So Leo, myself and a bloke named Ross put together a little video podcast. We used the Cannon 550D and a Lilliput monitor with wireless mics and all the junk we could collect in one spot.

Have a look if you have 10 min at headsinthecloud.tv

Well it didn’t take long, the iPad rocked up at 9.30 AM and the rush was on to see and feel how good it would be. The fact that I knew I would love it was not as useful as what else might happen. Looks like the WordPress app is a lot easier to use and so there may be some way to post from any location without as much difficulty as was the case.
Telstra sold me a micro sim card for $30 and offer pay as you go 3G at $20 for 1 Gig. Not too bad and I like the Telstra network for speed.
Also worth mentioning is the wifi speed and network capability of the iPad. It screams over wifi and ADSL 2. Work needs to be done on the Elgato app as video is not up to par for this bigger screen. I have spent a bomb on iPad apps and will be getting to those as I get time to digest.
Cheers.

What a champion getting a photo of the photogeek.tv T-Shirt into The Age Green Guide today.
We hope this does not make photogeek more widely known, we like the shadows.

Get over to digitalpill.tv on Saturday 28th November to view Leo’s live video streaming event.
Louie Prez live album  launch at The Dog theatre

We are recorded live in front of an audience at The Dog Theatre in Footscray this week in a mess of wires and computers.
All seemed to be going fine but we did hit a few glitches and some portions of the podcast were not recorded. All three systems failed mysteriously at the same time…. Did I just hear someone say UPS?

Video may well be uploaded soon of the event if it looks OK.

Hosts include Phil Greenwood, Cameron Stephen, and James Bellew.

Applications for the iPhone have been taking our attention the first being Tiltshift generator
Also available but not in Australia for some reason Photoshop for iPhone.
EyeTV for iPhone streams free to air TV from an EyeTV equipped Mac to an iPhone via WIFI.
Digital truth shows film development data and timing.
Zacuto grip for iPhone looks a bit exteme but for a 3Gs would be great.

New Macs and we reckon the i7 27 inch iMac is the best deal of the lot.

Windows 7 and the problems so far mentioned online at Microsoft Answers.

Leo finds a design fault with the MacBook Pro in that the stereo seems to not work as stereo on the inbuilt speakers. Online discussion mentions the problem and shows the hardware issue.

Michael Griffin gets online via Skype to discuss his foray into the world of fine art photography.

USB 3.0 looks to be delayed and Intel may well be more focused on Light Peak.

Northwest 188 Pilots Were Probably Dicking Around On Their Laptops.

Carl Zeiss Lenses for SLR Cameras and an 18mm for the Canon goes missing.

Zacuto DSLR Gunstock Shooter. Would this make you look like you have a part of the Terminator over your shoulder?

HTML 5 video and a great reference document regarding codecs and the next mess.

A new video format from Apple 960X540 H.264.

PhotoGeek Gadgets

• Vacuum plump lips
• Vivitar night vision waterproof video camera.
• iPhone prop dummy.
• DSLR Holster.

Photogeek of the week

Adventures in High Altitude Ballooning.

Opening and closing music by Velvedene. We close this week with “Fear your Gods”

Get album now using iTunes

Feed URL

This is a promo for the upcoming live show, podcast 100.

The Dog Theatre

42a Albert Street
Footscray VIC 3011

Get there Wednesday 28th Oct at 6.30 PM if you can.
More information to follow.
Drop us a line to let us know you are coming.

Opening and closing music by Velvedene. We close this week with “Fear your Gods”
Get album now using iTunes

Feed URL

I have discovered to my delight that you can integrate Lightroom and barcode based print asset management. This is a way to:

1. automate the printing of labels for images without any rekeying of information, and
2. automate the process of finding the image from which a print was made

Why do this? You may sell prints or just make them for your own pleasure. It is good practice to provide some labelling of prints so you (or the buyer) knows what they are looking at. It can be helpful to be able to quickly find the source image of a print. Of course you can just include the filename in the label and type it in to find the source image. But the labels produced look a bit messy with a sometimes arbitrary filename stuck in there. An option is to include a neat barcode on the label. You can then use your webcam to read the label and direclty insert the filename in the LR search field. Presto! Up pops the image from which the print was made.

Caveat: Apologies to Mac users, I have only worked this out on a PC. I’m sure there are substitutes for each of the things I’ve used.

