Tag Archives: dog

The Making of Tawny: A Day in the Life

23 Tuesday Jul 2013

Posted by in Shooting

≈ Comments Off on The Making of Tawny: A Day in the Life

Tags

, , , , , , ,

Yesterday, I posted my first video project in a while, “Tawny: A Day in the Life.”

For this project, I went for a very understated documentary feel. The intent was to get a chuckle from my audience based on the old cliché’s of a “dog’s life.”

How did I do this? Well my shooting was focused on two areas; first, shoot Tawny lounging around a lot, second, catch the main events of her day. Shooting her lounging, I put the camera as close to her as possible with the lens set very wide. Fortunately, she tolerated the camcorder in close to her like that better than she does my still camera. I think this is primarily due to the articulating LCD on the camcorder, which means I don’t need to get all the way down on her level. When I get on her level, she thinks that’s an invitation to play, not to continue what she’s doing and let me photograph her.

For the “big events,” I tried to retain a similar look by lowering the camera to her level and walking along with her. I used my camera’s “dynamic image stabilization” to keep this footage reasonably steady.

When I got around to editing and post processing it was time for Adobe’s new Creative Cloud to shine. I am a new subscriber to this controversial new service. On principle, I’m not really a fan of subscribing to my software. From a practical standpoint however, I think it will all work out essentially the same with some advantages.

First, I ingested all of my footage using Prelude. This appears to be a great program that I did not use to anywhere near its full potential due to my lack of experience. Unfortunately, it looks like it will take a little more work than I hoped for stock footage that I shoot often. The potential for specific projects is huge.

Next I did the bulk of the editing in Premiere Pro. I have experience with this program, but I must say I like the new version. Things seem to work faster and the default work space has much bigger preview screens. While doing this, I created my intro and outro title screens in After Effects. These were so simple however, that I couldn’t really get a feel for any changes in this amazing software package.

Finally, for grading I applied one of the desaturate lumetri looks that came with the software. Then I applied a Luma corrector to most of the interior shots, to get a contrast level that looked right with the exteriors. This “look” was precisely what I wanted for this project, but it’s going to be fun to mess with Speed Grade to create unique looks for me. I have something in mind particularly for aviation videos.

Take a look at some of my other videos.

Portraits and Reflectors

13 Friday Jan 2012

Posted by in Shooting

≈ Comments Off on Portraits and Reflectors

Tags

, , , , ,

Wanted to write a bit to you about one of my favorite lighting accessories; the Lastolite 8:1 TriGrip Reflector. The gallery photos in this entry were made using only the sun and one TriGrip.

It’s fairly simple to use, although it usually does require an assistant. I bought the one with the various “skins” you can put over it to control the light, although it’s now available in a deluxe kit with stand and all and I do not have that one. I’m not sure whether it wasn’t available then, or I decided against it for some reason.

Anyhow, my favorite way to use it is to place the subject such that they are side or backlit by the sun, with the sun definitely not shining in their eyes and then fill with the reflection from the TriGrip. It’s helpful to know the angle of incidence equals angle of reflection thing to speed the aiming, but essentially, you can watch where the big bright spot of light falls. The first time you use one of these outdoors, I’m pretty sure you’ll be surprised how efficient it is. I know what really surprised me is how much difference it still makes when the sun is cloaked by clouds.

One little detail I learned the day I photographed the young man studying the raspberries (more on that in the next paragraph) is that I usually like to keep the assistant with the TriGrip close to me. If the reflection is coming from close to the camera it prevents the two light source look.

Now a little story about all the images but the one of the dog, my Labrador, Tawny. In the interest of getting some stock images I arranged with a then graduate student I knew to photograph him gathering data for his thesis. He was researching black raspberries for his thesis, so these images could cross over several keyword categories people might use in a search; science, student, agriculture. However, how I originally met this guy, Michael Dossett, gave another dimension to the shoot. He is also a photographer and we met because one day we happened to be photographing ducks in the same spot. This meant that Michael knew precisely what I needed. It was like working with a professional model as far as his knowledge of what would look good. In addition, he was able to provide additional guidance to my assistant in aiming the TriGrip.

Michael is an excellent photographer, I suggest you give him a look at http://www.mdossettphoto.com/.

Holiday Pet Portraits

28 Friday Oct 2011

Posted by in Shooting

≈ Comments Off on Holiday Pet Portraits

Tags

, , , , , , ,

I know it may be a bit early for a tip like this, but the tips I’m going to give will work with any holiday.

Step one is to find accessories for your pet that you feel fairly certain the pet will tolerate. Here I chose two different collars, one was jingle bells and the other looks like a wreath.

Second get one of your pet’s favorite treats to place them where you’d like them and get them to look where you’d like. In this case, we used hard boiled eggs. Tawny loves eggs of any type and recognizes the word too, just like me. You will need a handler to help you with this. I actually used two, one to get the dog where I needed her and the other to aim the light.

Speaking of the light, I used a speedlight in a Lastolite softbox. Try to place it as close to the pet as possible for maximum softness to the light.

Third, place the pet so that there are some holiday specific items in front of and/or behind the pet. I usually have these items slightly out of focus, but still recognizable. Balance the flash exposure with the ambient such that you can see the holiday items, but the focus is on the pet.

Finally, in post processing, process like you would most portraits. Make sure to use a vignette to further emphasize the pet.