MCT Images

Photography sale to support Habitat for Humanity

Posted by Martin:

I have some new photographs up in my Ebay store.  Sale of these prints support Habitat for Humanity.

    Click on the images purchase a copy.

Using the edit in Photoshop command in Lightroom

Posted by Martin:

This video podcast comes from Above TV, which I am finding to be an incredible resource.  This podcast teaches the basics of the edit in Photoshop command in Lightroom.  It will also teach you how Lightroom handles your original file when editing.

Okay. Now. Lightroom 1.4 is ready

Posted by Martin:

Lightroom 1.4 has been fixed and is now ready on the Adobe site.  According to the Lightroom Journal blog the issues have been fixed.

Video Tutorial on Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 and Panasonic P2

Posted by Martin:

Adobe TV has just launched and I am very much impressed, nay!, in love with this so far.

Here is a great video on Premiere Pro CS3, which is my editing weapon of choice, and the NATIVE editing of Panasonic's P2 format.  Check it out!

Adobe begins Adobe TV

Posted by Martin:

This looks pretty cool.  Adobe.com has begun Adobe TV.  A video site for education of on their products.  Which is cool, because I seem to learn better from videos as opposed to books.  But I still use books, so don't here me say that.

As an example here is the first episode of Adobe Beginner Classes.

Hat Tip to iJustine for this one.

My new photoblog-Tiller Photography

Posted by Martin:

I'm starting a new photoblog to link with this blog.  The point of the photoblog is just that. Photos.  I hope each week will be a different theme.

Click here to view.

Thanks for checking it out.

More Behind the scenes with 007 on Quantum of Solace

Posted by Martin:

Here is another video from behind the scenes of the next Bond movie.  I'm liking this Reelzchannel site.

Quantum of Solace

Click here to see more behind the scenes of the next Bond movie

Get rid of Lightroom 1.4 and go back to 1.3.1

Posted by Martin:

I recently have begun working with Adobe Lightroom.  I upgraded to 1.4, but Adobe just recently removed that update from their site.  And according to Adobe itself you need to uninstall 1.4 and go back to 1.3 until they fix 1.4.

Blu-Ray page in my aStore

Posted by Martin:

Now for complete advertising.

I've been working on an Amazon aStore to complement this site.  In honor of the end of the format war, click here to see my Blu-Ray section!

Elizabeth:The Golden Age-DVD Review

Posted by Martin:

The Movie: B

The first Elizabeth was made nearly ten years ago, I guess I find that hard to believe because I was in college at the time.  That movie was a classic, the sequel Elizabeth-The Golden Age is a good movie, but not the classic the original was.

The romantic tension is here, as it was in the first movie, but this time around there is a strange love triangle between Elizabeth, Sir Walter Raleigh, and another Elizabeth on the Queen's Court.  In the first movie the tension was to get the Queen married, that isn't the focus this time around.  The focus is for Elizabeth to be loved just as a regular human being, and to me that is a boring story.  You can see that in any movie, but to marry for royal and political purposes is not an everyday story.  And the filmmakers didn't focus on that this time around.

The crux of this movie focuses on Prince Philip of Spain's invasion of England and the failure of the Spanish Armada to crush the English navy.  Unfortunately this was very passed over.  In fact I found it down right confusing.  Elizabeth's rise to the golden age is grounded in this event, yet there is very little screen time dedicated this battle, very strange to me.

But having said that, this movie still makes you respect the Queen that Virginia was named after.  I guess because I am a Virginian I may some sort of soft spot for Elizabeth in my psyche.  Clive Owen as Sir Walter Raleigh is a case of great casting, as is Samantha Morton as Mary Queen of Scots.  And it is the story of Mary that really makes this movie tense and gives the movie its best scenes.  The debate to behead Mary lies in the idea that Royalty is Divinely given, thus to behead Mary would be for Elizabeth to admit she was human and not there to divine intervention.  Yet to keep the kingdom together Mary needed to die.  This is the tension and conflict that makes this movie.

The Disc itself-Video A; Audio B

The video transfer here gets an A.  This is a well photographed movie and it comes across on the DVD.

