About
Photographer.
Husband.
Father.
read more...Instagrams
Category Archives: video
Lightroom 4 Beta Initial Thoughts and Video Support
Well, include me among the eager Adobe Photoshop Lightroom users looking forward to the next major release of our image management and editing tool. When Adobe announced the initial beta release for Lightroom 4 this week, I had it downloaded and installed in very short order.
Installation was easy enough, and LR4 is riding along side my main LR3 instance, each with their own catalog. I imported all of my pictures in to the LR4 catalog, and because I export the XMP data automatically, LR4 shows the edits I did in LR3.
The big thing for me is that it appears that I can keep my current workflow with LR4. There’s nothing worse than having to change the sequence of events or learn a new flow in order to upgrade to a new version of a piece of software, but it appears that LR4 kept the same feel (so far). As a result, working with LR4 felt very natural. In develop mode, there were a few changes to the Basic edits, clarifying and streamlining things a bit. All of my presets from my previous version of Lightroom where there and useable, too.
One of the big, new features that I’m excited about is better support for video inside of Lightroom. Sure, you could import video files in to your catalog , but that was about it. LR3 used an external video player, and you couldn’t really do anything with the video.
Lightroom 4 changes that. Not only can you play the video inside of the application, but you can do some basic editing of your video files. Now, this isn’t going to replace Premiere, After Effects, or Final Cut, just like Lightroom doesn’t technically replace Photoshop. But just like you can do a good chunk of your work in Lightroom for photo processing without going in to Photoshop, you can do the same for video files. You can trim and crop video files, sure. I mean, I can do that on my iPhone. But in LR4, you can also do some basic adjustments to the video files; things like adjusting exposure, correcting white balance, and, yes, applying some of your photo presets to video files!
Lightroom 4 Beta - Video Mode
The video editing options come up when you select a video file (here, from my iPhone backup). As you can see in the image above, the movie timeline shows up below the larger still from the movie, where you can play and trim the video file. On the right column are the controls for applying edits to the video. You can apply a custom white balance (more limited options than you get with a video file at this point), adjust the exposure up or down, or apply a preset. On that front, if your preset includes adjustments that are unsupported for video files, you are presented with the dialog below.
Lightroom 4 Beta - Video Mode Preset Dialog
That dialog gives you a list of the types of presets that you can apply to a video file that, honestly, is pretty impressive and covers a lot of the basic edits you would do to a file, for example, that you were going to upload to Facebook or your blog. Again, if you’re doing a wedding video or something more heavy-duty, Lightroom 4 probably won’t get you there. But it might be great for previews.
In the image below, I applied a split-toning preset to the video file. After I applied the preset, I was able to play the video inside of LR4 and see the video played with my adjustments without having to encode or export the video.
Lightroom 4 Beta - Video Mode Preset Applied
An interesting note, though, is that while you can apply a preset to a video file, the Develop module, at least in this first Beta, does not support video files. So you’d have to create a preset, then apply it to the video file. You can’t make individual edits. Not a deal breaker, but certainly something that can be improved.
Lightroom 4 Beta - No Video In Develop Module
Exporting a video was also straight forward. File > Export, and there is a new “Video” tab that includes a few options, such as quality and format. Exporting the 8-second video below took under a minute on an older MacBook Pro with LR3 and a bunch of other applications running.
Lightroom 4 Beta - Video Export Dialog
My initial impressions of Lightroom 4 are pretty positive. On the video side, even the basic adjustments that I’m able to do inside of the application are really going to give me a simple way to clean up and tweak my videos before I upload them. Granted, I only used small iPhone videos here; I’ll likely use some larger videos in different formats down the road. But I figure 90% of the videos I’ll be editing in this way will be from my iPhone, so I’m pretty pleased.
Here is the exported video with the preset applied.
