EasyRelease for iPad

The iPad has quickly become an integral part of our business. We blogged earlier on how we use the ipad with an Eye-Fi card which allows us to review images in real-time during a shoot. Talent, crew and clients have all commented on how much they appreciate being able to review images while they're being taken. It's become a very valuable photography tool for us.

The iPad has taken on a new role in our business now by helping with model releases. A new app for iPad called "Easy Release" makes the process a no-brainer by allowing us to create, manage and send model or property release forms, all from the iPad.

I'm notorious for packing the gear I need, but completely forgetting the correct paperwork. I have model and release forms posted to my website for download but that relies on the talent to take the initiative and fill it out. An on-site solution is ideal for me and Easy Release by Application Gap fits the bill perfectly.

On first launch, you can enter all of your default information such as photographer names and contact info. You can even attach a company logo for customization.  Once this information is stored, you never have to enter it again.  When it's time to create a release, the app walks you through, step-by-step, as you collect the shoot info, model info, and witness info.  Once all the data is entered you can turn the device sideways and have each stakeholder sign the release by using their finger.  You can even use the built-in camera of the device to capture a reference image of your talent. Once everything is completed and signed you can send a copy to everyone instantly.  Both you and the model will have a completed and signed form waiting in your email by the time you get home.

Easy Release has an impressive list of features compared to it's competitors and a very reasonable purchase price.  Application Gap also advertises versions for iPhone and Android devices as well.

Young Executive

This weekend we organized a test shoot with a fantastic model by the name of Eric Stackpole to try out some new corporate looks.  A "test shoot" allows us the chance to work with new talent and try out some concepts without jeopardizing a client project.

For this shoot we were trying to capture the unique qualities of a Silicon Valley tech company.  The Bay Area has a unique style of business when compared to other metropolitan areas and we wanted to capture that style.  The Bay Area, a hot spot for technology game-changers like Apple, Twitter, and Facebook, has a very casual approach to business.

Eric is a great example of today's high-tech workforce - young, creative, and smart - and he did a great job by giving us the energy of a young entrepreneur.  HP was gracious enough to allow us to shoot in the lobby of their newly acquired Palm building in Sunnyvale which was the perfect venue for a high-tech, corporate look.

See the whole set on our Flickr page.

Neutral Density Filters

Here's a great tip.  Have you ever found yourself wanting to shoot with your lens wide open so that you get that dreamy Bokhe effect but the sun is so bright you have to stop your lens down?  This is the perfect time to break out a neutral density filter kit.  These filters attach to the front of your lens and reduce amount of light that enters your camera which allows you to shoot with a larger aperture.  If you're metering through your lens then you don't have to change a thing, simply screw the filter on your lens and enjoy an extra 1-3 stops.  If you use an external or handheld meter than don't forget to compensate your exposure depending on the filter you're using.

Time-Lapse Workflow

Shooting time-lapse footage is a lot of fun and a great way to compress time into short video clips but it's not without it's challenges.  We've spent a lot of time shooting time-lapse and made plenty of mistakes in the process. For example, it took three separate trips to the Christmas in the Park event to get the footage you see above.  To get the best possible quality from our footage we also tried four different workflow methods to finally find the best solution.  If you're interested in shooting time-lapse footage, here are our recommendations on getting the best quality out of your workflow.

THE BASICS
If you're new to time-lapse we suggest you head over to our friends at Photojojo who've created a nice guide to get you started.  Once you're comfortable with the basic steps needed to shoot a time-lapse and you've purchased your Intervalometer, we've created a time chart to help you determine your interval time.  The next step is to determine your image format.

