Learning Film and Photography

At last a Low Latency Audio solution for Android devices

2013-02-01T05:54:00.000-08:00

Yes, finally we have a working solution for Android's high audio latency problem.

Sonoma Wire Works, the maker of GuitarJack audio interface, and FourTrack the iOS multi-track recording app formally announced a low latency audio (LLA)audio for Adnroid devices. Current audio latency for Android devices is about 100 - 250 milliseconds. The best devices averages at 108.8 milliseconds, and about 371.1 milliseconds for standard devices. Sonoma Wire Works solution brought it down to about 20 milliseconds which is almost there if compared to iOS low latency audio which about 6 - 12 milliseconds.

Don't be disappointed, 20 milliseconds is already a very decent in fact good latency rating. When compared to a PC using a amp modeling software and ASIO4ALL I can get from 24 milliseconds up to 20 milliseconds and it's already real time. You wouldn't notice any lag at all.

This new development will be very useful to musicians like me who don't have that much resources and rely on softwares to record and enhance the sound of our instruments. This will expand to more music applications being developed therefore more options for us musicians to choose from. And another thing of course which we love about the iOS music recording apps is portability. Now Android device owners can enjoy the portability and convenience of taking your music anywhere as the iOS owners did.

Sonoma Wire Works' low latency audio (LLA) solution for android is now available for licensing for device manufacturers.

Head over to the official site to read the newsletter.
http://www.sonomawireworks.com/news/2013-01.php#android

Test Time-lapse clip - Lapse It Android app

2013-01-18T13:55:00.001-08:00

Here's a short test clip using a free Android app called Lapse It Lite. If your device has higher resolution capture capability the better the quality even HD if your device supports it. You can buy the Pro version for added functionality.

Lapse It Website
Download on GooglePlayStore

Testing my old macro lens

2012-11-02T21:49:00.003-07:00

Its an old Sigma 28-80mm autofocus doesn't work. There are clucking things inside when you shake it but it still works quite well on manual.

Free HDR Softwares

2012-10-27T07:40:00.001-07:00

Here's my list of the best free HDR softs. All of them are totally free softwares however some are stripped down and have some functions disabled and have restrictions.

Luminance HDR

PROS
Supports Raw
Merge more than 3 exposures
Auto and manual Alignment
9 tone-mapping algorithm to choose from
Single image tone-mapping
Supports tabs view
Rotate, resize, and cropping
Reads transer exif data
Absolutely free no restrictions and watermarks
Available for Linux, Mac, and Windows

CONS
not very user-friendly
no live view you have to render to see resulting image

Website and Download

Picturenaut

PROS
Supports Raw
3 or more Exposures
Multi-threads
Auto and manual alignment
Auto and full user controls
Rotate, resize, crop
Drag and drop support
Filters and plugins support
Reads transfers exif data
Local and Global tonemapping algorithm
Live View
Absolutely free no restrictions and or watermarkings
For Windows and OS X

CONS
Non (in my opinion)

Website and Download

FDRTools Basic

PROS
RAW support
Merge 3 or more images
Auto and manual alignment
ICC color standards
Read transfer of exif data
Global tonemapping algorithms
Global white balance correction
Drag and Drop
Batch processing
GUI theme/skins
Rotate, reflect (lossless)
Preview support
Absolutlely free no watermarkings restrictions
For Windows and OS X 32-bit only

CONS
Nothing major
Upgrade to get the 64-bit support, parallel processing and the Compressor plugin

Website and Download

Fusion (free version)

CONS
Raw support
Auto alignment
Auto and manual controls
Tone mapping options
Vivid contrasty results
Batch processing

CONS
Resulting images looks a bit unrealistic
Leaves watermark
Windows 32-bit only

Website and Download

Essential HDR Community Editon

CONS
RAW support
HDR creation from 1 or more photos
Merge 3 or more image
Excellent tonemapping ability
Tonemap user settings save support
User-friendly interface
Preview
Drag and drop

CONS
Allows only 1MB size per image maximum
Leaves a small watermark at the bottom
Windows 32-bit only

Website and Download

HDRtist

Raw support
Merge 3 up photos
Easy to use interface
More controls and functions
Straigtforward controls
Can create realistic vivid images
4 tonemapping system
Save directly to iPhoto or Aperture
Free, no watermarkings

CONS
Mac OS X only

Website Download

Making HDR using a single photo

2012-10-25T12:15:00.000-07:00

After (straight HDR not tone-mappped yet)

HDR or High Dynamic Range imaging is a process of taking multiple photos of a single scene in
different exposure ranges and combining them in post to show all the exposure ranges not usually
captured in normal photos. Usually at least three exposures, the highs, the correctly exposed then one with
the lows. The highs will enhance the bright areas of the photo. The lows will be enhancing the shadows.

Before

HDR photography has created quite a stir in photography world for a few years since it became popular.
Some photographers says its cheating, while on the other side of the fence they say it's just the same as what photographers do on post production. And there are also taking of sides on the pro HDR regarding the overdone HDR's.

Enough about that now let's get started. I'm going to use Gimp as my photo editor and Picturenaut
as my HDR software for the reason they're both free and can both be good alternatives of their very expensive competitors.

I assume you already have softwares to do this if not go ahead and download the two softwares.
Then choose a photo. Now, there are photos that are right for HDR and there are some that are not so.
A good photo for this are those photos with nice textures or contrast. A good example is a landscape photo with a rocky foreground and a nice cloud formation at the back. Go ahead and look for photos with those qualities and lets get started.