Also posted in lightroom, Uncategorized
Tagged adobe, h.264, lightroom, lightroom 4 beta, preset, video
Leave a comment
Make This The Year Of “Go”
Last Christmas, Santa brought be a D7000, my first video-capable DSLR and Nikon’s first DSLR produced after they realized the Motion JPEG probably wouldn’t be the standard for…well, anything, really.
Within minutes of unwrapping my present, I was exploring the wonderful world of video that I had only read about in magazines. I learned about the 180 rule, compression, codecs, and lot’s of cool new terms to add to my already impressive glossary of photographic terminology. I ordered the largest, fasted SD cards. I cleared out some hard drive space for the annoyingly large file sizes. I put together my first video, 2×30, taking it from capture through post in Adobe Premiere and uploaded it to my brand-spankin’-new Vimeo Pro account. I created another video studiously documenting ISO performance of the D7000 in video mode that actually received a few “Likes” on Vimeo. I was riding high, waiting for more inspiration. Or for Hollywood to call. Sadly, neither happened, and my video production stalled.
I still listened to the new podcasts I found, though, and studied movies a bit more, noticing camera angles and lighting choices. Thoughts of “that would be cool to shoot” continued to pop up in my head, and I’d think to write the ideas in my journal, but I never would. Like the Higgs boson, video inspiration would blink in and out of existence in an immeasurable fraction of time.
And then the year ended, and I looked back disappointed that I hadn’t done more. In the creative communities, 2011 was the year of not being afraid to do something, anything, and to put yourself out there, and I wasted it.
Enter 2012.
Maybe 2011 was meant to fill up my tank, and 2012 is the year that I start my engine and actually drive. Not only did I start jotting down my ideas in my journal instead of just thinking about jotting them down, I took it a step further. Yesterday, I created a story board for one of those ideas. I had an idea for a short video of my son and I playing Nerf hockey, and I worked through the idea, breaking it down in to scenes, taking notes on my ideas for the different shots. When I got home, I grabbed some lights, the camera, and started capturing video, knocking out the scenes one at a time (and loving every minute spending time with my son, who was very patient and cooperative for a two-year old). At the end of it, I had a handful of clips, enough to assemble in to…something.
After he went to bed, I loaded the images in to the computer. I started noticing things that normally would have caused me to quit the project all together. One of the shots of me was out of focus. The crop was wrong, the angle was wrong, the lighting was wrong. The 2011 me would have just packed it up, defeated. But I pushed through, flaws and all. I remember someone saying somewhere that H264, the format my camera records in, was a great compression technology for the web, but horrible for video editing. I did some research on how to convert it to a friendlier format, but I didn’t seem to have any of the codecs that the higher-end, more professional blogs were referring to. ProRes what? Avid DNxHD doesn’t install on OS X Lion? Roadblock after roadblock came up before me. Again, normally I would have been frustrated and stopped. Instead, I figured that these clips weren’t really that big, so maybe I could push through in a non-edit-friendly format on my substandard computer, which I did. And I’m glad I did.
Too often, I feel like I’ve had it too easy, and that since there are no consequences for not figuring something out, it’s way to easy and enticing to quit. So I quit. Meanwhile, at work, or being a father, if I need to figure something out, my expert troubleshooting and reasoning skills almost always bring me to a logical conclusion, and I find that I’m better off and more informed by going through the process of figuring it out. Well, news flash, its the same even when a paycheck isn’t involved. And who knows, maybe the stuff that I figured out because I wanted to, not because I had to, will come in handy somewhere down the road. You know, when Hollywood calls.
Hollywood may not call because of this video, but I’m proud of pushing through my roadblocks to actually get something done and putting it out there. Whether it’s a new year, or simply a new day, it’s an opportunity to do things differently. Seize that opportunity and just go.
You can see the final video below. Enjoy.
