News and events from snapfactory

Our video team met last night and we spent a few hours discussing upcoming episodes, topics to be covered, and just how much detail needs to go into each explanation.  At times the discussion was spirited. Who’d have thought people are so passionate about explaining how an aperture value is determined? Most of the evening was spent brainstorming and looking for the best way to answer questions that have been sent to us. We narrowed our list of videos down to 26 video topics.  That should keep us busy for a long time.

We’re also excited that Megan Accordino will be joining us as our model in a few of our upcoming episodes.  Megan is one of our favorite models, she appeared in episode 1 (shutter sync), episode 2 (how to use a light meter), and episode 5 (basic 3 light setup).

Megan Accordino © Copyright 2008 Mark Wallace/SnapFactory

We’re shooting our next video this Sunday, we’re going to be doing a short review of some bags that will keep your gear safe and ready to use. We’ll be looking at the LowePro Flipside 300, the SlingShot 200AW, the Mini Trekker AW, and a couple others.

Soon to follow will be videos on color correction using the Sekonic Prodigi Color meter, understanding stops, metering for light ratios, location flash, shooting products for eBay, and more.  And, of course, we’ll try to keep answering my “favorite” question – what should I buy?

Stay tuned as our video team kicks it in to high gear and we start producing great videos on a regular schedule.

Daniel, Jeff, Drew, Craig, Mark, and Yasmin posing for the iPhone shot.

Tonight a few of us got together to plan future episodes of Digital Photography 1 on 1. This is the team of volunteers who work hard to put these videos together. Drew and Yasmin are new to the team; Drew will be helping with the technical crew and Yasmin will be helping to keep everybody on track.  Daniel and Craig are regular assistants at the studio and have helped with past videos.  Jeff is also a regular at the studio and is going to be leading us all to technical excellence.  He’s a professional cameraman and video editor.  I learn new things from him all the time.

Our team is going to be meeting and working regularly with the mission of creating a new video every two weeks.  It’s a lot of work and we’re not positive we’ll be able to meet the schedule, but we’ll try.

Our next shoot is Sunday.  We’ll keep you posted on our progress.

green screen studio at Intel (shot with my iPhone)

I recently had the chance to work on an Intel production; they’re doing some cool new website stuff for their engineers and I needed to make sure everyone looked great for their spots. I have lots of friends at Intel, some of whom have been to our studio a lot, so it was fun to get to work in their studio for a change! The green background is for chroma key– the engineers/actors will be cut out of that background in editing and added to the virtual set of the website. Thanks to the production company and Intel staff for having me along! 

Filming started yesterday on a new batch of Digital Photography One on One episodes. I’ll be filming new episodes over the next few weeks. Topics in our upcoming episodes:

• Using Sekonic light meters to balance flash and ambient light.
• Understanding aperture values
• Understanding stops
• Metering for light ratios
• A review of my favorite camera bags

The videos will be posted as soon as they are finished.  Our video crew is all volunteer (models included) so we’ll have to juggle some schedules, but we’ll finish as soon as possible.  Stay tuned…