Tag Archives: Video
Adobe InDesign CS 5.5 improves in the areas of Digital Publishing to devices. It addresses the number one request from our ePUB authors and that is the ability to embed video in your exported ePUBs and yes those videos play on the iPad (or any other ePUB 3.0 standards compatible device). We've also made some improvements on allowing you to layout your publications for print, but also dictate the order in which elements are exported to ePUB using the new Articles Panel. Another major improvement is the ability to either have InDesign generate your ePUB cover from the 1st page of your document or linking to a specific image that is optimized for a small size "bookshelf" on a device such as the iPad's iBooks App. Here's a video on how some of these features work:
What's new in Interactive Digital Publishing to Tablets?
The video below walks you through some of the enhancements to the Digital Publishing Suite in InDesign CS5.
There's more new stuff in CS 5.5
See Greg Rewis' post on what's new in Dreamweaver CS5.5 for HTML 5 and Mobile Authoring here.
See Jason Levine's post on what's new in Production Premium CS5.5 here.
See Paul Trani's post on what's new in Flash Professional and Mobile App development here.
Learn more about Creative Suite 5.5 including a New Subscription pricing option for those that don't want to or need to "buy" Creative Suite Products here.
Also see more CS 5.5 videos on Adobe TV. In case you missed it, Adobe TV can now be viewed on your iPad.
Why is Adobe releasing a new version of Creative Suite so soon?
As you know Creative Suite apps have typically reved every 18-24 months. The world is moving faster than that and many of our publishing customers need solutions for publishing to new devices and in new formats sooner. Now you will see Adobe introduce a major milestone release ever 24 months and a mid-cycle release every 12 months. Johnny L is here to tell us all about it:
Join us for a Live Q&A Today (4/11/2011)
We will be hosting a live Q&A Today (4/11/2011) on Facebook at 12:00 noon EDT (GMT -4). Join me and the other Adobe Creative Suite Evangelists, Jason Levine, Greg Rewis, Paul Trani for an hour to answer your Creative Suite questions.
Here's the link for the live Q&A
Join us on the CS5 Evolves Tour
I'm about to head off on the CS5 Evolution Tour with my Adobe Evangelist colleagues!
Details here.
Schedule:
Tour Locations
- May 2
- Gothenburg
- May 3
- Stockholm
- May 4
- Oslo
- May 5
- Prague
- May 6
- Helsinki
- May 9
- Copenhagen
- May 11
- London
- May 11
- Århus
- May 19
- Warsaw
- May 23
- Amsterdam
- May 24
- Kortrijk*
- May 25
- Moscow
- May 27
- Istanbul
- May 31
- Sydney
- June 2
- Melbourne
- June 7
- Paris
- June 9
- Barcelona**
- June 14
- Sao Paulo
- June 17
- Mexico City
- June 17
- Skellefteå
Related show
December 1st, 2010
3:49
Creating an HTML 5 Website for Photographers in Adobe Lightroom 3
This one is for the Photographers out there!
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom has had web galleries since day one. You can either export out an HTML gallery of your images or a Flash Gallery of your images. Each one of course having its advantages and disadvantages. I find that photographers in general like Flash galleries because of two things: 1) they're (pardon the pun) flashy. You get transitions, animations, zooming, automatic slideshows etc. 2) they offer one more level of image protection by making it harder for people to just right click and download the images. The disadvantage is that not every device can display Flash galleries. If you go with an HTML gallery it can be seen on just about any device, but you lose the flashy appeal.
What about HTML 5?
Up until yesterday my photography website was all Flash with an HTML fallback. I loved the features of my template. I loved the animations, image fading and slideshows and while I did have an HTML fallback for those that couldn't see the Flash site the biggest problem was keeping them BOTH up to date. The Flash site was driven by XML and was pretty easy to update with new images.. The HTML part was driven by a Lightroom web engine (more on that later) and required a separate export and upload each time I needed to do an update. It wasn't the end of the world to update them both, but I found myself updating the Flash site more often (because it was faster), which meant that people on non-Flash devices/computers wouldn't see my latest images. Not good!
What's this HTML 5 thing anyway? HTML 5 is next standard of HTML and it's still very much a WORK IN PROGRESS. This is why you don't see a ton of tools for it yet. Also and probably the biggest thing to note is that HTML 5 may never do all the things that Flash can do. This means that it's not a direct one to one replacement. At least not today for sure. HTML 5 authoring isn't just one thing. It's using HTML 5, CSS3 and Javascript. . Actually it's CSS3 that's the really interesting part. If you're really interested in developing in HTML 5 Adobe has already released the HTMl 5 pack for Dreamweaver and Illustrator. Check them out on Adobe Labs. More tools are in the works! Back to the photographers…
My goal
I started thinking about my site and the fact that it was a pain to update and therefore I wasn't updating it as often as I'd like to. Then I started listing the ideal things that I would want to have to make it easier:
- I'd want as much of the site as possible driven by Lightroom since that's where my images live anyway.
