After working in motion picture sound in the San Francisco Bay area, I moved to New York in 1971 to attend the NYU Graduate Institute of Film and Television. My goal was to get beyond being just a “sound guy” and learn the other aspects of filmmaking: cinematography, editing, writing, etc. After grad school, producing and directing two quite forgettable documentaries and spending a year covering events like the U.S. Senate Watergate Hearings for NBC/Visnews (now Reuters), I went back into the motion-picture sound business with a full-time gig at DuArt. The company has always supported young, up-and-coming filmmakers on low budgets, offering discounts and terrific technical advice. Both of my own films were processed and mixed at DuArt, and I was very comfortable there. Not only did I get to spend hours at the mixing console, I also was exposed to every aspect of motion-picture post production. I was able to dabble in such esoteric fields as color correction, negative cutting and film chemistry. It was a tremendous learning experience.

When you’re an in-house sound guy, you take whatever jobs come in the door. And one day I found myself recording the English-language ADR (dialog-replacement “looping”) for a series of films by Lina Wertmüller including Swept Away and Seven Beauties. Well, it wasn’t just one day. It was weeks of 8-hour/day sessions in that darkened room with actors in the booth going over and over the same lines while on-screen were some of the most depressing images of World War II concentration camps, a favorite setting for Wertmüller’s films. It wasn’t a creative process. It was dreadful.

A year before – we’re talking maybe 1974 – I had taken a course in the PL/1 programming language at the New School on a whim. This was just before the MITS Altair 8800 came on the scene, and I had a sense the world was about to split into two groups: those who understood computers and those who didn’t. I wanted to be in the former group.

So in the middle of recording take 12 of some scene from Seven Beauties, we took a break. I bumped into Irwin Young, chairman of the board of DuArt in the hallway, and we struck up a brief conversation. He had started a project to computerize certain aspects of motion-picture color correction and duplication, and I asked him if there was any way to get involved. (I didn’t add, “and to get out of this studio where I’m going crazy!”) Irwin asked if I knew anything about computers, and I replied, “Well, I took this course…” To my great surprise, he decided to put me in charge of the project. Irwin was always like that. He gave young people (techies and filmmakers alike) opportunities for tremendous growth, and he supported them along the way. An amazing guy who makes DuArt the very unique place it is.

I was made Director of Computer Services at DuArt. Although I was the only in-house employee of the department, I was actually working under the tutelage of Fred Schlyter, an eccentric electronics engineer who until then had single-handedly designed the hardware and written the software for DuArt’s cutting-edge projects. Fred was a truly brilliant engineer, and his attitudes about the efficiency of software and hardware design shaped my own work for the rest of my career.

Over the next few years, Fred and I did some rather amazing things. We created a network of about six Data General Nova and perhaps a dozen PDP-8 clone minicomputers. This was before the days of Ethernet, and Fred designed a remarkable scheme based on twisted-pair optically isolated wiring. It proved to be fast, inexpensive and 100% reliable in a very noisy industrial environment. Fred designed the custom controllers for the Novas and PDP-8s, while I wrote the operating system, drivers and application software. (Fred wouldn’t dream of using the manufacturers’ operating systems!)

Fred invented frame count cueing, which was the basis for all of our work and which revolutionized – I’m not exaggerating! – motion-picture post production. In 1979, Fred was given a Technical Achievement Award by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (ie, the Oscar folks) for this work.

While Fred was crunching out state-of-the art hardware, I was doing my best to keep up with the software. Initially, everything was written in assembler language. Fred’s hardware was “sparse” to say the least. We didn’t even have hardware keyboard debouncing. Fred figured (correctly) that we could do that in software and thereby save a component or two. Likewise, we didn’t use chips to control seven-segment plasma displays. He gave me a seven-bit output device for each digit, and I turned each segment on and off in software. Not difficult, but certainly very low-level.

After a while we had built up quite a collection of code, and I was looking for a higher-level programming language for the Data General Novas. Not finding one to my liking, I decided to create my own process-control Algol and a complimentary real-time operating system. Together they ran all aspects of DuArt’s color correction, negative handling and film printing processes including the numerical-control programming of the Oxberry optical printer.

