I’m sure you noticed something new with my Lassen posts.
Video!
Yeah. I’ve only had the GH3 for 5 years and this is the first you’ve seen video from me.
Crazy, right? I agree.
So what was the hold up?
Well, it was a combination of two things. First was remembering that I had video capability. The Panasonic is the first camera I’ve owned that could do it. After 30 years of being a stills photographer, the idea of video is just kind of alien. I needed to make a habit of using the video function and that was that. Practice, practice, practice.
But then what? I’m a decent photo editor, but a video editor? That was daunting. Very. All the different terms and parameters. Did I need a special keyboard? What the hell is gamma? What the hell is gain? 720p? 1080p? Frame rates? OMG. The learning curve!
But I got over myself and decided to try. First I had to learn a bit about what the GH3 could deliver in terms of quality. High definition, but not 4K which is fine because my laptop doesn’t support 4K anyway. I dug out my manual and read it. Fancy that. I really need to keep a copy on my phone.
After some research I decided to go with Lightworks for my editing software rather than the native Microsoft app that came with my computer. It has a free version and it is ROBUST. Does more stuff than I can possibly use, but the basics are all there and if I want to get fancier as I gain experience, I won’t have to switch to another piece of software.
This is one of the very first multi-clip sequences I put together.
My first few forays were single clips and then eventually two clips together. Thanks to finding helpful tutorials on YouTube, I learned about titles and dissolves. Managing audio volumes and fading it in and out at the beginning and the end. I learned how to save FX templates and about color management. I took a lot of notes. I’m still very much a novice, but I’m not ashamed of what I’ve put together so far.
Here’s a few from a recent outing to Marinette county to look at some of their lovely falls. I think there’s an improvement in just the few hours of seat time between the Flambeau river video and these.
See the difference already? And I know more about titles now and how to use them more uniformly and effectively.
Does it look cold? It was, but the conditions were good for this kind of thing. Yay for chemical hand warmers!
But it doesn’t mean I won’t still shoot falls in my usual ways.
I think there’s room for both in my waterfall work and in my photography life. But is there room in my hard drive? 😲
