{"id":38753,"date":"2014-11-07T16:53:39","date_gmt":"2014-11-07T16:53:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/amateurphotographer.co.uk\/?p=38753"},"modified":"2015-07-23T14:16:30","modified_gmt":"2015-07-23T13:16:30","slug":"shooting-4k-video-stills-on-location","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/technique\/portrait_photography\/shooting-4k-video-stills-on-location\/","title":{"rendered":"Shooting 4K video stills on location"},"content":{"rendered":"\"shooting-4K-video-on-location---in-camera-jpeg-vs-4K-frame\"<\/a>\n

I must admit, I rarely shoot video. I\u2019ve just never felt the urge to hit the red record button and have always considered myself a stills photographer first and foremost. The idea, then, of pulling stills from ultra high-quality video footage was a little disconcerting for me at first, but at the same time I didn\u2019t want to dismiss it before I\u2019d even tried.<\/p>\n

I approached the portrait shoot just as I would approach a still shoot. Using the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH4, I partnered it with the rather lovely Leica Nocticron 42.5mm f\/1.2. Delivering a 35mm focal length equivalent of 85mm, this moderate telephoto is made for portraits, producing a lovely creamy bokeh for pleasing defocused areas at fast apertures. One thing to consider was the lighting: flash obviously wasn\u2019t an option, so I kept things simple, relying on the soft, diffused light from the overcast sky.<\/p>\n

Shooting in 4K<\/a> at 60fps, the exposure settings really didn\u2019t stray that far from what I\u2019d want to shoot with if I was taking stills, opting for an exposure of 1\/800sec at f\/1.2, with an ISO of 500. Working with a pretty fast shutter speed like this would mean that I\u2019d avoid the risk of introducing motion blur into the footage, helping ensure each frame was in sharp focus. The payback is that the video footage doesn\u2019t have quite the same pleasing fluidity as if I was using a slower shutter speed.<\/p>\n

While it\u2019s unworkable if I was intending to come away with both still and moving footage, I opted to frame my shots in portrait format. It\u2019s worth mentioning, though, that you\u2019re shooting in 16:9 aspect ratio as opposed to 4:3. This is something to consider when framing up, as you\u2019ll perhaps want to crop to a more traditional format later \u2013 more on that in a moment.<\/p>\n\t\t

\n\t\t\t\"Shooting<\/a>\t\t\t

Shooting portraits with 4K requires framing in portrait format, which isn\u2019t something you\u2019d usually do when recording video<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n

Once I\u2019d framed up, I asked our model to run through a series of poses and it was quite liberating to just view the rear display, knowing I\u2019d got a particular look or pose, rather than worrying if I\u2019d missed anything in between firing the shutter. For focusing I used continuous AF, with the GH4\u2019s eye-detection impressing during the shoot. The speed and precision with which it adjusted focus due to subtle changes in distance between me and the model saw it consistently deliver spot-on focus.<\/p>\n

Because I was shooting video files, though, and not nice, large raw files, I did feel like I wasn\u2019t making the most of the situation and not coming away with the best quality I could \u2013 especially when you crop the image to a 3:2 aspect ratio that sees the resolution drop further to 6.9 million pixels. This meant I lapsed into shooting some stills as well and have to say I\u2019m glad I did \u2013 the extracted files don\u2019t have the same \u2018bite\u2019 when compared to a raw file from the same shoot, while they just don\u2019t have the same latitude and flexibility of a raw file if I want to push it further.<\/p>\n\t\t

\n\t\t\t\"In<\/a>\t\t\t

Image quality from a 4K frame isn\u2019t going to match a full-resolution still, but the difference in print may be smaller than you\u2019d think<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n

Shooting 4K video stills on location: Conclusion<\/h2>\n

While I can appreciate the appeal of 4K for some other disciplines, for portraits there\u2019s more to lose than gain at the moment. The ability to capture every single movement from your subject is a nice thing to have, but that\u2019s about all it\u2019s limited to and is worth sacrificing for the superior image quality from a still raw file. And there\u2019s something satisfying about grabbing that moment when I fire the shutter, rather than simply point the lens at my subject and then replay the event in front of a computer screen later, flicking between hundreds of identical frames to find the \u2018one\u2019.<\/p>\n\"4k<\/a>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Phil Hall explores the potential in shooting 4K video stills on location to see how it compares to standard camera stills<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":345,"featured_media":38756,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[211],"tags":[298],"product-category":[],"class_list":["post-38753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-portrait_photography","tag-4k_video"],"yoast_head":"\nShooting 4K video stills on location - Amateur Photographer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Phil Hall explores the potential in shooting 4K video stills on location to see how it compares to standard camera stills\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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