On location live composite portraits; a tutorial

[@mallamick]

You’re making the possibility of a switch from a Nikon user to Olympus OM D E1 Mark 2 very tempting indeed my friend. Being a professional photojournalist/magazine shooter for the past 48 years I'm finding your vids very informative and addressing the important questions that professionals need to know before making such a momentous switch.Keep up the good work..

[@prabhakarrao4922]

Absolutely amazing feature. Thanks for explaining this great feature

[@MotivationalRipple]

Been shooting Olympus for 10 years, love your channel!! Keep it up!

[@drewpyper]

New to your channel Joseph, really enjoy your videos. You have this constant, low key child like excitement that just keeps me listening :-)

[@Luigiz28]

Live composite is such an amazing feature in the Olympus cameras. I used it for the first time for a New Year's fireworks show and the images came out amazing. Great video!!

[@luizz_k]

Thanks for yet another very informative video, really helpful for all olympus users out there

[@glennaa11]

what a fantastic idea for how to use this incredible feature! bravo

[@smkunder1]

One of the better videos on Live Composite , thanks. Coming from and still using my Nikon I am finding the Olympus so much fun, maybe some day I will completely switch over. Thanks

[@bertvonwangenheim2710]

Wonderful tutorials! I really like my Olympus camera but without your tutorials I would not be able to use it to the fullest. Thanks!

[@markhoffman9655]

Great opening shot!

[@MGraslund]

Another great video Joseph! I´m a film Leica shooter but been looking at buying a Olympus camera for digital work. Your videos are truly inspiring, keep it up!

[@Hugo-TX]

I've been meaning to play with this feature on my E-M1 II - thanks for the great tutorial.

[@truxtenspangler]

New subscriber - it great to see someone doing EM1mkii specific content. I have jus got mine, so please keep em coming. Thanks again for sharing your knowledge.

[@Lizerator]

Best I have seen on this subject, thanks.

[@sandippanchal502]

hi there! thank you for this great informative video.

[@smkunder1]

Great video , I just started in the Olympus system this week with a used EM-1. I am trying to get up on the learning curve and find your videos very informative!

[@anna-riikkapitkanen185]

Thank you, really inspiring and helpful video!

[@markhughes3277]

Hi Joseph, I’m a long time user of the Olympus system and I had no idea about this feature. I really enjoyed the video. There are a few features I have never tried because I find the manual a little difficult to follow. This is one of them. Thank you. Keep up the good work

[@GranthamAtHome]

Mark. I have a postgraduate degree in medicine as well as a science degree and I find the Olympus manual way more than just a little difficult to follow. You are not alone :)

[@davidgreen3563]

I watch Rob Trek and Tony Northup and you are good with the honesty and info, brilliant aThank You! David L Green uk

[@chrisbakerphotography4017]

Great heads up on the difference between live view and remote shutter.

[@nerves]

Amazing tutorial. Subscribed!!!

[@andywhiteing]

At 15:10 you show the movement of the light wand. Can you show more examples of light painting because that is really interesting to see.

[@Marcello1b]

Great tips again, thanks!

[@stuartwhite8939]

I've been going back and forth with buying a m5. I'm just gonna pull the trigger and get it. Thank you!

[@paulheinrich87]

I must try this with off camera flash to see if I can get some interesting portraits: any videos on this?

[@libork8106]

Great video, have to try it ......

[@bruceham64]

Great presentation.

[@Ericpare]

Thanks for the mention :D :D :D

[@alanplatt888]

Yes, thank you, fantastic tutorial. Really helpful.

[@MuertoInc]

You could use flash as your main exposure and freeze your subjects while you go around light painting. You would minimize movement from your subjects because after the first exposure they will be in darkness and the only light hitting them would be the one with the flashlight.

