Scouting w/ the Panascout app. Cool little app from Panavision which plots the location you shot the pics, aspect ratio configurations, etc… and they kinda make for cool stills.. it has this Polaroid kitsch to it
Caledon Badlands… Music video this weekend.. Stay tuned.
[Click above to view]
Every once in a while when I get into an adventure in my kitchen, I’ll drag out some lights, setup at my kitchen table and photograph stills of my latest creations. The only thing better than shooting or food is probably shooting food.
With the advent of my new 7D I decided I finally had something accessible with high enough quality to start shooting moving pictures with my food.
A few things I’ve noted:
- Might shoot my next spot at 30p. There’s a noticeably strange jitter with 24P panning. My computer is a little slow and the issue becomes noticeably improved once I down rez to the final output but it still seems a little more staccato compared to an HVX200 for example. I might shoot 1/30 shutter also to increase smear, which from conducting tests after I shot this, seems to help a little. Might also try shooting 60p. Other people on some of the forums have been noticing this jitter issue also. There’s a chance it might be improved with Canon’s rumored 7D firmware upgrade coming soon.
Tech specs -
Camera: Canon 7D 24p 1080 1/50 shutter @ 100-160 ISO
Lens: Canon EF 24-70 f/2.8 shot @ 2.8
Edit: Final Cut Pro w/ 3-way color correct.
I’m looking to sell my Nikon D300 Still camera package. I’ve had the camera for about a year and half and it’s seen very light use. I’m selling it to make the switch to Canon for its video use.
The package I’m selling includes:
(1) Nikon D300 body
(1) Nikon MB-D10 battery grip
(1) Nikon 18-135 3.5-5.6 Zoom lens w/ 67mm UV filter + hood
(2) Nikon EN-EL3e batteries
(1) 4gb Lexar CF card
(1) Camera Armor rubber impact protection
(1) Extended warranty on body (5 years total on the body and 5 years on the lens both items starting from purchase date March 2008)
(-) All original boxes + manuals + cables
Package is worth $2500+ at current market value brand new.
Asking Price: $2200. CASH ONLY AND ONLY LOCAL TORONTO SALE.
[CLICK ABOVE FOR VIDEO]
Just did a test shoot shoot with the Nikon D90 for the first time, experimenting with it’s HD video mode. I was asked to shoot some stills for my friend Cathy, who works for Mac Cosmetics, in Toronto, for their trend book for the upcoming season. Customers who walk into their store can see examples of the latest makeup trends for the fall/winter period.
I ended up coordinating and overseeing the shoot, so I could shoot some video, while my sister and her boyfriend shot the actual stills.
The D90 shoots 1280×720 video at 24fps but features no manual control of it’s shutter, ISO or aperture (aperture control if using a manual lens). This lack of control is rather frustrating and even more so because there’s no way to even tell what it’s setting itself to. There’s also a fair amount of compression on the image and you can see stair stepping and banding in certain areas and conditions. Regardless, I’m really impressed with the results considering the context of what the camera is. Under the right conditions and with some care, and especially if your target is the web, it could be a viable option for your project.
The video was shot with mainly a Nikon 50mm 1.4 AFS lens as well as a 18-200 3.5-5.6 VR lens. With the 50mm my process was to set the lens to 5.6, aim the camera at the white ceiling, where light from a softbox was leaking a little, hit AE-Lock and then open or close down the iris to control exposure from there. With the zoom I would AE-Lock onto a brightness that allowed me to get good exposure on what I was shooting, as there is no iris ring on that lens. Those shots are also grainier as it’s dialing in a higher ISO to make up for the lack of speed on that lens.
Overall it’s a really exciting time to see this kind of development with cameras - hits and misses - into something as compact as a DSLR and at the price point they’re selling these kinds of cameras for. This shooting style - short documentary/loose narrative - but with high end/high end looking cameras is something I’m becoming increasingly more interested in.
Thanks to Cliff Ramnauth for letting me borrow the camera for the shoot.
