Aron Smetana

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Article: The rise of bokeh photography

The rise of bokeh photography
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17893212

Article written by Paul Mason Economics editor, Newsnight

One of Occupy's "illuminators", filmed using the bokeh effect

Put on your shades and pull the high collar of your black robe high like Keanu Reeves in the Matrix - we are going to be talking about reality, and its depiction on film. Or on digital video to be precise. We are going to be talking about bokeh.

Bokeh is a Japanese term used by photographers to describe that pleasing effect where the background of a photo is defocused, often into blobs or hexagons, while the subject is razor sharp. It's what you need a real lens for, and it's produced by the effect of the little blades that open and close the aperture, letting the light onto the sensor.

If you're sharp-eyed you will notice bokeh has suddenly splattered onto your TV screen, as journalists have begun to use Digital SLR cameras to shoot video (trailing by about two years the practice of activists and demonstrators). Normal TV cameras, costing maybe five times as much as a Canon 5D MkII , don't really do Bokeh. They're designed to keep more of the scene in focus, and to maximize clarity over moodiness.

Now while documentary TV teams and arts programmes have been using SLR lenses for a couple of years now on TV, the startling thing has been its use by frontline cameramen in wars and revolutions, most notably in Libya and Syria by BBC cameramen and others.

In a series of three films I've just made for Newsnight in America, we decided to go Bokeh. My cameraman, Peter Murtaugh, used a Sony video camera called NEXFS100. Basically a square box that takes SLR lenses and can shoot very high quality video on a 35mm sensor (so every frame it takes has the same quality as a 35mm film shot).

We fitted it with Nikon SLR lenses - for camera nerds a 50mm f1.4 prime, the veteran 17-35mm wide zoom, keeping the Sony kit lens (18-200mm) for long shots. And we shot at 24 frames per second - the same as in celluloid feature films.

The most important change was: we didn't need lights. For anything. The 50mm prime, at f1.4, allows you to shoot interviews by candlelight, and captures a night-time demonstration well. Instantly relieved of carting a lighting kit around Manhattan, everybody in the team (producer, cameraman, reporter) became happier.

I should add here, that shooting this way has been pioneered by the producer on these films, Warwick Harrington, in his Peabody-award winning series White Horse Village.

Second - and this may be purely psychological, and may not last - we were able to run interview clips for longer because the picture, and the face, is more interesting. A head shot in an interview no longer felt like a dead shot.

You do miss the ability to zoom. For action we found ourselves increasingly having to switch to the Sony 200mm zoom lens, which is not as good as the others. However, what happens is you compensate by shooting action in a more photographic way - letting people and things move through a static shot.

And as all stills photographers know, shooting news with a wide zoom forces you to get inside the action.

A final operational change was, among the Occupy protesters, people tended to assume we were not a network news crew. Which is an advantage.

Now to the point raised by, among others, TV critic Charlie Brooker (read his article here): all this makes news look more filmic and can therefore be distorting reality. I have been fascinated and concerned by this ever since I saw the BBC and rival networks start using SLRs to shoot the Libya conflict.

The base case is, the SLR-shot video is tangibly different from the live studio shots that surround it, and from all other video output on the bulletin, and from the past. Therefore it is privileging the action, or giving it an extra narrative feel that distances us from the maybe horrific events.

Obviously some of these objections will go away over time, if all TV video gets shot in HD through shallow-depth lenses. But you will still be left with the contrast with the studio. And, for example, a football match will never - not soon anyway - be able to be shot like this (though all stills sport photography uses the same technique) - so "news" will feel different from other captured live reality.

However there is one bigger objection - millions of people now shoot actuality video themselves, on their Androids and iPhones. And the video here has the exact opposite quality to that shot on an SLR, or on a movie-style camera such as we used. It is grainy; it is "interlaced", so on every paused shot you will see blurring. The sound is tinny, the shot always wobbly etc.

So, taking stock, what's happening is that the potential sources of "news" footage are now four different technologies:

- the legacy cameras from the tape era which will always beat an SLR for long-range clarity but not rich colour, or bokeh

- iPhone footage with its unchallengeable "truth"

- SLR-shot footage, with or without a slower frame rate to make it look filmic

- live, static versions of the old TV cameras, with lighting etc in a studio or live satellite position.

