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40% rebate on Capture One 5 Pro

September 30, 2010 By

To most photographers, there are only two ‘serious’ apps to manage and process RAW pictures: Apple Aperture and Adobe LightRoom.

Let me present you a third option: Capture One. While not as popular as the two others, yet it is the one used by most high-end commercial/fashion/portrait photographers. Why? It has incredible color management tools. It is truly leagues ahead of the others in terms of what you can do with the colors. While you have to use a Phase One medium format body to benefit from all its features, there is still a lot of goodies you can use.

My two favorites are the focus mask and focus tool. These two features are priceless when you have to select the best shots out of a 500 pictures photoshoot! Go take a look at the features page to see what else it has to offer.

So, if it is so good, why so few people use it? Some would blame Apple and Adobe marketing, but I think the real reason is that CaptureOne is not good for most photographers. By design the application assumes the image  will be processed in Photoshop to correct imperfections. That is why it does not offer as many non destructive editing tools as the others. When I talked about this to a Capture One guru, he told me that pro photographers should limit their job at taking pictures and sharing their vision. Makeup artist & retoucher should handle the rest. While I dont really agree with this, the guy is making way more money than me with his photography so I guess it is working for him.

So, interested in giving Capture One 5 a try? There is currently a 40% rebate on the Pro version if you use the coupon code 5PRO when checking out. The code is good until the end of the month so hurry up, download the demo and see if you like it or not!

Any Capture One user here?

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Filed Under: Photo Tagged With: , ,

Just announced: EVF from Red Rock Micro

September 27, 2010 By

Red Rock Micro just announced an electronic view finder. And no, I am not going to bitch about it because I think it is a product with great potential. Of course it is still vaporware until it is released, just like the micro remote (and all the product prototypes in my garage), but the concept and spec sheet look promising. And lets admit it, it is a much needed part for every rig!

Its pricing is extremely aggressive. For a bit more than a Z-finder, you get something that is way better and more flexible. Pressing the add to cart button is a nobrainer from a cost perspective.

I am also very interested by the advanced assist features they are hinting about. I guess it will have some zebra and other contrast based tools to help focusing. What ever it is, it will be welcome! I just wonder how we will control these features since I could not find any buttons on the pictures (or HDMI cable for that matter).

From the press release, it looks like a very solid product. My only worry is about the up-scaling of the HDMI signal to make it fit the 1.2m dot LCD. Most up-scalers do a crappy job but I guess we will only know how good it is once it is released.

Now please, give us a realistic shipping date!

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Filed Under: Video Tagged With: , , ,

Killing your baby

September 26, 2010 By

No, I am not planning to kill my cute baby girl Victoria, I am quoting Stu in his book “The DV Rebel Guide” (if I remember correctly, lost the bock when I moved). What he means is that once you give away your footage for someone else to edit, they are going to do everything but what you originally had in mind with it.

A few months ago, I shot a video clip for one of my friend, which I talked about here. Due to some divergence of art vision,  my friend and I decided it would be better if he found someone else to finish the edit so I gave the guy all  my clips. No hard feelings, I was stuck in a dead end and the wife delivered the baby girl the same week so there was no way I would find enough time to fix the clip.

When I gave the original files to my friend, I knew I was killing my baby: that the end result would not look and feel like what I had in mind. It was a strange feeling.

Fast forward a few weeks and now my friend released the official version of the clip on YouTube. Wish I was at the party but then again, baby girl screwed up my schedule. Here is an advice: dont commit to anything once you have a baby, you are not the master of your schedule anymore.

I find it interesting to see how the clips differ. While the official version is cut in a much better way, mine follows a logical process and put more emphasis on the look and feel.

It is to be expected, I have a photography background while the other guy is an editor. By the way, which one do you  prefer?

It was the first time I edited something then had someone else use the same clips to do another version and I find it very interesting because:

  • you see what you could have done
  • it is a great way to assess yourself
  • you can compare vision

I highly suggest to everyone to try it sometime. Be warned, it is very humbling!

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Filed Under: Video Tagged With: , ,

Adobe releases Premiere & Photoshop Element 9

September 21, 2010 By

Adobe just announce the release of Photoshop Elements 9 and Premiere Elements 9. I know most of you prefer to use FCP but I think the Premiere product line deserves some visibility, especially since it can work with native H.264 files and is the only viable option for Windows users.

I have not played much with Premiere CS5 but I will give Element a hard try. My fear when working with files in delivery format, such as H.264, is that the color space is not big enough to handle filters without seriously damaging the image quality. So that is what I will be looking at for my test.

It also has a cartoon filter that I am curious about. I played with ToonIt from Red Giant Software a while ago and did not like the result so I hope this one is better.

You can download the trial version here (1.7gig) and the full version is very cheap at 99$.

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Filed Under: News Tagged With: ,

Do you own a cool HDSLR rig?

September 21, 2010 By

If you own a cool rig (commercial or DIY rig), please contact me (boss at canon5dtips…). I have been working on something for guys like you recently and it is time for me to get some feedback.

