PeachPit has a new book targeted at photographers who want to move into the video business. It is called, From Still to Motion. You can get the free chapter “Playing with the Light” here.
Judging by the content of the sample chapter, it seems to be targeted more toward the pro / serious videographer but the lighting concepts hold true what ever the gear you use, from Kino Flo lights to DIY setups.
Take a moment to download the sample chapter and read it. If you like it, you can pre-order the book here
After reading Dan post (a while ago) about wide angle lenses with wide aperture, it got me thinking. While I have been happy with my 17-40L4
Before going into the list of available options, I think it is worth looking at the effect of wide aperture on wide lenses. After all, the goal of this exercise is to find a wide angle lens that will give us some control over DoF. As we all know, a wide aperture allows more light into the camera which allow us to shoot in lower light which is always good. The other result of aperture is too control the depth of field (DoF), which is another familiar concept. The thing you might not be aware of is how hard it is to get a shallow DoF when shooting ultra wide.
For most of us, this is a good thing because it allows us to shoot in low light without having to worry about keeping the subject in focus. But what happen when you need to shoot wide and want a shallow DoF? Lets look at some numbers.
So, I have been playing with Aperture 3 for over two weeks now. I haven’t explored fully its 200 ‘new’ features yet, but I have played enough to make up my mind about it.
I am not going to go over every new features since a lot of people have already done it. Instead, I am going to talk about the stuff that matters to photographers.
Speed
I am very sorry to say that but the current version of Aperture is slow. Browsing from one picture to the next is slow unless you are in quick preview mode (Press P to toggle). Once you get into the habit of switching between modes, it is not that much of a burden but remember that you can only edit pictures in normal mode.
Before some fan boys reply that it isnt slow, know that I did everything I could to speed it up: rebuild library, use a fast machine with RAID-0 drives, etc… With the same setup LightRoom runs circles around A3. That is sad.
Adjustments
Noise
Aperture 3 noise reduction is good and would stand well on its own if it was not of the spectacular results one can get in LightRoom 3 or with Neat Image. If shooting in low light is important to you and you want to use A3, get Neat Image.
The Presets
I have a love/hate relationship with presets. Amateurs see them as the be all end all of image editing, thinking they can get pro results with a click of the mouse without even understanding what is going on. A3 surfs on the preset wave started with LR to get pretty much the same results (given the same adjustment panels). Actually, I prefer the way A3 handles presets than LR: you can either combine presets by picking them one after the other, or replacing them by option clicking the new preset.
Curve
A3 has a nice curves adjustment tool. You can select a color from the image and it will place an adjustment point at corresponding position on the curve. Quite useful to clean up background or changing cloths color. Remembers me of the way Capture One 4 handle curves.
Brushes
There are a lot of talk about the new non destructive adjustment brushes. Here again, the A3 team fell a bit short. While the brushes work very well, you cannot use the same brush with two different adjustment level. I correct myself, if you click on the option gear, you can add as many distinct adjustment brushes as you want. Cool!
The missing adjustments
Where the hell is the grad filter? It has to be one of the most important filter one can use, yet it is not there. It really makes me wonder if the Aperture dev team actually use the software!
The other missing adjustment is the tone splitting. While I think LR user overuse this tool (especially in presets), it has proven time and again to be a key feature to quickly set a mood on a batch of pictures. Here again, the adjustment isn’t there.
The vignette tool has not evolved at all. I was hoping to at least get the choice of going toward white instead of black as in LR or to select the desired affected corners but we got nothing new.
Import
I love the new import screen and its link to Places. If you have a mix of geolocated pictures and non geolocated ones, once you start to import, the software will ask you if you want to associate the locations. Brilliant!
Conclusion
Unfortunately, A3 is not what I would call a release ready product. While it has some incredible features that I havent covered (slideshows & hybrid stuff) it fails to cover the basic by giving photographers what they need the most: speed and controls. The dev team spent too much time working on ‘new’ features instead of working the app core.
Hopefully, a software update will come in a few months to correct these issues but right now I can only recommend A3 as a slide show editing platform. Actually, pro photographers might want to get it for that feature alone. It is really that great!
