Velocity: a Macro Short Film by Vadim Sherbakov
A few months ago, we showed you that our Irix 150mm Macro Lens can be used for Astrophotography. Now we want to show you a beautiful macro example of what you can do with our 150mm f/2.8 Macro lens.
Vadim Sherbakov has created a beautiful and spectacular visual adventure, only with the Irix 150mm macro lens and plenty of glitter.
In case you don’t know him, Vadim is an award-winning aerial videographer and architectural/cityscape photographer. What makes Vadim’s work unique is his incredible attention to detail, quality, and perfection at every stage, from pre-production to post-production. Vadim often looks for inspiration all around him, and it comes out pretty well. When you look at his photos and short films, you will see amazing art and aesthetics in what he does. The author also told us about the inspiration for his short film "Velocity":
"Velocity is my third experimental short macro film. "A colorful journey through uncharted cosmos" was the slogan and driving force behind this new short film. The idea for creating this film came from the similarities between glittery ink and the cosmos. During the last two films, I couldn’t shake the feeling that sparkling glitter with dark ink backgrounds on the one hand and colorful pigments on the other reminded me of distant galaxies, galactic clouds, nebulas, and other cosmic bodies. Vast space of the universe, close-ups of "fast-moving" near galactic bodies as well as explosions of stars – all that I’ve tried to portray in a new
The combination of space and glitter is a very interesting concept, and combined with the author’s innovative approach – it was meant to be remarkable. The phenomenal show that Vadim created, and the journey he took us on with this macro film was a refreshing experience. The filmmaker also took a slightly different approach when it came to shooting this interesting project:
"Instead of facing the camera at a 90º angle and creating edge-to-edge sharp images, this time I decided to tilt the camera slightly, and so, in combination with the awesome Irix 150mm f2.8 macro lens at the widest aperture, I was able to achieve a shallow depth of field for the image. In my mind, this somehow conveyed the feeling that you are shooting objects at great distances or super close to you like it would be if you shot in space. The big role in this project was played by an amazing set designer Luidmila Tregub, who spent countless hours creating the right mixture of the different inks, alcohol, soaps, etc., which looked amazing and also provided the correct motion of the substance. This film would never be possible without her. As in the previous two films, she’d used pigments, different inks, alcohol, soaps, and other mixtures for creating liquid art of flow and movements."
The whole project came out wonderfully, with beautifully chosen music and frames that seemed simple at first glance. Still, the abstract movement of various liquids with glitter created an excellent show. The entire film was shot with the Irix 150mm f/2.8 macro lens with a 1:1 magnification ratio, so it felt like the image was coming out to the viewer. Thanks to the use of the macro lens, the author was able to obtain the effects of depth along with amazing sharpness and incredible image quality, even with many small particles of glitter moving all around the frame.
"I used a Canon EOS R5, shooting 8K RAW, which gave me more creative freedom to color correct and grade the final film. The manual macro 150mm lens f/2.8 from Irix I’ve used on this project allowed me to shoot awesome bokeh and sharp center. DaVinci Resolve 17 has been used to edit and post-process this short film and the After Effect – for some minor fixes and creating titles and credits."
The combination of the Canon R5 and the Irix 150mm was the perfect mix for achieving incredible sharpness and an extremely smooth, round-shaped, soft bokeh. But not only does the quality matter at Irix – it’s also the work comfort while working with any Irix lens. Thanks to the well-thought ergonomics and design, you can confidently work with this lens. All thanks to the module that allows you to control the lens' iris directly from the camera, thanks to which popular semi-automatic modes and data recording in EXIF format are available. The use of electronics also enables the lens to be equipped with a focus confirmation system. This means the camera confirms the proper focus distance every time you set the focus correctly – it’s really easy to work with.
Make sure you have headphones, set the quality to 5K, and enjoy the beautiful spectacle created by Vadim.
More information about the Irix products in the US can be found on the official US website.
The Irix 150mm f/2.8 Dragonfly Macro 1:1 lens is available through the Irix USA website or through our list of official Irix Lens resellers in the US.