CAPTURE FORMAT

Determining your image capture format can be a tricky decision because your image format may affect your interval time.  We ran into this problem quite a few times with frustrating results.  Your choices are basically RAW or JPG.  We always prefer to shoot RAW because it gives us the full resolution of our sensor which in turn gives us the greater quality final image.  The problem with RAW however is that some cameras cannot process a RAW file quickly enough to allow a 2 second interval time for example.  We found that our Canon 1Ds could only shoot 1 RAW image every 4 seconds without filling the buffer.  Remember we need to shoot 100's of frames to create one 24fps video clip so if your camera buffer fills up after 24 frames then you won't be able to complete your entire sequence.  RAW files are also much larger and will quickly fill your storage card which cause a lot of headaches. We choose not to shoot JPG, even though our camera will process a JPG image much faster and the file sizes are significantly smaller, because it doesn't give us the quality or latitude in post-production.  A JPG image is rendered in-camera and cannot be adjusted later without degrading the image.  We found the perfect solution in the sRAW format.  sRAW is a relatively new image format which is based on RAW.  The file is identical to RAW only 1/4 the resolution and 1/2 the file size.  To produce 1080p time-lapse videos, sRAW is the way to go!


DETERMINING EXPOSURE
This step is the most crucial and most difficult step of the entire process.  Because of the fact that a time-lapse sequence takes place over a certain duration of time, you will have to deal with the fact that your ambient light and color will change.  What you're trying to do here is reduce the amount of flicker you get when you assemble your footage.  If your camera settings change (even slightly) during the image capture, you'll get a really annoying flicker effect when you playback the video sequence.  The first thing we recommend using is a custom white balance.  Pull out your neutral gray or white card and take the time to create a custom white balance for your sequence.  This is even more important for night sequences.  We found the WB presets in Canon cameras to really suck at night so we always use a custom WB setting when shooting at night.  Setting your exposure will be a creative choice so while we can't help you determine your exposure, we can give you some tips.

1. We suggest setting your camera to Manual mode but if you choose to use an automatic meter, use Aperture priority so that the camera changes shutter speed and not your aperture.
2. If you can tie your spot meter mode to your auto-focus point, do it!  Then set your AF point to a fixed position of your scene that the camera can meter on without too much interference.  This will hopefully provide a consistent exposure and not have your exposure jumping around to much during the sequence.
3. When shooting at night be sure to shield your eyepiece from any stray light that might enter from say your LCD monitor.  This stray light can throw off your meter reading slightly and give you a wrong exposure setting.

Our last tip has to do with focus.  ALWAYS set your camera to shoot in manual focus.  This is the first thing that will severely screw up your sequence as your images have a different focus point from image to image.  Remember the MOST important thing to keep in mind is to create a consistent environment that changes as little as possible from shot to shot.  

POST PROCESSING
Here's another area where we learned quite a bit from trial and error.  Again, our goal was the absolute BEST quality output we could get published to Vimeo.com.  There are a lot of moving pieces and a lot of little decisions that play a part in the final output quality.  On one side of the spectrum you could easily shoot a sequence of JPG's, assemble them in Quicktime 7 Pro and export them using a simple preset and be perfectly happy with the results.  To get the best quality output however takes a little more work.  Our workflow goes something like this:

1. Import sRAW files into Lightroom for processing.  This step can be optional, but we find that processing RAW is easier in Lightroom than in Camera RAW.
2. Import the original RAW files into Adobe After Effects as an "image sequence".  When you do this, you will be shown the Camera RAW interface where you can choose to adjust your images using the standard RAW adjustment controls.  If you previously edited the images in Lightroom, you will see your adjustments in the Camera RAW dialog. Once you are done with the Camera RAW adjustments the images, After Effects will automatically assemble them into one "camera raw sequence".
3. Use After Effects to apply any motion, titles, or effects to your sequence.  We like to add music to our clips and we'll be honest, After Effects sucks at this!  We've tried to export our edited sequences into other programs that better handle music tracks and would always loose quality no matter what setting we used so we just live with After Effects and suffer through it.
4. Export your final composition using the following guidelines from Vimeo.  If you're using another site to host your video you should google what their compression guidelines are.  If you can't find their guidelines posted than switch to Vimeo!

The best advice we can give here is to keep working with your source files in the same application if possible.  Every time you have to export/import footage or convert footage to a different format you loose quality.  Keep your source footage as high resolution as possible during the workflow and only compress or convert it at the very last stage.  After Effects was the best application we found for their video compression algorithms.  We've heard good things about using Quicktime 7 Pro for compression as well.  