DuArt rolled out a vast array of similar projects such as the computerized transfer of Eastman Color Negative (ECN) directly to video using a Rank-Cintel flying-spot scanner. Prior to that, one had to first make a print or interpositive. Being able to get video directly from the original negative or internegative yielded a much higher-quality image.

Ultimately, I fell in love with the art and science of compiler writing. I found the challenges of compilers more exciting than the applications themselves, so I left DuArt to start my own compiler-writing company, Rational Data Systems (RDS). And when I did, who offered to rent me cheap office space and stay on as my first customer? Of course it was Irwin Young and DuArt Film Labs.

When RDS moved out of the West 55^th Street DuArt building around 1979, I lost touch with Irwin, but Fred and I worked on another project until 1984, when RDS relocated to California.

My memory of these times, 30+ years ago, remain clear as a bell. I still have source code listings of that first compiler and operating system, and I look at them every time I pretend I’ve done something cool since then. I owe a great deal to Irwin Young and the culture of opportunity he created at DuArt Film Labs. I don’t bemoan the passing of film at DuArt, as I know they’ve been advancing video and digital and supporting innovators ever since I left in the late 1970s.

So as I predict will happen frequently with these overpriced DVDs, I’m looking for partners. If I can find four others who will each chip in $75, I’ll buy the Premium Package and share them. Here’s how it will work:

• Four people commit and send me $75 each via PayPal.
• I’ll send the first DVD to the first partner who commits.
• When partner #1 is done with DVD #1, s/he sends it to partner #2.
• When partner #2 tells me s/he has received DVD #1, I’ll send DVD #2 to partner #1, etc.
• Each partner is expected to watch and send out each DVD within a week of receiving it.
• With tax and shipping, I’ll be paying nearly 2x what everyone else pays, so I get to keep the DVDs at the end.

You’ll get to view $400 worth (?) of DVDs for only $75. My theory is that by sending it out only one DVD at a time we can minimize hoarding along the way. No one gets a new DVD until the next partner along the way gets the previous DVD. The only disadvantage is that each partner will have to mail four separate DVDs to the next person, but that only adds a few dollars and a little effort. The first partner should get disc #1 quickly. (I’ll put myself at the end of the list.) Partner #4 won’t get DVD #1 until late September.

Want to join the partnership? Email me at doug@rds.com. Once we have four partners (plus me), I’ll place the order. (U.S. only, please.)

Getting deep into Lab color isn’t for the faint of heart. I have a decent background in this technology, and I’m still struggling with the concepts. (I studied cinematography at the NYU Graduate Institute of Film and TV with Beda Batka, then learned the fundamentals of color correction and wrote software for motion picture film processing at DuArt Film Labs in NYC in the early ’70s.) In an nutshell, the primary advantage of working in the Lab color space (instead of RGB or CMYK) is that luminosity (the ‘L’ channel) is entirely separate from color (the ‘a’ and ‘b’ channels). Furthermore, modifying the ‘a’ and ‘b’ curves combined with Photoshop’s ‘blend if’ feature of adjustment layers allows you to control the saturation of very specific portions of the color palette.

This weekend I took advantage of a special offer from BorrowLenses.com and rented a Nikon D3S body just to see what a $5,200 camera was all about. I also wanted to check out its ISO 12,800 sensor — yes, it’s amazing — and its ability to bracket for a wide dynamic range. I went looking for challenging locations and settled on Muir Woods, only 20 minutes from home.

Muir Woods is a beautiful place, but a tremendous challenge to photographers. The dynamic range of light is phenomenal: from brilliant sunlight to deep, deep shadows in redwood trees that are already quite dark on their own. Only HDR gives you the opportunity to simultaneously capture blue sky and the details of tree trunks in shadows. The above photo is a merge of seven separate exposures, each one f-stop apart. (Nikon D3S in DX mode at ISO 200, Sigma 10-20mm, f/4-5.6 at 10mm f/5.6) If you’re new to HDR, notice that the sky is blue, not an overexposed white, while you can still see detail in the darkest part of the tree trunks. If I didn’t tell you, would you know this was an HDR image? Does it have those weird artifacts you typically associate with HDR? Note that no masks were used. Only global Lab changes were applied. Below are the two extreme originals.

