Shooting some video in the harbor

[TomY]

No sailing yet, we just got our mast stepped last night (our crane guy blew the engine in the truck). We haven't missed much though, it hasn't rained this much in June in 25 years.

So I did a test run in the rowing dinghy.

The set up: Iphone 14 pro max attached to a small tripod place on the sole of the dinghy just forward of me. I never touched the phone during shooting. There is a small shotgun mic mounted on the top of the phone and I put both the foam and 'dead cat' fur cover on thinking to eliminate wind noise (I didn't you'll hear it at the end).

I used the phones built-in stabilizing software called Action Mode and the 24mm lens. I simply placed a little dinghy rail in the lower frame (for reference?), turned it on and away I went.

I found the rowing dinghy handy as a platform, rowing fore and aft and 'panning' with the oars. The stabilization of the phone is amazing (it comes at a cost of some cropping)

Things I learned: Even a row boat can move too fast for the video speed (30fps). But some of the blur may be due to the stabilizing software. Cure: Slow down, turn more slowly if something in the lens is near.

Wind noise is a bugger! I think the apparent wind started to come through toward the end. Sorry for the clicks in the transition, I have no idea why, yet.

Get rid of the dinghy rail. It would be better with no distractions. But I may place the lens so some oar loom shows periodically to give a sense of what's going on.

Just an exercise, critique away.

 

[kappykaplan]

Nice video, Tom. No critique.

 

[dlochner]

Dang, there are a lot of pretty boats in your harbor.

Don't have much to add to your self-critique, maybe a shot of the boat's transom and name.

 

[shemandr]

Yeah, pretty place.
The rotation is a little fast for the eye. I didn't mind the dingy gunnel in the view - it gave some context. But all in all a very good vid.
What's not to like. Beautiful boats and verdant shoreline with hills. I should spend a weekend there.

 

[dLj]

I like the video, but you asked for a critique...

Images had too much water, too much dinghy. I'd have liked to see more complete shots of the boats and the surroundings. Perhaps a nice slow panorama to start with a kind of logical progression through the area. Sort of like an overview and then a more indepth visual tour. Pick interesting "landmarks" to use as a guide. Done in a way that the viewer has an idea of where the tour is going, where it's been and how the parts exist there... Not sure I'm making that idea clear.

dj

 

[DArcy]

Very nice Tom, you have a wonderful setting.

 

[jssailem]

Tom. So many beautiful boats. A reach environment for a photographer.

The sounds provide an interesting connection to the experience. You could always create a sound track in post production.

 

[BigEasy]

Great video of classic looking boats!

 

[Jim Legere]

You don't mention what editing software you are using, but there is probably a "crossfade audio at edit point" option buried somewhere in the menu. Similarly, there is probably an option to adjust or slow the video speed (but this will also stretch the audio and may also affect picture quality). Don't ask me any technical questions because I hate doing video but I often do audio recording for video guys...

 

[TomY]

Yeah, pretty place.
The rotation is a little fast for the eye. I didn't mind the dingy gunnel in the view - it gave some context.

The rotation speed blows the resolution I've found. I'm not sure if that is the fps or the stabilizing software?

Once the swing slows, the sharpness returns.

It's hard for my eye to believe I'm not hand holding the camera but I know I never touched it.

I know now, I've got to operate the dinghy; turning, accelerating and 'pointing', as the camera's gimbal.

Thanks all.

 

[dmax]

The rotation speed blows the resolution I've found. I'm not sure if that is the fps or the stabilizing software?
Once the swing slows, the sharpness returns.

That's caused by the video encoder, likely H.264. It has been set with a maximum bit-rate (the number of bits it takes to represent a second of video) - panning images require more bits per second than still images (because nearly every frame is a scene-change) so to not exceed the max bit-rate, the encoder decreases the quality of the images when the camera is panning, thus the lower resolution.

 

[TomY]

That's caused by the video encoder, likely H.264. It has been set with a maximum bit-rate (the number of bits it takes to represent a second of video) - panning images require more bits per second than still images (because nearly every frame is a scene-change) so to not exceed the max bit-rate, the encoder decreases the quality of the images when the camera is panning, thus the lower resolution.

