Photography Blog Talk » Reviews

Time Lapse Photography movie using Corel VideoStudio Pro X4

Cheng — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 14:33:24 +0000

Photography and videography boundaries have been blurred by the introducing of video features on DSLR. Coupled with good performance and big aperture (f2.8) lenses, DSLR video has slowly gaining momentum even in professional videography work.

Good video footage captured would need to be edited for maximum results. I do not do much video editing but i decided to test the new time lapse photography feature found in Corel VideoStudio Pro X4.

I used the Interval shooting feature the Nikon D700 to shoot 750 pictures at every 5 secs. This took one hour and I chose to do it on a early morning from 8am to 9am. To create the video, just follow the 3 steps – CAPTURE, EDIT, SHARE.

CAPTURE – I imported in the 750 photos using the new Insert Photo for Time-lapse/Strobe function. Using the default settings, it will use 25 photos for every sec of the video hence creating a 30 secs video.

EDIT – I add in the title text, credits text and a music track. I found it easy even when doing it for the first time.

SHARE – Finally I output it as HD video as upload it to http://vimeo.com

Let see the output (for best viewing experience, wait for the entire video to finish streaming before playing) :

Time Lapse Photography from fotocourse on Vimeo.

VideoStudiopro X4

Cheng — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 07:59:00 +0000

Corel Videostudio pro

I have previously blogged about the Corel products and recently they announced the launch of the Corel VideoStudio Pro X4. Thesedays with DSLRs being capable of capturing videos, it would be interesting to check out how this package perform.

Corel has setup a site where with tutorials and samples video. Check it out here : http://www.corel.com/takethenextstep

Do take a look at the one on time lapse photography as it is very interesting on what you can do with it.

Watch out this blog for a review of the software soon.

Room with A View . Cafe . Gallery

Cheng — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 13:15:14 +0000

Themed based cafes are far and few in Singapore. Yet there is one that is related to photography, Room with A View. This cafe is located at 17 Carpenter Street on the level 5.

My Coffee

To get to the cafe , you’ll have to take the lift up. There is a little surprise here in how the lift opens when you reach level 5. Run by Keryl and Joanna, the longish cafe also serves as a photography gallery using its bare wall to hang prints. The difference here is that the prints are usually contributed by amateur photographers looking for an outlet to showcase their works. Like a regular gallery, the works get replace by a new set every few weeks with a different theme.

So it is nice place to sit sit around on a lazy afternoon and have a chat with some fellow photographers and browse the few photography books there.

Entrance of RWAV

You may then head towards Chinatown, Clark Quay , Esplanade areas for a photo shoot after having some snacks. Food and beverages include coffee, tea, cakes, sandwiches and scones. I am not much of a food reviewer but i enjoyed the coffee and the chicken avocado sandwich while I was there.

Have a visit, have a View.

Room With A View
17 Carpenter Street
#05-01
Tel: 6438 4230

Operating hours:
9am to 7pm (Mon to Fri)
10am to 6pm (Sat)

Review : Thinkphoto Digital Holster 20

Cheng — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 02:02:32 +0000

It has been a while since I buy a camera bag. The triangular shape SLR bag or holster like bag that I got when i first purchased by first SLR has been breaking abreak after 8 years. So I decided to get another to replace it. I finally decided on the Thinkphoto Digital Holster 20 for the following reasons :

It is expandable to fit a 70-200mm lens. Although my reasons would probably be keep one short lens mounted and another short lens in the bag. It is also part of the Thinkphoto modular system.
It has a raincover to keep the camera dry.
The material (canvas, zip) and stitiching are superior than other brands of bag that I check out.
There are a few options on carrying it : by the sling, by the handle on the top cover or use it on the optional belt system.

Just take note that there is a Thinkphoto Digital Holster 20 ver 2.0 that has a few more minor improvements over the original. So if you intend to get one , ask for the ver 2.0.

Thinkphoto Digital Holster 20 (Photo credit : ThinkPhoto)

Price : $80 from TK Photo at Funan Digital Mall, one of the most popular shopping spot for Singapore photographers.

Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3 Review

Cheng — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 03:17:18 +0000

PaintShop Photo Pro X3

I am always on the lookout for graphic editing software that is not too heavy on the pocket ($). Paintshop has been around for a long time and now it is worth to take a second look at it.

Here are a few of the key features that I found it to be useful for photographers :

Organiser

With the new Organizer we are able to import, manage, search and quickly touchup image files directly into PaintShop Photo Pro X3. Photos can be tagged and rated, making them easier to find and group. The Organizer also displays advanced information, such as EXIF and IPTC data.

Multi-photo editing:
The basic editing I performed on my photos are Levels and Curve and follow by Unsharp Mask. Now, we can save time by copying the editing steps we performed on one image to a batch of photos.

RAW Conversion:

I seldom shoot in RAW but if i do , I want an effective way to convert the RAW files. . The Camera RAW Lab launches whenever a RAW image is opened. Once opened, we could adjust the white balance, exposure, brightness, and saturation before processing. Adjustments made to a RAW image can be copied and applied to other files in the Organizer.

