Greetings from Brooklyn!

We're wrapping up a whirlwind summer here at Bitbanger; a humid affair that culminated in our move from the modest Brooklyn basement that was our home for 4 years to a much larger, brighter loft space a few blocks down the way. We'll bore you with more pictures some other time - for now, just know that the extra room isn't just to hold more pixelsticks, it's to hold all of our big ideas. Ideas far too large for a basement, even a really nice basement with a wet bar and a fridge. The new digs will allow us to focus on improving pixelstick and developing other interesting things that will surely tickle your collective fancy.

During the summer we also ushered pixelstick into several new markets and are happy to announce that we've now sent at least one pixelstick to 78 different countries. Only 118 to go!

Expo, Expo, read all about it!

We're excited to announce that we'll be at the Photoplus Expo at the Javits Center in Manhattan, October 22-24. This is one of the premier photo events in the US and we're delighted to have the opportunity to meet some of you face to face and show pixelstick off to a wider audience. We'll have a live demo installed and we're generally affable and decent conversationalists, so if you're in the area, do stop by! More show info here

Instagrams of Note

TheWordsmithJr surrounds his human subjects in light from pixelstick light to make surreal timelapse portraits.

Frank Sauer uses the echo filter in After Effects to achieve a cool "Live Pixelsticking" video effect.

For this beautiful wedding composition, Sam Hurd used pixelstick as an accent light rather than painting with it. An unorthodox use that turned out great.

Penny for your thoughts?

As far as we can tell, pixelstick has been well received by photographers and artists of all ages and skill levels, but we're eager to learn more about you - there are probably folks out there doing insane stuff with pixelstick that we know nothing about, or using it for something we hadn't even thought of yet. With that in mind, we hope you'll consider taking a spare moment to fill out this (forgive the sort of slimy nomenclature) customer survey. We're aware that it's an annoying thing to do, but we promise it's nothing too personal and if you fill it out, you'll be entered for a chance to win a wireless remote for use with your pixelstick. This is all in the name of improving pixelstick and serving the needs and wants of the community better. Thanks in advance!

The Blog Days of Summer

In July we rolled out the pixelstick blog, an outlet for us to showcase some of the best and most interesting uses of pixelstick that we've seen so far. As we go forward, we plan on some more in depth technical posts that will detail how some of the things we and others are doing can best be achieved. If you haven't been by, we've talked a bit about Automobile photography, shooting weddings, using pixelstick's "spinner" capability (as in the above picture), and more. Check it out, and stay tuned for more! If you have an idea for the blog, or wish to guest-write a post, let us know!

Pixeltricks - The Dread White Border

Every month we'll call out little tips and tricks to that we've encountered during out time with pixelstick. Got a tip? Let us know here!

Noticing a faint white border around your custom images? Don't worry, it's photoshop's fault, not yours (or pixelstick's). When photoshop resizes an image to 200px tall, many of the options in the dropdown will result in a 1px anti-aliased border that is hard to detect on the screen but will result in an unseemly white border around your images when you take the long exposure. Choose the 'Bilinear' option when resizing in photoshop to avoid this. Alternately, you can use our online conversion tool here to autorotate and convert images.

Beef up your stick - 55% off Lenses

Looks like we're a bit overstocked on Creative Lens Packs. The Lens Pack offers two very different diffusors as alternatives to the lens that comes stock with your pixelstick. The Flat Clear lens offers maximum total brightness, and with it the individual LEDs can be seen more discretely, resulting a retro scanline effect in your photos. The Rounded Milky lens provides the most diffusion, best viewing angle, and smoothest visual transitions between colors - great for photorealistic effects. While we remain overstocked on this item, you can use the coupon code "lensparty" to receive 55% off. Domestically, that'll be a total of $17.25 shipped. Out-of-towners can get the kit for $21.25 shipped. Not too shabby! Check it out here.

Featured Artist:
Tim Peeler, SpeedNBeauty

Tim Peeler is a St. Louis based photographer specializing in automotive photography. Having numerous awards and magazine covers to his name, Tim is one of the up and coming photography names in the business. He is one of the lucky few that gets to combine his work and pleasure, spending his days shooting rare and unique vehicles for specialty automotive dealers and private collectors. With a lifelong passion for automobiles and art, his progression into automotive photography was seamless. About pixelstick, Tim had this to say:

"Pixelstick opens up so many creative doors as a photography tool. I'm always finding new uses for it and I bring it with me to every photo shoot! The guys at Bitbanger Labs have created an amazing tool that both beginners and professionals can enjoy."

Check out Tim's work here.

Until next time!

Thanks for reading! We love email - can't get enough of the stuff. So if you have any problems, questions, comments, concerns, ideas for what you'd like to see us shoot or talk about, or just want to talk photography and no one else is awake at 3am but us, you can always drop us a line. We're here.

Duncan & Steve
Bitbanger