In this video, I’ll demonstrate how you can make portrait or standard video (most commonly taken from cell phones), look more appealing in Sony Vegas. You will notice this effect commonly used in news and daytime talk shows. Not only will it work for cell phone video but it can also be used for any standard video that you need to incorporate into your widescreen project. Get rid of those big anaconda side bars!

As an alternative, you could also crop the video. But, it may not always be ideal. Especially, if the video is so small like the video clip used in this tutorial.

The post How to Make Portrait Video Look Appealing appeared first on Robert's Productions | Post Production Tips.

Independence Day is just about here in America and I wanted to share some of my favorite firework photos from the past years a day early. If you have any photos you’d like to share, please link them in the comments below! Also be sure to check out some of the tutorials I posted below on how to photograph fireworks as well as create your very own fireworks in Photoshop.

Fireworks

by @robynw, on Flickr

Illuminations: Reflections of Earth by Matt Pasant, on Flickr

Blue light special by Neil Kremer, on Flickr

God Bless America by Moniza*, on Flickr

Fourth on Lake Austin by Stuck in Customs, on Flickr

Disney – Illimunations – Reflections of Earth (1) (Explored) by Express Monorail, on Flickr

Illuminations: Reflections of Earth by Matt Pasant, on Flickr

by Darvin Atkeson, on Flickr

Mark Twain Fireworks #4 (Explored) by WJMcIntosh, on Flickr

Fireworks by Steve&Siewmei, on Flickr

4th of July ShalerJump – Fireworks Celebration Strobist Style by ACME-Nollmeyer, on Flickr

Bridge to Next Island by =the=, on Flickr

by heartreef, on Flickr

celebration of light 2007 – vancouver, canada, fireworks by jonrawlinson, on Flickr

Margret Hunt Hill Bridge – Dallas, TX by Fab05, on Flickr

Macy’s Fourth of July Fireworks 2011 @ New York City by mudpig, on Flickr

rainbow boom by mudpig, on Flickr

Fireworks by casseybunn

Volksfest HDR Fireworks Manip

Some great photography I wasn’t able to embed:

• http://www.flickr.com/photos/cheishichiyo/5311757944/
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/stonebridgedapper/6287115735/
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/johngilchrist/4079517476/
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/stonebridgedapper/5913265359/
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/pancier/721597393/

Tutorials

How to Shoot Fireworks (My 4th of July Tradition) – Scott Kelby

How to Photograph Fireworks Displays – Digital Photography School

How to Shoot [photograph] Fireworks – chasejarvis

Photoshop: Abstract Fireworks – Iceflow Studios

My Collection of Tutorials:

After Effects: Basic Fireworks

Create a Bottle Rocket in Illustrator

Photoshop: Abstract Fireworks

Taking Photographs of Fireworks

Bonus Videos

Slow motion aerial birds eye view of fireworks exploding — filmed with a GoPro HD

Fireworks From the Air

Pretty cool aerial view of fireworks.

and of course…

The Ultimate Fireworks Fail Compilation

http://youtu.be/D5jI92Ht99Y

Have fun shooting fireworks on the 4th! Again, if you have anything you’d like to share, leave a comment below!

The post Independence Day Fireworks appeared first on Robert's Productions | Post Production Tips.

TUTORIAL:

Assuming you already have some footage in your timeline, let’s take a look at making it sound like the dog is thinking.

First, let’s record what she says. Start off by arming the audio track for record as we will be recording our own voice on an audio track straight in Vegas Pro. You may want to come up with a general idea of what you’re going to say or write a script as it’s easier. I just winged it here and luckily, it sounded pretty good.

Once you know what you’re going to say, you’re ready to record. Click Record down in the Transport bar.

You’ll get a Project Recorded Files Folder diologe window asking where you want to save your recorded files. Be sure everything’s set up where you want them to go and click OK.

You may now begin speaking into your mic and record what you want the person or animal to be thinking.

