tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38475309207603672012024-03-07T18:19:49.766-05:00Hybrid Shooting for Newspaper CoverageNewspapers feel the winds of change, while being years behind the innovative styles of delivering news. I'm now challenged with learning digital cinematography with a Panasonic HVX200, assigned to me for a daily newspaper, along with the hybrid Lumix FZ30, Nikon D2Hs and D2Xs. This blog will share my on-the-job training, while explaining the joys and frustrations of adapting to a new style of journalism in which we're not sure of the path. We only know that we're forging a path, somewhere.Light For Allhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05983171706210721673noreply@blogger.comBlogger76125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3847530920760367201.post-86461188009172885562007-07-25T20:26:00.000-05:002007-07-25T20:37:56.178-05:00Video: Call Ripken's Hall of Fame Send-OffHaving been asked by the bosses to return from vacation early to cover the pre-game ceremony of Cal Ripken who is the most recent inductee into the National Baseball Hall of Fame museum in Cooperstown, my brain cooked for some ideas to deliver a decent package.<br /><br />Getting into town the night before, I attempted shooting some B-roll of Cal's poster as it hung from the east wall of the warehouse, facing the inner harbor. Dissatisfied with the results, I woke up early Tuesday, just before sunrise, taking the Sony camcorder and shooting some shots. By mid-afternoon, I sat in front of a workstation, searching for archive photos of Ripken during his career with the Baltimore Orioles, burning a CD of some images taken by a host of former and current staff photographers.<br /><br />Rush hour traffic was harsh, since so many people decided to get to the ballpark early for the 6:30 ceremony and speech, and I began rendering the photos, sizing them for a horizontal widescreen production. The video, which is interlaced, had to be processed as well, taking a decent amount of time to not only upload the footage, but process the files through Mpeg Streamclip, which removes the video jaggies.<br /><br />With the time reaching 6:30, I scrambled to the field to get into position, using a monopod as my camera support. The event started late, because Ripken had also gotten held up in traffic. Finally, the dignitaries, including Mayor Sheila Dixon, as well as Hall of Famers Brooks Robinson, Earl Weaver and Eddie Murray took their cues to appear, and finally Ripken was introduced.<br /><br />Using the external shotgun microphone to record audio, I pointed it behind me to capture sound, since the speakers hung from the upper level seating areas, instead of a central speaker system in the outfield, like the old Memorial Stadium. Unfortunately, the moment Ripken was introduced, a shrieking scream of an adoring female directly behind me, overpowered the usual applause and cheer. She sounded more like the victim in an underground horror flick.<br /><br /><br /><embed src='http://admin.brightcove.com/destination/player/player.swf' bgcolor='#000000' flashVars='allowFullScreen=true&initVideoId=1125655328&servicesURL=http://www.brightcove.com&viewerSecureGatewayURL=https://www.brightcove.com&cdnURL=http://admin.brightcove.com&autoStart=false' base='http://admin.brightcove.com' name='bcPlayer' width='486' height='412' allowFullScreen='true' allowScriptAccess='always' seamlesstabbing='false' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' swLiveConnect='true' pluginspage='http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash'></embed><br /><br /><br />Ripken's speech lasted around 10 minutes or less, and we headed for the editing room in the lower press box. Processing the interlaced video seemed to take forever, and the game was already in the second inning before the new progressive videos were completed. Dropping the main speech into the sequence window, I added a little B-roll footage and then played and marked the clip for places to consider placing the file pictures. Starting with a picture by staffer Paul Hutchins from 1978, I tried placing images along the speech to help break up the monotony of a podium shot. By the time the editing was finished, I had used every file picture, and added a neat clip of the outside of the warehouse, with Cal's large photo being reflected in a mirror that traffic uses to watch for the light rail trains crossing the stadium drive. It was strategically placed at a point early on, when Cal talked about reflecting on his career.<br /><br />At the very end, a shot taken as Cal's last game celebrated his accomplishments was used. The shot was a vertical image, and fireworks shot into the air beside a large U.S. flag. Dragging the image to the left portion of the screen, I added the photo credits of all the staff photographers whose pictures were used.<br /><br />Returning to the office, I discovered that there had been an internal server problem, and that the video couldn't get uploaded, so I went back to a Macintosh G5 desktop and tweaked the video, splicing some of the cheering to remove that screeching and irritating cheer by that fan (she can be seen holding a sign, and watch how at least one irritated fan turned her way several times). I also made a slight change to let the photo credits fade and keep the still image up for about 3 seconds longer, before allowing it to fade as well. Finishing the video was done in plenty of time; the server hadn't even been fixed, so the video had to wait until Wednesday morning for posting.Light For Allhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05983171706210721673noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3847530920760367201.post-6009934168157117212007-07-09T15:44:00.000-05:002007-07-09T15:50:26.875-05:00Video: Polar Bear PopsiclePolar Bear Popsicle<br /><br />This is a quick and painless video of Alaska, a polar bear at Maryland Zoo in Baltimore, taken with my newly-issued Sony DCR-SR300 camcorder, for a hot weather clip. The cameras will stay in our hand until another upgrade. This camera has those "jaggies," which is interlaced video. With the Macintosh, MPEGStreamclip wipes the jaggies out and makes it more manageable. I like to keep the camera set on manual mode with the light settings, and you can see that I haven't quite gotten the hang of it; some of the scenes are properly exposed while others are dark. It was my first workout with the camera.<br /><br />I'm going to turn on the zebra bars (if it has that). "Zebra bars" are white and black diagonal stripes that show where the highlights are blown out in the shot. With the Panasonic HVX200, I can quickly gauge the proper exposure, but with any new gear, there's a period of time when the user has to learn the camera's method of recording, in order to get the proper exposure. Some might wonder why I don't use the auto setting; that's because I like having control over the exposure.<br /><br />With bright subjects, the camera can open and close its aperture, causing the video to alternate between light and dark. I want the camera to remain constant. It's a decent camera in shady conditions, but in bright sunlight, it seems as though the Sony over-exposes. I like knocking the exposure down, just enough so that the footage looks pleasing and vibrant. While the SR300 has settings to adjust for color and saturation, I'd rather keep those normal.<br /><br /><embed src="http://admin.brightcove.com/destination/player/player.swf" bgcolor="#000000" flashvars="allowFullScreen=true&initVideoId=1080165984&servicesURL=http://www.brightcove.com&viewerSecureGatewayURL=https://www.brightcove.com&cdnURL=http://admin.brightcove.com&autoStart=false" base="http://admin.brightcove.com" name="bcPlayer" width="486" height="412" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" seamlesstabbing="false" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" swliveconnect="true" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"></embed><br /><br />As for the production, the video's need to be converted by MPEGStreamclip added some time. But from the conversion of all the files, to editing and packaging, it took about an hour.Light For Allhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05983171706210721673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3847530920760367201.post-50251425027542347242007-07-05T14:16:00.000-05:002007-07-05T17:30:13.593-05:00The Videographer as Chef or Cook (With Video)I feel as though I'm a caring parent, giving life to this child - a video story - that I want to nurture, groom, and prepare for the big world. But at some point, the passion I pour into the project simply must be finished and set free, to let it stand on the perch to release it into the wilds of public view, and let that baby fly. Every once in a while, I latch onto editing a shoot, wanting everything to be perfect if it went much better than expected. The sound was captured well; the subjects expressed themselves; the moments captured on film sang; and everything mixed together like a recipe, filled with the perfect ingredients. <br /><br />When that happens, your choice is whether to prepare the project as a cook, or a chef. The grocery store is your assignment location, so let's pretend that it's a target-rich environment: You feel as though you're shopping at the trendiest spot, with various qualities of cuts, produce and dairy products. You can grab the top-shelf items, or pick the basic stuff that's ten for a buck, depending on how you approach the subject. The interviews, B-roll and audio become your ingredients, and your recording equipment is the grocery cart. While not being too picky, get enough for your dish, and get some extra stuff so that you won't have to return; the store might be closed by that time! <br /><br />Returning to the kitchen (your workstation), your tools for measuring the ingredients come from your own instincts. Do you want it to be short, or extended? Bland, or spicy? If you've done a thorough job, you'll have enough to create a few different styles of videos, but always remember that it's a blank canvas. Other than basic editing and continuity skills, your imagination dictates how the project will shape up. If your way of shooting and editing doesn't agree with someone else, keep in mind that not everyone enjoys lobster with drawn butter. <br /><br /><embed src='http://admin.brightcove.com/destination/player/player.swf' bgcolor='#000000' flashVars='allowFullScreen=true&initVideoId=1080183841&servicesURL=http://www.brightcove.com&viewerSecureGatewayURL=https://www.brightcove.com&cdnURL=http://admin.brightcove.com&autoStart=false' base='http://admin.brightcove.com' name='bcPlayer' width='486' height='412' allowFullScreen='true' allowScriptAccess='always' seamlesstabbing='false' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' swLiveConnect='true' pluginspage='http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash'></embed><br /><br />With that in mind, the video I've finally finished was created at Stemmer House, on Caves Road in Owings Mills, MD. The backbone of the clip is the amazing insight by gardener Barbara Holdridge, who has taken care of the grounds over the past 34 years. Experiencing her passion lit my fire, and I was determined to create the most compelling video that I could, as a tribute to her love of the soil. That, and a short ballad that she sang, patiently waiting for me to set up my gear. Ms. Holdridge talked thoroughly about her joy in getting her hands into the soil, so that if we ever would like to create a different type of video, it can be done with no sweat about lack of footage. Please enjoy it half as much as I did, photographing and editing the piece.Light For Allhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05983171706210721673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3847530920760367201.post-63591080595987801842007-07-04T21:18:00.000-05:002007-07-04T21:39:51.775-05:00SONY DCR-SR300 Smooth Slow MotionHere are 3 clips taken with the SONY DCR-SR300 hard disk drive camcorder, using "smooth slow motion." The files, shot of bumblebees in flight and a hard rain, are recorded with audio, and other than rotating the one clip to vertical, all the videos have post-processing only to get them posted online.<br /><br />The SR300 only records 3 seconds of footage on its disk; an audio track is also recorded and then the complete file gets placed on the camera's drive, using a buffer, so it won't be able to record for a few moments after each slow motion clip is recorded. The footage seemed a bit blurry, so I also added a comparison with the Smooth Slow Motion in the top portion and the SR300's regular footage in the lower portion.<br /><br /><br /><embed src='http://admin.brightcove.com/destination/player/player.swf' bgcolor='#000000' flashVars='allowFullScreen=true&initVideoId=1080158779&servicesURL=http://www.brightcove.com&viewerSecureGatewayURL=https://www.brightcove.com&cdnURL=http://admin.brightcove.com&autoStart=false' base='http://admin.brightcove.com' name='bcPlayer' width='486' height='412' allowFullScreen='true' allowScriptAccess='always' seamlesstabbing='false' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' swLiveConnect='true' pluginspage='http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash'></embed>Light For Allhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05983171706210721673noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3847530920760367201.post-25658302088428617342007-07-04T15:45:00.000-05:002007-07-04T18:33:33.843-05:00YouTube Hits vs Local Video Clips; "The Phallic Tomato" (Video)I'm beginning to understand about what people mean, when they suggest that the audio is the most important part of a video. We're not talking about the 15-second gag on YouTube (even though good audio still helps), but the focus is on the 2- to 3- minute feature clip, which is a full-length movie these days, with regards to video production. I'm certain that the average homemade clip is around a minute or less, and so the longer videos have to have some kind of appeal that would make a stranger want to watch the whole thing, and then want more. That's because boredom is the curse of video. The longer a clip lasts, the less that people remain engaged.<br /><br />How does one effectively trim a video clip to make it more appealing? If you have subject matter that yields interest, half your battle is won. Usually stupid human or pet tricks, as well as breaking news can do the trick. As I write this, most of the video I have to shoot deals with very specific subjects, like the video of the Stemmer House gardener, which I will upload soon. It's simply not something that will make the top ten break.com videos, yet looking at some of the recent top clips, I wonder what people find interesting, when hundreds of thousands (or even millions) will play a clip of yet another wannabe singer belting out an off-key tune. Perhaps its just that people identify with ordinary people more often?