My Videos - Learng and Making Them

[Bamboopictures]

Congrats bro on your new status as Big Daddy! Savour the moments, and don't fall into the "spectator seat" of experiencing true moments only behind the lens. The best personal memories are ingrained by being truly immersed in the moment and not thinking about angles, lighting etc. Memories, not videos, are what dreams are made of! Enjoy your baby everyday, they grow really fast!

 

[daniyal]

Bamboopictures>>> Yes Bro. No No No. I do not want to be a spectator. I want to get down and dirty. I am. Seriously, it is tiring. Me and wife have been embracing new stage of our lives gracefully.

They grow really fast! - Tell me about it. Coming to almost 3 weeks, my boy already gained 500g. Not only, babies learn very very fast. You really need to catch up with them.

The video I made is just a reflection of the whole experience. It cannot ever replace or best depicts the emotions and sacrifices that me and my wife had to make. The pain that my wife gone through. Oh My God!! My utmost RESPECT to all women out there.

Everyday, it is a learning journey for me and my wife in providing the best for our baby. We are always adjusting to the baby's development.

Thank you for your well wishes Bro. Really appreciate it.

 

[daniyal]

MY VIDEOREEL FOR 2012

[youtubehd]JQb6WSCKChw[/youtubehd]

 

[pettypoh]

congrats bro!

good work on the showreel 2012 =) looked like a great year for you

 

[daniyal]

congrats bro!

good work on the showreel 2012 =) looked like a great year for you

Yupz. A great year of learning and exploring for me. Without your inputs, I could not have progress as much.

Looking forward to this year. 2013.

 

[daniyal]

15 FEBRUARY 2013

My Son's Circumcision Day

[youtubehd]AVf5FLo06lY[/youtubehd]


Boy, it all happened so fast and quick. Total of 8 minutes. The actual sniping, inserting, removing, it was all about 2 minutes.

I am proud of my son. He may not understand it and whatever I am saying. To see him there lying going through circumcision, it was my proudest moment to date as a dad. His calmness and his bravery reminds me of his mom during giving birth to him.

The doctor was pretty awesome in making us fully understand the procedure. Always telling us what to watch out for and what are the remedies. As first time parents, these kind of input and guidance is really beneficial to us. Thank you Ar-Raudah Clinic!

Praises to Allah that everything went smoothly. I pray all the best for my son for his future.

7 years down the road, this video will remind you that you already been circumcised, Muhammad Daniyal Rizqi.

On the technical side :-
I was using my GoPro 3 Black Edition.
Using PROTUNE ON in GoPro 3.
Shot in 30fps.
RAW format.

- RAW format was super flat. Even my DSLR could not get this super flat profile.
- I have difficulties in bringing out the colours. With my usual techniques, it did a little justice to the footages. Least, I have these flat footages to play around.
- I should have tilted the camera a little more downwards as I cannot capture 50% of the operation. I tilted about 80degrees. I should go for at least 70degrees or 60degrees facing downwards.
- Plus, I was scared as well, seeing those cutting apparatus. Phew...So pardon me for the bad footages. Couple of times I was turning away. Even the clinic assistant laughed at me.
- It is too wide for this kind of shots, I guess. It failed to capture the things that I want people to see.

I will try to come up with another video to show the difference between the original footages and the edited ones.

In the meantime, enjoy people!

 

[pettypoh]

hey daniyal, got to say, quite a bad footage ... coming from you, but totally understandable given the situation ... only the doctors and nurses are really trained to be calm, but at least you got some footage to re-look at in future and sometimes that's all that matters, no need for fancy edits or music, just the moment to bring back the memories

btw, did you have the waterproof casing on or did you change the back panel?

did you know if turn off protune mode, can have "live view" via the smartphone app?

 

[daniyal]

pettypoh>>> Yupz. Bad footages. I was disappointed myself. It has failed to capture what my eyes can see. I did try out the night before in terms of the capturing angle but it turned out not good. I also found out that it cannot capture the operation due to the doctor's light emitting from his head light. It was whiten out. Plus, I was so scared for my son. And I cannot bear to see the sniping of the skin and insertion of the ring. EeErrr...

