Posted by Phillip Noll on December 16, 2008 at 11:06 PM
Looks like the convergence of still photography and video is upon us. Many of us will soon embark on a new (perhaps parallel) journey exploring nature videography as more and more DSLRs (and new types of cameras) come with video capability.
I would imagine that there are a few of you who are "in the know" with respect to shooting video footage and editing it on your computer to produce a final product suitable for viewing on said computer or HDTVs. However, for most of us the prospect of diving into videography is a bit daunting.
I would like to ask those of you who know a thing or two about video production to respond to this thread and provide us with links to tutorials, websites, books, hints, tricks, and anything else that would help us "newbies" get started. A few things that come to mind include:
1.) What software do you use to edit video? What's the learning curve like?
2.) What tips would you offer for shooting video?
3.) What codecs do you use for different types of playback? (HDTV, regular TV, computer display, projector, Flash, You Tube, etc...)
4.) What should we look out for when mixing video and stills into a show and rendering it? Any display problems (resolution)? Do stills have to be a certain resolution to work with video?
5.) Where can newbies go to learn the basics?
Any info will be appreciated as we dip our toes into this new ocean of possibility! Thanks in advance!
Posted by Ernie Atkins on December 17, 2008 at 12:31 AM
I would like to "second" the request for video editing help. I, too, feel this is going to be a new paradigm and I look forward to exploring it.
Posted by Jerry Greer on December 17, 2008 at 12:56 AM
Phillip,
Video production is a "bitch"! It very hard to understand at first, especially for a still shooter. I use Adobe Production Suite CS3, Premier CS3 is the main professional video editing software in the suite. There's more to it than just editing a video clip, you also have sound, and format and...the list keeps growing! I'm still learning and I'll probably keep learning forever!
Posted by Andrew Stagg on December 17, 2008 at 5:50 AM
There are a couple of sites that may help - videomaker.com and videoforums.co.uk
both of which have forums and advice online.
I would say that video editing on the PC (or Mac) is just like photo editing - only...
You think that photoshop wants fast hardware - wait until you try video editing!
It takes a lot lot lot longer!
I use Adobe Premiere/encore for most of my editing. One of the things that I find is that I am often leaving a process running over night as it renders video.
The learning curve for video is much greater than for photography (not necessarily the taking of the images/stills/video) the software is complex, the variety of codecs, output formats etc bewildering at first. The rewards are just as great though. When you shoot 8 hours of video footage, edit it down to a polished few minutes and watch that in your living room, it can be very rewarding.
Best
Andrew Stagg
Posted by Gene Lugo on December 17, 2008 at 11:29 AM
To clarify on the requirement for "fast" hardware. You will need really fast hard drives. Most systems use RAID 0 for faster performance, or RAID 5 for performance and fault tolerance.
Even the slowest graphics cards available today will be more than adequate for video editing, but if you can get a card that does direct capture you will have more capability. These are available from Matrox, ADS, Canopus or PInnacle, and some come bundled with video and audio editing software, usually Premiere. If you are using DV tape, your life will be much happier if you can get your hands on a DV deck so that you don't beat up your camera.
On board firewire is desirable, but an expansion card-firewire will work most of the time.
Memory - I used to run a video editing lab at a college - our machines were Pentium 3s 512 mb ram, Matrox capture (forgot which one), RAID 0 with dual 160 mb hard drives, running Win2k or XP. These were more than adequate for professional level production.
Clearly one can spend substantially more and get an Avid system and you will be able to use the industry standard, but as far as bang for the buck, the lower-cost systems will do a remarkably credible job.
Then you have to think about SoundForge or equivalent for audio editing.
Posted by Robert Fisher on December 17, 2008 at 11:33 AM
I too have recently embarked on the road to adding video to my arsenal. I bought a dedicated video camera for this.
I agree with the others that the learning curve for video editing is pretty long and slow. I bought Sony Vegas Platinum 9 as my editing package. It was less expensive than Adobe's offerings and seemed to have a good feature set. I've tried to use the video editing capabilities of PS CS3 Extended but without any luck. There are a good number of tools in Vegas but they work quite differently from PS.
