That’s a Buick!?!? – Part 2

It’s been a week and a half or so since GM unveiled the 2011 Buick Regal, and I’m still reeling. I mean…Buicks are supposed to be dumpy and boring…and this new Regal? It’s anything but.

Just look at what’s being said about the newest Buick:

It’s safe to say that this is a Buick the likes of which we have never seen before. – Autoblog

So let’s see what we have here; A gorgeous, fun-to-drive, quick, comfortable, well-equipped American sedan built with the quality of its German competitors… and it’s a Buick. – Jalopnik

It’s probably the most fun, nicest-looking, sporty FWD mid-size sedan in the market. And we’re saying that about a Buick, not an Acura TSX or Mazda6. – Jalopnik

I know it’s been pretty easy to write off American cars over the last couple of years. I’ve done so myself. But there’s a rebirth afoot. Ford is stepping up. The refreshed Fusion recently won Motor Trend’s Car of the Year, and the impending arrival of the new Fiesta and Focus look to keep the good times rolling. GM, meanwhile, is kicking some serious butt in the crossover space, with the new Chevy Equinox and Cadillac SRX. With the Regal, it looks like they may have a good shot at revitalizing an all-but-obsolete brand.

That’s the thing, though. Buick has been so bland, so boring, for so long, that it’s going to take a hell of a lot to siphon off the sort of buyers who’d also cross-shop Acuras and Volkswagens. The Regal’s good…by the sound of the early reviews it may even be great…but it’s still a Buick, and in the end that will be the biggest obstacle it has to surmount.

Actually Useful Videos

I always get a bit flummoxed when someone asks me what I do for a living. Unless you’re in the industry, my job isn’t the sort that lends itself to easy explanation. I’m sure there’s a happy medium between telling people I’m a writer and telling them I’m an associate creative director at a social media marketing company that specializes in branded online communities, but with my tendencies toward social anxiety, the answer usually comes out sounding all garbled and retarded.

But, basically, my job is to help make people smarter, and to help brands communicate with consumers in a way that is helpful, rather than intrusive. The content my team creates isn’t advertising or marketing content. For the most part, it’s educational content…how to take better pictures, how to set up a home theater…that kind of thing. To that end, we create articles, long-form courses, interactive flash tutorials, and videos.

The thing with videos, though, is that they’re expensive. A brand-quality video, complete with a studio, high-quality camera, sound, and lighting gear, professional talent, and high-end animation…well…it can get real pricey, real fast.

So earlier this year, we were issued a challenge to produce three videos in-house, on a shoestring budget. The goal was to see if we could produce solid, educational videos that look better than your typical YouTube fare, but for a lot less than a brand-quality video. To that end, we used our own cameras to shoot. We used our own houses as locations. We built our own lighting gear. We even used ourselves as talent.

Working in fits and starts in between day-to-day client work, we made it happen. And, earlier this week, we launched our new YouTube channel – Actually Useful Video. The first two videos are up now, with the third following by the end of the year.

Overall, I couldn’t be happier. More than maybe any other project I’ve worked on, I feel these videos stand as a testament to the talent and ingenuity of everyone on our team. To my mind, they prove beyond a doubt that you don’t need a $10,000 camera and glitzy computer animations to make an actually useful video.

And without further adieu, here they are:

Once More Unto the Breech

We’ve been sitting on this news for some time, but now that Jamie’s out of the first trimester, we can safely announce that, come May 2010, we’ll be welcoming Nolan’s baby brother or sister into the world!

Now, to head off a few questions:

1) Is it a boy or a girl?

Don’t know yet.

2) Do you want a boy or girl?

Preferably one or the other.

3) Do you have names picked out yet?

Yes.

4) When’s the due date?

The end of May, 2010. But Nolan came two weeks early, so who knows?

How to Not Suck…

Let’s start with a disclaimer. I’m not a business guru. Nor am I a social media expert, or a consultant. But I do have something like ten years of experience in advertising and marketing, most recently in social media and content marketing, which is awesome because I don’t feel the need to take a shower after I get home from work every day. I also buy goods and services, watch TV and use the Facebooks and the Twitter, so I like to pretend I’ve got a pretty good idea of what goes on from the consumer’s perspective.

