Meet the Leica CL, an interchangeable lens mirrorless camera with a 24 megapixel APS-C sensor. It uses Leica L mount and sits alongside the Leica TL2. The CL differs from the TL2 by offering an electronic viewfinder and a traditional control layout. Find out what else it’s got going for it in our 90 second ‘First look’ video.
Tag: Video
-
Video Tutorials and Tips for Shooting Blue Hour
Blue hour is a fantastic time to get out and do some night photography. Yes, you read that right – night photography is best done before it’s actually night time.
To help you out with blue hour photography here are three videos with examples and tips.
How to shoot at blue hour with filters
Ray Salisbury takes you on location at blue hour and demonstrates how he scouts a location for the best spot, finds a good composition and uses filters.
Get the timing right for blue hour
In this next video photography education guru Brian Peterson gives you tips for getting the timing just right when shooting blue hour. He’s on location in Las Vegas.
Blue hour photography examples
Finally, Brendan Van Son is shooting blue hour in Leiden, Netherlands. In this video, you can see how the length of blue hour varies greatly depending on your geographic location.
The farther away from the equator you are, the long blue hour will last. Where I live it’s usually about an hour, so it’s frustrating for me that it’s so quick in more tropical locations I like to visit. So you really have to plan ahead and be prepared when that is the case.
I hope that gives you some good blue hour shooting tips. Now get out there and give it a try.
The post Video Tutorials and Tips for Shooting Blue Hour by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.
-
Google explains the Pixel 2’s impressive hybrid video stabilization
Most smartphone cameras, even those with optical image stabilization systems, rely on electronic stabilization only for stabilizing video footage. Google’s new Pixel 2 devices, however, are managing to combine both optical and electronic stabilization for ultra-smooth handheld footage and panning. And a new post on the Google Research Blog explains in quite some detail how the system works.
As you would expect from a software company like Google, advanced algorithms making use of the company’s expertise in the area of machine learning are the key to the solution.
Motion information is collected from the optical stabilizer and the device’s built-in gyroscope. In a next step, the Pixel 2 devices then use a filtering algorithm that pushes video frames into a deferred queue, analyzes them, and uses machine learning to predict where and how the camera is going to move next.
The system can correct for more types of motion than conventional stabilization systems, including wobbling, rolling shutter and even focus hunting. Virtual motion is used to correct for strong variation in sharpness when the device is moved very quickly.
The system might still have scope for improvement, but with a video score of 96, including a very high sub-score of 93 for stabilization, the Pixel 2 is already performing very well in the DxOMark Mobile ranking, and already has us looking forward to future generations of Google’s AI-powered hybrid stabilization system.
For more detail read the original article on the Google Research Blog.
-
Video Tutorials – Tips for Better Street Photography
Street photography is a great way to get out taking pictures, even in your own city. There is always something interesting you can find doing this kind of photography. Here are some videos to help you out with your street photography and taking better photos.
Street Photography for Beginners
In this video, Josh Katz gives some very practical tips on doing street photography including camera settings, and how to find good subjects. Even if you’re not new to street photography there are some good nuggets in here – give it a watch.
10 Simple Street Photography Tips
Here is a video from a photographer from Mumbai, India. You’ll see that his images may be more exotic than your locale, but the 10 tips are applicable wherever you live.
Now it’s your turn to get out there and do some shooting. Both videos mentioned the same tip – that photography is about experimenting, trying things and just doing it.
Happy shooting.
The post Video Tutorials – Tips for Better Street Photography by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.
-
Video: Meet the Panasonic Lumix G9
What happens when a company known for its video-centric hybrid cameras turns its attention to professional stills shooters? The Panasonic G9. Still equipped with high-end video specs like 4K/60p recording, it adds stills-centric features like 20 fps bursts and an 80MP high-resolution mode. Get caught up on everything that’s new in our quick overview video.
-
Video: Shooting with a $63,000 100MP monochrome medium format camera
Ted Forbes—photographer and inspirational educator behind The Art of Photography—recently got a chance to try out the Phase One IQ3 100MP Achromatic digital back, and man did it ever leave an impression. In his short video overview above, he dives into the images he captured with this bayer filter-free, monochromatic medium format beast, explaining why he feels this camera is a true ‘gamechanger.’