My workflow (as of today) for images like this is as follows:

• Import RAW images into Lightroom 3.
• Apply camera calibration. (I use ColorChecker Passport and create a new profile for each location.)
• Merge to HDR Pro in Photoshop.
• Use the ‘Flat’ or ‘Photorealistic Low Contrast’ preset. (It won’t look good yet!)
• Change the mode to Lab Color.
• Apply Dan Margulis’ ‘no brainer’ curve in an adjustment layer.
• Increase contrast in the ‘L’ channel.
• Make final color adjustments to the ‘a’ and ‘b’ channels. (The leaves are actually yellow, almost entirely in the positive values of the ‘b’ channel’)
• Save back to Lightroom 3.

I’ve developed (and am still developing) this workflow empirically, and I’m reverse engineering it to try and understand what’s really going on. The idea is to merge the originals into a rather flat (color-wise) image, then work in Lab to recover the colors. Lab is particularly good when starting with these flat, unsaturated images. This seems to avoid a lot of the artifacts that Photomatix and Photoshop HDR Pro create if you use them alone to render your final composite image. So far, so good.

Our location was down due to extreme weather conditions this past weekend that disrupted our servers for the Online Training.

Okay, but what’s their excuse for this (three-day) weekend?

Kelby Training didn’t voluntarily credit their customers for the downtime, which seems remarkable for a time-based service. I had to ask for a partial-month credit, which I did receive. It also seems odd that in the 21st century there isn’t someone available, at least on-call, to solve infrastructure problems like this on weekends. Even ten years ago we all knew how important it was to have someone available 24×7 for such incidents, and that was true even for websites and companies far smaller than Kelby Training. They should also have a Twitter feed, or at least an RSS feed, to which they post information about outages and expected resolution timeframes. Maybe there is such a thing, but I couldn’t find it. Oh, and while we’re at it, how about some social-networking and community features? There’s not even a forum where students can learn from one another or interact with the instructors. Very 20th century if you ask me.

Thanks to tips from @ScottKelby, I got a head start on how to shoot fireworks. Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 at 200mm f/16, ISO 200, bulb exposures from 2-4 seconds, and a very solid tripod. If only the KelbyTraining.com videos weren’t down for the second weekend in a row.

The reason we failed to reach that critical mass is rather straightforward: We are spread too thin among multiple projects and didn’t commit the resources required for PodCorps.org’s success. The Conversations Network has a very small budget and depends entirely on volunteers. And while many people supported the concept by registering on the website, we were not able to recruit a volunteer team to manage and promote PodCorps.org.

I want to personally thank everyone who registered for their participation and support of the PodCorps.org concept. I only wish we had the resources to fulfill our side of the bargain. The Conversations Network’s other projects (SpokenWord.org and our proprietary podcast channels) get all of our attention and are doing quite well, but we need to accept our limitations in order to ensure our successful projects continue without distraction.

MEDIAmobz: An Introduction

For those of you in the video world, I want to use this opportunity to introduce a somehwat different alternative to PodCorps.org. We have a long standing friendship with a for-profit company called MEDIAmobz. They have a network of producers that provide video production services for the business market via partners such as Business Wire and Cisco. As PodCorps.org is closing, we thought you might want to sign up with MEDIAmobz as a way to find video production jobs around the world.

Dave Toole, founder and CEO of MEDIAmobz passed along this note:

“Thanks for considering joining our producer community at MEDIAmobz. We provide you free tools to post your video reels and links to your work to help market your capabilities to the business market. We have provided dozens of clients turn key video solutions for business story telling. We do not charge clients to post jobs and only charge a small fee when they have agreed to hire a production resource. We hope that we are able to help provide an easier way for clients to connect with creative resources to help them tell their story. Please have a look around and let us know what we can do to help you in providing your services.”

Public Media Opportunities

For those of you interested in public radio or TV in the U.S., here are some additional related sites you should check out:

• Public Media Corps (PMC)
• Public Radio Exchange (PRX.org)
• Association of Independents in Radio (AIR)
• Transom.org

The web is awash with audio and video. There are great programs out there, but they’re just too hard to separate from the noise. We created SpokenWord.org because we wanted to help people locate the best podcasts, videos and slideshows. We got the basics right — topics and collections — but our homepage in particular isn’t discriminating enough. Literally every five minutes we display the latest programs in each topic, but they’re not filtered. There’s little sense of what’s worth watching or listening to as opposed to just being “new”.