When I got back, DAMN, should have brought my DSLR !! But then again, that's was not my main intention. I am carrying out my duty as a Muslim father. At least, I know what my GoPro 3 Black Edition can do. I will do another video test.

Video has attracted a lot of human rights "****ing" me up as a dad abusing my son. I am carrying out my duty as a Muslim. I have been through that process when I was 7 years old. Man, it was scary and painful. I do not want to put my son through that ordeal. Plus, at the age of 40 when my son is 7 years old, I do not think I have the energy to chase after him the whole block. This video I recorded, I wanted to use it as a learning lesson for my son in the future. My youngest brother was circumcised when he was baby. Imagine, a 13 year old boy do not know that he had been circumcised.

As a first time parent, sending his baby son for circumcision, I really do not know what to expect. I hope this video will shed some light on what happen and its procedure for other first time parents that want to send their baby for circumcision. Plus, the doctor was kind enough to let me record the video. Thanks pettypoh. Your comments provide me some comforts. I really appreciate it.

On my GoPro3 set-up :-
- I had the casing on.
- I had the LCD display pack on. Everything happened so fast that I got no time to adjust the angle. Plus, the doctor has specific job for a dad to do. Hold down the baby's knees and say some prayers.
- With the LCD display pack on, the sound recording is freaking bad. I believe, the LCD display is an attachment. If it was built in, the sound recording will much much better.

ProTune
- Yes pettypoh. I know about the Iphone display. The problem is, I never use Ipod or Ipad. So I do not know whether it can be used on a Android phone.
- Plus, it will be using wireless connection. This will eat up the battery faster.
- Anyway, I was trying to shoot RAW. Just to see the difference. My DSLR cannot shoot RAW. Seriously, the RAW format in GoPro3 is commendable. I was so happy when the footages captured was super duper flat and a little bit grayish. I had difficulties in bringing out the colours using my basic techniques and workflow.
- Another that I realise, footages taken using GoPro, it seems that RGB was well balanced. Actually it is not. It will clip your highlights and your shadows at least about 20%. When you bring it down to 0-100% range, only then you can see the imbalance of the RGB spectrum.

Once again, thank you pettypoh for taking your time off to watch the video and provide some inputs.

 

[pettypoh]

daniyal, i do agree the video's a bit "sensitive" but if viewed with the correct mindset, i really don't see anything wrong, but of course everybody is entitled to their own views and opinions =)

anyway ... for the gopro app, yes it works for andriod platform as well. i have tested it to work properly, just that if protune is turned on, there's no "live view", with protune turned off, can see live (with about 2 sec lag) of what you are shooting ... good for framing shots, i guess

how did you shoot RAW on gopro? i haven't tried that setting yet ... do you mean using protune = shooting in raw mode?

i find the video in gopro3 not really sharp (or as sharp as i would like it to be) .... still figuring out how to get the videos to be sharp (like in their advertisement feature video)

 

[daniyal]

pettypoh>>> Thanks pettypoh for your kind words. I believe the video in some ways may inflict some discomfort among viewers. I would just take them in my stride. Thanks Brother.

Noted with regards to the Android platform.

Go to settings.
> Capture Settings
>> White Balance
>>> Select Camera RAW.
** PROTUNE must be turned on.

Not sharp. From the way I see it, it is acceptable. The advertisment feature video, I was amazed with its colours range.

Possibly, you can try my method if you are using Premiere Pro.

- Unsharpen mask layer
Set the amount to 38 and radius to 19
- Another Unsharpen mask layer
Set the amount to 18 and radius to 9
- Use your RGB curves to set the highlights and shadows ---- S shape on the graph
Bring down your highlights slightly below 100 and bring up your shadows slightly above 0 before you make the S shape graph.
- Use your fast colour corrector
Try to use this settings, shadows - 15, mid - 1.1, highlights - 235.
- Sharpen layer
Play around between 0 - 30, see which one you prefer. Zoom in at 400% when doing this.

Hope it helps.

 

[daniyal]

19 MARCH 2013

[youtubehd]JqwEoQY8JwY[/youtubehd]

It is no joke video shooting under the hot sun ! Got sun-burnt on my forehead ! Challenges that comes with it. My oh my.