First open Gimp. Then go ahead on open your photo by ticking "File" the "Open" the choose the photo you wanted to use for this project. Then go ahead and tick the "Color" tab then choose "curves.

Then the "curves" box will come up. You should see that box with a diagonal line on a grid. Go ahead and click and hold at the very center of the diagonal line.

Then drag it upward going slight left. Or you can experiment just make sure not to over expose the highlights.
This will brighten your photo thus giving details to your shadows.

When you adjusted to your liking then go ahead and click OK, then Save it or Export in Gimp. Then Go hit "ctrlZ" or "Edit" then "Undo". Then open another curves like what we did before only this time we will drag it downwards and slightly to the right.

This will darken your photo giving more details to your highs. If your happy with what you see then go ahead and save it.

Now Open your HDR software. In this case Picturenaut. The tick File the Generate HDR. Then click add then choose the three pictures. The original and the other two we edited with curves in Gimp.

Then we have to change the EV's or exposure values of the two that we edited. Go ahead and change the one with highs or the bright one make it +2 or try out other exposures. EV's from +1 to +4 are the usual values depending on the photo. If you edited it bright enough just enough then a value of +2 will be safe.
Then on the one that we made darker make to -2 or again experiment on it.

You can check the exposure correction, ghost removal and color balancing to help you automatically correct those things. On the Weighting again you can experiment until you satisfied with the resulting image, so as the curve. Just experiment on the settings there and see how and what are it's effects on the picture. this will help you a lot because each photo will be done differently there not one definite setting for every picture you have to experiment on it. Now you have an HDR photo.

Now there are more things you can do to it. Or you can save it straight because the generated image is already good as is. Or you can go further and do some more refining. The common thing done is tone mapping which as far as I know part of the HDR process although a totally separate process. For Picturnaut the Tone map feature is under the "Picture" tab. Go ahead and try out some presets there or change things there to your liking then save it. One thing to remember about an HDR image is it still has to look real, don't over do it. Congratulations you just made an HDR from a single photo.

You don't have to buy high-end photo editing software

2012-10-17T19:57:00.000-07:00

Complaining about the lack of functionalities, plugins, actions your free consumer grade
photo editor? Well I did. And It always unsatisfied of the presets and always wanting to have more control.
I asked, searched for the best free photo editing software and one stood out.

Gimp, an absolutely free photo editing software no BS just click download and install. You'll
have all the pro functions, plugins, actions, scripts of a pro/high-end software and you can even write your own scripts or plugins or download free user made ones, all that for abolutely zilch, zero, nada. I personally use Gimp for the similarities of the interface it has with a popular photo editing software even the processes and functions are somewhat similar too. So it's easier to use, and again it's free.

Head over to my oooolllld old blog for some more free photo editing softs here the link http://myplaylist4today.blogspot.com/search/label/*Photo%20Editing%20Softwares

A video I made for Naga Longboard Department

2012-10-17T19:26:00.001-07:00

Just a short music video I made for a Longboarding crew. All shot handheld. I'm still working on stabilising my shots, I'm getting better.

Naga City's First Charity Mass Skate Run (March 17, 2012) from murk on Vimeo.
Longboard Rinconada and Naga Longboard Department's effort to unite longboarders in Bicol through this
charity event for the street children of Naga City. With the help of the city government of Naga, and Sosimo Bar who helped make this happen, and Pox and Celsa who were behind this since day one and made sure this will happen. Big Thanks to Pili Longboarders and Legazpi Longboarders and all those who participated and helped in anyway. We had a lot of fun!

Shot on Canon Rebel T2i with Magic Lantern, 18-55mm IS, 55-250mm IS, at 1080p 24fps, used Technicolor Cinema style profile. all shots were handheld so excuse the shaky videos.

music is "All of This" by The Naked and Famous. all credits goes to the artist.

Naga City's Porta Mariae

2012-10-10T03:59:00.000-07:00

Porta Mariae
"Perpetual Doors to Ina"

The Porta Mariae. Stands at 11 meters tall and 18 meters wide at the top is the brass image of "Ina" as called by us Bicolanos or The Lady of Peñafrancia. Located at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Naga City in

Camarines Sur. It was built to commemorate the 300th year of the devotion to The Lady of Peñafrancia.

I shot this photo with a kit lens and it's one of the first photographs i took using my T2i. The composition and framing was the same as the original photo the only things I changed was a little bit of saturation and contrast. This photo placed 2nd at a photo contest conducted by the Metropolitan Cathedral for the promotion of the Porta Mariae. This was the first and only time I joined a photo contest. I haven't joined any since then.

My first baby photo shoot

2012-10-10T02:01:00.000-07:00

This was my first baby photos a year or so ago. Baby's name is Sabrina my friends first baby. All photos were taken using natural light source coming in from the door and windows.

My First Post

2012-10-09T22:21:00.001-07:00

Do not copy, alter, use, redistribute without the author's/owner's permission

I took this one a long time ago. One of my first HDR attempts. It's a photo of the office tower of the Naga City Public Market tower now Naga City People's Mall.

Hello World!

2012-10-09T21:29:00.000-07:00

My first post.
I created this blog to share my progress in trying to learn photography and filming. I started a year ago and has been learning and enjoying it ever since. I also hope to find like minded people and exchange stories, experiences and ideas.