll go viral. Photographer Randy Halverson used a Canon 60D and Canon T2i with Tokina 11-16, Sigma 20mm F1.8, and Tamron 17-50 lenses to shoot these beautiful images of the night sky over South Dakota.

Shot in RAW format, the Milky Way shots were 30 seconds exposure F2.8 or F1.8 with 2 second interval between shots, for 3-4 hours run time. ISO 1600
Ten seconds of the video is about 2 hours 20 minutes in real time.

Also be sure to check out Terje Sorgjerd’s time-lapse of the Milky Way above Spain if you haven’t already.
(via Laughing Squid)

iPod Magic

2011-06-19T09:46:00.000-07:00

Magician Marco Tempest used sleight of hand and amazing timing to perform this incredible illusion, powered by three iPod touches. Hat tip to Mashable.

Apple’s iPhone and iCloud to Lead the Way for Internet-Connected Cameras

2011-06-18T15:30:00.000-07:00

Apple is looking to make an even bigger splash in the camera market with the photography-related features they’ve included in the upcoming iOS 5, with one of the huge ones being cloud connectivity. iPhones running iOS 5 will be connected to iCloud, Apple’s online backup solution, and every photograph captured will be automatically and wirelessly copied to the cloud and into the user’s “Photo Stream”. The photos can then be accessed from other computers and devices, and are deleted after 30 days unless moved to a permanent folder.

With Apple and Eye-Fi leading the charge in bringing internet-connectivity to cameras, we may soon see cloud-connectivity as a common feature in consumer cameras. Sony is already rumored to be working on a 3G-capable compact. Imagine a future where your DSLR’s RAW images are automatically beamed to the cloud, allowing you to quickly access them from your computer without having to work with memory cards at all!

(via Popular Photography)

A Cool Look At How Hard Drives Work

2011-06-17T15:27:00.000-07:00

If you’re like me, you have a bazillion photographs backed up on external hard drives, but have you ever wondered how digital photographs are stored on the magnetic surface of a platter spinning at thousands of rotations per minute? This interesting video provides a neat look at how hard drives work, though it will probably also convince you to back up your photographs by some other means as well (e.g. online or on discs). The engineering that makes hard drives possible is amazing!

268-Megapixel Photo of Night Sky Shot with a 1,700-LB Camera

2011-06-16T15:27:00.000-07:00

Amateur astronomy enthusiasts may be content with shooting the stars with a DSLR through a telescope, but what would a consortium of astronomy institutes use for photographing the night sky? The answer is the OmegaCam, a giant 1,700-lb camera found at the heart of the largest telescope designed for visible light surveying: the VST. It uses 32 separate CCD sensors that work together to form a giant 268-megapixel sensor, capturing 30 terabytes worth of photographs every year. The photograph seen above is the first released photo shot with this massive camera.

(via PhysOrg via Engadget)

Photo Captured from Space Shows Destructiveness of Tornado

2011-06-15T15:26:00.000-07:00

NASA captured this incredible photograph of the tornado that tracked across Massachusetts last week, showing the storm’s destructiveness as seen from space. The Westfield-Charlton tornado remained on the ground for an hour and ten minutes, carving a 39-mile-long path of destruction into the ground that was half a mile wide at some points.

Tornado Track near Sturbridge, Massachusetts (via Popular Photography)

Photographer Victorious in Copyright Lawsuit Against Graffiti Artist

2011-06-14T15:25:00.000-07:00

Turns out turning photographs into stencils isn’t transformative enough to be defended as “fair use”. In a case that has many similarities to the Shepard Fairey vs. AP legal battle, a judge ruled earlier this week against graffiti artist Thierry Guetta after Guetta (AKA Mr. Brainwash) had used a “stencil-ized” photo of Run DMC by Glen E. Friedman to promote an exhibition, concluding that Guetta’s piece didn’t differ enough from the original image to be considered fair use.

What are your thoughts on this issue? How much does a photograph need to be transformed before it is considered a new piece of art?

(via Boing Boing)

Circular Polarizing Filters – the under-used "magic" filter

2011-06-13T15:24:00.000-07:00

It might be safe to say that a circular Polarizing filter doesn’t enhance your image, it actually corrects it. When shooting outdoors there is light being reflected on just about anything. Images will quickly be washed out with glare or sometimes called haze. Contrast will be reduced and saturation will suffer. A polarizer will help cut that reflection so that you can see the true colors in your image.

Unedited image examples of non-polarized and polarized images

We use the same Shutter, Aperture, and ISO settings in both examples above. The difference in image quality was seen when the polarizer was turned to block the stray reflections of light. The ‘blown out highlights’ in image left are not caused by poor shutter or poor aperture settings. This is caused by very bright reflections of light. Without being able to capture the details in this image, the information is lost, and there is no way to correct this in Post Processing. Even HDR photography with different exposures in this case, will not produce satisfactory results. For video capture where the image is captured in real time a CPL is a very important filter to use outdoors in bright daylight.

CPL filters are unlike ND filters that simply cut out the amount of light coming into the lens. A polarizer blocks light that is being reflected from a certain angle. To use a circular polarizer you attach it to the front of your lens. Part of the filter can spin around so would basically turn the filter around until the image looks good. You can see from the video (above) the results are immediate! This is not just for DSLR lenses. You should look into CPL filters for any camera or consumer camcorders (is there an iPhone version yet?). They come in different sizes according to your filter thread size, so shop accordingly.

