Mike Morper's Blog

This Isn't Your Father's Pinhole Camera

mike@morper.net — 2008-07-07T06:31:25-07:00

I can remember as a kid in the 7th grade making my first pinhole camera in Mr Wolf’s photography class. I can tell you it looked nothing like this one. Instead, early in my pinhole camera’s life, it dutifully held oatmeal. Fast forward a bunch of years and cameras have sure come a long way. Film is almost a thing of the past. My kids don’t even know what film is, let alone what the Ilford Multigrade Variable Contrast Fiber photographic paper used in my oatmeal pinhole camera twenty something years ago. But it is really cool to see someone taking the time to make some cool pinhole cameras.

The folks at Corbis (the stockphotography gurus) and Readymech (who make cool origami-like toys) have teamed up to put together several designs, including detailed assembly instructions. Check out some of these cameras.

Free downloads: Dr Livingstone | Mother | Pablo | Peyote | WPCDC

In addition to the step-by-step instructions for these pinhole cameras, the great artwork is included in the free downloads for each. Yup, simply point your browser over to the Corbis/Readymech website for these pinhole cameras and download away!

USB Wine Tap: Get Wine from Anywhere, Anytime

mike@morper.net — 2008-07-03T07:34:51-07:00

Yes, this is not real. While US Senator Ted Stevens still thinks the Internet is a series of tubes, these tubes still can’t deliver liquid -- just bits and bytes. But for a few bucks, you can still get this great device.

Two Photographs Accepted into the 2008 Orange County Fair

mike@morper.net — 2008-06-22T19:20:28-07:00

I got two photographs accepted into the Orange County Fair this year. If you happen to be at the fair this year (July 11 through August 3) head over to the Visual Arts building. Thumbails of my two submissions are below. If you want to see a larger image, head over to this page where you can see each of this photographs a bit larger.

“Chopper Monster”

This was shot at Cooks Corner in Trabuco Canyon. The original photograph was of the engine and the fuel tank. I then rotated it, mirrored it, then duplicated the whole thing and mirror that one more time to create this kaleidescope-like affect.

“Half Dome Meadow”

This is one of those right place at the right time shots. This is definitely one of my favorite pictures I’ve taken. I’ve setup a page where these can be purchased. Come and get it :)

New Mobile Google Maps Supports Public Transportion

mike@morper.net — 2008-06-06T06:35:32-07:00

If you don’t already have Google Maps on your mobile phone, here’s another great reason to do so. Now you can get public transit schedules directly on the map itself. Need to find the closest metro stop? No problem. Mobile Google Maps now supports this information for over 50 cities world wide. Check out the video for more details.

The new version of Google Maps for mobile is available to download to your phone at http://www.google.com/gmm from your phone's web browser.

Viewfinder: Aligning Photographs into the 3D World of Google Earth

mike@morper.net — 2008-06-04T05:53:06-07:00

The folks at USC’s Interactive Media Division have got a cool project underway. Viewfinder. Their stated objective is "to provide a straightforward procedure for geo-locating photos of any kind" and specify that "a 10-year-old should be able to find the pose of a photo in less than a minute". If that still sounds like a bit like technical gobbley-goop, here is the idea: You take a picture of someone in front of a landmark. Now you want to superimpose that photo into a 3D world so that the image is perfectly aligned to the model.

Did that help? No??? OK, then watch their video (below) and you will get the idea immediately.

Stuck in an Elevator for 41 Hours

mike@morper.net — 2008-05-29T06:03:57-07:00

Have you ever been stuck in an elevator? I have... twice. Both times were in hotels early in the morning before 7am (I was working for an A/V company at the time during college). Each time was for about 15 minutes. Let me tell you, 15 minutes in an elevator by yourself seems like forever. But how about this poor guy. 41 hours. Click on the picture below to see video surveillance footage of his day and a half stuck in the McGraw-Hill Building in New York.

New Image Compositing, Panoramic Photography Features Coming From Adobe

mike@morper.net — 2008-05-20T06:32:02-07:00

The second demo featured a glimpse into something (IMHO) long overdue in Photoshop -- 360x180 panoramic stitching. In this demo, a series of indexed images were stitched together, resulting in a equirectangular image (just like PTMac or PTGui produces). But wait, there's more. The scene was then mapped to a sphere, allowing John to pan around the image. When he noticed there was a stitch seam that needed to but cleaned up, he simply used Photoshop's existing tools for the clean-up.