- You could add, for increasingly cash strapped programmes that can't afford satellite feeds, Skype interviews.

- And while I think about it, there is also the GoPro, an ultra-wide, ultra-sharp mini camera people use to film themselves, ski-ing, surfing and taking their dog in their kayak etc.

There's suddenly a high diversity of image quality in news footage. I think the modern viewer is OK with this (I can remember picture editors "rejecting" early mobile footage on the grounds that it did not conform to broadcast standards).

But what it forces the video journalist to do is - where they are taking a positive choice - to justify why they're using a particular type of image, or shot. It also breaks up the profession, in the sense that 10 years ago, if a cameraperson and reporter arrived on a scene and the producer said shoot A, B and C, everybody would swing into action in the same way, even if they had never before met. Not true now.

Myself, I am in the mode described by Cole Porter in his famously double-entendre laden song: "Experiment". But even while experimenting you have to justify and assess your results.

Watch my Bokeh film on the car industry here, and for more Bokeh glory, watch Newsnight tonight at 10.30pm on BBC Two.

Watch Paul's full report on bokeh on Tuesday 30 April 2012 at 10.30pm on BBC Two, then afterwards on the BBC iPlayer and Newsnight website.

(via Instapaper)

Brief message sent from a mobile device

How to keep your staff

TechRadar: All latest feeds

Losing a valued employee can have an adverse effect on a business, especially those in specialist, niche areas, where it's hard to recruit and find skilled employees. Not only does it mean that you have to put the business on hold while you recruit, there's also the time lost to you as a business owner while you recruit, and there's the cost of running recruitment adverts. According to a February 2012 survey by the British Chambers of commerce over 40 percent of companies estimate the cost of recruiting a new employee is more than £2000, and in more than half (53 percent) of the businesses surveyed, the business owner is the person responsible for recruitment.

The simple way to reduce the effect of losing staff is to keep staff for longer, you stand to save a lot of time and money and in the process you'll also be creating a loyal and happy workforce.

Delegating, listening and encouraging

Too many business owners refuse to pass on responsibilities and this can have a negative effect on your employees. Delegation is one way of building trust in the workforce. Don't micro-manage your employees, instead allow them to use their own initiative and they in turn will feel empowered to make decisions and meet their goals.

Listening and encouraging people and giving credit where it's due are also key elements of good communication. This includes avoiding excessive criticism or blame, but finding out what the root problem is and addressing it, and perhaps introducing training as required. Training staff and investing in expanding and improving their skills maybe expensive but it helps them to understand that you value them and that you want them to be the best at what they do.

There's no I in team

Another important skill worth developing is team work. Business owners are used to doing things and making decisions on their own, for many business owners the ability to do what you want, when you want, was one of the main driving forces behind starting a business. Creating teams is one way of reinforcing loyalty. For example, if an employee works as part of team, that they feel happy and comfortable with, then the decision to move will be harder to make than if they work on their own.

Additionally people like working in teams and believe that they're more effective in teams. A Vodafone survey from January 2012 showed employees where clear about the negative impacts of not working effectively as a team. The most serious of these were delayed decision-making (named by 31 percent), unhappy customers through poor response (29 percent), missing targets because of lack of timely input from colleagues (28 percent), and making the wrong decisions because of lack of access to the right people and information (28 percent).

Creating teams involves understanding the different personalities in the team, and it involves helping them to work together, it also involves working in close proximity to the rest of your staff, you can create teams if you sit in a separate office all day. You need to get out and about and you need to be part of the team.

Creating staff incentives and perks

Though they may carry a financial cost, staff initiative schemes can also be highly effective. A well thought-out system of incentives and perks can help to retain staff in the long term. They can also be used to recognise good work and initiative, and encourage staff members and teams to compete for the prize.

Perks and awards often carry tax breaks for the business. These include occupational pensions, health insurance, season tickets and social events such as Christmas parties. Subsidies for training might also be available, as well as membership of social clubs or a gym. All of these can help the workforce to feel valued, while giving them a more enjoyable working experience.

Rewards can also take other forms, for example there are many local and national award schemes for best business teams and best employees/ Why not enter your teams or your best employee in for an award? Even if they don't win, it still shows that you care enough to regard them as valuable, both to you and the business.