So based on my years of experience selling crap, researching what kind of crap people buy and how to sell more of it to them, and buying crap myself, I feel, if not qualified, at least entitled to spout off for a bit about how to not suck at this whole “selling goods and services” thing.

Here are a few ideas, just to get us started:

1. Make Sure Your Products Don’t Suck

Marketing can help propel a good product into the stratosphere by, you know, making people aware it exists.

But no amount of marketing can overcome a bad product. You may fool people once, but once they have the product in their hands and realize your ad campaign was basically a web of lies and deceit, they won’t come back.

(exception: all reality television)

2. Don’t Be a Dick

Offer a good product and do business in good faith. Don’t try to nickel and dime your customers with bogus fees, or arrange things in such a way that you can bend them over the barrel. Because they will come to hate you and take their business elsewhere.

(exception: local monopolies such as power companies)

3. Stop Doing Annoying Things

You know what I love? Being asked if I want to save 10% today by signing up for a store credit card at every store I go to. Or being asked if I want to try the random new unappealing product at every fast food drive thru I hit, even when I already know what I want.

Stop it.

4. Get Over Yourself

You know those people who, when they screw up, they always have a perfectly valid excuse? Or worse yet, refuse to even acknowledge that they screwed up (cough…Sarah Palin…)?

Those people are douchebags. And yet so many companies act just like that every single day. Learn contrition. Have the courage to admit when you screwed up, or when a product wasn’t quite the runaway success you were hoping? Most people are pretty willing to forgive mistakes, as long as you own up to them.

Want proof? Look at Ford. They admitted a while back that things had kind of gone off the rails, and started taking drastic measures before the economy hit the wall. The result? They had their ducks in enough of a row to avoid having to take federal bailouts and subsequent bankruptcy, and now they’re poised to kick all kinds of ass as the economy gets moving again.

5. Don’t Confuse Social Media With Another Press Release Vehicle

You know why I’m active on Facebook and Twitter? To keep up with people, to interact with them. To talk with them. Yet so many companies seem to see these tools as just another way to talk AT people. That’s not interacting. It’s the same crap in a different wrapper. And it’s the reason I hide and unfollow brands that don’t get it.

6. Do Something Cool and Unexpected Every So Often

Consider Zappos, and their penchant for randomly upgrading people to free overnight shipping. That’s cool, and it makes people feel a little special. Which in turn makes them like Zappos more, and makes them more likely to return there to order their next pair of shoes.

Or consider Google, which every so often will just drop a bomb of a new product announcement. Or Apple and its “one more thing”.

It’s the old idea of underpromise and overdeliver. It’s simple, and it works.

That’s a Buick!?!?

Every so often, something comes along that completely shakes up all of our established perceptions about the way the world works.

I had one of those moments this week, when GM debuted the new Buick Regal. Good God in heaven, a Buick I not only actually like, but would even consider putting on the shopping list.

It’s been a weird year for me as I’ve followed the various gyrations in the auto industry, from Honda and Toyota seriously dropping the ball (Crosstour and floormats of death, respectively), to Kia and Hyundai coming on strong, and GM and Ford throwing out not just passable, but seriously compelling and competitive new vehicles.

I can’t wait to see what the next few months hold, as we move into the next auto show season…

 

A Bit Like Patton…

The hardest thing about historical fiction isn’t deciding what to include, but what to exclude. Unless you’re dealing with the absolute sparsest of subjects, there is simply no way you can ever put it all in. There’s just too much.

In this way, writing historical fiction is eerily similar to adapting a novel into a movie. When you’re adapting a 400 or 500 page book into a movie, something has to give. Compromises have to be made. And it’s no different when translating actual, recorded history into a consumable (and marketable) story.

I’ve been battling with this a lot lately with Son of the Republic. The plot is there, the sequence of events, but what I choose to bring to the top, gloss over, or leave out will quite literally dictate the tone of the entire story.

I had all this in mind when I sat down to watch my nice, shiny Blu-ray of Patton over the weekend. Now, it’s probably been ten years or more since I last saw the movie, and watching it with fresh eyes, I was amazed at the economy with which it tells its story. For such a big film, the scope is kept surprisingly small, with a laser focus on Patton for almost the entire run time. Battles are few and far between, rarely seen unfolding, more often glimpsed in newspaper headlines and propaganda reels. Patton’s drive across Sicily, up to Palermo then across to Messina, is talked about, but not much of it is really seen. And it works.

