I recently finished my first wedding videography, which you can see on my wedding page, and read more about my experience here.

While I was editing on my Mac station in Final Cut Pro, I used several image stabilizers: Smooth Cam, Magic Bullet Steady from Red Giant, and a free-trial version of CoreMelt’s Lock & Load X. The difference I found between these plug-ins was interesting, and despite one of their names, makes you realize there is no substitute, or magic bullet, for having stable shots from the beginning.

Plug-ins can only do so much, even though they may promise more. The key is to get stable shots from the get-go, but if you can’t, these little guys can help.

But which one is better?

Well, it’s not that easy of an answer. On the first clip above I liked Magic Bullet Steady the most, but the second one, Lock and Load X did the best job of detecting foreground and background differences. (All of these tests were done with basically the default values of the plug-ins.)

I was definitely not impressed by Lock and Load X’s rolling shutter artifact reducer, in some instances it actually exaggerated the rolling shutter artifact!

Here is a comparison chart from CoreMelt’s website, that I found at least one inaccuracy on, which was that Magic Bullet Steady was about as fast as Lock and Load X in analyzing footage:

[box]If you have any more plug-ins or suggestions about how to stabilize footage please do so in the comments below! Thanks![/box]

The MiniCards are a little over 1″ tall and 2.75″ wide. What is special about Moo cards is that you can print different images on the cards. I think I put about a dozen different photos I’ve taken over 100 cards. So there are only about 8 copies of each image. In essence, you have a ton of business cards that all look different (at least on one side) !

For photographers they are useful because you can have separate business cards for wedding clients as opposed to something more commercial. You can carry around a miniature portfolio with you and hand it out! The website also has many designs for you to choose from if you don’t have your own images to upload.

They also have other creative ideas on how to use their cards on their website, like merchandise tags for a retailer.

The card creation process is very easy and straight forward on their website with options that allow you to resize and crop your images to fit the card the way you want it to.

The reverse side has space for your information on it. You can customize this back side on moo’s website beyond just typing in your information. You could prepare and upload your own personal image or logo for the back as well.

The cards have a nice flat matte finish that feels smooth to the touch and the card is thicker than I was expecting, which makes it feel sturdy for as small of a card as it is.

The packaging is very clean and presented well in a sturdy little box. I am a little nervous about the card holder on my keychain.

It swings open around the end that is connected to the keyring, but what is concerning is how easily it can slide open. I was expecting it to take more of an effort to slide it open, but I think it is still worth the money to easily carry around your cards. It only holds 12 business cards, which is nice because it makes it small and it’s about the same size as the old ipod shuffle.

Overall, I am happy to have samples of my work readily accessible on my keychain that I can hand out. If you want to try Moo MiniCards for yourself use the discount code UBBD5P on your first purchase and get 10% off, but you have to order by Sept. 30th. And use the code WR3MAY by Sept. 19th to get free shipping.

There are some other big names in photography that you can pay up to $300 for one of their instructional photography DVD’s! I guess I ‘ll never know what’s on those kinds of DVD’s but maybe it’s worth it, who knows? People with a spare $300 know, I guess.



Anyways, LightenUpAndShoot’s V-Book comes as a 68 page, 1.4 GB, PDF with embedded video files.

It’s a great overview of some of the fundamentals of photography and not too technically overwhelming. They stay true to their philosophy of ‘lighten up and shoot’ with their teaching approach by keeping the video light hearted but to the point.

Veteran photogs might not get much out of it but a refresher course, or at least, see how you can lighten your gear load and still take great photos. I personally took away several key things to consider when I shoot: Two of them are what they call D.O.F.E, which is about the depth of light, and the Genius Square, which is about exposure.

Example of what their embedded flash videos look like in the PDF.

Basically, this was well worth the money to at least support two guys who share some good informational gems of photography with you in a way that is accessible.

One thing that seemed redundant to me was that after each video there was text describing what they just finished describing in the video. But, maybe that’s a good way to get key concepts ingrained into your mind.

I recommend this book/videos and give it a 47.5 out of 53 (I like making up my own rating scales ).

This is what is covered in it:

CONTENTS:

• Introduction
• Backpacker’s Studio
• Light Modifiers
• How Does Light Work?
• The Variables of Flash Exposure
• The Genius Square
• Example Shoots
• The Approach
• Composition
• Natural Light
• Camera Settings
• The Histogram
• Adobe Photoshop & Lightroom Techniques
• Shooting Diagrams
• Bonus for preordering: Shooting Cheat Sheet

PS – Don’t pirate this pdf! These guys were cool enough to even address this on their website to say:

Please do not pirate this ebook, we have tried to lower the price to what we consider fair.

