Andrew Satter @asatter discusses innovative video techniques. Ryan Jackson @ryan_jackson talks about his 360-video projects and an open discussion on video with the audience happens at the end. Enjoy! Sept. 22, 2012 at Online News Association annual conference ONA12 in San Francisco. http://www.ryanjackson.ca http://www.asatter.com
Ashley and I are driving back to Edmonton from San Francisco and I have limited internet connectivity so this blog post will be fully updated with links and quotes in a couple days.P.S. If you ever get a chance to drive the west coast, DO IT!
This is a super duper quick list of the links I’ll be sharing at the #ONAunconf Unconference session at the 2012 ONA conference in San Francisco
Try to do something different. NOT TV. “make something worth talking about” – Seth Godin.
-Multimedia — use best tool to do the job. … sometimes video, sometimes sound slides, sometimes panoramas, sometimes interactives.
– I want there to be a holodeck like on Star Trek!
-I want to have the news beamed into my brain like in the Matrix or Simpsons.
PICTURE
-We’re going to get there before you know it
-28 mins of video here. people spent WAY more time on it than if it was just a normal linear video.
-think backwards. how do you wish you could watch long videos that are boring?
Immersive Video
-Best viewed on iPad.
-now this is cheesy but think of it as a little town. You could do panoramas of a small town or neighborhood and make it so you go to each section and talk to people.
-360 video on a Roller Coaster
-Start with one thing and build build build on it.
-i use KRpano.
-interfaces with VR headsets and game controllers.
-360 isn’t for everything
-A LOT OF TIME.
-must be super duper interesting topic to get good ROI
-must be something worth looking around for.
The Alberta Legislature building turned 100 years old this year and I was put on the fun project of profiling people who have worked at the Legislature for a long time. I also wanted to capture an epic image of the building from a different perspective.
The Alberta Legislature in Edmonton on August 21, 2012. The building turned 100-years-old this year. This image was created by stitching three separate images together into a panorama. (Ryan Jackson / Edmonton Journal)
A view of the Alberta Legislature building from the roof of the Annex building in Edmonton on August 23, 2012. (Ryan Jackson / Edmonton Journal)
A view of the Alberta Legislature building from the roof of the Annex building in Edmonton on August 23, 2012. (Ryan Jackson / Edmonton Journal)
A view of the Alberta Legislature building minutes after a severe rain storm taken from the roof of the Annex building in Edmonton on August 23, 2012. (Ryan Jackson / Edmonton Journal) This is a High Dynamic Range HDR image created from a single RAW image using PhotoMatix Pro.
Ruth Walkters maintains the plants in the building and decorates it for special occasions. She poses for a photo in the Legislature building in Edmonton on August 16, 2012. The Legislature turned 100 years old this year. (Ryan Jackson / Edmonton Journal) Shot available light. Canon 5D Mark-II. 85mm f1.2L lens. ISO160, f1.2, 1/200.
Ruth Walters maintains the plants in the building and decorates it for special occasions. She poses for a photo in the Legislature building in Edmonton on August 16, 2012. The Legislature turned 100 years old this year. (Ryan Jackson / Edmonton Journal)
Canon 5D Mark-II. 85mm f1.2 lens at f1.2. ISO100.
For this image I used strobes so that her watering can would pop more.
Judith Benson, a specialist in government documents as been a librarian at the Alberta Legislature for 26 years. She poses for a photo in the library of the Legislature building in Edmonton on August 21, 2012. The Legislature turned 100 years old this year. (Ryan Jackson / Edmonton Journal) Camera: 5D Mark-II, 24mm f1.4L, ISO 160, F14, 1/200.
June Barker has been a tour guide at the Alberta Legislature for nearly 23 years. She poses for a photo in the rotunda of the Legislature building in Edmonton on August 21, 2012. The Legislature turned 100 years old this year. (Ryan Jackson / Edmonton Journal) Canon 5D Mark-II, 24mm f3.5L Tilt-Shift lens, ISO640, F11, 1/13s. I used the 24mm tilt-shift lens to make all the lines straight. I used a slow shutter speed so I could get the background lights. The background is pretty overexposed but its better than the horrible tungsten lighting.
June Barker has been a tour guide at the Alberta Legislature for nearly 23 years. She poses for a photo in the rotunda of the Legislature building in Edmonton on August 21, 2012. The Legislature turned 100 years old this year. (Ryan Jackson / Edmonton Journal) For this image I turned the strobes all the way down to 2.5 w/s and shot wide open f1.2 with my 85mm f1.2 lens.