Does that mean that shooting at 60fps as opposed to 30fps (iPhone 14 default) won't improve the panning/resolution issue? Maybe shooting in 4k would help but that's a non-starter for me solely on storage.

 

[TomY]

You don't mention what editing software you are using, but there is probably a "crossfade audio at edit point" option buried somewhere in the menu. Similarly, there is probably an option to adjust or slow the video speed (but this will also stretch the audio and may also affect picture quality). Don't ask me any technical questions because I hate doing video but I often do audio recording for video guys...

CapCut, the free version. I'll end up with a paid version once I feel I can pick one that suits me. Crossfade audio,.? I've only tried one transition, I'll explore that. Thanks.

 

[dmax]

Does that mean that shooting at 60fps as opposed to 30fps (iPhone 14 default) won't improve the panning/resolution issue? Maybe shooting in 4k would help but that's a non-starter for me solely on storage.

There are a lot of factors that go into the perceived quality of a video. It is perceived because to get the fantastic compression rates, the encoder is trying to fool your eyes. Increasing the fps will make movement appear smoother, whether the object is moving or the camera is moving. However, more frames per second means more CPU processing time and more bits per second - so again, the encoder will sacrifice quality of the individual frames to keep within the CPU and bits per second limits. In this case, you probably want the individual frames to be as crisp as possible so a lower frame rate would be preferred. If you go too low, movement will appear jerky like in really old films. 30 FPS is a good setting generally as it is close to the human eye's frame rate - you might experiment with 15 FPS and even 10 and see how you like it (your brain is good at filling in). I use 10-15 FPS in certain bandwidth restricted situations and it works for that case (streaming live video). Quality is really about the number of bits but since raw video is huge, much effort has been made to represent the video in as few bits as possible and fooling you a bit. 4K will really increase your storage requirements as there are more pixels to represent. You may be able to raise the maximum bit rate a bit to increase the quality without too much of an increase storage requirements - if you want to post the controls available to you on the camera I can make a recommendation.

 

[stickinthemud57]

Thanks for the video. Lots of pretty boats. Sky a bit moody in an alluring way. Really felt like I was on the water.

Since you invited comment, I would point out one thing: To me, it seems the shot framing "wanders" at times. Keeping a shot steady and properly framed is challenging enough on land. It is particularly challenging on water, especially if you add steering and locomotion of the camera platform. Practice makes perfect, or at least close to it, so I'm sure you will find each video getting just a little better.

Thanks again. Looking forward to more!

 

[TomY]

if you want to post the controls available to you on the camera I can make a recommendation.

This was shot with an iPhone 14 pro max, the record video in 1080p just gives you 30fps and 60fps. In 4K, you also have 24fps.

 

[TomY]

Thanks for the video. Lots of pretty boats. Sky a bit moody in an alluring way. Really felt like I was on the water.

Since you invited comment, I would point out one thing: To me, it seems the shot framing "wanders" at times. Keeping a shot steady and properly framed is challenging enough on land. It is particularly challenging on water, especially if you add steering and locomotion of the camera platform. Practice makes perfect, or at least close to it, so I'm sure you will find each video getting just a little better.

Thanks again. Looking forward to more!

I never touched the phone taking this footage, but the stabilizing software (Action Mode) makes it look like someone is hand hold the lens.

The phone was locked in a tripod on the sole of the dinghy. So all the 'aiming, framing,' is done with the oars. It would take two peeps to do both.

It's kind of weird to look at as the dinghy appears unattached to the camera.

But knowing well the motion, lack of noise and maneuvering ability of a rowing dink, I think this method is worth practicing a bit. You and the camera are one.

Thanks!

 

[dmax]

This was shot with an iPhone 14 pro max, the record video in 1080p just gives you 30fps and 60fps. In 4K, you also have 24fps.

Oh well. Try panning slowly, which should help with the quality.

 

[stickinthemud57]

TomY,

I definitely see the challenge your situation presents. Motion stabilization is definitely help when hand-holding or, as in your case, your camera platform is not stationary. One possible way to overcome the unintentional framing that can result is to use your video editing software to re-crop (if yours has that capability). The downside to that is a loss of resolution.

 

[TomY]

Another (hopefully) improved 5 minutes in the harbor.