[@Blue172]

A great video Joseph, I've watch all your videos but I've found this to be the best so far as I purchased my 1st mirrorless camera the Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark II just for this feature and now I've upgraded to the Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II. I use the LiveComp for star trails I'd love to shoot lightening with it but here in the North West UK we don't get much lightening. I wanted to ask about the shot in this video as I don't do any images like this but I'd love to try it as I have a Pixelstick and to usr that as you used your light bar with a couple stood there would be fantastic, I wanted to ask would adding a little fill flash work with LiveComp just to make the couple stand out a little? It would be even nicer if you could do a video tutorial as you were taking such an image (hint hint) sort of behind the scenes. Anyway love your video's and keep them coming - Thanks

[@dougfaber3667]

Great Video Joseph. Have you tried different lenses for this, and did you find one better?

[@peterzeegers9266]

What's not clear to me is when the couple were photographed. Were the couple part of the initial composite "background" exposure or were they added during the "light painting" stages?

[@drshawnie]

Joseph, have you come up with a way to do flash with live composite? If so then what would the camera settings be to get the flash to fire while in live composite? Thank you

[@andymiles5156]

Very useful, thank you!

[@tariqalkindi8045]

I need your advice am trying to use live composite in my Olympus em1 mark iii but not active why? although i can reach it from menu but not active when shopping any clue?

[@jtillard1]

Joseph, I really enjoy your videos, especially the ones that give tips for setting up and using the OMD EM1 II. They are very helpful and informative. I am not a wedding shooter but a lot of your information is useful no matter the application. Can you please devote a some time to talking of post processing with LR AND PS. I am a new convert from years of Canon to the Olympus OMD EM1 II this month. Purchased the camera with the 12-40mm Pro 2.8 and the longer 40-150mm Pro 2.8 so it was a healthy investment. I finally got to go and check out my new camera and that was great but trying to use LR as I did with Canon RAW was not so simple. Question concerning Olympus OMD EM1 II .ORF (RAW) files and Lightroom cc Classic. I updated the LR this week. Shooting only RAW I took a hundred or so shots. First tried to import (copy and import) the Olympus files and that of course did not work. I downloaded the Adobe DNG converter for the OMD EM1 II and installed it. Copy the pictures to a separate file location, run the conversion program, then import them to LR as DNG files for editing. It works but is the best or only process for handling Olympus OMD EM1 II pictures in LR?? I have years of Canon RAW files and I don't want to change from LR. I am glad a process does work but it is not nearly as simple as the other RAW processing. Is this as good as it gets? Comments and advice are appreciated. Keep up the good work and would love to see more tutorials as a new Olympus shooter, especially configuring the camera for optimum use. [e-mail], Spring Hill, FL

[@JosephEllisPhotographer]

JTillard, First sorry to hear about the problems getting your raw files to process, I can't think of a reason why you would be having that issue other than if you're running an older version of LR. The last few iterations have all supported the EM1MKII so there should be no need to create DNG files as an intermediary. Just know that if you can't get it sorted you should call Adobe because there is no reason for it.

[@jtillard1]

Thanks Joseph for the reply. It turned out to be a version issue and easy to correct. I appreciate you taking the time to look at this, you were big help! Keep up those great Olympus videos. Thanks again.

[@AerialLensVideo]

Thanks for this video - wonderful technique and results you show here. I'm Trying to understand one thing...If you set the first picture for proper timing for the background -- say 5 seconds -- THEN that very setting -- 5 seconds -- will be used for how frequently you will see a "review" of what's happening on the display? The shutter is open the entire time/continuously while the firmware is doing its magic addition of light? Clearly, this is 100% magic! Olympus seem to be the only cameras that can do it. THANKS!

[@JosephEllisPhotographer]

Yes, if you pick 5 seconds for the base exposure then during live composite the camera is looking in continuous 5 second intervals for new light, it’s very seamless and definitely magic!

[@AerialLensVideo]

Aha! Thanks! To be clear then, it is one base exposure in this case of 5 seconds (whatever your choice to get the best base image), THEN an ongoing sequence of open 5 sec, closed a microsecond, open 5 sec, closed a microsecond, open 5 sec....etc, until you decide it looks okay? That has to be interstellar alien technology. WHY is Olympus the ONLY company offering this??? My guess: They're highly advanced space aliens, that's why!

[@dankuettel5063]

Thats the best intro!