Alberta Legislature maintenance supervisor Terry LeBlanc stands on the roof beside the building’s cupola on August 20, 2012. The Legislature turned 100 years old this year. (Ryan Jackson / Edmonton Journal)Canon 5D Mark-II, ISO50, F10, 1/200. Alienbees Einstein strobes.I used the Canon 24mm tilt-shift lens to correct perspective as I was shooting down low.
A panoramic view of the rotunda in the Alberta Legislature in Edmonton on August 22, 2012. This image was created by stitching multiple pictures together. (Ryan Jackson / Edmonton Journal)
I used a GigaPan Epic Pro with a 5D-Mark II and a 50mm f1.2 lens for the Panorama.
Here is my camera mounted on the roof of the Annex building. I set the Canon 1D Mark-III with a 24-105mm lens to take three photos every five minutes. One normal exposure, one -1 stop and one +1 stop. The camera shot RAW and had a 32GB card in it. After three days I just picked the best photos.
Here you can see my lighting setup. I used a large octo-box to give a soft light on Ruth. I had a hair light behind her with a grid on it to narrow the beam. I had one more flash on the ground to pop a little light onto the watering can. This helps separate the can from her black pants. Also notice I got her to stand up on a chair. This was so she would be at the same height as the windows. Otherwise I would have to shoot down low which is unflattering for most portraits.
Here’s me in action. Photo by Karen Kleiss
Here you can see the Paul C. Buff PLM reflector in action. Notice how BIG and net NARROW the light beam is. Normal umbrellas spread the light in all directions where this reflector gives big light that is directional and falls off sharply.
Here is how the background lights were setup. Just normal reflectors on the strobes. Journal reporter Karen Kleiss helped move all the books.
Here’s me in action. Photo by Karen Kleiss. The PLM reflector is so big you can stand in front of it.
Here’s me in action. I LOVE the Paul C. Buff PLM reflector! Photo by Karen Kleiss.
Here is my lighting setup for the portrait of June. I hid the two background lights behind the pillars.
Up on the roof of the Alberta Legislature. One of my favorite things about working for the Edmonton Journal is getting access to cool places that are normally off limits.
For the portrait on the roof I just used two Alienbees Einstein strobes at full power to balance the sun.
The palm room in the main dome of the Alberta Legislature in Edmonton on August 24, 2012. The trees are over 80 years old and no one knows exactly where they came from. (Ryan Jackson / Edmonton Journal)
For the 360-degree panorama of the palm room I suspended my 360-degree camera with three 20-pound-test fishing lines. The camera weighs less than five pounds so I had 55-pounds of safety.
I was so terrified to suspend my camera six stories above the ground but it payed off!
In 2011 the U of A broke the record again and captured it with a 360-degree video camera that I built.
This year the record would be set again with 5,000 students participating. I figured this was a great opportunity to do a GigaTag where you make a GigaPan image and link it with Facebook so all 5,000 participants can tag themselves and their friends on Facebook.
I’ve shot dozens and dozens of panoramas over the years and one challenge is always movement between frames. I wanted to capture a GigaPan image of the 2012 World Record Dodgeball Game but it would be impossible with one camera shooting multiple images.
The solution?
Here is my crazy “Octo-Cam” made from aluminum and eight Canon Rebel T2i’s with 50mm f1.8 lenses. Each camera shoots 18 megapixels and when I stitched the images together with PTgui I can create a 220MP panorama!
Photo by Fish Griwkowsky.
AMAZING thanks to Don’s Photo for lending me the eight Canon Rebel T2i cameras and Canon 50mm f1.8 lenses.
I went to Metal Supermarkets with my design and they cut all of the 2″ x 4″ aluminum for me in an hour! In total it only cost about $120.
It took about eight hours to drill and assemble the frame and another eight hours to wire everything together. I used a PocketWizard Multi-Max to trigger the cameras.
Eight cameras means eight battery chargers! I was amazed that the batteries were able to last for over 2,700 images. They weren’t even dead!
Stitching test photos with PTgui. The final resolution depends on how much overlap you have between images.
I had PTgui interpolate the image to make it the maximum 25,000 pixels wide that JPEG allows.
Posted by ryanjackson on Dec 26, 2011 in GigaPan, photos
Edmonton Welcomes the World â??Team Canada for the 2012 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship pose for a team photo before their practice skate at Rexall Place in Edmonton on December 25, 2011. (Ryan Jackson / Edmonton Journal)
For the 2012 World Junior Hockey Championship in Edmonton and Calgary I captured a bunch of multi-gigapixel panoramas using a GigaPan Epic Pro.
Here’s me setting up our GigaPan Epic Pro at Folk Fest. Photo by Jack Bawden. I used a 1D Mark-IV and a 24-105mm F4L lens to make the panorama. I would have rather used a longer lens like a 200 or 300mm to get more detail but I only had the first three songs to shoot.
