Lessons

Lesson Info

Gear Overview

As you know, we're gonna be looking at the test shoot this segment, but first of all, I want to talk about my gear that was a nice place here, just to kind of start talking a bit more technical with reference to how it's going to be used on the tissue and on the real shoots and how I've used my gear historically as well. This's a gear I use at the moment, so I have two bodies the nikon d a hundred e this is the sixth megapixel camera andi sponsored by nick on so this is how I'm able to have two bodies and also right of lindsay's was where I started out. I started out with well, I started out with a variety of different, differing, bettering cameras as time went on, but in terms of lenses, I was mainly using my twenty four to seventy mil lens or equivalent with other brands I've used in the past twenty four, seventy million millions is zoom lens and it's a good all rounder lens that a lot of people use for a lot of different things. Obviously you can get close support traits and you can...

also get contextual images with more surroundings in the image, so it's zeppelins, I've used a lot on dh I continue to use quite and flexibly across a range of different images so when it came to starting to use different lenses and exploring the big bad world of getting bit more diverse and lens changing I e lens that I meant is that I was most intrigued in using are these telephoto lens so I have seventy two, two hundred I also have eighty two, four hundred so it's even more powerhouse with that one there, so these two are particularly good for taking you to a whole new world than I was used to with my twenty four to seventy so in terms of shooting from a distance using images with great depth of field a shallow depth of field on dh so that that for me was really exciting in particular teo to use those for the first time and to get a kind of image that I couldn't really get with the twenty four to seventy mil lens I was used to weigh also have very wide lens here we have fourteen to twenty four mil. So this is the land I don't use very often to be honest because I don't often shoot very wide contextual scenes on when I do shoot scenes that show a lot of surroundings in them, they tend to be images I've stitched from pictures I've shot with either twenty forty mill or something like fifty mil I'm going to be showing you examples of panoramic ce and why I actually do that why I should why stitch my images as opposed to shooting wide because it's a different kind of effect that you're getting with the closer the shallow depth of field, or getting an image as opposed to just shoot the whole thing wide? So the wide lenses one by one, I haven't used a great deal, but it's something that I keep in my bag for the situations where I might want to try something to capture the whole breadth of us ever seen some someplace with really great architecture, for example, it's a kind of lens that would be normally used for architecture and such like? Well, then here we also have eighty five mil lens, which similarly to these offered me a kind of my first idea exploring other lenses offered me a kind of world that was previously not so accessible with the twenty four to seventy because out that's, basically the version of the lens I've been using previously for years, I was using that equivalent of lens, so the eighty five millions is beautiful as well, because this is a prime lands on this is one point for four point force you get this beautiful, shallow depth of field that is not really something to get with this twenty four to seventeen because it's two point eight, two point eight so there's all my lenses I also have fifty mil have mentions, all right, so this fifteen hours on the camera here I haven't. The fifty mil tends to be a lens that people off photographer start out using a lot, and I can certainly see why is the lens I've started to use recently and to discover the simplicity of using a prime lens of focal length? Because obviously, with the twenty four to seventy, there will be a lot of images that I have shot fifty mil a cz part of using this on fifty mil, but the great thing about the fifty mil lens is a prime land, so it's better quality, so you're going to get a better quality with prime lands, then on zoom lenses that's one of the benefits of using a prime linds, but also the fact that you can't zoom with these prime lenses means that you're moving on your feet instead of obviously zooming in and out, which, you know is strange if you're not used to it. But it's actually quite an interesting and challenge or just new factor when you're using a prime lens because and encourages you to think about moving closer and moving with your feet, basically zooming with your feet, and so I like the quality I get this fifty mil lens. And I also find that because it kind of replicates what human eyes saying, I find that the images are very satisfying when I shoot them as well. I could get a range of close ups on dh, more contextual shots, quite satisfactorily with this lens, and it allows me also to get the kind of shot thiss focal length that I would be inclined to stitch to get a panoramic scene either up or down or left to right, and I'm going to be showing you more what I mean by that on where I've used that in pictures of mine, I've done that quite a lot in my cereal fashion siri's the canary picture