Got a Video Camera? Got a Tripod? You've Got Yourself a Camera Stabilizer!

On the subject of free video tools, if you already have a tripod you can use it as a camera stabilizer to keep your video camera more steady as you move with it. See this video for a demo from "wbeaty" on YouTube. Check out some of the response videos, like this one, showing this simple principle in action.

Reminder that the VRC lends video cameras and tripods to faculty and students in the Department of Art and Art History. See our Equipment and Classrooms Web page for details.

JayCut: Free Online Video Editing

Do you have some video footage to edit, but no access to editing software? Give JayCut a try. It's a full-featured video editor on the Web.

JayCut's features are surprisingly sophisticated for a free, Web-based application. While it doesn't replace expensive software like Apple Final Cut or Adobe Premiere, it does offer two tracks, to which you can add video clips, audio, text, and transitions. You can also record audio and video directly from your computer's microphone and Webcam. When you have finished editing you have the option to export your video directly to YouTube, or to your computer in the form of an H.264 MPEG-4, H.264 Flash video, or an Xvid AVI file.

If you need to save a project to revisit later, simply create a free account.

VRC Image Collection Now Available in LUNA

We are very pleased to announce that our image collection is available to Art and Art History faculty and students in the new and improved LUNA browser interface. Please see our Finding Images Web page for access information.

Recent videos from our Visiting Artist Program are now also available to Art and Art History faculty and students in LUNA. As of November 2011, these date back to 2007, but we are in the process of converting our entire collection to the streaming format to make available online to our faculty, students, and staff. Please see our Visiting Artist Videos Web page for more information.

Handy and Comprehensive List of (Mostly) Free Technology Tools

Overwhelmed by the seemingly never ending options for using technology in teaching, collaboration, imaging, video work, audio work, creating Web sites, calendaring, networking, etc.? Most of us are! Here's a site worth bookmarking. Kimberly McCollum, who teaches an online Teaching with Technology course at BYU, has created for her course a list of mostly free software tools with links, which are organized into helpful categories, such as:

• Tools for Creating, Editing, and Sharing -- Documents, Diagrams and Drawings, Images, Presentations, Web pages, Video, Audio
• Tools for Communicating and Networking -- Instant messaging, Discussion forums, Web conferencing and broadcasting, Tools for networking, Microblogging
• Tools for Managing Time, Tasks, and Information -- Course management, Time management, Task management, Project or team management, Information management

Each of these is subdivided further when helpful, making a reference document that is easy to read,  understand, and refer to when needed.

Image: Herman Vargas (HVargas), Wrench Rust, 2007. Available from Flickr via a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License

Now in ARTstor: Architecture from Europe and the Middle East by Sites and Photos

ARTstor has announced the recent addition of images depicting architecture from Europe and the Middle East from Sites and Photos, with over 30,000 images now available from this collection. Based in Israel, Sites and Photos' mission is to provide scholars with one of the world's most comprehensive archives of digital photography pertaining to Mediterranean archaeology, archaeology, architecture, and art.

ARTstor is constantly adding new images to its holdings, so it's worthwhile for faculty and students at subscribing institutions to check on their new content from time to time. ARTstor has a publicly available page, Collections: Descriptions & Status, which lists all contributing collections, with the current number of images and percentage of completion. Within the digital library, under the Browse section on the Welcome Page, select Collection to see a list of all of of the content providers. from here you can link directly to a collection in ARTstor, where you are able to browse the images or perform a search within that collection.

Photography in Public: Know Your Rights, These Are Your Rights

Especially after the events of 9/11, the Internet abounds with stories about people taking photographs on public property being harassed. Overzealous security guards and policemen have been known to invoke the law inaccurately, sometimes aggressively, in the attempt to dissuade photographers who are legally within their rights.  There are even Flickr groups devoted to this topic, such as the National Photographers' Rights Organization group and the Photography is not a crime group.

Some helpful introductory resources exist for those who are uncertain about where "public" ends and "private" begins.  Bert Krages is an attorney who is a nationally recognized advocate for the right to take photographs in public places.  He has published on his Web site "The Photographer’s Right: A Downloadable Flyer Explaining Your Rights When Stopped or Confronted for Photography."  This one-page guide introduces a basic principle: "The general rule in the United States is that anyone may take photographs of whatever they want when they are in a public place or places where they have permission to take photographs. Absent a specific legal prohibition such as a statute or ordinance, you are legally entitled to take photographs." Krages goes on to cite important exceptions to the general rule; permissible subjects; the rights of others to question you, detain you, or confiscate your property; some legal and other remedies in case you are harassed; and how to handle confrontations.  He suggests that photographers may wish to print out and keep a copy in their camera bag.  For those wishing to delve deeper into the subject, Krages has written a book: Legal Handbook for Photographers: The Rights and Liabilities of Making Images.

