The Three Tricks

Me, doing my best Orson Welles impersonation

Also in this issue:

• Articles That Didn't Make it to Cameracraft Magazine
• Sony's new Webcam software - comparison
• Being a Virtual Speaker at your Photo Club
• Giving Back with the Virtual Reading Project
• In the Pipeline

Articles That Never Made It to Cameracraft

I pitch a lot of ideas for articles for Cameracraft magazine; most get accepted but some do not for various reasons.  The subjects still fascinate me, though.  Here are a couple that didn't make it (and I wish I had permission to show you some of their examples.  But you can click on the links below to see some remarkable works):

• Photographer Esther Honig did a fascinating experiment - she took a picture of a model and sent it to photo retouchers in 27 different countries and asked them to "enhance" the image according to their cultural preferences.  Beauty is a subjective thing but it amazes me how entire cultures can buy into a certain ideal.
• Seth Casteel takes pictures of dogs underwater and cats in mid-air.  I have no idea how he got the cat shots - they are super sharp (no autofocus works that fast), extraordinarily well-lit, and the cat is often looking directly at the camera.  I was hoping to do an article about him to learn how he did it; alas my emails and instagram messages were never answered.
• Haruhiko Kawaguchi is a Japanese photographer who approaches people on the street and convinces them to come to his studio, get naked, get into a vacuum-sealed bag, and have their pictures taken.  To me the images are the least interesting part; what's amazing is how he convinces total strangers to do this.  (Warning: Probably Not Safe For Work.) (On the other hand, you're probably working from home right now. :-) )

Cameracraft is a substantial read with superb images and repro. It’s not an obscure art fest either. Every two months it’s a shot of inspiration, with solid technical content, and it’s written by experts, not interns.  Subscribe today and experience the last "proper" photo magazine standing!

The Three Tricks

There are three projects I've been getting a lot of questions on regarding how they were done.

Let's start with that Xaphoon video I made back in March, the one where I'm playing both parts of a duet.  There were two tricks to this - the first was I did the piano part first, and then had to listen to a recording of it while I played the Xaphoon part.  Look carefully and you can see a wire going to an earbud in the Xaphoon close-ups.

The other part - how I did the split screen - required a video editing technique called an Alpha Channel.  Alpha Channels work like layer masks in Photoshop - you can have two video clips sitting on top of one another, and have an Alpha channel specify which part of the top video is transparent, revealing the video beneath.  You'd better make sure both videos are lined up exactly to get the effect to work.  Below is the Alpha Channel Mask I made showing how the right 3rd would become transparent, allowing the piano playing me to show through:

Below is a BTS shot, with the 3 cameras highlighted in red:

For the camera angle showing both of me playing, I chose a small-sensor camera (A6400) to get greater depth-of-field for a given f/stop.  And I had to keep the camera on between takes otherwise it would have been impossible to get the EXACT manual focus position once it was turned off, throwing the alignment of the two video takes off and ruining the split-screen illusion.  (A huge drawback with modern cameras.  Manual Focus cameras always kept their focus until you intentionally changed it.)

Fidel's Beard

The second image is one of my Quarantine Beard photos, where I try to do my impression of the late Fidel Castro.  (Click on any image to make it larger and sharper.)

Compared to the video above it was remarkably simple.  Just one wireless flash (with a beauty dish - which provides pleasingly harsh light for drama), pointed at my left eye.  This put the right side of my face (the side that's facing the camera) into just enough shadow to give it the right look.  Manual exposure and manual flash control were necessary; otherwise the whole image would have looked 18% grey.

I don't smoke, so that had to be added in later.  I lit a candle and blew it out, and captured the resulting smoke.  The smoke was lit exactly the same way, from the same angle.  The cigar was a black marking pen wrapped in construction paper. :-)

The Orson Wells Shot

The third image was my impersonation of actor, producer, writer, director, and industry giant (and a giant in general in his later years) Orson Welles.

"You people are such pests!  In the depths of your ignorance, what is it you want?"

Here I used two wireless flashes - one with a beauty dish to light the face; a 2nd scraping the backdrop to produce this classic Hollywood lighting.  Oh, and same cigar.  

The lighting for Orson.  Two flashes and a white backdrop.  This little studio has been getting a workout lately.  I've been using it for portraits, teaching classes over Zoom, taking copy shots, and tomorrow I'm going to reconfigure it for shooting jewelry.

(The Obscure Orson Welles quote above is explained here.)

Using your Fancy Camera as a Fancy Webcam

Back in May I blogged about how to turn your expensive camera into a high-quality webcam using expensive video capture adapters.  Since that time Sony has joined Canon, Fujifilm, and Olympus in coming out with software that does the same thing, requiring only a USB cable.  

Of course I compared them:

Here are the free download links for Sony, Fujifilm, and Olympus cameras.  It should be noted that Sony's software ONLY works with Windows 10.  (Sorry, Mac fans.  But you should be used to this - remember in the 1990's when Hewlett Packard came out with the world's first photo-quality inkjet printer, the PhotoSmart (tm), which only worked on Windows computers because their brain-dead MBAs decided that a single-digit market share wasn't worth pursuing?  That pissed off the entire creative community (read: This Printer's Exact Demographic).  So it's not like any of this is new.)

In the Pipeline

The Fujifilm X-T4 Ebook by Tony Phillips is now out!

Olympus E-M1 III - pre-order now at at discount

Sony A7S III - Should be out in December.  Pre-order now at a discount!

Sony A7C - Hasn't been announced yet, and I know nothing about it.

Virtual Reading Project

Recently our daughter told us about a volunteer opportunity at Easter Seals North Georgia.  Unlike most volunteering opportunities, this can be done remotely.  "Easterseals North Georgia provides early education and early intervention services to nearly 4,000 children from birth to age five living in metro Atlanta and North Georgia who are disadvantaged or disabled. With the COVID-19 crisis, we aren't able to teach our children in the traditional way, so we're reaching out to volunteers to assist with the literacy program."

The activity is very simple, just make a video of you reading a book that you would think is age-appropriate. The children for this project range from the age of 2-5 years old.  You can do this too!

Here's one of the videos I made:

The video looks simple enough.  Here's the behind-the-scenes shot with my wife Carol (she read some books too).  Even though there was lots of window light I still used a video light and two cameras (circled in red) - one wide, one over-the-shoulder.  Not shown (but visible in the wide shots if you look closely enough) is a large ugly HDMI cable and the edge of a giant screen over to the right - I had set up that monitor to make sure I put the book in the right place, and so I could see if I was getting some glare on the page.

Looks like a lot of trouble for making a simple reading video.  On the other hand (and not meaning to be arrogant), it's a heck of a lot more engaging than that one of actor Ed Asner reading "Goodnight Moon". 

You can learn more about this volunteer opportunity here!

Being a Virtual Speaker at your Photo Club

Many photo clubs took me up on my offer to be a virtual speaker at their club, and I have to tell you they all went really well.  People asked great questions, everyone had a good time (and learned a few things! :-) ), and I got a chance to cover more photo clubs geographically than I ever would have in person.

If you're a member of a photo club, have your president get in touch with me!  (Gary at Friedman Archives dot com ).  It'll be a presentation you won't soon forget.  (Kind of like the photo below. :-) )

Until next time,

Yours Truly, Gary Friedman

Author of the densest blog posts on the planet (tm)

Authentic Frontier Gibberish