Mike Curtis

Mike Curtis writes and runs HD for Indies, a consultancy and website dedicated to using affordable digital technology for independent filmmaking. Mike started HD for Indies after a 15 year digital media career making content for everything from cell phones to cinema screens for clients such as Ford, Dell, Compaq, etc.. As a consultant, he focuses on production and post production hardware, software, and workflows to achieve maximum results at a variety of budget levels.

Red (finally) takes the wraps off new camera - Scarlet-X
Canon’s new EOS C300 digital cinema line - competition for Red or Sony?
Single Chip Camera Evaluation screening tomorrow morning at CineGear
Come see my footage from F3 S-log & Leica Summilux-C lenses TONIGHT at CineGear
Mike finally gets to play with an Epic-M and HDRx
Mike’s NAB 2011 Day One Part One
Coming to NAB? Come see results of our 12 camera test Tuesday night
Yo, Creative Pros—Apple Doesn’t Love You Any More. Here’s why.
Did Apple actually lame out on the new Mac Pros?
New Quad Cores: iMac or Mac Pro?
Apple Releases New iMacs - good enough for video editing?
Apple Announces New 12 core Macs….for $5000
I went and saw nitrate prints and Soderbergh on the same evening…
Arri Alexa - look out Red!
Mike’s iPad rant-good device, bogus marketing
The Return of Blogwad
Aperture 3.01 update released, update on my iPhoto ‘09 migration
Another good article on color correction from Stu
On iPhoto to Aperture 3 migration difficulties and new hard drives
Great new blog to read - PostWorld
Giz Explains: Why ISO Is the New Megapixel
Aperture 3 announced - time to upgrade from iPhoto ‘09?
WOW! Here’s why to go cheap/fast/light!
iPad Follow-up Thoughts - thoughts on v2 hardware and v1.5 software
Apple’s iPad - All the Details, What It Means For Us
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Complete Archives
Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Aperture 3.01 update released, update on my iPhoto ‘09 migration

New Aperture addresses many known issues, doesn’t fix my colossal mistake

Two things:

1.) Apple today released Aperture 3.0.1, addressing many of the issues I raised with version 3.0

2.) I’ve been busy on my iPhoto ‘09 to Aperture 3.0 upgrade saga, but did something incredibly dumb, losing me hundreds of hours of effort.

Details on both after the jump.

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(5) Comments • Most recent comments by: Mike Curtis, Ben Richardson, Mike Curtis, Mike Curtis, Ben Richardson, Permalink


Sunday, February 21, 2010

Another good article on color correction from Stu

Memory colors. Read it.

Stu posts up another great article on color correction, and it boils down to making certain things look the way they are EXPECTED to look, rather than what they DO look like.

ProLost - Memory Colors: “The truth is, skin tones are just one of a small handful of what I call “memory colors.” Memory colors are colors that are, in the minds of your audience, inseparable from certain common objects or events. For example, the sky is so associated with blue that you might feel that you see those two words together as often as you see them individually. The same goes for green and grass.

The most basic idea of color correcting is that you are making colors correct, which is to say that you are making objects on the screen appear to be the colors that we know them to be.

The funny thing about this seemingly simple task is that it can be quite difficult. And it’s difficult for exactly the reason that it’s important.”

(0) Comments • • Permalink


Sunday, February 21, 2010

On iPhoto to Aperture 3 migration difficulties and new hard drives

migration bumps in the road, and new drives are “wicked fast”

Just a few quick notes as a follow up to the article I wrote last week entitled Aperture 3 announced - time to upgrade from iPhoto ‘09?:
1.) migration not so easy
2.) damn, modern hard drives are fast

Explained after the break.

more »
(4) Comments • Most recent comments by: Mike Curtis, Adam Wilt, Mike Curtis, Mike Curtis, Permalink


Monday, February 15, 2010

Great new blog to read - PostWorld

Mike Most’s blog on post and cameras worth reading

Postworld - post production in the file based age

Another great blog to read. Mike Most and I have politely quibbled on CML for years,  I come at things from a more DIY/small shop/indie perspective, Mr. Most from a more established (read: professionally paid) perspective. I have tremendous respect for the man.

He has a new blog that I really like, his experience and expertise are worth paying attention to.

He doesn’t post as often as I’d like, but when he does, it is worth reading. Some good posts of late:

Another Red Day - Postworld
iPad – Give it Time - Postworld
2010: Fearless Forecast - Postworld
Scarlet Rays - Postworld

(0) Comments • • Permalink



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Saturday, February 13, 2010

Giz Explains: Why ISO Is the New Megapixel

Light sensitivity is more important than megapixels. Really.

Giz Explains: Why ISO Is the New Megapixel - Digital Cameras - Gizmodo

BOOM.

And THAT is why I’d rather have a 12MP Nikon D3S than a 24MP most anything else - because the D3S has a sufficient but not overly large # of pixels spread across a BIG HONKIN sensor.

This is why I was vexed to see Red spec out Scarlet at 5K for S35 sized sensor - I’d MUCH rather have 3K Bayer (to generate a sharp 1080p) with more dynamic range, better low light performance, and less rolling shutter (aka image skew when panning) than a 5K similar sensor.

EDIT - see Graeme’s response in the comments - it is more subtle than just these issues. Rolling shutter is read/reset, not total pixel count. More pixels may make it more difficult to reduce the read/reset time (I am GUESSING), but higher resolution doesn’t HAVE to mean lower read/reset. My bad. Higher resolution also offers the benefit of reduced aliasing, and cleaner signal/noise once scale back down to target size.

