The Four Ages Of Sand

The joy of video frame extraction and animated gifs

 

 Ah I do love picking out the most interesting frames from a video clip. This hummingbird stuck its tongue out for a fraction of a second, and chances of me photographing it were very remote, but with the video, it's easy to pick out the key frames later and enhance them. The first part is played at original speed, then slowed to 1/3 speed,then the individual frames at the end:

I've also been playing around with animated gifs. In the past, Typepad displayed animated gifs automatically, now you have to click on them to get them to work, for some reason.

And the close up enhanced version. Click on the image to activate:

The joy of 3D

Belated congratulations to Alan for identifying the exact model of the 3D viewer in this week's Wii? competition!

I'd assumed we'd dscussed it before but it turns out he has the same book. Alan's been into taking 3D images for years using a proper 50's 3D camera whereas despite encouragement, I'd only ever dabbled with 3D microscopy, always assuming that 3D photography would be really difficult.

Anyway, UniM was out working last night so I had the evening to myself and was indulging in the solo guilty pleasures of harmonium, 3D viewing and Big Mac meal, when the muse was suddenly upon me and I gave it a go. All you have to do, said Alan, is take a photo, then take another one 6 inches to one side, then combine them.

Could it really be that simple? Yes!

You'd need a viewer to appreciate just how fantastic the result is (I'm working on one for all 4AoSers right now) but this is just to whet your appetites:

 

 

Contact Juggling: But is it Art?

Nick came over the other weekend, and he was fascinated to see UniM's collection of heads:

(see his post here)

I was in a creative mood and was trying to think of a way to combine my love of contact juggling with my new green screen but the muse was not upon me.

After a few drinks, Nick saved the day by coming up with an idea for a film, and here it is!

Artisitic Direction: Nick

Script: Nick

Director: Nick

Head Operator: Nick

 

 

Happy Birthday to me

I received a very generous cash gift from Mum and Dad for my birthday last week. It was very welcome because we have so many demands on us financially at the moment. I sat down with UniM and we listed out all the uses I could make of it:

1) House repairs

2) Aaron's education

3) Have the garden fence replaced

4) Pay off some of the credit cards

5) New fridge

She then left me to make the final choice. It was a tough one, as they are all worthy causes. But in the end the decision made itself: I treated myself to a 6m x 3m Green Screen with heavy duty background support frame and Studio lighting kit.

Here's UniM at the moment she discovers what I've done.  Hard to tell in a photograph but she's literally speechless with surprise:

We're not talking about it, but I get the impression that she hasn't yet grasped the full implications of all the possibilities open to us with such an amazing piece of kit. Watch this space! 

 

 

Second Chroma Key experiment: the next level

You thought it couldn't get any better, but my latest Chroma key experiment takes things to a new level. I appear in the scene!

I know you will think I am actually there, but I promise you, this is all done with camera trickery. 

 

Chroma Key Experiment

I'm getting to grips with the Chroma Key feature in PowerDirector 10. I can now layer 3 videos and remove backgrounds. Also add shadows!

Here's the result. How good is it?

I've let my Art speak for itself:

 

Skylark experiments

If you wander about on any area of farm land in the UK you are likely to hear the high-pitched "chattering" song of a skylark. But actually seeing one is another matter. They hover in flight for 2 or 3 minutes at a time but even with a completely clear sky it can be near impossible to spot them.  I had a go with this one and of the 5 minutes footage, he appears in shot for just a few seconds. It was very windy  so the song is almost drowned out but using the magic of PowerDirector 10 and WavePad Sound Editor (see previous post) I was able to separate out the audio track and remove nearly all the noise. The final result? A bit of a mess frankly, but having spent an hour on it, I'm darn well going to post it... At the end the song is slowed down to 20%. At 55 seconds it sounds like a moaning animal.

 

First experiment with Chroma Key in PowerDirector 10: Combining sunrise and sunset

 I saw this Robin at sunset and thought how wonderful it would be if the background was more interesting than plain blue.

Then I thought, why not combine it with a different background from a previous video, for example my Sunrise Timelapse at Draycote Water? After all, I've done it before with stills. Who can forget my "hummingbird at Dawn?" combining a Budapest sunrise with a Venezuelan bird:

Oh I know what you are going to say: "But Iain, Video Colour-Overlay Separation is a whole new ball game, you've over-extended yourself this time. Such an undertaking would require a working knowledge of Post Production Compositing, Video Stream Layering and Chroma Key Application. It just can't be done!"

Well hold onto your hats you doubting Thomases...

(vids combined at 25 seconds)

 

More joy of extracting stills from video

Ah what fun it is to film a bird and then later extract the best still image from the clip.

This Robin only sang for a few moments and then was off, but it was just the work of a moment to choose the best frame and extract it.

Here's the original:

And here it is after some post-processing. Marvellous! You'd be hard pushed to identify this as a video frame rather than a photo wouldn't you?

 

The Joy of Infrared Photography

I've always fancied trying Infrared (IR) photography but you need expensive filters, a very expensive camera or you need to remove filters from an existing camera. 

Imagine how happy I was to discover that Photoshop (CS4) has a simulated IR filter effect!

Here's a good overview of the subject:

One of the most charming contrasting color effects you can get in photography is by using infrared. An easy way to understand near-infrared light is to think of it as the color of the rainbow next to red, a color that is invisible to the human eye. But near-infrared is not the same as thermal imaging.

Because everyday objects reflect infrared in proportions that differ sharply from that of visible light, the tonal relationships are wildly unexpected. Such near-infrared techniques used in photography give subjects an exotic, antique look. Green vegetation becomes white, whereas human skin becomes pale and ghostly. The resulting images look alien.

Digital cameras use CCD and other similar sensors to capture infrared images. Although all digital cameras available on the market are sensitive to infrared light, they are equipped with infrared-blocking filters. The main reason for this is that consumer cameras are designed to capture visible light. But sometimes these filters are used together, giving very interesting in-camera effects like false color, wood effects etc.

To start with infrared photography, all you need to have is

1. A digital camera that is sensitive to infrared light.
2. A visible-light blocking filter (e.g. a Wratten 89B filter)
3. Image-editing software, such as Photoshop.

Near-infrared images straight out of the camera do not always look good and are usually not as dramatic and beautiful as normally captured images. Hence, a lot of post-processing is done to enhance these images. Some techniques used in post-processing are equalization, focus shift, small aperture, light leaks, digital false color, halo, etc.

Below, we present a selection of over 40 beautiful infrared images. Some of these images have undergone heavy post-processing, and all of these examples display the names of the photographers, along with links to their websites.

Also take a look at our previous photography articles:

• 35 Fantastic HDR Pictures
• 35 Beautiful Examples Of Rain Photography
• 45 Beautiful Motion Blur Photos
• Beautiful Black And White Photos
• Celebration Of Smoke Photography and Smoke Art

Source:

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/01/11/40-incredible-near-infrared-photos/

Here's my first attempt. As it says above, green vegetation gives off a lot of IR so it turns whitr, whereas a blue sky has almost no IR component so appears very dark.

One of my old macro shots, Lea Valley at sunrise: 

And after the IR filter is applied:

Again as it says above, this is just the beginning of the post-processing process. Now I need to learn how to do all that other stuff. I'll be back!