<br /><br /><embed src='http://admin.brightcove.com/destination/player/player.swf' bgcolor='#000000' flashVars='allowFullScreen=true&initVideoId=1080163282&servicesURL=http://www.brightcove.com&viewerSecureGatewayURL=https://www.brightcove.com&cdnURL=http://admin.brightcove.com&autoStart=false' base='http://admin.brightcove.com' name='bcPlayer' width='486' height='412' allowFullScreen='true' allowScriptAccess='always' seamlesstabbing='false' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' swLiveConnect='true' pluginspage='http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash'></embed><br /><br />For instance, the shortie I just posted. With all the editing and production of 3-minute videos, I had to post a really quick and "dirty" post of the phallic tomato, growing in my father's secret garden. "Look at what we have growing," I was told as I visited the homestead for the Fourth of July. What would you think it might look like, if Dad actually used Miracle Grow, the Viagra for plant food?Light For Allhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05983171706210721673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3847530920760367201.post-1643626552921159532007-06-24T11:02:00.000-05:002007-06-25T05:49:58.129-05:00"Our Secret Garden" (Video, Still Images)Another project of monumental proportions (post-production time-wise), since I'm still learning how to create multimedia short subjects. Proper training would have been a good thing to help save time, instead of working through trial and error. <br /><br />Somehow, the thought of capturing my father's floral garden dropped in my head, as my older brother and I helped Dad with work on our homestead. As we trimmed back the branches the orchard trees, I was attacked by a band of yellow jackets. Thinking about keeping my Lumix TZ1 close by, in case I was stung, thoughts wound up focusing on the flowers, which Dad grew to appreciate by grandfather's love of gardening.<br /><br />Between chores, I paused to shoot some footage, trying to capture the butterflies that visited. Somewhere between chasing a butterfly with my camera rolling, and not wanting to help with discarding the large prickly holly branches, I started grabbing some images along with the video. I worked into the dark, using a digital Olympus DS-2 voice recorder and a Sennheiser K6 shotgun microphone, recording audio of the birds and insects around the home. Audio recording can be a struggle if one needs to capture sound near an interstate and along the flight path of an international airport. <br /><br />Last night became this morning, with very little sleep as I worked using iMovie HD to help with the "Ken Burns Effect" of adding motion to still images, since I haven't yet mastered it in Final Cut Pro. Since the TZ1 can be set to capture images at the same resolution as high definition video, working with the footage in iMovie was a no-brainer. After finding some unobtrusive and excellent piano clips by Herbert Boland in the Freesound Project website, through creativecommons.org, the costruction of the short was finally complete.<br /><br /><embed src='http://admin.brightcove.com/destination/player/player.swf' bgcolor='#000000' flashVars='allowFullScreen=true&initVideoId=1034545324&servicesURL=http://www.brightcove.com&viewerSecureGatewayURL=https://www.brightcove.com&cdnURL=http://admin.brightcove.com&autoStart=false' base='http://admin.brightcove.com' name='bcPlayer' width='486' height='412' allowFullScreen='true' allowScriptAccess='always' seamlesstabbing='false' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' swLiveConnect='true' pluginspage='http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash'></embed>Light For Allhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05983171706210721673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3847530920760367201.post-60046445096544266872007-06-20T18:28:00.000-05:002007-06-23T13:19:39.660-05:00"Stormy Flight" (Video, Timelapse)<embed src="http://www.metacafe.com/fplayer/680057/stormy_flight_timelapse_and_video.swf" width="400" height="345" wmode="transparent" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed><br><font size = 1><a href="http://www.metacafe.com/watch/680057/stormy_flight_timelapse_and_video/">"Stormy Flight" (Timelapse And Video)</a> - <a href='http://www.metacafe.com/'>More amazing videos are a click away</a></font><br /><br />I guess I never should have expected that I'd take any time off without shooting and editing some kind of footage. This one was borne out of pure boredom, along with a volunteered bump. <br /><br />With a freeze of flights into the east coast, I didn't get on the return trip home until past sunset. That's when I decided to try shooting time lapse pictures of the jet's take-off. At first I felt a bit steamed since we got airborn several minutes past sunset. And I sat on the left side of the jet to try capturing some footage. A storm, which had caused delays in the northeast corridor, still had some energy, with flashes of lightning ripping through the cloud deck below the plane. I set the camera on long exposure of one second, holding the trigger so the camera could capture images as quickly as it could. <br /><br />Adding a mix of video footage whenever I could, I sat on the shutter button as the plane landed. Just now, I finished adding audio from iMovie HD, the software I used for editing, and a tune was added from the Internet Archive, which had a nice track by Pablo Reche that fit well at the end. The clip became a very foreboding piece with the lightning all over the area, and some of the ambient sound effects helped add that ominous dimension.<br /><br />This was all captured using the Panasonic Lumix TZ3 hybrid camera, shooting with continuous mode (takeoff, landing, taxi scenes) and video mode (some of the airplane wings in flight; it simply looks like straight-shot footage). All scene editing and sound processing was done in iMovie, except for a little post-process tweaking of the titles in Final Cut Pro (I could have kept the titles in iMovie, but liked Final Cut a little more). <br /><br />Below is the upload in Brightcove.<br /><br /><br /><embed src='http://admin.brightcove.com/destination/player/player.swf' bgcolor='#000000' flashVars='allowFullScreen=true&initVideoId=1034451121&servicesURL=http://www.brightcove.com&viewerSecureGatewayURL=https://www.brightcove.com&cdnURL=http://admin.brightcove.com&autoStart=false' base='http://admin.brightcove.com' name='bcPlayer' width='486' height='412' allowFullScreen='true' allowScriptAccess='always' seamlesstabbing='false' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' swLiveConnect='true' pluginspage='http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash'></embed>Light For Allhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05983171706210721673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3847530920760367201.post-22084213624017505522007-06-18T04:42:00.000-05:002007-06-18T04:46:33.489-05:00"Welcome to Baltimore" Video - Music by Igneous Flame<object enableJSURL="false" enableHREF="false" saveEmbedTags="true" allowScriptAccess="never" allownetworking="internal" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowScriptAccess="never" allownetworking="internal" height="345" width="400" data="http://www.metacafe.com/fplayer/627822/welcome_to_baltimore.swf"><br /> <param name="allowScriptAccess" value="never" /><br /> <param name="allowNetworking" value="internal" /><br /> <param name="movie" value="http://www.metacafe.com/fplayer/627822/welcome_to_baltimore.swf" /><br /> <param name="wmode" value="transparent" /><br /></object><br><font size = 1><a href="http://www.metacafe.com/watch/627822/welcome_to_baltimore/">Welcome To Baltimore</a> - <a href='http://www.metacafe.com/'>The most popular videos are a click away</a></font><br><br>Take a setting in which you can't move, and try capturing it from as many different perspectives as you can. Given some time and a little creativity, you can start discovering some more creative ways to watch the world go by. I played with my own vision as I started recording the sights as the jet returned to BWI-Thurgood Marshall Airport from Manchester. Having grown tired of reading the in-flight magazine (which is usually the very same one that I had read on the way out), I started capturing some footage of the sun and clouds on an overcast day, while the plane began its descent. <br><br>Taking advantage of my Lumix TZ3 camera's 10X optical zoom lens, I tried finding some nice shots, and what I captured was because of the mood I was in at the time. By the time I got home, I wanted to piece it together. Some of the footage might be redundant, but I didn't want to trim too much. As I finished the clip, some music that I purchased, by <a href="http://www.chillfactor10.com">Igneous Flame</a>, kept going through my head. So I placed the track, <a href="http://cdbaby.com/cd/igneousflame5">"Lustral Sheen," from the album "SATU"</a> into Final Cut, and the timing fit really well! The "darkly luminous" music couldn't have been more fitting. Igneous Flame (Pete Kelly) is <a href="http://www.myspace.com/igneousflame">right here, on MySpace</a> as well. You should swing by and check the music out. If you like the track in the video, you must get the album.Light For Allhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05983171706210721673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3847530920760367201.post-87410793325678667032007-06-15T04:09:00.000-05:002007-06-15T04:15:54.115-05:00Follow-up on Cheap Lens FiltersAfter reading some comments about those looking at alternatives to the pricey filters, such as the circular polarizing filter I had just reviewed in a video, I decided to make a follow-up post about my own feelings on using inexpensive filters. I tend to disagree with such a broad statement, that one might consider cheap filters as "acceptable." I'd rather want "desirable" results instead, when it comes to image quality. If a manufacturer has made a nice filter and yet isn't consistent with a good majority of the samples, I wouldn't touch it with a 10-foot pole. Case in point, my OEC filter I got through eBay. I had read that there were plenty of good feedbacks, so since the thing cost $40, we tried it. But if you look at the results of the video review I just posted at http://www.metacafe.com/w/651400/ would you ~really~ trust putting such glass on top of a sharp lens and gamble with the possibility of distorting your image? I've heard arguments all over about cheap polarizers (other filters and lenses as well). People simply shouldn't gamble too much over what they put on a sharp lens.<br /><br />The problem is that what lies on top is what will be the best you can get from an image. If the filter sucks, you could have the most quality glass on the planet, but your results will suck raw eggs. And once you shoot images using inferior equipment, you're ultimately capturing history that cannot be revisited, but for the images you've frozen in time. I was shocked to see the results that the video showed as I turned the polarizing filter. Watch how the filter I got distorts everything. We feel passionate about our images. Don't compromise too much by using bad filters on good gear.Light For Allhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05983171706210721673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3847530920760367201.post-10308220902055293312007-06-14T00:48:00.000-05:002007-06-15T03:06:17.372-05:00Your Lens is Only as Good as Your Filter!Field Report:<br />OEC Circular Polarizing Filter <br /><br /><br />The OEC Circular Polarizing Filter, which can be purchased for between $20 and $40 (for a set, with a UV and ND filter). But are these inexpensive filters worth the price, are they cheap, or should you save your money? Let the video be a guide to whether you choose to purchase an OEC brand polarizing filter:<br /><br /><embed width="450" height="370" src="http://static.videoegg.com/videoegg/loader.swf" FlashVars="bgColor=000000&file=http://selfserve400.download.videoegg.com/gid391/cid1410/WJ/B8/1181790858QiNQOlJVdPRQpVKGvMBQ&autoPlay=false&forcePlay=false&logo=&allowFullscreen=true" quality="high" allowScriptAccess="always" bgcolor="#000000" scale="noscale"wmode="window" name="VE_Player" align="middle" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" /><br><a href="http://motiono.com/watch/UseTTMem">Motiono</a> by <a href="http://www.motiono.com/daterace">daterace</a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />I really don't have much more to write about it, except that the OEC polarizer in 82mm size isn't fit for being placed on any good lens. And it'll make an average or fair lens that much worse. Here's the second part of the video, below:<br /><br /><embed width="450" height="370" src="http://static.videoegg.com/videoegg/loader.swf" FlashVars="bgColor=000000&file=http://selfserve400.download.videoegg.com/gid391/cid1410/C1/GZ/1181798139Uaeg4hgeZIv9XDKdIxeu&autoPlay=false&forcePlay=false&logo=&allowFullscreen=true" quality="high" allowScriptAccess="always" bgcolor="#000000" scale="noscale"wmode="window" name="VE_Player" align="middle" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" /><br><a href="http://motiono.com/watch/tEeTTTTr">Motiono</a> by <a href="http://www.motiono.com/daterace">daterace</a><br /><br />The problem that I encountered was first recognized when I had to shoot <a href="http://www.brightcove.com/title.jsp?title=992836329">a horrific fire,</a> one of the deadliest in the history of Baltimore City. Trying to focus on the victims, I simply couldn't lock focus, even with the focus-assist box on the HVX200. It made things difficult to get a decently-sharp image from the high-resolution footage for print. At one instance, I noticed that the edges of some things in my viewfinder rotated as I tried using the CPL filter, and it turns out that the OEC filter was the sole source of the lack of sharpness in the footage. To have equipment issues that cause your image quality to suffer on something so historic is terrible; you can't take the footage and return the image quality when that happens.Light For Allhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05983171706210721673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3847530920760367201.post-44208104274082484192007-06-12T08:13:00.000-05:002007-06-12T16:54:37.411-05:00Keep 'Em Charged!Monday mornings sometimes bring surprises at work. So was the case, when I arrived to learn that I had a job, one hour later. It was called "Build Playground Day," at Collington Square School in northeast Baltimore, in a neighborhood that's been forgotten and neglected. The Baltimore Ravens, along with Kaboom! and volunteers through the community and a host of organizations banded together, building a playground in one day.