NoisyPixels.com

So today I got to take photos of the overdubbing for the music recording project that our church is doing. I quickly threw the photos into Lightroom for quick edits and here are the three that I liked the most.

Pastor Matt and Ian working on overdubbing some guitar parts. Ian is amazing for his age and any age for that matter.

They were not even playing this song when I took this but I loved the depth of field.

The music sounds great already. I’ll try and make the images and art work match the quality

What I have been up to.

Jonathan — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 01:02:25 +0000

Easter 2010 ProPresenter 4 Setup.

So it wasn’t long before I stopped posting. I know you thought I gave up this thing really fast. You were wrong!! It has been a long few weeks but, if you follow me on twitter, you already know that I officially resigned from working in the corporate world and going into what I call full time ministry! I took a job at my church as the “graphic designer / propresenter dude” (that is going on my card).

So today was my first office day at my new job and I have to say it was amazing. I can’t believe I get to do this. A lot of things had to happen for me to be there today. After years and years of being a volunteer at church I finally get to do this full time. More to come later…

I should have that behind the tech video tomorrow. I ran out of time today before I could sit and capture the video. Yes sadly we still use tape (I’m working on it). I will also be rebranding the site more towards church media and I will have lots of posts soon. They are in the hopper for now. Just have to pull the trigger.

Headlines #1

Jonathan — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:44:24 +0000

This week in Noise and Pixels:

Hexacore Mac Pros Next Tuesday?

First Panasonic 3DTV review

Cisco’s big announcement

Microsoft’s ‘Courier’

Barton Damer goes Free Falling!

enjoy!

Photoshop Tip/Tricks #1

Jonathan — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:00:16 +0000

I unfortunetly didn’t realize how much work I needed to get done for the tutorial I was posting today, so instead here are 10 quick Photoshop tips.

1. If you wanted to make a guide that was exactly in the middle of your document you can go to View> New Guide and put in 50% and either have it go vertical or horizontal.

2. You can right click on the rulers for the list of units of measurement that you can change the rulers to.

3. You can add to the canvas size of a document by using the crop tool to select the entire document and then scaling it up.

4. In CS4, if you hold down the shortcut key for a tool you can use it while held down and then when you are done with it you can release the key and it will go back to the tool you previously were using. These are called “sticky keys”

5. You can add to selections by holding down the Shift key and making another selection. You can also subtract by holding down the Alt key.

6. If you want your foreground and background colors to go back to the default black and white just hit the “D” key.

7. If you wanted to change between your foreground and background color you can do that using the “X” key. I use this the most when editing masks.

8. Hiting the “Refine Edge” button after making a selection gives you the ability to change things like feather, contrast, and contract and expand.

9. Since CS3 you can open up a .mov files to work with. Use the “Animation” panel to scrub through the video and use the normal Photoshop tools and layers to create. Just go to File> Export> Render Video when you are done.

10. Hold down the Ctrl (Command on Mac) while going to Help> About Photoshop to reveal the beta splash screen of your version. This one is only for fun.

I hope you enjoy this quick tip list. Next week I will have a full blown photoshop tutorial.

Information/Inspiration #1

Jonathan — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 12:00:33 +0000

Here are a few links that I found inspirational or informative to help you start this week off:

Adobe has launched a new site teasing what appears to be the upcoming “CS Next” (presumably CS5), Creative Suite Buzz Hub.

For those of you under a rock, here is a link to the NEW Propresenter 4 page from the great people at Renewed Vision. We have had the privilege of having the beta at my church for a little while and we now run it with the alpha keyer module for all services. We LOVE IT! (at least I do.)

My last link for this week has to go to the amazing Brad Zimmerman’s site and podcast, ChurchMediaDesign.tv. I had the privilege of meeting Brad several months ago while in Michigan and he is as genuine in person as he is on the show; and has an awesome passion for helping church media people share the love and message of Christ. Don’t miss the weekly podcast.

That’s it for the first installment of Information or Inspiration. Any questions? Leave them in the comments.

What’s this blog about

Jonathan — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 11:00:44 +0000

So you are probably wondering why I started this blog and I want to make sure that I make that clear. As the name may imply the blog will focus on audio and visual media design. Everything from live sound, recording, photography, design, video, web and everything in-between. I will primarily target church media people but many concepts will be applicable to outside of the church. I will try my best to answer everyone’s questions and please feel free to politely correct me if you find something wrong with what I post.

Here’s how the first rev of posts will be released. Of course I will try new things as time progresses and I am always open to suggestions.

Mondays will be inspiration day.
Wednesdays will be tutorial day.
Fridays will be a news review day for the week.

Tuesdays and Thursdays will be days where I may release general post such as this one.

Enjoy!

My blog. Finally.

Jonathan — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 14:00:37 +0000

Hello everyone,

I hope everyone enjoys this blog as it develops. I hope you feel free to comment and share on topics that come up in the next few weeks, months, and maybe years. I just ask that you keep things clean and mature.

Thanks and Welcome.