Fireworks from Eric Sever on Vimeo.
[E.]Friday, July 4, 2014
Saturday, June 21, 2014
[Featured Photo] Toketee Falls
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| Toketee Falls, Umpqua National Forest, Oregon. |
[E.]
Friday, June 21, 2013
[Featured Video] "Moonrise"
Moonrise [2012 Solar Eclipse] from Eric Sever on Vimeo.
I filmed this video during the 2012 Solar Eclipse and color-graded it with the intent to give the appearance of a crescent moon rather than the Sun.
[E.]
Saturday, March 16, 2013
Image Stabilization with ProDAD Mercalli 3.0
I was in a bind.
I needed a completed edit in only two days and one of my "golden" angles that I definitely wanted to use was too shaky to be comfortably viewed. I tried various other so-called stabilization plugins and techniques, but my handheld video was just too shaky to be fixed. I had no time to reshoot this particular clip if I wanted to, but I felt it was a necessary addition and didn't want it to go to waste. After an intense hour long research session on the web, scouring through dozens of forums looking for the miracle answer, I was drawn to the solution of using the Mercalli 3.0 Stand-alone (SAL) video stabilization software by proDAD. I've used stabilization plugins in the past (with MACs, PCs, and Avid) and have had fairly decent results, but none of these could handle the amount of camera shake I was dealing with. The plugins I had used in the past took nearly 15-20 minutes to analyze and render (on average, depending on the size of the clip) and left me yearning for better results and my lost time back (imagine you render your stabilization to the wrong parameters and need to wait 15 minutes each time just to find that you need to reset your parameters and try again -- this was my reality). For months prior I was editing at a quality well under what I expected from myself due to the limitations of my software and within minutes this issue was remedied.
I purchased Mercalli 3.0 SAL, as I was in a bind worth a small price, and I had it up and running within minutes. I did a simple drag-and-drop of the file I wanted to stabilize and did a simple "universal camera" stabilization analyzation, at the single click of the mouse. In less than a minute I was left with exactly what I had been looking for all along, for years -- a very smooth, cinematic quality camera movement that could be analyzed, rendered, and exported in a fraction of the time of what I was used to with alternative specialty plugins. I'm amazed.
Here's a comparison of an erratic, handheld shaky camera clip before and after stabilization using proDAD's Mercalli 3.0 software:
As a fair warning, I've used the proDAD Mercalli 2.0 plugin with Adobe Premiere Pro and that was one of the plugins I was referring to that was too slow and inefficient; I stress my recommendation for Mercalli 3.0's Stand-alone software rather than the 2.0 plugin. I hope this helps anyone working through a similar issue. And, in case you were wondering, I am not, by any means, a paid advertising agent for proDAD; I'm just elated with the efficacy of my new upgrade -- a happy customer!
[E]
I needed a completed edit in only two days and one of my "golden" angles that I definitely wanted to use was too shaky to be comfortably viewed. I tried various other so-called stabilization plugins and techniques, but my handheld video was just too shaky to be fixed. I had no time to reshoot this particular clip if I wanted to, but I felt it was a necessary addition and didn't want it to go to waste. After an intense hour long research session on the web, scouring through dozens of forums looking for the miracle answer, I was drawn to the solution of using the Mercalli 3.0 Stand-alone (SAL) video stabilization software by proDAD. I've used stabilization plugins in the past (with MACs, PCs, and Avid) and have had fairly decent results, but none of these could handle the amount of camera shake I was dealing with. The plugins I had used in the past took nearly 15-20 minutes to analyze and render (on average, depending on the size of the clip) and left me yearning for better results and my lost time back (imagine you render your stabilization to the wrong parameters and need to wait 15 minutes each time just to find that you need to reset your parameters and try again -- this was my reality). For months prior I was editing at a quality well under what I expected from myself due to the limitations of my software and within minutes this issue was remedied.
I purchased Mercalli 3.0 SAL, as I was in a bind worth a small price, and I had it up and running within minutes. I did a simple drag-and-drop of the file I wanted to stabilize and did a simple "universal camera" stabilization analyzation, at the single click of the mouse. In less than a minute I was left with exactly what I had been looking for all along, for years -- a very smooth, cinematic quality camera movement that could be analyzed, rendered, and exported in a fraction of the time of what I was used to with alternative specialty plugins. I'm amazed.
Here's a comparison of an erratic, handheld shaky camera clip before and after stabilization using proDAD's Mercalli 3.0 software:
As a fair warning, I've used the proDAD Mercalli 2.0 plugin with Adobe Premiere Pro and that was one of the plugins I was referring to that was too slow and inefficient; I stress my recommendation for Mercalli 3.0's Stand-alone software rather than the 2.0 plugin. I hope this helps anyone working through a similar issue. And, in case you were wondering, I am not, by any means, a paid advertising agent for proDAD; I'm just elated with the efficacy of my new upgrade -- a happy customer!
[E]
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Photoshop CS6 {Free} [Beta Version] Download
Adobe has gone and done it again; another beta version open to the pubic for free!
For those of you that downloaded the Lightroom 4 beta version, you know how cool this privilege is; free software for months! And it's just in time as the Lightroom 4 beta is coming to an end in just a few days; we can all switch over to Photoshop CS6 and master editing with the new software for a few months and decide what's better. For those that don't want to take their own time doing this themselves, I'll hopefully be posting an article in the future comparing the two programs, as well as sharing some of my own images edited using these two Adobe applications.
Stay tuned and enjoy!
Don't forget to send Adobe a thank you postcard using a photo you edited with their software.
|E.|
<<<<< Subscribe on the left for updates on new articles, camera related tech reviews, featured photos and videos, and more!
For those of you that downloaded the Lightroom 4 beta version, you know how cool this privilege is; free software for months! And it's just in time as the Lightroom 4 beta is coming to an end in just a few days; we can all switch over to Photoshop CS6 and master editing with the new software for a few months and decide what's better. For those that don't want to take their own time doing this themselves, I'll hopefully be posting an article in the future comparing the two programs, as well as sharing some of my own images edited using these two Adobe applications.
If you're more hands on and want to try this application out for yourself, it's available free to the public -- click here for the Adobe Photoshop CS6 beta version Download Page. [Official P.R.]
Stay tuned and enjoy!
Don't forget to send Adobe a thank you postcard using a photo you edited with their software.
|E.|
<<<<< Subscribe on the left for updates on new articles, camera related tech reviews, featured photos and videos, and more!
Saturday, January 28, 2012
[Featured Photo]: "Winter Blues of the Pacific Coast"
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| Taken in San Diego, California |
This photo was taken right along the P.C.H. near Pacific Beach.
Here, the surfers access the water by jumping into the water off these rocks.
My long-time friend, Adam, and I ventured out, particularly early, to check out the nice waves around La Jolla and to try catching some GoPro shots of Adam surfing by attaching a waterproof camera (called a GoPro) to his surfboard, which captured his session. Throughout the day, we drove from Oceanside all the way down to Imperial Beach (70 miles) while staying along Pacific Coast Highway, never using a freeway. In these fast times, we felt that was quite the accomplishment. Slow down, take some time for yourself and just enjoy the cloudless, sunny late-January day; Winter in San Diego.
No one ever said the winter blues had to be so gloomy.
[E.]
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