The New Decade of Storytelling

As I flew back from the awe-inspiring WPPI conference last year, I picked up my iPhone, put my earbuds in, sat back and relaxed. I navigated to the movies section and watched moments from my life in full motion picture. One video was of a family vacation aboard a catamaran in the Caribbean. Another film was from a motorcycle ride through the Valley of Fire we had taken during the previous WPPI conference with a group of photographers. Yet another was of my wife walking on the beach in California. Needless to say, it brought me back like nothing else could have. I’ve watched these same videos countless times—in the gym between sets, on the train to New York and pretty much any other time I was on my own. Video is among the most personal ways to view your life experiences and reminisce about special times, and now it is in the hands of photographers all over the world. This is an amazing time to be a storyteller!

For close to 120 years the concept of moving pictures has enlivened the dreams of storytellers from all walks of life. Whether you love fiction, photojournalism or documentaries, motion pictures have no doubt impacted your life in many ways over the years. Now, due to the advent of HD DSLR cameras, moving pictures have become a serious topic of discussion centered on the photography industry, and it’s time to shed some light on the new state of the industry and where it is headed.

The discussions surrounding motion pictures run the gamut—some are extremely excited about this convergence of cinema and still, and yet others are, quite frankly, annoyed. As an early adopter of digital over film, these mixed feelings seems a bit too familiar to me. For years, many thought digital was a fad that would somehow go away and it would be back to business as usual. I think by now, we all know the outcome of this major shift in our industry. Now, we are facing a paradigm shift in the photography industry again. HD cinema is here to stay, so we might as well enjoy it to its full potential and unleash some dynamic possibilities.

I’ve always enjoyed motion as a medium. I consider myself lucky to have started teaching myself video editing years ago. I purchased several video cameras over the years and made an investment in learning to capture motion. But, in a decade shooting video, I was never once blown away with image quality coming out of HD camcorders but for me, the introduction of Canon’s EOS 5D Mark II and EOS-1D Mark IV changed all of that.

The quality of footage coming out of these cameras is so stunning that I have a tough time using the word “video.” The color and detail quality is literally as beautiful as any still image I’ve ever captured. It has motivated us to move our business forward into capturing cinema for portraits, weddings and events. It has also sparked a new energy in our business, helping us to step outside our comfort zone, create personal assignments for the sake of learning and even to produce independent films.

2009 was an incredible year for exploration at our studio. We introduced cinema coverage for weddings and events as soon as we got our first 5D Mark II and nearly every wedding
we have photographed since then opted to have our team capture both cinema and still photographs, which made a huge difference in our bottom line this year, especially considering the economic downturn. With no one to turn to or model our approach after, we simply had to follow our instincts and design a style of coverage around what we would want for our own family. Along the way, we learned a lot, we tested a lot of tools, and spent a great deal of time narrowing our focus on what works. First and foremost there are some tools that make life a lot easier and one of the purposes of this article is to shed some light on those we like best for our style of coverage.

Tools to Complement our Style
For 20 years, we’ve built our business on capturing truthful documentaries in which couples and families lived and breathed their moments with little or no interruption. So, it wouldn’t have made sense to approach cinema any differently. We knew this would be a challenge, but the truth is HD DSLRs make capturing events as a quiet observer more realistic due to their incredible low-light integrity. Never do we need to use on-camera lights to flood the dance floor. Clients show their appreciation, telling us often that they didn’t even know we were present, which is the compliment we have come to expect while capturing stills.

Keeping in mind that I am particularly picky about noise, the Canon 5D Mark II is a strong low-light camera, which we comfortably push to ISO 1600 for stunning low-light video capture. However, the new 1D Mark IV represents a giant leap forward for low-light video capture with our favorite ISO being 6400 during the reception. The 1.3X crop factor is also wonderfully matched with the 70–200mm f/2.8 IS as it gives us the perfect amount of reach for long shots from the back of the ceremony. Complement the low-light sensitivity with prime lenses like the 24mm f/1.4, 50mm f/1.2 and 85mm f/1.2, which are our favorites, and there is no lighting situation we have faced in which we can’t capture stunning HD video with pristine visual clarity.

Beyond the integrity of the cameras alone, one tool that aids in our ability to switch back and forth from cinema to stills is the CameraSlingers camera strap (www.camera
slingers.net). This simple and comfortable strap provides the ability to have two cameras available at all times. One or both can be dedicated to cinema or stills, and having various focal length lenses at our fingertips at any given moment has allowed us a distinct creative advantage.
Keeping it Steady

Video requires a few additional tools for those who prefer steady footage to handheld footage. Personally, I like both, and feel that both have their place. However, a quality monopod, and tripod with a fluid head are essential tools in our gear bag. We use the Induro carbon fiber line of tripods and monopods to cut down on weight, along with a Manfrotto 701HDV fluid head, which is an entry level and very reasonably priced fluid head. Research suggests that it is important to find a fluid head that coincides with the weight of your camera system. Too light a head and you won’t have the support you need. Too heavy and you won’t have the smooth fluidity you expect. Since DSLRs are lightweight compared to most video cameras, the need to purchase an expensive heavy-duty fluid head can be counterproductive, so do some testing and research before overspending in this area.

Other necessities for our style include a Glidecam HD-4000 with a 14mm f/2.8. Glidecams allow you to capture footage that looks as smooth as if you are on a rail system yet with the ability to weave in and out of a cocktail party unobtrusively. The Glidecam is also perfect for shots entering the reception or following the bride and her father down the aisle. It is small, lightweight, and can also be used to steady the camera by placing it on the ground. Learn more about the different options at www.glidecam.com.