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Filed Under: News Tagged With: ,

7D shooting video at 1000fps

September 16, 2010 By

Saw this video in Gizmodo

7D 1000 fps from Oton Bačar on Vimeo.

Looks pretty cool, he?

Before you go out and load Twixtor, you should understand that you are probably not going to achieve such good results without a lot of planing. Twixtor is good, but you have to give it some help if you want it to generate (1000/60=16.6 – 1 (original frame) = 15) about 15 missing images for each ‘real’ one. I have personally achieve such good results but on other hand, I never tried to pump it up over 120fps…

So here is the recipe check list:

  • First shoot against a solid background (most of the slomo shots are against the sky).
  • Then set the camera on a tripod so only the movement in the clip is the one you want to slow down.
  • Finally, use a super high shutter speed to prevent any motion blur.

I think this last point is the key that a lot of people are missing. The 1/50 sec shutter speed is not a magical number. It is simply the double of the frame rate. Since the insane frame rate is done in post, the shutter speed could be anything required to get a sharp image, probably over 1/1000 in this case. When doing pixel interpolation, you need a sharp image to make it easier for Twixtor to ‘guess’ where the pixels should go next. If it is all blurry, it will not be able to know where to place the pixels

Someone in the comment mentioned the Casio Exilim EX-FS10. This little point and shoot can shoot 210 fps at 720p or 30fps in JPEG mode! Of course image quality is not in the same league as an HDSLR but still, I want one! And at 110$ it is cheaper than Twixtor and it is probably going to pay for itself in one shooting session! If you have a bit more budget, the EX-FH100 is an even better alternative.

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Filed Under: On the web, Video Tagged With: ,

Final Cut Pro Smoothcam vs Coremelt Lock and Load X

September 2, 2010 By

Guest post by Jeremy…

Video stabilization is a great tool for tweaking and smoothing video that was shot with out (or even with) the use of some sort of rigging to keep the vibrations at a low rate. I use Final Cut Pro to edit my video, and have always been impressed with the results of the default Smoothcam filter/effect. I was asked by Alain to do a review on CoreMelt Lock and Load X and give my honest opinion.

I ran the video through 2 different tests, the first was a simple pan that was shot without the use of my tripod. The footage was about equal on both parties results. I was impressed with Lock & Loads X (LLX) speed. It took Final Cut Pro over 2 minutes to analyze the footage, while LLX analyzed it in under 15 seconds, with a render of about 20 more seconds. The final end product were about the same. I left everything on the default settings for this run and was impressed with the results.

For the second footage, I decided to test a moving object, an old spinning mill wheel at a local resort. FCP’s Smoothcam took over 5 minutes to analyze the footage, while LLX took only 45 seconds with a render time of 30 seconds after that. These results were not as cut and dry.

The Smoothcam render has a noticeable wave coming from the right side of the screen, at the base of the mill. If your looking at it, the footage seems like it is spinning. I know this is due to the fact of how Smoothcam processes the data.

LLX’s footage was a bit rough around the edges, I had to go in and play with the settings to get a decent shot. I actually ran the footage through two different ways, one in the “lockdown” stabilization mode, the other in the “smooth single shot” option. I was not as impressed with the footage. I did some tweaking on the “lockdown” mode to get it as smooth as possible. I admit, I could be doing something wrong, but compared to the “smooth single shot” the footage was better. The “smooth single shot” mode is the default setting when you start LLX to process the footage, and what I have noticed on the video I shot (along with the video on the demo real on Coremelt’s website) is that when using this method, the stabilized video becomes wavy, almost like your video was being projected onto a white screen blowing in the wind. With the hints of movement, it can make your audience feel seasick. I am going to continue using the trial and if I come across findings that alter my judgement, I will post them below.

Pros

It’s fast, and non intrusive to the editing process. The whole process is very easy and the support from CoreMelt’s website walks you through step by step with great explanations on the science that goes on behind the scenes. Coremelt’s plug ins have a reign of success because they are efficient at what they do. For panning shots, I encourage you to try the LLX plugin.

Cons

I was not impressed with the really shaky footage. The warping effect would deter me from using this plugin on anything more than panning shots. Any action shot I ran through the process was playing too many tricks on my eyes. Even though I got the same experience with the Smoothcam filter, I was more impressed with the footage for shots like this. Even on the footage they have on their website’s demo reel, the you can see there are issues with the periodic wave of pixels going in and out.

Result

As stated before, panning shots are awesome and LLX is a time saver. Is it worth the $150 price tag… not in my opinion. Even the time ratio equation doesn’t work for me. Since Smoothcam can work in the background, it isn’t so intrusive I would consider buying a program to help, I would invest it in better stabilizing gear to get the proper shot in the first place. I am not badmouthing CoreMelt’s programs, they have other great plugins you should try for yourself.

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Filed Under: From the contributors, Review, Video Tagged With: , ,