Notes from the Studio
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7|222011
DIY: Overhead Camera Stand
Studio stands are great but when shooting from above, the legs of the stand will get in the way of the shot. Hence, we created one ourselves. We got two 20ft. aluminum squared pipes, three pieces of plywood, two Avenger plates and two tall boys to create a rolling, adjustable studio stand. We still need to tethered the camera to a computer but unfortunately, the firewire cord is not long enough to reach our tower on the ground. Instead, we tethered to a MacBook Pro up high next to the camera and controlled it using Screen Share with our MacPro from below. It worked great. To top it off, Capture One now has an app for the iPad. It's amazing and works well from shooting to viewing to changing camera settings and more.
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8|052010
iPhone 4 photo closeup
Some folks have been asking for a higher res example of the iPhone 4 cover photo. The sample that I posted here was a screen grab from the Zinio version of the magazine. Zinio adds compression to photos to save on spacenot the best way to judge quality of an image, which is certainly of interest in this case.
So here is the full image, followed by closeups of certain details.
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7|292010
Macworld iPhone 4 cover
Ive always thought it would be cool to photograph the cover of Macworld magazine using an iPhone as my camera. When the new iPhone 4 was released with the 5MP camera, the editors at Macworld were excited to see if it could be done. What better way to showcase the phones new camera than to have an iPhone take the photo of the iPhone on the cover?
Normally when I shoot the cover of Macworld Magazine, I use a Phase One P65+ which is a 60 MP digital camera. It has twelve times the megapixel count of an iPhone 4. This was going to be a very challenging task for the iPhone. My goal was to photograph the cover using only the iPhone and any available app for the iPhone (I couldn't use Photoshop on my Mac!)
For the most part, my strategy for photographing the cover didn't change from how I normally would photograph with the Phase One digital camera. I still had my normal set with lots of lights, flags and stands. I did have to change my light source from strobes to tungsten lights because the iPhone can't sync with studio strobes. I did end up making my own camera mount for the phone to go on my tripod (monopod). I hadnt seen one that would do exactly what I needed (even if I did I didnt think it would ship to me in time) so I picked up some parts from the hardware store and rigged one myself.
Normally when I photograph the cover I use my Mac to add the iPhone's screen, clean up dust, scratches and any other imperfections. I wasn't going to have that same control on my iPhone so I had to ensure the photo looked good and close as possible to final in-camera. During the shoot I would send the image files over to the art director at his computer so he could drop the image into layout. We needed to be sure the scale and crop was perfect.
The iPhone's Retina display was truly awesome. I was really able to see the detail in the photo as I was shooting. It made me wish Apple produced all their desktop monitors this way. The final photo was dust-free and looked great. I was extremely impressed with the detail that the iPhone was able to capture. For post production I used two iPhone apps: PhotoForge and Resize-Photo. PhotoForge was used to remove a slight green cast from the photo. Resize-Photo was used to increase the photo from 216 dpi to 290 dpi in order to meet printing requirements. One app that I wish had been available when I was photographing the cover was Camera+ 1.2 with separate touch exposure and touch focus.
Also check out the Editor's Desk inside the magazine where Jason writes about me and my process for creating this month's cover or view online here.
The digital version of the magazine is out now on Zinio. The printed version should be on newsstands soon. See what you think:
http://www.zinio.com/browse/publications/index.jsp?productId=6564920
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7|202010
iPhone 4 goes underwater
Recently my vacations have been very water based. I think my kids might be part fish, they never want to leave the water. We were in Lake Tahoe this past weekend. Usually, my camera gear is stranded on the beach as I spend most of my time in the water. I could get high end underwater gear but this is a vacation not work so I wanted something small and fun. Therefore, I ordered an Aquapac 104 Phone/GPS Case from L.L. Bean ($30) for my iPhone. For the most part, the case worked great. My iPhone didn't get wet or damage. The material that the case is made out of gives a slight softness to the photos and videos, which I didn't mind. At the end of the day, you really need to clean the Aquapac case with soap and water to keep it clear.
When I was out of the water I was able to take photos and video without a problem. Once the camera was in the water I couldn't get the iPhone screen to respond to my touch. I'm not sure if this would happen in warmer water like Hawaii. The water in Lake Tahoe is ice cold. In order to take video I started recording before going under water and that worked fine. I used iMovie on the iPhone to edit the movie. It's amazing that the whole thing can be captured and edited right on the iPhone. Above is a quick movie I made with my kids.