Another tool we have found particularly useful are loupes that attach to the back of the LCD screen. To date, we have worked with two different systems and both work well. The iDC Viewfinder available at www.idcphotography.com is an adaptation of the Hoodman 3.0 loupe. Another, from a company called Zacuto, is the Z-Finder. A nice feature of the Z-Finder (available at www.zacuto.com) is that it magnifies the LCD screen, making it look as if it takes up the entire back of the camera. A nice feature of the iDC version is the baseplate that is designed with a hole that is perfect for the CameraSlingers strap. Having a loupe attached to the LCD turns the camera’s LCD screen into a full-blown LCD monitor, which eliminates stray light and allows you to easily fine-tune focus. This also offers a third point of contact for handholding the system that aids in steadying the footage.

Finally, smooth pans add a very professional touch to footage as opposed to merely using a tripod. A wedding or event, of course, is no place for a dolly, but there are some tools that can give you that high-end look even on location. The Glidetrack Shooter is perfect for the video artist on the move. At just 1.5 feet long, this rail system can be put on the floor, mounted center-weighted on a tripod, put on two tripods for extra stability, and even doubles as a shoulder support. There are a few different Glidetracks available and you can learn more at www.glidetrack.com about the various options and configurations.

Audio
While the on-camera microphone is great for ambient sound, chances are you will want to control and monitor audio as well. To capture the vows, toasts, and the band for weddings and events there are a few tools that will help take your productions up a few notches. A good wireless microphone system will make a world of difference.

Personally, we have been using the Sennheiser ew 100 G2 wireless transmitters and receivers for years and are extremely pleased with their performance. These are compact units and you can use one transmitter and multiple receivers if you want to feed the same audio into more than one camera. Currently there is no way to monitor audio coming out of the camera so you must make sure your transmitter and receivers are set appropriately. The BeachTek DXA-5D is a device that can monitor audio prior to it coming into the camera, which also allows you to adjust audio levels. It has been a definite asset in our gear bag as hearing the audio allows you to know that your mics are indeed working and set to the perfect level.

Another element of sound is music. We license all of our music for wedding productions and often use Triple Scoop Music (see the feature on pg. 120) to find great songs to score our films with. Great audio is most often the most difficult aspect of video production, but with practice and a few great tools it becomes easy. Sound simply adds dimension and depth to visual stories and is something you will want to utilize to make the most of your video products.

Printing from Video Grabs
Printing is also possible right from the video files. One major difference between video cameras and HD DSLR cameras is often color space. The Canon line of cameras use the same sRGB color space for video as stills, which makes it easy to turn a video clip into a JPEG file that is ready for print. In our tests we have found that a high quality 5 x 7 can be printed right off of every video image. We have even pushed the envelope to print 8 x 10 size images, which are very close in quality, however beyond that we found the quality drops off quickly. Our current offering keeps still photography and cinematography separate, as our personal preference is to capture stills for print and video for screen. However, it is nice to know that we have backup if the need were to arise.

Futuristically we can only assume and imagine that the day will come when RAW video of 2–4 times the resolution will become available, at which time we may find ourselves working much differently and capturing moments at 24–60fps and choosing the perfect moment in between for print.

Team Fluidity
Our clients experience a lot of benefits when hiring our studio because we build a team based on the demands of each assignment and budget. We have three principal photographers at our studio who act not only as the lead artist for the day’s events, but also as the director of photography. Due to the scale of events we photograph in New York and beyond, it is important to have a team leader who designates how the team will work together and what angles each will handle. Choreographing a team is as much an art as capturing an event, and our clients enjoy a well organized solution in which all team members work in unison to complement one another. We decided that for our studio, we wanted to work toward creating the best product we could deliver. So, our coverage isn’t just a slideshow with a few video clips thrown in. We team-build to cover events and weddings to the finest degree possible.

Currently, we can build a team of two, four or six and each of our team members is skilled in both still photography and cinematography with HD DSLR cameras. Due to the grandeur and size of events we often photograph, most often we have a team of four with two mainly dedicated to still photography and two mainly dedicated to motion picture. Having everyone carrying the same line of cameras and lenses is fantastic as we are prepared in every way to make the most of each moment with both stills and cinema coverage.

Looking Forward
It isn’t always easy to adopt change. In the past eight years alone, we’ve all had to learn and integrate a wide array of technology, software and new business models. I am not trying to convince anyone to adopt motion picture. I think everyone will take the leap when the time is right for him or her. Many may not ever move in the direction of cinema. However, having been in business for nearly 20 years, my personal experience is that the best way to grow both artistically and professionally is to take advantage of new opportunities when they present themselves. The bottom line is that we make our living with a camera, and moving forward, you can bet that topics and competitions will widen at conferences to include cinema as a way to do just that.

It is an exciting time for both of us as photographers and for our clients as well. Our studio has more products to offer than ever with creative ideas for print, in books or albums, on the big screen, online and via mobile phones. We are dawning on a new age where mobile technology allows photography and motion picture to be more personal than ever. We are making 2010 a year for charting new territories and trying things we’ve never tried before for the sake of being creative. I am not sure where we will be looking back in five or even 10 years, but I’d be willing to bet that this new decade will prove to be the most exciting time in the history of photography and cinema alike.
View Charles and Jennifer Maring’s work at www.maringphoto.com.

At the forefront of the wedding photography industry, artists Charles and Jennifer Maring capture nuptials around the globe for couples who expect the very best. A favorite among celebrities and business leaders alike, a few of the Marings’ notable clients include Donald and Melania Trump, Glenn Beck, celebrity party planner David Tutera, writer Tom Clancy and Star Jones. When they aren’t traveling on assignment, Charles and Jennifer divide their time between their home-based studio in Connecticut and their office in midtown Manhattan.