Commercial and editorial photographer David Harry Stewart (www.dhstewart.com) is one of the many pro shooters to take up DSLR video. Take a look at his short, Asia Mon Amour. For even more of his insights into the craft of photography, both still and video, visit blog1.dhstewart.com.
Q. How does shooting video differ from stills?
A. They're very different approaches. The whole point with still photography is to capture the moment when something happens. But with video you want the moment before and the moment after, too&and then you have to chain them all together through montage.
Q. You mean editing?
A. Yes. Montage is one of the primary things that distinguish still images from movies. You see a person's face and then a guy running and then a door slamming—and your brain connects all of these things into a narrative. I really recommend reading Walter Murch's In the Blink of an Eye. He's a genius. Moviemaking is deeply psychological—your brain makes this leap. Murch's thesis is your eyes blink and your brain is making edits. He also talks about the soundscape. Those things are totally foreign to a still photographer. But the study of cinema is a mature science—it's been going on for 100 years. There's a wealth of information out there.
Q. Do I need to storyboard or create a shot list?
A. Editing is the whole thing. Someone who does documentary work won't have a script going in. But there are complications either way. If you're going to try to block the action, there's a tremendous amount of preproduction work to do. If you're going a more documentary route, there's a tremendous amount of postproduction. The post is a slog.
Q. What about software?
A. You can montage in iMovie, which is a very simple program. It works fine for YouTube and things like that. The problem with using a DSLR to produce HD video is that you can't just put a toe in the water. iMovie is fine for very low-res, and the next step is a big step up. Say you want to make a high-res video: To put it in a nonlinear editor like Final Cut, you'll have to transcode the file. H.264, the compression codec that Canon uses, will work native in iMovie but not in Final Cut. It will work in the latest version of Premier, though I don't have personal experience with it or with Premier Elements. Final Cut Pro is not all that easy to use, but you can learn it in a few months. I started with Final Cut Express for four months, but that was a mistake because you can't just upgrade from Express to Pro.
Q. Sounds complicated!
A. The hardest part of the deal is that now you're a filmmaker. You have to learn about time and timing, sound, sequence, montaging. No longer can one picture tell the whole story. The most helpful thing I've ever done for video is studying African dance for five years—it's about rhythm and timing.
Q. What about gear?
A. A lot of these guys are tricking out their cameras in ways that I think are stupid. It's not a 70-pound camera—it's a 3-pound camera. Use it like a 3-pound camera! For part of my Asia video, I used a 21mm f/2.8 Zeiss lens on my Canon EOS 7D in my palm, running after these kids. I set it to f/5.6. There's huge depth of field, 6 to 8 feet or more. I don't want to pull focus.
I still haven't used the video function on my 7D. I'm actually kind of excited to do so this weekend, though.
Thank you for stopping by Pop Photo. I am so humbled that they chose m,e for this interview. If anyone has any questions, I would be more than happy to try to answer them, either here, or at my blog, http://blog1.dhstewart.com/. I would love to make it easier for you to make images, stills or motion.
Best wishes,
David Harry Stewart
David Stewart seems like such a cool cat, especially that part about studying African dance for five years. What a commitment to excellence the guy has. I've seen a few of his pictures, and the guy knows how to point and shoot. I don't know if it's those super hybrid lenses, or what, but if he ever wrote a book, I would pre-order it on Amazon.com and get it delivered Fed-ex overnight!
He will be a legend one day in Pro DSLR Video. Keep up the good work brother.
This is informative. One nit: the same lens at the same f-stop won't give you a different dof on different sensors. Trying to match your composition is going to require a change in either the camera distance or the focal length which *will* make a difference in the eventual look. But everything else being equal, f/5.6 to f/5.6 will do the same thing.
Q. Yeah, but there's some stuff you can't do without, right?
A. You need a magnifier—it helps you see better and also helps you brace the camera. A stabilized lens helps a lot.
Would you mind adding details? There seem to be a vast array of these from numerous manufacturers. I've heard that the Nikon DK-17M or 21M, the Pentax 0-ME53 and the Olympus AS-ME1 all fit, but none of these look even close to yours pictured above. Complaints are that view is slightly darker and that readings of exposure etc are hard to see and that corners are not visible without shifting one's eyes to see the edges. And that some retro-fitting is necessary. If yours is rather expensive would you mind suggesting one of the three I have mentioned which you know to work well or another you have tried? Thanks and btw an excellent read.
Hi Rich,
Thanks for your question. By magnifier, I mean a loupe type device that goes over the rear LCD screen so that in Live View you can see the image more clearly. When using Live View, your normal viewfinder is not used. I use an earlier version made by Zacuto. It is excellent, however I had to glue the receiver onto the screen. The newer ones are not like this. Hoodman also makes a nice magnifier. I hope that helps.
Best wishes,
David
Hi Brad,
Thanks for the nit. You are absolutely correct. Thank you for articulating that. Yours is the most direct description of DOF that I have ever read. Much better than mine!
