"thirtysix shanghai moments" | a slideshow on youtube

menos

menos

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I am doing slideshows of certain projects, experimenting with best formats, etc …

I plan, to work on future publishing parallel - sharing photographs, uploaded on the internet, slideshows and prints.

Tell me, what you think.


thirtysix shanghai moments | by dirk steffen © 2011

For best viewing experience, load the 02:30min video in 1080p (highest quality) and watch in fullscreen.
 
I enjoyed them, especially the two shots 1. Bus stop/Poster 2. Man with pose holding mobile - they were a nice pair.

Thanks.
 
Great work Dirk. I always enjoy your photography. Simple yet powerfull. Great tones and moments of life.
Thanks for sharing.
 
Nice photos! And since noone said it, here's a criticism - the intro credit too long (30 secs). Unless I'm missing something, I had sound off.
 
menos said:
I am doing slideshows of certain projects, experimenting with best formats, etc …

I plan, to work on future publishing parallel - sharing photographs, uploaded on the internet, slideshows and prints.

Tell me, what you think.


thirtysix shanghai moments | by dirk steffen © 2011

For best viewing experience, load the 02:30min video in 1080p (highest quality) and watch in fullscreen.
Click to expand...


I agree that you have some strong shots in there. I also think that instead of using some weird (or very intrusive) generic royalty-free soundtrack, you opted for something that conveys not only "taking the shot" but that this is indeed photography.

Two points I'd improve on:

1) The 30-second black screen will make you lose an audience before they even get to see the first shot. It is also wasted bandwidth (it's the FB/Twitter era, you gotta get'em now).

2) I'd work on the sequence. While most of them are good shots, I'd work to make them transition one from the other, either composition-wise or theme-wise. You're already dealing in B&W only, and you don't have to think about "music-timed" transitions, so I'd strongly recommend on working on the sequence as this would make it not "just another collection of photos". Do this and you'll have a great slideshow.


I too have been letting some ideas brew in my head for a few slideshow ideas, but it's really really hard, not only time-wise, but when you think about the "flow", it can be a lot of work.
 
Yeah, I'm planning to do a multimedia slideshow too. When I was in Iran, next to shooting stills, I also shot a few videos with my iphone and Super8 app (makes videos look oldschool). Nothing crazy, just calm street and landscape scenes, no camera movement. I think it would go nicely to augment stills slideshow with very short vedeo clips.
What software do you all use? I need control over (a) transition effects; (b) some video finetuning; (c) Audio. I'm thinking Premiere Elements.
 
@Tom
It has been one of the first experiments, the basic idea being, loading a Leica M and shooting through a roll, having everything completely down to simplistic basics … the shutter and advance sound.

@Gregory
Thank you so much, man ;-)
Photography is the thing that keeps me ticking.

@Phantomas
Thanks for the compliments - I knew, that the long intro has potential for being problematic, especially, when no hint for the actual reason is given I am loading a roll into a Leica MP with all the details, clearly audible.
I was not clear, if this could work, but hey - it's YouTube, it's a first and I am playing ;-)

… will continue, to experiment more.

The mixed footage idea is nice, I am having some ideas in this direction as well, having a GH-2 collecting dust, as it is a crutch for my still photography.

Btw - Phantomas is THE best bad movie hero of all times - love all of the Phantomas movies, while for me not Louis De Funes (I am a big fan as well), but his evil counterpart is the real star of the movies ;-)

@Gabriel
Thank you soo much for the detailed critics!
I am very happy, I get all this input … keeping scribbling notes … !

Believe me, I have been filtering through endless royalty free music sites and my final verdict: all unusable for anything except supermarket meat counter and corporate elevator music.

I am working on getting in touch with some bands, to get permissions of usage for nice music, but primarily look for other ideas, to not fall for the standard slide show thing. I don't know for now.

Your second point is very true and will be looked primarily after in future slides - I admit, this has been more of a wild mix this time with just a rough fitting.

@Tung
Thanks! No, the audio is the dry loading of a Leica MP with standard base plate and collapsible 50 Summicron.
You won't believe, how different the recording sounds with different lenses on.
I thought about the Leicavit, but choose the standard advance, as it sounds much smoother and less "clickidiclack" ;-)

@JSU
Got the intro - will possibly think about such things in the future or just ignore it and go in completely different directions ;-) Let's see …
Running street noise as background audio has been my first thought about this, but I went for a much more basic solution, when the street noise recordings just didn't take off.
You know, the whole slideshow is based on the idea of having locked those 36 moments into the little black box on that roll - street noise just doesn't work for this idea.

Thanks for the last comment ;-)
These are actually two of many frames, I am collecting and working on a book project with a special theme ;-)
 
Great photos. They look like Tri-X :) I love how you handle the low light and dynamic situations.
Is it a pushed film? What scanner did you use?
 
@Marduk
Thank you ;-)

I shoot TriX @ ISO3200 in D-76 @1:1 and "scan" my negatives with a Nikon D3 + 60/2.8 AF-D Micro- Nikkor on a light table - the best scanning technique, when 13x19 is the wanted print output, rivaling Hasselblad Flextight scans in detail ;-)

This set though is a mix of TriX shots and M9 digital photographs. I develop all photographs in Adobe Lightroom individually (a tip - SilverFX Pro is a great tool for a quick canned profile or extensive processing on a small number of files - Adobe Lightroom/ Photoshop delivers better quality hands down though, which is why I prefer this way).
 
Simply Fantastic....Lots of Eye Candy.... Brilliant !


On a side note, my only agitation came
While waiting for the show to start.... Listening to the loading & clicks I became Impatient but pleased i waited :D
 
Nicely interesting :)

Like everyone has said, the intro is incomprehensible. Maybe a shorter, stop-motion video series of loading the camera could go with the audio? Then it would be clearer what was going on and what sort of device was behind the pictures.

And of course . . . the M's have a horizontal shutter, but the video changes vertically . . . ! ;)
 
I really liked this. (reposted it on my Google+, even)...I've been there a few times and that's what China 'feels' like.

I kinda dig the idea of the soundtrack and like everyone else the intro was too long. That's about it, though. I only wish I'd bought a small sound recorder when I was over there (or thought of this idea first)
 
@Helen
Thank you Helen ;-)
I know, I know, I strained the patience of some (Even got shouted at for my slow loading), but I am glad, you kept watching!

@Martin
Thanks for the input.
Now that I see, that the video is picking up some views, I figure, it must be good, as "like" and "dislike" votes are almost equalling each other ;-)

@Colin
Thank you! I really love the place and people! Everything is soo different here, that often, it really makes us reflect of the twisted references and chases, we have and go after in our little western lifes ;-)
I never met a person, who actually had a clear vision about what life is here before actually coming here.
 
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