Finally!

New Mash Up Album: "Spliced Krispies"

mike@morper.net — 2008-05-03T06:45:10-07:00

Mark Vidler of Go Home Productions discussing "Spliced Krispies"

This album was conceived and created during April 2008. It basically came about after I needed a break from writing / recording original tracks for the 'Kamikaze Runway' album which I'm lining up for this summer and after laying off the bootlegs for several months, I thought I'd take a couple of weeks out to 'dabble' again.

Must admit that I had a lot of fun putting this together. No limitations or pandering to artists / record labels desires, just went headfirst into screwing around with some favourite songs and seeing what turned up. About 2 weeks into April there seemed to be a theme developing with each track and I thought it would be cool to put some visuals to them as I went along. So you've got 11 videos to digest as well, all laid out below with notes on each track to read.

Anyway, grab the album while you can, you can never tell how long I can keep it alive before the Sweeney break down my door...

[Download whole album here]

If you'd like another taste of GHP's mashes, click on the play button below the "Rapture Riders" album cover below. And yes, it is what you're thinking... Rapture Riders is a mix (mash) of Blondie's Rapture and the Doors' Riders on the Storm.

Click play to listen to Rapture Riders by Go Home Productions

It Was Bound to Happen: Beer Cheaper Than Gas Tshirt

mike@morper.net — 2008-05-03T06:42:44-07:00

Backyard Theater Movie Night Gift Certificates

mike@morper.net — 2008-05-02T06:15:05-07:00

Gift certificates are available for both single night as well as whole weekends and can be purchased immediately off the backyardtheaterinabox.com website. A personalized gift certificate is emailed to the purchaser. Both the purchaser and the recipient's names are included on the gift certificate. Here is a sample gift certificate for you to get an idea.

For more information on our gift certificates, please jump over to the backyardtheaterinabox.com gift certificates page.

2008 Economic Stimulus Package Payment Calculator

mike@morper.net — 2008-04-29T07:19:37-07:00

The 2008 Economic Stimulus Package payment calculator is pretty straight forward. To use it, you really need to have your 2007 tax return in front of you as the calculator will ask you for specific line items from your 1040. If you want to read more about the Stimulus Package, the IRS has a good set of pages up on their site which explains it all.

backyardtheaterinabox.com Spring Newsletter

mike@morper.net — 2008-04-21T06:51:01-07:00

This issue provides some great tips and ideas for your backyard theater, movie watching entertainment.

And to make sure our newsletter subscribers don't get unwanted inbox clutter, backyardtheaterinabox.com use a system call double opt-in. That means that not only do you need to complete a very brief subscription form but also take two seconds to click on a link that will be sent to your email address confirming your subscription. We hate spam as much as you, so we do stuff like this to minimize unnecessary inbox clutter. Hopefully, you appreciate our efforts.

Digital Cameras: What to Buy - Point-and-Shoot or a DSLR

mike@morper.net — 2008-03-26T06:21:17-07:00

Immediate recommendation
Go buy an entry level digital SLR. Both Nikon and Canon have great products. Easy to use and you will be able to happily use either of them for the next 20 years. Personally, I am biased to Canon as I think they do a better job with the innards of the cameras. But both are excellent and have offerings in the <$800.00 range which includes camera, lens and built-in flash.

Canon: 450D review (this is a new model about to be released replacing the Rebel XTi)
Nikon: D60 review

If you need to get a point-and-shoot, get a Canon. They make all the innards of their devices -- from the top of the line, to the most cost-effective point-and-shoot. As a result, you get very good technology and quality. I personally really like this Canon point-and-shoot: G9. We have a four year old version of this camera, and it is OK for basic point-and-shoot stuff.

Long-winded explanation and examples below...

Budget
Budget will immediately dictate the kind of camera you get. If you're not opposed to parting with up to $800.00, then you can either get a digital SLR (DSLR) or obviously a point-and-shoot. If you want to stay under $500.00, then you're in the point-and-shoot world.

