Filters

For a daytime long exposure you need a very dark filter. Filters offering more than 5 stops of light reduction are recommended. Some examples are the Hoya ND400 (9 stops) or the B+W ND1000 (10 stops).

The Setup

You need a good tripod, the filter, your camera and a lens of choice. A remote release is useful but not a must. Mirror lockup is not needed in long exposures as camera shake is not relevant if the exposure goes beyond 1 second.

If your camera has live-view with exposure simulation use it as it will help you compose the shot while the viewfinder might be too dark. Without live-view compose without the filter and then put the filter back (yes it hurts but…) The same goes for focusing.

If you only have 1 filter you can either use the aperture or the ISO to make small changes in the exposure time. You can double the exposure time going from F8 to F11 and a little extra DOF is not going to hurt. Diffraction might play a lesser role in long exposures so you can play with your aperture up to F22 if you really need a very long exposure.

Common Problems

Some combinations of cameras and filters can create a color cast due to infrared light filtration, the cast can be difficult to control so shoot RAW and be prepared to tweak the white balance. If there’s no good way to remove the cast you can always think about a B&W photo.

Ideas for Daytime Long Exposures

Clouds

If you have moving clouds you can turn an ordinary scene under “bad” light into something interesting. Clouds might need really long exposures to create movement in the sky. If possible try to position the camera so the clouds come towards you or away from you, the effect is usually better in that way.

Water

If you have moving water you can play with a long exposure to render different abstractions with its movement, from a high-speed freeze effect to a complete abstraction with minutes of exposures. In the middle some shutter speeds can render the water abstract and preserve its movement texture at the same time play with exposures from 1/30 to 1 second to see what happens.

People

If you take a long exposure moving objects tend to disappear as they are not enough time in the same position to be recorded in the final photo. This can be used to remove people, cars and other moving objects from a scene making it look like a desert.

It’s directed by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, the filmmaking team best known for Crank andCrank 2. The guys are taking the frentic Crank model and applying it to the Ghost Rider franchise, which has the trailer feeling, after they get through the long shot of fire, like it’s had a Red Bull or two.

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It ends with a kid asking Cage how it’s like to pee when he’s in fire mode, Cage saying it’s awesome, then closing with Ghost Rider, seen from the back tastefuly (ha!), shaking his money-maker, using it like a flame-thrower.

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance is set to be released on February 17, 2012 and is directed by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, the duo behind Crank, Crank: High Voltage, and Gamer. They insist it isn’t a sequel.

Synopsis

Nicolas Cage returns as Johnny Blaze in Columbia Pictures’ and Hyde Park Entertainment’s Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. In the successor to the worldwide hit Ghost Rider, Johnny – still struggling with his curse as the devil’s bounty hunter – is hiding out in a remote part of Eastern Europe when he is recruited by a secret sect of the church to save a young boy (Fergus Riordan) from the devil (Ciaran Hinds). At first, Johnny is reluctant to embrace the power of the Ghost Rider, but it is the only way to protect the boy – and possibly rid himself of his curse forever. Directed by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor. Screenplay by Scott M. Gimple & Seth Hoffman and David S. Goyer. Story by David S. Goyer. Based on the Marvel Comic. Produced by Steven Paul, Ashok Amritraj, Michael De Luca, Avi Arad, and Ari Arad.

The 14-page guide was authored by three key persons, the former Senior Director of Internet Safety at Symantec Linda McCarthy, Purdue University security researcher Keith Watson, and teacher/editor Denise Weldon-Siviy.

The authors state – “This guide is all about empowering you to Own Your Space — to understand what Facebook is doing to make the site safe and secure and to take the actions that are needed in this new digital world to protect yourself and your account,”

Here are the top tips for Staying Secure on Facebook provided by the Facebook Security team -

• Only Friend people you know.
• Create a good password and use it only for Facebook. Don’t share it with anyone and change it on a regular basis.
• Share your personal information only with people and companies that need it.
• Log into Facebook only ONCE each session. If it looks like Facebook is asking you to log in a second time, skip the links and directly type www.facebook.com into your browser address bar.
• Log out of Facebook after using someone else’s computer.
• Use secure browsing whenever possible.
• Only download Apps from sites you trust.
• Don’t paste script (code) in your browser address bar.
• Use browser add-ons like Web of Trust and Firefox’s NoScript to keep your account from being hijacked.
• Beware of “goofy” posts from anyone—even Friends. If it looks like something your Friend wouldn’t post, don’t click on it.
• Scammers might hack your Friends’ accounts and send links from their accounts. Beware of enticing links coming from your Friends.

The document is a Creative Commons licensing,  and is available for free! You can download your copy from the Facebook Security Page.

Additionally, the document elucidates how to avoid scammers, and configure advanced security features, like HTTPS encryption, one-time passwords, log-in notifications and recovering a hacked account. It is a must read to every user on Facebook. Especially the ones who are always tricked by scammers.

Photo Creadit: Flickr.com

I have been using the Google Toolbar in Firefox 5 and Firefox 6 for a few months now without issues, however, it does come with a caveat. Since Google has officially said that support for Google Toolbar is only available through Firefox 4, Firefox automatically disables the add-on on Firefox 5 and Firefox 5.

In order to enable the Google Toolbar in Firefox 5 and Firefox 6 you will first have to install the Add-on compatibility reporter extension in Firefox and restart the browser.

Once you have done that head over to the “Add-ons” and you will be able to run Google Toolbar in Firefox 5 and Firefox 6. Firefox will still report that the add-on is incompatible with the newer versions, however, you can continue using it without issues.

The above video, set to the tune of “I Just Called To Say I Love You,” comes courtesy of Break Media and stars Elliott Yamin (from American Idol on vocals), Sarah Hyland (Modern Family) and her boyfriend, actor Matt Prokop (High School Musical 3).

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The video called “My dog plays better volleyball than you!” features an amazing demonstration of volleys between a dog named Petey and his owner. The owner passes the ball to her dog and Petey hits it with his nose. They manage to pass it back and forth 32 times without dropping it once — that dog really is better at volleyball than me!

It’s strange to see an animal so good at an athletic activity, but it seems to love playing. I should mention that the owner is pretty good at volleying, too. Check it out!

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Catastrophe struck the Indiana State Fair on Saturday, where a 60mph gust of wind brought down the concert stage where the country music duo Sugarland was about to appear.

With the stage coverings acting as an enormous sail, the lighting grid and supporting scaffolding collapsed under the wind’s force, killing at least five people and injuring about 40.

Warning: The video above is the clearest view of the stage collapse yet available on YouTube, and is disturbing to watch.

The feature appears as a small box in the right-hand column above the advertising, either titled “On This Day in 2010″ or “On This Day in 2009.” We’ve typically found that the “On This Day” box appears while you’re browsing a photo album.

You can also click the “Show More” button to see more status updates from exactly one or two years ago, if you posted multiple status updates on those days. The feature only seems to go back to 2009. That makes sense — Facebook just didn’t have a lot of users in 2008 or 2007.

Based on a search of public Facebook and Twitter status updates, we believe the feature began rolling out in a limited test on August 11. More and more users started noticing in the last twelve hours, though. This isn’t the first time Facebook has tried to help uses discover their past activity on Facebook. It also has a feature for surfacing photos from your past.

We’re not sure if Facebook thinks of these nostalgic features as just fun little additions to the product, or whether they serve a purpose. Perhaps Facebook wants to remind its users that they have invested years of their lives into their product, so perhaps they shouldn’t switch to something new. Or perhaps its just another one of Facebook’s many product engagement tools.