Fruiting Bodies - Short art piece with Wild Shrooms (GH13 80Mbps MJPEG)

[Shawn Storm]

um, for all those static shots with no movement in them you could just use a single frame from your video clip.....freeze the frame = no more wiggly jiggly. or just take a photo! there really is no reason to play the actual video clip if there's ZERO movement in the shot other than you holding the camera.

Thanks for the suggestion. I actually did try that, but it just looked weird to me. Instead of a video it became a photo slide show which didn't feel or look right to me. I wanted some kind of movement, even if it was the jitter of holding the camera. Honestly I thought it would look kind of cool and cohesive with the other footage, but then when I got to the post-process stage I realized it wasn't what I had hoped.

Anyways, lesson learned! I will obviously not do this again in future videos. I did manage to get FCP, so I might try running this through the stabilizing filter for the fun of it.

-Shawn-

 

[averan]

at least you tried it for yourself.
it was probably the extreme contrast in perfect stillness and tons of wiggling movement that conflicted. sometimes consistency is more effective than showing that 'perfect' shot. ie, a perfectly good story can be ruined by the pursuit of perfection!

another suggestion, apart from a gorillapod, try setting the camera on top of your backpack. or reversing the backpack so that you're wearing it in the front, then place the camera on top for more support. a folded-up jacket works well too. some people carry special bean bags for this purpose. i've even used one of those squishy styrofoam-ball-filled little pillows for a versatile, lightweight camera support.

 

[Shawn Storm]

I finally got FCP (YAY) and processed my video with the SmoothCam filter. It worked pretty well and although the footage is a little blurry as a result, it still looks decent.

So for all you jitter haters, here is the new version with much less jitter!

Cheers,
-Shawn-

 

[tflak]

Congratulations on FCP! Much less jitter and the softening isn't really noticeable at all. In fact, had this been your first embed, I'm guessing there wouldn't have been any comments about shaky footage and still lots of complimentary remarks on the image quality. Once again, I thoroughly enjoyed this.

 

[AdrianF]

I really enjoyed this, nice music and really photogenic subjects. I went mushrooming a couple of weeks ago, with my wife's cousin. He's a chef and really knows his shrooms. I hike all over my local area and constantly see different types, but I wouldn't pick any. Anyway, we had a good meal at the end of that day!

If you want something to use as a slider, you might be better off making something. Most of the support gear that you see on dvxuser isn't made for hiking with and generally people who shoot nature/outdoors/action sports have to be a little resourceful. I experimented with using telescopic ski poles this summer, as sliding rails. There is potential here I think. The problem is having a good way of fixing them and mounting to the tripod or on the ground. I'm still working on this idea, but if you can re use stuff that you might carry with you anyway, then it will help keep the load down.

 

[Shawn Storm]

Congratulations on FCP! Much less jitter and the softening isn't really noticeable at all. In fact, had this been your first embed, I'm guessing there wouldn't have been any comments about shaky footage and still lots of complimentary remarks on the image quality. Once again, I thoroughly enjoyed this.

Thanks much! I am pretty happy with this new version and I suppose I could apply a little bit of sharpening if I wanted the crisp look back, but the slight softening effect is also fine and I am sick of messing with this video anyways!

If you want something to use as a slider, you might be better off making something. Most of the support gear that you see on dvxuser isn't made for hiking with and generally people who shoot nature/outdoors/action sports have to be a little resourceful. I experimented with using telescopic ski poles this summer, as sliding rails. There is potential here I think. The problem is having a good way of fixing them and mounting to the tripod or on the ground. I'm still working on this idea, but if you can re use stuff that you might carry with you anyway, then it will help keep the load down.

I have been thinking of ways to make my own homemade slider since I haven't yet found anything online that looks perfect for hiking that is affordable. The tricky thing is that I live in the middle of nowhere and to get to a hardware store, thrift store, etc is at least a 2 hour drive. It is so much easier to just order something online.

-Shawn-