MORE RESOURCES

We hope you've learned a thing or two from our real-world failures and wasted hours of experimentation.  If you're looking for more information here are some resources that can help.

• LookyCreative - The Complete Timelapse Post-production Workflow
• Timescapes.org - Forum

Time-Lapse Time Table

It's no secret that we like shooting time-lapse footage.  It's a great way to compress time and show things that you couldn't ordinarily see with the naked eye.  Shooting time-lapse however can be an excruciating experience.  You need to anticipate what your scene will look over the course of several hours, then you need to dial in your manual settings before shooting your sequence.  If your shutter speed, aperture, white balance, or interval length are off slightly you probably won't get another chance to shoot the sequence that day.

In order to help us plan our time-lapse sequences we put together a quick table which helps us determine how many frames to shoot, the interval duration between shots and how long we need to plan on shooting to get enough frames to make a video clip.

There are two charts, one with a 5 sec final video clip length and one with a 10 sec final clip length.  Both charts make the assumption that your final video clip will run at 24 frames per second.

Your Shoot Interval will be a creative decision.  For fast moving scenes like people walking or clouds moving you should shoot with a faster interval like 2-5 seconds.  For slow moving scenes like weather patterns or plants growing you should shoot a slower interval.

To use the charts, first decide what your shoot interval will be.  Then set your intervelometer to shoot the Total Frames with the Shoot Interval and be prepared to wait the amount of time Shoot Length shows.

It's not rocket science but this chart does help avoid doing the math so you can concentrate on your settings.  Hope this helps!  You can download a .PDF of this here.

Final FPS	Final Length	Total Frames	Shoot Interval	Shoot Length
24 fps	5 seconds	120	0:00:02	0:04:00
24 fps	5 seconds	120	0:00:03	0:06:00
24 fps	5 seconds	120	0:00:05	0:10:00
24 fps	5 seconds	120	0:00:10	0:20:00
24 fps	5 seconds	120	0:00:15	0:30:00
24 fps	5 seconds	120	0:00:30	1:00:00
24 fps	5 seconds	120	0:01:00	2:00:00
24 fps	5 seconds	120	0:02:00	4:00:00
24 fps	5 seconds	120	0:03:00	6:00:00
24 fps	5 seconds	120	0:04:00	8:00:00
24 fps	5 seconds	120	0:05:00	10:00:00
24 fps	5 seconds	120	0:10:00	20:00:00
24 fps	5 seconds	120	0:20:00	40:00:00
24 fps	5 seconds	120	0:30:00	60:00:00

Final FPS	Final Length	Total Frames	Shoot Interval	Shoot Length
24 fps	10 seconds	240	0:00:02	0:08:00
24 fps	10 seconds	240	0:00:03	0:12:00
24 fps	10 seconds	240	0:00:05	0:20:00
24 fps	10 seconds	240	0:00:10	0:40:00
24 fps	10 seconds	240	0:00:15	1:00:00
24 fps	10 seconds	240	0:00:30	2:00:00
24 fps	10 seconds	240	0:01:00	4:00:00
24 fps	10 seconds	240	0:02:00	8:00:00
24 fps	10 seconds	240	0:03:00	12:00:00
24 fps	10 seconds	240	0:04:00	16:00:00
24 fps	10 seconds	240	0:05:00	20:00:00
24 fps	10 seconds	240	0:10:00	40:00:00
24 fps	10 seconds	240	0:20:00	80:00:00
24 fps	10 seconds	240	0:30:00	120:00:00

Tether To An iPad Wirelessly

As with most photographers in the Bay Area we take a particular interest in new technology that promises to make life easier for us.  There have definitely been a few game changers lately - iPhone and iPad being two of them. But one product in particular, not only stands up to it's promise, it actually blew us away!