If you are really that strapped for cash and you need the book, just email us and we’ll see what we can work out!

Being an alumnus myself, I know my way around the 13,000 acre campus well and with it being ranked the most beautiful campus by the Princeton Review this year, it makes for some picturesque shooting.

I was scheduled to shoot the football practice for some B-roll footage for the interview I would do with Coach Black, the head football coach, the next morning.

It was my first time out with my Manfrotto Monopod and I love it! I don’t know what I would have done without it considering I shot most of the practice with my 70-200mm lens and that my video tripod is heavy! The monopod was the perfect accesory to tote around. I could move quickly from one location to another and get stable shots from a distance without have to lug a massive tripod around and constantly try to balance the three legs every time I moved.

The monopod that made my day.

I’m really looking forward to using this on my first wedding shoot this month for these same reasons. I would say it’s a ‘must have.’ especially for the price, you can’t beat it. The gun-grip telescoping trigger is pretty darn convenient as well. Although, Yuri Arcurs calls it a ‘piece of junk’ that’s what he shoots with, so it can’t be that bad. This video is where I first heard about this monopod:

The other piece of gear I was excited about was the Westcott 28″ Apollo soft box I have recently blogged about HERE. I used it with my constant lighting setup and it seemed to work really well. Here are two stills from the interviews I used it in, straight out of the camera, no color correction:

Notice the catch lights in his eyes. I turned off his office lighting, pulled down the shade on the window over his left shoulder, and placed the soft box camera right.

The soft box is camera left with a massive window camera right. The soft box just evens out the lighting and since it's daylight balanced there aren't weird colors on his face. His office lights were incandescent but they were not very bright and up fairly high in this high ceiling room.

Interviewing Tips:

I learn every time I shoot. Usually I just hope I am not relearning a lesson But here are a couple tips for interviewing people that I’ve found helps:

• Tell them from the beginning what to expect (what topics you’d like to cover, how long it will take).

• Instruct them where to direct their attention and answers (at you, usually right next to the camera, but not looking into the camera).

• Be quiet. You want to encourage them with head nods, not by saying “oh yea” every minute and disrupting your audio.

• Notice when the interviewee is struggling with an answer or is getting long-winded and change the subject or ask another question. Sometimes they’ll just keep talking because they’re trying to give you the sound bite you want.

• Ask your interviewee how they would be most comfortable sitting before you start, because you would like for them to stay in the same plane of focus so they don’t get blurry every time they fidget.

• Avoid doing interviews standing up, people like to sway and shift their weight. It’s hard to keep them in a third of the frame and keep focus (if you’ve only got manual focus like my 7D).

• Avoid doing sitting interviews in chairs that can tilt, swivel, and roll (or just be aware of it).

• Do be prepared with questions, but also be open to new topics that might also be interesting as the interviewee is talking.

• Keep the video rolling even after you say, “we’re all done,” because some times they’ll quickly remember something or be more casual speaking once the pressure is off.

I’m currently editing the first video about Coach Robert Black and will be posting it to vimeo to Sewanee Annual Fund’s account in about two weeks.

The infamous Apollo softbox

Questions I had were:

• How will it work with my 580 EX 2 speedlight flash in full sunlight?
• How will it work with the continuous lights I have for video?
• Is it all it’s cracked up to be?

Notice the square catchlight in my eye from the soft box.

Here are the answers to my questions:

The first thing I did was go outside with my Canon 7D and my 28mm 1.8 lens and the soft box and see how it stood up to full sunlight.

Outside - In shade - No Flash (Ignore my goofy face and use this to compare to the picture below)

Outside - In shade - With Flash (both photos were taken at 1/125 and f/6.3)

So, in shade, outside, it can actually have quite an impact . . . big deal, I was standing in the shade outside.

Now for the real test. I moved out of the shade from the tree behind me and into full sunlight (with it behind my back).

Outside - Full Sun Light - No Flash (sun is at my back, but I'm in full sun, no cloud cover)

Outside - Full Sun Light - With Flash in softbox at full power (1/250 @ f/6.3)

Awesome! It worked in full sun light! I am stoked. I just didn’t know the limitations of the 580 EX 2 speedlight especially putting a modifier in front of it outside in full sun light. The soft box was on a stand about 6 feet away from me camera left.

Answers: Yes it can actually work well in full sun light with the 580 EX 2 speedlight! (Not that these are ideal conditions I’d like to take pictures in, but to know the limitations is pretty valuable to me.)

