Been a little bit since I’ve photographed a new artist for the ‘Wall of Fame’ at sound Bites Grill in Sedona, Arizona.
Had the great pleasure of capturing fabulous guitarist Ottmar Liebert who sold out the house and ended up performing again tonight (Monday) because he was such a popular artist.
Here’s the art piece I assembled using my Photo-Synthesis technique using Adobe Photoshop and multiple images blended together.
Performing live at Sound Bites Ottmar Wall of Fame Photo Art image
Initial image was captured with the Lumix GH4 and the 42.5mm f1.2 Nocticron lens. 1/60 sec 3200 ISO I love the density range that the GH4 can hold even under the LED stage lights. Three additional images were pulled from my files and using Blend Modes, Layers, Fx and Adjustment Layers came up with the final art.
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…
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…
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.
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.
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!
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A High Speed Smart Camera Remote
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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.
