Video experiment

As promised, here is a link to my first attempt at a video production from the D800.  Recorded the guitar clip first, then a bunch of clips of the vocal.  I used Final Cut Pro to put it all together.

I'm still learning the program.  The interface is very similar to iMovie if you have a Mac, but it has a lot more options and the codec is much more sophisticated, producing 1080 quality HD video output.  I found it a bit tricky to overlay clips and stills and texture and video simultaneously, and I'm still working on that aspect.  This is just the basic shots with a black-white process overlaid with an 'old paper' texture.  Nothing fancy.  I can tell now that the audio is distorted, so I'll have to go back and output the file again with the audio track attenuated some.  Anyway, I am pleased at the promise of this new option for me.  Here is the result from YouTube - click the image to view the clip.

Long Portrait

As I mentioned in a previous post, I decided to try my hand at a "long portrait".  The LP is essentially just a video portrait.  The intent is to capture more of the subject than is possible in a 'flat' image.  I thought of this a couple of months ago, and then with a little research found out that some pro photographers had started using them.  Generally, they just do a 30-second clip, and frankly I was not impressed.  I really didn't feel that I was seeing anything extra in the video.  For that matter, the still image actually seems to convey more interest than those long portraits because it engages my imagination.  So when I thought about how to set up my version, I chose to set the mood with the lighting and expression of the model, and to set it to appropriate music.  Here is the result (click the image to view the video on YouTube):

I am pleased with the way this turned out.  I had some technical issues with the natural lighting and the depth of field, but the look of the portrait is very close to what I had imagined.  My goal was to create a thoughtful portrait.  The model, Renee, is actually a very bright and bubbly girl, so she took my direction very well.  I also had to come up the learning curve on Final Cut Pro X, which is no trivial thing in itself.  I am still learning what I can do with that program, and I'll probably do a revised version with fancier post processing at some point in the future.

And, as a bonus, because Renee is a singer as well, I took the opportunity to record a music video with her. So that will be coming at a later date.

Captain Video

So, since I have this fancy camera that can shoot HD video, I decided to give it a shot.  This past Saturday I spent a couple of hours with a beautiful young lady, having her pose for some stills and then do some video.  My original idea was to get a sort of (slightly) moving portrait that would communicate a bit more than a still. After getting myself all pumped up that I had discovered a new artistic angle, I consulted my go-to reference work (the Interweb) and found out (gasp!) somebody else already thought of it.  It's called a "long portrait" and there are some pros out there who have been doing it for a while, apparently.  But rather than sulking about it, I decided there's no reason I shouldn't try my hand.  So I did.  Once I finish editing the clips I'll post a link so you can tell me how I should stick to the still stuff.  In the meantime, here are a couple of shots of the model, processed of course.  She was great to work with and I think she had a lot of fun.  In any case she's a good sport to allow me to mangle her visage to suit my warped photo styling muse.

Saving a photo

Sometimes things don't go well when you are shooting.  But that doesn't mean you can't dig out a decent photo from a lost cause snap.   Here is an example.

I took this shot of the Cape Hatteras lighthouse on a dreary day in the late afternoon under less than interesting lighting conditions.  As you can see, the colors are all washed out, and even though I tried very hard to set up something interesting with the local foliage, it just wasn't working.

I actually sort of wrote this one off, until I had a happy accident one day.  I was playing around with some black and white conversion workflows, and selected this photo as an object to test.  Since it was originally shot in raw format, I opened the image in ACR and started playing with it.  I was attempting to set the max and min black and white levels appropriately, when I accidentally grabbed the exposure slider and pushed it down toward under exposure.  That's when the magic happened.  It turns out that there was a lot of sky color hidden in the file, and underexposure let it show through.  I could have played around with the vibrance and saturation on the original and tried to save it, but that would have introduced too much false color, and really I don't think the result would have been pleasing.  But pushing the exposure down a couple of stops actually converted this into a totally different type of photo, with very pleasing results.  Here's the final after a little sharpening and cropping:

I think this is a nice, dramatic rendering that appears to be a twilight shot even though the photo was taken in the afternoon, facing generally east toward the ocean, away from the sun.

So, a couple of lessons here.  First, shoot in raw - it gives you many more options in post.  Second, look at your failures a second time, and see if there might be a way to save them.  This shot made Flickr explore, and you can see the larger version here.