The Eye-Fi memory card is a standard looking Secure Digital memory card in a 4GB or 8GB configuration.  You stick it in your digital camera and it works the same as you would expect any SD card to work - storing files and all. The genius of the technology however is the Wi-Fi radio built into the card itself!  What this allows you to do is leverage an existing Wi-Fi network to wirelessly stream the photos from your camera to a desktop, laptop or yes... an iPad.

We ordered an Eye-Fi Connect X2 4GB card recently and wanted to see how useful it would be to shoot images to our iPad in a real-world, professional environment.  Would it be as cool as Lee Morris showed us in his FStoppers YouTube video? Would we be able to use it in the studio as a new proofing tool?  Let's find out!

The good news is the Eye-Fi card definitely performed as advertised and provided us with some nice "cool factor" points. The bad news is that it won't replace tethering to your workstation for professional studio shooting.

We purchased the basic Connect X2 card which gave us 4GB storage capacity and 802.11n wireless transfer speeds.  If you spend a little more you get other nice options like Geo Tagging and Direct Mode capability.  Eye-Fi recently announced that the Direct Mode feature will be available to ALL X2 cards with a firmware update sometime soon.  That'll be nice because what that will allow us to do is create a small 'virtual' network just between the card and the iPad instead of having to rely on an existing Wi-Fi network.

So how did it work?  Well before you can use the card you have to sign up for an Eye-Fi account and configure the card to work with an existing Wi-Fi network.  Apparently the network configurations are stored on the card so the cards have to be configured with the desktop software first.  The configuration was quick and simple enough however it must be done every time you change networks.  This could be a real pain if you plan on using public Wi-Fi networks.  Our recommendation on this is to bring your own wireless network.  We used an Apple Airport Express for this purpose.  You don't need an internet connection, just an active Wi-Fi network.

The partner in crime to this wireless solution is the ShutterSnitch app for iPad.  Neither Eye-Fi or Apple make an application for listening to the Eye-Fi card so that's where 2ndNature software filled the gap with their ShutterSnitch app for iPad and iPhone. It's a $15.99 purchase from the iTunes App Store but it's in version 2.0.2 now so apparently there's enough of a user base that 2ndNature keeps the app updated.  The app is simple in design and does what you expect.  You can create Collections and within the Collection you can view images, thumbnails and zoom in/out on images.  It even adds a few interesting features like alerts if your images don't match customized criteria like shutter speed or ISO.  Kinda neat!

Now here's the rub - It's slow!  We tried various configurations and found that if we shot anything other than Small JPG's it was painfully slow to transfer the images.  The transfers were consistent however and if the transfer lagged for any reason it was good about keeping in sync with what was shot.  Initially we were nervous that that ShutterSnitch was missing images but sure enough, every image shot was transferred eventually.  We used the card in the Canon 1d Mark III which contains a CF slot and SD slot and allows us to save different image sizes to each slot.  We were able to shoot RAW images to the CF slot and Small JPG's to the SD slot which would be transferred to the iPad.  It took 4-6 seconds on average to transfer an image wirelessly.

So is it useful?  That depends on what you need.  It's fun for Art Directors to sit back in a comfy chair and review images at their leisure instead of hovering over your shoulder or the shoulder of your digital tech.  It's useful for lighting assistants or stylists to be able to review their work in almost real-time.  It's great for "chimping" while you setup because a 9" LCD is always better than a 3" LCD. Where this technology really shined for us was while shooting time-lapse images of San Francisco. When it was 40 degrees outside, we could monitor the camera from inside our warm car.

Ultimately this is just another tool in our toolbox and will come out when the tool is right for the job. I think what this technology does best is provide another window into the digital workflow.  It adds a new collaborative tool to the process where, during a shoot, the photographer and other creatives can gather around the screen and discuss in real-time how the shoot is progressing.  For us, anything that helps the creative process in this way is a great thing!