When finished, click the record or stop button to stop recording.

You’ll then get a Recorded Files diologue window showing your recorded files. You can either Delete or Rename files. If you’d prefer not to have this window pop-up in the future, simply tick the option to, “Show after every recording session” off. Click Done.

Now, we’re ready to add the FX. You can either add them to each audio clip under Event FX or to the entire Track which is what I’m going to do. Click Track FX found in the Timeline Header for the appropriate audio track. You’ll now see an Audio Track FX window. Be sure to see this handy Tip of the Day on how to Override Window Docking in Sony Vegas in case you want to move this window around without it docking.

In the Audio Track FX window, click the Plug-in Chain icon to reveal more effects you can add. With All selected in the folder area, choose Reverb. Either double-click it and click OK or click it once, then click Add and click OK, your choice.

I found that the Bright hall preset seems to work well in this case. Click the Preset down-arrow and choose [Sys] Bright hall.

However, I changed the Reverb out to -30.5 dB. You’re free to play around with these options to familiarize yourself with them and get the best output for your project.

That’s it! Close out of the Audio Track FX and see how it sounds. You should find it sounds pretty good for those times someone’s thinking to themselves in a video.

What are some of your favorite audio effects in Sony Vegas? Leave your response in the comments below!

The post Sony Vegas: Thoughts Effect appeared first on Robert's Productions | Post Production Tips.

In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to create a neat looking vintage Valentine’s effect in Sony Vegas Pro 11. You’ll also learn how to group Event FX into their own presets.

Here are the settings used in this tutorial;

Sony Color Corrector

Sony Color Curves

Sony Gradient Map

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Music: Jason Shaw

Happy Valentines Day!

The post Sony Vegas: Vintage Valentine’s Effect appeared first on Robert's Productions | Post Production Tips.

In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to create a rotating starburst effect with the help of Photoshop in Sony Vegas Pro 11.

Photoshop: Starburst Effect
http://j.mp/wT0TOv

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Music: Klaypex

Download Project Files 2.4MB

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Get “Cache My Work”
http://j.mp/AuQjOX

Have you ever wondered if there was a way to save all open applications when you log off like you can on the Mac? You can shutdown, logoff, restart your computer and when you log back in, all your applications will re-open. Windows has no built in features for this but I think I found a good alternative. It’s called “Cache My Work”. It basically does all that! Saves open applications and folders when you logoff/restart or shut down your computer and they will then reopen when you log back in!

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Music: Kevin MacLeod

If you have any suggestions for Windows tips or any pc tips, go ahead and leave those in the comments below.

The post Windows Tip – Reopen Windows When Logging Back In appeared first on Robert's Productions | Post Production Tips.

In this Photoshop CS5 tutorial, I explain the way I’ve found to create a mosaic out of multiple photos. If you find an easier way of doing this in Photoshop, please let me know in the comments!

Alternative Mosaic Software: http://j.mp/wDPE83

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Music: Klaypex

The post Photoshop: Mosaic with Multiple Photos appeared first on Robert's Productions | Post Production Tips.

In today’s tutorial, I show you how to turn film negatives into positives using Photoshop CS5.

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Music: Jason Shaw

The post Photoshop: Film Negatives to Positives appeared first on Robert's Productions | Post Production Tips.

Be sure to follow the tutorial on how to create the LCD Display in the previous post here before getting started on this.

In the previous tutorial, we created the text 888.8. In this tutorial we need to change your text to the time format.

Change the background text color to a dark Red such as 700218. Opacity: 10-15%.

Add an Outer Glow with the following settings;

Add a 3px Stroke with the color: 79041f

That’s it! You can add some text to the side showing AM or PM with the same layer styles.

Download Clock .PSD 48.3KB

Learn how to create this Scale!

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Just in time for new years, IceflowStudios shows us how to create Abstract Fireworks!

The post Photoshop: Abstract Fireworks appeared first on Robert's Productions | Post Production Tips.