<br /><br />Reaching for the <a href="http://www.eventdv.net/Articles/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=11559">Firestore FS-100</a> external recordable drive to mount to the HVX200 camcorder, I noticed that it faced the other way. Plugging the unit into the charger, I knew the battery hadn't been charged. With the prospect of having to shoot a great amount of footage over 5 hours of construction time, I decided to use the <a href="http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/panasonic/dmc_tz1-review/">Lumix DMC-TZ1</a> and it's slightly bigger sibling, the <a href="http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/panasonictz3/">Lumix DMC-TZ3</a> cameras as my visual arsenal. <br /><br />Gaining access to the roof of the school, I clamped down a Nikon D2Xs camera outfitted with a <a href="http://www.photographyreview.com/cat/lenses/35mm-zoom/sigma/PRD_335764_3128crx.aspx">Sigma 10-20mm zoom</a>, to get as wide an aspect as possible. Calculating the frame rate of a movie against the time I had to shoot, I figured on setting the camera's interval timer to fire an image every 30 seconds, which yielded about 20 seconds of footage. At several stages, I clamped the small cameras onto different objects, gathering some interesting POV shots! You can't do that with an HVX200.<br /><br />Starting the camera around 7:30 A.M., I returned to ground level, grabbing 5- to 10- video clips and switching on-the-fly to shoot still images for the web updates and for print publication. By 10 A.M., I started sending still images, then returned to the field to gather more footage. Gathering more still images for a picture package for the web by noon, I finished most of the ground-level recording just in time to return to the roof and take what was shot with the Nikon camera.<br /><br />The nurse's office became a multimedia center, as I created a Quicktime movie, sent more images and the 20-second time lapse clip, and edited the main package for today's web update. Oh, working on the Macintosh platform is great in my eyes. While I write, Groove Salad cranks out tunes in my headset, while <a href="http://www.macworld.com/2006/02/reviews/idvd6/index.php">Magic iDVD</a> creates a cool DVD disk of the whole project, for the school, complete with animated menus and a hip audio track.<br /><br /><embed src='http://admin.brightcove.com/destination/player/player.swf' bgcolor='#000000' flashVars='allowFullScreen=true&initVideoId=987227255&servicesURL=http://www.brightcove.com&viewerSecureGatewayURL=https://www.brightcove.com&cdnURL=http://admin.brightcove.com&autoStart=false' base='http://admin.brightcove.com' name='bcPlayer' width='486' height='412' allowFullScreen='true' allowScriptAccess='always' seamlesstabbing='false' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' swLiveConnect='true' pluginspage='http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash'></embed>Light For Allhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05983171706210721673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3847530920760367201.post-59114190785698873052007-06-10T13:02:00.000-05:002007-06-10T13:16:02.760-05:00Brightcove Posting, B-Roll Cameras<embed src='http://admin.brightcove.com/destination/widgets/verticalTakeout.swf' bgcolor='#000000' flashVars='badgeType=column&destUrl=http://www.brightcove.com&cdnUrl=http://admin.brightcove.com&secondParam=channel=979539380&firstParam=newest' base='http://admin.brightcove.com' name='verticalTakeout' width='137' height='660' allowScriptAccess='always' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' pluginspage='http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash'></embed><br /><br /><embed src='http://admin.brightcove.com/destination/player/player.swf' bgcolor='#000000' flashVars='allowFullScreen=true&initVideoId=987197685&servicesURL=http://www.brightcove.com&viewerSecureGatewayURL=https://www.brightcove.com&cdnURL=http://admin.brightcove.com&autoStart=false' base='http://admin.brightcove.com' name='bcPlayer' width='486' height='412' allowFullScreen='true' allowScriptAccess='always' seamlesstabbing='false' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' swLiveConnect='true' pluginspage='http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash'></embed><br />This is a Brightcove Post<br /><br /><br />I've found a website that can better display the video that people share. I found www.brightcove.com, while searching for some video of a singer throwing a boy off a stage and loved the quality and options of being able to view the video in full screen. While you can see some pixelation, it isn't nearly as bad as the popular video sites such as Youtube and other video sites. So I'm returning to resize the prepared videos and upload them to Brightcove. <br /><br />I've also purchased two Lumix cameras. The TZ1 and big sister, the TZ3, are great little cameras to shoot B-roll. I've used it to capture alternate angle shots of Cal Ripken and also placed them on the ground at a dangerous crosswalk in east Baltimore, giving me the luxury of focusing my attention on shooting with the HVX200. Both TZ cameras shoot in widescreen at 848 x480 pixels, which is the same format as high definition video. The TZ1 shoots at 5 megapixels, while the TZ3 captures at around 7 MP, and also has a larger LCD view screen. <br /><br />The videos they shoot now can be seamlessly integrated with Final Cut Pro 6, which we're upgrading to, at work. There's a setting that allows the user to import footage from various cameras without that rendering red line, which kills any chance to output a finished product with efficiency. At least, that's what I'm told.Light For Allhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05983171706210721673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3847530920760367201.post-82113623400227208842007-06-09T12:04:00.000-05:002007-06-09T12:05:46.536-05:00Finally, I Can Post Again!Blogger and I had some miscommunications, and they've finally been resolved. So I'll be back up and posting soon!Light For Allhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05983171706210721673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3847530920760367201.post-20165137517188260642006-12-14T23:15:00.000-05:002006-12-15T04:09:44.184-05:00Nikon D2Xs, HVX200 iMovie Clip: Stars Over Chincoteague<div style="text-align: justify;">Post references:<br /><a href="http://www.apple.com/ilife/imovie/">Apple iMovie</a><br /><a href="http://www.dvxuser.com/articles/HVX200/">Panasonic HVX200</a><br /><a href="http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Nikon/nikon_d2xs.asp">Nikon D2Xs</a><br /><a href="http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?A=details&Q=&is=REG&O=productlist&sku=5180">Manfrotto Bogen Magic Arm</a><br /><a href="http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/1735.htm">Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8</a><br /><a href="http://www.refugeinn.com/">Refuge Inn of Chincoteague</a><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Because the clips have been severely compressed from high definition, please try viewing in a darkened environment to watch the path of the stars. Thanks!</span><br /><br /><embed style="width:400px; height:326px;" id="VideoPlayback" align="middle" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=6998381849505877097&hl=en" quality="best" bgcolor="#ffffff" scale="noScale" salign="TL" FlashVars="playerMode=embedded"> </embed><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Stars Over Chincoteague (63 seconds, Google Videos)</span></span><br /><br /><br />I am soooo stoked.<br /><br />I just "produced" my first project using a combination of time lapse, using (version 3) <a href="http://www.apple.com/ilife/imovie/">Apple's iMovie,</a> with some shots I grabbed while on the eastern shore over the weekend on rocket launch that was scrubbed.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightforall/322880833/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/141/322880833_0f5427a655_m.jpg" alt="sunset" height="135" width="240" /></a><br /><br />Driving down to Chincoteague Island Sunday, my mind swept through with thoughts of how to cover the Minotar rocket that was planned for a pre-dawn launch. Getting to Wallops, VA just as the Sun began setting, out came the <a href="http://www.dvxuser.com/articles/HVX200/">HVX200</a> as I tried grabbing some footage since a rocket launch would only last a couple minutes at best.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightforall/322880834/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/135/322880834_cd279c60b9_m.jpg" alt="birds" height="135" width="240" /></a><br /><br />Birds flew nearby and I quickly changed my shutter speed on the HVX200 to 1/30th, up one step from 1/15th second, as I had tried letting in more light. The flocks were making their way to bed down for the evening, and I grabbed a short clip of one of the final flocks that passed overhead.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightforall/322880836/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/127/322880836_84899438d8_m.jpg" alt="dishes" height="135" width="240" /></a><br /><br />A quick grab of the western horizon, and then a turn of the camera to the dishes within the fenced-in surroundings of Wallops to grab some time lapse footage, set at a frame per second to try gathering some orange-to-blue-to-black of the evening sky. Unfortunately, the camera dropped focus, and what was a nice crisp image of the dishes racked out of focus.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightforall/322880838/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/144/322880838_fb540db192_m.jpg" alt="satellite" height="135" width="240" /></a><br /><br />I moved the camera to the illuminated dishes pointing skyward, since they glowed with the sodium vapor lights below. Hoping to get a bite of food and a bit of rest, I packed up the gear, checked in to the <a href="http://www.refugeinn.com/">Refuge Inn,</a> (I give reference because of the excellent sky views and helpful staff) and became obsessed with finding a room with a view where I could clamp a <a href="http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Nikon/nikon_d2xs.asp">Nikon D2Xs</a> body and wide angle lens to grab a clear view of the northern sky since I wanted to try shooting some time lapse of the rotation of the ceiling of stars.<br /><br />My first room was supposed to be 214, but I could hear several women laughing behind the closed door. Not eager to startle them, I returned to the front desk and exchanged the key for room 106, a beautiful room with a view of pine trees. The front desk clerks let me try room 205, but the canopy of an evergreen blocked the view from the room's patio deck. So I walked outside and checked the second floor rooms for their views and wrote the room numbers down. Settling for room 229, out came the gear and batteries, which I started charging. Remembering a recent time lapse experiment with a moonrise, I set my Nikon D2Xs body on a time lapse rate of 45 seconds, and made some test shots to find the correct exposure.<br /><br />But I still wasn't happy with the view from my deck. While walking through the hotel to check for the locations of the emergency exits, I noticed a sign: "Observation deck. Quiet Zone," next to a door with no keyed doorknob. Opening it revealed a metal spiral starwell to the roof, which had a wooden deck with tables and chairs. Retrieving the camera and a <a href="http://www.nikonians.org/html/resources/nikon_articles/nikkor/af/wide_angles_shootout/super-wide_shootout_3.html">Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 lens</a>, I mounted it to the deck railing with a <a href="http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?A=details&Q=&is=REG&O=productlist&sku=5180">Manfrotto Bogen Magic Arm</a>, positioning the camera to aim at about a 35 degree angle skyward, just steep enough to see the trees in the lower portion of the frame (for visual reference). Shooting test after test, the final exposure came to 30 seconds at f/4, with the lens zoomed out to 10mm length, and the ISO rating at "HIGH1," which is the same as ISO 1600. The image was shot in normal size and basic setting, which gave plenty of images for a 1-gigabyte card. The rate of time lapse resulted in one frame every 45 seconds, which seemed like a great rate of time lapse, since the stars and Moon creep so slowly across the night sky.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightforall/322880841/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/136/322880841_601aef25d1_m.jpg" alt="stars" height="159" width="240" /></a><br /><br />Starting the time lapse session, which would last all night, I piled some lounge chairs and a table behind the clamped camera (like <span style="font-style: italic;">that</span> would stop <span style="font-style: italic;">anyone</span> from stealing a camera) and ran out to grab some Chinese food up the street. Returning with Peking duck and pork egg fu yung (without the onions), I made regular checks of the gear to make certain it was still there, and everything worked.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightforall/322880842/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/141/322880842_89b367d9bd_m.jpg" alt="moon" height="159" width="240" /></a><br /><br />Somewhere between midnight and 1AM, the camera stopped firing. Such a long process of image-gathering on a cold night can drain a battery, and the rechargeable was DOA. Grabbing another battery from the room, I changed lenses to a <a href="http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/1735.htm">Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8</a> and aimed the camera just above a rising Moon. Resuming the time lapse process, I retired to bed for about 1-1/2 hours and came back to the set-up, pausing the camera, replacing the battery with a fresh one, and resuming the shoot.<br /><br />Awake after setting the alarms on the room clock and my cell phone, I packed my gear, got ready for the 5AM meeting at the NASA Visitors Center, and retrieved the camera, which still fired. Driving the 7 miles to the center, I was told the news: the launch had been scrubbed. Uggh. That meant that I could have slept even longer.<br /><br />Well, the launch didn't fly, but the footage did. I didn't know what to do with the clips until I decided to try editing it together in iMovie. Dragging the files to each window for the upload, and then pulling each scene around gave me a good idea on how to put together this little clip. It doesn't last long, but I gained some knowledge as my ultimate goal is mastering Final Cut Pro. If Final Cut is anywhere near the structure of iMovie, I think I'm good-to-go.<br /><br />I was a little miffed that iMovie is based on the boring NTSC television format, which is 4X3, or 640X480 pixels. It made me have to crop the footage from both the HVX200 (which shoots in 16X9 and the 35mm digital format, which is 3X2. While looking at the software, adding some fades and transitions, plus some drone-like background and a clip of birds gave it some added life. Try it without sound, and it gets old, quick. Add some audio tone with a suspenseful sound... does it make you want to experience more?