First, I would like to correct myself. Contrary to what I said in my initial post, it is possible to buy a digital version of the app. You just need to download the demo and on the opening screen, just click on the buy button and it will lead you to a store page where you can either buy a digital version of the app (basically, just a serial number) or order the standard DVD box. But before doing so, I think you should read the whole post…
Note: watch update at the bottom of the post…
Read the rest of this entry »
I had the opportunity to play with a old Zeiss lens last Tuesday. I only had the lens for a day (actually, a night) and did not have much time to do serious testing so I decided to skip the standard and boring sharpness assessments and move to a topics you will find more interesting: how it performs for video.
About the results: the Zeiss lens is an old model and the newer version should perform significantly better. The reason I was interested in this old lens is that a lot of people are using old Nikon and Zeiss lens to shoot video instead of using original Canon products. Some people do it because they prefer the look produced by these models or simply because they bought them before the release of the 1.1 firmware and stuck with them. Of course, these older model are also significantly cheaper! Read the rest of this entry »
Now that 2009 is almost over, it is a good time to look back at all the products we have tried during the year and see which one stood above the rest.
My first idea was to name a product of the year but I quickly realize that it would not work and I should split the contenders in various categories.
Shoulder rig
While not a rig by it self, the Shape telescopic arm has to be the best stabilization device one can get. With some tinkering, it could be installed on pretty much any rig or even at the bottom of a bare camera. I can foresee similar version of this product to be in the catalog of every manufacturers in 2010.
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I have been playing with Animoto for over a week and think it is something you guys might be interested in.
What is it?
Animoto used to be a slide show creation web application but it has recently added video capabilities. So you can now mix stills, video and music to create a very pro looking video.
Think of it as Motion for dummies.
What sets it apart from other slide show apps?
First, it is web based. This mean you don’t have to install anything and once created, the slides are already available to others (according to your security preferences) and can be shared on Facebook, Twitter, etc.
Second, the transitions are gorgeous and fit with the music. What ever the number of pictures you sent and the beat of the song you selected, the transitions will always be in tune with the music.
Third, Animoto supplies a bunch of royalty free songs you can use without worrying about being sued.
Finally, if you pick a pro account, you can remove all references to Animoto in the clip/player and make it look like the whole thing was your own creation.
Show it to me!
To demonstrate the application at its most basic, here is a clip made by letting the system run free. I just selected a bunch of pictures from a lingerie fashion show and then picked a song from the library. I did not reorder or adjusted anything other than spotlighting a few of my favorite shots.
WARNING: VIDEO NOT SAFE FOR WORK
This is the “brute” stuff coming out of Animoto. It is always possible to go back and tweak the display order afterward but I was curious to see what would happen if I let the system run wild.
Why you might need it?
Clients (at least in the wedding and portrait business) are now asking/expecting slide shows, often the same day as the shoot. While it is possible to generate one in Lightroom or Aperture, they tend to look more like a PowerPoint presentation than the work of graphic artist.
Using a solution like Animoto creates a very pro looking product in a very short amount of time (pick your selects and song, upload and then then download the high resolution file and you are done!).
How much does it cost?
Animoto prices its service according to the flexibility it gives you. Either you use it for fun or as a pro, the commercial account being the only one I would recommend for any client work since you can remove the Animoto logo and claim the work as your own! Prices are:
- 30$ for the all access pass for a year.
- 99$ for the 3 month commercial (keep reading to make this 4 months) access.
- 250$ for the full year commercial access.
Rebecca, our Animoto friend gave us a coupon code to get an extra month out of any 3 months commercial package purchase if you enter 5dtips on this page or use this link to get the other packages. The promo code is good until December 31.
On the flip side…
While super easy to use, it would be even better if the developers added a LightRoom / Aperture plugin to directly export the pictures to the site at optimal size and also a compressor droplet to downr sample the clips to a reasonable size.
My other suggestion would be a bit more flexibility on the aspect ratio of the video so it would work better in portrait mode. Then again, I guess they would have to redo all their animation/transitions…
In conclusion…
While it is not a tool I would use for every job (I am a control freak when it comes to slides), I think it does an incredible job at quickly creating a pro looking slide show. I did not have the time to test it with video but will very soon.
