03.31.2013 | Photography
As many of you have noticed, my signature look Michael Andrew Paintballer Pro ® Presets have recently run into a little issue with the new Camera RAW & Lightroom Plug Ins; the RAW calibration settings have changed!
The analogy that explains what is going on here, is to think of Paintballer Pro as a set of recipes to bake cookies, and all stores suddenly change the ingredients available for purchase. While many of the ingredients are similar, 3-4 have changed completely and are no longer available.
You can still run Paintballer by changing your calibration settings back to 2010 and they will work fine, but not having updated them in 4 years, I have already begun the very tedious process of going back and re-constructing Paintballer Pro for the 2012 calibration set. Its going to take some time, because each preset has to be rebuilt from scratch, and I am already noticing that a few of them will not be able to be recreated.
This is a good healthy process for me, because having used Paintballer now for so long, there are some things I know I can improve on and the new calibration settings even allow for some new presets to be created. The original set was very, very aggressive in some of the settings and I’ve wanted to have a few in there that were not so color heavy. Another thing was a few tweak the color balance, which while it gives neat looks, I do not believe is necessary.
Anyone who purchased the original Paintballer will be eligible for version v2.0 at no extra charge, and Ill still include v1 in the same download folder for those of you who purchase v2 and want the original sets. Ill make an announcement here when it is ready, but it will probably take a couple more weeks before all the reconfiguration and testing is completed. Im excited to get Paintballer Pro v2 out and ready.
If you want to check out the gallery I have for Michael Andrew Paintballer Pro ® Presets you can check it out here;
Paintballer Pro & Lollipops Gallery Website Note: The gallery is a flash based website so no iphones or iPads 🙁
03.30.2013 | Movie Reviews
Anyone who takes this as a serious movie, or expecting any sense of realism is going to be disappointed.
Anyone who loved the cartoon growing up and is able to take it for what it is, a live action comic book, will enjoy it.
Much better than the first. A definite guy movie rental, but I enjoyed it on the big screen.![]()
03.29.2013 | Video
My friend Dave Dugdale with www.learningdslrvideo.com has just released his video training on the Canon T3i (he also already has one for the T4i).
While my Canon Crash Courses give a robust introduction to photography and an introduction to video shooting, Dave’s lessons are primarily focused on video and he is the first and only other instructor I recommend when it comes to the technical shooting aspects of video. He gets in to some very specific details and has done a lot of research so you do not have to., If you own a T3i or T4i and want to get the most out of your video footage, it is definitely worth the investment:
Learning DSLR’s Video Instruction for the Canon T3i ![]()
03.28.2013 | Photography
As much I as really, really wanted the Nikon 18-300 lens to work out, I am sending it back.
The only reason: it’s too dang heavy (close to 2 lbs). A good “all purpose” lens will have each of the following characteristics:
1. Very Wide focal range (the 18-300 is the current world record holder if I am not mistaken)
2. Affordable (The price has come down $300)
3. Portable (meaning compact and lightweight) – unfortunately, the 18-300 isn’t either.
I really like Tamron’s 18-270, which also comes in a Nikon mount. Its about $500 (Compared to $700 sale price of the 18-300) and it weighs half as much).
I think 18-300 is a great lens, really solidly built, great quality images, but this is not a lens you are going to want to lug around with you. If you have a camera bag and want an all in one out of the bag, YES get it. Something to have on your camera around your neck? No way.
Im sending mine back to Bhphoto.com![]()
03.28.2013 | Photography
In light of the recent Canon and Nikon announcements, as well as another expected announcement from Canon next month, (Should be the Canon 70D, which will line up against Nikon’s D7100), I’ve been getting a lot of questions about all the cameras, how they compare, as well as which ones I will be working on for training videos.
The Nikon D7100 Crash Course Training Tutorial Video is now underway, and it is looking like the production schedule is as follows:
– Nikon D5200 Crash Course (in Post production now)
– Nikon D7100 Crash Course(Now Shooting)
– Canon SL1 Crash Course
– Canon T5i Crash Course
– Canon 70D Crash Course (Depending on Release Date)
– Possible Nikon 910 Crash Course Speedlite Video
– Canon 7Dii Crash Course (again depending on release date, which I expect to be later at the end of the year)
What this basically means is that I will be up to my eyeballs in work for the next 2-3 months, but it will also let me get my hands on all these great cameras, test them out and find out how they perform and how they compare with each other. Once I know that, it should be easier for me to give better recommendations on them, but I can say this about the D7100, I am really liking the focusing systems so far- much improved over the D600.
I also have a number of Youtube videos coming, as well as a few websites and other projects, so yes I am going to be very, very busy the next couple of months. ![]()