I’ve been doing more shooting with my iphone 3GS. It’s doesn’t even remotely come close, quality wise, to a my DSLR or even a point and shoot but it’s exceptionally convenient to have it part of my cellphone without having to carry an extra device.
What’s been really interesting and rewarding has been using the Auto Stitch App that allows you to stitch together multiple images to create panoramic images. I’ve always been really interested in panoramic images. I remember back in the day flipping through location scout photos, film prints stitched together with scotch tape, before the advent of digital photography and really enjoying the images they made up, imperfections and all.
Panoramic images also solve for me the frustrating aspects I’ve always had with traditional imaging, which is field of view (or lack thereof) and it’s difficulty to represent grandeur, compared to the experience of looking through our own eyes. Human beings naturally experience the world in a panoramic way so it only makes sense that certain settings demand to be shot that way.
I just recently got back from New York City where I was surrounded by constant grandeur and I found myself shooting more and more with my iphone and less with my D300 as the trip progressed.
These are some of the results. All the images were shot with the built in iphone camera (3 megapixel) and stitched together with Auto Stitch in phone. All images are a combination of at least 5 separate images and many feature easily 10+. The images were then copied and pasted into an email and emailed out of the phone. Some basic tweaking of color, contrast and minor sharpening was done in photoshop.
My friend Stacey Kaniuk has just released her EP with 4 amazing tracks. The cover incorporates some photographs I snapped of her last spring.
You can get the CD on iTunes or by clicking here (which gets you the full packaging).
You can also find out more about Stacey and what she’s up to at her website: www.staceykaniuk.com.
After a long and tedious process I’ve finally completed the re-design on my website. As always you can find it at:
Key new highlights include:
- New layout and design for better navigation and organization of content.
- Brand new Showreel for 2009.
- New clips from projects added.
- New i-phone version for those on the go! Just click the iphone link on the main splash page at the site index.
- Updated resume and gearlist.
I’ve also updated my photography site which can be found at:
http://www.barrycheong.com/photography
Please feel free to direct any questions or comments to me at barry@barrycheong.com.
My friend and fellow filmmaker Darrell Faria approached me a while back with this idea for a small personal project that he had. The idea was to shoot a timelapse shot of a banana slowly rotting over the course of a few days. The idea is to use this imagery as a way of speaking about global warming and how in fact something as simple as a banana is being affected, but has no choice in the matter, unlike humans who do. According to Darrell’s research, as well, the typical banana that we know of today aren’t the same as a string of earlier generation banana’s, who were wiped out due to a global change.
The timelapse is being shot with a Nikon D80 tethered to a computer and shots are being stored directly on the hard drive. A Nikon 50mm 1.4 is the lens we’re using. After some calculations I determined that it would be best to shoot 1 shot every 5 minutes for 24hrs a day. Darrell estimated with some earlier tests it will take at least 10 days to get the banana in the blackened state that he’s looking for. Eventually all the images will be strung together and outputted as a DVC-PRO HD file @ 24 FPS for post. There will be digital camera movement and other animation elements in the final with the intended length being 30 sec.
The banana’s are being lit with a workshop fluorescent light with Phillips Colortone 50 tubes which are 5000K tubes with a 96 CRI - unfortunately I couldn’t spare my Kino Flo’s for a whole 10 days or I would have used that instead. Safety and efficiency (we are after all shooting something about global warming!) had to come into play as the setup will be up for so long and often unattended.
The setup. Our hero banana’s sitting on some seamless. You can see the camera sitting on a wood block riser. I built the riser so Darrell could get to the battery compartment to change the batteries. With the camera sitting flush on the head you can’t get to it. In the end the batteries are dying a lot quicker and more frequently then we thought so we just bought a DC supply.
Dare checking last minute things.
Me lining up the shot.
Wanted to plug my friend Stacey Kaniuk’s website, which I had a small part in helping put together, that just launched!
Head over there, take a peek, have a listen and show your support.
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