How to Get Amazing Results with Glidecam HD2000

As an advertising image maker in Los Angeles, I’m always looking to improve my ability to show my clients and students the best.  The Glidecam HD2000 is amazing easy to get good results as long as you set it up correctly. It takes a little time to balance the Glidecam HD2000 with your video camera. Once you do have the camera and Glidecam set up it is fairly easy to get amazingly steady video while moving in a straight line, raising and lowering or making simple turns. At first, it’s not perfect but far better then handholding much more mobile then slider or jib.

Here is a link to a complete video on how to set up a Glidecam HD2000. http://vimeo.com/91253654

I find it much easier to go though the process with the Glidecam HD2000 on a stand. Once you’re handholding the Glidecam, there will probably just a few further adjustments to finish balancing to you. Just remember the lightest touch to control the direction is the best.

For more information: www.glidecam.com

Scoring Video Dialogue with Music

I have often wondered why when scoring a video that the music I picked lost most of it’s impact when I tried using it with dialogue and narration.  Kevin Klingler at SmartSound has explained why and how to fixed the problem in a very short but informative piece.  I suggest you take a few minutes and read the article at their SmartSound site at https://www.smartsound.com/blog/video-scoring-tip-audio-density-in-video.html?utm_source=20140706&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=MusicScoring&utm_term=Spotting

© how do you register your copyright?

Registering your copyright is fairly easy.  You can register your copyright of images online, by mail or by hand.  Registering online is the less expensive costing $35 and quickest way.  By mail is the next easiest but takes longer and is more expensive at $60.  By hand is the least convenient unless you live near the copyright office in Washington DC and costs the same as by mail which is $60 and more than online.

You can register online at http://www.copyright.gov/eco/notice.html

Why go to the trouble of registering your copyright if you get it by simply take the images?  See the next post.

I am not an attorney nor do I play one on TV so this is only my understanding of the copyright situation and is not legal advice.  You should always seek out your legal advice from a qualified attorney. 

© why register your copyright?

Why register your copyright? “Many choose to register their works because they wish to have the facts of their copyright on the public record and have a certificate of registration. Registered works may be eligible for statutory damages and attorney’s fees in successful litigation.”  Copyright Office, Website.

I am not an attorney nor do I play one on TV so this is only my understanding of the copyright situation and is not legal advice.  You should always seek out your legal advice from a qualified attorney.

© copyright when is it created?

The copyright of a image or motion picture – video is created as soon as the image, be it a still or video frame, is created.  In other words push the shutter and you create a copyright of the frame as you create the frame itself. 

But what about registering that copyright?  Is that automatically done as well?  Find out about that in the next post.

I am not an attorney nor do I play one on TV so this is only my understanding of the copyright situation and is not legal advice.  You should always seek out your legal advice from a qualified attorney.

© copyright what is it?

As a professional photographer and videographer in Los Angeles shooting advertising and editorial assignments, I copyright everything I do. 

What is copyright? It is exactly what it sounds like, the right to copy.  The copyright owner has the right to control who gets to use copies of a image or motion picture (video).

In the next post learn when the copyright is created.

I am not an attorney nor do I play one on TV so this is only my understanding of the copyright situation and is not legal advice.  You should always seek out your legal advice from a qualified attorney.

Professional Photographers Find Value in DV Expo

Leewhitephotography.com composition

As a professional photographer in Los Angeles, California, I’m always looking for ways to improve my photography whether it is still photography or video.  DV Expo was an important resource for professional photographers who want to learn more about producing video.  That was the obvious goal of the Expo.  But there were two sessions that I attended that would be helpful to photographers with shooting stills as well.

On Wednesday, I attend Richard Harrington’s session on Timelapse photography.  It gave me some interesting insights into using long exposures with great depth of field to give a great feeling of motion in Timelapse productions.  Timelapse is a tool that any photographer should have in their skill-set.

Another session I found had some very useful information was Robbie Carman’s all day Friday class on color correction and color grading.  Many of the tools and techniques related directly to handling still photography as well as video.  Some of the most important ideas were that our ability to adapt in seeing color makes it important to have the right environment and not to work to long on an individual image.  Creating a neutral environment with the right lighting is important to judging color and reducing eye fatigue.  Our ability to automatically adapt to new color bias makes it important not to work too long on an individual image while color correcting.  Rather it is better to work on color correcting an image for a short time and then come back to it to have a fresh judgment.

I recommend you consider getting as much information in the fast changing world of digital imaging in both still or motion.  DV Expo is one of the resources you should consider whether it is checking out the exhibit and/or one of more of the sessions.

Photographs in Video Production

As a professional photographer I have a ready supply of stills that I have taken over the years of landscapes, stilllifes and locations.  These images can be a useful addition to my videos.  Remember “video is simply a bunch of stills put together”. This is one of the ways I multi-purpose my work. There is the different that in some video clips something(s) will change position from frame to frame to make it live action but there are many subjects that don’t necessarily have that attribute.  To name a few: landscape without wind or flowing water, buildings, tabletops and so on, you get the idea.