Flexible working

Flexible working is one of the key things that new employees are looking for. According to a 2010 study by professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, flexible working was more than twice as important to staff than more traditional benefits such as performance-related bonuses. In the survey flexible working was rated as the most important benefit by 47 percent of respondents, whilst bonuses came in second with 19 percent.

Just because you offer flexible working doesn't mean that you're losing staff or work time, there are plenty of technologies such as smartphones, cloud technologies, laptops, tablets, remote email etc that allow staff to work from home or on the move and there's plenty of data to show that staff working from home are actually more effective because there are fewer interruptions and it's easier to concentrate away from the office.

Make the office a home from home

Finally, getting the working environment right can really help things, particularly if employees are going to spend long hours in the office. An attractively decorated office, kitchen and rest areas can improve morale massively. Features that can help here include colourful and leafy plants, beautiful paintings and interesting lighting.

You may also want to create a business culture where people work hard and play hard. If this is the case, it could be worth investing in a decent pool table or a games console and flat screen, or a relaxing area with beanbags and sofas. Your staff will never want to go home.

Sent with Reeder

Brief message sent from a handheld device.

How To Import Contacts into Office 365 and Outlook Web Access

Petri IT Knowledgebase

Overview

If you're a new user of Office 365, you may be excited at the ability to connect to your work email as easily as you've been connecting to your personal Hotmail account. With always on service and the ability to connect to your work email from anywhere, your productivity is sure to improve.

Free Trial: Hosted Email Security for Business

GFI MailEssentials Complete Online™ is a comprehensive hosted email security and spam filtering service that is extremely easy to deploy and maintain.

As a cloud-based service, GFI MailEssentials Complete Online uses top-notch hosted spam filtering and multiple email security technologies to block 100% of viruses and over 99% of junk mail before they can enter your network.

Try GFI MailEssentials Complete Online™ for FREE!

One of the first things you will want to do is import your contacts from other email accounts. Of course, if you're an administrator or support professional, you'll need to be able to teach others how to import their contacts.

Depending on the system that you are importing your contacts from, there are several approaches to moving your contacts or address book into Office 365.

If you're moving from an existing Exchange server (on-premises) to Office 365, then you'll migrate the users through the PowerShell console.

Option 1: Use Import Contacts to Load Your Contacts From a CSV

Get your contacts into a CSV file, and then:

From Office 365's Outlook Web Access, go to your Contacts.
Click Import on the contacts toolbar.

If you don't already have a CSV of your contacts (some email clients call it an address book, but it's the same either way), here's how you get it from most popular email systems and clients:

Email	Steps
Outlook 2010 and 2007	Click File > Open > Import Click Export to a file Select Comma Separated Value (DOS) Select Contacts folder (if you have multiple then you need to do this for each one you want to export) Click Browse to save and name the file Map Custom Fields will customize how your contacts are exported (Outlook 2010 only) Click Finish
Hotmail/Live	Click Contacts From the toolbar, select Manage > Export If prompted for a security code, then enter it Click Export Click Save to save and name the file Click Save to finish
Gmail	Click Contacts Click Export Select what contacts you want to export Select Outlook CSV format Click Export Click Save to save and name the file Click Save to finish
Yahoo!	Click Contacts In the toolbar, click Tools > Export Click Export Now, next to Microsoft Outlook. If prompted for a security code, then enter it Click Export Now. Click Save to save and name the file Click Save to finish
Windows Live Mail	Click Contacts (lower corner) Click File > Export > Comma separated values (CSV) Click Browse to save and name the file Click Next Select the fields you want to include or exclude by selecting or clearing the check boxes (only selected fields will be included) Click Finish
Mozilla Thunderbird 3	Click Address Book Click Tools > Export In the Export Address Book dialog box Change Save as type to Comma Separated Choose file name Browse to save location Click Save to finish

Option 2: Use Outlook to Export and Import Mail, Contacts, Calendar, and Task Items Between Connected Accounts

If you have both accounts in Outlook already, you can export your items from one account using the Export to a .PST feature, and then import that PST data into the Office 365 account.

How To Connect Your Office 365 Account to Outlook 2010

The connection to Office 365 from Outlook needs to be setup from within Outlook. There is a link in the administration page for a user to "Connect Outlook to this account", but it is an informational link, not an automated process. However, from within Outlook, there are many settings such as the server settings and ports which are automatically configured.

