In going back and forth between Phase and Leaf these last few weeks, the one thing sticking in my mind is the beautiful quality of the Leaf preview in LC11. I’ve been using slide mode when we call the client over for approval, and it’s great how beautiful that big fat preview is even in a full screen display. On the other hand, I’ve been getting pummeled with C1 3.7.7’s jaggy previews, to the tune of shooter’s not wanting to look at it and food stylists having a fit because “it looks fuzzy” (hint: it’s a preview cool food guy). Usually I just process out a quick jpeg and that soothes things over, but really, do I need to be doing this? I’m hoping that c1 4.0 will put an end to this, but in the meantime better previews in the next release would give me some relief. I do wonder if at times this C1 4.0 is a Leaf v10 redux…meaning so much time is spent gearing up for and refining the Next Great Release, that little resources are spent on the current version, leaving us all to scramble for our own workarounds until the Great Rapture vXX.X finally arrives. Leaf took a major hit this way, and Phase would be well warned not to go down this path. Yes, I still love C1, it does so many things so well, but better previews now would make me and my clients much happier until the big 4.0 debuts. If anyone has a magic preview workaround, feel free to chime in.
Oh, and in C1 if your image tags seem to magically change from “RAW” to “TIFF” or vice-versa, check the software version of C1. If you don’t have the latest you might see some weirdness in the tags and elsewhere. The latest backs need the latest software…funny how that works.
Just a heads up to all you who might have a hankerin to use live preview/video with LC11. You must install LC11 with the video dongle inserted into a usb port while installing. Otherwise cute little things like the dongle not lighting up and no live video button seem to happen. The method to the madness is 1) install LC11 w/dongle. 2) reset prefs 3) repair permissions, and finally 4) restart the machine and you’re flying high again. Thanks to my friend and fellow tech Winnie Au for bringing this to my attention. Now if we can get her to pass on her thoughts about how live video performs in LC11 we’d be stylin’. Come on Winnie, please???
So on July 4th I leave for Paris for 6 days on vacation. Then I hop on a plane to Greece for a 7 day job. I was wondering if anyone has any recommendations on where to stay (area, hotels, etc.) while in Paris.
I am currently on a new catalog job and it seems that there are some minor problems. First of all, the creative director asked specifically for RAW files and told us that the lab would be doing the processing. Secondly, I came into this job in the middle of it. The other tech left good notes, but there were no notes on processing files. Now the cr. director is sitting at home trying to drop RAW files into her Quark layouts – not going to work! She calls me to ask why they won’t go in. I explain that she has to use a processed file. Then she asks where are they? I explain to her that she asked for all RAW files and told us that she would be editing via printed contact sheets. So now I am running between computers, processing JPG’s, emailing them off (hoping that her server won’t start bouncing them) and also downloading cards for the stuff we are shooting today – fixing color, exposure, backing up, printing, etc. And also fixing the photographer’s blackberry (a skill that isn’t necessarily required, but greatly appreciated and may even yield you a bottle of fine tequila)
The information provided to us by the client was thin and conflicting with the cr. director’s wishes. It isn’t a huge pain – just a small one. Getting the information up front is very important. This situation is a bit different, in that the client doesn’t even really know what they need. You’d figure that if they’ve done this once our twice in the past that they’d be able to clarify a little better, but we cannot assume what a client is going to want or need.
I had another situation last week where the art director said that a Thursday delivery of files would be ok. So on Wednesday she calls wondering where the files are and she is livid when i tell her they won’t be there until Thursday morning. She insists that she said Wednesday…but she didn’t and its my word against hers. What can I do. Email JPG’s just as I am doing now. A few days ago I am on set bright and early in the morning. I am asking the assistants where we should set up. What equipment we should use – they work with the photographer, they should know what he wants (he is nowhere to be found, by the way…neither is the producer) so instead of being well organized and on it, I spend the first day struggling to keep it all together, making prints and keeping everyone happy. Meanwhile, the photographer is running around shooting while tethered to the laptop and I am carrying around a tripod/laptop setup while he runs up and down a hill. I shouldn’t complain, I need the exercise and I spend so much of my time on my ass anyway.
This industry requires such a thick skin and the unique ability to deal with difficult and very disorganized people and to do it without being difficult and disorganized yourself. Assume as much as you can, keep a smile on your face and for god’s sake, cover your ass!
Ok, after a few days on set with the P45+ I have a few things to say. First off is the new display. I like it. Bright and crisp and a definite improvement over the last, though if you mainly shoot tethered, it doesn’t really help that much. I think shooting to cards on location would be much easier with this display. Also, I like how the histogram displays exposure info like shutter and aperture now. Menu navigation is just like the past. Iso 400 is better, not great, I’ll still be sticking to my preferred base of 100iso for now. Quickly got the live preview up and running, although on an H2, you have to put it in “T” mode first… can’t wait for a large format shoot to see how this thing flies. Overall so far, so good. Whether it’s worth the upgrade price is too soon to tell.