Reviewing the classic has given me a lot to chew on as far as how I approach Son of the Republic. And in all honesty, it’s sent me back to the drawing board as far as what to include, and what to leave out…

And Then There Were Cars…

I didn’t realize it at the time, but if you look back through the pictures of me as a little kid, a theme emerges. In almost every single shot, I’m clutching a car, truck, or some sort of four-wheeled thing in one of my hands. Maybe it’s a coincidence that I grew up to be a car nut, but…maybe not.

Fast forward a few decades, and now I have a little boy of my own. And ever since he could, well, move, I’ve been watching for that interest in cars. To date, nothing. Oh, he’s shown a complete a total fascination with the Pixar film, but as far as actual cars go, he really hasn’t taken to them. Save as convenient projectile weapons.

In the past couple of weeks, though, that’s changed. And now he’s carrying around cars, kind of driving them around on the floor, running them down his little slide.

I couldn’t be happier. I mean, I want him to like what he likes, whatever that may be. But cars…that’s something I can get into, something I can nurture, something I can bond with him over.

And so tonight, after dinner, I took Nolan to Wal-Mart. Yeah, I know…shudder…but their Blu-ray prices absolutely spank Best Buy, and I wanted to pick up Monsters, Inc. So while we were there, we wondered over to the toy section to get a car or two.

I picked out one, and Nolan picked out the other.

Next up…history and sci-fi…

 

 

How to Take Better Photos, Pt 6

RAW vs. JPEG

When it comes to digital photography, you typically have two photo formats to choose from – RAW and JPEG.

But which should you shoot, and why?

The answer depends on your intentions as a photographer.

If you’re just shooting casually, if the idea of post-processing terrifies you, or if you’re the sort who likes to print photos straight off your camera, you’d probably be better off shooting JPEG.

If you want to retain total creative control over your shots, if you want to squeeze out every last bit of sharpness, or save an image from under- or overexposure, and are willing to get your hands dirty with post-processing, you should definitely consider shooting in RAW.

How to Write More Posts About How to Take Better Photos…

The “How to Take Better Photos” series has been moving along quite nicely, and I’m glad to see others getting so much out of it! Thank you so much for reading and commenting, it really is appreciated.

Moving forward, I have a few topics in mind for the next posts, but wanted to solicit your thoughts. Do any of the topics listed below strike your fancy? Or is there something I haven’t mentioned you’d like to see covered?

- RAW vs. JPEG – Which should you shoot and why?

- HDR Photography – Crash course in shooting and creating high dynamic range (HDR) images

- Shooting Food – Self explanatory…

- Photo Processing 101 – A rundown of what to do after you’ve taken your photos

How to Take Better Photos, Pt 5

Shooting in low light without a flash

First, let’s define low-light conditions.

Low light is obviously the absence of bright light, but when talking about cameras, it basically entails any situation that’s not outdoors during daylight hours (unless you’re shooting in a studio or a room with an abundance of natural light). Yes, this encompasses your typical indoor shooting situation.

Why? Because, compared to our eyes, camera sensors suck at registering light. Our pupils can dilate to adjust to a staggering range of lighting conditions and, given a few minutes, we can see reasonably well in all but total darkness.

Cameras can’t.

The reason? Because exposure is a variable of three variables: aperture, shutter speed, and ISO (discussed in How to Take Better Photos, Pt 2). Put simply, each affects exposure as follows:

• Aperture: the size of the lens opening through which light passes. A larger aperture allows more light to pass through to the sensor. This allows for “faster” shooting and reduces depth of field.
• Shutter speed: controls how long the shutter opens and exposes the sensor to light. Fast shutter speeds “freeze” action. Slower shutter speeds open your shots up to blur, which you want to avoid unless it’s intentional.
• ISO: dictates how sensitive your sensor is to light. At low ISOs, the camera demands more light, but captures clearer images with less grain. At higher ISOs, the camera sacrifices quality to make due with the light it can get. A higher ISO can help you get the shot, but you’ll have to accept the image noise that comes with it.

Most cameras suck in low light because they fall short in one of these three areas, which forces compromises from the other two.

