I'm an advertising photographer based in Los Angeles, California. My mission is to create striking advertising photography, corporate photography and editorial photography of people for major advertising agencies, fortune 500 corporations and major magazines. I shoot photography and video assignments throughout California including Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego as well as the rest of the world. As a photo educator I am happy to share my unique vision and methods. I'm currently teaching classes at Santa Monica College in video production for professional photographers and photography students.
Thursday August 12, Brooks Institute of Photography hosted my Secrets of Video Production on what turned out to be one of the first truly sunny summer days this season. Both students and a large number of faculty attended my presentation held in one of the school’s spacious studios. The theme was tabletop so I was able to spotlight the Indisliderpro with the Manfrotto 501 fluid head supported on Manfrotto 536 MPRO legs. Everyone was impressed with how sturdy and versatile the IndisliderPro was both when mounted on the Manfrotto legs and when placed right on the tabletop. Everyone appreciated the value of the False Color and Peaking filters of the Marshall’s monitor and enjoyed being able to see what was going on as some of the students tried out the techniques I presented. RedRockMicro’s support system and microFollowFocus was instrumental in demonstrating techniques like rack focus. The cucaloris effect of the Chimera Window Patterns added life to both the background of some setups and dappled light directly on one setup illustrating a push-in technique with the Indisliderpro. The LEDs from Litepanels were used as both main sources and kickers along with both the Lastolite Triflip and Skylite light modifiers.
Indislider Pro
Everything was shot to a RAW 16GB CF card and down loaded through the high speed RAW Firewire card reader on to LaCie harddrives supporting editing in Final Cut Pro on MacBook Pro. Along with demonstrating a number of tabletop shooting situations, I had enough time to show a very basic NLE workflow. Student received a Sonicfire Pro disk and suggestions on the use of royalty-free music in their future video and still to video productions.
The students asked lots of questions and quite a few got a chance to try the equipment for themselves in actual shooting situations.
Below is the tabletop wine video we did in the workshop.
Below is the tabletop push-in we did in the workshop.
Secrets of Video Production for Photographers is coming to Charlotte on June 18 and 19. I’m looking forward to my first visit to what promises to be a charming city.
Friday night is going to be the APA evening presentation from 6:00pm to 9:00pm at Paradox Film & digital where I give a basic outline of the process of video production. I do this keeping in mind video is an additional component to a still production. I will discuss the techniques and tools needed to do video production. See http://charlotte.apanational.com for more details.
Saturday’s workshop is always fun and informative as I have more time to really get into video production. In the morning, we look at the basics from a different point of view and then build on those basics including when to call in a post house like Rawworks to help. In the early afternoon we do some lighting and camera techniques followed by a short commercial shoot with the latest equipment from Manfrotto, Panasonic, Ziess, Marshall Electronics, Redrock Micro, Beachtek, Sennhieser, K-Tek, Hoodman, and LaCie. I then take that video into Final Cut Studio, edit it and output it for various distribution methods. The day gives anyone interested in video production a good outline to follow in video productions. See www.tiny.cc/june18 for more details.
Video production is changing by the day and can be confusing to photographers just getting into motion. Having a working understanding of the overall picture, helps give the photographer getting into video production an understanding of how to judge what equipment and software to use.
Christopher Lozano www.tlsHollywood.com did this time lapse click (MOVIE) of the LA evening presentation.
Chicago was surprising. As with the other cities, I had no doubt that the photography professionals attending would be welcoming but I had not expected the warmth they extended to me. I did both my Secrets of Video Production for photographers evening presentation and Saturday workshop at Callie Lipkin’s very spacious studio. Callie and her husband/studio manager Robert were great hosts and they have a great space that is also a rental, so if you are in need of a studio in Chicago, give them a call 773.853.2339. APA’s Midwest director Megan was indispensible in getting things set up for my events.
Everyone was intent on learning about video production as this is a no nonsense group of professionals that see video production is the next stage of the now ever-changing landscape of professional image making. They understand the days of being a pure professional photographer are fast disappearing and they are willing to take the next step, which is into video production. I had at least two photographers who drove from Columbus Ohio to attend. Two more came from Milwaukee and plan on sharing what they learned with the rest of the crew at QuadPhoto. Dave Busch of QuadPhoto was nice enough to send me an email that included the following quote, “The combination of facts, experiences and practical ideas you presented will undoubtedly save a lot of money and pain for any photographer that is just beginning to investigate video production. Plus the tools, toys, and software you shared were a real eye opener for those of us who have already started shooting HD video with DSLR. Thanks again for making the event well worth our time and the 180 miles we drove to attend!”
It was exciting to share with them some of the new development I saw at NAB a few days earlier in Vegas, including the exciting developments of Litepanels new hybrid LED that flash sync’s. Zeiss’s new cine compact prime series was well as introducing them to Zeiss’s HDSLR series lenses for Canon and Nikon cameras. Sonicfire’s new Voxal vocal albums and, of course, Redrock Micro’s upcoming wireless follow focus were just a few of the items I told them about.
I have no doubt that the Chicago professionals I met will have little problem making some great short form video content. I look forward to them sharing some of their video experiences with me.
