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Filters in The Field

Lesson 49 from: Adventure Photography Pro

Alex Strohl

Filters in The Field

Lesson 49 from: Adventure Photography Pro

Alex Strohl

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Lesson Info

49. Filters in The Field

Next Lesson: Find Your Path

Lessons

Class Trailer

Intro

1

Workshop Intro

03:18

Foundations

2

Gear

12:14
3

Gear - My Camera Bags

08:00
4

Mastering Camera Settings

07:41
5

Blue Hour, A How-To

10:45
6

Photos That Move Us

07:19
7

Visual Storytelling 101

07:51
8

Endurance In A World Of Sprinting

06:27
9

Keeping Your Ideas Fresh

08:31
10

Building Your Story Arc

06:44
11

Shooting More: Action Plan

02:01
12

Conveying Emotions

07:52

In the Field

13

The Assignment: Himalaya Pre-Pro

12:08
14

In the Field: The Himalaya Defender Shoot

20:29
15

The Assignment: Canon Pre-Pro

10:25
16

In the Field: Canon USA Shoot

15:06

Editing

17

Keywords & Organizing Images

06:42
18

Commercial Grading

04:47
19

Masking & Radial Filters

12:33
20

Perspective Correction

05:39
21

HDR (Hand-Held)

03:37
22

Black & White Edits

07:00
23

Before & Afters

01:33
24

Moody Grading

13:15
25

IG Export Settings

04:00
26

Web Export Settings

02:44
27

Clone Stamping & Patch Tools

05:51
28

Grading in Lightroom

06:45
29

Hand-Held Panoramas

03:41
30

Radial Filters Pt 2

02:38
31

Delivering Files to Clients

12:33
32

Archiving & Organizing Images

10:15
33

My Favorite Software

03:44

Business

34

Let's Talk Business

01:03
35

Building A Desirable Portfolio

11:17
36

How to Contact Clients

12:00
37

Prospecting: Finding Brands That Fit You

04:16
38

Getting Clients To See Our Value

10:16
39

Paid to Travel the World

14:48
40

The Art of Making Moodboards & Treatments

08:09
41

Keys To A Fulfilling Career

07:40
42

Three Things You Need To Know Before Pitching

06:19
43

Finding Your Value Proposition

08:02
44

Media Kit: A Walk Through

08:06
45

How I Built My Audience

07:46
46

Social Media Landscape

07:32
47

Module Recap

03:08

Bonus - Everything To Know About Filters

48

Do You Need Lens Filters?

09:36
49

Filters in The Field

12:40

Bonus - Find Your Path

50

Find Your Path

07:44

Bonus - How To Print Your Work

51

Why Print or Sell Photos

23:21
52

Preparing Photos for Print

06:44
53

Reviewing Major U.S Printers

06:57

Lesson Info

Filters in The Field

(calm music) Okay, so now we're in the field, come to a pretty classic spot, Lake McDonald, and I wanna demonstrate you three different types of shots that we can do with filters. First one is gonna be polarizer, with and without the polarizer. Second one is with the ND. So today it's a bit windy, how can we make a shot that has a reflection with the wind, that's where the ND comes in, and the tripod, and then we can do a circle polarizer and then ND stacked with and without, and see the difference. Okay, that's our plan. We're lucky the sun, we've been waiting for two weeks for this moment, so this is where this update is a bit late, by the way. Now we're stoked and we're gonna do this. Settings, 5.6 1/400 of a second, ISO 100, it's super bright right now. I don't wanna wait for sunset 'cause it might be cloudy again, so we're shooting now. ESR, shooting in raw, obviously. So then you'll see, very useful stuff on the R is having the curves in the viewfinder. I find it really useful,...