Tagged adobe, d7000, go, inspiration, motivation, nikon, premiere, video
1 Comment
DIY Fig Rig for HDDSLR – Lessons Learned
A fig rig is a stabilization device designed for shooting video on a smaller camera, such as a DSLR. The premise behind it is that because your hands are further apart, it provides a better, wider base for the camera and will give you a more stable shot. The commercial version of the Fig Rig is made by Manfrotto, and it sells for $300. While I am sure the quality is worth it, it’s outside of my price range…
Indy Mogul‘s Backyard FX has a video tutorial on how to build your own fig rig for around $30. (Be sure to check out their other videos, too).
I put one together this weekend using the instructions provided in the video, and wanted to add a few lessons learned for anyone else interested in building their own rig.
- Make sure your pipe cuts are correct. The measurements are pretty exact, so if you have uneven pieces, the assembled rig could be bowed or otherwise misshapen.
- Use a small bladed hacksaw for more accurate cuts. Also have an extra blade or two on hand incase the PVC “melts” on to the blade and ruins the teeth.
- Have a diagram of how the pieces fit together in front of you, and mark the pieces to show their size. When you’re dealing with wet PVC cement, a 2.5″ and a 3″ piece of PVC look very similar, and it’s easy to grab the wrong one and glue it in place. (Ghetto iPad-drawn image included).
- It’s really difficult to get the bolt assembly stable enough to not spin around when you’re trying to attach the game. I did three things. First, I didn’t cement the top cap, so I can pop off the bolt assembly and attach it to the camera easier. Second, I used 2 nuts and an extra washer towards the bottom of the bolt, which will fit in to the PVC cross connector and prevent the bolt itself from pivoting. Finally, for the nut underneath the cap, I put some tape on the bolt and worked the nut on to the tap so that it won’t turn. I did the same for the bolt on top of the cap. That helped keep the bolt from turning a bit. There’s probably a better way to do it, so I am still experimenting. That’s another reason to not cement on the top cap.
Lowe’s
I purchased all of my hardware at Lowe’s. To help you find all the pieces, here’s a shopping guide…
All of the metal hardware was in the first aisle of my Lowe’s where the screws are. Most of the items were in the toolboxes that have with the special hardware, between the packets of stuff handing on the top half of the shelves and the loose stuff in bins that take up the bottom half of the shelves.
Make sure you get a fully threaded bolt, not a screw. It needs to have the flat end that will go in to the camera. All the hardware will be marked with 1/4 inch (or 1/4-20). That includes the bolt, the washers (I picked up a few extras), the nuts (I picked up a 10 pack instead of individual nuts), and the wing nuts (these came in a 4 pack, I didn’t see individual wing nuts).
For the lawnmower grip that is mentioned, I found that over by the lawnmower parts. The only had one type with the brand name “Good Vibrations.” You just need one of them; you’ll cut it to fit the frame.
For the PVC, I picked up a 10 foot piece of PVC (enough to make the rig), a 10-pack bag of 45 degree connectors (you will need 10 of them), and the rest of the connectors. Be sure you pick up “slip” versions of all the connectors; there should be no threads on any of your connectors.
Here is my complete part list. I already had a hacksaw, a tape measure, and a Sharpie.
| Quantity | Item | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3/4″ x 10′ PVC pipe | $2.00 | 10 | 3/4″ 45 degree PVC slip connectors | $5.00 | 2 | 3/4″ PVC tee slip connector | $1.00 | 1 | 3/4″ PVC cross slip connector | $1.00 | 2 | 1/4″ PVC slip End caps | $1.00 | 1 | Good Vibrations Lawnmower Grip | $6.00 | 1 | 4 pack of 1/4 wing nuts | $1.50 | 1 | 5″ 1/4-20 hex-head bolt | $1.50 | 1 | 5 pack of 1/4-20 nuts | $1.00 | 1 | Can of PVC Primer | $5.00 | 1 | Can of PVC Cement | $5.00 | 1 | Can of flat black spray paint (optional) | $5.00 | Grand Total | $35.00 |