that you see on the wall there is stitched with one shot to the left so you can see maur off the a room in which she shot, and it gives a space for the dress on the canaries to spill out into. So that was really quite important, and I'm going to be showing you also some breakdowns off how that picture was made made with respects to panorama and also the surrealism in it as well. So two bodies is good because it means that when you have a few lenses and you do want to try and obviously, playing with more than one lens on a shoot, you can have one ready with another lens on it, which is great it's something that I've enjoyed the luxury off it's not necessary, but it's just something that become small, convenient. The more you're working two time limits and the lawyer working prawn productions where there's a lot of factors going in and you can have an assistant prep your your other body with another lens and that's great. And also you might be wondering why I've got pink all over my equipment here is because I realized the great convenience of actually marking home equipment, especially when I'm around other photographers so much as well. So that's, why I've brought these are pink because everything which is so easy but it's a good idea. So yeah, that's all my gear, I love shooting of dslr because it's just gives me a fantastic quality thirty six megapixels pixel is fantastic. Is me really high quality raw files I could work with before? I then work on them and stall them as tiff files, whereas I've toyed with other things in the passport, dear solares, something that allows me the ability to shoot with equipment that isn't too hefty, itt's manageable. I've got also grips on these, which do make them a little hefty, but also mean, you mean I can turn to portray and have, like grip vertical shooting here to shoot portrays, which is much better and going at this so that's really handy or doesn't make it heavier, but it does also mean that you've got the extra battery life with the grip, so I really enjoy I really enjoy my gear. I feel like I'm still making use of all the possibilities of the lenses I've got because lenses basically your gateways to different worlds and, you know, you might be shooting what I find it's, because I'm so used to shooting with twenty four to seventy mil all these years on, then toying with these different prime lenses and also the telephoto ones, even balky as they are, they offer this great this's facet that you can't necessarily achieved with the simplicity of this soon learns that I've been using for so long, so when you're shooting in the particular location, you can really feel like you're opening up a whole new realm when you can give that kind of space between the subject and it's bye. Background with a death field that you choose, so I really enjoyed playing around with that because it really does as a whole new world to see what you can do with your pictures in the worlds that you can conjure up in your passion and your fine art. So when it came to the shoot that we're doing for crave life, matt and I were wondering which lens might be the most suitable couple of lenses that might be most suitable for the ballroom that we're shooting in. You're going to be seeing video shortly where I show are arriving at the location in setting up and things that we did, so we had in mind that we would probably be sticking to the trying out twenty four to seventeen and the fifty mil fifty mil because I've recently enjoyed using it to get a kind of intimacy with the model whilst also given a bit of context, depending off off course where you're standing. But I felt as if there is a very good and what was soon as I looked for the fifty mil, I kind of feel like I know where I am, because then it tells me how to move forward, I move back and I feel like that's, a good marker on how far away are close I should be to the model on dh. You know, the question is for a lot off my situations I'm shooting, it is how do we get close enough to the model without, you know, letting go of the beauty of the location around her? But how do I get far away enough without losing in connection with her? And that is an issue that we're going to face on that wee faced on the test you that we're going to face in the shoot because we started out shooting with the twenty four to seventeen year lens, right far back at one side of the ball room, shooting in on dh, then also, we've tried out using fifty mila's well, so what I'm gonna do is I am going to start playing the test shoot videos so that I can talk more about things and you can have something when you say we do have a couple of questions about gear, so if you guys have any gear questions, feel free to grab a mic, but we have a lot of people, no, of course, that are starting and don't have a lot of lenses, so studio three sixty if you could only afford one lens or introduce well, that would be a toss up between twenty four, seventy mill on the fifty mil, I think, strangely enough, I said the other day to matthew kind of set me a challenge to shoot with fifty mil all day on a shoot or not this shoot shoot we did a couple of a couple weeks ago on dh I kind of rose to the challenge and I quite enjoyed it and I said at the end of the day if you have to shoot with fifty mil full stop that no other no other lens I could see how that's possible so you know that that's like a