What’s missing is the human touch. For example, I’ve recently become obsessed with photography, and I’ve been looking everywhere for the best podcasts and videos to help me learn more. Along the way I’ve had to work my way through all sorts of junk in order to find the good stuff. If only there were a photography guru who would take the time to find the best podcasts and individual episodes for me. That would be awesome.

So that’s what we’re doing in SpokenWord.org 2.0. We’re building a team of expert curators, each with his or her own specialty. These curators will find the very best audio and video programs and use SpokenWord.org to present them to you. These curators and their collections will be the primary feature of our website.

Is there a topic you’re particularly passionate and knowledgeable about? Would you be willing to share your expertise by maintaining a curated list of feeds and episodes for SpokenWord.org? Would you like to become one of our curators?

There’s no monetary compensation for your effort, but I think you’ll be rewarded by the appreciation you receive and the credibility you’ll gain within your niche. We’re going to work hard to spread the word about SpokenWord.org and our curators, and I think being the SpokenWord.org curator for a particular topic will eventually carry some real weight.

We’re still early in the process of implementing the website features to support this new concept. In fact, the concept itself is still evolving. If you’re interested either in becoming a curator or just participating in the discussion of how our curation system will function, please join the brand-new Google Group dedicated to SpokenWord.org curation.

We’ll soon have a way for you to formally apply to become a curator, but for now, joining the discussion is the best way to get involved.

I probably shouldn’t admit this, but I’ve been a slacker when it comes to color calibration. (My monitor still isn’t calibrated, although next week a new X-Rite Eye-One i1 Display 2 will arrive to take care of that.) A few weeks ago I bought another X-Rite product: a ColorChecker Passport and I’ve been using it for simple white balance. It works great. Just use the white-balance eyedropper tool in Photoshop, Lightroom, etc., and you can solve most of your color temperature variations. Everything looked pretty good to me, so I didn’t give it much thought.

But yesterday I decided to take advantage of the real purpose of the ColorChecker Passport and I created Adobe DNG Profiles for each of my camera/lens combinations. (The rest of this post applies only to those who shoot in RAW format.) I even went so far as to create “dual illuminant” profiles based on two exposures with widely varying color-temperature sources. I didn’t really expect much benefit from all of this. It was just a way to waste an hour instead of working. I used X-Rite’s software to create the profiles and install them into Adobe Camera Raw so they’re available to Photoshop CS5 and Lightroom 3.

Last night I sat down to see how these profiles might affect some of my old photos. I was blown away by the results. I expected very subtle changes. How far off could my lenses and cameras’ sensors really be? I’ve always adjusted color, exposure, contrast, etc., to give me the results I wanted. I figured this might just make it a little easier. But the results were dramatic. The colors in many shots became much more vivid without introducing unwanted saturation or contrast.

Unlike the use of a neutral gray card for setting white balance, using a DNG profile doesn’t require you to do anything at the time you shoot. Once you’ve created profiles for your gear, you apply them in Adobe Camera RAW or Lightroom 3 — all in post-production. You can still use the ColorChecker Passport during your sessions to correct for white balance, but a single profile works across all sessions and lighting conditions.

And this is where I had my breakthrough. The DNG profiles are separate from white balance. I apply the profiles when I import my photos into Lightroom. Then I set the white balance, color temp, etc. The DNG profiles compensate for variations in the equipment, which don’t change due to lighting conditions from one session to the next. It’s the white balance adjustment that corrects for the color temperature of the illumination at the time of exposure. You might think that you can use color temp and tint adjustments to compensate for your sensors and lenses, but I learned you really can’t.

You can create new DNG profiles for extreme lighting conditions at the time of exposure, but you won’t need to do this under most circumstances. Invest an hour or two to create good dual-illuminant profiles once and use them forever. (I used a Nikon SB-900 strobe with and without a TN-A1 (full CTO tungsten orange) filter for my two exposures.) The only cost is a ColorChecker Passport: $99 at places like Amazon.com. It’s already improved my photos more than any other $100 investment.