Practical Magic

A practical effects shot is an effects shot that was done by taking a actual photo of something like this small explosion with a camera and not a computer generated effect. Practicals are often then digitally composited into a scene to complete the illusion. Fire is something that can be really hard to get to look right when done by a computer because of the lighting dynamics.

This is definitely not my first time taking practicals but it was one of the more successful. I do special effects work though mostly computer generated stuff. So it took a few tries to get it right.

Technique

This was shot on my Panasonic AG-HMC-40. While this camera does take still images they are not very good. After all it is a video camera. This camera is also a bit noisy in low light situations. So it took me about 10 tries to get something that produced the type of effect that I wanted without motion artifacts or lens distortion. I had to mess around with exposure times and focus. My camera wanted to remain in auto focus for about the first 3 shots and that did not work well at all.

It was shot on a green chroma key background that I took out in Adobe Photoshop so that I could get a clean alpha. It would have been hard to do it any other way. I did not adjust anything else like levels or color. This is what the camera shot.

My Dog Has PTSD

I had my dog Lexi in the studio with me. She is a big help. Cheap labor as she is not a union member. (smirk) Anyway she was not impressed with the 10 tries it took to get this shot and I found a little present as I was dollying the camera. After I cleaned my shoes and corrected my exposure for the last time I finally got the shot.