For this video, my approach was to try capturing with aperture full open. 90% of the clips are shot at F1.4 with ND Fader. I want to get that bokeh feel or isolation.

The thing I realized is that seriously, shooting under hot sun is quite challenging.

- Even you have adjusted your exposure within the "limits" with the help of histogram and ND fader, you can still clip your highlights or "burned" your highlights. So, bright sunny day, expose your clips more towards the shadow using the histogram.
- YOU MUST HAVE FADER !! I did some testing. Especially when shooting the sky and clouds. You need it. Make your job easier when you are trying to bring the colours out in post. Without a filter, I need to increase my F-stops which could result in me not having that bokeh look. Yes, I may get the clouds and the blue sky in good exposure but my subject could be too dark in the shadows area. Plus, by increasing the F-stops, your composition can be too dark or underexposed. Bringing up the brightness level in post could not bring the same results. Know your "sweetspot" that works for you and your art direction.
- Get a viewfinder. It really made my experience a lot easier and I can better composed my clips. I get a cheap one. VFinder. The sticky on the magnet was very bad that it got peeled off. So I adapt. I only use it when I want to compose my clips. Sun shades did help but it cannot 100% isolate the sun reflections bouncing off your shirt.
- You need to complete your scenes within a time frame. Why? All because of the sun. I had to re-shoot couple of scenes because of the intensity of the sun light. It was way way off.
- You need to pace yourself and the process. If not, people might get turn off. Due to the heat.

Get a FADER ! I am using Hercules Variable Fader.

I have to thank a fellow forumer who helped me in this shoot and shared his experiences, Bro Incubus. Because of him, I learned about natural lighting. What is harsh lighting and why it is bad. Avoid 12pm - 3pm. This is when the sun could kill or burnt your colours. I learned a thing or two about photography as well. Thanks Bro Incubus, I really owe you many many!

Again, Get a FADER and a ViewFinder !

 

[pettypoh]

Upz for you ... nice feel and music mix ... 2 points from me

1 - make up
2 - costume

I think these were the 2 visual impacts slightly lacking.

 

[daniyal]

pettypoh>>> noted on your points.

Make Up wise, they did put on make up but the sun just killed it. I am going to figure this out. Need to do some video testing. Seriously, I first thought that this shoot going to be easy because I have abundance of natural light. Boy, am I so wrong.

Costume wise, I am breaking away from the normal where couples wear their wedding costume or nice clothes. I just want to them to be them.

Thanks Bro. You should know I really appreciate your honest comments.

Every clips in the video, all was shot with different settings just to keep them in composed. Major headache. I was trying my best to keep them consistent by using the histogram but it gives me different results.

00:20-00:23 and 00:34-00:37 >>> these are the results that I really really want to get and I GET IT. I was so freaking happy. Still, you can observe some burnt highlights on the shirt even though I already get the exposure under control.

Need to do some reading up and tips about shooting under a sunny day or shooting with natural light.

Thanks Bro for taking time off your busy schedule to watch and scrutinize my video.

 

[pettypoh]

did you shoot with stabiliser this time or just tripod or got some new toy? =)

 

[daniyal]

pettypoh>>>

Equipment used :-
1. Stabilizer
2. Monopod
3. Samyang 35mm
4. Canon 60D / 550D
5. Hercules Variable Fader

New toy?? My vitamin M on the low side. Heheheheh. Shifting to new house and adapting to Dad's life.

 

[daniyal]

15 MAY 2013

[youtubehd]dXEhTtwO9K0[/youtubehd]

Got myself an opportunity to cover a paintball tourney event. Singapore Paintball Series 2013 - 3 on 3 Challenge. Really appreciate SPS Committee, especially the tournament director, for allowing and providing me another learning video gig. I have always wanted to give back to the local paintball community in a way or another. Besides playing, videography is another way.

Prior to this shoot, I have done couple of paintball videos. I did not manage to get the results that I wanted. So, did some testings along the way. Googling on slow mo techniques. Bought myself a GoPro 3 Black Edition. Finally, I am happy with the results that I got with regards to slow mo. It may not be up to the standard. I really appreciate the difference.

