Google Video's TV Show Search Filter Finds Episodes Easily, Has More than You'd Expect [Streaming Video]

Google Video's TV Show Search Filter Finds Episodes Easily, Has More than You'd Expect [Streaming Video]: "

Google expands their video search engine by adding a TV show filter that allows you to sort videos by season and episode. While YouTube and Hulu remain vastly popular, Google's episode search yields surprisingly impressive results. More »

Use Outlook Rules to Create a Single, Unified Inbox [Outlook]

Use Outlook Rules to Create a Single, Unified Inbox [Outlook]: "

Windows only: One of the problems with using multiple accounts in Microsoft Outlook is that each account has a separate inbox folder, so the Addictive Tips blog walks you through the process of using rules to create a unified inbox. More »

Publish Post

Chrome Reader Subscribes to RSS Feeds in Google Reader with a Single Click [Downloads]

Chrome Reader Subscribes to RSS Feeds in Google Reader with a Single Click [Downloads]: "

Chrome only: Google Chrome extension Chrome Reader subscribes to RSS feeds in your Google Reader account with a single click, and even changes the icon for sites you've already subscribed to. More »

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Why You Should Never Pay More Than $10 For HDMI Cables [Infographics]

Why You Should Never Pay More Than $10 For HDMI Cables [Infographics]: "

You've probably guessed that gold-plated cables for your home theater are entirely unnecessary. Still, there must be some small quality difference for all that price, right? Mint.com's blog lays out the answer: No, not at all. More »

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House season finale shot entirely with Canon 5DmkII

House season finale shot entirely with Canon 5DmkII: "

I know this is old news to some but I wanted to bring it up to start a discussion…

I got this info from Petapixel.com. I have been in contact with House director Greg Yaitanes to try to get a nice in depth interview but no joy as yet! Like you I have many questions as to how that got past the issues ox X,Y,Z. Many of which we encountered whilst shooting on DSLRs for Lucasfilm last month. But first this is the house news…

The season finale of the popular TV show House, which will air on May 17th, was filmed entirely with the Canon 5D Mark II. cinema5D overheard the plan last month and Greg Yaitanes, the director of the show, has confirmed it through a tweet in which we made himself open to questions.

Again thanks to Petapixel.com for this.

Here are some of the Q+A from twitter.

Personally I cannot wait until May 17th. This will be a big day for Canon DSLR users like myself.

Interesting that they used Canon lenses. That is what we used mostly ourselves, although there are some very cool looking new Leica and Zeiss lenses coming out for the Canons soon. I myself had a chance to use the Zeiss CP2s on set and very nice they are too.

I am itching to know how they got past some of the major 5DmkII issues I had whilst shooting a large project for Lucasfilm, we ended up using the 1DmkIV mostly due to the HD monitor out of that camera. I will be blogging about that as soon as I can.

On the plane to Vegas yesterday I had a very long discussion with the owner of a high end rental company in London and understandably when i told him I specialise in DSLRs he was not best pleased!

Don’t forget…this is a show that has been shot on 35mm film until now…this is a bloody big deal!

If I manage to get an interview with Greg I will post it here of course!

Photographing Children – POV [Point of View]

Photographing Children – POV [Point of View]: "

Since I began writing here at DPS, I’ve been shooting out little lists of tips for photographing children. But each little point on those lists has so much potential for further exploration in and of itself and it would be a shame not to delve deeper. Today, I am reflecting back on a post called ‘4 More Tips for Photographing Children‘. Specifically, tip #2 “POV”. The tip was this:

“Try a different point of view. It can add an edge to otherwise same-same photo situations and give your kid shots a whole new life of their own.”

POV is excellent, but what different POVs are there and what statement do they make? How can you practice this tip in your everyday life photographing your kids?