<br /><br /><object width="425" height="350"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/n4Eku_RxH9Y"> </param> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/n4Eku_RxH9Y" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350"> </embed> </object><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Stars Over Chincoteague (62 seconds, YouTube Videos)</span></span><br /></div>Light For Allhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05983171706210721673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3847530920760367201.post-54545327392993993462006-12-13T23:32:00.000-05:002006-12-14T00:08:30.299-05:00The Stage is SetPost content:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/panasonicfz30">Panasonic Lumix FZ30</a><br /><a href="http://www.videomaker.com/article/12601">Focus Enhancements FS-100</a><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panasonic_AG-HVX200">Panasonic AG-HVX200</a><br /><a href="http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/G5.ars/1">Macintosh G5 Tower</a><br /><a href="http://www.baltimoresun.com/">Baltimore Sun</a><br /><a href="http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/digitalmedia/2005/05/18/ds2.html">Olympus DS-2 Digital Recorder</a><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">It's time for me to get ready to rumble. With multimedia, that is. The new schedule's set, which means the first 3 days of the work week will be spent by starting at around 7AM, gathering footage and producing packages for our website. Thursday and Friday will be spent sleeping in (to start the afternoon shift) and work general assignments, since there is a shortage of late night shooters.<br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />Weekend time will be spent recharging the batteries for the next week. Yesterday was rough. While trying to understand a Focus Enhancements <a href="http://www.videomaker.com/article/12601">Firestore FS-100 100-gigabyte DTE (direct-to-edit) recorder</a> for our production <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panasonic_AG-HVX200">camcorder HVX200</a>, I had to roll out to Catonsville to document the scene with the still camera where a resident was killed and a state trooper was shot while serving papers early that morning. The father was upset as I entered his home, and the family shared their accounts of what happened.<br /><br />Grabbing the <a href="http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/panasonicfz30">Lumix FZ30</a> to capture some footage, he talked to other family at the top of the stairs, showing the large number of bullet holes that tore through the walls, describing the events that he witnessed. The still images were an afterthought as he expressed his account of watching how his son died, and told about his upcoming birthday near the end of December.<br /><br />The time neared 6:30PM as we wrapped up, and a couple of calls later, someone was ready and waiting in the office to edit and post the captured footage. Attempting to transfer the files into our FTP site, the transfer rate for regular video clips was so slow (even for our high-speed network) that I simply sent the first half of footage into the multimedia folder and grabbed a CD and burned the other 5 files, running them out to the web point-person to edit and post.<br /><br />The editors seemed rather pleased at the finished package when I reported to work this afternoon. Dudley, Chuck and I talked so I could understand the new schedule and what was expected of my efforts in 2007, and I retreated to one of our <a href="http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/G5.ars/1">Macintosh G5 towers</a> to try mounting that FS-100 onto the desktop so I could extract the 40 gigs of high definition footage I had been capturing over the past several days for a project several of us have been working on.<br /><br />Listening in to a conversation between Chuck and Lloyd nearby, I heard about a convict who had been released from prison after spending over 30 years in jail for a crime he says he never committed. Lloyd had taken some great images as the family met the released man outside court, and my own creative juices flowed, expressing the regret that we didn't shoot any footage for the web. "That's just what I want you to do," Dudley said. "Look at the daily log for interesting jobs and shoot some packages."<br /><br />Torn between word of a family party to celebrate the release north of town, and having to shoot the Maryland Terrapins' men's basketball game just a couple hours later in College Park, I called Steve to let him know that I'd try to document the party. Parking nearby, I grabbed the trusty Lumix as well as an <a href="http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/digitalmedia/2005/05/18/ds2.html">Olympus DS-2 digital recorder</a> and small shotgun microphone to back up the audio, since there would be a house filled with loud, happy guests.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightforall/321911266/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/144/321911266_f16c54fed8.jpg" width="342" height="500" alt="rejection" /></a><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >Maryland Terrapins' Ekene Ibekwe rejects a shot attempted in Maryland's 101-50 trouncing.</span><br /><br />The guest of honor sat at the center of the dining room table as friends, family, and defense attorneys broke bread together, celebrating the end of their terrible nightmare. Lloyd and I tripped over each other once or twice as we captured the event, happy that no one from the television stations were even there. Wrapping up with about 9 minutes of footage, I returned, burned a DVD with the audio and movie files for Steve to edit and post, and then hit the road where I sit in our cubby after Maryland's 101-50 beatdown of Missouri-Kansas City. I put the new Nikon cameras back to work, leaving the HVX back in the office and shooting a couple decent frames with the D2Xs in the first half.<br /><br />The images from the Catonsville shooting are still at work on the desktop, so be my guest and hop over to the <a href="http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/baltimore_county/bal-troopernew1213,0,5671010.story?coll=bal-local-headlines">Baltimore Sun online.</a> On this current page, there's multimedia taken with the Lumix of the father after the shooting and soon there will be footage of the wrongly-convicted man released, but get it while it's hot; the site is regularly updated. </div>Light For Allhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05983171706210721673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3847530920760367201.post-66372856794965733532006-12-12T20:33:00.001-05:002006-12-14T00:11:10.887-05:00Quick Review: Nikon D2Xs<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >Independent Review References:</span><br /><a href="http://www.dpreview.com/news/0606/06060102nikond2xs.asp">Nikon D2Xs</a><br /><a href="http://www.dvxuser.com/articles/HVX200/">Panasonic AG-HVX200</a><br /><a href="http://www.fredmiranda.com/reviews/showproduct.php?product=298">Sigma 10-20mm f 4-5.6</a><br /><a href="http://www.dpreview.com/articles/nikond2hs/">Nikon D2Hs (preview)</a><br /><a href="http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikond2h/">Nikon D2H</a><br /><a href="http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos30d/">Canon EOS 30D</a><br /><a href="http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikond200/">Nikon D200</a><br /><br /><br />I'm sure you'll be inundated with the images taken during the daytime of all the fine low-ISO, high-color quality images of this camera. But I'm simply going to add just a little tweak, which is about low-light situations, and color-tweaking your camera.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:180%;" >Speed? What Speed?</span><br />The <a href="http://www.dpreview.com/news/0606/06060102nikond2xs.asp">Nikon D2Xs</a> can be your primary camera if you feel confident shooting at a reduced frame rate. With the setting in full frame mode, you aren't going to set any speed records in frame rates. After using the <a href="http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikond2h/">D2H</a> for several years, I would have figured the D2Xs was going to be somewhere near the same frame rate of about 7 frames/second, what with better technology, stiff competition from other camera manufacturers and all. But this body isn't meant to fire off in rapid succession; that's what the <a href="http://www.dpreview.com/articles/nikond2hs/">D2Hs</a> is for (I'll end up writing something about that one in a future post).<br /><br />The D2Xs can bang out some pretty good files at a decent fps rate, with the high speed crop set to the ON position. Plus, you get the benefit of a tighter image size than with the crop removed. I was shooting with a 300mm 2.8 lens with the subject at the 50 yard line, and I felt like I was using a 400mm or perhaps longer lens while camped out at behind the end zone. The fps rate was much slower than the sports-minded D2H, but I quickly adjusted my shooting tactics. But you'll be shooting nothing but blue crab and turtle races if you want to keep up with your subject, sitting on the motor with the high speed crop off. I couldn't figure what was going wrong when my first job was shooting high school football. One minute, the running back is full frame; the next frame, it seems like he's knee up; the following image, and he's waist-up, coming at me full speed.<br /><br />You should tweak your settings immediately. These Nikons are set to fire right out of the box, at point and shoot settings, so if you're clueless in Seattle, try just popping in a fresh battery, slipping on a Nikon AF lens, frame some subjects, and fire away. But you really want to set it yourself, right? The user settings seem much easier to manage than the <a href="http://www.dvxuser.com/articles/HVX200/">Panasonic HVX200 camcorder</a>, because of the thumb button settings, and a really cool cheat sheet with a "?" mark revealing whenever further explanation is stored within the menu. Panasonic (and any camera manufacturer that doesn't provide this vital feature in their high-end hardware) needs to rip a page out of this manual and follow suit, unless it's patented. If you don't understand the option in the menu that you sit on, and that question mark has popped up, just push and hold the corresponding button on the camera back and viola, an explanation about what the options mean.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:180%;" >Boring Color Tweaks</span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightforall/320917553/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/143/320917553_f6c0b57456_t.jpg" alt="Version-I-Adobe-sRGB" height="66" width="100" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Rock taken at sRGB Version I.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightforall/320917556/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/125/320917556_591d2ba91d_t.jpg" alt="Version-II-Adobe-sRGB" height="66" width="100" /></a><br />Rock taken at sRGB Version II.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightforall/320917562/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/140/320917562_34874b9ca7_t.jpg" alt="Version-III-Adobe-sRGB" height="66" width="100" /></a><br />Rock taken at sRGB Version III.</span><br /><br />Unpacking the new body from its box, the settings were pretty similar to the ones in the D2H. Setting the sensitivity down to ISO 100, I started shooting images of a boulder, in afternoon sunlight. But the images didn't have any pop in saturation. Keeping the settings on low contrast with the light setting on cloudy, a little experiment with the Adobe settings was done to grab similar images under different color profiles (yes, there's a "?" for that as well). For my tastes, I didn't care for the sRGB and kept the camera on Adobe, in color mode III. Do I understand the color profiles, other than what the camera tells me? Definitely, not. But I liked the saturation better with my current settings. Your tastes may differ.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:180%;" >Under the Stars</span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightforall/320917565/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/125/320917565_e9d2975019.jpg" alt="3216x2136 moonrise Raw untoned" height="332" width="500" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Stars at moonrise, untoned image, directly from camera, 30 seconds at ISO 1600 (or HIGH1).</span><br /><br />Using my settings on high contrast (altho I usually stick with low contrast for wider tonal range), I banged off some test images of some stars that impressed me while camped out in Chincoteague, VA. Putting a <a href="http://www.fredmiranda.com/reviews/showproduct.php?product=298">Sigma 10-20mm f/ 4-5.6</a> (<span style="font-style: italic;">a terrific piece of glass!</span>) on the body, I ramped up the setting to ISO HIGH1, which is 1600 equivalent. Why don't they just call it 1600? Adding to that midnight clear night, 30 seconds of exposure, and high speed crop off, to take full advantage of the 10mm size, which has a lens magnification already in place with Nikons. Adding NR (noise reduction) only adds more write time which is a feature I turned back off, since that would lead to battery drain.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightforall/320917572/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/127/320917572_ea5f5ff156_m.jpg" alt="100pct zoom" height="234" width="240" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Detail at 100%. The largest images are on <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightforall/">my Flickr site.</a></span><br /><br />Taking the camera to its limits (remember trying to shoot ANYTHING with a Nikon D1 series at night? If I have any images stored, I'll add them), I also pulled the file size back to small size and basic setting. And I was pretty darned impressed with what I saw, after being used to the loads of noise in previous Nikons (D2H, D2 and D1 series).<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightforall/320930472/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/93/320930472_a54155db34.jpg" alt="Tuba City Drive" height="328" width="500" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Taken in the high-noise days with a D1H at ISO 800 where Lori Piestewa grew up in Tuba City, 2003.</span><br /><br />I really wonder if adding NR will help or hurt in the long run. There are post-processing programs of all types out there. Simply dive into your camera's settings and try each one. And do one thing before changing your settings: make an audio recording of what you've done. Whatever is necessary, make sure to add that audio clip. The EXIF data that is like a thumb print of a picture file didn't have the ISO setting that I had used for the sequence I shot with the Sigma.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:180%;" ><br />Firmware Upgrades, Old and New</span><br />Nikon has already released the <a href="http://support.nikontech.com/cgi-bin/nikonusa.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=14082&p_sid=MfJwF-oi&p_lva=13783&p_accessibility=0&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPSZwX3NvcnRfYnk9JnBfZ3JpZHNvcnQ9JnBfcm93X2NudD0yJnBfcHJvZHM9MTksMjk3JnBfY2F0cz0xODYmcF9wdj0yLjI5NyZwX2N2PTEuMTg2JnBfc2VhcmNoX3R5cGU9YW5zd2Vycy5zZWFyY2hfbmwmcF9wYWdlPTE%2A&p_li=#">ver. 2.00 D2Hs firmware upgrade</a>, which add some options. It also has a <a href="http://support.nikontech.com/cgi-bin/nikonusa.