Usain Bolt & Samsung are partners in digital photography

Samsung Electronics have partnered with superstar athlete Usain Bolt and his foundation to
launch its latest camera, the NX300. Capable of shooting photos and high definition video in
3D, combined with wifi for sharing and uploading to social networking sites.

The NX300 debuted at CES 2013 earlier this year with a late March/Early April release date.
The camera itself has a number of innovative features for a mirrorless compact camera that
shoots to a SD card and available in brown, black and white versions.

Includes:
Smart Mode, with 14 different settings, such as Creative Shot, Landscape, Light Trace or Action Freeze
to automatically adjust parameters such as aperture and shutter speed to obtain the best shot possible.

Instant sharing through enhanced Wi-Fi connectivity to share photos wirelessly between camera,
tablet or laptop via Smart Camera App for both Android and iOS devices.

Samsung 45mm 2D/3D lens option to deliver the world’s first one-lens 3D system for a consumer
camera to take photos or video recorded in 3D.

Adobe Lightroom is bundle free saving the user the cost of getting this photo management and creative
effects software.

Samsung and the Usain Bolt Foundation are working on a youth photography initiative providing photography equipment and lessons to aspiring young photographers.

Under the name ‘NX Junior Photographer’, in his home country of Jamaica.

Petro Vlahos Hollywood Green Screen Pioneer

United By Photography with url

United By Photography

Petro Vlahos Hollywood special effects pioneer born August 20, 1916 died February 10, 2013.

Vlahos pioneered development in chomakey, green screen and blue screen technology innovations
for compositing and visual effects.

In addition to winning an Oscar in 1964 for Blue Screen Compositing Technology, other awards include the development of the Ultimatte live keying system and software both winning an Emmy in 1978 and an Oscar in 1995 respectively for innovations in film and television.

The impact of his work is commonplace in the film, television and photography allowing filmmakers, videographers and photographers to use green or blue backgrounds to be
replaced or substituted by another image or video clip.

Such as a news or weather report on television or Hollywood films such as The Matrix, Star Wars,
Superman and many others. As well as across commercials, music videos, animation effects combined with vfx plates.

The legacy of Petro Vlahos and the work done also by his son Paul who worked on
the Ultimatte and Newsmatte will forever be a video and film production
mainstay.

For many of my students I show the work by StarGate Studios to showcase how much
of both film and tv have embraced and utilise chromakey, green and blue screen as
part of the production process and its seamless integration into storytelling.

Stargate Studios’ 2010 Virtual Backlot™ Demo Reel

An interview from The Masters of Compositing Series – Part 1: Petro Vlahos

Produced & Edited by Jeff Foster