Had another Tech Talk Show with Mike Tabback on KAZM Radio here in Sedona. We talked about the newest capabilities of the the Panasonic Lumix cameras to choose the focus of an image after you have made the exposure. (previous post here) In addition to choosing your Depth of Field after the fact you can create more Depth of Field using Adobe Photoshop to Layer Stack for hyper-focus.
The Post focus feature is available on the Lumix cameras – GX8, G7 and FZ300 (not pictured) cameras.
Back to our regularly scheduled programming for this space.
Had my Lumix LX100 an energetic little point and shoot with me when I went out for a meal with my wife. I try not to get too carried away with my camera gear when we are out for a pleasurable meal so I just bring the little guy for the occasional frame grab when something grabs my attention. So when the entertainer went on break I noticed the lighting on the mic and stage and thought “There’s a pretty cool scene…”
Sound Bites Grill stage waiting for the return of the guitarist.
This is a pretty powerful little camera which I have dubbed, “the professionals point & shoot”, with all the pro settings available outside the electronic menus on easy to use dials. I set this for Aperture Priority and knocked the the Exposure compensation down about one stop to preserve the highlights. Brought the shadows back up a bit when processing in Adobe Camera RAW. Shooting at 3200 ISO gave a bit of noise in the shadows so I used NIK Define 2 to knock out the noise. Make a square crop and Viola…
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
PS – I was at a client restaurant for dinner and entertainment and will gift them this image and a couple others to use for some marketing. Solid long time client!
Here’s one of the radio shows I do monthly on KAZM Radio with Mike Taback. We’re talking teaching photography and how people learn about photography, how I teach and two new Lumix cameras GX8 and the G7.
Time lapse videos are very popular these days and they are now easier to create than ever…
I took new Lumix G7 out for a time-lapse spin. The clouds were streaming over the red rocks with an azure blue sky as an accent. Camera was mounted with the Lumix Vario 12-35mm f2.8. Settings were – time lapse with a three second interval. There were 149 images captured. Inside track note – to save wear and tear on the camera’s shutter you can use the electronic shutter vs the mechanical shutter.
Then it’s to the playback menu on the G7. The Time Lapse setting allows you to choose quality and frame rate for the processing of the video. I choose 4K Video & twelve FPS for this video which came out to be about twelve seconds of finished. The camera tells you how long it will take to render and asks you if you would like it to process or not. When you say yes, a few minutes later there’s a video saved to your card (one note – make sure you have large cards time lapse and the video take up some card real estate)
The next piece of the puzzle is the appearance of camera movement while the Time Lapse is being made. That’s why I choose the 4K Quality setting when rendering the Time Lapse to a movie. I took the resulting movie file straight from the camera and put it int Adobe Premiere on a 1080 timeline. Since the video is four times the size of 1080 there is room to use a Ken Burns type effect to show camera movement. Love the possibilities this brings to mind!!
Thirty second G7 time lapse in the Village of Oak Creek in Sedona, Arizona
It’s pretty cool when you see others appreciate the tools with which you are working. Consumer Reports Holiday Gift Guide put the G7 on the list as one of the Top Products of the Year for gadgets and gifts.
G7 is listed as on of the Top Products of the Year
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
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…
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.
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.
For infrared conversion of my cameras I use LifePixel. Infrared allows you to put an older camera to use and opens up a new time time of day for productive image creation.
Fotopro tripods are well worth checking out. You can learn about the ones I use and recommend by clicking on the Fotopro Tripods link at the top of this page. If you want to see what other tripods might fit your needs check out the Fotopro.com website. Check back with me before you buy as a Fotopro Ambassador I’m able to get you discounted pricing including complementary continental USA shipping for my followers that you won’t find through retail outlets.
Learn Photoshop in a fun environment. Aaron Nace applies the right amount of fun with easy to understand and follow tutorials. Actions and brushes are included with lessons!
Lightning, waterdroplets, sound, time-lapse, HDR sequences, smiles and much more control for your camera!
Cameras Get Smarter -
A High Speed Smart Camera Remote
Best embroidery ever. Give Queensboro a try, get a $20 instant credit to get started by clicking on the logo! They specialize in great quality custom logo apparel and promotional products with the best customer service.
Platypod has become a great resource for being creative in getting your camera gear easily into unusual places. As an Platypod Pro I get to work/play with the gear even before it comes out. Head over to Platypod, subscribe to the newsletter and you will get special discounts reserved only for subscribers.
