Notes from the Field

So I had to do it, with my tail between my legs, I broke down and had to convert my native Canon 5D Mark II footage. This is not something that I wanted to do, but something that I had to do. As a photographer, I work at the highest resolution, bit depth and never worry about the number of layers in project, because I do not want to compromise my work for speed or convenience.

This is something you can do as photographer, but not something you can get away with as a video editor. You computer is rendered to a useless piece of metal when you are editing video, all of it’s weaknesses and flaws show up and you feel empty as you watch yet another progress bar crawl across the screen.

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It bums me out that this year will be the first year that I miss Photoshop World. My schedule does not allow me to make it down south to Las Vegas this year, but I wanted to share a few tips for those of you who are going for your first time to Photoshop World or to Las Vegas itself. I personally make the trip to Vegas over a half dozen times a year for work, so I know a few secrets about where to go and how to get around America’s Playground.

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So I received some emails and comments on my post yesterday about using PluralEyes on my Canon 5D Mark II project that I am working on with Syl Arena. I wanted to take a quick moment and update some information on that post and pass on some links to you.

Bruce Sharpe, who is the CEO of Singular Software, the maker of PluralEyes, let me know that some of the issues I had with version 1.0 of the software had been fixed in the version 1.1, currently in beta. The biggest fix is the ability to use PluralEyes on clips with in and out points. I have not had a chance to test this myself, but I did want to pass on this updated information. I will do a test and let you know how it goes in a future post.

Bruce also has a blog called the 25 Hour Day. It is worth a read, since he has many tutorials and video clips on using PluralEyes. Two posts stand out, one on syncing audio from a external recording device and multiclip editing in Final Cut Pro.

Thanks for all the emails and comments.

M.D.

It has been a few weeks since I last talked about shooting video on the Canon 5D Mark II. I have been putting off this post due to the fact I have been working on editing the footage that I shot of Syl Arena for the Speedliters Guide DVD that he and I are working on.

I knew when I was starting on this project that I would have to change the way I worked with video, compared to working with DVCAM and HDV formats that I was used to working on. First was the shift from tape to a solid-state media, which means I no longer have a tape backup of my footage that I have shot. Since I am not capturing off of tape, I need all that footage on the CF cards put on the computer, so I need more hard drive space. But what I found was that the tape issue would not be close to the biggest problem I would run into.

The second and biggest issue that I have run into is the syncing of the audio and separate cameras that we used in shooting this project. At most times, I had two, and sometimes three 5D’s recording at the same time. No matter what type of video format your are recording to, the more cameras you are using, the more problems you may have when you are working post and editing your footage. This is where the 5D shows it’s amateur side of recording video. Every other type of video camera lays down time code, so you can keep track of when events happen and also help with capturing footage. The other plus is you can set the time code to keep running, even when you are not recording. This allows for multiple cameras to be set to the same time code, so you can switch between multiple camera angles with little problems. Since the 5D has no time code, you can sync up cameras as easy as normal video cameras. In fact it very hard to sync up multiple cameras.

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I jump between two roles in my day-to-day life, a creative professional and an instructor/teacher. One thing I have learned from both roles is the importance of learning and what it can do for my productivity and creativity. While the economy is not doing that well, there is great value in the market for workshops, DVDs, and training. If you are looking to add to your current skill set or looking to start a new career, you are in luck.

This fall offers a ton of options for your educational needs. To start with, you have Photoshop World in Las Vegas on October 1st-3rd. This is must have for the person who is either wanting to learn all things Adobe, specifically Photoshop and Lightroom, but also the photographer/designer learning everything her or she needs to conquer the digital realm. There are also great sessions on print, web and video design, perfect to cover all your bases in training.

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