Nature Close-ups

[Mark Williams]

When you view nature thru a macro or extreme telephoto lens you begin to see all types of interesting little details. Shot with a Panasonic GH4 in 4K with an Olympus 60mm macro and 75-300mm telephoto. Edited with Edius 8 Workgroup. Music "Flowing Air" by Mattia Vlad Morleo. Licensed for use from Jamendo.com

Nature Close-ups (4K) on Vimeo

[Pat Reddy]

Mark, This is superb, some of the best macro closeup footage I have ever seen. Pat

[Donald McPherson]

You inspire me. Also, I notice you use Jamendo for your music. I came across them many years ago.

[Mark Williams]

Thanks Pat and Donald, glad that you enjoyed it.

[Bryce Comer]

Absolutely superb Mark,
You have created a little masterpiece with this one!!

[Bob Safay]

Mark, yet another winner. I love the color that you get. Do you do much grading in post of is it the settings you use while shooting? As a former entomologist I really loved the close up of the insects, especially the one with the slight drop of moisture on its proboscis (2:34). I was up in the north Georgia mountains last weekend, one day we may run into each other. Thanks for making my morning special. Bob

[Mark Williams]

Thanks Bryce and Bob. With the GH4 I normally use the "vivid" profile. In post I will do a little color correction if the whites don't look right and maybe add some contrast on overcast days.

[Mick Jenner]

Again lovely work Mark. So enjoyed watching. As an aside, a question on Edius and G5 footage. Can you confirm that 4k footage can be imported and plays on the timeline without any form of conversion. Many thanks, Mick

[Mark Williams]

Mick, I have Edius 8.5 Workgroup. Panasonic GH4 4K footage straight from the camera plays fine on the timeline. My computer specs are:

CPU i7 6700K
Motherboard Asus 170-A
16 GB Ram
System drive Samsung 960 Evo M.2 SSD
Video drives 850 Evo SSD
CPU Cooler Shadow Rock Slim
GPU onboard graphics
Windows 10

[Mick Jenner]

Thanks for the info Mark, very much appreciated.

[Alan Melville]

Superb. There is some serious hours shooting in that!

Music choice was suburb as was scene change to it's flow.

I'm curious to know how you blacked out the background / lit the foreground at 2:28.

I use one of those camera's, I'm just off to delete all the footage and start again...... ;)

TBH, I love it but my biggest gripe is the rolling shutter on fast scenes. I can even pick it up in some of your scenes, is it there in the original footage @ 1:53. It aggravates the hell out of me.

Cheers.
Al.

[Mark Williams]

Alan, thanks for the nice compliment. The lighting on the scene at 2:28 is just naturally the way the sun illuminated it.. At 1:53 the rolling shutter does not appear in the original. I guess I just got lucky with all that movement.

[Nick Hope]

Beautiful bug shots, and the music pacing fits very nicely. It inspires me to get out and shoot some myself, as I also have the GH4 and 60mm macro.

One little bit of feedback on the editing. If a subject flies away, I would hold the shot a1-2 secs before cutting to the next shot, or it's a little jarring (e.g. 01:52). The eye needs time to settle before moving on.

By the way, did you do the creeping zooms in camera or in Edius?

[Mark Williams]

Thanks Nic, I think I will go back and adjust that cut point.

[Vishal Jadhav]

Wonderful work Mark, its always a pleasure watching your work.

The macro stuff is superb loved it all the way.