Jason Whong: Renaissance Man-in-Training

I take a lot of photos as a photojournalist. I’m by no means an expert on how to shoot and edit pictures, but here’s a peek into my workflow for anyone who is interested.

I’m going to use a photo that I took at my friend’s wedding earlier this year. I took it using a Canon EF 70-200 f/2.8L USM that my boss said I could borrow. I was at 1/160th of a second, zoomed in at about 100mm at ISO 100 and f/2.8 (natch):

This is dark. I was using the “averaging” setting for metering. I don’t remember whether I was actually paying attention to the meter when I took the photo; in any case, it’s a bit dark for my liking. I do most of my exposure compensation in Adobe Camera Raw. I don’t like overexposing (because data are lost), but don’t mind underexposing a little (because there are data to work from when making corrections.) I typically correct exposure either by brighening to the point where white shows up in the frame, or to where one of the red, green, or blue values hits the maximum (usually the latter; I am not sure why.) I also correct white points in the Adobe Camera Raw interface by looking for a neutral color (in this case, a white paperclip) and increasing or decreasing reds until they’re closer to the greens and blues in the neutral color.

I also don’t like the framing; I don’t think it should be a 3:2 image because there’s not enough going on in the entire frame. In television, you work within the aspect ratio; in photography, you make up the aspect ratio. (So the ratio itself it’s a lot less important than whether it is a horizontal or vertical aspect, unless you are looking to fill a specific hole.)

By making changes to the exposure, I’ve lightened the image considerably. Unfortunately, that made the people in the front a bit too bright. So I used the curves tool to create a darker history state, and used the “history brush” as a form of time travel to paint from the darker history to the lighter one, thus darkening the faces to a point that they’d look more like what people would have seen. Doing it this way (instead of with the dodge and burn tool) is considered more ethical by some people because it uses the original pixels when determining the replacement pixels, while the other tools do all sorts of different things to the pixels to make them less like the original photo.

So… fix white (by adding red), crop, fix exposure, and darken people that got too bright, and what do I get?

Here’s a simulation of what might have happened if I had exposed the photo properly for the string players (I did this by chopping the lighter ends of the photo and interpolating the difference until the faces of the string players were about right:)

The faces in front are blown out, and much harder to darken without looking silly (by adding gray). This is why I prefer to meter with averaging.

Technorati Tags: Photoshop, Camera Raw, wedding

The LPGA Corning Classic is done. I had the privilege of covering the event for the newspaper where I work.

I used both the Canon EOS 30D provided by the office, and the Canon Digital Rebel XTi that I purchased for myself. All of the lenses I used were provided by the office, including the Canon EF 200mm f/1.8L; the Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L; the Canon EF 70-200 f/2.8L, and a 1.4x extender also from Canon.

My new favorite lens at work is the 300mm lens, because the autofocus works better in that one than in the 200mm lens. Maybe that means the 200mm lens needs repair. Or maybe it’s because the mount is busted. Anyway, I don’t think I will use the 200mm lens much anymore now that I have seen how autofocus is supposed to work.

Here are some shots that I thought were pretty spiffy:

Some Okinawans living in America watching Ai Miyazato, an Okinawan player, as she tees off.

In case you were wondering: here’s what Ai Miyazato looks like in focus.

Natalie Gulbis gets so much attention , you almost don’t notice other golfers are having a better day.

How would you react if you’d just missed a putt that cost you tens of thousands of dollars in winnings? Ask Beth Bader.

Paula Creamer: It’s gotta be the shoes!

I don’t like this one, but it’s still kind of neat: Mi Hyun Kim splashing a Diet Coke onto champion Young Kim.

Ever since i saw Natalie Gulbis in that TV commercial, I knew I had to take at least one photo of her, since people want to see those photos.

Sometimes the moments of life shots just come to you.

I like having things in the background. I think they make the image look a bit more three-dimensional. Doesn’t Paula Creamer look like she is popping off of your screen?

Sometimes the reaction shots just come to you. (Thanks, Paula!)

There are more that I liked from earlier in the tournament; maybe I will post links to those later.

Technorati Tags: photojournalism, photography, golf, LPGA, Corning Classic, Natalie Gulbis, Ai Miyazato, Paula Creamer, Mi Hyun Kim, Young Kim

I am not writing a lot this week because I am really busy. It is the week of the LPGA Corning Classic. So I am working long hours, as usual. This time, I am not shooting a video as I have done in 2005 and 2006.

If you want to see what I am doing, it is probably best to look at the Star-Gazette photo gallery page. No video this year, which is fine by me because I’d rather try something new.

This is basic business 101, Sun Tzu’s Art of War type advice, but it applies.