because it doesn't have as much dynamic range as the 5d IV, so I tend to clip my highlights sometimes. So having my curves in the viewfinder is clutch. So that's first shot without polarizer, now let's put the polarizer on. Okay my filter is pretty clean, we'll say. This one is the CPL I've showed you in the studio, same one, no tricks here. But it's on. Okay. Now let's do the photo with the CPL. So. So settings I got here is 1/125, 5.6, still ISO 100. So like I said, I'm losing a few stops of light with the polarizer, that's why I'm reducing my shutter speed. (camera shutter clicking) Huh. There you go. And last one, just to be sure. So important with the polarizer, when you turn your camera, you know, you have to think, remember about turning the polarizer. I've done that before, you know, forgetting. Boom. Right there. (camera shutter clicking) Okay, so now the issue I'm having is that it is windy, right? So I'd love to have a reflection go all the way to the mountains. Well, there's a solution, I can use the ND filter. So we have three types of NDs here. We have the ND8, ND4, and the variable ND from Peter that does two full stops, right? Is it two? Four stops. Okay. The variable, Peter's ND actually does four stops, so even better. He's done this before. Cheers, mate. (whistles) Proper way, boom. Guess how many stops we get out of this? So that was the longest eight seconds of my life. Okay. One more. (camera shutter clicking) So you see on a day like today that's a bit windy using the ND and a tripod or some stable object you can find allows me to get a reflection, you know, out of something that is quite moving with the wind. That's the main use I have for an ND. It's a rare thing that I use, but when I gotta get a shot and it's windy, bust out the ND, ND 64. I'm gonna try to put the ND 1000 now, actually, and see what I can get. Okay. Let's take this to the beach. I need to be on the beach so I can slow down my shutter even more with the ND 1000. The dock's moving a bit too much for more than six to eight seconds of exposure, so I'm hoping I can do 15 on the beach. Got my ND 1000, got my foreground, got my tripod out. What else? Let's try this longer exposure now. It's gotten a bit more windy actually, should be good to demonstrate this. Okay, so I'm haphazardly balancing the ESR on the tripod. I don't advise doing this, but if you have to make it happen, this is how it works. So, 30 seconds exposure, F 16 and two seconds start, boom, we're going. I'm just, in case it falls, you know. But otherwise it's looking good. (camera shutter clicking) Oh, sweet. Yeah. It's actually smoothing out the sky, too, 'cause there's like some movement from the clouds. Yeah. Well, it's making this surface look like glass versus all those little ripples. Now let me just do a shot without the filter, and then we'll be good. (camera shutter clicking) Okay. Huge difference. You see, especially in the foreground, no ripples, and then this mountain's more defined. Sky looks more dreamy, too. So that was the first part of filters, polarizer and NDs. Now for the second part of this episode we're gonna go build a snow cave, at least try to build one, no one, none of us has ever built one, and then shoot some photos at night with the ice cave, with the snow cave and the stars with the gray ND filters. See you there. None of us have ever built a snow cave or a cottage, and there's very little snow in this parking lot, so we might be back in half an hour here. Isaac, what do you think the chances of success are? (laughing) I mean, success of having a good time is 100%, but success of a snow cave? Mm, we'll see. We'll see. He's got a radio. (men laughing) (inaudible) I give it a 10 out of 10. That's what our success rates are from me. (laughing) (mellow orchestral music) Let's go down there. Tucker, I did not imagine it would be this easy. It's crazy. Welcome to the abode. It's quit roomy here. At least, you know, half a person can fit right now and I'm right now shaping what is to be the living quarters, to the left. ♪ Yeah, you got that yummy, yummy, yummy, yummy ♪ I think it's, the goal is to get a bell shape, like a, yeah, like a bell like this. So you're making it pretty wide up top and then thinner at the bottom. Keeping that in mind to me is the hardest, you know, 'cause I'm just like chopping blocks, and yeah. Round it all, round it all up. (sighing) Mostly good fun. Whoa, I am almost standing up now. Almost standing up. Can you stand up? Almost in good comfort. Timber! Okay, wow. This side's basically almost done. Okay. I'm just like widening out a little more. So right now we finished building our palace of ice, and I am slowly starting to prepare this to take photos of it, so. I don't know if you've seen, but all of our shit's here, so I'm just placing skis in the right places. Put my skis there. I'm gonna put some more here and here, just so it feels like, you know, like people are here, but it's also nicely styled. It feels good, right? We don't want, like, there's a tripod here and (indistinct). But this is all about, you know, this is what makes the difference, is like, just little details, you know, like nice skis up here. You can A frame them, too, like this if you wanted to, there's different styles. Keeping the poles close to the skis. Hmm. These are not the right poles. And now I'm setting up the 1D X Mark II with my gradient ND, and I'm gonna shoot our little house, the snow cave. Underexpose the cave, right, which has a candle in it. I wanna underexpose that so I can get the sky to be proper, 'cause the sky is obviously darker than my candle lighting up the cave. That's why I'm using an ND. So you could possibly do a bracketed shot here, it's a bit more work, and it's pretty windy, too, so the trees might not work out perfectly, there would be some masking to do. So I just can't be bothered, I'm just gonna do one shot with the filter. Okay. Bam, big gradient going on. See it there? (whistles) That's all my lower part gradiented. So I've just adjusted the gradient filter to kinda cover half the length of the lens, which pretty much where the snow cave is. So then on this upper part, I'll place the mountains, if we can see them, and then it'll just make one neat exposure. So this much is dark, and this much is normal. Let's try it. So I did my first test shot. (camera shutter clicking) F 2.8, 20 second exposure with the four stop ND here, the lens. And I'm gonna have to tinker with it a bit more because I think I need to go a little darker, so I'm gonna slide it up, and then I might have to bracket. (camera shutter clicking) Like, this filter's working, so so far the experiment is working out. Now we're gonna send Levi up on top of the snow cave as a model, because the scene looks good but the skis are not enough, I think it's a bit dead, so we're gonna add a little subject up there and see if it brings the whole scene together. (camera shutter clicking) Done a first test shot with Levi. It looks really cool. The issue that you see right now on the screen is that his light is in flood mode versus spot, so it's lighting up a little bit too much of the snow, first problem. So we're gonna put it in spot so it lights up under the trees a little lower. Second thing is we're gonna move him a bit more back, so there's a good space between the light of the cave and the light of his headlamp. Let's do it. (camera shutter clicking) So I just got the shot I needed, which is I think the winner one's gonna be Levi sitting out by the cave. (camera shutter clicking) I took a few different shots with and without the filter so you can see the difference. (camera shutter clicking) Overall I'm really glad I brought the filter because it saves me some times, and it makes it more straightforward. You know, it's pretty freezing out here, so the less time I spend tinkering with multiple exposures, the better. So, let's do some editing and show you the final shots. (calm music) (camera shutter clicking)