From my limited experience so far, I think that composition is more important in video than still. It's more difficult to crop in video to remove something unwanted (at least it is for me so far).
Exposure control is important but seemingly less important in video. We, as photographers, get all bent out of shape if there are blocked shadows or blown highlights in a still photo. In video, while you can use filters, it's more difficult to do so overly bright or dark areas are more acceptable it seems. Someone with greater experience can certainly correct me if I'm wrong on that. Since trying to adopt video I've been paying more attention to things like exposure and flare in television and movie productions and it does seem like those things are more acceptable in video/film than still.
Whatever editing package you buy, I'd suggest finding a good book on it to help with the learning curve. I bought one when I got Vegas and I'm going to end up buying another because the one I did get is pretty poor.
When I went to the Finger Lakes in September I took some video footage and cut it into about a 90 second clip with sound and narration. Took a total of probably 5 or 6 hours to cut together maybe 10 minutes of video and a couple stills into a 90 second clip. It's no award winner to be sure but for a first effort it's not bad and in the end it was very satisfying to have the finished product.
I also downloaded Audacity which is a sound mixing utility and used it to edit the narration independently before importing it into Vegas.
Posted by Don Miller on December 18, 2008 at 2:43 PM
I do video on the mac, and now have the 5DII
Playback - the 5DII has HDMI out to TV
Newer macs can play H264 1080 30p 5DII video without problem. Some windows machine struggle. The primary issue is the video card needs to help with h264 processing. On windows, the free VLC media player works better than quicktime.
1080 30p is a lot of data. 2x the resolution and potentially 4x the data of 720p
On Mac, the free imovie will handle HD video, but apparently doesn't output at highest quality. The next step up from apple is Final Cut Express (~$200) and the highest version from apple is Final Cut Studio (~$1200).
Whatever product that is picked should be learned from a step by step tutorial. (book, video, class). Much like photoshop, trying to learn video editing by sitting down and playing with the software will be an exercise in frustration. But after learning the basics, sitting down and editing work you shot, adding music and stills, is rewarding.
Performance. Raid 0 for a work disk is common in HD video. Most common would be to use OSX manage the raid O. Storage is down to about $100 a terabyte for disk, which makes HD video more realistic. Forget using an USB connected drives, the first choice is sata/esate, the second choice is firewire 800.
For a laptop with Expresscard, the best esata adapter fro video:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Sonnet%20Technology/SATAIIPROE34/
I use these external cases:
http://www.provantage.com/enhance-technology-e8ml-slvr~4ENHN02H.htm
(Be sure to understand the difference between Port Multiplier and Multi Lane before buying an external case)
Discussion
6 repliesI would imagine that there are a few of you who are "in the know" with respect to shooting video footage and editing it on your computer to produce a final product suitable for viewing on said computer or HDTVs. However, for most of us the prospect of diving into videography is a bit daunting.
I would like to ask those of you who know a thing or two about video production to respond to this thread and provide us with links to tutorials, websites, books, hints, tricks, and anything else that would help us "newbies" get started. A few things that come to mind include:
1.) What software do you use to edit video? What's the learning curve like?
2.) What tips would you offer for shooting video?
3.) What codecs do you use for different types of playback? (HDTV, regular TV, computer display, projector, Flash, You Tube, etc...)
4.) What should we look out for when mixing video and stills into a show and rendering it? Any display problems (resolution)? Do stills have to be a certain resolution to work with video?
5.) Where can newbies go to learn the basics?
Any info will be appreciated as we dip our toes into this new ocean of possibility! Thanks in advance!
Video production is a "bitch"! It very hard to understand at first, especially for a still shooter. I use Adobe Production Suite CS3, Premier CS3 is the main professional video editing software in the suite. There's more to it than just editing a video clip, you also have sound, and format and...the list keeps growing! I'm still learning and I'll probably keep learning forever!
both of which have forums and advice online.
I would say that video editing on the PC (or Mac) is just like photo editing - only...
You think that photoshop wants fast hardware - wait until you try video editing!
It takes a lot lot lot longer!