natural answer to that question but then having said that the twenty four seventy millions is one that I've used the equivalent off that kind of focal length off a zoom lens that's when I've used for years in my support traits and my only fashion work so you could do a lot with that lens as well so the fifty mil is basically like a walking version I think of the twenty four to seventeen so I'm neither of those I think is a good bet and fifty mils you can get them for thirty cheek that are cheaper versions on better version so you can always go from one to the other in your when you start out and when you're talking about like what kind of camera to start with do you have a preference full frame versus crop censor especially when you're trying to get the wide view the whole field of view the whole background everything into it is that a consideration for you um, yeah, I mean, I started out using cameras that were had crop sensor and it's, just something you work round, I think I don't think it's a massive deal at first, necessarily until you do shoot with full frame and then you kind of get used to that and that becomes part of fuel, you know, your demands, your taste, what you're used to, so I don't think there's a big issue of shooting with I think you work around what you're used to. I mean, for example, I started shooting with the camera that was that had a swivel screen that was tremendously useful myself portraiture, so going from that to a camera without it was felt like I was taking this huge backward step, and it was really difficult. I was really frustrated that cameras don't have this but don't generally helped this swivel screen and that they were kind of taking these backward steps, but obviously they don't all catered to self portrait, but I found it also convenient for when I was looking down and taking a picture, and I didn't have to actually look. Through the camera. So I felt very frustrated when I, when I went up from that camera to a better resolution camera that didn't have those same features, but like I say, it's, just something you get used to sew in the same thing about the crop sensor it's, just something you can work with, it's, just a case or when you bet your gear, you get used to certain things, you get used to that extra bit of quality and then, you know you could do more with it. In line with your evolution is a photographer. I love that approach because we do have a lot of people who are just starting out, and the cost of the full frame is daunting at times. So I love hearing that there are advantages to the crop sensor and it's just it's what you're used to and it's where you are at the moment. So I really like that approach thinking the same with your equipment. Do you use the tripod off? Finn was thoughts on tripods. I do use a tripod and it's not here with my gear. I didn't for some reason, but that's mainly because I just wanted to talk to you about different lenses. I have a bulky try pardon of travel tribal, so I tend to just basically stop it now. So tripod is important to me, to me, it's a little bit like a necessary evil sometimes because I like tio, like I was saying about the right brain thing earlier. You know, I like to be thinking about all the possibilities, but technicality calls for, you know, the assurance of a tripod to make sure that the picture is the best quality it can be, especially if you want to shoot us, lois shall be, which, you know, if I'm shooting hand held, I know I should keep it on one hundred twentieth of a second as a general kind of minimum or hundreds at the very least, so try put is important, you know? I don't have it with me at the moment, it's somewhere somewhere else, but that's certainly is important. Now we'll be shooting on a tripod for the majority off shoot that were doing at the location. In my clips, the english show actually there's a lot of shots and taking on the tripod and that's something a point I wantto very clearly raised that the reason of doing that is because their compositional tests because I was shooting and slow shutter speed a lot of those times for the ambiance of the location so it's not something that I would shoot tripe wordless. But I'll make more sense when I show the shooting videos you see that I'm doing these compositional tests to make sure that I get what I want before I go mount it on the tripod and it becomes stuck in that position, and I can't obviously be it's flexible to play with the possibilities. I was just wondering how important it is to keep so your lens trace consistent if you're goingto composite like you have in this image, or whether you can use different lenses get choice because this consistent if you're going to stitch the image together oh, yeah, I mean, if I was stitching an image, I would I would use this basically, I would do it in the same a burst of shots that I'm taking, so it would definitely be with the same lens on it's just a case of making your commitment that lens, that using for the shot so you know, your your commission to a certain proximity to the model, and you have to commit to that as you move around and you're getting that panoramic in the same spot, and if you find that you're I just feel too close to everything, then you might want to redo the shot with the lenses would have to redo the whole thing because I wouldn't want to combine shots taken with different lenses.