The most common shortcoming is aperture. Point-and-shoot cameras have notoriously small apertures, so in low light they have to crank up the ISO to reach a reasonable shutter speed. Many kit lenses that come bundled with DSLRs suffer similarly small apertures, and face the same problems.

So what can you do if you want to shoot in low light?

If you have a point-and-shoot, sadly, you’re pretty much limited to cranking the ISO. A lot of P&S cameras have a mode that’ll do this on its own, but you’re going to have to live with wicked noise or equally wicked noise reduction processing.

If you have a DSLR, buy a fast prime lens.

What the $*@#* is a prime lens, you ask?

A prime lens is a lens with a fixed focal length (i.e. it doesn’t zoom). Yes, this means you have to move yourself to get the shot framed the way you want, but it’s worth it, for a few reasons

- First, because prime lenses tend to boast very large apertures up to f/1.4. Paired with the right camera, they can pretty much shoot in the dark. Paired with most cameras, they’ll kick ass in 90% of the situations you can throw at them.

- Second, because prime lenses have a simpler construction (because they don’t have to zoom). This means they are smaller, lighter, and cheaper than even crappy zooms. For example, the Nikon f/1.4 50mm prime runs about $130.

- Third, because of the simpler construction (i.e. less glass to distort things), prime lenses are among the sharpest lenses you can buy. Paired with their amazing depth of field capabilities, the effect is quite dramatic.

Now, if you’re in the market for a camera, a few suggestions.

If you’re looking at point-and-shoots, I’d say suck it up and buy a low-end DSLR. But maybe you just really like being able to carry a camera in your pocket or something. In that case, I’d start with the Canon PowerShot S90, which packs an f/2 lens. Because the sensor on a point-and-shoot is so small, you’re not going to get the awesome depth of field you’d get at f/2 on a DSLR, but you’ll be able to snap reasonable shots in low light.

Another option to consider would be any of Sony’s CMOS sensor-packing Cyber-shots, which as of this writing consist of the HX1, WX1, and TX1. The CMOS sensor itself boasts marginally better low-light handling, but it’s real value is the ability to shoot at a ridiculously fast 10 frames per second. Sony has very shrewdly built in some layer processing capabilities, which give these cameras the ability to shoot six frames in a split second (at high ISO), then combine them into a single, clearer image. This approach still doesn’t hold a candle to a capable DSLR, but it’s better than what’s come before.

If you’re looking for a DSLR and have money to burn, the full-frame models (which pack 35mm sensors vs the usual APS size) offer truly amazing low-light performance. But the Nikon D700 and Canon 5D Mk II both run around $2,500 for the body alone. If you’re not willing to drop that kind of coin, you have a ton of options out there when it comes to a solid consumer DSLR. The two I find myself recommending all the time are the Nikon D90 and Canon Eos T1i, but really any DSLR paired with a fast prime lens will get the job done.

Okay, so what about actually shooting in low light?

Honestly, half the battle of shooting in low light is having the right tools for the job.

The other half? Your settings.

First, man (or woman) up and turn your mode dial out of Auto. I’d also recommend disabling Auto ISO. This may mean you’ll have to take a few test shots to see how low an ISO you can get away with, but if you’re not taking a few test shots anyway, you may as well pack up and go home.

Once you’ve disabled Auto ISO (usually buried in some menu tree), switch your camera in to Aperture Priority and crank it as large as it’ll go. Remember, larger apertures are denoted by smaller numbers.

Also keep in mind that, with a large aperture, you’re going to have some ridiculously shallow depth of field. How shallow? Shallow enough that your subject’s nose may be in sharp focus, but the rest of their face might be a slight bit blurred. You can step the aperture down slightly, but keep in mind you’ll have to sacrifice either shutter speed or ISO to compensate.

Once the camera’s set and ready to go, start taking pictures. All the typical suggestions regarding framing and such still apply. Also, pay special attention to the camera’s focus points. I’ve had a lot of great pictures ruined because the camera chose to focus on something other than the subject’s face. It may help to put your subject in the middle of the frame while you focus, then keep the shutter pressed down halfway while you frame the shot.Unless you have a Nikon D3 or D700 with the crazy 51-point autofocus system which seems to pick out and focus on eyes as if by magic.

It takes time to get the hang of it, but don’t give up. The results are worth it.