DSLR vs Point-and-Shoot
If you want something that you can throw in your purse, and easy cart around with you then go with a point-and-shoot. The convenience of a small, compact camera is huge. We have both a point-and-shoot as well as my DSLR. I use the DSLR for my artsy photography as well as for the family "big" events or when I want to make sure I will absolutely get the right picture.

Advantages of a DSLR
Interchangeable lenses. You won't need this now, but at some point in the future (think soccer, and other events) you will. DSLRs offer huge flexibility in "zoom" factor by easy interchanging lenses. Point-and-shoots just don't have the ability to get a good shot of junior from a distance greater than 20 feet. At that distance, you're most likely not going to be able to tell its your kid or not. They all look the same in their bright red uniforms chasing the ball.

Fast shutter response. If you've ever used a point-and-shoot digital camera, you know that there is a lag from the time you push down on the button to the time the picture is actually taken. I won't kill you with the techie reasons as to why this happens, but let's just say this will common to all point-and-shoot cameras. Some have less lag than others, but they all do it. You will find this lag to really be a bummer when you're trying to get a picture of junior doing one of his "firsts" and the camera is sitting their doing something while you're pushing the button. DSLRs have zero lag. They take the picture immediately.

For this reason alone, I have a good buddy who's wife bought a DSLR (she literally knew nothing about cameras) after she couldn't get a shot of one of their kinds doing something due to the lag. She now is a DSLR pro and loves her camera.

Pixels (and megapixels). First a definition. Megapixels is like the square area measurement of the image sensor in the camera. Specifically, it is the density of image sensors. As long as you think megapixels is equivalent to square area, your most of the way there. Now... not all pixels are created equal. It would be like saying 2,500 square feet of house in Newport Beach, CA has the same value as 2,500 square feet of house in Watts, CA. Sure, they are both the same area in size, but the value is certainly different. Well, same sorta idea holds true for digital cameras megapixels. If you look at a point-and-shoot 8 megapixel (8 MP) camera and a DSLR 8 MP camera, they are not equals. Megapixels is the camera industry's great lie. Here are the truths you should know:

1. Equal sized megapixel counts on a point-and-shoot and DSLR will not result in the same quality picture. The density of the image sensors that produce these "pixels" vary from the point-and-shoots to the DSLRs. The DSLRs do a much better job of evaluating the light and capturing the image. Point-and-shoot produced images will tend to look "noisy" when enlarged or when the pictures are taken in low light.

2. You don't need more than about 8 megapixels
As consumers, we're all led to believe bigger is better. Well, for 90% of consumer photographers, you will never have a need for anything much about 4 or 5 megapixels. Why? You only need about 4 megapixels to enlarge a picture to 8x10. Now, how often will you be doing that? Exactly. :)

So why 8 megapixels (or something greater than 4 or 5)? One of the upsides to capturing an image with a lot of pixels is for cropping. Take a look at my example below.

In the original picture I took of these turtles, I was kind of far away. However, I can "zoom" in on the turtles by cropping the picture down on the computer. While I started with an 8 megapixel image (think square area of pixels), the resulting image is about 2 megapixels of square area. That is probably still enough to get an OK 5x7 print. Make sense? So there is value to lots of megapixels in this case. Of course, if you zoom in tight to your subject matter to begin with, then you don't need as many pixels. Hopefully, that makes sense too.

So what size megapixel camera should you get? If you get a DSLR, you'll be getting about 10-12 megapixels -- that's what's being manufactured. Point-and-shoot is a different story. I would recommend getting the most current model camera and limit your selection to Canon or Nikon (Canon preferred). Other manufacturers may tout 10 or even 14 megapixels in their point-and-shoots, but I can tell you they are crappy sensors in those cameras.

Last recommendation
Get a good program to manage your pictures. It's really hard to find a certain picture if it is just parked in a folder on your computer with 10,000 other pictures in the same folder. If you have a Mac, iPhoto is great. If you don't, no worries.... go download Picasa from Google. It's really good and it is free. Last but not least... regardless of what app you use to manage your pictures, be sure and also buy a backup hard drive and back up your pictures!

Remember, your memories are no longer prints in a shoebox or a photo album. They are bits and bytes on a hard drive that will fail! Keep them backed up onto a second drive.

