From our New Zealand Workshop

Be sure to come check out our Workshops page here on the site if you want to come to New Zealand with me some time! 🙂

Happy Passport Day!

Thanks again to those of you that are Passport Members – Today you get a special 360-degree behind-the-scenes video at Milford Sound. Well, TWO videos actually! If you don’t know what “Passport” is – well it’s a simple thing… for the price of a couple of cups of coffee per month, you get extra behind-the-scenes stuff, presets, and more. Nothing has changed on the blog… still a new photo and tips every day, but now I’m able to use some cool tech to add more stuff!

1.5 Million Downloads and a Giveaway + Deals to celebrate!

1.5 million downloads for Aurora HDR! Amazing everyone… and that’s only on the Mac (wait till we release the Windows version!! yes yes… still working on it, I promise!). Anyway, to celebrate this number, we’re throwing together a fun package deal just for a short time… it’s a bundle of the software and me newest (and best) HDR Tutorial video I did with Lisa Bettany in Venice.

Giveaway Time! Just Leave a Comment for you and a friend to win!

To celebrate that crazy number of downloads, I’m giving away 5 copies of Season 1 of Becoming an Artist. We filmed the whole thing in Africa, and I think you’re gonna love it… a very personal project chockful of tips & tricks.

To win a copy for yourself and a friend, simply leave a comment below (and, well, say whatever you want!) but also be sure to mention your friend. We’ll pick 5 random winners in the next week! 🙂 Here’s the promo video:

Favorite Photos of Milford Sound

Since I use Aurora HDR pretty much every day of my life, I thought I’d share some of my favorite HDR photos from Milford Sound! If you watch the exclusive PASSPORT videos below, then you get to see how amazing these fjords are all around you! 🙂

Another How-To Video

A HUGE thanks again to those of you that signed up for Passport! Today, I have another video where I show a breakdown of how today’s photo came to be. Enjoy!

A special day in Tekapo (more for Passport members)

Want to see how today’s photo was processed? I do the whole thing from beginning to end… it was kind of a challenging photo, I’ll be honest. Anyway, you’ll see the bonus material at the bottom of this blog post if you’re a Passport Member and THANKS again for all your support! 🙂

On the Way To Earnslaw Burn – And New Passport Video!

Lucky you if you’re a Passport Member as you get two videos two days in a row. This one is another amazing one – I have a patron who has paid a Rather Significant amount of money for me to take some photos (today’s Daily Photo is NOT one of them… just a quick shot I took on the way there). Anyway, this is Part 2 of 3 of more behind the scenes stuff. If you saw Part 1, you got to see me and the crew out on an overnight camping trip where I was trying to get the shots… been working on this project for about a year! Now it’s all finally coming together.

Milford 360 Behind the Scenes

I made a 360 video for Passport Members that shows what it looks like just after you emerge into the fjord side of the tunnel. Normally there are lots of waterfalls and it is rainy, this time, the weather was perfect! Anyway, enjoy… and let me know if you like these 360 videos and I can make more.

TIP: How to use the Samsung Gear 360 Camera when using any Android Phone

This was not easy to figure out! Luckily good man Stu here, my techie right-hand-man at Stuck In Customs figured all this out… here’s how you do it!

Why would you do this?

The Gear 360 can be controlled using its small LCD and the buttons on the device but some functionality available in the app isn’t available using this method.

Main Benefits of the App:

• Only way to unlock images for processing (happens during copy from camera to handset)
• Live view so you can see where the stitching will be and avoid it landing on key areas
• Ability to set ISO, white balance, HDR etc
• Fire the camera wirelessly (you can hide)

In short, the app will function just as it does on a Galaxy handset. The only thing you need to remember is NOT to transfer videos via the App. At the end of transfers the app does some encoding, it’s a drain on battery/time. Just stick the the MicroSD card to from the Gear 360 into your system and copy the videos. Load them into the Gear 360 ActionDirector (bundled with the camera) and it will unlock them for use in your editing software.

Pics, you can transfer those on the app and let them convert so you can work with them in Photoshop, Lightroom, Aurora HDR, etc.

How to install the Gear 360 App

Step 1) Use Google Play to install the Samsung Accessory Service.

Step 2) Enable Unknown Source Installs on your handset. (Settings>General>Fingerprints + Security)

Step 3) Download and install the Gear 360 Manager from here.

Step 4) Launch the Gear 360 App. It should run as normal. The connection initially is via Bluetooth but then it switches to its own Wi-Fi network later on.

Step 5) Switch back the unknown source option to off. (Settings>General>Fingerprints + Security)

That’s it… in theory!

I did read that on some phones if live-view or file browsing doesn’t work you may need to switch the option to for mobile data when on Wi-Fi but opinions varied. If you need it here is the option (Settings>Networks> tap the current network). You can also watch out for new versions of the modified apps over on the XDA forum. Those guys over there have done some great work to make this possible.

Have fun and be sure to share your results in our Facebook Group.

Starry Starry Night

Passport Members get to see a special 360 video below about an hour before I took this photo. Something that’s not in the video that I can tell you now – I shot this with the Leica 21mm at F/1.4. Getting as LOW as possible in that F-Stop is key for getting good star shots.

Fasting Time

I ate and drank so much on my 60-day trip around the world that I added a few LBs! You may remember one point in Grand Cayman where I gained Many Pounds in just a few days. Yes, that was an all-time low. Rock bottom. Anyway, now that I am home I just finished a 3-day fast and am going 0-carb for a few weeks to reset the system. In general, I’m enjoying being a human except for that bit! 🙂

Special Bonus Passport Stuff

Oh, today has more behind-the-scenes stuff for Passport Members at the bottom of this post!

One of the first few lessons was shot right here inside this amazing church in Venice with Lisa Bettany. We had great fun in here… and no one ever stopped us for our tripods. See more in the All-New HDR Tutorial!

Random Tip 3/3

I’m gonna start a new tradition on 3/3 where I give you three random tips. This tradition will go swimmingly until NEXT 3/3 when I will forget all about it. First up…

How do you insert 360 metadata into a Photo

I’ve been using my Panono to make 360 photos. It works great, and when I download from the Panono site, it’s ready to upload to FB and it will recognize it as a 360 file. However, you may see in this Photo of the Baths that I went into Photoshop and erased myself. That deleted all the 360 data. So how to get it back in? My man Stu and I looked into it and here’s how you do it.

There are a few ways to inject 360 information into an image which has lost it during post processing. More technical people can use ExifTool, a command line tool. There is also http://thexifer.net/ an online service which allows you to upload an image and edit the data. By far the easiest though is a local application such as Exif Pilot ( http://www.colorpilot.com/exif.html ). Simply open Exif Pilot, navigate to/select your image and then click “Edit EXIF/ITPC.”

Click the PhotoSphere tab and set the “panorama projection type” to “Equirectangular”. Click “ok”.

Tip 3 is in Passport Section

I added a video for Passport Members but I can give you the skinny here… Tip 3 is all about Google Fi my new Mobile Phone service! Note it’s not a paid placement and I pay full price for everything… but I love it!