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=14083&p_sid=MfJwF-oi&p_lva=13783&p_accessibility=0&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPSZwX3NvcnRfYnk9JnBfZ3JpZHNvcnQ9JnBfcm93X2NudD0yJnBfcHJvZHM9MTksMjk3JnBfY2F0cz0xODYmcF9wdj0yLjI5NyZwX2N2PTEuMTg2JnBfc2VhcmNoX3R5cGU9YW5zd2Vycy5zZWFyY2hfbmwmcF9wYWdlPTE%2A&p_li=#">firmware upgrade for the D2X</a>, and people are whispering that the firmware brings the D2X to closely resemble the D2Xs! But if you choose to upgrade, you're on your own. I won't take responsibility if you screw it up. From what Jeff shared, it's worth adding the new firmware upgrades, and they are simple enough for both the Macintosh (you can tether the camera or drag/drop the file into an SD card, as long as it's recognized by the camera). As for Windows/Microsoft? I can't share any observations, since I'm Macintosh.<br /><br />Nikon's website was simple enough with the information. You'd better keep your doggone camera on during the process, or you might have something like a paperweight, if the process is interrupted. I already did my D2Hs body, and there were 2 files, firmware A and firmware B, which took a couple minutes. Being a fidgeter with a camera in my hands, I was tempted to play with the buttons, but realized the danger and set it down, picking up a remote instead. Matter of fact, I have to download the D2Xs firmware, which is only about 1 megabyte.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:180%;" >Initial Thoughts<br /></span>With the greater ISO range, bigger file size, and less noise, I'd say that I'm pretty happy with the D2Xs. It's still one loud camera, which makes it impossible to be ignored in a quiet room, unless the subject's way in their own world. And forget about catching the gremlins or Santa Claus; either one will bolt when hearing the clunk of the shutter. As I learn the camera's assets and limitations, I'll keep posting here. If I can find a way to make it a stand-alone section, I'll do that. The fact that there's an option for some double exposures is nice as well. Bring the film camera functions back into the digital age. It's just not nearly as fun doing it in Photoshop than doing it in-camera. Keep your eyes peeled for the D2H (I just got one, and will review that soon, as well) and other consumer-grade cameras (I keep hearing lots about the <a href="http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikond200/">Nikon D200</a> and the <a href="http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos30d/">Canon EOS 30D</a>) that write very nice files with manageable quality in extreme conditions.<br /><br />Get yourself some larger cards. Unless you'll be shooting a single frame of a rocket launch, you'll see how quickly a now-old 512 MB card can fill up with the camera settings on high file size and quality, let alone trying to shoot in RAW or TIFF. Try that in a 256 or 512 MB card, and your once-formidable CF card becomes tinky winky. If your card size isn't ready for the camera, set it temporarily until you get at least a 1GB, and perhaps a 2GB or larger card. That way, you can take advantage of the best image quality, instead of scaling it back, which then starts defeating the point of getting such a camera, in the first place.<br /><br />But again, see where this is heading? The CD burn for storing files is way obsolete. Remember, CD's have now been used since the early 1980's. Their capacity was fine for the early computers. Just as we've outlived them, we're outliving the usefulness of CD data storage. At this stage, you'll start filling up 4.4GB DVD data disks, if you're shooting high resolution NEF and TIFF files, or if you're shooting several jobs in one day. So a nearby option may still be to start considering a now-expensive high-capacity disk burner and disks (BlueRay, HD DVD), or at the very least, a double-layer DVD burner. The 9GB disks are still pretty expensive, and their use will be temporary, since high definition media will be available for the masses when people start capturing video on HDTV cameras. </div>Light For Allhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05983171706210721673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3847530920760367201.post-18015181503368477162006-12-08T02:31:00.000-05:002006-12-08T03:30:50.633-05:00Frustration.<div style="text-align: justify;">Isn't there a 1950's or '60s song titled, "Frustration"? If I had a voice, I'd be belting those tunes right now. That's been life behind the viewfinder of this camera.<br /><br />No, I'm not about to give up. But I feel as though the world of change is coming pretty hard right now. Between learning (and remembering) all the settings of the HVX200 and trying to figure out how Final Cut Pro can be called "easy," I'm about to thrust my head through a brick wall. There they are, trying to show me how easy it is, and within 5 minutes, their words turn to <span style="font-style: italic;">mwah mwah mwah... </span>reminding me of the teacher whose face you never see in the Charlie Brown TV specials (what was her name??)<br /><br />It's frustrating. And it's also depressing. Shots that I've framed in the camera look good, but they just don't watch very well. You know, it's a bit like the viewfinder has the look of an Ansel Adams print. It's all right there. But when you look at what you've done, it looks so... amateur.<br /><br />Dudley commented about my situation, today. "You're hitting a glass wall," he said. Right now, it's bullet-proof. Final Cut Pro looms ahead, as yet another thing I've got to master in short order, since I'll be shooting primarily video, some day. The HVX has 100 sub-menus, and I hate the way the camera doesn't keep its last-used settings. You turn it off, and you have to redo everything again. I've tried saving to an SD card, but I can't seem to figure the files' locations.<br /><br />Somewhere online, I heard there was a website that has more information about the HVX menus, and I hope to some day create a section about that as well. Some parts of the menus are still out of my understanding, because work doesn't give enough time to let you learn new gear. It's just there and you've got to on-the-job it.<br /><br />Another source of frustration is that so often, I've got to shoot stills of daily assignments. The HVX doesn't get used, which prevents me from getting a daily dose of training in the field. And with the daily jobs, I've been trying to shoot some movie footage. Yesterday, Bob revealed that he checked out some work I shot on a couple who help with a high school booster club.<br /><br />"You didn't get enough to create a project," he said. That sounds like failure to me. I tried explaining that I had to shoot sports for deadline, and I didn't have time to work the boosters, which started 30 minutes before game time.<br /><br />When things turn this way, my depression level balloons, and I feel as though it's gotten the size of a zeppelin. This is the first time in years that I've had self doubts. The frustration mounts. I'm not ready to hit the panic button, but I'm slowly running out of confidence.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:180%;" >Giving Them the Slip</span><br />Working on my small project didn't help my feelings that I've garnered some bad karma. In the field, capturing some footage of mass transit, I started wrapping up a shoot on North Av when a woman called to me across the tracks. "Sir, are you a Mass Transit employee?"<br /><br />"No, I am not," I replied, and figured that was a good enough clue that perhaps I wasn't welcome there anymore. Knocking down the tripod, I packed the gear into my albino Honda and started to leave. Driving past the white SUV, there were MTA placards on the doors. And the woman, who was outside, ran back to get into the vehicle as I passed. "Do you want me to do a 'one-eighty'?" was the quote running through my silly head from Kevin Costner's <a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0103855/">"The Bodyguard,"</a> as I slowed to a stop at the traffic light, with the MTA employee right behind me. We turned right to head east and she followed my change to the left turn lane at Mt Royal Avenue, as I simply wanted to get out of there and hit the Jones Falls Expressway. With a traffic light making a long cycle, I sounded like a broken record: "Change, light. <span style="font-style: italic;">Change, light!</span>"<br /><br />West of the traffic light, rolling with lights and sirens, a police vehicle headed my way, blowing the light and breezing past me, turning left into the MTA stop. It was an MTA police! Just then, the light goes green, and I do a one-eighty, making a legal U-turn to take that highway ramp. The light turns from green to amber, and I've already made up my mind. Damn the red light cameras, full speed ahead! Fortunately, another SUV that had made a right on red at Mt Royal had gotten behind me, and created a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screen_%28basketball%29">classic basketball screen,</a> stopping for the red light as my turtle bopped on the ramp. Of course, in my state of mind, rampant thoughts of fantastic possibilities ran through my head:<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Is there an APB out for me?</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Has Baltimore raised their terror level?</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Will the MTA police come banging on my door as I sleep?</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Have they sent my name to a federal watch list?</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Will someone secure a warrant and use a ram to check my home while I'm away?</span><br /><br />With all those wild scenarios floating through my head, I later returned (after downloading my clips), and saw an MTA employee sitting in his Explorer truck. Explaining what happened, I had hoped that he might call the police, to allay my fears. "I'm sorry, sir," he responded, "but we're forbidden to talk with the media."<br /></div>Light For Allhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05983171706210721673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3847530920760367201.post-45759320134001827472006-12-05T03:15:00.000-05:002006-12-05T21:54:31.280-05:00Panasonic HVX200 Shoot: Invasion of the Jaggies!<div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightforall/314741471/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/103/314741471_70fae44e54.jpg" alt="Sound-Jaggies480i" height="333" width="500" /></a><br /></div><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Steve is shredded by the camera through an effect called "jaggies."</span></span><br /><br /><br />I didn't even plan on writing about this, but video jaggies were on my mind.<br /><br />I had made a cheat sheet to help me figure on-the-fly about avoiding "jaggies," which are the video artifacts you see during camera shake, or when there's a jolting of the camera during shooting. It's an ugly-looking phenomenon, and I was bitten during a shoot this past summer, during a barbecue contest.<br /><br />Mmmmm. Barbecue. Oh - anyway, while powering up the HVX200, I had started shooting in a native format, which was set in the menu at 24PN, shot at 480, interlaced. The footage looked all right, but I didn't hear any sound while shooting Steve, who was part of the taking part in the 2006 Bel Air Barbecue challenge. So I switched to 30P at 480i, which finally gave me some audio.<br /><br />I played back the new clip, and heard the audio, but noticed the picture looked...just a little ragged. Thinking it was perhaps the fault of the stock flip-open screen, I kept shooting, until I had 32 minutes of SDTV (standard definition) footage, so I retreated to my albino turtle to transfer the files onto my PowerBook, which can actually play the files at that size. But double-checking on the clips, I didn't like what I shot, one bit.<br /><br />The jaggies had invaded my footage! Those interlaced erect tentacles that look like perfectly-parallel lightning bolts were embedded in every clip I had shot. Somewhere along the line, I needed to work something out. But I had little time, since a deadline loomed. Onward I pressed, shooting what I could as quickly as possible to finish out the next 32 minutes of clips.<br /><br />Returning to my car, I figured that a nice crib sheet was in order. It could rest as desktop wallpaper for a while, until I could memorize what was needed. The image could then be stored in the wallpapers folder for future reference.<br /><br />Finally setting the recording function to 30P at 720 progressive, I shot the rest in progressive high definition with sound, but could only capture 8 minutes of footage, since my 4GB P2 cards could only store 8 gigs total, since each minute of 720P footage needs 1 gigabyte of space. But the HD footage can be turned into "filmout," which translates into frame grabbing, in my case. (It really means processing the file into footage that will be exposed on culluloid film.)<br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightforall/314741473/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/113/314741473_31f48bed51_m.jpg" alt="NoSound-Filmlike720P" height="135" width="240" /></a><br /></div><br />Frustrated by not remembering the correct settings I wanted, I sat down after work and color-coded files to give myself a crib sheet so that I could look at a glance at my desktop if I ever needed to refresh my memory, or positively verify the right settings before a shoot. I just color-coded the files that gave good results in green, while the jagged edge videos were tagged red. The blue is just desktop color.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightforall/314745052/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/102/314745052_3ba055e850.jpg" alt="Cheat-Sheet" height="500" width="301" /></a></span><br /></div><br />Well, that's all, all. I've gotta get home to crash and burn. Right now it's tough, because I'm waiting for the multicolored balls to stop rolling in Google, which tells me that they'ye gotten my footage. I'm also working on a project that needs completion perhaps by the end of the week. And I'll try to remember to write about some feedback that my boss, Bob recently shared.<br /><br />It wasn't praise.<br /><br />I leave you, hopefully, feeling a hunger pang, since I'm posting a detail shot and a clip it was lifted from, of commercially-grilled BBQ ribs (<span style="font-style: italic;">the one's the contestants serve the public</span>). Enjoy! And return soon; I plan on posting some video of this shoot as well, to show the effects of jaggies, and how it looks when you've set the camera properly.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><embed style="width:400px; height:326px;" id="VideoPlayback" align="middle" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=8489664828340186746&hl=en" quality="best" bgcolor="#ffffff" scale="noScale" salign="TL" flashvars="playerMode=embedded"> </embed><br /></div>Down-rezzed clip from 720P HD of commercially-grilled ribs.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightforall/314741474/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/113/314741474_7ad87a0766.jpg" alt="Sound30pFilmlike720p" height="281" width="500" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Still image lifted from the video clip above, which was shot in 720P high definition.