1.} Everyday events – Try photographing your everyday life from another POV. My all time favourite POV is straight down from above. It’s so amazing to see my kids from this POV and it’s rarely ever done. Most people think of an upshot or downshot but rarely think to shoot straight down with a bird’s eye view. In this image of my daughter, it isn’t even an unrealistic POV because it’s exactly what I see when pushing her around in her buggy. It’s a mom’s-eye-view and I love it.

This is another everyday event seen from an unnatural POV which makes a normally common photo of a baby messed with food more interesting. Don’t we always take photos of their faces covered in food? How about everything else?

2.} How? Make use of the things around you. This shot was taken from me on the top of a playground climbing frame. I just asked Elijah to ride his scooter underneath me and I think the result was outstanding!

3.} Say something – A high POV instantly makes your subject appear smallish and highlights their vulnerability. This works especially well for children because obviously, children are small and vulnerable and so taking a photo from this angle acknowledges this fact and shows that you understand what it’s like to be a child.

Photographing up from down below also says something. It says “I know you think you’re big – I’ll just let you think that!” Photographing someone from below makes them larger-than-life and highlights their superiority over that of the viewer. This is a particularly interesting POV for children because although they aren’t bigger than us in real life, they can be in pictures!

4.} Give it to ‘em straight – a straight on POV says ‘we’re equals’ and surprisingly, it actually makes them bigger than the previously mentioned tip to shoot them from below. This says, “I’m not patronising you by making you feel big. We’re equals and you’re grown-up in your own right.”

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

Photographing Children – POV [Point of View]

Photographing Children – Photographing their Art

Photographing Children – Photographing their Art: "

Since I began writing here at DPS, I’ve been shooting out little lists of tips for photographing children. But each little point on those lists has so much potential for further exploration in and of itself and it would be a shame not to delve deeper. Today, I am reflecting back on a post called ‘4 More Tips for Photographing Children‘. Specifically, tip #4 “Not just the kids”. The tip was this:

“Parents out there know there is never a lack of art projects for which we must find a home – a final resting place. I’ve only recently discovered the joy of photographing, not only them, but their art. It preserves it long after it has gone and takes away from the guilt on inevitably trashing it while they’re not looking. When I photograph my sons’ art, it makes them feel proud and encouraged that I think what they’re doing is important and I really love the results of thinking outside the box when photographing objects.”

I did a radio interview recently where I mentioned this tip. Interestingly, the host asked if I photograph them with their art (holding it or making it) or do I just photograph the art itself? Up until this point, I’d never really thought about my method for photographing their art and when given a moment to reflect, I realised that what I enjoy is not just taking pictures of their projects for posterity, but rather making portraits to give them a life of their own. To make art out of their art.

Yes, I often take photos of the kids painting, drawing, etc. But what I’m talking about is taking portraits without the kids involved. Place their pieces in interesting locations, give them a personality with POV. This way, their art will live forever and so will the moment of joy your children experienced when creating it.

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

Photographing Children – Photographing their Art

How to Take a Great Social Media Profile Picture in 4 Easy Steps

How to Take a Great Social Media Profile Picture in 4 Easy Steps: "

In the real world, we all make an effort to look our best when meeting new people. We make sure that we have on clean clothes. That we brush our teeth (mostly). That we look good. It all goes to show who you are, your personality, and your ability to not look like Pigpen with a laptop.

Not so surprisingly, this translates right into the virtual world, and it all starts with your profile picture. It says “This is me!” And, whether you like or not, people’s first impressions can be greatly affected by the quality of your photo. Too often, picking a photo results in a choice between some shot from a party that you don’t remember taking (or even attending), or some dated, blurry image from an event just to show that, yes, you do get out of your house.

Oh – my high school picture, the cool shot of my aloe plant – which one to pick? Which will help me attract new friends?

I say ditch them all, and get yourself a new pic! Now, before you freak out and start calling photographers in your area with an offer to barter images in exchange for social media training, you can actually get great results with most any point and shoot camera that’s available today. I’d go so far as to say that the beer-smelling camera you used at the club last week will work just fine. It’s all a matter of following a few simple steps.