From Outlook 2010:

Click File > Add Account
Fill in Your Name and E-mail Address (they may automatically populate)
Click Next to finish
Outlook will configure the server and port settings without further input

Restart Outlook

After both accounts are added, you can move contacts between the accounts in one of two methods. If you want to copy all of your contacts into Office 365, then you can do an export and import. If you already have an export of your contacts, then this would be ideal for you. Alternately, if you want to go through this process, and also keep a backup of your current contacts, then this is a good way to do that. However, if you want to simply and easily move contacts into Office 365, then you can move or copy contacts between all the accounts in Outlook, including your Office 365 account. This provides the flexibility of being able to select only some contacts to move into Office 365.

How To Copy or Move Contacts Into Office 365

Without going through the extra steps of importing and exporting, if you've gotten your accounts all into Outlook, you can simply go to the Contacts page.

From Contacts in Outlook:

Expand Folders (if not already shown)
Select the Mailbox that you want to move Contacts from (the old email account)
Select Contacts to import into Office 365 (hold the CTRL key to select multiples)
To copy the contacts (keeps them in the old account also):

With contacts selected, press CTRL + C to copy the contacts
Select the Office 365 folder
Press CTRL + V to paste the contacts

To move the contacts (deletes them in the old account):

Drag and Drop the contacts into the Office 365 folder
-OR-
With accounts selected, press CTRL + X to cut the contacts
Select the Office 365 folder
Press CTRL + V to paste the contacts

This first copies the contacts into the PST file on the local hard drive, then synchronizes the contacts with Office 365 in the cloud. For most people that already use Outlook and have most of their contacts already in Outlook, this is the fastest and easiest way to import contacts into Office 365. However, you can also use the Export and Import feature in Outlook to perform the importing.

How To Export and Import Your Contacts Into Office 365

If you export your contacts from your old email account to import them into Office 365, then you will end up with a full set of your contacts in Office 365, and also you will still have the exported contacts file. This could be useful in case you ever accidentally delete a necessary contact (though Office 365 does include a Recycle Bin so you can actually get that contact back). Or, if you've already got your contacts in an exported file, then this will help you to import your contacts into Office 365.

Export (From Outlook):

Click File > Import and Export
In the Import and Export Wizard:

Click Choose an action to perform > Export to a file > Next
Click Export to a File > Personal Folder File (.PST) > Next
Select the old emails Contacts folder in the Export Personal Folders > Select the folder to export from selector
Select the Include subfolders check box
Click Next

In the Export Personal Folders page:

Use the Save exported file as box to name and save the file.
(Default location is in your profile's "AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook" folder)
Select Options > Replace duplicates with items exported
Click Finish

Click OK to create the .PST backup file. A password can be set on the PST file, but that is optional.

Import (from Outlook):

Click File > Import and Export
In Import and Export Wizard:

Click Choose an action to perform > Import from another program or file > Next
Click Import a File > Personal Folder File (.PST) > Next
Find the PST to import with the Import Personal Folders > File to import dialog.
Select Replace duplicates with items imported
Click Next

In Import Personal Folders:

Select the top node in Select the folder to import from
Select Include subfolders
Select Import items into the same folder in <Office 365 mailbox>
Click Finish

Before the contacts are imported into the cloud, they are first stored on your computer in the contacts folder of your Office 365 mailbox profile (the PST file in Outlook). Once the contacts have finished importing into your local PST file, they are synchronized to Office 365 in the cloud. Of course, this takes longer the more data you've imported.

Once it's done, you have successfully imported your contacts into Office 365, and they are ready to be accessed no matter where you're connecting from.

Conclusion

Once you've gotten your account setup in Office 365, you'll need to import your contacts from your old email accounts. Some email accounts may have already been migrated into Office 365 by the Office 365 administrator, such as any accounts from an on-premises Exchange Server. However, for customers who did not previously have Exchange, or for contacts that are in multiple email accounts from multiple providers, you can import your contacts into Office 365 to unify your address book and to make it accessible from everywhere.

There are two primary ways to import your contacts. You can either export and import your contacts into the Outlook Web App using a CSV file, or you can connect your Office 365 account to your already connected email accounts in Outlook.

Sent with Reeder

Brief message sent from a handheld device.