[@PrivateSnips]

Thanks great info

[@RichardHolding]

Great video, Thanks for that ! There's just one thing I don't get - how come the couple aren't blurred ? During all the exposure time, doesn't the camera detect movement aswell as light ?

[@JosephEllisPhotographer]

When you're working with people they do need to stay very still because you don't want ambient light during the light painting time to record them in another position. If they move a little, blink for example it won't record but if they move their heads and hold it then it will record as a ghost in the image. I combat this by using the phone as a remote trigger and doing the first exposure and second light painting exposure as quickly as possible. Easily done as long as you pick a pose they can handle for 8 or so seconds in this case. The other way to go is just to have them as a silhouette instead of lighting them as I've done but I like this look better.

[@RichardHolding]

Joseph Ellis ok I get it ! Thanks

[@docduanem]

Great topic I will have to get out and try this out. Really glad your doing these vids, I appreciate your teaching style.

[@VRforAll]

Can the camera mask foreground subjects in the first exposure? So they don't have to stand around for the subsequent long exposure? Or will it just stack further exposures without any masking of the initial exposure?

[@JosephEllisPhotographer]

They're not masked... if you put a good amount of light on them say f8/f11 strobe light then usually the ambient/background/light painting has a hard time overpowering their exposure but you might still get some bleeding through depending on what you're doing. I tend to keep people in place and posed but allow them to breath/blink etc since those movements won't be recorded in the dark.

[@Conrad_USA]

How did you light the subjects from the front? Did you light them with the flashlight or another light source?

[@JosephEllisPhotographer]

Sure, I just use the same light source after painting and hold it on the subjects for a few seconds from the camera side. You could also use a second source or a flash of that easier for you.

[@Conrad_USA]

@@JosephEllisPhotographer Thanks for taking the time. One of the issues I've had in the composite mode is that, any light source brighter than the foreground subjects shines through the subjects because it's new light. How did you solve for that or do you simply have to stop recording once you get your subjects exposed correctly.

[@CVCC]

very cool, I saw you were at 899 in subscribers, so I made it an even 900 :)

[@JosephEllisPhotographer]

Chagrin Valley-Web That’s awesome, thank you!

[@BillRicker]

Nice tutorial. Question, is Live Comp only good for collecting highlights, or could it be used to collect a large detailed image by slowly painting a subject to large to illuminate evenly with a moving light source? Your light-sabre swirls look less blown out than the official tutorial's star-trails/fireworks, so I'm thinking this could work for light-scanning, but if there's not a desired base image, how to choose the manual settings? Presumably the base M shutter & aperture settings used for the add-on-images, so should be such that the moving source is well exposed? (One constructive criticism, the microphone and/or room ambience for the 2nd, PS screen-share segment is noticeably different)

[@fiskpad]

Joseph,thanks for this great video. I have a question. When I use OI Share app in the “Live View” mode it will only save my image files as SN (small normal JPEGs) in camera even though I have it set to RAW+SF jpeg in slot 1 and SF jpeg in slot 2. Any ideas how I can change this? It works fine when I use “Remote” in the app instead of “Live View” mode. Any help would be appreciated.

[@ThePNWRiderWA]

I find that the new Olympus app is confusing. I like to use the gps function and it requires I download another app called IO Track. There are no instructions on how it works and I am unable to get it to work.

[@timzlow]

Sorry for this stupid question. Does this means it's not useful in shooting milky way..?

[@JosephEllisPhotographer]

Live composite is more about capturing light over longer durations of time like in light painting or star trails. When I want to do Milky Way photos that’s usually just a normal exposure of around ISO 3200, f2.8 and a shutter of 20 seconds. There is also Live Time on Olympus cameras which is also amazing for long exposures. I hope that helps.

[@davidgreen3563]

🌟🌟🌟🌟

[@terrywbreedlove]

iPhone 10 XS Max I just have to open the Olympus app and it will auto connect with the Camera wifi.

[@stehlealexander]

Except Panorama... / thanks for the movie

[@6teeth318-w5k]

16 min and only 8 sec live showing it. Thumbs down.