Morper Photographs Now Available for Purchase

mike@morper.net — 2008-02-11T17:38:21-08:00

I'm quite proud of this shot and for now, it will be the closet I get to an Ansel Adams-like photograph. I consider myself unbelievably lucky to be in Yosemite during a full moon. And as I was driving out of the park, I captured this image. It is truly one of my favorites and for these reasons, I have selected it to be my first photograph to be sold off this site.

If you're interested in purchasing this photograph, I have a few different size and presentation options available. Check out my Half Dome Meadow sale page for more details. And of course, if you do want to purchase this or any of my other photographs, I consider it a privilege to find someone else has enough interest in my work to hang it in their home or office.

Thanks again!

U2 3D The Movie is Very Cool

mike@morper.net — 2008-02-10T19:45:47-08:00

I suspect by this point in my life, I have seen well over 100 live shows. U2 has set a new threshold for entertainment. U2 3D the movie is one hour twenty five minutes of unmatched concert entertainment. While the music was good, the cinematography and 5.1 Dolby Digital audio mix was incredible. Shot in South America during the Vertigo tour, U2 put on a great show, Bono is absolutely a great entertainer, but this whole package was just amazing. Go see it before it goes away.

Intelligent White Board

mike@morper.net — 2008-02-05T20:34:12-08:00

Basically, this is a demonstration of some technology being developed at MIT. Not only can the drawing a dry erase marker be captured to a computer, but logic is inherently applied to the resulting diagram. Words can't give this one justice -- just watch the video. Now I wonder if office services can get me one of these thangs?

Seam Carvning Coming to Photoshop Plugin: Courtesy of OnOne Software

mike@morper.net — 2008-01-25T06:12:38-08:00

A free public beta of Liquid Resize for both Windows and Mac OS X users will be available in late January 2008 as a stand-alone application from the onOne Software Web site. A Photoshop plug-in version of Liquid Resize is expected to be available in the middle of 2008. Pricing has not yet been announced for the final version of Liquid Resize that will be released later in 2008.

I'm looking forward to seeing how this technology advances. I can absolutely see this technology assisting in the editing and seam blending of panoramic images. Time will tell.

Flickr and the Library of Congress: Tagging Public Pictures

mike@morper.net — 2008-01-21T05:45:27-08:00

The goal of the project is to provide exposure to these rarely seen images and to harness the Flickr community to compile missing data -- like the photographer, subject, and copyright holder.

View or contribute: The Library of Congress' Photos on flickr

Do you know anything about these pictures below? These and one million more are up on flickr needing to be identified.

Major Music Labels and Their Downward Spiral - We're all Thieves to the RIAA

mike@morper.net — 2008-01-09T05:46:32-08:00

For related Foolishness, see the following articles: The RIAA's beatings go on and The music industry's in a downward spiral.

Mike's Soap Box
Until the likes of Kazaa and Napster, the major labels not only enjoyed significant year-over-year growth, but huge margins that came along with this growth. At no time did the industry consider reducing the price of their offering (namely CDs) nor even consider how their customer may want to consume them product in the future. Peer-to-peer filing trading applications like the two previously mentioned not only accelerated the demise of the music industries' business model -- huge margin packaged in a CD which must be fulfilled through a brick-and-morter or amazon.com-like company -- but it also accelerated the paranoia that DRM was required to counter this changing tide.

SonyBMG: DRM and Rootkit:
If you want to see how well DRM and rootkits, worked for SonyBMG, here are a couple of older posts I did on the subject.

While I don't condone the use of illegal "procurement" of anything -- music included -- but frankly, this whole notion that consumers would like to use the product they purchased whenever and where ever they want is not unreasonable. If I buy some music, I want to take it with me in the car, on my bike or even play it on my home stereo system. That's not unreasonable. And digital media (MP3, AAC, WMA... whatever three letter acronym you want to use for the file format of the music) makes this easy. Unfortunately, the major music label's business strategy was to maximize profits through the delivery of physical media -- a CD -- and for the content to stay on that. This preserved their margins.

Well, the CD is quickly going the way of the dinosaurs, yet the labels have not matured their business model. Instead of innovate, they litigate.

