{"id":116782,"date":"2019-07-18T06:00:38","date_gmt":"2019-07-18T11:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.premiumbeat.com\/blog\/?p=116782"},"modified":"2019-07-21T16:34:33","modified_gmt":"2019-07-21T21:34:33","slug":"taking-photos-with-blackmagic-pocket-cinema-camera-4k","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.premiumbeat.com\/blog\/taking-photos-with-blackmagic-pocket-cinema-camera-4k\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Take Photos with the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K"},"content":{"rendered":"

While the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K won’t replace your go-to still camera, it can capture stills to make referencing and scouting much easier.<\/h2>\n

Ever since the T2i<\/a>, I\u2019ve been writing tips<\/a> and producing video tutorials<\/a> on how to take a camera primarily made for capturing stills and using it to create the “cinematic” look in its video mode. And now, here we are taking a pocket camera that has been made for cinema, and looking at how to use it to capture stills (cue Inception<\/em><\/a> music).<\/p>\n

This notion isn\u2019t new. Back in 2009, two years after the release of the RED ONE, the camera captured a cover photo of Megan Fox<\/a> for Esquire<\/em> magazine.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s interesting to read the take on the experience of the shoot, as a decade later, it reads like a lost relic:<\/p>\n

For the first time in Esquire<\/em>‘s history (and, we imagine, magazine history in general), a cover image was shot as a video. Using the RED ONE, a video camera that captures images at four times the resolution of high-definition, photographer-director Greg Williams<\/a> (see below) recorded ten minutes of loosely scripted footage with Fox . . . ‘She could run scenes, without being reminded by the sound of a shutter every four seconds that I was taking a picture. As in still photography, a lot of it is capturing unexpected moments. This takes that one step further.’<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Pocket 4K has been rolling into new users\u2019 hands over the last few weeks, and more filmmakers are looking to get the most out of the camera. While the camera only houses an eight-megapixel sensor, and doesn\u2019t have the typical photo features found on a mirrorless\/DSLR-turned-film camera, we can get stills if necessary, and the 4K resolution provides more than enough for quick reference snaps.<\/p>\n

There are two ways of doing so.<\/p>\n

\n

Using the Still Button<\/h3>\n

\"How<\/a><\/p>\n

On the top panel, situated next to the red record button, there’s a camera icon button, which you use to capture a still. However, unlike a typical shutter release button \u2014 which will capture images continuously until you lift your finger from the button \u2014 this will only take the one still image, then you’ll need to press the button again. When pressed, it\u2019s not initially apparent that you may have taken a photograph. There\u2019s no digital shutter sound, no beep, nor does the screen blink. Instead, you\u2019ll see this small camera icon appear in the top-right of the LCD screen after pressing the camera still button.<\/p>\n

\"How<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not that obvious \u2014 even less so in bright conditions. To make matters even more confusing \u2014 or perhaps more beneficial to those filming who don\u2019t want to view stills when browsing their takes \u2014 is that when browsing your media on the camera through the playback function, you can\u2019t review your photos. Again, a stills camera this is not, but one would hope it’d be a feature, considering we have a stills button. Even if we had to go into the menu subsystem to find a separate stills folder to review the media, it’d be better than nothing.<\/p>\n

Upon hitting the stills button, a still (formatted at your current camera setting) will save as a single DNG frame in a new submenu on your card, aptly titled “Stills.” And, cleverly, the stills get renamed with new characters to avoid unnecessary imports when you\u2019re just looking for video files. As with the GH5, for example, if you were to record video, it’d be titled P1040598, and then if you were to take a photo the second after, the photo would be titled P1040599. With the Pocket 4K, stills will continue to follow the naming conventions set on the Pocket 4K, but they will send with S001 and so forth.<\/p>\n

\"How<\/a><\/p>\n

An alternative method, and one we\u2019ve extensively covered in a previous article for Resolve<\/a>, is to frame-grab a 4K still from your NLE. It\u2019s the method behind the Megan Fox cover issue, and it’s the method I used to create the poster below.<\/p>\n