UPDATE: April 20, 2011

The guys at Eye-Fi have made their Connect X2 cards even BETTER!  They've added the "direct mode" feature available to all users of the X2 card via a firmware update.  This now gives us the ability to send photos from the camera to the iPad without an existing WiFi network.  Yes that's right, the card itself can now act as it's own wireless access point.  If there are no "remembered" WiFi networks in range the card will start it's own wireless network which the iPad can connect to and recieve images.  The new firmware update even extends the wireless range and improves the reliability.  

DIY Battery Packs

When powering strobe lights on location, a reliable power source can be a huge issue. One option is to bring your own power solution but that either means a loud generator or heavy battery packs. Paul Buff, Inc. makes a portable power solution based on a seal lead acid battery they call Vagabond II, and just recently introduced a lithium version called Vagabond Mini. Profoto also makes a portable battery solution for their D1, ComPact and Acute2 flash equipment they call the BatPac. All of these solutions are reliable and extremely useful on location but they can be pricey!

Luckily there are some do-it-yourself options which will save you quite a bit of money. I do have one disclaimer: I am not an electronic specialist. I took an electronics class in high school and can do some basic soldering but that's about it. What follows is my personal experience and not a professional recommendation. My goal was to build three batteries, one for each one of my strobe heads. That way I could attach one pack to one head and have the freedom to move my lights around without tripping on extension cords. Here's how I built three individual battery packs for less than the cost of one Profoto BatPac.

STEP 1: FIND THE RIGHT POWER INVERTER

The key to getting this system to powering your lights correctly is finding the right power inverter. There are a lot of cheap power inverters that will convert volts to watts but they don't output that power correctly. What you need is called a "Pure Sine Wave Inverter" and the best inverter I found for this project is made by a company called Samlex. The model I found to work best is the PST-300-12A. That's a 300W Pure Sine Wave Inverter that converts 12V of DC current to 120V of AC current.  $140 at Amazon.

STEP 2: FIND A SEALED LEAD ACID BATTERY

These are pretty easy to find at electronic stores or automotive stores. This particular battery is used for boats, scooters or battery backup systems. I found a lot of 5 from an eBay seller for a steal (although I paid a lot for shipping as these batteries are heavy!) because I knew I wanted to build a few of these packs. The SLA batteries I purchase were Rhino 12V 18Ah. These are $38.99 on Amazon right now. The important thing to keep in mind when buying the battery is getting the voltage and amperage correct. It should be at least a 12V and 18Ah.



STEP 3: FIND A CONTAINER

At this point the only other item you would need is something to house and carry the battery components. I went through MANY different iterations, including small tool cases and assorted bags until I finally found the perfect carrying case for my battery packs. I bought three SLR Zoom cases from Case Logic for $23 each on sale. These cases held my power inverter and SLA battery in a vertical configuration exactly like I wanted with no room to spare.  The vertical position is important because it allows me to unzip the bag and plug my lights right into the power inverter which is pointed up.

STEP 4: FIT AND FINISH

I was really trying to avoid the DIY look for my power packs so I went the extra distance and purchased 3 socket power couplers (Like the cigarette or power adapter in your car) so that I could recharge my batteries easily. Then I bought a standard SLA battery charger and soldered a power socket to the business end so that I could easily plug the sockets together to charge each battery. This may be an important detail - be sure to buy a proper Sealed Lead Acid battery charger. SLA batteries can be finicky in how they hold/charge/discharge and you don't want to ruin your new batteries so be sure to buy a proper charger for them.

STEP 5: ASSEMBLY

At this point, once you have all the components you need, it's an easy task to wire everything together. Use some heavy gauge wire and get creative with the electronic connectors you might find at Fry's or Radio Shack. I used standard 1/4 inch studs to secure the wires to the batteries. Keep positive to positive and negative to negative (but if I have to tell you that than you probably shouldn't attempt this project!) and shove everything into the case.  In the photo you can see my battery pack from the top down.  The lid is zipped open, the battery is on it's side and the power inverter is standing up on end.  You can also see the charge socket which is wired to the battery for easy recharging.  To use the pack I simply unzip the lid and plug in.  To recharge the unit I plug one end of my charger into the wall and the other end into the charge socket.