The Birds in my Backyard

[Doug Jensen]

All of the footage in this video was shot within about a mile of my home in central Florida during the months of November and December 2018. Actually, about 90% was shot on one Friday evening and the next morning when there was an unexpectedly large number of birds on a nearby pond. Most of it was shot with my PMW-F55, except for the Night Heron which was shot with my Sony PXW-Z280.

As I noted in another thread, I have chosen to linger on each shot longer than I normally would so that more of the behavior of the birds can be seen. To some people it might move too slow, but if I was to edit over again I'd actually make the shots even longer now.

Cameras: Sony PMW-F55 w/ R7 RAW recorder; Sony PXW-Z280
Codec: XOCN-ST RAW 4K @ 120 fps; XAVC-I 4K @ 30 fps
Lens: Canon 200-400 f/4
Tripods: O'Connor 1030D and 35L; Sachtler FSB-10 and Flowtech 100
Grading: DaVinci Resolve
Editing: Adobe Premiere CC

The Birds in my Backyard on Vimeo

[Cees van Kempen]

Hi Doug,

Congrats! Great to see we are moving to slower cuts again. The 4K era allows us to do so.

I am just wondering what your workflow is with the XOCN footage. Considering to buy an R7, but XOCN did not really find it's way to the NLE platforms. I am working with FCPX, which does not accept XOCN.

Cees

[Doug Jensen]

Thanks, Cees. It is great to get a thumbs up from you.

I don't want to get up on a soapbox about grading, but I contend that S-LOG, RAW, and XOCN really demand the power of Resolve. In fact, the workflow is so easy in Resolve that I really enjoy the grading process. I liken it to the modern equivalent of my old B&W darkroom days.

[Bob Safay]

Doug, those are some great shots. I am glad that you extended the length of your clips. Were you at Merritt Island NWR and the Blue Heron? How is the birding this time of year? I will be heading down to Boca Grande the middle of January for a little golfing and thought I would drag my camcorder down along with my clubs. Bob

[Cees van Kempen]

Originally Posted by Doug Jensen

Thanks, Cees. It is great to get a thumbs up from you.

I don't want to get up on a soapbox about grading, but I contend that S-LOG, RAW, and XOCN really demand the power of Resolve. In fact, the workflow is so easy in Resolve that I really enjoy the grading process. I liken it to the modern equivalent of my old B&W darkroom days.

Thanks Doug. But what about editing? Not making a showreel or so, but making a real edit, like for a film? With a multitude of layers in the timeline. Do you do that in Resolve as well?

[Doug Jensen]

Cees, I have two different workflows for different kinds of productions. 1) Sometimes I grade my clips first and then edit in Premiere. 2) Sometimes I edit in Premiere first and the round-trip to Resolve for grading. But either way, all my S-LOG and/or RAW footage is absolutely, without exception, going to be graded in Resolve. I won't cut corners on that settle for a half-assed grade in Premiere or FCP. So if, for whatever reason, I have a project that I don't want to pass the footage through Resolve, then I won't shoot S-LOG at all. In that case I'll choose one of my nice REC709 Scene Files and shoot WYSIWYG -- with just some minor touch-ups in Lumetri.

These days I suppose someone could do all their grading and editing in Resolve, and I'd have no argument with that approach. I may even starting editing in Resolve some day too, but one thing I'll never do is use Premiere for grading S-LOG.

[Cees van Kempen]

Fully understand what you're saying. For sure no project of mine would be graded in something else than Resolve. You're lucky though to have chosen Premiere. I once decided to go the FCPX-road. And that one does not ingest XOCN. Have to reconsider where to go from here. Probably with proxies in FCP and then do the final grading with the master footage in Resolve. Or forget about FCPX at all. I'll see....

[Doug Jensen]

Yeah, once Apple burned FCP7 users I vowed I'd never use FCP again no matter what they did to try to fix it. Besides, I needed to have the rest of the Adobe suite anyway so Premiere was basically included for free. And now it truly is free because I get the whole Adobe suite at no charge because I am a qualified stock footage contributor and that is one of the bonuses.

[Mark Rosenzweig]

YouTube (Short URL)

Pl 100-400mm lens. Vlog L.

[Doug Jensen]

Mark, does the GH5 have internal ND filters? The reason I ask is because your shutter speed seems really, really, too fast.

[Mark Rosenzweig]

Originally Posted by Doug Jensen

Mark, does the GH5 have internal ND filters? The reason I ask is because your shutter speed seems really, really, too fast.

It does not. You got a good eye. I had no time to put one on - I usually use one - to get the shots.

[Doug Jensen]

Actually, it's not hard to see! :-)
Gotta be up around 1/500 - 1/1000 I'd say.

[Bob Safay]

Doug, two quick questions.

In your clips of birds in flight are you using any kind of auto focus tracking system or do you shoot straight manual focus?

Do you shot in slow motion or do you do that in post?

Bob

[Doug Jensen]

In my opinion, all slow-motion must be captured at the time of shooting. Whatever the camera is capable of is the limit. Slowing things down in post never looks as good and if the footage is for stock the buyer is being ripped off.

No, I don't use auto-focus. Most of my cameras and lenses I own don't have it, but I also know I can do a better job manually. The only camera I've used where it is even within the realm of possibility is the Sony Z90 (and NX80). The Fast Hybrid AF system on the Z90 truly is amazing, but since it only has a 12x lens and is only 8-bit in 4K, it is not a camera that I'd typically use for wildlife.

BTW, it is my contention that any SLR or PL lens that has any AF controls at all (even if you can turn it off) makes a really bad manual focus lens. If you want to focus manually it is best to use a lens that has no AF capability at all. When I'm teaching classes it is cool to see people who have never used a fully manual focus lens find out what a difference it makes. If someone thinks they can't focus manually, then they probably have a camera with a bad viewfinder and/or the wrong lens.

Here's the Z90's AF in action . . .

Demo footage of the Sony PXW-Z90 Fast Hybrid Auto Focus system on Vimeo

[Bob Safay]

Doug, thanks for the reply. I noticed in a lot of your shots you were shooting at 24 fps. What is your typical frame rate and shutter speed combination do you usually use?