Month: March 2014

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Shared: This Is a Generic Brand Video

This Is a Generic Brand Video by Dissolve Footage:

This Is a Generic Brand Video is a generic brand video of “This Is a Generic Brand Video,” written by Kendra Eash for McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. No surprise, it’s made entirely with stock footage. All video clips used are from dissolve.com. See and license them here: http://www.dissolve.com/generic

The original piece is published on McSweeney’s: http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/this-is-a-generic-brand-video

Narrated by Dallas McClain.

Music: “Piano Work 02” by rysktchkw
Available under Creative Commons License from SoundCloud at https://soundcloud.com/rysktchkw/piano-work-02

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Shared: Slow Life

Slow Life by Daniel Stoupin:


“Slow” marine animals show their secret life under high magnification. Corals and sponges are very mobile creatures, but their motion is only detectable at different time scales compared to ours and requires time lapses to be seen. These animals build coral reefs and play crucial roles in the biosphere, yet we know almost nothing about their daily lives.

Learn more about what you see in my post: http://notes-from-dreamworlds.blogspot.com.au/2014/03/slow-life.html

This clip, as well as stock footage, is available in 4k resolution. Make sure you watch it on a large screen! You won’t be able to appreciate this clip or see individual cells moving in a sponge on a smartphone. If you have a full-HD screen, when you enter full-screen mode, please press on “view actual size” next to the HD icon to improve sharpness.

To make this little clip I took 150000 shots. Why so many? Because macro photography involves shallow depth of field. To extend it, I used focus stacking. Each frame of the video is actually a stack that consists of 3-12 shots where in-focus areas are merged. Just the intro and last scene are regular real-time footage. One frame required about 10 minutes of processing time (raw conversion + stacking). Unfortunately, the success rate was very low due to copious technical challenges and I spent almost 9 long months just to learn how to make these kinds of videos and understand how to work with these delicate creatures.

I am glad that I abandoned the idea of making this clip in 3D (with two cameras) – very few people have 3D screens and it doubles processing time.

Gear:
– Canon 7D (died at the beginning of the project as I had overused it in my research), Canon 5d Mkiii (90% of footage is done with it)
– Canon MP-E 65 mm lens
– adjustable custom-spectrum lamps (3 different models)
– several motorized stages including StackShot for focus stacking
– multiple computers to process thousands of 22+ Mpx raw images and perform focus stacking (an old laptop died on that mission after 3 weeks of continuous processing).

Edited in Sony Vegas, Adobe Photoshop CS6, Zerene Stacker, and Helicon Focus.
Music: Atmostra III by Cedric Baravaglio, Jonathan Ochmann and Zdravko Djordjevic.

Visit my website to see more cool stuff: www.microworldsphotography.com
(consideration to buy a print from my website or to use the tip jar below the video is always welcome)

Inquiries/licensing/press: find my contact details here: http://www.microworldsphotography.com/About

Please do not share this clip to promote or endorse marine aquarium industry. I simply want people to admire life, but not to be told to buy stuff, especially poses captive animals
More about using my videos:
http://www.microworldsphotography.com/Image-Use/Video-Use-and-Licensing

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Statement from the Brewers Association on FDA Proposed Rulemaking on Spent Grain

As part of the Food Safety Modernization Act, the FDA has proposed extensive regulations governing use of spent grain for animal feed. The Brewers Association recently issued a statement on the FDA animal feed proposal.

via Brewers Association http://www.brewersassociation.org/pages/media/press-releases/show?title=statement-from-the-brewers-association-on-fda-proposed-rulemaking-on-spent-grain

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Shared: D/A and A/D | Digital Show and Tell (Monty Montgomery @ xiph.org)

D/A and A/D | Digital Show and Tell (Monty Montgomery @ xiph.org) by Image-Line:

Original Video: http://xiph.org/video/vid2.shtml

More videos in this series: http://xiph.org/video/

Get the software – https://wiki.xiph.org/Videos/Digital_Show_and_Tell

Monty at Xiph presents a well thought out and explained, real-time demonstrations of sampling, quantization, bit-depth, and dither on real audio equipment using both modern digital analysis and vintage analog bench equipment.

This video has been reproduced with permission of Monty @ xipg.org and in accordance with Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Further reading: Audio Myths & DAW Wars – http://www.image-line.com/support/FLHelp/html/app_audio.htm

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Shared: Recipe of the Week: Dark Chocolate Porter

Recipe of the Week: Dark Chocolate Porter on Blogging with Briess:

This indulgent porter takes its name from one of our signature products, Dark Chocolate Malt. This malt is distinguished from other chocolate malts by surprisingly smooth yet deep roasted flavor, despite being intensely roasted to 420L.  At that lovibond, most dark roasted barley malts develop more intense characteristic bitterness and astringency notes than Dark Chocolate Malt. […]