- Until HTML 5 is further along I still want Flash galleries for those who can see them.
- The site has to be viewable on devices/computers not running Flash
- I only want to update ONE set of images. In other words, both the Flash and HTMl version would use the same images.
- I want Video that plays on everything <-this is not as easy as you think!
- I don't want to write any code! Writing a line here and there during setup is fine, but I don't want to have to code the thing with every update.
The Turning Gate To The Rescue
Once again The Turning Gate has come through for me. You might remember my post on using one of their web engines for my client review galleries. Since that review went live I've been working with Matthew Campagna at TTG on the ultimate solution to my goals. After countless emails back and forth (he's a great guy!) on what I wanted and tweaks to his engines based on my feedback I was able to create my entire site from scratch using Lightroom 3 and three TTG plug-ins.
Continue reading “Creating an HTML 5 Website for Photographers in Adobe Lightroom 3” »
October 7th, 2010
3:40
Getting Started with DSLR Video for Photographers – Part 5 of 5
In the final installment of this series, Adobe Worldwide Evangelist Jason Levine takes you through the process of exporting/rendering your DSLR video/stills creations using the 64-bit Adobe Media Encoder. He'll talk about some of the most common formats for going to mobile devices, iPods, blu-ray discs as well as common formats for Web delivery. You'll learn about background rendering and the ability to 'queue' multiple versions of your video edits. Also featured: using *presets* in the Media Encoder for your favorite destinations (like YouTube, Vimeo, HDTV, etc)
Download a FREE fully functional 30 day Trial of Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 and work right along side Jason.
Continue reading “Getting Started with DSLR Video for Photographers — Part 5 of 5” »
September 24th, 2010
3:12
Adobe Illustrator CS5 Gets HTML 5 Savvy
Last week I mentioned that Adobe Illustrator 5 got a NEW HTML 5 pack. This week you can see the video on how it works:
September 14th, 2010
3:44
Getting Started with DSLR Video for Photographers – Part Two
Adobe's Worldwide Evangelist for Video and Audio, Jason Levine is back once again to give us his second installment on Getting Started With DSLR Video for Photographers.
Download a FREE fully functional 30 day Trial of Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 and work right along side Jason.
Continue reading “Getting Started with DSLR Video for Photographers — Part Two” »
September 8th, 2010
3:17
Getting Started With DSLR Video for Photographers – Part One
Adobe's Worldwide Video Evangelist Jason Levine is back to give us his multi-part video series on Getting Started with DSLR video for Photographers. Jason gives photographers a step-by-step tutorial on how to get going with video without being a video editing guru.
August 31st, 2010
3:05
Getting Started with HTML 5 Video
Adobe's Worldwide Web Evangelist, Greg Rewis returns to give us his 3rd installment on Creating HTML 5 and this time it's how to Get Started with HTML 5 Video. Greg shows how to use the HTML 5 Pack for Adobe Dreamweaver CS5 to create HTML 5 video that reaches the largest audience of viewers.
August 23rd, 2010
12:14
Nikon Breaks Out with a D3100 and it’s So Close To What I Want!
In case you missed it, Nikon introduced their New D3100 DSLR body just this past Thursday. This camera was rumored for quite a while and the rumored specs were pretty accurate. So it wasn't a shocker to see it, but there was one feature that I was hoping to see that didn't seem to make the cut. My current travel camera is a Nikon D5000 and I like the size and weight of the D5000 for travel, plus the ability to shoot video. The one thing that would have made me upgrade (or downgrade) to the D3100 in a heartbeat would have been audio in. Sigh…. While the D3100 steps up to 14.2 MP, adds 1080p video (Yay! and about freaking time), continuous auto focus in Live View (we'll have to see if it really works or not) and 12,800 ISO (equivalent), the audio for video recording is still limited to the built in Mono mic.
I want good audio too
Most video cameras have crappy built-in mics. However, most video cameras also let you plug in a better mic via a stereo audio input. To make matters worse is that the built-in audio on Nikon DSLRs is only 11hz. A bad mic with bad compression, equals really really bad audio. Giving this camera 1080p, auto focusing video is AWESOME, but the limitation for many is definitely going to be the audio. Now if you plan to shoot video with your great lenses in all of the D3100's 1080p glory and then add your own sound track or music later, then this won't be a big deal, but if you need the source audio from the event you're recording, then you're going to either have to record the audio on a different device and merge them later in post or have sub par audio to go with your great video.
I would upgrade to a D300s at this point, but I'll continue to wait and see what comes next since the D300s was last year's model. It DOES have audio in, but it's only 720p video and if I'm going to spend the bucks, I'd rather wait since I don't think Nikon is done for 2010 just yet 
What to do?
If I didn't already have the D5000, and was looking for a small Nikon DSLR with some pretty cool features, then I wouldn't hesitate to get this one. The price won't break the bank and it has a few features that even the higher end models don't have yet. I may still sell my D5000 (since my D5000 doesn't have audio in either) to get this if I get a good price on the D5000. For now, personally I'm in wait and see mode.