The audio is only Dolby Digital and it is a good spacious sound space, but I still would like to see a DTS track.  There is a commentary track by the director.

Extras B-

There are four different short making of features.  The most interesting one is about the art director and the details he brought to the set.  But the others are fairly typically filler and talking heads, interesting but not really something to purchase the disc for.

UPDATE:

This post is now listed on the Movie Monday Carnival.  Thanks!

Photoshop Quicktips-Cross Processing

Posted by Martin:

In this podcast Justin talks about using a curves preset to get a nice cross processed look.  You can visit his website at http://www.photoshopquicktips.com.

 

You can also see other tutorials here.

Creating Keyboard Shortcuts for Adjustment Layers-Quicktips Podcast

Posted by Martin:

In this episode Justin shows how to make keyboard short cuts for adjustment layers in Photoshop CS3.  A much needed tip in my opinion.

Behind the scenes with 007 on Quantum of Solace

Posted by Martin:

I am such a big fan of Casnio Royale, that I can't wait for November for the next 007 offering.

Quantum of Solace

Quick Touch Ups in Raw-Quicktips Podcast

Posted by Martin:

Here is a quick video by Justin Seeley on touching up photographs in RAW format.  Which is important because this is nondestructive editing.

Along with The Hobbit, Harry Potter 7 gets the 2 parter treatment

Posted by Martin:

This seems to be a new trend.  Make movie out of a book, but break it into two movies.

This is how The Hobbit will be done, and now apparently the last Potter movie will be done the same way.

Something inside of me cynical says this is just a great ploy to stretch out the franchise just..a..little..bit..longer...

Or is it as this article says because there is so much in the last book you can't leave it out?

Well that has happened so far with 5 Potter movies, and it definitely happened on the three Rings movies.  Why care now about cutting content?

New Indiana Jones 4 poster

Posted by Martin:

I just saw this.  But I'm definitely looking forward to this.

Jumper-Movie Review- Grade D

Posted by Martin:

I went to see Jumper on a whim at last minute outing with the wife.  I should have saved this for a rental.  I was hoping that a movie with Hayden Christiansen and Samuel L. Jackson would be very cool.

It was so close.

Unfortunately Jumper is nothing but a 90 minute preview to Jumper 2.

Based on the book by Steven Gould, a movie with three people on the screenplay credits is rarely a good sign.

It is such an interesting concept, Christiansen plays David Rice with a strange ability of jumping through wormholes around the world.  He uses it to steal money from banks to finance a high style life.  I thought we were going to have a sort of Ocean's 11 meets the Matrix.  Oh well...

You learn nothing about David Rice or Samuel Jackson's character Roland.  Roland is apparently a high level person in a top secret group that is fighting Jumpers, and why do they fight?  Because Roland is some sort of religious nut, you know the same people that fought witches, the fight has evolved into the fight against Jumpers.  That is whole backstory.  If you want anything else, well you'll have to make it up yourself.

The whole crux of the movie revolves around the fact that David learns that his mom was one of these strange religious nuts who are out to kill Jumpers.  Quickly played by Diane Lane.  This movie she must have done in an afternoon.  So mom is supposed to kill son.  But we have to wait until Jumper 2 to see that movie.

What the end of format war means to me and other event producers

Posted by Martin:

Well it's been official for about week.  The format war is officially over, HD-DVD is not going to be supported anymore.

For us event producers means it will make it easier to sell high def projects.  Why?  Because now more people have Blu-Ray players in their homes, that number went up drastically since HD-DVD threw in the towel.

I use the Adobe Production Suite which allows Blu-Ray authoring in Encore CS3.

Do I make feature length movies yet? No.  But now if I did make an indie I can produce it in high def and send it out on Blu-Ray making the production look more professional.

The format war was not only hard on the movie watching community, but it was in some ways slowing the adoption of high-def for producers as well.

The end of the war is good for every one.

On the other hand if you Blu-Ray is just a small step til digital downloads take over, you can read here why I don't that is going to happen anytime soon.