Major Music Labels Move Away from DRM for all the Wrong Reasons: The Apple Implications

mike@morper.net — 2008-01-05T08:38:21-08:00

Digital Rights Management (DRM) is a method to protect the intellectual assets of the producer of the material. In this case, DRM is used to insure that only the rightful licensee or owner of the music track is able to play it. I have no issue with this and believe artists and labels are entitled to appropriate compensation for their work.

However, the challenges with DRM are multi-faceted:

DRM is proprietary. As a result, the ability to playback the legitimately licensed content on any device of the consumer's choosing is limited. DRM'd music will only playback on devices supporting that particular "flavor" of the DRM algorithm employed.

DRM limits distribution. Because DRM is proprietary, channels of distribution become very limited. To illustrate, let's pretend that gasoline is DRM'd. Because I drive a VW, I would be limited to only purchasing gas from those stations which are compatible with my car. And this is not a question of diesel or 91 octane unleaded. Nope. This is a conversation around station A's 91 octane is different than station B's 91 octane.

So why do the labels want to get rid of DRM? It has nothing to do with the consumer's well being and ability to consume the content on any device they want, rather it has everything to do with broadening distribution.

Apple paranoia
All of the labels are paranoid of Apple. They realize Apple has a monopoly on downloadable distribution of music. According to the Apple Q4 2007 conference call transcript, Apple has an 85% marketshare in the legally downloadable music category. And while I could not find the source for this blog post, I recently read somewhere that Apple is believed to be responsible for 20% of all music sales in the US. Supporting this notion, during the same conference call (see transcript), Apple is now the third largest distributor of music worldwide. While these are terribly impressive numbers, it is also humbling to recognize the iTunes Store is not the source of measurable net profit for Apple. Unconfirmed reports target its margin in the 10% range.

The Apple business strategy is clearly around driving iPod sales. The iTunes music content is simply a means to the end. By doing an admirable job of making the user experience of finding, purchasing and digesting the content into their music player, Apple has made the consumer's experience a very positive, enjoyable process. And for this, Apple drove over $2 billion in gross sales in Q4 2007. Not bad.

Is DRM driving Apple's Success?
No. DRM is still as much a hinderance to Apple consumers as it is to anyone else. Like DRM'd content from other distribution sources, Apple consumers cannot playback FairPlay (the name for the Apple DRM algorithms) protected content on other devices such as a TiVo, SqueezeBox or any other digital music playback device. The difference however, Apple has significantly minimized the pain by making the complete value chain from finding the content to sticking on a portable music device (iPod) close to painless for its consumers. Remember, it is not Apple driving for DRM'd music on their music store, it is the labels.

If the iTunes music store did not have DRM'd content, would Apple lose share? My guess is no for the reasons I shared above. It is the whole consumer experience that Apple has nailed. Remember, Steve Jobs last year began to advocate for the elimination of DRM. More content is only better for Apple. DRM is a choke point for Apple, not an enabler.

The real differentiation for Apple is the flawless connection between the music store and the portable music device. Right now, the iTunes software does not support any other hardware than Apple's iPod. This is the real value and critical point of Apple's success. In my opinion, the day Apple is forced to support other hardware devices with the iTunes software will mark the high point in their marketshare.

In closing
Sony BMG dropping DRM is inevitable. But Sony BMG and the other labels are doing it for the wrong reasons. They are doing it so they can have non-proprietary content available from multiple channels of distribution. This is good for consumers to an extent, but will still in the end be a less-than-rich consumer experience. Because the major labels believe that the Apple music download music monopoly is what is driving their success, the major labels are going to "peanut butter" their content all over the place. That is, not provide their complete portfolio of content in any one location. And as a result, the consumer is going to have to hunt and peck all over the net to find the DRM free content they want. Instead of going to one outlet to find, purchase and download the content they want -- just like the Apple iTunes Store provides today.

The major labels need to recognize what kind of company Apple is -- they are a hardware company, selling hardware at margins higher than their competition. Apple is not a record label and I don't see them becoming one anytime soon. And certainly not a record label employing the same go-to-market strategy as the big labels today. Music is simply the gas for the Apple engine. DRM'd or not, Apple is going to continue to focus on their sustained differentiation -- a value rich, end-to-end user experience. Note to the music labels -- Apple redefined themselves in the mid '90s, you need to do the same too. Focus on your sustaining differentiation. And if you don't know what it is, you have other issues.

