Feedback on Lightning Videos

[James Langford]

Hi All,

I've recently started playing around with shooting video while on my storm chases. I use a Canon HV-20 camcorder, and then have been playing around using Windows Movie maker to convert the raw film. If you are interested, check out:

http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=jlangford92

I'd love any feedback. I'm not doing this professionally or with the intent to sell. Just for myself and to share with my friends.

I have a few questions:

* Is it ok to dub in music files? As this is just for personal use, am I violating copyright laws by including songs from cds I own? Most of my audio is pretty boring, so I'm trying to make the video more interesting.
* Can anyone recommend good, cheap video editting software? Is it possible to crop, brighten, etc raw video using editting software?
* What is the best way to pull out inidividual still images from digital video?

Thanks in advance!

James

 

[Mike Peregrine]

James ... on your questions:

Music files - if it is just for personal use and you are not posting anywhere to the web or sharing the files with anyone, you can do whatever you want. But if you share the videos in any way, you'll need to go royalty-free.

Video editing software - So far I'm really liking Sony Vegas. And it works great with the HV-20. Be sure if you do use this editor, to specify your camera in the software options, or it won't get recognized correctly (found that out after a lot of work). You can download a 30 day trial of Vegas from Sony to try it out. And by the way, Sony has music generation software called "cinescore" that is really cool. It's a couple hundred bucks, but I really like it.

Still images - I usually pull these with Adobe Premiere by freezing a frame, saving it as a gif and then if there is lightning involved, I'll use a Photoshop video filter to de-interlace either the even or odd fields, to remove the lines you'll see on the image. Then I usually filter for noise as well. I haven't tried this with Vegas yet, but I'm sure it's fairly similar.

 

[James Langford]

Thanks, Mike, for the comments. Looks like I need to remove the videos with music in them then. I downloaded Premier, and I'll check it out. Looks like I have to import my video again, as it won't take the Windows format their are in now. I'll also give Vegas a try.

Thanks!

James

 

[Phil Kurimski]

I think the 8 minute one is a bit long...it seems like the same shot over and over again to the same music. I think it could be shortened quite a bit. The second video was better as it was shorter with different scenes. However the long periods of black in between shots could have also been shortened.

On the good side the quality of your video looks great and it takes some nice footage at night. Video editing and putting your video to music takes a lot of work and practice. Keep up the good work!

I use Adobe premier to create time lapse shots...then Vegas to create the final video...neither one of which is cheap. My friend who has a MAC will be helping me edit some of my video this year so we will see how that goes. To get stills my camera can pull it directly off the video and stores it to a memory card...I have a SONY DCR-TRV 525...definitely something I need to upgrade soon. The resolution is poor and only about 1 megapixel. OK for posting to the web but not so good for blow ups.

 

[Brian Emfinger]

I'll use a Photoshop video filter to de-interlace either the even or odd fields, to remove the lines you'll see on the image.

You've touched on something here that I have been annoyed with. While shooting video with the hv-20 when I get lightning there are these lines that flash and makes it look crappy. I haven't focused on video the last 2 years so I don't know whats going on here. I figured that lightning caught during day would look fine. My first mini-dv video camera that I got back in 2003 (panasonic) didn't have this problem. You could play it back frame by frame or regular and there were never these flashy line things. I have been letting the camera choose its settings other than focus so is that where I am messing up? BTW- I am shooting in dv mode not the hd.

Luckily I am nearly always shooting with my xt so it hasn't mattered about the lines as I had better quality daytime lightning captures with the still.

 

[Phil Kurimski]

I had that problem with the lines when I would render my video using Premier...it would not be present in the raw video so it would drive me nuts. Then I rendered the Premier video as a high quality AVI and rendered as a lower quality mpg using Vegas and the lines magically disappeared. Perhaps this was because the Vegas version was newer...but this seemed to be the only remedy to the problem. The only reason I use Premier is you can create a time lapse by shrinking your video. The time lapse is rendered at several hundred percent faster with a click of a mouse...whereas Vegas video has to be re-rendered several times for the same effect.

