Rear Projection Screening

This is a response to the proposed idea of "projecting people onto still images of the gold coast in a mall type environment". We have researched technology that would be required to do this and have been unable to come up with a solution. This is due to the inability to seperate a live image from a still background image. However we have a new concept that you might like to consider. Still based in a mall type situation where punters can have their photo taken against a backdrop of the beautiful Gold Coast, then using software to transfer and print the image in a postcard format. The punter are then able to take this "postcard" away with them and send it on to whomever they choose, publicising the Gold Coast wherever it goes because of the novelty factor. What do you think? Add a slogan? or a logo.. something Gold Coast..

ITS A WRAP!!

In relation to all the information we have produced for the current campaign, we as the Tech Trends Team have an outline to meet requirements as stipulated by business and marketing brief ( can be found at www.b-mphotography.blogspot.com/2009/05/4-mediums.html.)

1. Billboards

For the production of the large format imagery, we suggest the use of the Seitz Super Hi Res Camera. This will produce an image of 160mp which is ample to be blown up to billboard size. Check out the full article at the below link:

http://phototechtrends.blogspot.com/2009/05/super-hi-rez-large-format-digital.html#comments

Through research we have also found a suitable printer for billboard size imagery and recommend the Epson Stylus Pro GS6000.
Capable of printing up to 1.62 meters wide and suitable for outdoors.

Full article at
http://phototechtrends.blogspot.com/2009/06/printing-big.html
which also includes links to Epsons Website.

2. Building Wraps

For the production of an image ten stories high as per brief we recommend using the Better Light digital scan back together with a large format view camera. This camera setup will produce an image up to the 794mb ( 10200 x 13600 px ) which will be more than sufficient for an image of this size.
Further details can be found at http://phototechtrends.blogspot.com/2009/05/getting-massive-image-to-plaster-on.html

Printing of this large scale image can be achieved with AdpHence who can produce premium PVC coated, UV Stabilised, Fire retardant, Anti-fungal fabric finish specific to building wraps. This type of technology starts at $100 per meter. For full article please go to http://phototechtrends.blogspot.com/2009/05/sign-post-away.html

3. Posters

In relation to image capture for posters on taxis, trains and buses we recommend using the highest quality camera available - Professional standard, full frame sensor, E.g.Canon 1D Mark III or Nikon D3. This is simply to produce images of no larger than A2 size.

Printing poster size imagery we recommend the printing with the Seiko ColorPainter, which prints in widths of up to 2.63 meters - making if efficient for large scale batch printing as we can fit numerous prints on the width of one roll.
http://phototechtrends.blogspot.com/2009/06/printing-big.html

4. Web Banner

The technology required for Web Banners is consistent with the technology as outlined in the above section on posters.
We also recommend editing in photoshop - to produce, edit and re size for web devices. To make dynamic banners with movement we recommend flash software, for further information on flash software visit www.adobe.com/products/flash.

For integration into government websites we recommend Dreamweaver ( www.adobe.com/products/dreamweaver.)
For upload of web banners utilize FTP as outlined in our article. http://phototechtrends.blogspot.com/2009/03/ftp-service-sending-prints-to-lab.html.

( NOTE: Has marketing considered a viral campaign, where "cool" images are emailed out to the general public? E.g. The airline food trays in the article Advertising Via Transport - www.b-mphotography.blogspot.com/2009/05/advertising-via-transport.html.
This works by people forwarding on emails to friends and family that they found amusing.

Miscellaneous:

In addition to the outlined resources we have researched other integral technological equipment that could be used for the requirements of this campaign.

Lighting

For the purpose of where lighting is required we have researched both indoor and outdoor lighting equipment at both the high end and low end market. For portable systems at the low end market we recommend the Alien Bees portable strobe kit.
( full article found at http://phototechtrends.blogspot.com/2009/03/alien-bees-lighting-review.html
and at the high end market we recommend Bowens photographic equipment. Within the full article we have listed the essentials for a base kit. A point of difference between these two lighting systems is that Alien Bees is battery powered and portable, where as the Bowens is generator powered and has a greater light output whilst still remaining portable to location shoots. Full article on Bowen lighting at http://phototechtrends.blogspot.com/2009/05/working-with-light-its-all-about.html

This is our solution to the brief as outlined and welcome any further comments or questions that relate to Technology aspects of photography.

