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How to Remotely Control Your Digital Camera to Take Better Photos, Create Awesome Timelapse Videos, and More
April 2nd, 2012Top StoryHow to Remotely Control Your Digital Camera to Take Better Photos, Create Awesome Timelapse Videos, and MoreBy Adam Dachis
What You Can Do With Remote PhotographyClick to view There are plenty of great reasons to remotely control your camera, but the most obvious is to include yourself in the photo. Whether you're with a group or you just want a nice self-portrait, working with a remote shutter is almost a necessity. Not only can you remotely trigger your camera's shutter, but many options provide a means of seeing the photo you're going to take of yourself before you take it. On top of self-portraits, remote controlled and automated photography takes a lot of tedious work out of creating time-lapse images. Time-lapse photography can be tedious, but it can also be difficult to accomplish well without the aid of a timer. On top of that, you run the risk of moving your camera out of its designated alignment by triggering the on-camera shutter. A remote option makes the entire process less error-prone, and with automation you hardly have to do any work at all. Remote-controlled and automated photography also gives you the opportunity to step away from the small screen or tiny viewfinder to compose your photos from a different vantage point. It can allow you to set up a home photo studio for practically no investment beyond your camera as well. While your options will depend on the type of camera you have, pretty much every digital camera from the primary manufacturers offer some way to use a remote. In this post we're going to look at your various options, how to put them to good use, and get some great photos you couldn't achieve by just pointing and shooting. Use (or Build) a Remote
This option is cheap and simple, but it's really only great if you want to take basic pictures of yourself, of you with other people, or set up the camera and press the shutter from a distance. It makes remote photography possible, but you can't control all aspects of your camera. If you're looking to do much more—and you really should, because it's awesome—read on for the more complex solutions. Use Your SmartphoneSmartphones are fantastic controllers, but also have varied support for different types of cameras. If you have a Canon DSLR you're in great shape, as they're controllable by just about anything. Nikon DSLRs have slightly fewer options, but there are still some great choices. If you have a DSLR with an infrared receiver, you can do more with your smartphone than you could necessarily do with a purchased remote (unless it's a particularly expensive controller) but your options are definitely more limited. Point and shoot owners are unfortunately out of luck in this category. Let's start with the stuff mostly everyone can use and work our way up to the infinitely controllable Canons. Infrared Controllers
Once you've got your infrared setup, you're going to need an app. iPhone users can grab DSL.Bot for $5 and Android users can download DSLR Remote for free. All you have to do to start shooting remotely is plug in the infrared transmitted to your smartphone, put your camera in remote shooting mode (if necessary—it'll say in your camera's manual), and open the app you downloaded. From there you can just start pointing your smartphone at your camera from (generally) up to 30 feet away and press the resulting buttons to snap a picture. It's about as simple as using a hardware remote, but the software often offers significantly more features like high dynamic range imaging (HDR), timed exposures, and more. Wi-Fi and Tethered ControllersClick to view Things get really exciting when you start using apps that interact directly with your camera. Your options are limited, but if you have Canon DSLR and an Android device you're really in for a treat. DSLR Controller ($8.52) allows you to tether you Canon DSLR via USB and control practically every feature and setting. You'll be able to change your lens' aperture, the camera's shutter speed, the ISO sensitivity, how many photos the camera takes in succession, and almost anything else you can think of. If your camera supports Live View mode, you'll even be able to see what your camera is seeing from your Android device and tap on the screen to focus. It's pretty amazing, and all you need to buy is a female USB adapter for your device if it doesn't already have a USB port. You just hook up your camera, turn it on, and launch the app. You'll be able to control everything from there. iPhone users can control Canon and Nikon DSLRs via DSLR Camera Remote. It isn't a cheap app, running you $20 on the iPhone and $50 (yikes!) on the iPad, but it's pretty great. It controls virtually every aspect of your camera over Wi-Fi. To reach your camera you'll need to tether it to a computer via USB and run server software so your iPhone can find it on the network, but you can just leave the tethered laptop near the camera and go anywhere you want. Just like DSLR Controller, DSLR Camera Remote can use Live View, touch focusing, and video mode with many cameras. It can even copy images and videos to your computer as you shoot so you don't have to transfer them off the card later. The primary advantages of using these smartphone apps is that they can let you see your image before you shoot it. This is extremely useful when shooting self-portraits or photos with others. They can also help you program your camera for time-lapse images via their intervalometer features. If you can use these apps, they're pretty much your best option. Tether to Your Computer