If that word triggers your gag reflex, you’re not alone, but Forbes isn’t one to throw hyperbole around and he gives good reason (and plenty of examples) for why he believes this digital back is something special. Pay particular attention to what Forbes is able to do using filters and the sensor’s ability to pick up light outside of the visible spectrum.
Check out the full video above to see the camera in action and dive into some sample images, but don’t forget to watch it at the highest possible resolution YouTube and your monitor can handle. You’ll need every available pixel at your disposal.
-
Positano, Italy will start charging $1,150 fee for commercial photography, $2,300 for video
Photo by JeCCo (CC-BY-4.0) The picturesque seaside Italian city of Positano will soon begin charging photographers a substantial €1,000 (~$ 1,150 USD) fee if they plan to shoot photos for commercial purposes. Videographers, meanwhile, will have to pay €2,000 (~$ 2,300 USD) for commercial work, and Positano authorities are also banning drone use in the city, eliminating aerial projects altogether.
Due to its unique position, Positano attracts a large number of photographers, some working for brands or otherwise capturing content for commercial reasons. According to city mayor Michele De Lucia, per the Italian publication Repubblica, Positano isn’t enacting this fee as a way to make money, but instead to deter the photography sets that can disrupt pedestrians and result in “discomforts and bickering.”
It also lends the city an element of control over who gets to shoot there—”not everyone must be able to tie their own brand to Positano,” explains De Lucia.
Anyone taking photos or recording video for non-commercial purposes is exempt from the fee. The city will also allow photographers and videographers to work in certain circumstances without paying the fee, including for documentaries, TV shows, newspapers, and magazines.
The regulation states that anyone planning to photograph or record will need to submit a request at least 30 days ahead of time to get permission. Requests submitted late will require a 50% surcharge. As far as photography goes, the regulation uses the phrase ‘advertising shooting,’ indicating the fee in primarily targeted at brands and advertising agencies.
-
Video Tips for Better Food Photography
Food photography has become more and more popular. In fact, many restaurants complain that their patrons don’t eat the food before it starts to get cold because they’re too busy taking photos of it for Instagram and Facebook.
Whatever you’re eating, and wherever you’re sharing your food photos – here are some tips to help you take better, more appetizing food shots.
#1 – Lighting tips with Andrew Scrivani
In this video, you will get some really good tips for creating good lighting for food photography. Then see how he applies it in an example photo shoot.
#2 – 5 tips for better food photography composition
Composition is just as important in food photography as lighting. In this video, see 5 different ways to do food composition. Notice his first tip is to use a tripod!
#3 – Tips from a food blogger
Food blogger and author, Izy, has some really practical tips you can use for your food photography in this short video.
Learn about:
- Light: Using natural light for food and diffusion
- Camera angles: Which are the best for food
- Styling: Tips for props and how to make the photo interesting
- Camera settings: What are the optimal settings for food and why
- Editing: Why you want to shoot raw file format
Give those a try when you’re doing your next food photography shoot.
The post Video Tips for Better Food Photography by Darlene Hildebrandt appeared first on Digital Photography School.
-
Sony a7R III UHD 4K sample video clips
The Sony a7R Mark III can shoot UHD 4K video at 24 and 30p using the full width of its image sensor or over-sampled footage using a Super 35 crop. We had a quick moment to shoot sample clips while at a Sony-sponsored shooting event earlier this week in New York City. All the clips were shot hand-held, using the camera’s tracking AF function and the new 24-105mm F4 lens.
The first clip was shot in UHD 4K/24p at the camera’s highest bit rate using the full sensor. You’ll notice the tracking jumps off the subject midway through the clip, only to re-acquire toward the very end. You can download the clip here.
The next clip was shot UHD 4K/30p using the Super 35 crop mode (also hand-held, using tracking). In this mode, the camera shoots using a 5176 x 2924 pixel region and down-samples it to produce highly detailed 3840 x 2160 UHD 4K footage. In theory, this footage should look better than the full frame footage. You can download the clip here.
The final clip above was also shot in UHD 4K/30p, but this time Full Frame for the sake of comparison. You can download it here. We’d expect the difference between the quality of the clips to be exaggerated in lower light, where the Super 35 mode is actually using more of the sensor, even though the full frame mode is taking its footage from a more dispersed area.
For more out-of-camera samples, check out our Sony a7R III sample image gallery.