Latest Photo & Video Opinion

  • 23 May 2012

  • Opinion: Stream Media From Your PC to Your Roku Box

    To borrow from Woody Allen, love is too weak a word to describe how I feel about my Roku box. I lurve it.

  • 21 May 2012

  • Opinion: 5 Steps for Great Action Photos

    Summer is upon us, and that means we'll be spending a lot more time outdoors, capturing photos of stuff--kids, friends, cars, planes, dogs--in action. Perhaps you've applied some of the ideas in "Digital Photography Tips: Capture Summer Action," and discovered that some of your action photos lacked the excitement you saw in the viewfinder. That's the problem with freezing the action. Sometimes, it's just too frozen. The antidote? A classic photo technique known as panning. This week, let's review five things you need to know to pan the action to get some exciting, vibrant action photos.

  • Opinion: Gifting Mac App Store apps, emailing videos, and more

    It's time to flush out the latest collection of too-short-for-a-full-entry Mac 911 questions and answers. We start with reader SuSu:

  • Opinion: Nintendo Wii U Not Yet Out, But Purported Photo Surfaces

    Nintendo isn't quite ready to pull the curtains off its next generation Wii U, but a purported photo of the game console has already circulated on Twitter.

  • 18 May 2012

  • Opinion: Ask the iTunes Guy: Syncing tips

    [Ask the iTunes Guy is a regular column in which we answer your questions on everything iTunes related. If there's something you'd like to know, send an email to the iTunes Guy for consideration.]

  • 17 May 2012

  • Opinion: Netflix Launches Snazzy New In-Browser Video Player

    Netflix Wednesday rolled out a much-needed update to its in-browser video player. The new player features a revamped control bar, the ability to browse other episodes during playback, and informative text overlays that pop up when you pause the video for a few seconds.

  • 15 May 2012

  • Opinion: Organize videos by groups in iTunes

    In iTunes, there are two ways to categorize your videos: as either Movies or TV Shows. Movies are displayed individually, but TV shows are organized in groups, as they would be if they were episodes in the same show. One anonymous Mac OS X Hints reader takes advantage of this to organize all kinds of videos, regardless of their actual source. He uses his Movies library for very large files and puts everything else in TV Shows. So, for example, in his TV Shows library, he has groups called YouTube Videos, Home Videos, Work Stuff, and so on.

  • Opinion: Tricks for Photographing Flowers

    I love this time of year. The days are getting longer, the temperature is on the rise, and all around me, flowers are starting to bloom. This is a great opportunity to grab a camera and capture some of the natural beauty around us, whether it's in your backyard, at the local park, or along a hiking trail just out of town. Recently, I've explained some general-purpose photo tricks like "A Fast Trick to Salvage an Underexposed Photo" and "Four Easy Tricks for Better Photos." This week, let's focus on tips for capturing some great flower photos--they are a great addition to the advice I gave last year on photographing spring flowers.

  • 14 May 2012

  • Opinion: This App Lets You Make 3D Models Out of Snapshots

    We blogged last month about 123D Catch, a software package from Autodesk that lets you assemble 3D models from snapshots or video. Autodesk demonstrated it by sending a microcopter around their offices and building a model out of the video it sent back. Now that software has come to your iPad, it's free, and it doesn't require any additional hardware besides the camera already built in.

  • Opinion: Game Of Thrones Tops 2012 Piracy Charts, Copyright Wars Continue

    The second season of Game of Thrones is on track to be 2012's most pirated television show with more than 25 million downloads for the first six episodes since the series' debut on April 1. The show hit its highpoint after episode 5, "The Ghosts of Harrenhal," was downloaded more than 2.5 million times in a single day, according to Forbes citing numbers from media monitoring firm Big Champagne.

  • 11 May 2012

  • Opinion: Convert Video Files--Even in Rare Formats--With Any Video Converter

    As the rioting that ended the career (at least as named) of the band "Free Beer" teaches us, you have to be careful what you name something. Free program Any Video Converter is a name that makes a bold promise… And darned if it doesn't deliver.

  • Opinion: 3D-Print This Cool Tilt Shift Camera Lens Adapter

    If you're a serious photographer, you're going to need all the right equipment--in addition to the camera itself, you'll need to carry a multitude of lenses or equipment like flashguns for different environments. Of course, a quick search for the kit you need will tell you that the price soon adds up. Fortunately, 3D printing allows you to dave a few dollars by creating certain lenses.

  • 10 May 2012

  • Opinion: DVDs and Blu-rays Will Soon Waste More Time with New Unskippable Piracy Warnings

    In a move that seems like it will encourage piracy rather than curb it, the U.S. government is adding new warning messages that can't be skipped at the outset of DVD and Blu-ray movies. And there won't just be one--there will be two, one to "warn" and one to "educate."

  • 09 May 2012

  • Opinion: How to time-stamp your video in iMovie

    I hope we can all agree that it’s good that video cameras no longer burn the date and time into footage as they used to. If you missed this particular piece of video history, cameras had an option to include the date and time on every frame of video. (Many cameras can still do this.)

  • 05 May 2012

  • Opinion: Six Good Reasons to Try GIMP 2.8

    Of all the many examples of excellent free and open source software out there, GIMP is surely among the best known examples for offering a no-cost and yet power-packed alternative to an extremely high-priced proprietary market leader.

  • 04 May 2012

  • Opinion: Ask the iTunes Guy: More iTunes Match questions

    [Ask the iTunes Guy is a regular column in which we answer your questions on everything iTunes related. If there’s something you’d like to know, send an email to the iTunes Guy for consideration.]

  • Opinion: RGBD Toolkit Combines Kinects and DSLRs, Makes a Match Made in Film Geek Heaven

    Previously on GeekTech, we featured a Virtual Cinematography project that overlaid Kinect depth-sensing maps with HD video from a DLSR. It was an incredible feat for quick-made 3D models that only a crack team of professional videographers and programmers could pull off.

  • 03 May 2012

  • Opinion: Free Fotobounce Helps You Organize and Share Photos

    If your photos are centered around the people in your life, it makes sense that your photo organization tool should be, too. That's the thinking behind Fotobounce, a free application that helps you organize and securely share your snapshots.

  • Opinion: On What Media Should I Backup My Photos?

    Nick Golna asked whether he should backup his photos onto a flash drive or DVDs. I discuss other options, as well.

  • 30 April 2012

  • Opinion: Choosing the Right Shutter Speed

    One of the most intriguing aspects of photography is that it's both an art and a science. Science tells us that, for most photos, there's a specific amount of light that will generate the "perfect" exposure--sort of like measuring chemicals in a laboratory. But it's not all test tubes and Bunsen burners in photography, because there are a million ways to get the right amount of light into your scene. Lots of different shutter speeds and aperture settings add up to the right exposure, for example. You're already had a chance to experiment with that using an interactive online camera simulator. And therein lies the art: No two photographers will ever capture the same scene in exactly the same way. This week, let's zero in on shutter speed and talk about how you can get a variety of different photo effects and visual styles just by varying this one camera control.

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