</span><br /></div></div>Light For Allhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05983171706210721673noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3847530920760367201.post-81591015555569830522006-12-03T16:40:00.000-05:002006-12-03T18:19:18.820-05:00Upgrading Your Camera System? Plan Wisely!<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >Further Website Reading:</span><br /><br /><a href="http://compactflash.org/">CompactFlash (CF Card) official site</a><br /><a href="http://www.sdcard.org/">Secure Digital (SD Card) official site</a><br /><a href="http://www.camerapedia.org/wiki/Minolta_SRT_101">Minolta SRT-101 film camera information</a><br /><a href="http://www.photoethnography.com/ClassicCameras/index-frameset.html?AsahiPentaxK1000.html%7EmainFrame">Pentax K1000 film camera information</a><br /><span style="font-size:180%;"><br />Storage Issues</span><br />Writing our digital images to CD media for storage are increasingly not the best option, since we've upgraded our cameras from the Nikon D70/D100/ D2H bodies to the D200/D2Hs/D2Xs cameras. The new bodies write such large file sizes, that it's getting more difficult to burn anything but a DVD data disk to store the raw images these produce. And what do we do with raw HD movie clips, when they record at a gigabyte per minute? This demonstrates that higher-capacity storage gear (like DVD burners and HD/DVD, BluRay disks and servers) have to be added to archive the larger files you'll write. That's the big issue as cameras now are built to document scenes in higher and better definition. That's one of the many issues you have to consider even before purchasing these newer cameras, like an HD camcorder and still cameras, even the more affordable ones.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:180%;">What Fits?</span><br />Before diving into the options for purchasing replacement gear, don't lose sight of your most important option: Purchase the gear that fits what you're shooting for. If you plan on capturing family pictures or video to share with family and friends, do you need something that can bang off 8 frames per second? The camera prices tend to ramp up depending on the build quality. Therefore, gauge your purchase point based on the amount of shooting you wish to do as well as the image quality. And that means that the most crucial investment in camera gear should be the lenses. One can capture a tack-sharp image with the digital and film cameras being produced, as long as first-rate glass stands between your subject and the captured image. Always bear in mind that all a truly great camera must do is remain consistent, and most camera systems do just that. Google such terms as digital lens quality, camera optics, and other words or phrases that relate to lens reviews, since many worthwhile articles and lens tests have already been archived after being published in magazines and websites. Visit photo-specific sites, making certain that you weigh your decision against others' recommendations, understanding that some sites may actually be driven by a camera manufacturer instead of by independent reviewers.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:180%;">Camera Cards</span><br />Scanning quickly through the Canon line of cameras, for instance, entry-level digital SLR's can produce 12.8 megapixel jpegs, while big papa EOS-1Ds Mark II can shoot a 16.7 megapixel image at 4 fps. With the capability of capturing raw images as well, camera users will be filling their 1-gigabyte cards up really fast. So, <a href="http://compactflash.org/">CF cards</a> (CompactFlash), <a href="http://sdcard.org/">SD cards</a> (Secure Digital) and other recordable/rewritable camera media need larger capacity, or you'll be spending more time pausing during your photo shoot, just to download your filled memory cards. Try buying higher-capacity cards, and you'll see the seemingly endless names and sizes of cards being introduced. You may want to go to the official CompactFlash and Secure Digital sites to sort through the confusion. While searching Google online, you'll quite often see many camera cards being sold at more affordable prices. Are they reliable? Will they also write fast enough to keep up with the camera you're interested in, at its fastest shooting speed? Will these cards be compatible with your camera? Those are questions that the prospective buyer must answer, in order to make a sound and logical decision before making a commitment to buy. And there's new technology on the horizon as solid state media has to perform faster than all the cameras being released.<br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:180%;">Forward Compatibility</span><br />Quite often, we make purchases before taking a look at the needed accessories under consideration. Just because you purchase the same camera system, a new body may not be forward-compatible with some camera accessories you have in your arsenal. Several years ago, for instance, the Nikon D1-model bodies were being sold at discount in order to make way for the D2 system. The new cameras were built with updated electronic flash integration, making the flash units on the D1 line obsolete with new models. There are so many bodies within the Canon and Nikon digital systems that it can make your head swim. Camera manufacturers from Agfa to Toshiba are releasing digital cameras of all types, with more features that will make buyers more confused than ever! The only way to keep your mind focused is to ask yourself what you really want your camera to do.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:180%;">Don't get Frustrated</span><br />A new body or system takes unlearning the hardware and/or firmware from what you've gotten used to using. Cameras are like automobiles. While you've adjusted to its qualities and shortcomings, the realist inside knows that you're living on limited use with what you have, since each day begins to test your comfort level as you're outgrowing your gear. Each day you still have your old gear, it slowly depreciates in value. Some people like to update their equipment regularly, which yields more money from your old equipment. One brand of equipment has better resale value, while another depreciates more quickly. Don't ask me which, though, because my gear is issued by work!<br /><br /><span style="font-size:180%;">Patience, Patience</span><br />A good number of people have said that purchasing any new camera system will cost twice the amount of the retail cost of the cameras alone, in order to completely upgrade gear. For instance, with the addition of the AG-HVX200 camcorder (which was purchased in June), there are still several critical pieces of equipment that still need to be purchased to be able to maintain a smooth workflow from shooting footage to archiving the files. Be honest with yourself, in order to make the jump a successful one. Rushing too quickly to upgrade can make your daily work quite frustrating. Perhaps you've noticed that I had no recommendations. That's because you must make your own decision, by asking and answering your questions and researching all the options you have.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:180%;">A Sadder Note</span><br />There are currently, about 25 DSLR bodies available from the larger and more popular camera manufacturers, in my estimation, that are currently in production in the U.S. market. But there are less, now, than I had originally thought. <a href="http://ca.konicaminolta.com/">Konica and Minolta</a>, who had joined together a number of years ago, had ceased production of their camera business, since March 31, 2006 according to their website. They also plan to slowly phase out their color film and photographic paper products, completing complete termination by the end of March next year, 2007. There is no longer official support for their film cameras, but their digitals are being supported by Sony. Do some of you remember learning photography with the 35mm film work horses, the <a href="http://www.camerapedia.org/wiki/Minolta_SRT_101">Minolta SRT-101</a> and the <a href="http://www.photoethnography.com/ClassicCameras/index-frameset.html?AsahiPentaxK1000.html%7EmainFrame">Pentax K1000?</a> Many schools purchased those cameras since they were durable and affordable. All you needed was a roll of film and hands to adjust and fire the camera. No beeps, color displays, or worries about dead batteries (as long as you could estimate the exposure) or even a light to moderate rain. Those cameras were so sturdy, it seemed like they could be used to actually hammer nails.<br /><br />You know, I'm going to hunt for both of those cameras on eBay.</div>Light For Allhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05983171706210721673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3847530920760367201.post-33332023712219198692006-12-02T23:30:00.000-05:002006-12-03T01:29:06.196-05:00Lumix FZ30 Shoot: Hybrid Movie Clip From Video, Still Files<embed style="width:400px; height:326px;" id="VideoPlayback" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=-1693190433007171329&hl=en" flashvars=""> </embed><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-style: italic;">Software info:</span><br /><a href="http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/19769">iSquint</a><br /><a href="http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/7964">Apple Quicktime</a><br /><a href="http://www.macworld.com/2003/04/reviews/imovie3/">iMovie</a><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Hardware Review:</span><br /><a href="http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/panasonic/dmc_fz30-review/index.shtml">Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30</a><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Also, check out <a href="http://lightforall.blogspot.com/2006/11/review-panasonic-lumix-dmc-fz30.html">my own review here.</a></span><br /><br />It's about time to start the "trial and error" phase of joining still images, movie clips and audio!<br /><br />Writing from Glen Burnie, I'm trying something else with the Lumix FZ30. I shot some low-resolution images and I'm currently pasting the images together and then splicing the movie files for a walk-around of my albino Honda sea turtle.<br /><br />Getting bored with driving up and down Route 2, trying to find one of those fake trees for the holiday (NOT for me; for my best friend and my godchildren), I gave up on the effort and turned to learning the cut and paste process. Hopping out of the albino, I grabbed the Lumix and started shooting some stills in the "<span style="font-size:180%;">∞</span>" (unlimited shooting) setting. Dropping the camera's resolution rate back to the smallest "EZ" setting and switching the jpeg size to the smallest available, I began by making a movie file in-camera.<br /><br />Holding my position, I turned the camera to "shutter priority," which was set on 1/25th second, the closest shutter speed that matches the movie camera frame rate (1/24th second). Grabbing a bunch of images as I started moving my position, I walked to the side of the car, stooped shooting stills, and switched again to shoot a small movie clip. The process of shooting still images (at about 2 frames/second or so), switching to a movie clip, and back to stills continued for the walk-around, until I was behind my car, with a trickle of battery power to spare. Adding a short bit of footage to finish, I burrowed back in the Panera Bread, which has wi-fi for free, for a little web-surfing at cable speed.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightforall/312535893/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/113/312535893_65ee1248e9_o.png" alt="Joined Still image movie clip" height="349" width="394" /></a><br />Opening the finder and clicking on the still images, each image size was 2048 pixels wide, while my movie rate is 640 pixels wide! So, there will be several layers of post-production to make the still movies and movie clips all the same pixel size.<br /><br />Being a still photographer for my whole adult life and still learning about things like iMovie and <a href="http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/7964">Quicktime Pro,</a> here's the method I went through (and my processor is still cranking out down-conversion while I write):<br /><br /><ul style="color: rgb(255, 204, 153);"><li>Copy the files to the desktop.</li><li>Mark the movie clips to visually exclude them.</li><li>Create folders and drag all the sequenced still images into each one.</li><li>Using Quicktime Pro, make image sequences out of images in each folder.</li><li>Using <a href="http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/19769">iSquint</a>, resize the movie file from current size (2048x1536) to 640x480, the same size of the movie clips.</li><li>Since the new files are .mp4 (for iPod video), open in Quicktime and save as .mov files.</li><li>Drop all the smaller clips in <a href="http://www.macworld.com/2003/04/reviews/imovie3/">iMovie</a> and place them in order.</li><li>Export all the sequences into one movie.</li></ul><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightforall/312535896/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/107/312535896_b6764970ba_o.png" alt="FZ30 Movie Clip frame grab" height="341" width="392" /></a><br />Desktop screenshot of the file size of a Quicktime movie, shot as a movie file with the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30. Dimension size for the movie clip is NTSC standard, 640x480, and the clip length is only 19 seconds while the size of the clip is 22.7 MB.<br /><br />The final file size was 78.2 megs and 2'00", so I optimized the file for posting online, by running it back through iSquint for Macintosh OS X. The desktop screenshot of the file size of a Quicktime movie, joined through the iSquint proggie, using still images and movie clips. Original file size, once at over 200 MB, is dropped to 14MB for 2 minutes of footage. I've been using it more and more as a movie clip resizing tool since I also have a video iPod, and the quality of the resized clips are decent enough, while the program is very stable:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightforall/312543455/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/122/312543455_54e61f9488_o.png" alt="Final FZ30 Test Clip Size" height="457" width="451" /></a><br /><br />Yup, that's a lot of steps, and I haven't even gotten to the audio portion yet! As I learn Final Cut and Macromedia Flash, PostProd is certain (hopefully) to be streamlined. The next thing to learn is adding audio to the still-image movie files. So far, I haven't gotten any royalty-free music, but I tried adding some of the iMovie sound effects (like the revving engine) and haven't figured that out. And I'm getting frustrated tonight, so I'm ready to shut this down. With more work in post, you can bet that audio like cool music will be added, as I begin mastering multimedia production.