1. Find The Light Before The Background

Forget the scenic overlook shot for your background. Great profile pictures are about great light, and that will always look better than a great background. What is good light? It’s light where the shadow transitions are soft, as shown below:

Where do you find said light? Open shade. Find a side of a house or building where the sun isn’t shining directly on you. Where the light is soft all around you. Where there aren’t strong shadows on your face or objects around you. That’s your spot.

2. Clear Up The Background

When you find your sacred photo spot, look at what will be behind you. Try not to have anything directly behind you for at least 15 or 20 feet, if possible. Solid and pattern walls are good, however. It’s ok if the area behind you is dark, but what you don’t want is for it to be significantly brighter than where you are. Ideally, you want all of the lighting as even as possible (this is why alleys and the sides of buildings make great places to take these shots).

3. Strike A Pose (And An Angle)

Whether you are using a timer with your camera on a tripod, or having someone take the picture, you want the camera to have a great angle on you. This doesn’t mean it *has* to be straight-on (although that’s the most popular). To thin yourself out a bit, angle your body about 45 degrees away from the camera, but keep your head looking at the camera. Try different ideas with your arms (straight down, on hips, one arm on hips, arms crossed, etc). These movements do more than give you busy work for your hands. They shift your frame (including your shoulders) around, which gives you more variation to your look. Also, try stepping back with one leg a foot or two, again to shift your weight/perspective.

4. Set Up Your Camera

You can share this part with your most-excellent-photographer-partner, who will be taking your picture. The ’safe’ (read: boring) way to do this part would be to put the camera in “little green box mode” (i.e. automatic) and take your picture. Yawn. Let’s spice things up. Zoom in all the way. Now, step back until the subject fills the frame (and leave some space around all the sides). Make sure the flash is off (it’s really quite evil in this scenario). Take a picture. Did it rock? Cool! If not, try this trick to get the background to go out of focus:

• Turn your camera into Aperture Priority mode (usually designated as Av).


• Dial the aperture number (which is a number like 2.8 or 5.6) as low as it will go. 2.8 is great if it will go that low, but sometimes point and shoot cameras will start at 5.6 when you are zoomed all the way in.


• Take the shot again.

It’s that simple! If the shaded area was a little blueish in color tone, you can warm up the image using Photoshop Elements or any other software that supports it. Here’s an image taken with a Canon G9 (a camera that’s almost 3 years old):

Once your happy with your image, you’ll need to crop it. Facebook supports a 2×3 crop ratio, which means that they’ll take your image and display all of it. Twitter uses a square aspect ratio of either 73×73 pixels or 48×48 pixels. This means either you or Twitter will crop the image to fit inside a square. This is why I recommend having space around the image when you take it, so that you won’t be cutting your own head off when it’s time to crop, because that would kinda hurt.

Eric Doggett is a photographer based in Austin, Texas. He also runs KillTheAmbient.com, a photo lighting and business site laced with a splash of humor.

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

How to Take a Great Social Media Profile Picture in 4 Easy Steps

5 Tips for Consistently Good Photos Indoors

5 Tips for Consistently Good Photos Indoors: "

For most beginners and even some professionals, photographing indoors can be the thorn in your side. Here are some tips I’ve discovered out of necessity:

Taken at night with a Lightscoop - no natural light

1. Get away from your pop-up – Get away from shooting your pop up flash straight into the photo. Options for redirecting light are to add a flash to your hot shoe (like a Speedlite) and bounce it off walls and ceilings or (as I do) use a Lightscoop to redirect the light from your pop up without spending a couple hundred on a flash unit. These options are not the same as using a diffuser on your flash (like covering it with a piece of tissue). It’s important to actually change the direction the light is coming from for ’studio’ results like beautiful catchlights in the eyes.

