I looked back at the 20 environmental portraits I shot for an accounting firm back on October 25th and I really, really liked the skin tone I got along with the resistance to high ISO noise that the Sigma fp gave me that day. Some of the credit should also go to the Leica 24-90mm zoom lens which is nothing short of fantastic. I just found myself wishing I could show the portrait subjects some of the images I was capturing so I could better get their "buy-in" on the process. A five inch, high def monitor that I could compose on and also swivel around to let the subject review some shots would have been really great.
Today, as I was packing for a similar project I'm doing tomorrow at a law firm I realized that I had all the pieces to make that working methodology successful right here in the studio. I love to test stuff out before I go out and work with clients so I put the lens on a tripod, mounted via a rotating mounting ring, and attached the Sigma fp to the lens. I left the magnifying hood on the camera but will probably jettison it for the actual shoot as it becomes redundant with a monitor attached. Finally, using the Sigma flash attachment's hot shoe, I attached the Atomos Ninja V to the rest of the package and connected it to the camera with a micro-HDMI to full size cable. When I get to the location tomorrow I'll also put a monitor shade on the Atomos to block unwanted light on the screen.
Now I can set up LED lights, preview my exact shots, and see every detail on a monitor that's got at least twice as much viewing area. So much easier to show clients and subjects how the shots look as we go through the day. The novelty of it all will make the day that much more fun!
I'll bring along some of those big, Sony NP970 batteries for all day monitor performance as well as a couple more HDMI cables --- just because. It's a heavy package but I'll let my tripod do all the grunt work.
The tests say, "Yes." We are good to go. Now on to the packing.
After I disassemble this set up I'll plug a USB-3 cable into the camera and the computer and see if whatever changed in Lightroom Classic has now enabled the same kind of tethering as I experienced this week with the Leica SL and SL2. With a bit of luck I'll be tethering every camera I own except for the Leica CLs. They have not ports.
New Update: The Sigma is not tether-able to Lightroom Classic at this time. I'll continue to use it tethered via HDMI to the Atomos Ninja V. Too bad....
10 comments:
I suppose the lazy tethering method would be to record the highest quality video and make do with 4k frames, there are various networking things (expanders) for some of the ninjas, only lazy until you have to extract the frames you want from the video... be right back, need to decide if I require a 400mm mirror lens...
Rube Goldberg would have loved it.
JC, he already loves the FP with that weird EVF hanging off the back!
Dick
Do a wireless setup for your Atomos!:)
No.
I like the funky yellow cables. Makes the rig look more interesting...
Looking at your setup and wondering if there’s some way to turn that Loupe into a proper waist level chimney finder.
Recheck your calendar-I have a suspicion that shoot is scheduled for the 30th....
Bob F, you can imagine my embarrassment .... yes, it's the 30th.
I don't use external monitors all that often, but I've played with them. I also don't shoot portraits and such. So I may be completely off base here. If so, my apologies.
One option I've read about that is used in recording movies is to use multiple monitors, one for the director, one for the person operating the camera, etc. I know the monitors I've played with have HDMI output ports to allow you to daisy chain monitors. If not, there are HDMI splitters out there. I can imagine if you are using an external recorder, you want that to be closest to the camera to avoid signal degradation.
In reading your post, and displaying the results to the clients, I'm wondering whether it may make sense to have a second monitor, one for you to use, and one for the subject.
That way you don't have to turn around the monitor for them to see. You could have a second monitor facing them. You can control the slide show to show them the images, zoom in, etc. without having them have to look over your shoulder.
In addition, my wife and I both have had times where we cannot stand for extended periods of time (my wife had a wheel chair for several years until some surgery). This way, the client could be seated with a tablet sized monitor to see the shots that you want to present. I could imagine some clients might have similar issues.
I could imagine two different modes of using this. One mode would be a tablet sized monitor that they can view after the shot. The other might be a larger monitor fixed on a tripod, that they could use to monitor their look in real time.
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