What you need to do this [on a PC]:

• Lightroom (LOL) (BTW Jack Nack showed LR use way outpaces Aperture on the Mac – there is a reason guys – LR is better!)
• LR/Transporter (incredibly useful for many things)
• Excel (optional but part of my workflow)
• A way to print labels with barcodes. I use a cheap Brother label printer which comes with the P-Touch Editor software.
• A webcam
• Webcam barcode reader software. I use bcWebCam which is free

How I do it:

I’ll sketch how I do it with the specific gear I have and then suggest how you may get by with other gear.

Simplest workflow:

1. Set up LR/Transporter to export a summary file from image exports that includes all the fields you may want on your label (including filename of course). Format for  comma delimited a CSV file with a header line to define the exported fields. This is saved and reused as an export preset. Routlinely I can then select the images I am printing and export them to a dummy folder which I use for the purpose of transferring Image information.
2. I use my label printer software with a template that merges the CSV file data onto a label, with the filename printed as a QR barcode. I generally put one label directly on the print reverse and, if framed, another on the frame rear. With high quality art prints I only do the latter to avoid any possibility of problems of with the adhesive discolouring the paper obverse. Here’s an example:
   
3. Having previously installed bcWebCam, whenever I want to if I need to find an image that needs a bit of a search (only likely if I’ve not worked on it recently), I load bcWebCam while LR is running, place my mouse cursor in the search field in the library view (having selected the root of my catalogue), and hold the print label in front of the web cam. Presto! bcWebCam inserts the filename in the search field and up pops the image in LR!

In reality, I use excel as an intermediary to read the LR/Transporter data and reformat some items. Excel also lets me define how many of each label I want printed… The label printer software automatically reads the excel file as a database and allows printing of the required number of labels.

If you are interested in this solution you are likely to have tens or hundreds of thousands of images in which case camera generated filenames will not be unique. I add a month and year on import and conversion to DNG into LR to ensure filenames are unique. There are a range of other work-arounds that may suit your workflow better. But remember, you need something that LR will find in a single search. It may be you create a unique identifier in a EXIF or IPTC field – this will work too…  Some smart bunny may point out to me there is some foolproof automatic unique identifier for each image built into LR which can be accessed and exported but I am not aware of it. I guess image creation time (to the second) comes pretty close but I cannot see how to search on this from a search field entry…

Where you may need to find some workarounds:

If you are on a PC, the one thing that is not available on the net is the barcode label printer. In the past I used to print labels on multi-label sheets with a laser printer. It’s not obvious to me how to translate the unique image identifier into a barcode for this approach but I’m sure this will be one. But I came to the conclusion that a dedicated “on demand” label printer would save a huge amount of messing around. I think the Brother model I use is about US$79 (A$99) which doesn’t exactly break any bank. And the continuous paper roll I use means labels end up about 2.5 cents a pop…  What make this or even the more capable models (with auto-cutters) such a great deal is the P-touch sofware which does do all the linking of database to label and info field to barcode. This is worth the price alone I reckon. There are other free and for-fee webcam barcode readers out there too; the one I’ve noted works for me…

This may sound pretty complex to set up. But the reality is, once export, database and print templates are in place, it’s all automatic.

With show 100 coming in a few weeks I thought we would release some of the test stream from our BoinxTV video via Stream API.
See how the first live stream went a few weeks ago.

The first video is the mess of tech problems then a gap and show starts a fair bit in.
The second video picks up the show nearer the end.

As we look forward to a live broadcast of Photogeek for it’s 100th episode, those in the bunker get restless.

After a 3 week gap we finally get to the 99th show and catch up on all the news.

Hosts include Phil Greenwood, Cameron Stephen, and James Bellew.

Getting large images to clients can be solved by Yousendit,  Mobile Me or Sync your files online and across computers with Dropbox.

SSD drive at 3.5 inch for computers like the MacPro made by Pliant Technology can read at 500 megabytes per second.

CS2, CS3 whatever, they seem to work fine for us under Snow Leopard OS X 10.6.

Applications we have found that need Rosetta installation under OS X 10.6 include Office 2008 and Digidesign Core drivers.

As Final Cut Studio and Logic Studio get an update we wait for an update to Aperture.

Snow Leopard advantages include fast boot and shutdown, screen sharing seems a lot better, Stacks and Spaces get more useful.