Last weekend, I had to opportunity to participate in the production of a small movie entirely shot with a 5D. We had a lot of gear to play around, including a SmallHD DP1 field monitor.
It was my first time shooting with an external monitor and it quickly became a key item on the set. As you can see in the picture below, the camera was installed inside the car and it was near impossible to focus by looking at the LCD. Also, the director had to stay at the back of the car so the monitor was very useful for him to see the actual composition and the actors performance.
As promised, here is the review of the 5D training DVD from F-Stop Academy. A lot of people are interested in getting HDSLR training DVD for Christmas but dont know which one to get. By the end of this review, you should have a better idea of which one is better for your needs. While this video is targeted at the 5DMrkII market, almost all of its content is also valid for other HDSLRs.
I have decided to keep a similar review format to the one I used for my previous review of the 5dFilmschool DVD.
Notice: I reviewed the electronic download version of the training. And, as always, I suggest this format for a better viewing experience.
Pace
The pace of the clip is quite fast. Blasting over 25 chapters in less than 75 minutes could seem scary but it is in fact a very good way to cover everything one has to know to get going with an HDSLR. And if you miss something, there is always the rewind button!
Precise
Each concept is demonstrated with actual footage from the 5D. I really like the example with the Vari ND filter. The only example that I did not find convincing enough was the demonstration of what happen when a high shutter speed is used instead of staying around 1/60 as we already outlined in a past article. I would have expected a side by side comparison with a footage shot at 1/60sec.
Useful content
Philip covers a lot of ground in this training. Actually, he covers pretty much everything you need to know to start shooting your first clips. He starts from the very first step, reviewing all the gear in his bag and shows how/when/why to use each of them.
While most of the content has already been talking about somewhere on the web (or even this site!), the DVD regroup everything in a single content packed DVD. In a bit more than an hour, you will get pretty much every bit of useful content that has been written about and all of this illustrated with nice examples. you might even learn a few tricks! Not a bad deal if you ask me!
Entertaining
Philip is an entertaining guy and shares a few of his recent experiences with us during the training. I was quite surprised to see how easy it has been for him to ‘convince’ his clients to agree to use the 5D instead of a conventional camera. I also like the aesthetic style of the video. While the video is shot with a big Sony video camera, the training is littered with clips from the 5D. These clips are either from past jobs or footage taken while making the DVD content. I am sure they did this on purpose because when you see side by side clips form the 5D and those form the video camera, there are no doubts in your mind about which one you want to use.
Verdict
My wife went to Guatemala to do some humanitarian work and I wish I could have shown her this movie before she left. It would have saved me hours of explanations and I am sure she would have remembered everything.
While I think everyone will find at least one interesting/useful bit of information on this DVD (even I did learn something!), I think the people who will benefit the most from it are those who are either new to HDSLR or dont want/can spend the time to browse the net and learn all of these things. This make this DVD the perfect companion gift to a brand new 5DMrkII for Christmas!
So, should you get this DVD or the other one from 5DFilmSchool (review)? While some of the content overlap between the two products, the F-Stop DVD talks more about how to shoot and get good images (Bloom style) while the 5DFilmShool is more about the various steps required to make a film (with a story/directing line) with high production value.
My advice: get both if you can afford them 
Next up: 7D training from F-Stop Academy.
I just completed the 101 and 102 classes of the 5DFilmSchool training and would like to share my thoughts with you about it (as some others have already done).
I have been watching training videos for a while. Like I said in a previous post, I am a big fan of Lynda.com and spent countless hours in front of my computer learning about new software/techniques. This also means that my expectations regarding training video are high, very high. According to my experience, to be effective, a training has to: have the right pace, be precise (never leave any confusion in the head of the audience), have useful content and be entertaining. Lets see how the 101 class rated according to these criteria.
Note: I watched the digital download version and I suggest you do the same. It has a better resolution than the DVD version and you can watch it right away! Read the rest of this entry »