One last thing before I go on set: If you’re an assistant and you want me to take you seriously, don’t wear flip-flops to the shoot. Ever. I’m gonna try hard not to crack up when a grip head smashes your toes. Thanks to John Harrington over at the excellent Photo Business News & Forum for bringing this up.
Oh yeah, just got handed a P45 with that diminutive “+” symbol on the back, and all I can say is sweet! Looks like the entire week is plus-sized, so I’ll be letting you know in almost real time.
Feast on Us just rolled in…this week is getting off to a great start. Hope all of you have the same.
Of course you start a site and you expect to post to it every day. Then you get booked 15 days straight and the last thing you think about is coming home and sitting in front of the computer again. The first leg of this job went really well. It was catalog so not all that overly interesting although the people I was working with were fantastic – all very nice, no real drama, a few glitches here and there but nothing major. The best part is I obtained a few examples of what an image looks like with the shutter breaks on a Canon 1DS Mark II.
We switched to the Canon 5D. I haven’t had a ton of experience with this camera, however, I have to say that the file is quite nice and for anyone who cannot afford a 1DS Mark II, you can obtain nearly the same results. I was down at the retouching company after the day and someone was printing 5D files. I took a look at a 30 x 40 Digital C-Print. I was blown away. The transitions in the gradation of sky were impeccable. Banding was not apparent at any distance. Noise is much more noticeable at that size but I have seen worse with 4 x 5 film scans at comparable sizes. I wasn’t overly impressed with the shadow detail – It seemed to drop flat in the darkest shadows but I am sure a little levels adjustment could fix that pretty easily. There also wasn’t any noticeable pixilation in the image, which says to me that you really wouldn’t notice a difference between a 5D and a Mark II file at that size or smaller.
So the shoot goes on for 4 more days then on to 4 more days of something else out of town. I am on hold for something immediately after that so I am looking at 30 days straight work. I’m not complaining. It makes up for a very slow May. There is also a possibility of 8 days in Greece that I am crossing my fingers will come to fruition. It’s actually an assisting gig that pays very little but I am all about going to Greece.
Ok, after my umpteeenth day on set, I’ve got to mention this quirk with C1 ver 3.7.7. and the P30. Sometimes when the back is “retransmitting lost data” the preview will come in and then go black. Sometimes it waits awhile before doing so. Fortunately it happens about one in 600-1000 captures, and the raw file is intact, so while I know that I need to trash prefs and the previews to see if the problem goes away, for the time being I’d rather think it’s a tiny little gremlin living in my Mac Pro tower. He’s pretty harmless for the time being so I’ll let him live. If he starts screwing with me big time, it’s war baby. If anyone else has seen this happen to them please drop a line and tell us how you’ve dealt with it.
I’ve been waiting since our test session to put LC11 to task on a live shoot. After three days on a Phase shoot, I finally got my chance. WARNING!!! there is a ten minute firmware update when moving to v11…if you’re not confident in using v10 or later, you might want to wait on this until you’ve become comfortable with the latest versions of Leaf Capture (I know many people that are diehard 8.4.x users…until very recently I was one of them.). This also means a ten minute wait in reverse, if you decide to revert to an earlier version, although at this point I can’t see why you would want to. Leaf does mention this in their release notes, which is why we should read the release notes every time we install anything; right? Anyway, LC11 rocked. I had no connection problems until I plugged in my pocket drive to backup, which I did to see how v11 would behave. It kicked the camera off, as most capture software does, and a simple quit and restart of the software had me back up and running. After that, the day went smoothly with adjustments and processing perfoming just like they should. Please Leaf, batch rename, PLEASE???? And can we adjust the file numbering? I’ve never had a shoot where we needed 9999 or 10000 consecutive shots. Heck, most of the time 999 is sufficient.
So, aside from a little griping, I’m a happy tech when it comes to v11 so far. What I need next is a good ol’ full blown fashion shoot to see how things go when Mr/Ms. bigwig shooter is hammering on the shutter, stuffing the buffer and trying to cram 50 captures in a minute…that’s when any capture software is put to the test.
I just have to mention this caterer that I’ve had the fortune to run into on my last few shoots. They’re called “Feast on Us” and they rock. I don’t know if the fried chicken was actually fried, because it was light and fluffy, but it was slammin’. Ditto for the mashed taters and mini corncobs too. I love the size of the entrees, because you can grab some stuff and get on with the shoot…I’m not one of the sit and yap types; there’s always something to be done on set and techs never have enough time, grabbing some of this food keeps me going and makes me a happier, better working camper. If you need a NYC caterer, use’em. You won’t be left wanting.
Feast on Us
645 Hudson St.
NY, NY 10014
212.242.8231