Canon cameras offer the most control for the least cost, as almost every Canon DSLR comes with a free software application called EOS Utility that is an incredibly powerful tethered shooting tool. (You can see it pictured to the right.) There is almost nothing about the camera you can't control via this software, and photos you take can be saved to your camera's card, on the computer, or both. Some cameras with Live View mode can transmit the Live View feed directly on your screen. You can alter any settings, preview and take shots, and even adjust focus. It's really great, and the software is included for free. Even some Canon point and shoots offer a less-robust camera version of this utility, allowing you to still shoot tethered with your computer via USB. Don't ignore the disc that came with your camera. It's got a few powerful apps on it that'll provide plenty of control, and they work on both Windows and OS X. Nikon cameras have Camera Control Pro, which must be purchased and is kind of pricey ($180 MSRP, but you can usually find it for $130 or less). It offers pretty much everything you get with Canon's free software, and you can control your camera over Wi-Fi (if your camera supports it or if you've added on a transmitter). Currently this software is only available for Windows. If you'd prefer something free, Photo Remote is an option. Adobe Lightroom and/or OS X users will want to check out Studio and Lightroom Tether, which is also free. Using any tethering option can make it easy to set up a photo studio in your own home or anywhere you've got a laptop. You'll need to supply your own lights and, potentially, a backdrop, but you'll have the ability to take portraits very easily from your house since you can preview the image on the computer. You'll also be able to take photos of yourself or put together a simple time lapse setup. There's so much you can do when you're not tied to your camera and you can view what it sees on a bigger screen. It makes it easy to compose, check focus, and avoid any common mistakes you might make by only being able to look through the viewfinder. Since there are free options for most popular cameras, there's no reason not to give it a shot. Decide on a project, set aside an hour or two, and have fun remotely controlling your camera. What kind of neat stuff have you done when remotely controlling your camera? Share your projects in the comments, and post photos if you've got 'em!  |
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![How to Tell If Your Credit Card Was Hacked in the Global Payments Breach [Updated]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_v5Q0SwC5dJAxnTEnF7q8_e8q8flGJA03jtNpWmwfdu50dnSvi25tZkElwcKBqcTaZwdlldh1B0T8xNiUHkMeUtwbd6Lniiyda3TvbzxyA9UYL2Qq3erZhARnbfrq1s=s0-d "How to Tell If Your Credit Card Was Hacked in the Global Payments Breach [Updated]")
Angry Birds Space Fruit Snacks: The Snacktaku Review
April 2nd, 2012Top StoryAngry Birds Space Fruit Snacks: The Snacktaku ReviewBy Mike Fahey  The first Angry Birds slipped onto the iPhone with little fanfare, slowly growing into one of the biggest games of all time. For the game's first proper sequel, Angry Birds Space, developer Rovio comes shooting out of the gate with t-shirts, key chains, stuffed animals, and Angry Birds Space Fruit Snacks. Available in four different "collectible" boxes, Angry Birds Space Fruit Snacks kick off this review with a tick in the negative column for breaking one of snacking's cardinal tenants: the snack speaks for itself. If a company feels the need to include the word "snacks" in the products official name, then surely something is not right. As it turns out, these "fruit snacks" are a lie. Development'Fruit snack' is a lazy term for edible items made of fruit that aren't an actual piece of fresh fruit. In the past this has included died fruit, freeze dried fruit or even fruit leather. Nowadays the term is more commonly used to describe tiny translucent balls of jelly-like fruit substance, often molded into shapes that vaguely resemble popular cartoon, video game, and toy characters. These products were originally developed in order to aid small children in overcoming irrational fears developed around these characters; if you can eat it, you have power over it. Today's fruit snacks generally fall into two camps. Snacks created using a mix of fruit purees and juices