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Serena Steuart

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Possibly interesting or useful stuff around video production.

present Photoshop problem

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February 05, 2012 08:37 PM	Views:4251 Favorited:0 Comments:0
	Filed Under: tech prolem in photoshop
	Tags: photoshop

When a picture is opened its file name is in a box at top left with the image showing on the "desk". click on that and drag and the frame appears with the image, which becomes transparent while being dragged. Release mouse and there is the photo within a frame (if it is smaller than the desk). Now

Learning Resources

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December 11, 2011 01:28 AM	Views:416 Favorited:0 Comments:0
	Filed Under: film making Serena
	Tags: film making Serena video production

Out there in the wide world there are many books and other teaching aids available on how to grow from rooky to skilled film maker; the problem is to know (before buying) which are useful. There's no particular reason that my opinion should be valued, but nevertheless what I can do is accumulate

Green Screen

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November 23, 2011 12:23 AM	Views:357 Favorited:0 Comments:0
	Filed Under: film making photo lighting Serena
	Tags: film making Serena video lighting video production

Green (or blue) screen is another of those things that is apparently very simple but involves a bit of skill to get to work well. It helps a lot to have a flat screen of uniform colour with even illumination, although it's surprising what people get away with. Sometimes people overlook the short

Lighting techniques

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November 14, 2011 01:16 AM	Views:337 Favorited:0 Comments:1
	Filed Under: film making photo lighting
	Tags: film making video lighting video production

Lighting for video is one of those tricky skills that are absolutely simple in principle (see any text book) but fiendishly subtle in practice. Perhaps therein lies the secret --- it requires practice. A mentor doesn't go amiss, but those aren't all that easy to come by. What

Counter balance for a slider

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October 06, 2011 03:13 AM	Views:239 Favorited:0 Comments:0
	Filed Under: camera slider Serena XDCAM-EX1
	Tags: camera slider PMW-EX1 Serena video production

Operating the slider with a crank gives very smooth and precise control, far better than using a winch system (see "A Crank for a Slider" and "A Slider's Tale") or pushing the carriage by hand. The only problem was when using the slider in vertical (or angled) mode where the crank wasn't up to handling

Why shoot cinegamma rather than standard?

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February 03, 2011 06:59 PM	Views:473 Favorited:0 Comments:2
	Filed Under: film making gamma XDCAM-EX1
	Tags: gamma PMW-EX1 video production

Sometimes people don't understand the advantages of shooting using a cinegamma rather than a standard gamma, and argue (quite correctly) that the image looks flat. The PMW-EX1 can record about 11 stops of brightness range (without adjusting the aperture!), much more than you will see when recording

Cheap CFL Softbox light

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December 19, 2010 06:47 AM	Views:718 Favorited:0 Comments:0
	Filed Under: film making photo lighting Serena
	Tags: film making Serena video lighting video production

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A crank for a Slider

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December 17, 2010 06:02 AM	Views:388 Favorited:0 Comments:0
	Filed Under: camera slider film making Serena
	Tags: camera slider film making PMW-EX1 Serena video production

Having very low friction in a slider is a very good thing, because a feather touch of the finger sets the carriage moving. Trouble is that a speck of dust will cause a little deceleration. And when you want a small movement and you need to hit a mark, it is surprisingly tricky. Of course various

A Slider's Tale

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September 13, 2010 04:29 AM	Views:663 Favorited:0 Comments:0
	Filed Under: camera slider film making Serena XDCAM-EX1
	Tags: camera slider film making PMW-EX1 Serena video production

This is about the quick and easy construction of a precision camera slider. Except it wasn't very quick, and maybe what I learned will be useful to others. I had to film stuff that doesn't move (sculptures, in fact) and following the adage "if the subject doesn't move, move the camera"

Making a LCD loupe with safety shutter for the Sony XDCAM EX1

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September 06, 2010 01:06 AM	Views:849 Favorited:0 Comments:0
	Filed Under: film making LCD loupe Serena XDCAM-EX1
	Tags: film making LCD loupe PMW-EX1 Serena video production

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Starting my blog

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September 04, 2010 09:52 PM	Views:412 Favorited:0 Comments:0
	Filed Under: film making Serena
	Tags: film making Serena video production

Well, I've decided on a theme for my limited blogging. It is to collect, in one place, useful stuff about the technique of film (video) making. Obviously this will be idiosyncratic rather than comprehensive, and hopefully what I find useful might be of use to others. What I want to know,

Quantifying XDCAM PMWEX1 gamma curves

1votes

September 03, 2010 09:22 PM	Views:753 Favorited:0 Comments:5
	Filed Under: film making gamma Serena XDCAM-EX1
	Tags: film making gamma PMW-EX1 video production

The Sony XDCAM EX1 camera provides 8 different gamma curves, each of which can be modified by the user. Unfortunately Sony haven’t published the curves in quantitative form and user opinions of how each affects recorded images is highly variable.