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Another reviewer complained about the video quality. True, it looks like a VHS on DVD.
If you can get past that, you will have a chance to watch a great tutorial on camera work.
This DVD is too short and doesn't teach you much. Most of the time is spent on showing you how to connect your microphone to your camcorder. Money is better spent on the VASST audio DVDs.
The production quality of this video was slick and entertaining. This video is more about learning buzzwords such as "the Pre" while immersing yourself in a deluge of product placements. While there is some instruction, such as for tuning a drum, there is very little information presented here. You are blasted with camera angles and zooms that change with every sentence of the guy wearing the track suit.
Come on, guys. If you're pro audio engineers, please make an instructional video on how to choose and use equipment.
If you want to learn something, check out the audio instructional DVDs from VASST with Douglas Spotted Eagle. They are excellent.
This DVD is an excellent insight into the historical training of martial arts in India. The author managed to cover the training regimen of an actual school, including the practice with those exotic swinging clubs nearly the length of your body. Just seeing those exercises makes me question how Western body building for form instead of function ever came to be: the development of muscles for a competition free of strength tests. I have never seen a DVD on Indian martial arts like this, and you won't be disappointed with material so fresh.
A decent introduction to camera operation, including camera moves, handheld techniques, framing&composition,
"Use your viewfinder as a canvas" I like that quote.
As the other reviewer wrote, the stabilizer demo was barely worth mentioning. I'd really like to see a video with more demonstration of the various stabilizers, from budget to pro.
The only odd thing is the mix of production quality. Some presenters are really smooth while others are stuttery. The presenters are lighted professionally but have an odd strobey look to their movements.
For a single tutorial disc, this was pretty good. Though, at 30 minutes, it's short.
The photos produced by these photographers are renowned. This disk is largely narrative and reflective, meaning there are many comments about various photos already in existence were made. I really enjoyed watching the DVD, but I give it a four star rating because it was wasn't high on the tutorial scale.
I'll rerate this DVD as a five. After listening to it several times, I realized that it offers a few tips that I've never read in other books. Such masterful advice is difficult to find. I guess I gave this disk a low tutorial review because I was put off by the wordsmithing and excessive use of analogies. The authors are reading their speeches for most of the disk, and I think that it's not necessary to see their stoned faces. Instead, they should narrate over photographs.
Anyway, this disk is well worth the rental.
Basic introduction to using soft, fluorescent lights and how to reduce spillover. He included a chapter on electrical and contruction safety, which is rare in an instructional video. Mostly, the video is about converting the higher wattage fixtures from hardware stores with Compact Fluorescent
Lights (CFLs). He shows how to make barndoors from sheetmetal and attach attach them.
He takes his creations and puts them through various tests, and even includes criticism of his own products and how to control the light spillage.
There exist better CFL's, as he recommended the cheapie bulbs with a low CRI that are widely available.
Overall, a good video that delivers on its promise: a tutorial on fluorescent lgith construction.
I wish this DVD were indexed and edited, which would cut it to less than half. The lesson is decent as you have a chance to watch the author go through the setup process. He mentions a lot of technical terms (depth of field, exposure compensation, etc.) without explaining how they relate to his photography. I'm happy that pictures were interspersed so that we have some idea of what he is photographing, but a book such as that by John Shaw is a better lesson.
Top notch instruction: useful, concise, example-rich. This is far from the typical monologue instructional video. You will recognize the images and processes from Katrin's book on the same topic. While her books are useful, there's nothing like actually watching an expert at work on an image.
Highly recommended.
I'll start with a hearty rental recommendation for this title. There simply are no other instructional DVDs that I know of that talk about flash photography in this way. The copious product placements helped with an exposure to the various flashes in existence. I learned two key things that will solve my current flash woes, and for that reason, this rental was completely worth it.
However, this is a typical SmartShooter production: slick production, lots of products spots, too much Will Crockett, very little actual information. Is Mr. Crockett saving all of the information for his SmartShooter University? Based on these DVDs, there is NO WAY I would attend that school for anything. Somehow, Will managed to wave five gems into this DVD, and most people buying instructional DVDs expect more information.
If you want an excellent tutorial with footage of how the cameraman chooses his shots and how to hold/move the camera, rent this DVD.
Tutorials that help demystify the inner workings of your electronic flash are rare and most welcome. This is probably the first SmartShooterUniversity DVD in which Mr. Crockett lost a little steam in his flurry of product placements and actually delivered some useful facts that helped with flash photography. Renting the disk here is a total bargain.