You can see the video on Vimeo or Youtube
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12|092009
Merlin Steadicam test
I've been wanting to try out a Steadicam for my Canon 5D Mark II for awhile now. I wasn't sure which kind to get and the more research I did the more confusing it became. I finally concluded that the Merlin Steadicam was the best fit for what I needed.
I'm a strong believer in renting something before you buy. Everyone that I spoke to said that a Steadicam was something that needed lots of practice and it wasn't something you could rent for the day. I went against my own advice and bought the Merlin Steadicam. When the Steadicam arrived I thought I was going to pull it out of the box and start filming (duh, see above about the warnings regarding practice).I spent most of the day learning to balance the camera. Setting up the camera was much harder than I thought. Once I got things configured I went out and started filming. My assistant Michael and I tested walking, running, panning, and walking on stairs. Things were looking good, but we wanted to test something that combined all the challenges at once. We found a block-long flight of stairs to test on that would work perfectly. We needed something to track as we were testing, so of course I volunteered to ride my bike down the stairs as Michael filmed. I was very impressed with how smoothly things looked considering we didn't have much practice. If this had been filmed without the Steadicam the movie would have been extremely jumpy and unwatchable. The purpose of the movie was really an exercise to see how the Steadicam would perform in a difficult situation with very little training. I was very happy with the results and am excited to see how much better it will look once we REALLY figure things out.You can also watch the video on youtube.com
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11|052009
Halloween
Photographing my kids for Halloween is fun, but isn't without challenges. One of the biggest issues is that it is so dark that the camera can't focus. Another challenge is that the kids move so fastrunning from door to doorthat it's hard to get them in focus! In the past I've used manual focus with a higher aperture which worked okay. I've also used the flash pulse to light up the scene so the camera can focus. This also worked okay, but overall I wasn't that happy with it.
This year I used my Surefire flashlight to light up a scene so the camera could focus and it worked great. What I like about the Surefire flashlight is that the light only stays on while the button on the back is pressed. When I let go of the button the light turns off instantly. This makes it easy and fast to turn the light on just long enough for the camera to focus. It is no surprise that this precision flashlight is what police officers carry.It was convenient to be able to hold the light just under the lens and point it where I needed focus rather then have it mounted on the camera. Without the flashlight the photo above would have been completely out of focus. And for the record, I chose the photo above as an example simply because no faces are visible. I have more interesting shots, but not with usage permission of all the trick or treaters.
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10|262009
Dry Ice
Recently I had a shoot that called for a dreamy, cloudy effect. I decided to use dry ice rather then a smoke machine because dry ice smoke stays lower to the ground, which would highlight the products better. It sure makes a project interesting when you have an uncontrollable, organic element in the photo. At several points most of the floor in my entire studio (not just the set!) was covered with the fogvery surreal.
On the technical side, the dry ice effect doesn't last very long and we had to come up with ways to prolong it. The dry ice becomes especially activated when placed in hot water. At first we used the hot water from the tap and it didn't fog up very high. We found that boiling hot water really made the fog go into overdrive. We rented 3 large coffee carafes and used them to make gallons of boiling hot water. Next time I might even use a 4th carafe. They are power hogs and kept blowing a fuse, so we had to put each one on it's own breaker.
Most of the time we placed the blocks of dry ice in bowls on the floor, which created a really nice, billowing, San Francisco fog look. I found that to give the fog some more shape it helped to pour it out of buckets. The fog looked great but it disappeared fast.
Overall, the dry ice and it's fog doesn't get things wet (hence the name dry ice). But because of the method of keeping it in hot water, sometimes when we poured the smoke from the buckets we also poured a little water on the floor. Luckily the fog covered the floor and the puddles were not visible.
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9|022009
Digital Lens
Now that I'm using the Phase One P65+ I've noticed that my non digital 150 isn't as sharp as it once was. I was using the Schneider APO-Symmar L lens 150/5.6. I've upgraded that to the Schneider APO-Digitar M lens 120/5.6.
I did a very quick test on a flat surface. The digital lens does much better with sharpens and retaining detail in the highlights. I photographed at f-16 rather than the optimal f-8 or f-11. I wanted to test the lens how I would be using it, which is mostly f-16 - f-22.
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8|262009
8 ft. Reflector
Here are some photos from a recent editorial photo shoot. I'm always happy when I get to incorporate my Profoto 8 ft. reflector.
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8|202009
Macworld cover time lapse on YouTube
I've posted the Macworld cover time lapse video on YouTube. It's the same video just another avenue for viewing. The main difference is you can now watch the video from any mobile phone that supports YouTube, such as the iPhone.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqC2xpCaG80&w=560&h=340]
