Today's Wedding Videographer

Is your idea of a videographer someone running around with big clunky cameras and blinding bright lights? Like sequins, ruffles, and big hair, this wedding service has also evolved.

Today's wedding videos are shot with smaller, high-tech digital cameras that require less lighting, making the whole process less obtrusive. The video captured by these cameras is a higher resolution, resulting in clearer more vibrant images. Audio equipment has also become smaller, and capable of recording clearer audio signals. Editing techniques have also advanced, allowing videographers to turn out a wedding video that flows more like a feature film.

Today more than ever, through online content and social media, videographers and video producers like Treasured Moments have access to a wealth of information to stay current on video trends, techniques and new equipment. We can also see what other company's are creating. It pushes us to produce higher quality videos to stay competitive, which ultimately benefits you.

New Blog from Evolved Studio

http://www.evolvedstudio.com/blog/

Life of a MacBook Pro Battery

I do most of my computing on my trusty MacBook Pro. It's a power house fast enough to replace my old G5 powerPC, and it gives me the flexibility to take my work with me when I travel to a production location. It also acts as an external monitor when I have Adobe's On Location running. However, I've kept it plugged in most of the time. I'm not good at, and don't want to worry about checking the battery levels throughout the day. A year has gone by, and now my laptop just shuts down after a few minutes of use when it's not plugged in. It turns out it's a good idea to routinely "exercise" your battery, draining & charging it, so that this doesn't happen to you. Hopefully I can get my battery back into shape.

Need An Animated Bar Graph?

I recently produced some graphics for an annual report video. I needed to produce 3 bar graphs. I found keynote from Apple's iWork suite very helpful. I was able to quickly produce a 3-D bar graph, that grew and rotated. I then imported a quicktime of the animation into After Effects and used expressions to add a running numbers effect to complement the graph. A great solution to add interest to any chart or bar graph.

Recording in LP mode - Stay away.

SP and LP refer to the speed with which the tape moves over the tape heads when recording your digital video. LP can give you a longer recording time, but increases the chances for dropouts. A dropout is when your camera fails to record an image for a short period. When capturing in LP, the recordings are a slower speed and often have unstable data streams. You may also have trouble playing back a tape that was recorded in LP mode in a different camera or deck. LP should be avoided if at all possible.

Better Wireless Range For Your MacBook Pro

Downloads were taking forever. I though it was because my router was about 150 feet away from my computer. But on further investigation, I came to the conclusion that was only part of the reason my internet connection was lagging. The answer came in the form of a MacBook that I recently purchased as an additional workstation. My MacBook Pro was not getting a good signal, but the MacBook was? If distance was an issue, why could one computer get a strong signal and the other get such a weak one? Well the other part of the problem was in the material. It turns out that the aluminum body of the MacBook Pro was interfering with the already diluted wireless signal. That's why the plastic MacBook didn't have any connection problems. Great. I figured it out, but now what? The solution: I purchased an external usb antenna from newertechnology, called MaxPower. Only $40 from MacSales. It basically replaces the internal airport card, far from any interference from the aluminum casing. You can position the antenna for the best reception, which visually changes in a display with the included wireless utility. I did some internet speed tests and the results were amazing. Over 5x better reception! If you have an aluminum MacBook Pro, and are getting a poor signal, you really can't beat this device.

New Use For Those Old VHS Cases

When's the last time you shipped out or shot on VHS? Those heavy duty plastic VHS cases that are probably just sitting around your studio don't have to be useless. They make excellent shipping containers for small portable drives. These cases are sturdy and actually double walled, providing good protection to the contents inside. Most likely there will even be room for extra packing material, since portable drives are so small.