You can get the D3100 here for a great price of $699.95 with a 18-55mm VR lens
Also be sure to check out the NEW Nikon Coolpix S1100PJ Camera with a Built-in Projector!
July 30th, 2010
3:40
Photographers, Do You Care About Video?
There's lots of buzz out there about DSLR video. The benefits of lens selection and a more film like feel to HD video shot with these cameras can't be denied. However, from what I can see the people that are most interested in this new power are typically people that were already doing video. In other words they are videographers who see this as a way of getting better video. Now don't get me wrong, I know that there are some photographers out there that are certainly excited about the possibilities of adding video to their digital story telling. However, I'm just not seeing a landslide (yet) of "traditional" photographers getting into it. I have some theories on why this is and I think it has more to do with the post processing than anything else. Photographers already know how to capture a good image. It's probably not a stretch to say with practice they could capture a good video too. With that said, is there time for both? If you're shooting a wedding for example, chances are you're going to concentrate on one of the other. You don't have time to capture both great stills AND great video as the bride is walking down the isle. So this means having someone else that can be on hand to capture the video. Let's call that person the "videographer."
Moving off that situation for a moment, let's say that it's something that's not as time critical as a wedding where you don't have the ability to do it over. Let's say that you are capturing portraits of the couple before the big day and you also have time to capture some video clips of them interacting with each other. Great! Now you've got both good video and good stills. What next?
What do you want or need in a video editing tool?
Here's where I think a large part of the problem lies. Many of the photographers I know, don't like to do image retouching and spend a lot of time on the computer working with photos. They'd rather be out shooting. So now we bring video into the mix and most of the "traditional" video editing tools are just as complex if not more so than Photoshop. Sure there are some easier programs out there like iMovie, Adobe Premiere Elements and the basic editing in Aperture, but in many cases even those apps can be daunting to a person who has never edited video before (and probably doesn't want to). So let's step back for a moment and ask the question, "if someone were to build the perfect video editing tool for a PHOTOGRAPHER, what would it have in it?" I have some ideas, but I want to make sure that I didn't miss anything, so please chime in if I did:
- Of course it should be as easy to use as possible!
- It should support the vast majority of video file formats coming out of DSLR cameras today, NATIVELY – No transcoding
- We need transitions (duh!)
- We need the ability to incorporate stills
- We need the OPTION to zoom/pan those stills with human controls ala Ken Burns
- We need to easily add music
- We need to be able to EASILY add titles anywhere we want for as long as we want them to be
- We need the ability to easily output various formats for sharing
- I'm assuming we need to easily be able to burn a DVD/Blu-ray for people that want it on a disc
- We need to lose the video vocabulary: I should never see things like CODECs, H.264, 16:9, 4:3, Rendering, etc. in the app. Change the terminology to be simple and plain english. ie. Export for YouTube, Save for HDTV, etc. Remember, these aren't video editors and this App isn't for video editors. They already have lots of Apps.
Those are the ideas off the top of my head for what I would see in a dedicated simple video editing App for photographers. Now let's say this App existed and was reasonably priced. As a photographer would you do video? Do you care or do you feel that video work should be done by people that do video? Or tell me why you're just not interested in doing video if I've missed your reasons.
This will make the shooting part easier
It's called the Zacuto Z-Finder Jr. It goes over the back of your LCD so that you can really have a much better idea of when something is in focus or not. You can get the Zacuto Z-Finder Jr. here from B&H.
Or go with the PRO model if you really want a great one (thanks Bruce):
The Zacuto Z-Finder Pro goes for $375.25 at B&H here.
P.S. My buddy Jason Levine has recorded some videos on DSLR Video Editing. Check them out here.
July 28th, 2010
12:09
So You Think You Can Be A Photoshop Evangelist?
As Adobe's Worldwide Creative Suite Design Evangelist, a lot of people walk up to me at trade shows or send me emails saying "I would love to have your job!" Well here's your chance to show Adobe and the world how great you are:
Calling all Photoshop gurus…
we are hosting a contest to find The Next Photoshop Evangelist and it could be YOU! To enter, you’ll need to submit a video showing us your Photoshop skills. The Grand Prize Winner will Win a trip to Photoshop World in Spring 2011 to demonstrate their video tutorial LIVE!
Now it's up to YOU! Find out the rules and more info on submitting your video here.
Here's a tip: having the coolest technique in the world doesn't mean much if you aren't good at explaining it to others. So while I'm sure that there are people out there that can do amazing work in Photoshop, to be an evangelist also means getting people excited and making them believe that they can do it too!
So let's see if you can impress me, because I am one of the judges
Continue reading “So You Think You Can Be A Photoshop Evangelist?” »
I will cover the technology, gadgets, events and cool toys that have affected me in some way. I will also give recommendations on the products that I have actually used.
April 11th, 2011
12:04