I’d been meaning to write an article about this, but like most things, if you wait a bit, somebody will write a better one than you were going to.

I am, apparently, quite the lazy writer.

My backup on this? Arri went with 3K for their next gen digital camera - dynamic range and better high ISO performance beats “high resolution” any day. EDIT - again, see the comments.

-mike

The human eye sees contrast and color before it sees detail. That’s why I’d rather have better dynamic range and high ISO performance (with low noise, please) rather than a massive megapixel count on my cameras, be they still or motion. EDIT - results vary - see comments again.

(3) Comments • Most recent comments by: Sebastian, Graeme Nattress, Brett802, Permalink


Tuesday, February 09, 2010

Aperture 3 announced - time to upgrade from iPhoto ‘09?

With a 75,000 image iPhoto library, is it time to migrate to the new Aperture 3?

This one’s a two-parter - first, Apple unveiled and made available Aperture 3 today, with a TON of new features. Secondly, for those of you who might be in a similar position to me with a bursting iPhoto library of 75,000 images, is it time to Move It On Up To The East Side with Aperture 3? I go over some of the questions and concerns I have about moving 10 years worth of personal pictures and videos from its safe but slow home in iPhoto over to the more professional Aperture 3.

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Software • (7) Comments • Most recent comments by: Nick WB, Mike Curtis, Mike Curtis, Mike Curtis, Nick WB, Mike Curtis, Nick WB, Permalink


Sunday, January 31, 2010

WOW! Here’s why to go cheap/fast/light!

Camera THROWN from one surfer to another mid-ride!

I saw this and had a big surge of “And THAT, M-Fers, is why I got into HD for Indies in the first place!!!! An F900 can SUCK IT!”

What we have here are two skimboarders (OK OK I cheated in the headline sub - skimboarders is long/complex/weaker than surfer) with a cheapie GoPro camera….on a broomstick. What happens when you hold up a lightweight, waterproof, wide angle lensed camera on a pole looking back at you while you do sports? Fun stuff! Video after the jump.

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(12) Comments • Most recent comments by: Mike Curtis, MichaelP, Mike Curtis, Mike Curtis, IEBA, Mike Curtis, Mike Curtis, Mike Curtis, Polardiscoball, marimethod, Permalink


Friday, January 29, 2010

iPad Follow-up Thoughts - thoughts on v2 hardware and v1.5 software

What I’d like to see on future iterations

OK, it has been a couple of days to thunk on it.

First off - wrong on GPS - it DOES appear to have assisted GPS, not guessed-at GPS - I thought they were referring to using WiFi and 3G to guess at location rather than augment it - this is actually better than plain GPS (such as indoors).

I think I’ll probably pass on iPad 1.0, but I’m betting within 18 months we’ll get a 2.0 with camera/s, lower price, maybe 4G/LTE. As noted, I was wrong about “true” GPS capabilities.

I think this product is rolling out the way the original iPhone did - remember when there was no 3G, no apps, no video, no copy/paste, no MMS? They’ll catch up with this one too. This establishes Apple in the market, and gives them a place to build on, relatively early in a viable, consumer pitched tablet market (note: prior tablet efforts didn’t meet these criteria). I like all the talk about this being an appliance, nota a professional tool. An appliance is something most everyone can use day to day (think a $500 handicam). A professional’s tool is more powerful and customizable and allows you to augment and get in under the hood (think a Red One camera). Moreso - does your Mom use appliances every day, or professional tools? Why do you think they call them iMacs and Mac Pros? Hello? For all the high end user complaining (and count me in on that), this isn’t aimed at us - look at all the complaints about the original iPhone from a technical perspective. How many tens of millions of those have they shipped? Yeah. That. And I don’t think Apple really new it was coming - they pitched it originally as a great Phone, a better iPod, an Internet communicator, and a portable web browser, or something like that. Apps? Never mentioned. Yet that is the biggest point of differentiation I’d say as compared to any other smartphone. Not that other phones don’t offer apps, but certainly not the breadth and depth (as in, choice and quality) of what is available on the iPhone.

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(1) Comments • Most recent comments by: Brett802, Permalink


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Getting watery trick shots with this DSLR housing

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How to get the “24p” look for your live-switched multicam shoot

Allan Tépper | 02/10- 04:23 PM

A contracted article, sponsored by Datavideo Corporation.

Our friends at Datavideo recently asked me to write an article called How to get the “24p” look for your live-switched multicam shoot. The article covers many factors involved in accomplishing that goal, including framerate, aperture, shutter speed, depth of field, and menu settings in Datavideo’s digital HD video mixers (“switchers”) and recorders, and also the menu settings in several pro cameras from Canon, Panasonic, and Sony. The included chart explains which of the cameras have a direct HD-SDI output, and which require an optional converter to go from HDMI to HD-SDI to connect to the Datavideo digital HD video mixer. As you’ll see in the article, the approach is quite different from the workflows I normally cover, which are more appropriate when programs are to be edited, as opposed to when they are shot —and potentially broadcast— live. The graphics for this article were done by Victory Elliot of Datavideo Corporation.

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Gear In 60 Seconds – Nauticam NA-60D

Matt Jeppsen | 02/09- 11:53 AM

Getting watery trick shots with this DSLR housing

Here’s another FreshDV Gear in 60 Seconds video, on the Nauticam NA-60D housing for Canon 60D DSLR stills & video. In this case, we used the housing to get some wild trick shots for a short narrative film. Watch me jump off a waterfall in the video below…

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