Printing Big

Since last week I've had to research about printers which are capable of printing billboards or banners that span whole buildings. From my research of large format printers I have found a few that suit the criteria.

What I found is:

• The 'Epson Stylus Pro GS6000'

&

• The 'Seiko ColorPainter H104s'

The Epson Stylus Pro is a 64 inch printer, it prints 1.62 meters wide and it is good for indoor and outdoor use.

The Seiko ColorPainter is a 103.6 inch printer, it prints 2.63 meters wide but there was no mention of whether it was good outdoors.

You can check both these different printers out for yourselves at:

• www.epson.com.au/prographics/products/largeformat/

&

• http://www.colourcorp.co.za/index.php?ID=258

Sign Post Away

OK, so I've been looking at large scale printing materials for use on medias such as billboards, signposts and fences.
So far I've found some great outdoor large scale building wraps, here are some of the main ones.
Prices start at around $100 per square meter; this particular company do all the scaffolding, mounting etc. I like that they specialise in outdoor long lasting printing. I think this is exactly the sort of thing we need.


Digitally printed mesh for building wrap advertising.

adpHence™ is uniquely placed to offer building wrap products to the Australian market. Maximise the impact of your advertising message by presenting it on a grand scale.

In conjunction with leading fabric tension engineers, adpHence™ has developed a fully certified and insured process for creating building wrap advertising products, allowing Australian advertisers to take advantage of technology only previously available overseas.

pHencewrap building wraps are printed on adpHence™ Crest Mesh.



Premium PVC-coated
UV-stabilised
Fire-retardant
Anti-fungal fabric finish
Ideal for building wraps


Digitally printed billboard advertising products




Billboard advertising is one of the most popular forms of advertising. Commonly found along busy roads and high traffic areas, billboards are a the ideal choice to gain maximum exposure.

Super-tough PVC vinyl
UV-stabilised
Fire-retardant
Available in any size to meet custom requirements
Installation available

For more information and quotes you can go to

http://www.phenceit.com/adphence/

Thanks,

Alana.

Its RED, its good

Its a motion camera, a stills camera, to put it simply, its possibly the most brilliant piece of photographic/motion cinema equipment that has emerged in the last few years. The RED camera is a camera with personality.

The idea behind the camera was to simply create a high performance cine camera equivilant to the 35mm motion cameras that are currently being used to film movies. But in digital. Designed to be totally configurable in the sense that it essentially has a brain, which is the sensor, and then other add on modules like handles, interchangable lens mounts (switch between nikon and canon and RED) recording modes, battery options and even the way you view what you are about to shoot (viewfinder or a 4inch screen) even audio. Want to create a 3D camera? no problem, RED claim to be able to configure up to 1,048,576 different possibilities with the options of the camera. 

So how does it work. Essentially it is a motion picture so it records in a motion picture format and allows you to capture still frames from it with out comprimising the quality. Normally when you get a "frame grab" from a motion picture, it is blurred. This is because the speed its recorded at isn't fast enough for the freeze to actually happen. Now with the RED, get the best of both worlds and capture both a still shot with clear res and super high def motion picture.

Want to see how crisp this camera shoots at. check out one of Vincent Laforet's latest projects filming Hawaiian surfer Jamie O'Brien surfing his home break Backdoor. I highly recommend you watch this bigger on the SmugMug link, and really see the great quaility this is.

http://blog.vincentlaforet.com/category/jamieobrien/

Theres also video footage on there from the Canon 5D MkII. The helicopter footage and water footage. 

And here, a recent cover of Esquire magazine in which the cover was shot with the RED camera

http://www.esquire.com/the-side/video/megan-fox-images-0609?click=pp

By the way. The RED camera starts at $9,750.00 for the sensor alone, thats around $12,500.00 AUD. They go upwards of $53,000.00. And to think steven spielberg has one for his "personal" camera. wouldn't you love to have that handy....

Ben.

Set your Seitz on super Hi-Res!

With reference to the brief for the supply of images for use in an advertising campaign for Queensland tourism, advertising the Gold Coast as a holiday destination; I wish to suggest the use of the Seitz digital 6x17 camera due to it's extremely high quality output resolution (160 megapixels).

