...to Amriphotos Blog.

We are going to use this blog to give you news from our shootings and about equipment, etc. While we will not cover all of our shootings it should still give you some insight into our work. For registered users we plan some "behind the scene" info, "making of´s" along with tips from the pros.

Beside that registered user are going to be informed about special deals in a newsletter. We hope you enjoy reading and are looking forward to your feedback.

...Skiing

After waiting all last winter for the perfect conditions, and not shooting a single skiimage, we have been lucky this year. Two skishootings so far and hopefully some more to come. We definitely need some more images and videos for our skiportfolio to promote our site  skifootage.com.

Big thanks go to our model and host Peter Aubrunner with his wife and daughter. If you´re planning a great skiing vacation, don´t forget to ask at their Haus Petergstamm in Obertauern.

...and the best for 2012.

Time flies and it´s been two months since our last blogpost. We have shot 1000s of frames in since then, but unfortunately none of them found the way into the blog. Nevertheless we wrote more than 40 blopostst in 2011 - who would have thought that. We hope some of it was interesting to at least some of you.

Anyway - we want to thank all our customers, models, makeup artists, blogreaders and everybody else we might have forgotten for a wonderful year and wish you all a very very merry christmas and a great 2012 - may all of your wishes come true and make the world an even better place to live.

Amriphoto & Amrivideo go 3D

Beside many other things, we did a lot of reasearch o5n 3D in the last few weeks. Currently 3D photography is a rather neglected part of photography, but meanwhile we believe in its future. More and more TV sets support 3D and its effect is getting quite jawdropping. Especially Cinema 3D technology with passive polarized glasses is very promising. Beside that, LG started a hype with its smartphone and we think it´s just a question of months until others will follow.

3D thereby isn´t as easy as it looks at first sight. We too initially thought: let´s just buy a camera or dedicated camcorder with two lenses, start recording and there you go. Well, NOPE! Of course you can achieve a slight 3D effect, but that´s about all you get. The rather flat appearance of the resulting photos and footage is quite boring and far away from the images and video one can watch on the TV sets in electronic stores. The bad news: that won´t change in the future unless somebody is capable of breaking physical rules. So to really shoot breathtaking 3D photos and footage, you got to get involved, do a lot of research, testing and calculating and last but not least carry a lot of equipment with you.

A small sample of our research work is the image on top. Most of you will ask yourselves: what on earth shall I do with two images, that´s no 3D. Well, in fact it is. Unfortunately there is a small trick envolved. There is no other way of presenting 3D content to a broad audience in the web beside using ugly red/cyan glasses that don´t give you a real idea how a 3D image could look like. But with a little instruction it works perfectly:

Step back from your computer - around 80cm (approx. 30inch). Look at the two images on top and start to slowly cross your eyes. The images will start to cross until you finally see three images - the middle of which is the overlapping image of the two and in 3D. Try to concentrate on the street sign and finally get the image in focus. That´s it - even though this image is pretty small, it gives you a good idea what professional 3D should look like. If you close in on the monitor, the effect gets stronger.

3D-TVs show the effect without eye-gymnastics. Don´t worry about your eyes getting stuck - that´s an old myth. If you try to read a book right in front of your eyes, or trying to get sewing cotton into a needle will cross your eyes much more than that.

So in the future we are going to offer professional 3D video and photography. If you want to know more about possible applications, we´ll be glad to provide advice. If you want to be innovative you´ve got to be one of the first. Be assured, 3D will attract attention and where people stand and watch, other people will join.

First "Surprise"

The first series of battery tests are done. We measured the capacity and the number of fired flashes right after charging. Well ahead of its components the Ansmann Professional 2850 mAh with 291 flashes in 15 seconds rhythm. Second rather surprising: Sanyo Eneloop XX with 262. Surprising because it only has a rating capacity on the package of 2.500 mAh. Rather disappointing, the Varta Batteries, that test @ Chip Online. Their capacity is said to be 2700 mAh. Neither the Power Akku with 255, nor the Professional Akku with 257 flashes could reach the Sanyo. The real difference between the Varta power akku and the Varta professional akku has yet to be desicovered.

In General one can say that per 1000 mAh rating capacity, you get around 100 flashes. The dispersion range is 95 to 104,8 per 1000 mAh. It looks slightly different with measured capacity from 93,96 to 102,85.

Of course we gathered a lot more data and are working on a detailled, well-arranged article for the final results. You still have to wait a while though. the first retest, testing the capacity 10 days after charging will start in a few days, and then we also planned a 30 day gap between charging and use, so stay tuned.

and it was pitch dark

Fashion photographers have to be chameleonic, you don´t only have to bring perfect studio output, you also have to perform on set - like here on a catwalk. After our studiophotos were praised we the next shooting with Ayo van Elmar was just a question of time. She booked us for the presentation of her new Autumn/Winter Collection in Vienna.

It was a real challenge - the rooms were extraordinary dark, the catwalk was seamed with people and we had a hard time getting our flashlight to the right spot, mixing it with ambient light (in color and intensity) in a way to transport the atmosphere. We think it was worth the effort and the results are living images - just what we were after.

on white.

as announced a part of our calender will be filled with fashionshootings. Our fixed cyc wall together with huge lightformers opens the possibility for shooting our models in motion because the light is pretty constant throughout the stage. The image on the right was not stitched together using two pictures, it´s just straight out of the camera. Still the models are very evenly lit. BTW: you will find larger images in our galleries in this case the Fashiongallery. The apparel for this shooting are from young aspiring designer Ayo van Elmar.

precharged rechargeable batteries vs standard rechargeables.

We´re planning to extensively use Canon Speedlites for a project in a few months. Therefore we thought about how to best feed our Strobes with rechargeable batteries. Due to environmental reasons we are not too keen about using standard batteries. Since there is quite a big market of rechargeables out there, we didn´t know which ones to chose for our use as photographers.

To find out which NiMH rechargeable AA-Batteries (oder Mignon) we should use for the future, we started a test today. The goal is to especially find out how precharged batteries (that are said to keep up to 85% of their capacity for up to a year once charged) compete against standard rechargeables (up to 2.850 mAh). And which manufacturer offers the best rechargeable for photographers.

There are a few tests in the web, but noone gives detailled info for photographers about:

• Number of fired flashes right after charging
• Number of fired flashes when the battery is charged, but not used for a while
  
• Duration of reloading after a flash is triggered with canon speedlites
  

In the test:
Ansmann 2850 mAh standar rechargeable
Ansmann maxE+ 2500 mAh
Duracell Supreme 2450 mAh
Duracell StayCharged 2000 mAh
Sanyo eneloop 2000 mAh
Sanyo XX eneloop 2500 mAh
Varta Power Akku 2700 mAh
Varta Professional 2700 mAh
Varta Stay Charged 2300 mAh

Stay tuned for detailed results and an in depth info how we test!!!