Redwood National Park Video, Photo

Redwood National Park Video

Filed under: Elk, National Parks, Redwood, Video on 8/16/2010

Redwood National Park Video

We spent a few days relaxing in Orick, California, in the heart of Redwood National Park. We enjoyed some great hikes among the towering coastal redwood trees, a little horseback riding, some uncrowded and beautiful beaches, and lots of Roosevelt elk that reside in the meadows just outside the window of the little cabin we stayed in. Here is a short film I made to test out a couple aspects of how the Canon 5D Mark II and Panasonic Lumix LX3 cameras record video. I was trying a variety of methods for panning a dSLR while recording video, some of them more successful that others. These passages are basically straight out of the camera, with only minimal assembly and processing in iMovie. I did shoot some “serious photos” but it will take me a while to get them processed and on this website. I was surprised at how simple and fast it can be to shoot video and edit it into a little film, this took just an hour or so to make. What did I learn? I learned that I need a proper external microphone if I want to have any hope of recording decent audio, and that I should turn image stabilization off when I record video since the stabilizer can be heard whirring on the audio track. I also can tell that Youtube uses some heavy compression (not surprising), since the Youtube version of this film below has some jerkiness and compression artifacts that do not appear in the original.

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2 Comments »

Real nice to see the straight footage and panning experiments. Looks like you had a great time. Several times I almost caught myself saying, “Hey, I recognize that tree!” :)

Curious what scenes / movements worked best & which you found didn’t work and why? I ask because I once saw a presentation on DSLR Video, and while the words were good, some of the video was just… bad. I’m not doing any video yet, but rather asking from my perspective as a director.

Comment by Gary Crabbe / Enlightened Images — 8/16/2010 @ 6:07 pm
Gary — I am sure I focused on some trees that you’ve photographed before, there were distinctively “better” parts of some groves than others, places that a photographer would tend to spend more time. Panning and moving the video is tough, I found it is very hard to get a moving video platform that results in smooth, pleasing motion — there is almost always something unnatural about the result whether it be jerkiness or fast-then-slow movement. I tried a few methods of using a tripod (to increase mass/inertia and thus dampen out jerkiness) and a strap to walk while panning the camera, and some of the attempts seemed promising. A gyro is the next logical step, or one of those filmmaker rigs that allows walking and shooting simultaneously.

Panning on a stationary tripod, using a good panoramic head, also holds promise but naturally a fluid head would be even smoother. I was just trying to see what one could do in a pinch, with basic still photography setup and nothing tailored for videography. One thing for sure, the wider the lens, the more forgiving the panning/motion will be (the less apparent any burps or jerkiness seems) — we know that intuitively and it was reflected in what I shot.

Thanks!

Comment by Phil — 8/16/2010 @ 8:53 pm

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Updated: June 19, 2013

Redwood National Park Video, Natural History Photography Blog

Redwood National Park Video

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