 

[Mike Peregrine]

Ahhhh Brian - cool question. I've been doing research on this, myself.

You actually can control the shutter speed on the HV-20 (I know, way cool). There are some really good tips and advice in this thread, and really all over that forum. Start poking around in there for settings on high speed scenarios (lightning is definitely a high speed event that you are trying to capture).

Believe it or not, there are ways (it sounds like) to reduce the stuttering problems at 24p with the HV-20. If I can figure out how to do it, I'm there buddy. Talk about some smooth, classy looking video! ... But I still have lots of homework to do on this subject.

Edit - Just noticed Phil's solution. I'll have to take a look at it to determine what is going on in his rendering process. I do notice some degree of motion artifacting even when playing directly from the camera to TV, so I'm sure that there are in-camera settings that will help -

 

[James Langford]

I definately see the jagged lines during lightning strikes with my HV20. I generally shoot in Sports mode for lightning, as it seems to do a pretty good job. I need to play around with Manual mode, as I think that is where most of the promise is. Thanks for the link to the hv20 forum. Also, thanks for all of the comments folks.

James

 

[Andrew Ryan]

The problems you are experiencing with the HV20 is because of the HDV codec. In order to squeeze HD resolutions onto a mini-dv tape, it must be highly compressed. Therefore, anything that is moving fast in the frame will have motion artifacts. There is nothing that you can do about this. This is why consumer HD cameras are no where nearly as good as professional HD cameras.

 

[Mike Peregrine]

The problems you are experiencing with the HV20 is because of the HDV codec. In order to squeeze HD resolutions onto a mini-dv tape, it must be highly compressed. Therefore, anything that is moving fast in the frame will have motion artifacts. There is nothing that you can do about this. This is why consumer HD cameras are no where nearly as good as professional HD cameras.

This isn't altogether accurate. There are LOTS of samples of high motion footage from this camera that have no artifacting whatsoever. The big difference comes in: camera settings used, workflow choices during editing, and your computer and its processor capability.

If you run a search on the forum I referenced earlier for "motion artifacts" you will come up with a boat load of hits with the exact same question. There's no doubt that professional HD cams are superior (and easier) to work with issues like this, but I am confident you will be able to obtain the results you want with this camera.

EDIT - here is one thread that will explain the issue well. Basically, if you are rendering for viewing on your computer, you are going to have to de-interlace to avoid motion artifacting. Eugenia (on that forum) has a terrific workflow posted online that I've been using to get rid of interlacing problems, and so far it has been working fine. If you are just viewing the video to your TV, you won't have to perform her workflow.

 

[Brian Emfinger]

I was shooting in regular dv not hd when it did it so its probably not the HDV codec.

It looks like it probably more to do with the video once its out of the camera than the camera itself...although I imagine settings can help some too. That forum did remind me that the video did appear normal when I watched it on our tv thru the a/v output on the camera.

 

[James Langford]

I think the 8 minute one is a bit long...it seems like the same shot over and over again to the same music. I think it could be shortened quite a bit. The second video was better as it was shorter with different scenes. However the long periods of black in between shots could have also been shortened.

On the good side the quality of your video looks great and it takes some nice footage at night. Video editing and putting your video to music takes a lot of work and practice. Keep up the good work!

I use Adobe premier to create time lapse shots...then Vegas to create the final video...neither one of which is cheap. My friend who has a MAC will be helping me edit some of my video this year so we will see how that goes. To get stills my camera can pull it directly off the video and stores it to a memory card...I have a SONY DCR-TRV 525...definitely something I need to upgrade soon. The resolution is poor and only about 1 megapixel. OK for posting to the web but not so good for blow ups.

Thanks for the great feedback. Cost is definately a major constraint for me, so I will probably stick with editting with Windows Movie Maker. I appreciate your comments, and will keep them in mind as I create movies in the future.

James

 

[beaudodson]

Nice video. I like the Dallas presentation. I added you to the top of www.stormreports.org Will have to keep an eye out for more of your work.


Beau

 

[Susan Strom]

Nice tower strike downtown! Looks like a lot of fun that night.

 

[James Langford]

Thanks, both of you, for your comments.

James