Star Wars IV.... in ASCII (A Geek's Dream)

mike@morper.net — 2006-04-15T18:24:42-07:00

Is the Lost Island Found?

mike@morper.net — 2006-12-18T08:00:33-08:00

EFF Open Letter to SunnComm (aka The Clowns That Created the Sony Rootkit)

mike@morper.net — 2005-12-09T20:27:09-08:00

To ensure that all affected consumer received notice of the problem and to reduce the possibility that such problems will re-occur, we urge SunnComm International, Inc. and MediaMax Technology Corp. to promptly:

1. Publish a list of every CD, regardless of label, that employs the MediaMax technology, including the version.
2. Provide every other label using MediaMax with information about the vulnerability, and confirm this to EFF.
3. Work with those labels to quickly and effectively resolve the security vulnerability.
4. Publicly commit to ensuring that MediaMax software does not install when the user clicks "No."
5. Publicly commit to including true uninstallers in all versions of MediaMax software.
6. Publicly commit to providing all future MediaMax software to an independent security testing firm, and to the public release of the results of such test.
We look forward to a prompt response affirming your intent to take the above steps and setting forth a timeline for their completion.

Sincerely,
Kurt Opsahl
Staff Attorney, Electronic Frontier Foundation

Ding, Dong the (Sony Rootkit) Witch is Dead

mike@morper.net — 2005-01-20T06:58:24-08:00

Pending the processing of the exchange programme, consumers would also receive an email with details of a Website where they could download the music tracks as unprotected MP3 files.

Details of the swap program can be found on http://cp.sonybmg.com/xcp/. Music CDs with the copy-protection software can be identified by a web address containing the letters XCP printed on the back of the box.

Sony's Stupidity Continues

mike@morper.net — 2005-01-19T20:52:42-08:00

Sony BMG Has Gone Way Overboard on DRM

mike@morper.net — 2005-01-12T07:46:07-08:00

And the best part, Sony BMG isn't fessin' up and saying, "OK we made a mistake and didn't really understand/tell anyone/realize that the rootkit that we're installing is actually classified as a trojan horse virus."

My favorite part is that Sony BMG has resorted to distributing "patches" to their rootkit by Symantec. Ummmm, isn't Symantec the antivirus people? Way to go Sony. I'm done with you.

Fly with Me: Podcast Recording of Cockpit Discussions of JetBlue Emergency Landing at LAX

mike@morper.net — 2005-11-21T06:58:34-08:00

Listen to Fly with Me Episode 8.5

First Google Maps, Now Google Moon Maps (Sorta)

mike@morper.net — 2005-07-20T06:28:17-07:00

And where do I find such valuable gems as this one? Be sure and check out BoingBoing.net.

Bullseye! NASA Nails the Comet

mike@morper.net — 2005-07-24T06:54:31-07:00

But if you really wanna see something cool, check out this movie of the Deep Impact probe approaching the comet. Yup, this is the real thang. Images were taken by the probe as it approached. Really amazing.

World Wide Panorama Events: Best of 2007, Wrinkle in Time Contributions

mike@morper.net — 2008-01-01T07:04:52-08:00

In addition to the Wrinkle in Time event contribution, I also submitted my "Cooks Corner - Biker Bar in the OC" in the Best of 2007 event which also went live this morning on the World Wide Panorama website. For this event, the theme was simple -- contribute your best panoramic photograph taken during the year. 225 photographers contributed panoramas to this event from all over the world.

[ View: Mike Morper's "Best of 2007" World Wide Panorama Event contribution ]

And like the Wrinkle in Time project, all of the photographs for this event can also be viewed in Google Earth.

2007 in Review: JibJab Style

mike@morper.net — 2007-12-22T21:29:34-08:00

Set to the melody of Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire" this is a great year in review. Happy viewing...

