Clearwater Falls in Umpqua National Forest from Eric Sever on Vimeo.
[E.]Saturday, June 21, 2014
[Featured Photo] Toketee Falls
 |
| 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"
 |
| 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.]
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Lightroom 4 [Beta Version]
Adobe has released the Beta version of their latest software upgrade, Lightroom 4.
 |
| They are offering the beta version for free, however, it will only be available for use between now and March 31st, so get it and use it while you can. |
This is particularly great for those who [1] already own a previous version of Lightroom and are not certain they'll want to upgrade, or [2] one who has never tried Lightroom and wants a good opportunity to see what the hype is all about. If you fall under either of these categories, I highly suggest you go the download page and take the beta version for a ride.Download and Discuss
Download Lightroom 4 beta
Discuss Lightroom I've already taken the plunge and am currently waiting for the Beta version to finish installing. I'm in the process of editing thousands of photos that I haven't gotten around to over the last few years and I'll see how some of them turn out using the new Lightroom 4 Beta. Expect a follow-up post for my personal review and examples of what I was able to accomplish using this new release. Meanwhile, here's what Adobe has to say about Lightroom 4:
"Lightroom 4 beta builds on the vision of the very first Lightroom beta. From day 1, Lightroom was designed for photographers and by photographers to help them focus on what they love—the art and craft of photography. Lightroom provides photographers with an elegant and efficient way to work with their growing digital image collections, bring out the best in their images, and make an impact from raw capture to creative output, all while maintaining the highest possible quality each step of the way.
For the development of this latest release, we've focused on further maximizing image quality and expanding output options. New tools let you extract more detail from highlights and shadows, make a wider range of targeted adjustments, and easily share your images and video clips on social media and photo sharing sites.
New Features in Lightroom 4 Beta
Highlight and shadow recovery brings out all the detail that your camera captures in dark shadows and bright highlights.
Photo book creation with easy-to-use elegant templates.
Location-based organization lets you find and group images by location, assign locations to images, and display data from GPS-enabled cameras.
White balance brush to refine and adjust white balance in specific areas of your images.
Additional local editing controls let you adjust noise reduction and remove moiré in targeted areas of your images.
Extended video support for organizing, viewing, and making adjustments and edits to video clips.
Easy video publishing lets you edit and share video clips on Facebook and Flickr®.
Soft proofing to preview how an image will look when printed with color-managed printers.
Email directly from Lightroom using the email account of your choice.
The Lightroom 4 beta program is available to the public. Anyone with an Internet connection can download it and start putting it to the test. You do not need to own (or have tried) a previous version of Lightroom. You can download the beta and use it until the product expires on March 31, 2012." - Adobe
Don't miss out, download the beta version today and subscribe to my blog (on the left) to be notified by email regarding my Lightroom 4 Beta experiences.
Have a good one,
[E]
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)