Watch your competitors once in a while. What kinds of stories do they include? What kinds of stories do they tend not to do? In a way, they are defining the medium for your market by their decision of what is and isn’t worthy to be included in the local newscast. Maybe they focus on the easy stuff: The same old car accidents and crime stories. Your newspaper probably already does these without video. Maybe you can do these as video, but can you do it better than a TV station staffed with more video professionals and stocked with better equipment? That would be like the TV station trying to shoot art for its print publication with anything but a DSLR. Maybe they can do it, but it will take great skill.

I’m not suggesting you shouldn’t compete on spot news. If there is a plane crash or some other catastrophe, take that video camera. Spot news will drive viewership, especially if you have an exclusive.

It’s hard to beat anyone at their own game. Take your competition’s web site, for example. Odds are, they are posting their broadcast scripts to their website, which shows they don’t respect your medium. The result is that most of their stories read like newsbriefs, but with dumber words because they aren’t about to hire someone to rewrite their stuff for the web. Their web site will never beat yours on written content (but it probably will on video.) You update at the same speed they do (or faster), and you write more naturally for the medium than they do.

But look also at what kinds of stories the local broadcast journalism places stay away from. You can easily do better than they can if they aren’t offering a certain kind of story at all. If you focus on telling the story that they can’t, you offer viewers something unique instead of the same boring stuff.

You may also notice that local stations don’t produce much in the way of long form journalism. All of their packages are tight, generally under two minutes. That doesn’t mean you can’t go longer. Just don’t make it boring. You’ve sat through documentaries that are an hour long, and for some reason you didn’t feel bored. You can do the same thing online. Just break it up into sections in case people feel bored.

Previous: Respect the medium
Next: Details: Provide some value

Technorati Tags: video production, newspaper, video, msm, media

Here’s another thought to ponder as you begin your journey into doing video news for the Web:

Just because you have respect for the medium doesn’t mean you should be unwilling to try something new.

If you’re at a newspaper, and you are reading this site, you probably already have a web site where you break all your news. Then you update the news for the print product. If your workflow allows, your photos probably make it online with the stories. Either way, there’s one thing about newspapers and web sites that TV stations can’t do as well with their TV station.

You provide news to people on their terms. TV provides it on TV’s terms.

There are some exceptions. But in general, the TV people provide news in their newscasts, occasionally breaking in to other programming for the really big stories. But if someone wants to watch a different story, they generally have to wait until the TV people decide it’s time for them to see the story, or whether they should see the story at all.

Suppose there’s a press conference that your competition attends to grab a soundbite or two, then shoot a quick interview to have to voiceovers for their VO/SOT. If the story is big enough, and the press conference is not too repetitive, maybe you can take the C-Span approach, and offer the whole press conference on your web site. I realize this is boring, as storytelling goes. But it’s no less legitimate than other ways of telling the story; rather, it allows your readers and viewers unfettered access to someplace they otherwise wouldn’t get to go.

Lots of TV stations won’t show entire press conferences because they are too slow-moving for the masses; anything they put in their newscast forces their viewers to either keep watching or change the channel (or stop paying attention). That’s not the same as offering video on demand, which allows people that are really interested to watch it. (Your competition can also do this by offering the video on their site, and if they already are, you probably need to do this just to play catch-up.)

Consider also that you can have some pieces of video that don’t make sense on their own, but that do make sense in the context of being linked from a story. In the broadcast world, they would turn this sort of video into a VO/SOT or VO, in which the anchor reads a script to provide context for the video while the tape plays underneath. Ideally, you would want to replicate the VO/SOT by writing a script and voicing it. But if you can’t do that for some reason, you can provide context with a text story on your web site. It’s not preferable, but it is better than nothing. In a way, it even shows a certain disrespect for the medium, so try not to do it too often.

Previous: Respect the medium
Next: Be better than the competition

Technorati Tags: video production, newspaper, video, msm, media

A few days ago, I said I would update my earlier post if I learned anything new about chevyautobot.com, the site set up by the folks at emipromo.com. After studying (ahem) the game, I have found a number of flaws that hinder players from enjoying the game, as well as hinder Chevy from using the site as a marketing tool.

First of all, I will say that if you try to provide a good experience to people for free, and it works, you will have goodwill. But if you provide a frustrating experience for the same price, people will become annoyed at you. I don’t have any citations to back this up, but it makes sense.

Click “Read More…” for the rest of this one…
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This is a short thought to ponder as you begin your journey into doing video news for the Web:

Video journalism is not a new movement. The availability of cheap video gear, nonlinear editing systems and the decentralization of the Internet is new, but what you’re doing with these cheap tools is almost the same thing that professionals have been doing with expensive tools for four or five decades.