</div>Light For Allhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05983171706210721673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3847530920760367201.post-44331127113045996652006-12-02T04:16:00.000-05:002006-12-02T04:19:15.777-05:00HVX200 Footage: I'm Trying a Google Video PostI've been behind the 8-ball with work! On my way out, I noticed that the Google videos seem to look better than YouTube, so I'm trying a post to see what the Google upload looks like. I hope to write more in the next couple days!<br /><br /><embed style="width:400px; height:326px;" id="VideoPlayback" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=2745256239212560623&hl=en" flashvars=""> </embed>Light For Allhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05983171706210721673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3847530920760367201.post-47785171298956088212006-11-28T20:23:00.000-05:002006-11-28T21:14:57.283-05:00HVX200 Video! Plus, There's Always Something I Forget...<div style="text-align: justify;">Stage fright.<br />You may get over it, but you never forget it.<br /><br />I just finished with the guest speakers at McDaniel College in Westminster, MD, and I still get nervous when all eyes stare back at me! Terry Dalton, who has hosted the annual event in which professionals - mainly from different news-gathering entities - visit his class to share information about their field of work.<br /><br />I had told Terry back in the summer that I had a surprising presentation and couldn't wait for November, yet I actually had nothing in hand to show. Usually, the talk would revisit the year's work. Last year, I shared my images from Hurricane Katrina and the Indonesian tsunami. This year, I felt my work was seriously lacking, since I've been swamped with learning the HVX200.<br /><br />Being stoked about the shift towards multimedia journalism, called "the voice in the story," I gathered some finished work from some of the staff. Algerina's sound slides of the Basilica, Monica's work on Factor VII, David Hobby's images of a tree in the fall, and Chiaki's piece about the Pleasant family's double-whammy cancer fight were some pieces short and good enough to send a message. I saved Barb's project on Recher Rock for last, just to let the class watch a little about indie bands.<br /><br />The message was the same that I learned months ago: don't just be a photographer. Or a camera operator. Or a reporter, or audio technician, gathering for radio. Do all of those things, and learn through practice. Being sure to make eye contact, I didn't let the students know that I'm actually introverted. Well, I did hint at that, when sharing the fact that I feel more comfortable behind the camera, silently documenting others.<br /><br /><br /><object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/XaIgHXxkFoI"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/XaIgHXxkFoI" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="600" height="350"></embed></object><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-family: lucida grande;">Maryland Terrapins' DJ Strawberry hustles and dives after ball!!</span></span><br /><br />Ending the chat with some HVX footage of a basketball and a cool clip I shot at a Maryland Terrapins game (which is WAY down-rezzed by the YouTube folks, but I hope you still can enjoy it), a couple of those listening seemed a bit in disbelief that people are actually doing well by creating multimedia projects and blogging online. One, who stayed after class, picked my brain about the concept.<br /><br />Everyone in her class has taken photos. With the cameras of today, anyone can take a pretty darn good image, if they work on it. Regarding the hybrid cameras, just a couple of clicks on the dial, and your still digital can instantly begin capturing sound and video. So, if you have any kind of light budget (or know someone who wants to loan you the gear) you can put a hybrid camera in your hot mitts and start teaching yourself about how to document the world around you.<br /><br />The important thing I failed to share was that a web visitors can be limitless. Instead of showing your product to your friends, you now have an audience that's worldwide (depending on internet access and whether any particular country will allow your work to be accessed). Newspapers have always trained their sights on local coverage. But the web allows for worldwide viewing of whatever might be published. So if a newspaper's subscription total was 250,000, locally, it would be seen by an estimated 500,000 people.<br /><br />On the web, there are billions of people online, and the viewers are growing in numbers, so there will always be an audience, until or unless the web decides to stop or change. No one can even fathom that happening, so the only one stopping you, is you. The web has opened the whole world to those who can access it. And it lets you and I be our own journalists, columnists, publicists, critics, managing editors and publishers. That's why big media has stumbled. People now have the ability to cover each other. Instead of waiting for the local news at 6pm, or the next day's paper,you and I can simply post it online ourselves. CNN and Fox have been getting their news clips and information from daily blogs and YouTube posts. The infamous video of "Kramer" Richards losing control? It was captured by an audience member's cell phone.<br /><br />Find your niche and work on it. Whether it's a sport (or love of one), a hobby, a particular rant you care to vent, or the latest bad driver that carelessly drove past you, remember the most important thing: many people are just like you, and feel the same way. And they're currently Googling phrases that you could have already been writing about.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightforall/309084501/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/111/309084501_3062c59f1c_m.jpg" alt="Looking for Santa" height="159" width="240" /></a><br /><span style=";font-family:lucida grande;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;">Conor gazes into the night, his eyes trying to spot Santa and Mrs. Claus.</span></span><br /><br />As for this blog entry, much of it was written in the parking lot of a Cactus Willie's during some down time between jobs. The rest was finished here, at a Panera Bread in north Baltimore, after I transmitted pictures of 4-year-old Conor, searching the skies for Santa at a tree lighting ceremony. So, keep your laptop with you, at all times; at some moment, you may suddenly get the urge to fire up your PowerBook and pound your keyboard during a brainstorm.<br /><br />Don't give up on your passion if no one flocks to your site at first. If you want that, you have to expose your site and make it searchable and easily-accessed. That's one reason why I've switched from MySpace, since they require membership, just to view a person's page.<br /></div>Light For Allhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05983171706210721673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3847530920760367201.post-73853075014048247242006-11-25T15:44:00.000-05:002006-11-25T18:37:49.755-05:00Review: Panasonic AG-HVX200<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightforall/292736108/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/118/292736108_d12db47380.jpg" width="375" height="162" alt="Stretch" /></a><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Equipment and software reference for this post:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.technologyevangelist.com/2006/02/hvx200_additional_in.html">Panasonic AG-HVX200 HD Camcorder (review)</a><br /><a href="http://red.com/cameras.htm">Red Camera 4x Digital Super 35mm Camcorder (info)</a><br /><a href="http://www.cineshare.com/columns/reviews/AG-DVX100.htm">Panasonic AG-DVx100 Camcorder (review)</a><br /><a href="http://www.stevesforums.com/forums/view_topic.php?id=63602&forum_id=92">Hybrid, multiformat camera (list)</a><br /><a href="http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos1dsmkii/">Canon EOS 1DS Mkii (review)</a><br /><a href="http://www.dpreview.com/news/0606/06060102nikond2xs.asp">Nikon D2XS (improvements)</a><br /><a href="http://www.macworld.com/2005/07/reviews/finalcutpro/index.php">Final Cut Pro 5 (review)</a><br /><a href="http://news.softpedia.com/news/The-chronicles-of-a-futile-battle-Blu-Ray-vs-HD-DVD-631.shtml">Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD (info)</a><br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b323/kmferron/HVX200Front.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px;" src="http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b323/kmferron/HVX200Front.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>We just received a <a href="http://www.technologyevangelist.com/2006/02/hvx200_additional_in.html">Panasonic AG-HVX200</a> DVCPro HD camcorder and I tell you, it's got more menus than a powerhouse Chinese restaurant. It's not for people who enjoy the pyro-friendly camera; there are menus with the depth of a 15-layer cake. The reason is because the camera can be configured into over 100 different ways of shooting!<br /><br />The HVX200 gives the new user a challenge to sink or swim, because it thrusts you into deep water. If you've ever shot with the <a href="http://www.cineshare.com/columns/reviews/AG-DVX100.htm">DVX100,</a> you'll adapt to the HVX quite well, from other reviews I've read. Being a still shooter for a major city daily newspaper, we're moving towards high definition gear to shoot movie clips and pull frames for news print. With this in mind, the camera's color retention are quality. But I wish the configs were a bit simpler. It's taken months of time to learn this new format of news-gathering, but I see the potential with this gear.<br /><br />One big drawback that I see is that the menu buttons are on top of the camera, beside and beneath the handle. Try shooting in the field and change your recording format, and it's an awkward feat to accomplish, since you're looking through the viewfinder (or watching the fold-out screen) as you scroll through the layers to figure which is the best recording format.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightforall/261277366/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/87/261277366_bf4b3bd512_m.jpg" width="240" height="135" alt="navy-football" /></a><br /><br />Would I consider giving this camera up? Hail, no. It's a powerful tool, and the result is what the image quality is about. The color shift with reds and greens and blues are minimal, unlike other samples from competing cameras that I have seen. This, coupled with the ability to drop files into a PowerBook with Final Cut Pro makes it a fast and efficient companion to get files changed to .mov format to drop them into ftp for web publication.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightforall/261234146/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/100/261234146_eb6ab9bf9d_m.jpg" width="240" height="135" alt="beach-detail" /></a><br /><br />Delete unwanted files as you record. Drop the files onto a hard drive and wipe your P2 card to shoot some more. But you'd better have your software and hardware in order before you plunk down $6,000 retail,, just for the camera (and no mounted boom microphone - sold as an acc). A 4gb card sells $600, the optional 100gb Firestore costs $2,000 (which is about the same price as a couple 8gb P2 cards), <a href="http://www.macworld.com/2005/07/reviews/finalcutpro/index.php">Final Cut Pro 5</a> costs $1,000, and you aren't even talking about the need for a GOOD fluid head tripod ($500), wireless microphone system ($700), <a href="http://news.softpedia.com/news/The-chronicles-of-a-futile-battle-Blu-Ray-vs-HD-DVD-631.shtml">Blu-Ray or HD/DVD</a> burner (for the multitude of gigs of recording files), extra batteries and perhaps a large external drive to store clips as you figure how to keep all the hundreds of gigs of files from overloading all your open drive space. The HVX eats drive space like a great white eats people. It doesn't think, it just does, and at up to a gigabyte per minute.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightforall/261266362/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/95/261266362_00ad7498ff_m.jpg" width="240" height="135" alt="clowns" /></a><br /><br />Even with working for a newspaper, we still have to adjust our budget royally to get what's needed for one HVX camera. Add filters and a 4x4 filter system and, yeesh. Or, <span style="font-style: italic;">kerching.</span> It's bling bling for the developers, while you've just spent the same amount for your camera, just to get it up, and running.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:lucida grande;" >**Rule of thumb, boys and girls: plan to spend double the camera's cost to outfit a system; aka, you'll have to fork out over $11,000 to effectively shoot in the field and edit in-house.** </span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightforall/306030610/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/113/306030610_11c7595ca6_m.jpg" width="240" height="135" alt="statue" /></a><br /><br />For those in the pro field, it's probably worth it. For the casual user, or someone just getting into indie film making or trying to make money off the business, it might be worth it to <span style="font-weight: bold;">wait.</span> The HVX200 is a groundbreaking camera, like digital cameras revolutionized photography. Tapeless production will be adopted and will change the face of video production in the coming years. The price will drop as others compete for market share.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightforall/261271143/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/121/261271143_f7b078ebc8_m.jpg" width="240" height="135" alt="the-rock" /></a><br /><br />Hopping on the new gear bandwagon can kill your budget. Think about it: If you plunk the five grand for the camera alone, and it happens to be updated or significantly changed, you suddenly have a dinosaur on your hands. Some suggest that you should get the gear whenever you're ready, and I tend to actually subscribe to this. The big question you should ask yourself is, when do you truly feel you're fully in the market for such gear? Because there are already more significant gains being created and developed now, that are making this equipment primed for obsolescence. The <a href="http://red.com/">Red Camera,</a> for instance, can shoot digital Super 35mm movies, which add up to 12 megapixels per frame. Its projected cost is $17,500, while it claims to shoot in UHD (ultra high definition) that could be more than the best high definition sets can ever project. But the interesting thing is that such quality is perhaps, better than the Nikon D2HS and D2XS, including some of the Canon digital 35mm cameras.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightforall/291808744/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/122/291808744_ce7a86f8e7_m.jpg" width="240" height="160" alt="thanks" /></a><br /><br />Technological history very well should follow the same pattern: Technology results in price cuts as the first generation UHD cameras yield to next-generation camcorders, with subsequent models achieving better quality, more compact sizes, and deeper price cuts. So I plan to go on a limb and predict that the UHD camera will become widely available within the next 5-7 years. The price cuts will drop the retail cost to somewhere in the $7,000 window.