Best wishes
David
Nice work. One question. Why do you say that iMovie won't export in HD? It does, doesn't it?
Hey guys, Check out Drew Gardner www.thedarkart.com he's a UK based advertising photographermade a really comprehensive 2 hr training DVD for photographers moving to HD video. You can check it out here www.stillsinmotion.co.uk
I know a few people who's got it and they said it was awesome.
I've seen it and it really takes you through every step and rather from a film maker perspective its from a photography one. I really recommend checking it out.
Barney
Hi Anonymous,
You are absolutely correct, iMovie will work in HD. What it is not so good at is doing editing, sound mixing and the like. It is great program to get started with though, and I don't want to discourage anyone from using it. The hard part of making movies is learning how to tell a story with edits and sound. This is the most important thing to learn, the actual program that one uses is less important. Good luck and thank you for your input.
David
Hi Barry,
I am not familiar with Drew Gardner's DVD. It sounds great. When I first stared, I got all the info I could from any source I could. It is all about getting comfortable with the lingo and the technology. so that we can move forward with making movies.
Best wishes,
David
A great tutorial. Gotta get my DSLR right away. Some of my pictures can be viewed here http://dslrjourney.blogspot.com
Thank you very much! Usefull tips, they make me want to start right away.
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I still haven't used the video function on my 7D. I'm actually kind of excited to do so this weekend, though.
Thank you for stopping by Pop Photo. I am so humbled that they chose m,e for this interview. If anyone has any questions, I would be more than happy to try to answer them, either here, or at my blog, http://blog1.dhstewart.com/. I would love to make it easier for you to make images, stills or motion.
Best wishes,
David Harry Stewart
David Stewart seems like such a cool cat, especially that part about studying African dance for five years. What a commitment to excellence the guy has. I've seen a few of his pictures, and the guy knows how to point and shoot. I don't know if it's those super hybrid lenses, or what, but if he ever wrote a book, I would pre-order it on Amazon.com and get it delivered Fed-ex overnight!
He will be a legend one day in Pro DSLR Video. Keep up the good work brother.
This is informative. One nit: the same lens at the same f-stop won't give you a different dof on different sensors. Trying to match your composition is going to require a change in either the camera distance or the focal length which *will* make a difference in the eventual look. But everything else being equal, f/5.6 to f/5.6 will do the same thing.
Q. Yeah, but there's some stuff you can't do without, right?
A. You need a magnifier—it helps you see better and also helps you brace the camera. A stabilized lens helps a lot.
Would you mind adding details? There seem to be a vast array of these from numerous manufacturers. I've heard that the Nikon DK-17M or 21M, the Pentax 0-ME53 and the Olympus AS-ME1 all fit, but none of these look even close to yours pictured above. Complaints are that view is slightly darker and that readings of exposure etc are hard to see and that corners are not visible without shifting one's eyes to see the edges. And that some retro-fitting is necessary. If yours is rather expensive would you mind suggesting one of the three I have mentioned which you know to work well or another you have tried? Thanks and btw an excellent read.
Hi Rich,
Thanks for your question. By magnifier, I mean a loupe type device that goes over the rear LCD screen so that in Live View you can see the image more clearly. When using Live View, your normal viewfinder is not used. I use an earlier version made by Zacuto. It is excellent, however I had to glue the receiver onto the screen. The newer ones are not like this. Hoodman also makes a nice magnifier. I hope that helps.
Best wishes,
David
Hi Brad,
Thanks for the nit. You are absolutely correct. Thank you for articulating that. Yours is the most direct description of DOF that I have ever read. Much better than mine!
Best wishes
David
Nice work. One question. Why do you say that iMovie won't export in HD? It does, doesn't it?
Hey guys, Check out Drew Gardner www.thedarkart.com he's a UK based advertising photographermade a really comprehensive 2 hr training DVD for photographers moving to HD video. You can check it out here www.stillsinmotion.co.uk
I know a few people who's got it and they said it was awesome.
I've seen it and it really takes you through every step and rather from a film maker perspective its from a photography one. I really recommend checking it out.
Barney
Hi Anonymous,
You are absolutely correct, iMovie will work in HD. What it is not so good at is doing editing, sound mixing and the like. It is great program to get started with though, and I don't want to discourage anyone from using it. The hard part of making movies is learning how to tell a story with edits and sound. This is the most important thing to learn, the actual program that one uses is less important. Good luck and thank you for your input.
David
Hi Barry,
I am not familiar with Drew Gardner's DVD. It sounds great. When I first stared, I got all the info I could from any source I could. It is all about getting comfortable with the lingo and the technology. so that we can move forward with making movies.
Best wishes,
David
A great tutorial. Gotta get my DSLR right away. Some of my pictures can be viewed here http://dslrjourney.blogspot.com
Thank you very much! Usefull tips, they make me want to start right away.