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Production
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It's all about the pixels
How digital still cameras can improve your videos
Jun 1, 2005
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by Todd Sali
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Still photographs and historical artwork are an essential part of many government video projects. You can’t avoid them, but you can make them a bit more dynamic through cameras moves. Zooms, pans, and tilts go a long way toward making stills more palatable for viewers. And if you have a digital still camera with good resolution, there’s a better way to incorporate photos in your next project — a method that gives you better imagery and more control over camera movements.
I have spent years experimenting with a tool set that can be used for both high resolution animated stills in your edits and for special effects, such as my personal favorite, time-lapse. I combine mid to high-end still digital still camera equipment and post-production computer gear together to make time-lapse movies or bring stills to life.
Why shoot with a still camera for a video project? Consider that Canon digital SLR cameras generate a larger frame size than 1080i. This means you can push in or pan across a still or motion image in HD without losing resolution — and for SD, the resizing options are tremendous. After lots of experimentation, I found a tool set for time-lapse that is light, portable, and affordable (all relative terms, of course).
Workflow For Stills
Most of you probably shoot stills for video the old fashioned way: mount the picture on the wall, shoot it with the video camera for several seconds, then try to do as many camera moves you can think of (pan across, slow zoom out, etc.) so you’re covered in post. But instead of shooting artwork with your SD video camera that only records 720 pixels across, why not shoot it with your digital still camera that shoots 1,500-3,500 pixels across?
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| Historical paintings, such as “Signing of the Constitution” by Thomas P. Rossiter, are a common element in video projects. COURTESY INDEPENDENCE NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK |
Grab your high megapixel camera, shoot your artwork or photos, load the image onto your computer, and import it into Final Cut Pro, After Effects, Motion, or whatever you use for video editing/compositing. I think FCP is perfect for most simple moves, while After Effects and Motion will give you better control, cleaner scaling, and cleaner JPEG handling.
Once the file is imported to FCP, set key frames in the motion tab for scale, center, and rotation to create pushes and pulls, pans and tilts, etc. on the image with enormous control. Color correction should absolutely be applied, as these cameras give you so much more information than SD video that you can coax almost any look out of the images. You will be amazed.
I often add third-party filters, and I particularly like the Digital Film Tools filters to make my stuff sing. Try 55mm, Digital Film Lab, or Composite Suite. The quality is amazing — and they have versions for Photoshop, AE, Motion, and FCP.
Motion Time-lapse
As I mentioned, time-lapse is a bit of an obsession for me, and sort of reminds me of the appeal of fishing — you’re never really sure what you’ll get when you start. With time-lapse, I do a lot of guessing and predicting, and throw my proverbial line out to see what I might catch. Sometimes I catch very little, and other times I’m astounded by the results. After a lot of experimentation, I’ve hooked a system that works really well.
I prefer Canon’s quality image and physical build robustness, plus they offer a huge selection of great lenses that also fit my XL1s. I chose the Canon EOS-1D Mark II for durability and speed. My lens kit includes a 15mm fisheye, a 75-300mm, a 50mm macro, and a 24-70L USM. Lee Filters and a matte box system give me grad ND when needed. The Bogen Manfrotto 475B tripod and 468MGRC4 head are excellent for quick setup in any conceivable position and angle.
Often I’m racing to some luscious vantage point and need to setup quickly before I miss the emerging moment. It’s a great game of prediction with quickly changing light. The tripod is sturdy, too, so wind won’t cause such a jittery final movie as the camera shakes around.
Canon’s TC80N3 is a timer remote that controls your interval. Depending on a number of factors in the shot, I program it to trigger the Canon to shoot one frame every second or up to every three minutes. A typical shot is one frame every four seconds for 250 frames. Fast CF cards from SanDisk hold up to 8 GB, though more affordable ones come in 2 GB and 4 GB capacities.
I shoot in RAW or Large JPEG. The Sandisk Ultra II or Extreme cards are fast enough to allow the EOS-1D Mark II to capture eight frames per second in burst mode and a sustained one frame per second in Large JPEG, which is pretty amazing — the Canon EOS-10D can’t touch this, though the new Canon EOS-20D comes close.
New Extreme III cards from SanDisk have much faster speeds than other cards. This is especially useful when downloading to computer or to a portable storage device in the field. The PSD of preference for me right now is the new Epson P-2000. The screen is amazing and the unit is very solid.
Step 1: Find a good shot, choose your interval, relax and enjoy the view.
Step 2: If the files are RAW, I convert them using Photoshop CS. Otherwise, go to step 3.
Step 3: QuickTime Pro can assemble the frames before bringing into Final Cut Pro, saving many steps. Once QuickTime is launched, choose “import image sequence,” navigate to the first image in the folder, and choose your frame rate when prompted. Save either as reference or standalone file to create your new “camera original.”
Step 4: Import your new file into Final Cut Pro, Motion, or After Effects for animating or outputting to tape. Drop the clip onto an HD or SD timeline and render. You can change the scale and center point to recompose. Try increasing the scale to 50, 75, or 100 percent. With these large images, you can extract several shots in post by choosing a new framing.
I have always used Pinnacle CinéWave hardware to view and output SD and HD, though I now experiment with AJA’s promising Kona2 for SD and HD render and output — it has the cleanest 10 or 12-bit codec, which pays off with 16-bit camera stills. You also need a fast disk array if you want to playback HD. I use the Medéa VideoRaid RT3X and FCR2X.
Step 5: Follow the still method outlined above for animating the clip with keyframes at the beginning and end of the clip. For more precise animation control, I use After Effects 6.5. If I send the timeline from FCP via Automatic Duck, I can keep any Digital Film Tools filters I may have applied in Final Cut.
Other Gear To Consider
I find the screen on the cameras amazing, but not in full sunlight. For work in the field, I prefer an external monitor. The Nebtek NEB 50 PRO has a beautiful screen and works with camera batteries you might already own. The DataVideo TLM-70D boasts a spectacular screen, IEEE-1394 input, sound, and a16:9 aspect ratio if needed.
Hoodman makes great tools for keeping the sun out of the LCD of the camera, external monitor, and the computer. And ThinkTank makes a great modular system for camera and lenses called the Modulus Speed Set.
One gotcha of these cameras is the sensor. It seems to attract dust, and maintenance is key. The brush kit from Visible Dust is a fine option, and a blower must be used religiously when changing lenses.
Much of my work with time-lapse was exhibited last year in an exhibition called LA: Light/Motion/Dreams, and a sample can be seen on my Web site. Good luck and happy fishing!
Todd Sali is president of thesandbox, a production and post boutique in Venice, CA. Contact him at thesandbox@comcast.net.
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