I use Adobe Premiere/encore for most of my editing. One of the things that I find is that I am often leaving a process running over night as it renders video.
The learning curve for video is much greater than for photography (not necessarily the taking of the images/stills/video) the software is complex, the variety of codecs, output formats etc bewildering at first. The rewards are just as great though. When you shoot 8 hours of video footage, edit it down to a polished few minutes and watch that in your living room, it can be very rewarding.
Best
Andrew Stagg
Even the slowest graphics cards available today will be more than adequate for video editing, but if you can get a card that does direct capture you will have more capability. These are available from Matrox, ADS, Canopus or PInnacle, and some come bundled with video and audio editing software, usually Premiere. If you are using DV tape, your life will be much happier if you can get your hands on a DV deck so that you don't beat up your camera.
On board firewire is desirable, but an expansion card-firewire will work most of the time.
Memory - I used to run a video editing lab at a college - our machines were Pentium 3s 512 mb ram, Matrox capture (forgot which one), RAID 0 with dual 160 mb hard drives, running Win2k or XP. These were more than adequate for professional level production.
Clearly one can spend substantially more and get an Avid system and you will be able to use the industry standard, but as far as bang for the buck, the lower-cost systems will do a remarkably credible job.
Then you have to think about SoundForge or equivalent for audio editing.
I agree with the others that the learning curve for video editing is pretty long and slow. I bought Sony Vegas Platinum 9 as my editing package. It was less expensive than Adobe's offerings and seemed to have a good feature set. I've tried to use the video editing capabilities of PS CS3 Extended but without any luck. There are a good number of tools in Vegas but they work quite differently from PS.
From my limited experience so far, I think that composition is more important in video than still. It's more difficult to crop in video to remove something unwanted (at least it is for me so far).
Exposure control is important but seemingly less important in video. We, as photographers, get all bent out of shape if there are blocked shadows or blown highlights in a still photo. In video, while you can use filters, it's more difficult to do so overly bright or dark areas are more acceptable it seems. Someone with greater experience can certainly correct me if I'm wrong on that. Since trying to adopt video I've been paying more attention to things like exposure and flare in television and movie productions and it does seem like those things are more acceptable in video/film than still.
Whatever editing package you buy, I'd suggest finding a good book on it to help with the learning curve. I bought one when I got Vegas and I'm going to end up buying another because the one I did get is pretty poor.
When I went to the Finger Lakes in September I took some video footage and cut it into about a 90 second clip with sound and narration. Took a total of probably 5 or 6 hours to cut together maybe 10 minutes of video and a couple stills into a 90 second clip. It's no award winner to be sure but for a first effort it's not bad and in the end it was very satisfying to have the finished product.
I also downloaded Audacity which is a sound mixing utility and used it to edit the narration independently before importing it into Vegas.
Playback - the 5DII has HDMI out to TV
Newer macs can play H264 1080 30p 5DII video without problem. Some windows machine struggle. The primary issue is the video card needs to help with h264 processing. On windows, the free VLC media player works better than quicktime.
1080 30p is a lot of data. 2x the resolution and potentially 4x the data of 720p
On Mac, the free imovie will handle HD video, but apparently doesn't output at highest quality. The next step up from apple is Final Cut Express (~$200) and the highest version from apple is Final Cut Studio (~$1200).
Whatever product that is picked should be learned from a step by step tutorial. (book, video, class). Much like photoshop, trying to learn video editing by sitting down and playing with the software will be an exercise in frustration. But after learning the basics, sitting down and editing work you shot, adding music and stills, is rewarding.
Performance. Raid 0 for a work disk is common in HD video. Most common would be to use OSX manage the raid O. Storage is down to about $100 a terabyte for disk, which makes HD video more realistic. Forget using an USB connected drives, the first choice is sata/esate, the second choice is firewire 800.
For a laptop with Expresscard, the best esata adapter fro video:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Sonnet%20Technology/SATAIIPROE34/
I use these external cases:
http://www.provantage.com/enhance-technology-e8ml-slvr~4ENHN02H.htm
(Be sure to understand the difference between Port Multiplier and Multi Lane before buying an external case)