Posts with tag 'moosecamp'
PhotoCamp @ MooseCamp 2008
Alright. Sorry it took me so long to get this up. I've been alternating between being swamped with work and playing outside in this wonderfully sunny and mild weather we've been having.
For those not in attendance, I gave a short overview at PhotoCamp on what I did to create some of the black and white shots from my trip to Sicily last year. I did a very rapid overview of what it takes to mimic black and white film in software using the DxO Film Pack, some B+W Photoshop actions I'd found, or my own hand-done methods. After that, I showed the original Photoshop files of several of my photographs, and went step-by-step through the combinations of masks and Curves/Levels adjustment layers to tweak the intensity and detail in different portions of the photos.
In my opinion, cameras should capture what you experience, not light. While the end result of my photographs doesn't correspond to the actual photos that fell on the CCD very well at all, it does a much better job capturing what I felt at that moment.
Links:
Tags: moosecamp, northernvoice, nv08, photocamp, photography, vancouver
Photocamp presentation
Well, this took me slightly longer to put up than I thought it would. I was pretty short on sleep last night and needed some time to take a nap, collect my thoughts, and finish some touch-up on the slides for my talk at PhotoCamp.
Speaking of my slides slides, there's a special deal at the moment: 2 talks for the price of one. We were short on time, so I didn't have the chance to get into any of my notes on high dynamic range (HDR) photography. In addition to the slides I had covering color photography for the web, I cleaned up the HDR slides and included them, figuring someone might find some use in them. In those slides, I mention a lot of different software, all of which you can find under my hdr tag on del.icio.us.
All in all, I think the session went quite well. Kris got stuff off on the right foot, and all those that presented had very informative talks. Roland gave a quick overview of the features in the newly-released Adobe Lightroom, Warwick had a very informative overview of the workflow of a professional photographer that has to work through a lot of photos, while Dave Olson gave some good tips for taking good macro and product shots on a budget. Tim Bray gave a very useful overview of high-end pocket cams, something I am currently in the market for. Finally, in my opinion, I think the field trip afterwards to see the HDR display was well-received.
The only disappointment was that even though we booked up 2 slots for it, we made it through about 50% of the content we planned on. I ditched on of my topics (though I admittedly had more than I should have), and we didn't get to any of the audience-suggested topics. People also kind of trickled out after seeing the HDR display and dispersed before any motion was made to have a photowalk. Some of that could have been fixed with better organization, but a lot of it simply required a bigger block of time. The comment that we really need to dedicate a whole day to PhotoCamp really rings true. I know Thomas Hawk already mentioned something like this, but Vancouver seems to have a pretty strong lineup to hold one itself.
Tags: hdr, moosecamp, northernvoice, nv07, photocamp, photography, vancouver
MooseCamp, PhotoCamp
While my last post on Northern Voice covered the conference as a whole, the portion I'm excited is PhotoCamp at MooseCamp. PhotoCamp, as the name implies, is focused on photography and collaboratively presented by the many talented photographers attending Northern Voice. Kris Krug is the man responsible for pulling it all together while Warwick Patterson, Bre Pettis, Evan Lesson, and myself will be giving presentations on a variety of topics.
In case you need to be told, everyone is welcome and encouraged to attend. More are welcome to present, but contact Kris (kk@kriskrug.com) or myself (site+photocamp@matttrent.com) to discuss topics.
When + where
The date is Friday, February 23. Currently, we are shooting for the 2 sessions scheduled from 1:15-2:45, starting immediately after lunch and concluding with the break planned for 2:45. Check the scheduling board the day of MooseCamp to find out the location and any potential change in times.
Field trip
During the break, we'll collect those interested to take a field trip to my research lab across the street. This has two purposes:
- To have another room to continue any PhotoCamp discussion we didn't have time to finish during the allotted block
- To see the project I have been working on for the last several years: the DR37-P high dynamic range display that my company, BrightSide Technologies, has built.
I'll leave most of the specs for the product page, but the DR37-P uses an array of individually modulated LED backlights to provide 10 times the brightness and 100 times the contrast of existing televisions and computer monitors. The 37" display has a 1080p resolution, with 16-bits of color per channel, 0.15 cd/m^2 black levels, and whites over 3000 cd/m^2 equaling a contrast ratio of 200,000:1.
Basically, it's the first step towards a TV you'd mistake for a window. Any description I do can't do it justice. You'll just have to come see. Anyone with an interest in high dynamic range photography or imaging, expensive toys, or generally shiny things should not miss this.
My topics
I'll get more of the specifics and supporting material posted in the next day or two, but here is a 30-second run down of the topics I'll be covering. I'm not certain if I can fit all of them into my allotted slot during the main PhotoCamp session, so I might have to switch one to the after event, depending on group interest.
High dynamic range (HDR) imaging
- Since I'll be showing the HDR display, I'll cover the process of creating HDR images
- Background
- What HDR imaging is, and (equally importantly) what it isn't
- Currently available methods
- Software packages
- Short tutorial on how to create HDR images using one of them
Color for digital photography and the web
- Quick coverage of color science for photographers
- Discuss why getting colors right is such a problem
- Hardware challenges
- Software challenges
- What you can do about it
Tags: moosecamp, northernvoice, nv07, photocamp, photography, vancouver
Northern Voice warmup
It's coming up on the end of February and the third incarnation of Northern Voice is the end of this week. For those living in Vancouver that might not already be aware, Northern Voice is a two-day, non-profit personal blogging conference that's being held at the UBC main campus on February 23-24, 2007. I haven't been involved in the organization of this one, due to my SIGGRAPH responsibilities, but I will be in attendance for certain. If this all seems familiar, most of it is stolen from the update email I received.
Important: If you're planning on coming to the Thursday night party, please fill out this 14-second survey as soon as possible. They need to know how many people to cook for. If you're bringing guests (which you're welcome to, within reason), complete the survey for each guest.
The Schedule
The format will be the same as previous years, with a new Thursday night reception:
- Thursday evening, 7:00pm, February 22 - Opening night party at Heritage Hall -- here's a map. There will be great food for everybody, and Lee LeFever will be talking about how he blogged and podcasted his year-long trip around the world . Admission is free, but they need to know if you're coming.
- Friday, February 23 - An unconference nicknamed Moose Camp
- Saturday, February 24 - A keynote by Anil Dash, followed by more traditional talks and panels For the complete schedule, visit the Northern Voice website. They'll also be distributing a paper schedule at the event.
Getting to the Conference
This year Northern Voice will be at the UBC Forestry Sciences Centre (some photos, some more photos) on the University of British Columbia's main campus. It's about 30 minutes west of downtown Vancouver (not quite due west, that's underwater). Here's a map of UBC with the building marked, and the building's location on Google Maps.
How to get to UBC
- Drive. The lot closest to the Forestry Sciences Centre is B4, and apparently costs $4.25/day. There are also parkades, which cost $12/day. If you are driving, you may want to visit the ride-sharing page to see if anybody needs a lift.
- Take the bus. Here are instructions
- Get a ride via the ride-sharing page.
- Share a taxi via the ride-sharing page.
-
Bicycle. The Forestry Sciences building has bike racks and public showers. For more information on cycling to UBC, check out this page.
Planet Northern Voice
There's also an aggregator which -- assuming you provided them when you registered -- will display recent blog posts from all the attendees. Check it out at http://planet.northernvoice.ca.
Tags Du Jour
The agreed-upon tags for the weekend, so we can all see what each other has done and said:
Technorati tag: northernvoice
Flickr tags: nv07, northernvoice