I will admit that the first few times I walked the various halls at NAB, I was both a little lost and overwhelmed. This, of course, was before the recent flood of equipment and software directed toward smaller more independent content makers, especially those using the procomsumer video cameras and HDSLRs. The majority of the show is still directed at large productions and facilities but there is more and more short form equipment and software showing up each year.
It is so big it takes multiple days to comfortably walk through and have a chance to see even a good portion of the show. Many of the booths have demos going so you want time to stop and see them. Often there are a variety of products at each booth and so you might have to go back at a later time to catch the demo you’re most interested in. All the booths have representatives that given time will go through personal demos and entertain your questions. I got to see the latest from Manfrotto, Litepanels, Panasonic, Zeiss, RedRock Micro, Smartsound, Sennheiser, Marshall Electronics, Hoodman, K-Tek, and LaCie. This year I saw a growth in small plug-in creators for Apple products.
There are also a variety of speakers and classes on just about anything to do with every aspect of video and broadcast. A few are free and interesting but most of these cost some type of conference fee.
If you look around a bit on the web, you can usually find a free pass to the exhibit halls and depending on your pocket book this might be the best way to first experience NAB. After a few times, there you’ll get up to speed and be in the know about the latest and greatest.
By the way, 3D is all the rage this year with booth after booth touting something involving 3D. It seems to be up in the air just when and if 3D will truly become widely accepted or remain a mostly theater experience but either way you heard it here first and partly that is what NAB is about; finding out about what might be the next great hit.
My first day at NAB in Vegas brought into perspective just how quickly the world of video production has changed. The number of new and innovative products that deal with making video with HDSLRs has increased dramatically. At the same time, the video cameras are starting to have advancements that are going to blur the line between video and DSLR cameras.
Litepanels by Manfrotto is bringing out a new hybrid LED with a flash function. Panasonic has a new 4/3 video camera that accepts a variety of still camera lenses. RedRock Micro has a number of new products for follow focus and cine lenses. Carl Zeiss has a whole set of new Compact rime CP.2 cine lenses. Hoodman has a number of new recording cards and focusing assists.
These are just a few of the new products I have seen at NAB that in some way will make producing videos easier or slicker. I will be reviewing these new products I have been shown as they actually become closer to being available.
The Secrets of Video Production for Photographers continues on to Seattle this week with two events at the Seattle Pacific University, 3307 3rd Ave W, Seattle, WA. After having a short break following three intense weeks giving presentations and workshops to hundreds of photographers in New York, Atlanta and Denver I’m ready to go again.
Plus I was not sitting back but rather collecting new equipment to test and show from Zeiss, RedrockMicro, K-tek, Sennhesier, Hoodman and talking with Rawworks about post-production. I also started instructing the first two weeks of my sixteen week college class in video production for photography students at Santa Monica College.
You will also see some new faces in my sponsors including Agency Access who I have used with great success to get my still and video work out to potential clients. Online is the way to best show your latest and greatest in video to potential clients and you need to keep updating them regularly.
If you are in the Seattle area I hope to see you at one of my events this week, please come up and introduce yourself. The next three series of events are happening in Seattle, Chicago and New Jersey.
For more information on my Seattle events and workshop see www.apanw.org or for just my Seattle workshop tiny.cc/seamar6.
One of those historic snowfalls did not deter New York photographers from getting to Secrets of Video Production for Photographers. Over 170 professionals enjoyed getting in from the snow and ice in the Root studio to see my Secrets of Video Production for Photographers. New Yorkers, always being right on top of the latest, asked probing questions and took copious notes.
Just that day, The Wall Street Journal broke the front-page news “Google Jolts Telecom Rivals” about Google starting to supply higher speed connection than presently available. Google stated it was to improve the rapid downloading of video. I has been saying this is the year photographers will be have to move into supplying video along with photography or begin to lose ground.
I’m is scheduled to continue spreading the latest in tools and techniques of photography/video in upcoming presentations in Seattle, Chicago and New Jersey.
Denver had a great turn out for my “Secrets of Video Production for Photographers” an APA-LA event that is a first step in building the APA Denver chapter. One photographer drove six hours through the snow, literally it snowed, I’m here, I saw it, to attend. First let me say the people in Denver are great, especially the folks at Denver Pro Photo who helped put on both last night’s Thursday APA event and the upcoming Saturday workshop.
If you are in Denver and need equipment, supplies or rental, Denver Pro Photo is the place to go. Beyond the well- stocked store, they also have a number of different size stages including a huge one, football field huge, plus a complete grip room.
Some of the sponsors like Zeiss with their long focus pull lenses, Marshall Electronics with their video monitors and SmartSound with royalty music, were there to answer specific questions on their video solutions. I understand a lot of this is completely new to photographers so it is good to have experienced resources to answer the large variety of questions photographers have.
I had a chance to meet some of the attendees and once again heard some unfortunate stories of jobs lost because the video component could not be handled. Some were as simple as snips for the web but it was smart of the photographers not to get into something they knew little about. It is much harder to get a client back after messing up a job than truthfully saying, presently, part of their needs cannot be met.
During the presentation there was lot’sa interaction and after the presentation, I had a chance to answer some questions about challenges some of the photographers were facing with learning video production.
I want to thank the nice lady who won the complete Final Cut Studio program that I personally provided for the raffle for giving me a hug. She was so excited.
Hoodman USA