Video - Cameras and Smartphones

[Graham_of_Rainham]

As we see more and more crossover between cameras and smartphones, I thought it would be nice if the video function on a camera worked more like the smartphone.

If I take a video with my smartphone, held either in portrait or landscape orientation, the result appears correctly orientated on the screen for playback

If I take a video with a camera held in portrait orientation, on playback the video is shown on the screen as if taken in landscape.

While I can easily rotate the entire video file in CS4 extended, it would be nice not to have to do this. Cameras have auto rotation built in them so why not borrow a trick from the smartphone and rotate video as well as stills.

[Ian]

Re: Video - Cameras and Smartphones

Interesting point, Graham. Best not to shoot video in portrait in the first place though?

Ian

[Graham_of_Rainham]

Re: Video - Cameras and Smartphones

Interesting point, Graham. Best not to shoot video in portrait in the first place though?

Ian

As is often the case, there is a good reason lurking behind some of my ideas...

Shooting a person is almost always done with the camera in portrait orientation, as the same shot would waste a lot of pixels if the camera was held conventionally. With video the camera it's almost always used in this conventional way and composition altered to make the overall "scene" look good.

I've noticed that with video the subjects movement is such a draw to the eye that background is often ignored, sometimes deliberately done to maintain attention on the key subject/feature. Out of focus BGs and other effects are also used to effectively "crop" the viewers attention.

All this is still a big waste of all those expensive pixels. The smartphone video uses all the resolution in both orientations and while it is reduced when displayed on a TV / Monitor the IQ of using all the resolution is still available for post processing.

I've also got this idea in mind to mix HD still images with video overlay so want to have the maximum IQ from the video to blend with the high resolution stills

This may well go towards productions for the latest 4k resolution, where large screens demand the highest image quality.

I'll likely have to install some more memory in the tower to handle all the rendering, but if the technique works the end results may well be worth the time and effort.

Anyway, it's always fun playing about with the ideas...

[patmoore]

Re: Video - Cameras and Smartphones

You raise some interesting points but I'm in the camp that thinks all videos should be shot in landscape. It seems that every time I tune into the evening news they're displaying some event like a tornado shot in portrait mode. They have to put a blurred filler on both sides of the screen.

About a year ago I recorded a [ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYEe15XuVp8"]short video[/ame] urging people to shoot only in landscape.

[Graham_of_Rainham]

Re: Video - Cameras and Smartphones

Having watched your short video, it shows perfectly the example of a tall subject having to be covered by panning vertically.

Imagine having a High Definition landscape still image of a tall subject, onto which the video is layered, but shot in portrait mode to provide a much higher IQ of the subject.

The blending of stills and video is something that has caught my imagination along with mixed media Audio Visual presentations.