1. 180 degree rule.
- I broke the 180 degree rule. I was shooting this event at the shutter speed of 1/4000. Based on what I have gathered on the internet, we need to shoot at the higher shutter speed as to minimize the motion blur when doing slow mo. And yes, it did minimize the slow mo.
- General rule, higher shutter speed less motion blur.
- 60fps at 1/4000

2. Exposure
- By increasing your shutter speed, it really really really affect your exposure badly. Imagine, under the hot sun, fantastic lighting, I was shooting at ISO setting ranging from 1000 to 2000.
- By doing so, noise will be present in the clips. Can't help it. I rather have noisy clips than not having one at all.

3. AUTO
- As the tourney progressed, so do my irritations. The heat is killing me. Meddling with settings every time is driving me nuts. So I decided to go on AUTO WB and AUTO ISO just for an hour.
- I reviewed the footages that I took and at the same, I took a break. I would say the clips were rather safe but it is more incline towards the shadows and blacks area. Plus, it gave this orange color cast. I know with these kind of clips, I will have horrible time in post.
- My take on this, the clips are still workable and pretty.

4. Editing
- When I compared my previous paintball slow mo editing experience to this one, way much much better.
- Minimal warping. The warping around the edges ever present but not much this time around.
- This time around, I can interpret my 60 frames to 12 frames. A faster way. Compared previously, I can only interpret it at 25 frames. Before it starts to have this "jittery" effect.
- Another faster way, this time around, I can reduce the speed up to 30% compared to the previous experiences of only 50%.
- Twixtor way, I can slow mo all the way to 5% compared to my previous paintball videos where only managed to slow mo 50%. BUT you need to choose the action if using this twixtor way. You cannot have abrupt or sudden movement. If not, you will have Ghost Trails or Warping around the edges.

5. Lastly,
- Sony FS700 or Phantom Flex or any High Speed cameras are the way to go if we are going to do any super duper slow mo. In my humble opinion.
- I bought myself a GoPro 3 which can shoot at 720fps. AND YES. Super duper easy to edit. Less hassle. Problem is, I cannot bring the action closer to me.

ViewFinder
- I brought along a viewfinder. I found it very difficult to use it with my paintball mask on.

Equipment used :-
Canon 60D
Tamron 70-300
Canon kit lens 18-135 (Need to save up for a faster lens.)
Konova slider

Hope you guys like the video. As usual, I welcome any feedbacks. Good or Bad. Positives or Negatives. All I take.

 

[daniyal]

11 JULY 2013

[youtubehd]d64fs-_xqs4[/youtubehd]

Sharing my personal experience.

I am trying to move away from the "normal" wedding video. I tried adding the couple's love story embedded in their wedding event coverage. Personally, I felt the vibe is good because I am shedding some light into the couple's love journey. Compared to my previous wedding videos where it is just about the couple big day and the wedding event coverage itself with music playing in the background.

Shooting Mode
- I am more confident with the number of hours that I have clocked in. So far, the challenges that comes with this wedding shoot, I am able to overcome them.
- I am more steady in terms of planning and organizing my logistics, shot-lists, etc.
- I personally felt that I need to improve in the areas like preparing the script for the couples so that they can better expressed themselves.
- Another area that I need to learn and explore is the Creative Shots and Video Compositions. It seems I do not have the knack of it.

Editing Mode
- I really need to learn more about color grading and how to make my videos sharper in post. My only solution right now, is the sharpness in my camera. I think I should not have clicked them all the way to the left. Should just left at the middle mark. Perhaps, this could help in my videos more sharper.
- Still, the process of choosing the good clips is really painful. This couple alone, a total of 134GB of footages. The highest amount of data I have shot to date.

Canon 700D
- My 2nd cameraman, got a 700D on loan from Canon for him to review. He gave me to use for the day as he is not comfortable using it. He just taking precautions as not to "destroy" the couple's big day.
- For me, What The Heck, Just shoot.
- Honestly, I am not good at reviewing stuffs. Still, I just want to share what my experience in using 700D comparing to 60D.

