new Bridal Portrait

[Zach Stewart]

This is our newest bridal portrait. I rented a glidecam (old version) and tried to incorporate it, but quickly found out how much practice is needed. I only ended up using it for a couple of walking shots with the bride. Not my favorite song but she wanted all country music, and i know its a bit fast for the edit but its what she wanted. The use of crossfades gets a little too much for my taste as i like more cuts but knowing the bride i know she wouldn't go for anything too fast paced (even though the music is somewhat). Comments/suggestions welcome. we are shooting a Love Story next week and are hoping to try out the glidecam again. we are planning on buying a steadicam merlin for christmas!!!

the video is on the top of the page.
www.zandlproductions.com

[Monday Isa]

Hey Zach,
Not sure why no one has commented on your video for 2 days. I must say that was really a fantastic job! Incredible use of depth in a lot of your shots. Your style reminds me of my previous assistant. He would really like shots with a lot of depth in them, and they are easily created using foreground and background objects. A few things I noticed, you used a lot of rack focusing and you really loved starting from a out of focus shot into focus and then out (pretty much playing a lot with the focus ring). These are great techniques to have in our arsenal of techniques but they were used quite frequently that it spoiled the effect. Your single glidecam clip portion in this clip stood out a lot as it was used once as far as I could tell. You had some nice reveal shots in there as well. Lastly great colors and contrast on my end. If you were in my market I'd be referring all my wedding clients your way. ( I only do 3 weddings a year and get tons of requests. I'm more into Quinceanera's less stress.) Great job and keep up the good work. Take Care

Monday

[Terry Esslinger]

Zach,
I noticed tat you said the bride loved this being shown at the reception. Can we assume that this was a SDE? How much time did you have between the ceremony and the 'show time' at the reception? How did you show it. That is what form was it in when it was projected. Did you play it from a laptop? Just curious. Nice work. The glide cam looked good even without much practice. That piece of equipment really raises the bar in my opinion.

[Brian Leahy]

Fantastic bridal portrait Zach, may i ask what kind of camera did you use and also what kind of colour grading process did you use.

[Zach Stewart]

Originally Posted by Monday Isa

Hey Zach,
you used a lot of rack focusing and you really loved starting from a out of focus shot into focus and then out (pretty much playing a lot with the focus ring). These are great techniques to have in our arsenal of techniques but they were used quite frequently that it spoiled the effect. Monday

I agree, I tend to get carried away with the DOF and rack focus. I hope to get a Red Rock or another 35mm lens adapter for the FX1 soon. Maybe then I will stop the constant change of focus within shots.

Originally Posted by Terry Esslinger

Zach,
I noticed tat you said the bride loved this being shown at the reception. Can we assume that this was a SDE?

This piece was shot back in August and the wedding was in September. I typically have about a month till the wedding to edit the Bridal Portraits. We tag along with the photographer during her photo shoot (usually a month or two before the wedding). It was shot on a Sony FX1, edited with Premiere Pro 2.0. We do not provide any service for displaying videos at the reception, but the venue took the DVD we had made for the Bride and show'd it through their in house projector/sound system.

Originally Posted by Brian Leahy

Fantastic bridal portrait Zach, may i ask what kind of camera did you use and also what kind of colour grading process did you use.

Shot using a Sony FX1, and I do all color grading within Premiere Pro 2.0. I use a mixture of levels, contrast, and a small amount of glow throughout the whole video. All white balance is done in the camera, and I do not use any Picture Profiles with the FX1 as of yet. Still kinda iffy about the Picture Profiles becuase situations change so fast it would be hard to keep up with.



Thanks to all for the great comments. I will post more videos online soon, and hope to keep improving.