that generally share a consistency akin to the traditional gum drop, and those made with a gelatin base and largely artificial flavorings, identified by their tooth-resistance 'gummi' texture. Angry Birds Space Fruit Snacks, distributed by Healthy Food Brands, fall into the former category. Each pouch contains 100 percent of the daily recommended allowance of vitamin C. The packaging also boasts that the snacks are but free, gluten free and fat free. That leaves food coloring. So much food coloring. PresentationThe Angry Birds Space Fruit Snacks packaging once again breaks "the snack speaks for itself" rule by coming in four different designs, each touting itself as "collectible". Falling back on gimmicks to sell snacks is the sign of a company lacking confidence in its product. How am I supposed to be confident about the experience if the company can't? And this is collectible? Will these be show up on eBay at prices ten times higher than the $2 asking price for one box at Wal-Mart? I think not. GraphicsHave you ever looked really closely at a fruit snack? A proper snacktaku studies his or her prey before devouring it. These fruit snacks may look delicious from far off... ...okay, they look pretty good close up too. Not quite like the characters they seek to depict, but that's what the t-shirts, patches, and key chains are for. GameplayClick to view And then it all fell apart. The VerdictSure, Angry Birds Space Fruit Snacks taste pretty good, smell pretty good, and contain enough vitamin C in one pouch to satisfy some obscure government agency. While lesser snacksters might be inclined to throw them a party, I simply see these features as the bare minimum necessary to hit store shelves. Complete gameplay failure aside, I was prepared to give these "snacks" an average score, but then I studied them closer... These aren't Angry Birds Space fruit snacks! They're just the original Angry Birds fruit snacks in different packaging! What the hell? Did you think we wouldn't notice, Rovio? Did you think we'd just collect the boxes and never open them to check their contents? How dare you, sirs. How. Dare. You.   |
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The Virtues of Being Bullied
April 2nd, 2012Top StoryThe Virtues of Being BulliedBy Rich Juzwiak
Bully is moving, sometimes consciously and often inherently. Aside from the three kids who tell their stories (Alex, Kelby and Ja'Meya), there are two accounts from the parents of kids who've killed themselves. Though a motif of hope emerges toward the end of the documentary, the tone of the film is predictably somber. Really, it would have been hard for it to be any other way. The black-and-white insistence is warranted: Bullying is bad. Down with bullying. But bullying was good for me. If I could go back and revise my adolescent experience, I wouldn't. I'm glad it happened. As bad as it was, it was also good, and not just in It-Gets-Better retrospect. It was good then. It directly enriched my life. It shaped me. Don't get me wrong, I'm no masochist. I don't derive pleasure from humiliation (I'm still, in fact, terribly sensitive to shame). When I think about the bullies of my past, I vacillate. Some days it's "Fuck you." Some days it's "Thank you." I didn't have it as bad as some. I was never beaten up. My parents and family never bashed me, so home was a refuge. Instead of a catastrophe, I faced daily disruptions. I compare it to the difference between dealing with one big monster and several little ones. Bullies were bugs. They were irritating and there was the threat of drifting through a cloud of them whenever I left my house, but none ever came close to killing me. It started in second grade, when this girl (ironically, the first one I'd ever French kiss, four years later) told me that everyone in her class thought I was gay. I kind of knew what that meant. I knew it was bad and that it had to do with my affinity for female friends, superheroes, and musicians, but I tried to be optimistic about it. "I think they mean 'gay' like 'happy,' because I'm always smiling," I explained to my parents that night, compelled to tell them about this development (I blame Catholicism for my diarrhea-like confessions). They were not convinced. From then on, being called a faggot and/or mocked for my general manner was a fact of my life. Everywhere I went, there it was. "Lori thinks you're a fag." "Why are you so gay?" "You must like that other fag." The worst thing anyone ever said to me happened in seventh grade. This kid whose name my subconscious must have scrubbed (David?) told me that he and a bunch of his friends were going to make me suck their dicks after school. "No you aren't," I told him because that sounded impossible. How would they even get me to where that could happen, and how would they make me do something I didn't want? If nothing else, I had my teeth to defend me. Even more ridiculous than that kid's idea was his medium: his version of gay-bashing involved having sex with another guy. I pointed out that his proposition