Catchlights from highchair and window

2. Catch it - Catchlights bring life to the eyes and getting them indoors can be tricky. I produce them indoors using a Lightscoop and a nearby wall. If you have a baby, photographing them in their highchair with white tray near a window can light up the eyes much like holding a reflector near the face. Tip 4 can also help…

3. Spot – discover a spot in your house where you know you will be able to get consistently good shots. For me, it’s my kitchen. I know that no matter what, if I want to take a good portrait of my kids, I call them into the kitchen. The south-facing room full of white cabinets bounces the light allover the place and I never need a flash! So when they do something funny I want to photograph, I just get them to do it again in the kitchen!

4. Windows – Obviously, light is your ally and light comes through windows! Another hot spot in my house is the living room sofa opposite a large window. The window produces a pleasing catchlight and being that the room is north-facing, the light is soft and produces beautiful soft shadows on the face. This room is darker than the kitchen in tip #3 so I have to remember to compensate with my settings.

My kitchen is always a consistently dependable and perfect location

5. Nix the ISO – I don’t care what the manufacturers say: any ISO above 800 is crap! Make friends with your flash and learn how to maximise natural and manmade light. If you’re a beginner, it is scary at first. I thought I could get away with it by proudly stating that I was an ‘available light photographer’ (as if I even knew what I was talking about!) Anything worth doing is worth doing well. You can surprise yourself with what you’ll learn just by practising. And it’s not like we have to buy rolls of film to do it.

What about you? Do you enjoy taking photos inside or do you loathe it?

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

5 Tips for Consistently Good Photos Indoors

iPhone 101: Save space on your iPhone without removing a thing

iPhone 101: Save space on your iPhone without removing a thing: "

Filed under: iTunes

A little-heralded feature of iTunes 9.1 is the ability to convert higher bitrate songs to 128kpbs AAC files for iPhone or iPod touch sync with iTunes. How do you do it? It's a simple check box option in the Summary tab when your iPhone appears in the iTunes source list. When the box is checked, on the next sync, all your songs on your iPhone that are not 128kpbs AAC files will be removed and then re-added, being converted on the fly.



The first time I did it, about 400 songs on my iPhone needed to be converted. It took about ten minutes to do the conversion. Once the first large conversion is done, the iPhone syncs your music as fast (or slow) as it ever did (unless you're refreshing your iPhone's library every time you sync). If you keep 'convert higher bitrate songs to 128kpbs AAC files' checked, any new songs added to your iPhone will automatically be converted.

It's important to note that this on-the-fly conversion does not alter your original files inside your iTunes library -- those will remain at whatever bitrate and in whatever file format you had them in.



How well does this work? I saved a whopping 1.5GBs of space on my 8GB iPhone. Others here at TUAW saved between 2-5GBs. Of course, how much space you save will be dependent on what bitrate and file type your songs are now. The guys here who saved 5GB said their conversions took a few hours initially. As for audio quality. I didn't notice a bit of difference on my $20 headphones. However, I'm not an audiophile. If you've got an ear for music and are using the latest Shures, you might notice some quality degradation.

TUAWiPhone 101: Save space on your iPhone without removing a thing originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 06 Apr 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

XFit: The hidden home gym

XFit: The hidden home gym: "

If you don’t have a dedicated room for a home gym, you probably try to disguise your unattractive tread mill or weight bench as best as possible. Or, like me, you join a local gym so you don’t have to hide and store gym equipment in your home.

The Italian company Angelo Dall’Aglio has designed the XFit home gym — complete with 19″ LCD television, DVD player, tread mill, weight bench, and weights — that fits inside a custom wardrobe so hiding and storing unsightly gym equipment is simple. I think this piece is perfect for fitness enthusiasts who live in small spaces:

According to the website SocialWorkout.com, the XFit is currently retailing for 4,649 Euros (about $6,264). So, you would need to pay a pretty penny to have one in your home. However, I take this as a good sign that over the next couple years we might see some more reasonably priced competitors.

I love the idea of a place for everything, especially unattractive home gym equipment! Check out the XFit marketing video to learn about the construction of this unit.