Two fixed lenses in the bag- a lack of options clears the mind.
A friend asked me for a quick headshot, and I casually replied, “sure, no problem”.
Of course I had forgotten- I don’t own any lenses anymore outside of a 50mm & 16mm fisheye….oh, I don’t have any strobes, not even a stand-alone camera flash and it was getting dark outside. Making lemonade from lemons was the task at hand it seemed, so I took it as an opportunity to put the D800 through it’s paces and started looking around for things I could use.
I did have a 3 x 3 x 3’ Lightcube kicking around, and I had a pigtail made up from some recent construction undertaking, with a 100W household lightbulb- there was also some spring clips and paper-tape. So, jerry-rigging the lightbulb with a few clips, and using a t-shirt as a flag to keep the daylight off the back wall, off we went.
We also had a cake-pan that we taped tinfoil to as a bounce-fill.
I was shocked with the results- I was able to shoot F4 @ 125/sec @ 6400 ISO and the image was super-clean.
Very impressed again with the Nikon D800!
And here is a screen grab of a view at 100%.
Here is a test shot from the D800 from today.
What impresses me about this is how much forgiveness there is in the shadow area. I had exposed for the sky / highlight (pictured on the left) and then brought up the shadow area in Adobe RAW. I was blown away by how much detail could be retrieved.
Truly incredible.
Shot from a recent job for ING banking.
Getting this subject to follow instructions was a bit of a lost cause……
Here it is, a new camera in the bag- Nikon D800.
I needed a change, so I purged all of my old lenses and camera and bought a D800 with a 50mm prime.
What appeals to me about this camera is the file size- at 36.3 Megapixels, it rivals a medium format camera, and is a great tool for personal photography.
While I haven’t really tested it out too much, I have had a chance to shoot a few pix, which I will post one in a bit that shows the image quality.
Here it is, a great way to roll in a compact studio or location situation, the Techno-jib 24.
In this shot we are prepping and pre-lighting- the rig shown here was built out like this:
16’ of track, w/ the Techno-jib on it, a two axis remote head, a Red EPIC, a Cabrio 19-90mm lens, a zoom and focus control and a puny prompter above the matte-box.
Shots for this job called for tracking with subjects, jibbing up and arcing away, while panning and tilting- technical goodness.
Loving the Fujinon Cabrio, 19-90mm T2.9.
Used this on a recent job on a Techno-jib 24 (a telescoping crane that extends from 9 feet to 25 feet).
The Cabrio is razor-sharp, lightweight (I believe five pounds) and comes with an ENG style rocker handle, which allows users to zoom in and out with ease & ergonomics.
The Cabrio, at five pounds, is so close to the weight of some primes that I would like to try it on a steadicam some day- no changing lenses speeds things up.
To avoid nine different shadows and to allow myself the opportunity to create my own, intentional shadows, I used a 40 x 40’ light grid cloth on pulleys underneath nine 6k spacelamps for this job. Cyc strips with 216 diffusion were employed to lift the exposure on the walls a bit as the floor always seems to be hotter.
This job called for a soft, sky-light ambience, with a directional semi-hard source, for which I used a T12 Arri and some 10K’s and 5k’s, through light diffusion.
This photo was taken with 360 App for iPhone.
Had the pleasure a while back of checking out the Moviebird cranes put on by PS in Toronto.
Amazing telescoping reach and versatility, with remote heads from Stab-c to Mosys.
This pic shows a some of the extension capabilities, and I assure you the move is smooth.
I did not notice any perceptible noise coming from the unit either, but the space was not whisper quiet as well, so this would have to be verified.
Also, the unit base is fairly compact and the setup time reasonable.
A short spot for Sobey’s.
An example from a recent shoot of the beauty of a hazer / fogger for creating a nice mood for a morning interior feel. Although thin, it is nice to shoot through a diffusion and backlight reads nicely. Flares in the lens were provided from the Gaffer’s flashlight, just out of frame. An 18K with ¼ CTS was used to backlight the scene while two 6K HMI pars were pounding through a trace-papered window off to camera right to provide a key, this was wrapped with a vistabeam inside off to camera right, and another off to camera left provided some light fill and wrap.
The HMI’s (as previously addressed) were powered with Powergems 300HZ ballasts, making it possible to achieve light levels substantial for hi-speed shooting, while not having to melt the set with Tungsten fixtures.
Today’s rig.
The “Nikonflex” of today!
Years ago, I had fantasized about a camera that was small enough to be portable, shot 35mm film of any description (stills or motion stock) could accept small lenses and also be able to work as a stills camera. I dreamt of IMAX quality images from a system that could fit in a nap sack. Not long after that, I happened upon the knowledge of a “Nikonflex”- a Nikon F3, as pictured in this entry, that had been modified by IlM for a sequence in the film “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”.
So I called and spoke to the engineer who had masterminded the camera and eventually became dismayed- it did shoot in Vista-vision style (the film travelling left to right) so a full 35mm (24x36mm) image could be captured, but it wasn’t pin-registered, magazines were hard to come by, film had to be spooled, etc……so a long while passed and I was content with a regular F3, or later FM3A, and didn’t worry about dragging a film camera around.
Today’s shoot reminded me of the Nikonflex dreams I used to have- the next picture/ post shows the RED Epic camera stripped down to a comparable size to the Nikonflex, and a staggering amount of creative choices at one’s fingertips!
Here are a series of shots from a job with Shaw media- I had noted previously about the fantastic quality of light from the Profoto Striplight, and here it is. Makes for a nice catch /eyelight with great wrap and contrast, even when close to the subject. I suppose I like the fall-off factor as well. Just a little pinch of bounce-fill (created some “louvers” (black strips of foam core) to control the amount) and off we went. Again, lovely skin-tones from the IQ 180- 80 MP Phase back on the Hasselblad H4X, with a 80mm Prime.
Photo Umbrella Detail.
From a jaunt down the road today.
Nice earthy tones in the landscape before the snow comes- shot with iPhone cam, processed in Toon Paint and bordered in LineCamera.
A still from a recent shoot for Scotiabank.
Very handy that one can export and R3D (Red Raw file) from RedcineX and then open it in Photoshop, with a RED window for processing the RAW file first!
We see this friend frequently, and stopped today to say hello.
iPhone pic with 645, Photoforge, LineCamera.