Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
I’ve been using the ColorChecker Video and ColorChecker Passport Video since around the time they were first released a little over four years ago and you can read my review here. But when it comes to inserting them into your workflow, they can be a little confusing for people who’ve never used them before.
In this video, Gerald Undone takes a 26-minute deep-dive into how to colour correct your footage and grade log footage using the ColorChecker Video (and CCPV) in DaVinci Resolve.
If you’re a regular gym-goer, you know that the coronavirus outbreak has had all the gyms closed down. And if you’re anything like me, the lack of physical activity makes you feel sad and nervous. But worry not: Gerald Undone has a perfect solution for stuck-at-home photographers and filmmakers. He has teamed up with a few “camera fitness experts” to bring you a series of exercises that you can do at home with your camera gear. That’s right, your gear won’t only help you keep your creativity in shape, but also your body. So let’s get started.
One would say that shooting portraits with a 400mm or 500mm lens is overkill. Absurd, even. But what shooting portraits at 900mm? Manny Ortiz teamed up with Irene Rudnyk and Gerald Undone to find out. They used a Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens for shooting portraits, and to make things even more absurd, they paired with an APS-C Sony a6400. In other words, they shot portraits at around 900mm equivalent and it looks like they had a lot of fun doing this crazy experiment.
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.
It’s long been thought that when shooting raw, we can basically just ignore the in-camera processing settings. They’re only used if you’re shooting jpg or video, anyway, right? At least, that’s what everybody’s thought for years. Because for the most part it’s been true.
It turns out, though, that on Sony cameras, certain picture profiles do actually change the data that’s saved into your raw files. And in this video, Gerald Undone proves it.
The difference between 4:2:2 and 4:2:0 along with 8-bit vs 10-bit was a hot discussion back when the Panasonic GH5 was announced. It was the first small form factor camera to offer 10-bit 4:2:2 internal, and it confused a lot of people. It still seems to confuse a lot of people, but even if you do understand it, can you even really see a difference between 4:2:2 and 4:2:0?
While only offering 8-bit colour, not 10-bit, Gerald Undone decided to compare 4:2:0 recorded internally on his Sony A7III with external 4:2:2 recorded using the Atomos Ninja V to see if you can really see a difference in the footage. It may not be as significant as you might think.
From the beginning of time, photographers have argued about the crucial stuff such as how to pronounce the word “bokeh.” And from what I’ve heard so far, most of them are pronouncing it wrong. But guess what: there are a few other photography terms that you’re likely saying (or spelling) wrong. In this video, Gerald Undone discusses these and explains how you should pronounce them and why.
When flashes first started to use Guide Numbers, they were a fairly reliable judgement of how one flashes power stacks up against another. But as flash technology has evolved, the humble Guide Number is often exploited as a marketing gimmick to make flashes sound a lot more powerful than they actually are.
In this video, Gerald Undone breaks down the maths behind the Guide Number. He explains exactly how it’s calculated, why it isn’t always an accurate measurement of power, and how you can make sense of it all.
Colour science is a term often thrown around these days, but what does it actually mean? Well, in this context, and one very simplified explanation, it’s how your camera “sees” and processes the colour hitting the sensor, ultimately turning it into the final image it saves out to your memory card.
But what does that mean to the end user? And does it really even matter? In his usual non-stop info-packed way, Gerald Undone deep dives into the topic of colour science in this 13-minute video.
New cameras get a lot of hassle over their autofocus systems. Either it doesn’t have Eye AF, or it isn’t dual pixel or it’s not phase detection. But what do all of these things mean? And I don’t just mean what are the technical differences, but how and why does this matter in the real world? And to whom does it matter?
That’s what this video from Gerald Undone covers, in probably the most unbiased way I’ve ever seen. Autofocus technology is evolving rapidly, and he covers just about all of it. He explains how they work, the pros and cons of each, when the system your camera uses matters and when it probably doesn’t.
You can find out more about John on his website and follow his adventures on YouTube and Facebook.
His videos have over a hundred million views, have been extensively published by news outlets, and has even received recognition from a few film festivals, such as International Ocean Festival
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