Image: Thomas Hawk, Long Beach Harbor Patrol Say No Photography From a Public Sidewalk, 2008.  Available from Flickr via a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic License.

More Ultra-High Resolution Images from HAL9000

Italian company HAL9000 has added more images to its portfolio of ultra high-resolution images depicting Italian Renaissance art, with the latest additions coming from the Uffizi Galleries.  A while back I wrote about HAL9000's 16-billion pixel image of Leonardo's Last Supper. Their recent additions include Caravaggio's Bacchus (3.4 billion pixels), Verrocchio and Leonardo's Baptism of Christ (11.7 billion pixels), Leonardo's Annunciation (10.3 billion pixels), Botticelli's  Birth of Venus (20.4 billion pixels) and Primavera (28 billion pixels), and Bronzino's Portrait of Eleanor of Toledo (4.8 

billion pixels).

Nothing compares to standing in a gallery in the Uffizi with one of these masterpieces, but at the same time the features we can see here are not possible to witness in person.  These are the macro views that only a conservator might see in such dazzling detail, like brushstrokes, craquelures, the dirty fingernails of Bacchus, or the light reflecting off of a single pearl. The small price we pay is a little patience while waiting for the pictures to load, and tolerating the 

presence of the Haltadefinizione watermarks.

For more information about HAL9000 and the process used to photograph these works, see this post over at Wired.

Create Color Schemes Based on Photos Using ColorSuckr

Continuing with the theme of color... I have discussed online color pickers before (here and here), but a color extractor is a bit different. Let's say you already have an image that you would like to feature on a Web site, and you would like to create a coordinated color scheme.  ColorSuckr is an online tool that you may want to try.

The ColorSuckr site allows you to enter the URL of an image online, and the tools will automatically create a color scheme of samples using the 12 most common colors from an image, each accompanied by Hex, Web safe and RGB color codes.  Those wishing to explore further color combinations using the particular swatches provided can link to "Show color schemes," which takes them to schemes assembled by the community of users over at COLOURlovers.  Plenty of inspiration here to work with.

ColorSuckr also lets you search for Flickr images on its site.  For those wishing to use the tool often, ColorSuckr provides shortcuts to the process in the form of a bookmarklet, as well as a Firefox add-on that enables the process with a simple right-click.

Image: [With churches, Molde, Norway], from the Library of Congress (shown with color scheme from ColorSuckr), ca. 1890 to ca. 1900.  Available from Flickr's The Commons, with no known copyright restrictions.

How Well Do You See Color?

According to X-Rite, 1 out of 255 women and 1 out of 12 men have some form of color vision deficiency.  Do you?  Take the Online Color Challenge, based on the official FM100 Hue Test by X-Rite.  You may be surprised by the results!  Of course, if you believe that you do have a deficiency in your ability to accurately see colors, have your vision checked by a professional.  Colors on computer monitors tend to vary widely.
 

Use Dropbox to Back up, Sync, and Share Your Files

I recently posted about the importance of backing up your files, where I cited the 3-2-1 rule for backups: three copies (primary and two backups), two types of media, and one copy stored off site.  Dropbox is a service that can help with this model, and it's free for up up to 2 GB.  Dropbox lets you easily back up, sync, and share files with others.

Dropbox creates a folder on your computer where you may place files that you can then make accessible from any other computer in the world, either to you exclusively or also to other people of your choosing.  When you change a file in this folder, it automatically changes the corresponding file housed on the Dropbox folder residing on another computer (imagine using this tool to sync your files between your home and office computers).

Use Dropbox as a tool for backup and you'll have at least one copy stored off-site on a Dropbox server.  If you additionally use Dropbox to sync your files on a computer at home and another at work, this gives you three copies in three different locations.  Add automatic backups operating on an external hard drive and you have a pretty secure system for your most important files.

ProfHacker has featured enthusiastic posts in recent months about how academics make use of Dropbox: see this one on using Dropbox for backups, and this one for using Dropbox for syncing.