Hassle @Telstra on Twitter to mention iPhone and Tethering.

Telstra shares climb following a Government enforced split of wholesale and retail businesses.

AppleTV price drop and perhaps a new model is due.

Carl Ziess release an 18mm f3.5 Distagon for the Canon EF mount that may be a key to landscape and architectural photography. Calculated to be $1700 odd dollars AU.

Canon release the 7D a few weeks ago and we wonder who may prefer this body. 24p 25p Slow Mo and a bunch of improvements but we prefer the full frame sensor for video. WIFI and GPS however looks a great advantage and should be made available to the 5D Mk11.

Is 30fps the new 24fps. Hitler is upset.

Boinx TV and a two camera problem addressed by my multiple firewire cards

Logmein for the iPhone lets you operate a Mac from your iPhone.

Telstra launch AFL finals app with no live video..

The Flickr app goes online and we haven’t used it.

iPhone app and credit Card reader.

PhotoGeek Gadgets

• Steel Velcro.
• Video sunglasses.
• iMac Hamster cage.
• Lego iPhone stand.
• New mini Pico Projector
• Cardboard iPhone case.
• Headrest iPod dock.
• Open source camera.

Photograph of empty container ships off the coast of Singapore showing the signs of recession.

Camper bike.

Ben and James sail on a kite surf across Bass Strait.

HDR Darkroom worth keeping an eye on, give a beta test a go here.

Get a look at Woo Themes new theme “Object” for photographers.

Opening and closing music by Velvedene. We close this week with “Fear your Gods”
Get album now using iTunes

Feed URL

This show was recorded in front of a live audience online.

Hosts include Phil Greenwood, Cameron Stephens, Alan Jones, and James Bellew.

After much dicking around we got the broadcast system operational. If you are interested it sort of goes like this.

Video over firewire to Mac Pro into BoinxTV to control video streams and graphics. Audio via Mic in studio and via Skype on MacBookPro into Logic as mixer. Then to get all that to push out to StreamAPI feed, video output captured by Grabber Raster and presented as a feed and audio re routed via Digidesign firewire audio device into analogue input of Mac Pro. The simple Stickam type Flash player uploader needs to see these inputs in order to broadcast but you can use a device more than once in the process. Getting seperate audio and video feeds into the Mac Pro was the challenge, but we found a way. A broadcast will be available in a month or two via Digital Pill from The Dog Theatre in Footscray.

On to what was a show of very dubious content, the highlight being our first North American live guest, Alan Jones from Virginia who runs ajayswebcam.com and presents as a true geek.

Will the video phone catch on as a piece of hardware like the ACN product? Perhaps a more open platform like the Android powered desktop phone from Cloud Telecomputers.

Alan fires up at 7.30 in the morning to join us online. Alan talks about his site that list Axis webcams from around the world. ajaywebcams.com

Tethering via an iPhone seems to present issues to carriers the world over. When it is enabled it is brilliant. See the discussion at Whirlpool.

Google Latitude looks a bit lame and could use some work.

Macro lens for the iPhone from a DVD player.

ShakeItPhoto produces what look like a real Polaroid from the iPhone.

OnOne’s DSLR App gets Nikon support for iPhone remote control.

Shutter actuations calculated via Simple EXIF Viewer.

Getting 30 fps HD to go 24 fps is a rather convoluted process using Cinematools Final Cut Pro and Compressor

How to convert Canon 5dmk2 footage from 30p to 24p from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.

Tiltshift plugin for FCP, ShrinkRay, free via Crumple Pop.

Best WordPress themes for video at Canon 5D tips.

SteadiCam for DSLR from India looks like it might be the go.

Underwater Canon 5D Mk11 rig footage at Divefilm HD.

The Mac Mini as a media centre and we discuss the process.

Vuse software trancodes HD for connected devices like the Sony Playstation3

Alan sends over a link to video from Keywest.

3D feature film from James Cameron, Avatar.

Picture showing the physical difference between the 5D and Red Scarlett.

PhotoGeek Gadgets

• The Cookie Tin steel guitar
• Steampunk USB Flash how to.
• Dog Poo Trap
• BlueTooth Stethoscope.

Apple Genius finds childporn on customers Mac.

Opening and closing music by Velvedene. We close this week with “Fear your Gods”

Get album now using iTunes

Feed URL