Fred Miranda's Photoshop Automation Scripts Updated for CS3, Intel Macs, Vista

mike@morper.net — 2007-12-20T05:56:49-08:00

SI Pro
The new SI Pro v2.5 plugin, now compatible with Photoshop CS3 and Windows Vista, gives photographers access to powerful and flexible options for customizing their own image interpolation outputs. It is the result of many months of development and based on the feedback we received from many professional photographers looking for the highest quality print output. The SI Pro v2.5 plugin is the next generation interpolation tool and replaces the popular SI Pro plugin. This new essential digital darkroom tool features improved algorithms, added options to choose from pre-set and custom paper sizes, pixel dimension, margins, printer resolution and even interpolates your images by scale. A powerful downsampling option was also added to SI Pro v2.5 making this plugin ideal for your interpolation and downsampling workflow.

The main concept of this professional plugin is to offer one solution for all digital files, including scanned film. It works with both English and Metric unit systems, therefore encompassing any printing media available.
Fine, Normal and Coarse SI Interpolation intensities as well as optional smart sharpening can also be added to your desired interpolation method. For your high ISO files, the new SI Pro v2.5 offers the option of removing color noise while preserving pixel information intact.

*8 or 16-bit color depth available for Photoshop 6, 7, CS, CS2 and CS3. Photoshop Elements versions will work with 8 bit files only.

Intellisharpen
The Intellisharpen v2.5 Plugin is a new sharpening technology specific designed to accommodate all digital files including scanned film. This plugin is compatible with JPEG files straight from the camera or TIFF/JPEG files converted from RAW files. (Compatible with all digital camera files.)

Although Intellisharpen's interface appears simple and intuitive, complexity makes this plugin very smart. It provides haloless sharpening, edgesharpening, luminance sharpening, mode sharpening, and more with just the press of a button. With this plugin you can choose from low or high ISO settings. Other options allow you to sharpen fine detail. Photographers can choose from 100 Intellisharpen intensity levels and 100 sharpen fine detail levels. You can even reduce color noise from high ISO files. Another feature unique to Intellisharpen v2.5, is that you can save and load your own Intellisharpen settings.

In addition you have the ability to preview settings and tweak intensity results for maximum control over your work.

RSS Feeds Galore: Blog and Photography Updated for morper.net

mike@morper.net — 2007-12-19T06:02:36-08:00

Photography Feeds
abstract photography
architecture photography
black and white photography
landscape photography
panoramas photography

Blog Feed
Ramblings from Mike

Notice: RSS Feed For morper.net Blog is Changing

mike@morper.net — 2007-12-17T06:03:26-08:00

Why the cut over to a new url at http://feeds.morper.net/morperblog? Well, I have figured out a way to create some cool photography feeds. As I update pictures on this site, a specific photography feed will shuttle off to you new pictures. Yeah, yeah, yeah... I know, but it is fun. :)

As a reminder, please update your feed readers or aggregators now. I will have the new feed url live in the next few days.

Reality Advertising Done Right: Kudos to Burger King

mike@morper.net — 2007-12-15T07:19:45-08:00

In this hidden camera style video, we get to see how people react when they are told the Whopper has been permanently discontinued, as well as how customers react when the bags they are given contain not Whoppers, but Big Mac’s or Wendy’s burgers.

Photograph Enlarged on Canvas: Success!

mike@morper.net — 2007-12-08T16:56:24-08:00

While on a trip to Hawaii I took a picture of some cool banyan tree vines (see my landscape photography section for the Banyan Vines photograph). After a bit of playing around with the image, I created a toned version that has a similar look to some of the furnishings in our house. Bingo! The right subject matter. Now where to get the print done...

I had used digitalroom.com for some printing for my backyardtheaterinabox.com gig and was pretty happy with the results. One day, I got a promo piece from them -- output to canvas. Long story short, I enlarged the banyan vine image to 40x60 inches, uploaded to them and a few days later I had my canvas print. All that was left after that was getting the canvas stretched onto a frame. And that's where Michael's came in.

It took about three weeks in total (from uploading the picture to digitalroom.com to the time Michael's finished the stretching. As you can see in the picture above, I think it came out pretty good.

The Machine is Us/ing Us

mike@morper.net — 2007-12-06T06:23:18-08:00

Stop Motion Movie: Star Wars Episode 5.5: Revenge of the Rebel Snow Speeder

mike@morper.net — 2005-05-25T06:17:42-07:00

Stop action stuff
My son did all the scene grabs with iStopMotion, I moved the LEGOs around. The opening scene with the LEGO / Star Wars logo was created Fotomagico, then imported into iMovie for integration with the rest of the movie.