1. AUTO WB / ISO
- The transitions when you panning is so obvious. It is just not flickering. You can see the colour changes which is so obvious. Unlike my 60D, the changes is subtle and minimal. With 60D, you can spot the transitions in post after viewing it so many times. With 700D, you can see them when you play back.

2. Kelvin Function
- It is not available. I believe it will come handy when you need it.

3. Swivel LCD Screen
- You got to love the swivel LCD screen. And it is touch screen. Woo Hoo!! Browsing the menu and functions using the touch screen is way much more fun and easier compared to using the dial button.

4. Overheating
- I have shot 17 minutes continuously on 700D. So I am not sure how long before it gets overheated. I have shot with Canon 550D. It only takes about 5-7 minutes before it gets overheated. Like my 60D, I have shot way beyond 35 minutes and still no sign of overheating.

Basically, that pretty much what happened this time around.

If there any comments and feedback, please do drop them.

 

[frozentomtom]

20 July 2012


EXPOSURE
- During this wedding, I tried out 2 approach. A little bit of Underexposed and Dun Clip Your Highlights. Whatever it is, go for the latter approach. Dun Clip Your Highlights. It produced better quality images.
- Both approach will help you retain details in your footages but the Underexposed footages doesn't work 100% for me.
- Use the histogram to gauge your composition and not to clip your highlights.

What do you mean by "Dun Clip Your Highlights"? Underexposed is good for still photography, but they are a no-no for movie mode?

 

[daniyal]

frozentomtom>>> "Dun Clip Your Highlights" - It is not a no-no for movie mode. With my 60D set up and with regards to the 20th July 2012 shoot, I realized that shooting underexposed in movie mode, produce a lot of noise when you try to increase the contrast and brightness in-post. If I pushed my exposure more to the right in the histogram, I found that editing is much more easier. The noise is not really an eyesore. Especially in the shadows.

There are instances, not much light is available at certain functions. So I will push my exposure more to the right, just not to clip the highlights. Instances like these
- https://vimeo.com/53657029
- https://vimeo.com/46534719

There are instances, where I found the light available is just nice. So, I will adjust my exposure accordingly, preferably in the middle of the histogram. Bearing in my mind that I may want to push the exposure more to the right just in case there is a change in the light availability.
- https://vimeo.com/70237996
- https://vimeo.com/54774224

There are also instances, where the light is of great abundance. I need to ND Fader just to control the exposure. I will push the exposure more to the left. Bearing in my mind not to go too underexposed with regards to the noise.
- https://vimeo.com/62140912

With my paintball videos, it quite a headache. Because I have to consider my shutter speed and ISO setting as well. Like this video, I was shooting at 60fps, 1/2000 and ISO 3200 or 6400. I still cannot push my exposure more to the right. I can't do much with my Tamron 70-300 as it is not able to give me a constant F-stop when I zoom in or out.
- https://vimeo.com/66370421

Everytime when I shoot, I will try my best to get good exposed footages. Minimizing noise. When in post, you will add layers of treatment. These layers will enhance the noise in the footage, just like the paintball video above. That's the reason I am suggesting "Dun Clip Your Highlights" so that when you add layers of treatment in post, your noise will not be so obvious.

I am just sharing my mistakes. If you feel I can do certain things better or I am doing things wrongly, do not hesitate to correct me. I am willing to learn. Shoot me.

I am not too sure about photography though. I do ask my friends who are photographers. They said the same thing as you. I have accompanied a friend before for a outdoor shoot. Initially, I don't understand why he need 4 flash lights to take photo of the couple in broad daylight in the park. Thanks to him, he explained why. To him, he cannot afford noise and lose the details in a photo.

Thank you so much for taking the time to browse through the thread and post questions.

 

[frozentomtom]

29th September 2012



AUDIO RECORDING
- I just dun believe it. Along the way to the event venue, I dropped by SPC and Shell petrol station. THEY DUN SELL 9V BATTERY!!! I can't use my shot-gun mic.
- I have to rely on Canon 60D internal audio system, which I think the results is pretty decent. But you need to crank the recording level down to 25% if not, it will pick up the

You mean you set your 60D internal audio to 25% level? wouldn't you have problem recording the subject voice, being too soft?