<br /><br />So, here's where the clash will come:<br /><ol><li>$7,300, the Canon EOS 1DS Mkii, with a 35mm full frame CMOS sensor, shooting 4 frames/second for up to 32 shots before it must pause to write.</li><li>$4,700, the Nikon D2XS, with a 12.4Mp, shooting 5 fps in full size mode, with a 60-frame buffer at cropped mode (8 fps, too).</li><li>Many entry-level cameras are gaining popularity as hybrid cameras, able to shoot stills or video, on the fly.</li><li>More and more people will want to see high quality video on their high definition monitors, which are also gaining popularity, just like video.</li><li>The HD and UHD camcorders, dropping in price, will gain critical options, like interchangeable lens systems.</li></ol><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightforall/306030611/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/110/306030611_e4500f2ce0_m.jpg" width="240" height="135" alt="traffic light" /></a><br /><br />We're on the edge of a big and sweeping change in the next generation of hybrid cameras, which currently boast decent still image quality with a wide zoom range (between 8x and 12x, average) while able to capture standard definition movie files with sound, at 640x480. As these hybrids get ramped up to their own next-generation quality, the widescreen format will be addressed in the video files, while the quality issue MUST be addressed in order for them to be considered as the NTSC television sets are phased out and HDTV is phased in. This means that the video quality must shoot in some kind of HDTV, either 1280x720, or 1920x1080.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightforall/291790668/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/108/291790668_29d2de5438_m.jpg" width="240" height="160" alt="waiting" /></a><br /><br />The issue we faced was that it was time back in March, to choose a camcorder that shoots in high-def. At the time, the HVX200 was the choice, and we've ordered another one since. The time to choose is now, but it's wrong to speculate and wait, when you're ready to purchase. You have to go with a choice, because there will always be gear waiting in the wings, ready to replace the most brand-spanking new gear that just replaced the latest obsolete equipment.<br /><br /><br />In closing, here are some clickable thumbs, shot in different resolutions from NTSC standard (640x480) to HDTV (1920x1080).<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightforall/261234150/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/117/261234150_b9e8dbcc2f_s.jpg" width="75" height="75" alt="mans-best-friend" /></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightforall/292736111/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/119/292736111_e9d21ee0ba_s.jpg" width="75" height="75" alt="Shoot" /></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightforall/291790669/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/122/291790669_6a2bc7b6e7_s.jpg" width="75" height="75" alt="voting" /></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightforall/268292378/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/89/268292378_70c0aefb22_s.jpg" width="75" height="75" alt="1080i-72dpi-a" /></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightforall/261279647/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/96/261279647_9ec31d256b_s.jpg" width="75" height="75" alt="navy-tight" /></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightforall/272865743/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/104/272865743_07768f0adb_s.jpg" width="75" height="75" alt="DEMOLITION19P3" /></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightforall/291790668/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/108/291790668_29d2de5438_s.jpg" width="75" height="75" alt="waiting" /></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightforall/261266361/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/85/261266361_e23375e710_s.jpg" width="75" height="75" alt="bromo-tower" /></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightforall/261292969/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/86/261292969_dc9b99e879_s.jpg" width="75" height="75" alt="country-rail-fence" /></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightforall/268282844/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/113/268282844_97ac0fb167_s.jpg" width="75" height="75" alt="1920x1080-200dpi" /></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightforall/306030613/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/121/306030613_d319370843_s.jpg" width="75" height="75" alt="worker" /></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightforall/306028284/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/110/306028284_2e2e76f80f_s.jpg" width="75" height="75" alt="lamp" /></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightforall/268282848/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/81/268282848_eb29d81336_s.jpg" width="75" height="75" alt="vertical-volleyball" /></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightforall/291790664/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/119/291790664_f18a1fdb7e_s.jpg" width="75" height="75" alt="casting" /></a></div>Light For Allhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05983171706210721673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3847530920760367201.post-21204931306226563862006-11-23T03:35:00.000-05:002006-11-23T04:22:46.235-05:00Happy Thanksgiving, to You.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger2/6241/469669301850630/1600/50717/Snoopy.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger2/6241/469669301850630/320/50224/Snoopy.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />Please enjoy yourselves today, as best as you can. We get so caught up in our own lives that sometimes, we neglect thinking of others who are struggling with their lives, in one form or fashion. Please think about helping someone in need. Reach out and share your thanks, to help someone else smile.Light For Allhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05983171706210721673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3847530920760367201.post-13754246683434924322006-11-22T22:14:00.000-05:002006-11-23T03:34:43.848-05:00Lumix FZ30 Shoot: First Video Embed; Frame Stills & Still Photo<div><span style="font-style: italic;">These stills are frames from digital movie clips with the Panasonic FZ30. At the bottom is a comparison between the footage and an HQ still image, shot with the same camera.</span><br /><br /><object width="425" height="350"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/wCD4oHtk59U"> </param> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/wCD4oHtk59U" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350"> </embed> </object><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-family:arial;">Short Clip shot with the Lumix DMC-FZ30</span></span><br /><br />As I wait for the accessories to start coming in for the HVX200, I'm training myself to learn how to creatively shoot digital film clips with the Lumix FZ30. It's actually a terrific starter camera for those considering video, considering it was around $500 new. It should be less, now that the FZ50 has been introduced. By allowing the user to switch between digital still and movie, an interesting process can be exploited.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightforall/304049520/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/121/304049520_abc5270b99_m.jpg" alt="Panasonic FZ30 footage clip: dashboard" height="180" width="240" /></a><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-family:arial;">Mac drives as the camera shoots from the dashboard.</span></span><br /><br />I decided to record a subject who plans to design an ethanol plant, which forced me to work around a rather constricting location: his pickup truck. Mac drove his Dodge through the wind and rain of a strong nor'easter as we headed south towards Pocomoke City on the southeastern corner of Maryland. In that time, I shot about 25 minutes of footage while Mac shared the plans and vision of the plant.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightforall/304056168/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/113/304056168_f34b0308e5_m.jpg" alt="Lumix FZ30 Footage: turning" height="180" width="240" /></a><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-family:arial;">The portability of the FZ30, working in the footwell.</span></span><br /><br />But I also didn't want to conduct the interview outside for several reasons. First, it was a soaking, cold rain outside, and I had already begun feeling that tingly sensation in my throat, showing that I'm getting ill. I'm also using a camera with no external microphone, whose mic is built onto the upper left portion of the camera body, facing up.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightforall/304049521/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/112/304049521_e29f66dfed_m.jpg" alt="Panasonic FZ30 footage clip: hand" height="180" width="240" /></a><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:85%;" >A little hand detail captured while Mac speaks.</span><br /><br />Remembering an important tip given by Brian Storm, I chose to let Mac speak about the ethanol process from inside the cabin of his truck, which is actually a truly great location to conduct an audio recording. The closed doors seal out much unwanted noise, and the interior creates a sound dampening room as the voice is absorbed, rather than reflected. The interior of such a tight space can be a challenge for someone who wants to express a creative side, but practicing the effort can yield better composition, creating visually appealing scenes by looking beyond the obvious.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightforall/304049523/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/118/304049523_9cbc27d982_m.jpg" alt="Panasonic FZ30 footage clip: eyes" height="180" width="240" /></a><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:85%;" >A tight shot as Mac focuses on his destination.</span><br /><br />The obvious scenes are capturing your subject from the position of the passenger. Shoot that way for more than a couple minutes, and the viewer will get pretty bored, because that turns the subject into nothing more than a talking head. They may as well stand behind a podium. Capturing such a perspective exclusively constricts your own vision, blinding you to other opportunities that can make the package fresh and appealing. Give your viewers angles that they haven't seen. Adding those unusual perspectives can heighten your audiences' interest, making them want to see what angle might fill the next scene.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightforall/304049525/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/108/304049525_d6d50524a0_m.jpg" alt="Panasonic FZ30 footage clip: rain" height="180" width="240" /></a><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-family:arial;">Rain pelts the window while the FZ30 gathers audio.</span></span><br /><br />What I love about a hybrid camera like the Lumix is that you can see composition by shooting digital stills. The FZ30 has the option to shoot still images in 3 formats: 4x3, 3x2, and 16x9. These are all formats currently in use in standard television, widescreen HDTV, commercial movie cinema, and 35mm film.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightforall/304049528/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/122/304049528_bc9b06ce14_m.jpg" alt="Panasonic FZ30 footage clip: mirror" height="180" width="240" /></a><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:85%;" >Mac, framed in his rear view, rides to destination.</span><br /><br />Switch between the 3 still formats and see how your composition changes. It's a mind-altering experience, because you now have a scene-capturing camera that acts as 4 different cameras at the switch of a preference or a dial. You'll see how composition really matters, depending on the format. If you don't adjust between format sizes, you will wind up wasting vital space (I'll try to remember writing about cropping in a later blog).<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightforall/304056169/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/101/304056169_d2a9db83c9_m.jpg" alt="Lumix FZ30 Footage: pickup" height="180" width="240" /></a><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-family:arial;">A frame from the short, 7-second clip above.</span></span><br /><br />By shooting footage, you may even be inspired to shooting some stills, switching your camera over to take some pictures, which happened to me, when we headed up to a farm that was purchased for the plant. I recorded him the first time we drove towards the farm, but wanted some still images, because the visual style I honed in on while shooting footage gave me some ideas to shoot the stills I needed.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightforall/304049529/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/108/304049529_8c88d3638b_m.jpg" alt="Panasonic FZ30 footage clip: farm" height="180" width="240" /></a><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-family:arial;">Mac explains the proposed site, outside.</span></span><br /><br />The majority of the footage was inside his truck, and Mac apologized for the bad weather, thinking it wouldn't make for a good camera day. But my opinion was that the situation presented itself well for a successful shoot, even though only a minute or so was spent physically on the property, outside his truck. After writing a caption for my Flickr page, I see now why the frame fits the subject.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightforall/304049528/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/122/304049528_bc9b06ce14_m.jpg" alt="Panasonic FZ30 footage clip: mirror" height="180" width="240" /></a><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-family:arial;">Frame still from footage while driving to the site...</span></span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightforall/304056171/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/99/304056171_fc70d917c3.jpg" alt="Lumix FZ30 Still Photo: still-farm" height="281" width="500" /></a><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:85%;" >...yields this portrait, which makes people look more.</span><br /><br /><br /><br />The image captures a different-style portrait of Mac, a traveling man who was given the assignment to find a viable site for an ethanol plant. Photographing him outside made him look more like the owner of the place. Seeing this image and analyzing it, Mac is separated from the site by glass, sitting where he's best known to be: always on the go. As his task winds down, he plans to tow the portable trailer that he's lived in, back to Richmond.<br /><br /><br /></div>Light For Allhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05983171706210721673noreply@blogger.com0