Audio
The Star Wars theme was "liberated" from one of our DVDs using Audio Hijack Pro (great application). Sound effects during the movie were obtained at sounddogs.com, while the voice over was my son recording what he thought was going in the movie while he watched it. The voice over itself was recorded also using Audio Hijack Pro. Basically, I turned on iChat, and "hijacked" the audio being recorded in iChat and saved that to disk.

With all of the audio captured, I brought it all into iMovie as well, as well the rest is movie magic :)

Bridges: A World Wide Panorama September 18-22, 2004

mike@morper.net — 2004-08-15T20:28:21-07:00

Then on the Solstice weekend, June 19-21, 2004 more than 110 photographers in 32 countries around the world created VR panoramas with the common theme of World Heritage. This site showcases the results of their efforts.

Huh, maybe someone up near Santa Cruz, California will go and shoot the covered bridge in Felton I shot a few years ago. Great bridge. I'm going to try and participate in this Bridge project, but I'm having a tough time thinking about a bridge anywhere around here that's even remotely interesting. I've got some (creative) thinking to do.

SlideShowPro: Create Flash-based Slide Shows with Lightroom

mike@morper.net — 2007-12-05T06:51:50-08:00

SlideShowPro is a highly customizable application for producing stunning Flash-based slideshows. Be sure and check out the examples page on what you can do with SlideShowPro.

From within the Lightroom Web module you can upload directly to the Web server of your choice. You can also upload to Dominey's SlideShowPro Director hosting service, which offers online tools for browsing and managing your uploaded library. The gallery costs $25, and hosting is available at various rates (free for 14 days).

Cost: US $25.00

JibJab: Second Term

mike@morper.net — 2005-01-20T06:47:25-08:00

And here is your chance to pick up a little piece of history (OK, and support the JibJabbers). They were commissioned by the LA Times to create this poster for the Sunday Opinion section of the paper.

The poster is available in three sizes:

Prices are all reasonable. So what are you waiting for? Pick up your copy today.

Jibjab Does it Again... On the Way to DC!

mike@morper.net — 2004-10-08T21:06:37-07:00

New Landscape Photograph: Half Dome Meadow

mike@morper.net — 2007-12-02T19:48:31-08:00

This picture was captured at the same time as my previous shot, just pulled out a bit. I particularly like how the sun is painting the tree in the foreground so nicely. To see this shot enlarged, head over to the landscape photography section of my site and click on its thumbnail.

Happy viewing!

New Landscape Photograph: Moonrise Over Yosemite

mike@morper.net — 2007-11-26T06:19:41-08:00

As we were driving out of the Yosemite Valley, I noticed a couple of tripods setup in a meadow with two photographers talking -- clearly waiting for something. As I looked back over my shoulder (yeah still driving), I saw what they were waiting for -- the moonrise.

I was able to take this shot along with a few others during the moonrise. I'm quite happy with the way in turned out.

If you'd like to see a larger version of this photograph, please jump over to my landscape photography section and click on the Moonrise Over Half Dome thumbnail.

I plan to have a few more photographs from Yosemite up over the next week or so.

Aperture 1.0 Users get a Apple Store Credit

mike@morper.net — 2006-04-13T07:30:57-07:00

Hmmmm, me thinks Apple realized they released a less-than-stellar product. Please let me know the last time you saw Apple (or any other manufacturer for that matter) reduce the cost of a product between dot versions!

OK, good form that Apple realized their user community was less than happy about the 1.0 release (check out the forums if you don't believe me) and took corrective measures. According to the Apple site:

On April 13, 2006 Apple released Aperture 1.1, the first Universal version of Aperture and a significant update to the revolutionary all-in-one post-production tool for photographers. In addition, Apple lowered the price of Aperture from $499 to $299. Apple is offering a $200 e-coupon good on the online Apple Store to licensed users of Aperture 1.0. Licensed users of Aperture 1.0 Academic will receive a $100 e-coupon.

Here is a link to the coupon.
So maybe I'll go back and try using Aperture again. 1.0 was useless in my mind (waaay to slow, and I have a pretty good system too).

New Panoramic Image Stitcher on the Block

mike@morper.net — 2006-02-16T07:17:20-08:00