One of the big advantages of using a still in video is if there is any retouching that needs to be done it is only to one frame as that one frame is duplicated over and over when made into a video clip.  This duplication also means the clip can be as long as you need since there is really no end to the number of times a frame can be reproduced.

When preparing a still for conversion into a video clip you should keep some things in mind.  The nominal resolution of video is 72 so that is the minimum resolution your still should end up as.  A higher resolution will not produce a better image and will take up more file space.  You should end up with an image that is a least the size of the video frame you are using so for Full HD you should start with at least a 1920 X 1080 image.  If you plan on any moves like a pan, tilt, push in or pull out you will need to start out with a still with larger dimensions.  For example, if you plan to push in 200% you need to double the size of the still image.  A Full HD frame being 1920 X 1080 times 2 would result in 3840 X 2160 still image that would allow a 200% push in without showing the pixels larger than normal.

If you don’t know what you are going to exactly to do with each still image you convert you might start out with an approximately 4000 X 2200 @ 72 image and see how they work out.  You don’t want bring in overly larger an images as it will cause unnecessary processing time yet they should be big enough to comfortably try some moves.  If you find you are going to make more than a 200% move on an image you can go back and process a larger image for that particular shot.  That is one of the beauties of using still in video, you can resize and recrop your clip after the shoot.

The image should be output from your image manipulation software as a JPEG at the highest quality with a color space of Adobe RGB.  A tiff is not necessary and although the image will be converted down to a Rec. 709 color space which is like the sRGB color space the additional colors the of Adobe RGB might be useful in the conversion.

Start thinking about some of your images that might be useful in your videos and we will see how easy it is to use stills in a Premiere Pro project in my next entry.

Some of the equipment in my toolbox Ziess Distagon T* 2/28 and Planar T* 1,4/50  lenses which I use to get the sharpest images both for photographs and video plus the RAW Steel Hoodman 1000X UDMA7 CF cards which the fastest and american made cards to record my still images and video.

To be continued.

Beachtek New Adapter Help Get Better Audio

In my last entry, I mentioned that the Canon 7D has joined the ranks of DSLR that have manual control of audio.  Great news but it does not relieve the need to connect professional audio gear via the professional XLR connector.  While a simple mini to XLR connector will work it does not handle the issue of the poor preamps in DSLRs.

Beachtek has a wide variety of audio adapters for DSLRs depending on yours needs including their new DXA-SLR Pro.  Beachtek also has a large amount of information on how best to use your Beachtek adapter at http://www.beachtek.com/support/.  They also have a very informative video on getting the best out of your adapter on their home page.

Beachtek-DXA-SLR PRO

Here is a sample of the valuable information they have on thier skulpport pages:

“Hiss is a common problem with most of today’s DSLR cameras. The front ends tend to be noisy which can lead to excessive hiss if the levels are not set right. The simple fact is that the higher the gain of the camera preamps, the higher the hiss. The solution obviously is to reduce the noisy gain in the camera and replace it with the very clean gain of our DXA-SLR or DXA-SLR PRO adapters. When no amplification is required as when using wireless mics, our low cost passive DXA-5Da can be used.

When using the DXA-SLR, adjust the level controls on the adapter so that the indicator LED’s flash green. This tells you when you are in the proper recording level window to get the best signal to noise ratio and least amount of hiss. On the DXA-SLR PRO, you can use the built-in VU meters as a guide and set the levels so that the audio is peaking at no more than -12 dB. Use the AGC Disable feature on the adapter to reduce the noise created by the AGC in the camera.

If your camera allows you to disable the AGC from the camera menu, you can use manual mode to get even better audio. On the Canon 5D MK II or MK III set the camera gain to 25% of maximum. On Nikon cameras set it to LEVEL 1 on the older models, or 7 on the newer D4 and D800. In this case, you do not need to use the AGC Disable feature on the adapter – keep the switch to the left so that it is not activated.

It is critical that the levels be set right so that you are not starving the camera for audio as that will increase the internal camera gain which is something you want to avoid. Once the levels are set correctly, you should be able to capture clean, crisp audio.”

The Super Fast Hoodman Raw Steel 1000x Compact Flash Card

As an advertising photographer that is also into video I’m always looking for the best media I can get.  I want fast, sturdy cards that I can trust to record and keep my data safe.  This is especially true when I travel.  I’m going to be spending over three weeks in China shooting once in a lifetime projects.  I taking the Hoodman Raw Steel 1000x Compact Flash card and 300x SDHC cards.

Hoodman 300x SDHC

Hoodman Raw Steel 1000x compact flash card

Just remember to update your firmware to the latest version before trying to use these cards in your cameras.  You might find some side benefits like upgrading the Canon 7D firmware to the 2.3 version will allow you to finally control the audio levels manually.  It does not deal with the issue of connecting professional audio XLR cable which will need to be run through a Beachtek adapter but again there are many advantages in controlling the audio by doing it  that way