HD video: These days, a lot of cameras including the Panasonic LX3 allows you to record HD video. PaintShop Photo Pro X3 allows us to use the HD videos in slide shows along with photos.

HDR Photo Merge: The HDR (High Dynamic Range) Photo Merge feature lets a few photos to be merged together to create a HDR photo where the details in both the shadow and hightlight areas are retained. When used in conjunction with Local Tone Mapping, truly artistic images can be created.

So if you are looking for a fully featured photoediting software that wont’t set you back by a few thousand dollars, check out Corel Paintshop Pro

Photoscape – Basic Photo Editor

Cheng — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 08:42:50 +0000

For those who are not into the heavy and costly Photoshop application can try Photoscape, a handy and simple photoeditor. Moreover it is free although donation is always welcome. I think it is perfect for those who captured photos and want to post small size photos on the web such as blogs or social networking sites.

Photoscape

Some of Photoscape functions :

Viewer: View photos in your folder, create a slideshow
Editor: resizing, brightness and color adjustment, white balance, backlight correction, frames, balloons, mosaic mode, adding text, drawing pictures, cropping, filters, red eye removal, blooming
Batch editor: Batch edit multiple photos
Page: Merge multiple photos on the page frame to create one final photo
Combine: Attach multiple photos vertically or horizontally to create one final photo
Animated GIF: Use multiple photos to create a final animated photo
Print: Print portrait shots, carte de visites(CDV), passport photos
Splitter: Slice a photo into several pieces
Screen Capture: Capture your screenshot and save it
Color Picker: Zoom in on images, search and pick a color
Rename: Change photo file names in batch mode
Raw Converter: Convert RAW to JPG
Paper Print: Print lined, graph, music and calendar paper
Face Search: Find similar faces on the Internet

Review : Amazon Kindle 2

Cheng — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:53:15 +0000

I know the Amazon Kindle 2 ebook reader is not a photographic equipment but I thought readers of this blog might be interested in other electronic gadgets. I always been an avid reader and usually borrow books from the libraries in Singapore. I would be quite willing to buy books that are not available in the libraries or books that I would like to keep eg photography books. Therefore I was quite interested to know more about the Kindle. The other ebook reader I had tried was a small PDA. It was hard to read using that and I got giddy after a while.

As of now, Amazon does not allow the Kindle to be shipped to Singapore even for the Kindle 2 International version. However you can work around the problem by shipping to Vpost.

You may like to refer to this nice post by Jeff Yen on the workaround. He also works out the cost of the Kindle 2 including the leather cover , the shipping & GST charges which is about S$471. This is not a cheap device if you are not into books. However for an avid reader, having a mobile bookstore is well worth the money.

A quick test show that the Whispernet works on the Kindle 2 International version here in Singapore. However there is a catch, you need to pay US$1.99 delivery charge in additional to the price of the book. The cool thing is you could surf the web using the simple web browser. It is good for text only site like gmail.com.

Kindle

I like it for these reasons :

Monochrome screen, long battery life - Simplicity. Remember those monochrome screen handphones? I missed them for their long battery life per charge. I never purchase a iPhone or other smartphone before their battery life cannot match their capabilities.
Non glare & Non Reflective screen - No glossy screen here. Just a screen that almost look like a page off a book. You can read it under the sun unlike the normal LCD screen.
Simple operations – To go to the next page, you press one of the bigger than thumb size ”Next Page” button. To go to the previous page, press the ”Previous Page” button. This 2 buttons would do 90% of what I need the Kindle to do.
Personal Library on a smaller footprint – I have more reasons to buy more books for my Kindle as I no longer have to worry about the space the books will take up. There are also free ebooks that you can get off Amazon store.

Any cons to this device? Of course. Here they are :

Power switch – Quite awkward to use it as it is small and I need to slide and release to set it to sleep mode or to wake it up from sleep mode. To power it off, I need to slide and hold for 4 seconds. So usually I just wait for it to go sleep mode by itself after 10 mins of idle time.
White only - I would prefer a black or darker tone for the Kindle 2 body. I would imagine the body especially the buttons to get dirty soon from my greasy fingers.
The transitions of pages – Not the prettiest of all transitions. I would describe it as “scattering of ink”. How about a page flipping kind of transition?

Ok, I am off to read my book, Lost Symbol by Dan Brown on my Kindle of course.

Book Review : Creative Ideas and Expressions

Cheng — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 04:00:47 +0000

Prof Li Yuan is a US based photographer specialising in landscape photography. I had a face to face encounter with him once in Phaking , Nepal when we were both doing our treks. He was going down while I was on my way up. In that 1-2hours of conversation, he impresed me with his determination to take good landscape photos in Nepal.

This 113 pages book is his take on landscape photography based on his 3o years of experience. Written mainly in chinese,? he shared his experience on topics like

use of light
atomspheric effects on color
composition
use of different lenses.

The book is loaded with lots of landscape photo taken by Li Yuan taken in countries like US, Nepal and China. Printing quality is good.

If you have difficulty trying to buy a copy, please let me know?