sounded, in fact, pretty gay. After that, I never heard about it again. The irony of this conversation happening in Home Ec. class amongst fucking sewing machines makes that story perversely satisfying to me today. It felt as if a massive percentage of the population of the outside world had offered me two choices: Listen and conform or persist in myself. I chose the second option almost every time, and so being bullied taught me very early on not to let other people define my self-image. It taught me that what people think about me matters far less than what I know. As someone who has written actively on the Internet for years, this was a wonderful thing to have instilled in me at a young age. It was really the masses versus my individuality: I wasn't being attacked for sucking cock as a 10-year-old (it would take me years to work up the courage, anyway), I was attacked for how I was. For the most part, I resisted taking the ensuing frustration out on myself. I told anyone who would listen to me how much I loved Madonna and female rappers and house music and Judy Blume. I bought RuPaul's first album the day it came out. I watched and rewatched Isaac Mizrahi flame the fuck out for 80 minutes in Unzipped. I saw The Crying Game after I'd heard about the twist. I remained apathetic about sports. I acted in plays. I got my nose pierced and dyed my hair. My safety and mental well-being be damned, I chose me. It was lonely a lot of the time. Male friends that I had known since we were virtually babies would keep me at bay in what I interpret now as queer-by-association fears. I bonded closely with pop culture. I devoted my life to succeeding in school. I developed an intense love of animals, whose innocence I admired and who'd never, ever call me a faggot. I gravitated to friendships with girls, developing a deep appreciation for their ways and culture. I was a feminist before I even knew what that was. I began my unending relationship with black culture. I grew up in a South Jersey resort town that included a visible black population, but by high school we were mixed with kids from the mainland, which was predominantly white and today remains backwoodsy enough to terrify a merman. Some of those kids had Confederate battle flag stickers on their cars and rumored Klan relations. Unwilling to embrace myself as gay, which I was sure was the worst thing I could be, I nonetheless felt a distinct sense of otherness. Being picked on pushed me so far into the closet that I didn't so much as kiss a dude till I was 22. I went to NYU and missed out on the kind of rabid exploration that happens in college, particularly when gay dudes are set free and really allowed to be their horny selves. Sometimes I mourn this, and sometimes it's a relief: at least I wasn't having piles of sex during the primetime of my youth-driven immortality complex that surely would have found me bareback without much thought. Despite how it may sound, I was not a pariah. Not entirely. I was voted prom king senior year. I was well-known. I laughed a lot. I mocked people too, on occasion, for sport. But there was always that snake around the corner poised with venom that I never deserved. People would turn on me as it suited them socially. No teacher ever took me aside to discuss mistreatment. I felt like I was swimming against the current and when I did succeed (in being comfortable or having a fleeting feeling of being respected), it was through my own effort. I resent that today. I resent that all the support I could muster on this matter was implicit and fickle. I resent myself for not demanding that support in the first place. All this resentment keeps attending any sort of high school reunion entirely out of the question for me. Ultimately, that's time saved, and time saved is a good thing. When you're openly bashed and asked to feel worthless, you're offered a peek into the dark side of humanity. You come to know that meanness is relative. You've been given something to get upset over and can realize that not everything deserves such a response. With the great amount of noise today, especially that which is directed at gay people, you can better judge what's worth getting upset about. (For example, silly word games from Price is Right models are not worth getting upset about.) I like to think that I spun shit into gold, but I'm not always a fast worker and spinning generally hurts your fingers. I'm still dealing with bullying and feel a weird responsibility to my former self to transcend. While I think that the way I dealt with being verbally bashed (simply ignoring it) met a pacifist ideal, I no longer have that patience. The easily conjured aggression I sport today is compensatory. Sometimes I feel like a caged animal. I restlessly wait for someone to call me a faggot again to give me the opportunity to unleash violent catharsis that counters their perception of my weakness and, most importantly, my own lingering perceptions of it. Finding peace is a welcome battle.  |
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