UPDATE: I’m updating the video on Vimeo to be higher res and there’s a youtube version on the way for you iPhone users…

Quick 1 Hour RAW Conversion of a Wedding with Adobe Lightroom from Matthew Panzarino on Vimeo.

See some sample images after the jump:

Images are exported with the same settings and calibration I use for my lab.

These are linked to the files.

Especially disappointing to folks coming from film, shutter lag is a short delay, sometimes called a “lag”, between when you press the shutter release and when the picture is taken. This problem is probably the number one complaint that I get from people about digital cameras and unfortunately there’s not a lot you can do to eliminate it entirely. But there are a few things you can do to minimize it.
It helps to know what causes shutter lag to begin with. When you press the shutter release, your camera has to do a lot of things, like focus, measure and set the exposure, adjust the white balance etc..

So how do you fix it? Well you can help to shorten the delay by doing some of those things in advance! When you sense a picture opportunity coming up, press the shutter down HALFWAY to lock in the focus, either on the subject, or on a location where they are going to be (a diving board, or home base!) then wait for the right moment to take the shot… and press the shutter the rest of the way to catch the action with a much shorter delay!

Most digital cameras have this “2 Position” shutter and this technique, called Pre-Focusing is one even the pros use! It may take a little practice to get the technique down, but the change in your pictures will be priceless! So to sum up, Kids + Movement + Digital Camera? Pre-Focus!

As you flesh out your camera equipment with new specialty lenses and bodies, it can be difficult to decide between lenses with similar zoom ranges or purposes. It’s hard to decipher marketing speak from reality as far as image quality and usability are concerned. I am always on the lookout for sites that give a focused, comprehensive look at a particular manufacturers lenses and equipment instead of trying to spread themselves too thin and give brief reviews on a lot of different systems.

One such site is www.the-digital-picture.com. Site owner Bryan Carnathan has an expansive archive of reviews and assessments of Canon lenses and bodies along with lens recommendations and comparisons for people who are having a hard time choosing the right lens or wondering if a lens is as good as another they already have.

There is also an expansive lens FAQ and suggestions on buying and maintaining used lenses. It’s definitely worth a bookmark so you can consult it before your next purchase!

Usually people that argue the first point are lacking one fundamental understanding about digital photography, the fact that it is actually a two part process, capturing and post processing. In this light, it is actually closest to old fashioned shoot-and-develop in the darkroom type photography! With a roll of traditional black and white film, the image wasn’t finished when you shot the picture, it was processed in chemistry, many times by hand and then printed once again by hand in a darkroom, which brings us to point two, artistic integrity.
Many “fine art” film photographers are moaning about the flexibility of digital photography meaning that it isn’t “true photography”. Hmm, doesn’t this argument sound a bit familiar? News flash, traditional darkroom techniques are JUST as manipulative as digital darkroom techniques! Where do you think that most digital post processing takes it’s inspiration? A quick look at any toolbar in almost any photo editing program reveals an exposure adjustment, a selective burning or dodging tool and a set of filters, adjustments you could make in any darkroom circa 1950’s.
Now, that being said, I love film! Film is special to me and I most likely won’t stop shooting it until you can’t find it any more period (won’t happen for a long time) however, you also won’t find me whining about digital photography while I’m doing it!

When you launch the plugin you are given a choice of either black and white or color film effects and when it loads you are presented with a list of film stocks off to the left and a large zoomable viewing window. The presets offer you a fairly wide range of common films with more downloadable and user created stocks available. Most of the majors from Fuji and Kodak are there, including Ektacromes in many flavors, Provia, Astia and Velvia among others. From there the list branches out into some really cool niches, 70’s Ektachrome blue shift anyone? It’s there. Heat damaged Kodachrome? You got it. In the black and white films you can simulate (in the best way that I have seen done by a plugin actually) Kodak HIE infrared as well, which is a popular effect these days.
Beyond the basic controls you are also offered 4 tabs worth of tweaking controls including color filters and intensities, tonal curve adjustments, focus (who doesn’t love grain-blur!) and a grain tab. The grain tab is probably the most useful, especially with the black and white settings. Using this tab creatively you can get the look of your favorite film without the grain inconsistencies that come from developer temperature variance and lab negligence when maintaining machines.
The process of creating a custom film stock is made easier by the ability to save every one of your settings on the fly and being able to see the changes reflected in a nice large preview window without having to drop out back to Photoshop just to check your results full size. That is usually one of my pet peeves when it comes to plugins, there is no excuse for postage stamp sized preview windows these days.
As with most of Alien Skin’s products, Exposure is a polished, complete suite and while other software manufacturers do offer similar packages, this one stands out as an example of a complete, flexible solution to getting that film look. Highly recommended three thumbs up.

Firmware Update Version 1.0.7 improves and mitigates the

following two types of image quality phenomena that occur

under certain shooting conditions.

   1.  "Black dot" phenomenon

      (the right side of point light sources become black)

   2.  Vertical banding noise

NOTE:  To view it in full HD quality or to download the Quicktime source video, click the HD icon on the video.

Canon 5D Mark II Demo Video from Matthew Panzarino on Vimeo.

“This is a demo video shot at 1080p from a Canon 5D Mark II experimenting with a few standard video techniques. These were all done quickly by hand so some of the techniques are not executed perfectly, but the idea was a proof of concept video for people interested in seeing how the 5D works as a video camera, especially in low controlled lighting. The lenses used include Canon’s 70-200mm 2.8 L IS, 85mm 1.2 and 45mm Tilt Shift. They were shot in a mixture of available light and softboxed and gridded studio lighting. The majority of the video was shot at ISO 800 and up, some clips were at ISO 3200. The video was all shot in about 20 minutes and edited in about 30. It was then exported to quicktime 1080p h.264 video.

Be sure to turn Full HD on. Feel free to download the source video to check it out in higher quality.”