[Rick Wise]

In the SF Bay area, there’s the Reel Directory (https://reeldirectory.com/) which is our Bible for crew.

Many steadicam operators also shoot as regular operators.

Up here, in the San Francisco area, we never, ever have the luxury of a DP and also an operator. So forever I’ve been operating myself. I like it that way, but recognize that on larger projects having two people for the two jobs saves time and hence money.

My reels are all on my website, starting top left and going down.

Rick Wise
director of photography
and custom lighting design
Oakland, CA
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rwise
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com

[Rick Wise]

Mike,

Thanks for that tip. I went to the first link and downloaded — a free for 180 days Corel Painter Essentials 4. It’s auto paint mode is quite amazing and fun to watch. However, I could find no settings that produced the fine, clear-line drawing I am looking for. I suspect one of these vector-based systems will eventually work better than photoshop, but I sure have not yet found the way. For now, my process, outlined above (the second one) is the best.

Rick Wise
director of photography
and custom lighting design
Oakland, CA
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
https://www.recessionvideo.net
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rwise
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com

[Rick Wise]

Improved and revised method to achieve a b&w sketch of a house in the style that Realtors use in the newspaper; this method avoids unnecessary steps, and results in finer lines:

1. 1. crtl J to make a copy or original
2. image – adjust – shadow/highlights; bring up shadows to taste – note foliage
3. press “d” to make sure colors = B on top, W on bottom
4. filter – sketch – photocopy; details, 2-12; darkness = max 50 – set detail just high enough to retain shape information
5. filter – blur – gausian – 2 – helps remove some of the black noise
6. then run again: filter – sketch – photocopy; this time, detail = 0
7. reverse colors of black-white so now white is on top
8. with pencil, clean up image – takes about 15-20 minutes

This version ignores the color below, because we have zero need for it. The double filter-sketch-photocopy produces a finer-line drawing than the original posted above.

Rick Wise
director of photography
and custom lighting design
Oakland, CA
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
https://www.recessionvideo.net
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rwise
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com

[Rick Wise]

So much depends on two factors: do you have a great assistant who can quickly changes lenses for you? And, do you know your focal lengths well enough to call the shot by eye, meaning: I want the camera here with a 75mm, or such. The latter takes years of experience, and the problem with primes on video cameras for those of us who learned on film is the field of view will be different from a prime on a 35mm film camera (or 16mm.)

Bottom line: when I have to shoot film run-and-gun, I use a zoom as a variable prime. When I have the luxury of a good AC and a full set of primes, I go with the primes. The last time I was able to do that was nine years ago….

Of course, with video and primes, there’s the other consideration: getting the “film” look, which primes help achieve. So if you need that look, you are going to learn on the spot to call for the right focal length. Moving the camera a bit closer or farther away is usually easier on video, unless you are full-up, because the whole rig is lighter.

Finally, the obvious: each focal length has its own look. One of the joy of using primes is to play with that look. Do I want compression? Then I want to go with a long focal length. etc.

Rick Wise
director of photography
and custom lighting design
Oakland, CA
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
https://www.recessionvideo.net
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rwise
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com

[Rick Wise]

Thanks. Unfortunately, I do not have Illustrator. I did download a free version called Inscape but couldn’t find a way to make it work.

Rick Wise
director of photography
and custom lighting design
Oakland, CA
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
https://www.recessionvideo.net
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rwise
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com

[Rick Wise]

Here’s a sample:

Rick Wise
director of photography
and custom lighting design
Oakland, CA
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
https://www.recessionvideo.net
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rwise
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com

[Rick Wise]

I’m surprised no one has come forth with a solution to my question. This is the first time I’ve posted here on this particular cow forum. Maybe it’s a sleepy place. Anyway, after days and days of interent searching plus my own trial and errors, I found what seems to work for me:

–open photo
–ctrl j — to dupe layer
–image -adjust – shadows/highlights: bring up shadows a lot
–press d — makes sure default colors, with block and top and white on bottom
–filter – sketch – photocopy : details 9-12, darkenss max at 50
–set layer to multiply
–filter – blur gausian – 2
–image – adjust – levels: input 115/1/140
–at this point you have a partially colored image; for my purposes, it needs to be all b&w to I deselect the bottom layers
–foliage may be too dark; with lasso isolate an area; image – adjust – gradient map; click on the sort of bar image to open up a fuller menu; play with slider to improve the area; save it under some name, such as “foliage”; then load foliage, press OK.
–clean up unwanted black dots with a pencil, reversing b/w bloxes so now white is on top; this cleanup can take quite a while — zoom in to areas to clean as needed
–add some white to too-dark splotches by picking a scattering brush head

Rick Wise
director of photography
and custom lighting design
Oakland, CA
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
https://www.recessionvideo.net
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rwise
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com

[Rick Wise]

Photoshop doesn’t (yet?) make dashes. It does make strings of dots. To find out how to work around the dash problem, do a Googlesearch for: photoshop draw dashes

Rick Wise
director of photography
and custom lighting design
Oakland, CA
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
https://www.recessionvideo.net
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rwise
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com

[Rick Wise]

There have been other threads on this very same situation. In brief, you want to shoot so that it is easy in post to sync up all 3 cameras. If you can jam sync the 3 cameras to the same time code, problem solved. Another way is to have the 3 cameras pan to a common slate with a clapstick, and then never turn off. If the show is longer than what you can record on one tape or one card, your editor will have some trouble syncing up the next reels. However, provided all 3 cameras run continuously, even when one or more cannot get a good shot, it is pretty easy to sync to voice. Do make sure each camera is recording sound, even if only one gets a good feed from the house system. Otherwise you will have extreme trouble syncing later.

Rick Wise
director of photography
and custom lighting design
Oakland, CA
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
https://www.recessionvideo.net
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rwise
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com

[Rick Wise]

The first rule of shooting anything anywhere is to take a good look at the natural lighting opportunities. Trial and error may be your best teacher. You can also practice with a simple still camera.

In general, you almost never want the sun to be behind you. In that position it blasts the subject flat in the kisser. If the subject is in partial or total shade, anything behind him/her in direct sun will be blazingly hot.

If you position the subject so that he/she is 3/4 back lit by the sun, you have a better chance. The background will not be very hot. The face will usually want some front fill. That can usually be managed with a flexfill or even a 4 x 4 piece of foamcore. Those two items are sort of minimum tools you need. After that you can consider adding, along with crew to handle them:

–a sunswatter or butterfly to soften/diffuse the sun when you are forced to shoot with the sun in a more frontal position
–a 8×8 clean single and double net in a frame, plus stands to hold it, so you can reduce the intensity of the background when the sun is more frontal
–4 x 4 shiny boards with hard and soft sides (these are heavy)
–mirror board(s)
–HMIs and generator, etc.

It’s hard to pull any of this off as a one-man band. Using the simplest solution above, just a piece of foamcore or a flexfill, you can probably hold these in place with a c-stand plus sand bags to steady the stand if the wind comes up. A platypus grip device is good to hold the foamcore. Flexfills are not made to be c-stand gripped and really require a pair of extra and steady hands.

At the core, use your eyes. The first rule of lighting is shadows: where do I want them, and do I want them hard or soft? Where do I want the sun in relation to the subject for this to happen? For “portrait” lighting you most often want the shadows soft.

Rick Wise
director of photography
and custom lighting design
Oakland, CA
https://www.RickWiseDP.com
https://www.recessionvideo.net
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rwise
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com