Ahead of the Amazon Prime Day sales, B&H is offering some big savings on select Sony, Nikon, Canon and Panasonic cameras and lenses, with instant discounts of up to $1,000. We’ve had a look through their current specials to find the best deals with the biggest savings for photographers and filmmakers.
First impressions of the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K
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The Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K attracted me the instant it was announced. I’d been looking at upgrading from my Nikons to something a little better suited to shooting video for a while and on paper it looked like the perfect solution. I’ve been in possession of one for a couple of weeks now, so I wanted to give you some of my initial thoughts about the camera and how I see it fitting into my workflow.
Three cheap and easy tricks to make any location shot look cinematic using water
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Ok, so, the title says “any location shot”, but it’s probably more like any outdoor location shot, when you think about things practically. Sure, you could use these tips indoors, too, although they wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense. But Ted at Indy Mogul talks to Phil Rhodes, writer at American Cinematographer in this video, to chat about water and how it can make a big difference to your shot.
Sleeping photographer captures an exploding meteor while shooting timelapse
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One of the big problems with shooting timelapse, especially at night, is that it can get very boring, really quickly. So, often, astro timelapse photographers will leave their cameras snapping away while they go for a nap. That’s what Matthew Vandeputte did at the end of May while shooting timelapse on a road trip through Utah.
Meteors are quite common to capture at night, along with the usual aircraft, but capturing one exploding is a much rarer event. But that’s exactly what his camera had seen when he reviewed the images.
This is what a gaffer does and why you need one on a film set
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Gaffer is one of those titles that unless you actually become part of the photo or film industry, you’re not really sure what it is. It’s just one of those jobs that scrolls up the titles at the end of a movie along with countless others. But they play a vital role on a film set. They’re the guys who make the light look the way the director or DP wants it while still making it look natural.
In this video from Vanity Fair, gaffer Andy Day, who’s worked on movies such as Creed II, The Bourne Legacy and Salt, shows us what happens when you shoot a scene without having a gaffer on set. And while the video is geared specifically towards the movies, the same holds true of photography.
If you shoot through prisms and own a 3D printer, you’ll want to make this
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Shooting through prisms and glass or crystals of all kinds of shapes has become quite popular over the past couple of years. Lensbaby even put out an entire new system recently based on them. But the humble triangular prism is still the most used amongst many photographers who shoot through them.
How long this particular trend will last or whether it’s here to stay, only time will tell. But for right now, for those who use them, they can be awkward to shoot with. They’re smooth and difficult to manipulate in front of your camera. So, photographer and engineer Bhautik Joshi decided to do something about it. He designed a 3D printable holder for them.
Watch this gimbal starter guide to get you shooting cinematic video quickly
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Gimbals can be wonderful filmmaking tools, and they’re ideal for adding interesting movement to your shot with the minimum of fuss. But they’re not always easy to get to grips with instantly. To get the best out of them, you need to practice and experiment. If you’re very new, though, just searching on YouTube for gimbal tutorials can get overwhelming. Many of them cover advanced techniques without really showing you the basics.
In this video, Jason Vong goes through some gimbal basics to get you shooting cinematic footage as quickly as possible. And he not only talks about the techniques he uses but also his lens choice to get the most impact.
Nikon D6 rumoured to have in-body image stabilisation and be released in early 2020
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This will be an interesting move for Nikon if it turns out to be true, but the word is that the Nikon D6 is going to have in-body image stabilisation. Nikon Rumors first reported on this potential future feature back in April, but now they say that they’ve received a few more specs and interesting bits of information.
Here’s how you can edit Blackmagic RAW footage in Adobe Premiere Pro CC
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When the news that Blackmagic were replacing CinemaDNG with their own Blackmagic RAW format, there was a mixed reaction. It’s Blackmagic’s own format, offering a lot of benefits over similar formats when it comes to speed, file size and efficiency. But it’s only officially supported by Blackmagic’s own DaVinci Resolve editing and grading software.
Fortunately, though, Blackmagic released the new format with an API that allows 3rd parties to integrate BRAW compatibility into their software. Adobe hasn’t picked up that gauntlet yet, but the developers at Autokroma have. Their BRAW Studio plugin allows you to use BRAW footage easily within Premiere Pro. In this video, Gerald Undone shows us how it works.
If you can’t beat ’em, copy ’em – Yongnuo announces YN200 portable strobe
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Yongnuo has just announced their new YN200 “Speedlite”. Following their tradition of making products that are highly “inspired” by other products made by other companies, this one looks almost exactly like the Godox AD200 – although with some slight differences.
The two main external differences are that the bare bulb appears to be fixed, rather than an interchangeable head like the AD200, and it has a very different looking battery pack which looks like it takes up almost half of the whole rear of the unit.
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