Cool uses (photos) for potholes.

2011-06-10T10:51:00.000-07:00

Husband and wife photography duo Davide Luciano and Claudia Ficca have a project called “Potholes” in which they stage unusual scenes around giant potholes found in large cities (e.g. Montreal, NYC, LA, and Toronto). The project started after they collided with one such pothole and needed a way to channel their frustration into a positive project, transforming something useless into something humorous and creative.

Our imaginative and diverse application for potholes led us on a relentless quest in search of the perfect pothole. On site we set up our props as required to build the set we desire. The entire shoot takes approximately 5 to 10 minutes to complete.
Our shooting sessions are evenly divided with each of us taking a turn behind the camera. Camera angles and model placement and direction are discussed and at times improvised on the set, we don’t use photoshop to create the image or add props. Of course, the menial yet crucial task of watching for traffic is shared by all. Since the POTHOLES series is shoot entirely on location during uninterrupted traffic, vigilance is key. [#]

Check out more photos from the series on its website.
Potholes (via Flavorwire)

Apple Patent Shows System for Disabling Camera Remotely

2011-06-09T10:45:00.000-07:00

Apple recently filed a patent having to do with baking infrared communication capabilities into the iPhone. Although there are certainly useful applications for the technology (e.g. a museum beaming information to the phone at different exhibitions), what’s troubling is that the feature may also allow the camera to be remotely disabled by those who wish to prevent photography.

[...] the transmitter could be located in an area where photography is prohibited and the infrared signal could include encoded data that represents a command to disable recording functions.
This example could easily apply to movie theatres trying to stop customers from filming a movie for illegal distribution or any kind of music concert to protect an artist’s image from being photographed or videoed illegally, as shown below. [#]

Creepy. Im not sure i want someone to be able to remotely control my phone.

(via Patently Apple via Engadget)

Photos with People Are Most Memorable, Landscapes Are Least

2011-06-08T11:44:00.000-07:00

A group of neuroscientists at MIT recently conducted a study to try and determine what makes photographs memorable. After gathering about 10,000 diverse photos, they showed a series of them to human subjects and asked them to identify whenever a photo was a repeat of one previously shown. They found that photos containing people in them are the most memorable, while natural landscapes are least memorable and easily forgotten.

What’s more, the scientists used the findings to develop a computer algorithm that can quantify how memorable a particular photo is. Cameras in the future might be able to tell you the memorability of photos as you’re taking them!

(via PhysOrg via Photoxels)

Good video on Histogram

2011-06-07T11:35:00.000-07:00

Here’s a great video lesson by Greg Cazillo on understanding and using image histograms to improve your photography.
(via Fstoppers)

Cool video: Butterflies feat. John Malkovich

2011-06-06T10:45:00.000-07:00

I have this idea in my mind for a painting about butterflies. Blue and green and yellow butterflies, tumbling out of my brain. I think it’s going to be good. I feel like I can almost touch them… like they’re right there for me to grab as they’re flying away… out of my skull and taking all those dark thoughts and little devils with them. Just fluttering away and leaving the good stuff behind. Butterflies. I’m going to get my canvas and my paints. I think I’m all better. I think I’m ready to leave.

Design/VFX – Gentleman Scholar

Creative Directors – Will Johnson & William Campbell

Editor – Josh Bodnar/The Whitehouse

[Source]

Superheroes at Home

2011-06-05T11:33:00.000-07:00

The superheroes that line Hollywood Boulevard for tourist pictures may have a tiny taste of stardom while on the job, but what are their lives like when they put down their masks and capes? For his project “Super Heroes”, photographer Gregg Segal followed a number of superheroes home to document their not-so-super lives when not on the job.

I followed the super heroes home to highlight the contrast of the fantastic and mundane. Though in costume, the super heroes are unmasked by the ordinariness of their apartments and their routine chores. While I photographed Batman, a family pulled over to take his picture. He strode up to them with super hero confidence and the children approached him with awe. He was Batman because he was Batman to them. Then later, in his apartment, when he’d taken off his mask and cape and was reheating leftovers in the microwave, he was merely ordinary. I could see what it was that drew him back to Hollywood Boulevard.

You can find the rest of this series over on Segal’s website.
(via Flavorwire)

Hasselblad H4D-200MS Shoots 200MP Photos with a 50MP Sensor

2011-06-04T11:32:00.000-07:00

Sigma’s upcoming SD1 uses a special Foveon sensor that captures red, green, and blue information at each pixel by stacking three separate 15MP sensors, giving the resulting images 46 million pieces of information. Hasselblad’s new H4D-200MS medium format DSLR also captures each of the three colors at every pixel, but with a different method — it shoots 6 separate photos with its 50MP sensor, but shifts the sensor by 1.5 pixels for each shot, giving the resulting photos 200MP of resolution.

Capturing the six shots takes about 30 seconds, meaning it’s only useful for non-moving subjects. The resulting files are upwards of 600MB in size, so the company recommends attaching a hard drive to the camera rather using a CF card.
If you’re interested, you can buy a H4D-200MS for ONLY $45,000.
H4D-200MS (via CrunchGear)