Class Materials

Bonus Materials with Purchase

Workbook
A Note From Alex

Ratings and Reviews

Jon
 

Not What I Was Expecting Let me just start by saying that the workshop was very good. There were lots of things that I learned and many insights I took away. Perhaps the greatest bit of wisdom imparted to me was not anything Alex said but how he approached every subject he talked about. I felt that he was talking to me as a friend, very personal and open book. This was both a blessing and a curse as the course tends to meander around and is not as structured as others I've taken. Alex's passion for the highest quality, and craftsmanship in every aspect of his business, is very evident. From the premiums he charges, to the attention to detail in client deliveries. This is where my review is going to give some hopefully constructive criticisms. For someone so focused on a premium experience I was a surprised to find the course a bit sloppily assembled, and the videography and editing lackluster. This is coming from a videographer and someone with a lot of experience in online training. A few short examples to illustrate my point include: repeating segments of the edit (in some instances the exact same segment), poor framing. Colors changing between cuts, and my biggest pet peeve, not leaving photo examples on for long enough to see them. These are all small things, but they add up, and along with the topics meandering, left me a bit disappointed. I'm curious who you would say this class is aimed towards. Amateurs, mid-level, or experts? The assumption of who you are addressing changes throughout the course. I feel like with a bit of work from an instructional designer, and some editing cleanup, you could help hone this course to be one of the best out there. I feel like I need to do a more in depth review than will fit here, to actually explain this well. Let me know if that would be helpful to you. One other note: When I signed up for a workshop on Adventure Photography, I honestly thought it would be more field focused. The field examples were all shoots for products, and not shoots documenting an adventure. I guess I had just hoped to learn that side of the storytelling process more. Getting into the nitty gritty of being wet, cold, and dirty, and still shooting bangers. The section on filters (going out and building the snow cave) was more what I thought this course was going to be. Anyhow, with all that said, I still found it valuable and worthwhile. To summarize, the course feels a bit unpolished and in some ways unfinished though there is still great value. I've taken Jimmy Chin's Masterclass on adventure photography and it felt very structured and highly polished. I purchased "Adventure Pro" on the "finish in a month" discount. I would have felt ripped off if I had paid full price with the course in its current state. Thanks for reading and I hope my criticisms come as helpful. As I've already mentioned I'd be happy to further elaborate.

Topher Hammond
 

One of the best photography investments I'm only 1/4 of the way through Alex's course and I feel like I already have a loose plan on how I can move forward in my own career as a photographer. I felt like my work was lacking a specific feeling. The way that Alex articulated ideas on how to convey emotion in your imagery and building that overarching story arc for your own life narrative were super helpful to focus on how to make my work better. Super looking forward to the rest of this course. Thanks Alex and team!

Sergi Mas de xaxars Rosell
 

Great Workshop I learned quite a lot with this workshop. Because I'm in the industry for 5 years now, there were a few things I already knew. On the other hand, Alex showed me different and more effective ways to improve my business. I like the way he gives the lessons, always in a personal and close way. This is the knowledge I wish I had when I started. Totally worth it!

Student Work

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