I feel this level of output quality will look incredibly eyecatching on the side of buses, buildings and/or any other large display (billboards) and may give the campaign an edge over and above the competition (and after all there's no budget so what the heck!?)

This camera uses scan technology to produce panoramic images up to 160 megapixels in a single frame. The scan technology used means the camera takes a minimum of 1 second to complete the scan of the scene being photographed regardless of the shutter speed used (upto 1/2000th sec) which can render moving subjects strangely (often beautiful and unique but still hard to predict) and therefore is perhaps best suited in a commercial sense to landscape/relatively still scenes.

A seasoned user may be able to better predict the capture of movement with this camera so with their use, something really different to the norm could be produced (kite-surfers, iron men, life savers etc) which in combination with the high resolution could really stand out from the crowd - for example, the image by Philip Wong shown above.

The camera accepts high quality, though manual focus lenses from Seitz/Schneider, Rodenstock, Linhof and Fuji. Also available is an optional touch-screen, motion-sensing tablet pc which can be used to control the camera in live-view, display captures and store the images. It can also be used to edit the images with Seitz proprietary RAW conversion software or images can be converted to DNG for editing in Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, Apple aperture etc.

Oh, and it captures 16-bit RAWs - nice!

Andy Hart

Working With Light - It's all about lighting!

In relation to our current campaign for the Queensland Government, I think it is important that the lighting needed to be used on the day of the shoot be discussed. As there is a high chance that most if not some of the images will be taken outside we need to consider the lighting.
Will flash lighting on camera or off camera be needed? Will we preffer to use continuous instead of flash?
Is the natural light enough?
Will we need reflectors?
Will ambient/staging light give problems?
Will their be electricity near by if we do need studio lighting? and if so where can we hire a generator or alternative from?
Will solar power or battery powered technology need to be used?

All these things and more need to be considered without even touching on the elements. What if it rains. . etc etc.
On top of all that, depending on how much equipment we need, how are we going to transport it? Hiring of vehicle etc etc.

So will all that food for thought, I have endeavoured to find some answers the best I could. If anyone has anything else to add or further suggestions,please do so.

Studio Lighting:

As we all know there are many different brands and strenghts of studio lighting available. Some reasonably cheap and some higher quality,yet more expensive lighting. As we are aiming for a high end result the use of better quality photographic equipment would seem appropriate. Bowens photographic equipment currently have a good repore within our industry and offer alot of great equipment and are seemingly improving technology all the time. As I was researching I went onto their uk website - www.bowens.co.uk - and on their front page they actually have featured an outdoor shoot! It would seem they have planned this just for me to find, as they have listed the equipment they have used for the shoot.


Lighting Explorer 1500 ( Generator )
Gemini 500 ( 500w flash head)
Quad Head ( Flash head )
Pulsar Radio Trigger
Softbox 140
60° Reflector
Barn Doors

As this list of equipment compiles of a generator to create power, it means that we are able to shoot on location and still acheive the results possible with a flash.

Below is some further information on the generator if would like to read on.

The Bowens Explorer 1500 represents the state of the art in portable battery generator technology. Measuring just 27cm(L) x 18cm(W) x 28cm(H) and weighing just 10kg, the unit offers an unbeatable power to size ratio while providing the photographer with the flexibility of two independently digitally controlled 0.1 f-stop incremented channels.

The unique LCD interface is both intuitive and informative, making it quick and simple to setup and start shooting accurately anywhere. The unit comes with an interchangeable 12Ah battery unit which provides up to 150 shots at the full 1500Ws, recycling in 3.8 seconds or 180 shots at 1200Ws in 3 seconds.

In addition, the Explorer also features two 'Gemini' sockets which allows connection of two Esprit Gemini Monolights.
So, by Connecting two QUAD Heads and two Esprit Gemini 750 Units you can acheive a total of 3000Ws from this remarkably compact power pack.

They have pages and pages of equipment available should we need alternative equipment or if we had the use of electricity near by.

This could be a good start for our campaign, depending on the size of the shoot. Their are some limitations to the amount of shots being taken and of course the battery life. This would need to be taking into account if shooting something on Multiple Framers per second, working with children etc.

Of course the use of reflectors, tripods, light meters etc will most likely come into the scenerio, however I would hope most of use have these by now.


Please add comments and/or suggestions should you have any.

Thanks

Amanda