rocky nook boo sale

I initially meant to name this post Rocky Nook E-Book Sale but I had a misspelling but I thought it would work since this is a Halloween sale with 40% off all E-Books through November 5th… Get in while the gettin’ is good!

rocky nook book sale

E books 40% off

I enjoy the quality of Rocky Nook Books.

Yours in Creative Photography,     Bob

PS – If you’ve read this far you get a bonus!! Rooky Nook just put out a Free E-Book on Flash terminology Download Here

4K video music

Make one camera do the job of two or three. I’ve been thinking about this possibility for a while. And now I’ve figured some of it out.

In this test i’ve captured a couple of my favorite musicians performing at our local restaurant. It’s the Millers on guitar. Robin Miller the father and Eric Miller the son. You can hear the magic as you can see they ‘get’ each other. Almost as if they can read each others musical mind. This song was written by Robin. I think the title is Change in the Weather. It’s a crowd pleasing winner of a song.

Because we now have the ability to shoot in 4K during capture we have a video that’s four times the size of 1080p. What this enables is moving around inside the frame which means we can create Ken Burns movement effects and zoom in for close-ups in different areas of the frame. It’s like having the look of several cameras from a single camera position.

The video below was captured with the Lumix GX8 and the 12-35mm f2.8 lens in 4K. Please don’t worry too much about the color as I shot this on the spur-of-the-moment hand-held while hanging out. The video was processed in Adobe Premiere Pro 2015.

Robin & Eric Miller live in Sedona, Arizona
adobe premiere Pro timeline
Timeline from Adobe Premiere Pro. I copied the video layer two times and used one of the layers as close up of Robin and the second copy as Eric. The bottom layer was the two of them and the overall stage.
 

If another camera was added with a different lens you could rove the room getting even more angles and tight detail shots for a full production look to the video. This just practice and play to learn new techniques.

By the way, I would also have better sound in a real production. Sound for this video was captured on the fly by the camera with a little tweaking in Premiere… and it ain’t too bad!

Creative possibilities abound in this new 4K world. What are you doing with it?? Let me know…

Yours in Creative Photography (& video),          Bob

baseball world series

As any who know me can attest I’m not too much of a sports fan. I like to see a good football game no matter who is playing. I’ll root for my home team but I’m not rabid about it at all. Basketball I wanna see a well played game. If it weren’t for the fights I’d be a hockey fan. But baseball? Not so much.

But I was in a local elbow bending establishment and ‘lo and behold’ the World Series was on. And just show I’m not totally prejudiced I gave the game a passing nod.

I even gave it one of my highest complements. I took a picture.

beer and baseball

OK maybe I was taking a picture of my beer and the TV happened to be in the background. But that counts right?

Just a reminder that the Lumix G7 camera has 4KPHOTO Mode so you’ll never miss World Series type moments in your photo capture!

To all the true baseball fans I wish you the best and I hope your team wins!

Yours in Creative Photography,        Bob

PS – All right. I confess. I had to make two images and combine them or you would never have known that was baseball on the tube in the background.

people infrared photos part dos

The marriage theme continues from the Dia de Muertos (Day of the Dead) celebration at Tlaquepaque in Sedona. (see part uno)

This couple was having a blast dancing with Mexican musicians providing music. They stopped and graciously posed for people as they wandered through the event. I asked if they wouldn’t mind posing for me where I could make the Infrared capture shine with deciduous trees as part of the background. Up the stairs we went…

day of the dead infrared photo

Asking the couple to move to a different background made all the difference compared to just asking them to pose in among the crowd.

I’m still taking multiple exposures to make sure I still have detail in the highlights and the shadows, dark skies and bright leaves then process the files by blending them with Layers and Masks in Adobe Photoshop. This was a simple blend with the darker Layer on top I made a Feathered oval Selection using the Marquee Tool and Refine Edge. This allows you to see and tweak the results before applying the Mask. Even with the Bracketing I did end up loosing detail in the bride’s hair on the sunny side.

chapel at tlaquepaque

The wedding theme continued at the Chapel that was set for a Day of the Dead wedding.

As you might see I am really enjoying using the Lumix G6 that has been converted to Infrared by Life Pixel. I choose the standard (750nm) filter for my conversion because I wanted to get the traditional IR look exactly as I’d like it.

Yours in Creative Photography,     Bob

people infrared photography

Obviously infrared imaging is not for people photography. Dead eyes. Super high contrast. Blown out highlights. Definitely not for people… Unless you are doing something artsy with the scene being most important and people are a relatively small element in the overall image OR you are at a Dia de Muertos (Day of the Dead) Celebration.

And, I just happened to attend one at Tlaquepaque in Sedona on Saturday and found a few people in costume and face paint to pose for me.

tlaqueqpaque day of the dead photo

Had a lovely ‘Day of the Dead’ model join me for a quick photo session in a back lit alcove.

tlaquepaque day of the dead celebration photo

Paper mache Caterina on the fountain. Seems like it was a day for brides as I worked…

If you are unfamiliar with the Day of the Dead celebration it is a Mexican Holiday when families get together and morn and celebrate the passing of loved ones. The celebration is to help those who have passed to move on in their journey beyond.

Images captured with the Lumix G6 and 20mm f1.7 pancake lens. Converted to IR by Life Pixel. I had the

Proper tool for the job. I think infrared works for this situation. How about you??

Yours in Creative Photography,        Bob

PS – More tomorrow…