Respect the medium. If you don’t understand how it works, read up on it. (That Zettl book I linked earlier is a good place to start.) Watch network news, or local news in a good market. Study it. Look at their techniques.

This is a medium that has probably been around for longer than your professional career. Treat it as such.

Previous: Post-production: edit like a director
Next: Redefine the medium

Technorati Tags: video production, newspaper, video, msm, media

I don’t recall quite how I found this site (probably because of some advertisement, but I don’t recall where). Chevyautobot.com is part alternate reality game, part Flash eye candy, and part foolishness.

The alternative reality game is in the codebreaking. Bumblebee sends coded transmissions, and if you decode them, you get special prizes (If you’re the first.) Then everyone gets upgrade points for their characters, which are used in the Flash eye candy part. Basically, you program your ‘bot with five moves, and challenge other players to a duel.

You can pick from seven Chevy autobots:

1. Avalanche - an SUV high in strength, low in agility and of medium intelligence
2. Aveo - a compact sedan of low strength, high agility, and medium high intelligence
3. Cobalt - a compact sedan of medium-low strength, very high agility and medium-low intelligence
4. Equinox - an SUV(?) with medium strength, and low agility, high intelligence
5. HHR - an SUV (?) with low strength, low agility, and very high intelligence.
6. Impala - they might as well call this guy Mario. All of his stats are medium.
7. Silverado - pickup truck with high strength, low agility and low intelligence.

Punch and kick damage are governed by strength; weapon damage is governed by agility. I imagine intelligence has something to do with how often you score a critical hit or how well you can dodge. But it doesn’t appear to be explained.

If I find out additional information, I’ll update this post.

I’ve taken some interesting photos. A lot of them have been of sports, but very few of them stand out in my mind has being really great. Most of them are good enough for a newspaper. (I’d think so, since that’s my job), and I’d tend to think they’re closer to great than good. I’m just very reserved in what i think is great.

I think a photo I took today is great. And it wasn’t even a photo of sports. It was of a volunteer effort to clean up downtown.

Whenever I get a potentially boring assignment, I look for opportunities to make the assignment a little more interesting. Today an opportunity to use internal framing presented itself. My subjects were a five-year-old girl and a teenager, both of whom were sweeping under an array of arches. I took out the Canon EF 70-200 f/2.8L and backed away. I watched them for several minutes, taking the occasional shot, but they weren’t lining up the way I wanted them to; it just looked very unbalanced because they were on one side.

Then at some point there was a flurry of activity as more volunteers moved around and the five-year-old girl started sweeping so rapidly, she created a dust cloud. She was really getting into it, and the teenager reached forward to try to slow her down because the dust was getting all over the place. It would have still been unbalanced, but there were enough other people walking around and filling the space, and the dust cloud added some mystique. And in a second it was all gone. I had no idea I had captured it until I got back to the office and felt my jaw hit the floor.

It looked surreal. But it was very real. There is so much going on in the shot; in addition to the internal framing, there’s also the juxtaposition of people cleaning a space where decay had set in to the point of paint peeling. The mural in the back (depicting Mark Twain characters) helped make the whole scene feel more like a painting than a photograph. Everyone else aside from the two people I mentioned look like furniture in the shot; they belong, but we don’t need to give them much attention to appreciate the photo.

My editor saw it and came back to tell me that it was such a great shot, she was not going to run other photos from the same story on the same page, lest it detract from the main photo. It’s the first time I’ve heard someone say that. I was glad that she agreed with my instinct. It probably means something good.

Technorati Tags: Canon EF 70-200 f/2.8L, photography, luck, skill, art, aesthetics, internal framing, juxtaposition

Devin Pike, an old friend of mine whom I met when we were beta testing Majesty for MacPlay, showed me a press release for his project,Can’t Stop the Serenity.

I have to admit I don’t have any idea who Joss Whedon is (or whether Joss is male or female), and I have never seen the film “Serenity” or the television show that preceded it, “Firefly,” but I do know that the screenings of Serenity are being held to benefit Equality Now, a women’s rights advocacy group that was founded by Joss Whedon’s mother. Not to put it in competition with other causes, but as far as charitable events go, this is one of the less physically strenuous ones you can do. You pay to be entertained rather than to walk or run.

The closest one to me is NYC, which is about 4 hours away by car (which you’d have to park somehow) or five hours away by bus. Ah, Elmira.

It’s funny, I could actually move to Maryland and be closer to NYC (and have Interstate highways, trains, and express buses to get me there. Not that this would be a reason for such a move.