Next, I was hoping it would work with the big 105 watt daylight bulb I got with the ePhoto green screen kit I got a little while back. And it did! But just barely, these were taken with the diffuser front sheet up so you can see what’s up:

Continuous Lighting

Continuous Lighting Close Up

This is what it looks like with the 580 speedlight. I was surprised it was positioned so high in the softbox, not centered around the actual light-emitting part of the flash, but I guess they would of had to have done something hokey to make that happen.)

So now that I got a positive answer to my first two questions. Is the Apollo soft box all it’s cracked up to be?

I would say that time will tell, that I need to use it more (I just got it today!). But, my initial reaction would be that this is well worth the money and that, outside of two reflectors, I am very happy with this being my first light modifier purchase that it will work well with my flash and continuous lighting.

The one down side, which I think is a trade off of this being made for a speedlight so you don’t need a speed ring, is the fact you can’t tilt this thing down! You are either going to have to have a boom light stand or get a voice-activated light stand to get the soft box tilted properly. The other thing to consider when using this outside is the wind of course. I had a 5 lb ankle weight on this guy and with enough wind, it was still wanting to tip over, so consider that too.

No tilt for you! You'll be rejected trying to tilt this thing down by the front zipper.

I will be using this for video with my continuous lighting this week on a project and I’m really looking forward to it. With that big 105 watt bulb it can still put out a decent amount of light inside this softbox and is much better than the crappy umbrellas that came with it in the kit my continuous lights came with.

So I do think it’s all it’s cracked up to be, but of course, that also depends on the person using it to be able to use it correctly for the conditions to get the most out of it for it to live up to what it’s cracked up to be. So I have officially jumped on the 28″ Apollo soft box band wagon! For $109 you can’t beat this thing!

I feel like I have a Transformers toy when I put this thing on my camera

I bought this DSLR viewfinder for several reasons:

• added stabilization while shooting video
• aid in focusing
• eliminate outdoor glare issue on LCD screen

It also just looks cool, I mean why do anything if you’re not going to look cool anyways, right? The Z-Finder basically accomplished those three reasons why I bought it, but there are some caveats. I always think of caviar when I say that.

I swear my hands aren't as small as they look - really!

STABILIZATION | It does help with stabilization, but not as much as I would have liked. This isn’t really a deficiency with the product, but with my lack of experience and realistic expectations with gear. That’s partly why I bought it, “let’s see what this thing can do.” Standing still and moving the camera around my face is fine, but walking with it takes a little practice, and is only slightly more stable than walking without it attached, I think. The Zacuto shoulder mount setups would really help that, but are really expensive so I may just make a home-made one at some point.

FOCUSING | Of those three bullet points, this is the one it helps with the least I think because I still have to use the little zoom button and digitally zoom in on the image 5x or 10x to focus, just like I was doing before anyways. But it does make it a bit nicer to do.

GLARE | Booya! It nails this obviously, I have no issues with glare now and don’t have to guess and hope I’m doing everything right when I’m outside, just slap this baby on and you’re good to go. You kind of feel like a referee in the NFL on a review play, it’s your own private theatre in this thing.

After saying all that, I’m not really sure what advantage the Z-Finder has over the less expensive Hoodman besides the Z-Finder having that sweet little mount on the camera that lets you clip it on and off easily. I’ve read the Z-Finder is a bit brighter too?

Down the rabbit hole

OVERALL IMPRESSION | When I first got it, I was like “wow that thing is freaking huge!” it barely fits in my hand, but then what was I expecting? I was also surprised that it’s basically hollow, I didn’t really research how these things are constructed before I bought it, so I guess I was expecting something a tad more complicated.

Anyways, overall I really like it. The eye-cup is great, very soft rubber, I can even keep my glasses on my face and use it. I was surprised that they don’t have a protective cap on the eye cup end though, I’m worried the magnifying lens will get scratched up in my camera bag. I think the lanyard is pretty crucial since I take the Z-Finder on and off so much. You can’t see all the corners of the LCD screen though, so be prepared to move your face around the eye cup to see the corners, like the guy from Porky’s in the shower scene. It’s only the very last bit of the corner, it’s not a deal breaker at all.

If you have $380 laying around, have issues with stable hand held shots with a DSLR and can’t see your screen during they day, get this.

Philip Bloom has also done a nice review here.

All photos were taken with my iPhone.

How many licks does it take to get to the center of the Z-Finder, less than I thought.

Here’s Zacuto’s promo piece on it: