This is a short video to show you how I used my Neos Adventurer All Season Overshoes from Outdoor Photo Gear to keep feet warm and dry while in Antarctica and the Falkland Islands recently. It’s not an incredibly difficult subject but it took me a few times to get my head around the process and be able to get this footwear on quickly and out to the Zodiacs waiting to take us ashore.
You can also view the embedded video on your iPad, thanks to Vimeo!
Don’t forget to hit the full-screen button in the video window to view the video full-screen.
Note that there is an iPod/iPhone version of this video in iTunes, which is good for portability, but if you’re watching on a computer, the video above is better.
Hi there, I'm Martin Bailey, and today I'm going to show you how I kept my legs and my feet dry when I was down in Antarctica last month.
What we're going to look at, basically, obviously you need some footwear. These are Baffin Boots. They're good down to like minus 70 degrees Celsius. These are my winter weather, insulated boots, that I use anywhere it is going to be cold.
But when you are going to be jumping in and out of zodiacs, or I'm doing beach landings, you want something to keep the saltwater off of these and also to give you a little bit more height.
These are basically what I bought. They're Neos Overshoes. These are the Adventurer All Weather Overshoes. I bought these from Outdoor Photo Gear. I'll put a link in the show notes and in the video.
Basically, these are what we're going to put over the boots. Nice and big so that you can do that. And then to stop water to get in even over the top of these, but you don't want to be really wearing waders down there. We've got just normal rainproof trousers. I'm going to show how to put these on. It's not difficult, but it's just something that obviously it took me a little bit of time, to get used to the rhythm of things. So I'm going to show you that today.
So, boots on first, what you see is, you need to pull the rainproof trousers on, under the bottom part there, and obviously, I would usually be wearing thicker trousers than this, if it's really cold weather, but this is not important for this review.
So we'll do the boots up nice and tight. Then we get the Neos Adventurer All Season Overshoes. Now these boots are big. To get an overshoe that will go over the top of these, I needed the XXL size I think they were. You can see that it takes a little bit of rummaging around. But then once you've got yourself in there, that's it. You've got the boot on there, and you just tuck this around. I generally then go over and make sure that the Velcro is all in contact. Then here's your adjustable strap. Pull that across nice and tight.
There you've got your overshoe on the top. That can stop water to this height. It's difficult to see this with everything being black, but then if you pull the rainproof trousers down to there, you can literally take water even higher than the top of the overshoe. Literally, I took a wave a few times well over the knee and my feet were dry as a bone and toasty for the whole time.
Let's stick the other one on for good measure. Just to show you that again. You can see my embarrassingly white legs, which my wife says they actually glow in the dark. Obviously, they don't, but they are very white. Tighten them up. Once again, grab the Neos overshoes. I put a link to Outdoor Photo Gear to actually pick up these boots or to select another range. Basically, there you go, bring this around and get it tight. Make sure that the Velcro strip is tight. Of course the water can get in through here, because the tunnel comes right the way up to the top. It doesn't have to be perfect. The Velcro itself is not the waterproof element here. Once again, pull the rain trousers down, over the top, and we have one waterproof legged Martin.
So that's that, really not a difficult subject, but something that it took me a little bit of sorting getting used to the process. So I thought I'd share that with you today.
Also, the Neos range are excellent. I do recommend that you use that. The Neos range are great quality, really good build, and they are very light. With this combination on, I walked quite a ways on the Falkland Islands. It wasn't like a trek in the Himalayas, but even with the overshoes on, I was able to trek for a good couple of miles one day in the Falklands. You can just leave them on. You can take them off if you want to. Their main purpose is to, like I say, keep you dry, when you're getting in and out of the Zodiacs, which are like the large river boat with an outboard motor. They keep you dry if you got a lot of swell when you're on the gangplank. Also when you get off the Zodiacs, a lot of the time, you actually end up having to wade in the sea for a few paces before you get onto the dry land.
So basically, once you're there though, you can take them off. Generally, there is a little base there that we make, and you walk around and photograph and then come back. Now, the good thing about leaving them on though is, if you are down somewhere else away from the base, and you feel like it's a good shot where you need to be a little bit out into the sea maybe, just walk out there. It's not a big deal, if you got your boots on.
So thanks for joining me today. Remember that if you go over to the blog, blog.martinbaileyphotography.com, I'll put a bunch of links into the show notes for you there, one over to RPG and Outdoor Photo Gear, because they are great bunch and they support the show in various ways. I like to support them as well. Please go over there and take a look at what they have to offer. If you need some overshoes, Neos is the way to go.
Matt, our webmaster and graphics wizard, has been hard at work creating a new OPG intro that we'll place on the many gear review videos we have coming up. We think it's pretty cool!
Editor's note: Welcome Andy Biggs to the blog! Andy has been a long time supporter of OPG, and is the designer and manufacturer of the wildly popular Gura Gear Kiboko bag. In addition to running Gura Gear, providing commercial stock images and teaching workshops, Andy conducts incredible photo safaris to Africa. Andy heads overseas six or more times a year, covering nearly every accessible part of the African continent. Having traveled with Andy myself to several stops in southern Africa, I can tell you that Andy's safaris are first class, and that you'll have the photographic experience of a lifetime. You can find out more about Andy, see his images and learn about his safaris at his websitewww.andybiggs.com. We look forward to more articles and videos from Andy in the future! –Chris
There are many different types of safari vehicles in Africa, and this is the first in a series of videos to try and explain what the vehicles are like. This video specifically describes what the pop-top, or open-roof vehicles are like in east Africa. There are other vehicle types in east Africa (Tanzania and Kenya), however this video specifically addresses the open roof type. I'll shoot similar videos in Botswana and in Kenya later on this year, and my goal is to use these videos to visually explain what the vehicles are like before travelers get to Africa.
You can find the Kinesis Safari Sack described in this video in the OPG Store here.
So I’m here today to talk about how to photograph out of a Land Rover in Africa. Here we have one of my vehicles that we use in Tanzania, and the vehicles are very similar in Kenya as well. But these are what we call pop top, open roof vehicles. Some vehicles do not have a top. I prefer the ones that provide shade because you’re out in the bush all day long, and that sun just beats you down. So I’d really prefer to have one of these tops, these canopies.
The main location you’ll photograph from will be from the standing position. You’ll be in your vehicle. You’ll find your game, what you want to shoot, and you’ll stand up. Here we have a generic bean bag underneath my 200 to 400 lens. My preferred bean bag is from Kinesis. It’s their Safari Sack. It’s kgear.com is their website, and what makes this bean bag really great is it’s got the ability to cinch it to the posts here and keep it in place. You could put a bean bag on one side of the vehicle and another on the other and just leave them there all day long.
When I mount my lens or I place my lens on the bean bag, a lot of times I am using the lens foot. I have a replacement lens foot here from Really Right Stuff, and the reason why I like to use the replacement feet is because they’re typically lower, a lower sense of gravity. You’re not creating a big pendulum on top of the bean bag. That’s my recommendation there.
If my subject distance isn’t changing very much, I do prefer to move that lens foot around to the side or to the top so I have more surface area to hold the lens. The downside of that is that you can’t tweak your manual focus very well, and it’s also hard to zoom if you’re using something like a 200 to 400, a 100 to 400, just some other type of zoom. But for the long zooms, the focusing ring and the zoom ring really do get in the way, so I do like most of the time to just leave the lens foot in place on the bottom.
Now, this is really the best place to photograph if your subjects are farther away. But if your subject is very close, you’re going to want to be shooting from a lower position. And here on the bottom of the vehicle I have a 70 to 200 mounted on top of another bean bag and just sitting out of the window. This is great for those big cats and subjects that come really close to the vehicle because you don’t want to shoot down on your subject. You really do want to shoot at eye level, if at all possible.
This also allows a different view where you can get things and your subject in your frame, like the horizon. I find that is a good storytelling item in an image. The second thing is that if you’re shooting at the same aperture up here, like let’s just say F8 versus F8 down here given the same length of lens, you’re going to have more shallow depth of field, i.e. a blurred background from shooting from a lower position. Why? Because your background is physically farther away from the lens.
I also have two bean bags stacked here in the middle of the vehicle. This is really great where, maybe, if you’re uncomfortable and you need to create a little bit more height but you still want to shoot from a lower position, this can work well. The caveat with that is that if you’ve got some sort of predator walking by the vehicle, you’re not going to want to have that bean bag fall out. That’s a really bad time.
Here is a Land Rover from East Africa and how we shoot from them.
For the recent “Real World Lightroom” workshop, I wanted to show students the creative power of Lightroom 3 as both a RAW processor and a way to make great slideshows for presenting their work. Here’s a short video made using the slideshow module of Lightroom showing before and after versions of some of my recent photographs.
Here’s How I Made It
- For the images, I selected several that would serve as the after slide. Then I created virtual copies of each one and cleared out the adjustments so that they looked like they were just imported. These were manually sorted in the slideshow module so that the before images were in order. Also, I had to make sure the cropping and alignment was the same so that the image wouldn’t seem to shift too much during the fade transition.
- For the intro and outro slides, I created the graphics in Photoshop at 1920 x 1080 resolution, the final output size of my slideshow when exported . Once I exported the slideshow from Lightroom at 1080p, I imported the video file into Premiere Pro CS5 and added the intro and outro slides and music. I could have created the video entirely in Lightroom, but would have lost the ability to have the intro and outro slides show full screen.
- For the background, I modified a cool wallpaper from Bartmelme Design which are available for free – (thanks guys!), and placed it as my background image in Lightroom – a very cool feature.
Finally, I uploaded the video to Vimeo, but you can use any number of other video sharing sites
Hope that inspires you to create your own slideshows in Lightroom and get creative with presenting your work in a way that helps you stand out from the crowd! Any questions or suggestions, please let me know!
Learn more about Robert, his images, his blog and his workshops at his website: www.robertrodriguezjr.com
On a recent visit to one of my favorite locations in the Hudson Valley, I was fortunate to find some very unique weather conditions. Recent sub-zero temperatures and lots of snowfall created some really strong foreground elements, and I was able to “walk” out on to the frozen Hudson to try and capture some interesting perspectives. My goal here was to emphasize as best as I could the relationships between the foreground and the mountains in the distance. This included lines and shapes, highlights and shadows, as well as the color variations as you move from the cool foreground to the warm and bright light in the distance.
More than anything else, I wanted to capture how I felt, which was mostly excitement, incredibly alive breathing the crisp air @ 5°, but also warm from knowing I was doing exactly what I wanted to do.
These are all part of the “ingredients” that I talk about in my workshops that help contribute to an image that is visually interesting, and hopefully conveys the feeling and mood of the scene. Of course, capturing the image is only part of the process – interpreting the RAW file to achieve your ultimate vision is just as important to the overall workflow. The creative decisions made in the processing stage is the focus of this video, the “why” of moving a slider in Lightroom. I hope you enjoy this podcast episode – I have several more coming in the near future. As always, please leave any questions or feedback in the comments section below – I always enjoy hearing from you.
Learn more about Robert, his images, his blog and his workshops at his website: www.robertrodriguezjr.com
If you have ever wanted to make selective adjustments to your images but have been unsure how – this video is for you! Understanding how to creatively use layer masking can really open up a lot of new doors to photographers in the digital darkroom. This video just scratches the surface of what can be done. But I hope it will be easy to understand and be a good start. Enjoy!
Learn more about Glenn, check out his images, books and workshops here.
As you may have heard me say before, audio is of the outmost importance when shooting videos. If you look at my two part article on recording audio for video, my preferred way of recording audio is to record it separately on a dedicated audio recorded such as the Zoom H4n, however there are situations when it is more efficient to record the audio straight into the camera.
Recently Canon released a firmware upgrade that allows you to adjust the audio gain control manually and providing better sound control. Additionally, there are a few products out there specifically geared towards helping you get the best sound recorded into your camera. The two most popular products in this category are the BeachTek DXA-5D and the juicedLink DT454. These units trick the ACG within the cameras and provide for much more controlled audio recording. But the also provide means to monitor your audio as well as mixing a couple of channels or audio sources.
I ran a quick and pretty simple test comparing the two units mentioned above as well as recording straight into the Canon EOS 5D MarkII, with ACG enabled and disabled. The location I picked, in front of a noise waterfountain, was deliberate to simulate locations where the ACG tends to perform the worst.
After testing these devices, my preference is still to continue recording on a dedicated audio recorder, but out of the BeachTek and juicedLink units I was most impressed and got the best sound out of the juicedLink DT454. The unit was a little complicated to set up, but once I did, the audio recorded by the camera was the cleanest. The BeachTek came in close, but the juicedLink had a distinctly better audio. Not all is rosy with the juicedLink though, the way this unit gets such clean sound is by feeding the camera a reference signal over one of the audio channels which in essence forces the camera into a constant gain level, which means all your audio is recorded on only one channel, the left channel; the right channel contains some white noise.
The juicedLink has 4 audio channel inputs, including 2 XLR all of which you can adjust the audio levels to get as clean as sound as possible. As mentioned before you can also monitor the sound, which is crucial to make sure you are capturing the right audio. So if you need to record your audio “in camera” I would HIGHLY recommend the juicedLink DT454.
Juan Pons of DPExperience , Scott Elowitz of LensCoat products and I arranged the shoot of this rare monster lens. It's been the most popular post on our blog, and we thought we would repost it so new readers could check it out.
This is the second part of my “Recording audio with your video DSLR” post from a few days ago.
Let's pick up where we left off...
Microphones
In the original article I talked about lavaliere (or lapel), microphones as well as the microphone built into the Zoom H4n. However there is one other microphone that I use specially when shooting wildlife and that is the Rode VideoMic, this is a shotgun type microphone. These types of microphones are highly directional and are used when you want to isolate the sound that is right in front while minimizing sound coming in from the sides and rear.
This is particularly useful when filming wildlife, however they can also be very effective to record an interview when you do not have a lapel type microphone. I have been using the Rode VideoMic for about a year now and have been very pleased with it. Do keep in mind that as with anything else, there are practical limits to how far a shotgun microphone will “reach”. On occasions what I have done is used an extension cable to place the microphone closer to my subjects. Since the VideoMic using a mini jack type plug, I used a simple mini (3.5mm) jack extension cable from Cables Unlimited.
One limitation to keep in mind in regards to the Rode VideoMic is that like most shotgun microphones this microphone records on only one channel. If you need a stereo microphone, I would recommend the Rode Stereo VideoMic, do keep in mind that this is not a shotgun microphone, meaning that it will capture most of your ambient audio.
Zoom H4n output connected to the Canon EOS 7D
Recording Video and Audio
Now that you have all this gear, you are ready to start recording some video and audio. Although recording on two devices is a bit more cumbersome and complex than recording on just one device, the sound you record will be of much better quality and this in turn will significantly improve your videos.
Sometimes the easiest way to learn is by watching someone doing, or at least understand the steps that someone takes in accomplishing a task. To that end here is a quick rundown of my workflow when recording video and audio on separate devices (canon 7D & Zoom H4n):
Frame, focus, set exposure on the camera
Check sound levels by checking the meters on the Zoom as well as monitoring the audio coming out of the Zoom via headphones
Plug the output of the Zoom (after unplugging my headphones) to the sound input of the Canon 7D
Make a mental note of the sound clip sequence number on the Zoom
Start video and sound recording near simultaneously.
Stand in front of the camera, state the date, time and audio file sequence number
Clap my hands
Record away
This is an idealized sequence of events, sometimes you are not able to perform all these steps, for example when recording wildlife, but for me this sequence makes is very easy to match audio and video clips together, hence the stating of date, time and sequence number. Plus the clapping of the hands makes it very easy to then synchronize the audio and video manually.
I have also been asked by a few dozen people if and why I connect the Zoom to the camera, and the answer is yes, I connect the audio out from the Zoom to the audio in on the camera; and the main reason is to get as clean an audio recording on the camera as I can. I do this for two primary reasons. First, I have gotten lucky and had decent sound recorded on the camera, and in those cases I was able to use that sound and not have to bother with merging the Zoom audio with the video. Second, as a safeguard in case I mess up somewhere along the line, which happens more than I would like.
Connecting the Zoom and the 7D is easy, all you need is a short Mini Jack (3.5mm) male to male cable.
Merging video and audio
Once I am able to download the both my video and audio files, I simply watch the first few seconds of the video files and listen for my bit where I state the audio sequence file, then it’s easy to find out the matching audio file. I will then add an identifier to the filename of the audio file in order to make it match the video file. This step you have to do regardless of whether you are manually syncing the files, or using automated software like Plural Eyes to perform the syncing.
I have tried using Plural Eyes, and while this plug-in performs admirably, I find that I can sync the video and audio very quickly and with little effort in my video editing system, Final Cut Pro, simply by watching for the clapping movement of my hands and matching that to the audio levels peak on the Zoom audio track. It takes a bit of practice but I am now finding that I can perform this sync in less than 30 seconds per video file.
If for some reason I was not able to perform my ideal recording workflow as I outlined above, it may take me a bit longer to do the matching by using both audio tracks as well as some video clues such as lip movement if I am recording a person.
Detail of my zoom to camera mount
My Zoom H4n to camera mount
I’ve been surprised by the number of questions I’ve received about the bit of kit I use to mount my Zoom to the camera. Honestly this is something I put together from bits I already had. A precondition to my set up is to have an L plate installed on your camera. I have the Really Right Stuff B7D-L L quick release plate on my 7D. This is required for this set up since you will be clamping the Zoom setup to the side dovetail mount. By the way, I have found this L plate to be HUGELY beneficial for both stills and video shooting due to the bi-directions bottom dovetail mount. More on this on a future post.
I use a Kirk 1 inch Quick-Release clamp, mated to a Gitzo G0077 ballhead, to mount my Zoom to my L plate.
I hope you found this article useful. I tried to answer all the questions generated by the first part of the article, but if you feel I left something out or did not adequately addressed your question, please feel free to post in the comments and I will do my best to answer them in a timely fashion.
In the short time I have been shooting video seriously I have very quickly learned that sound is often more important than the video itself.
To that end, I have talked to many folks about how to best record sound when shooting with a Video DSLR, and have experimented quite a bit as well. In this article I will share with you the system that I am now using and which I find is producing great results for me.
Let me first state that if you are serious about your videos, you should be serious about sound; and if you are serious about sound, you should NOT rely on the built-in sound recording capabilities of the current crop (as of Feb, 2010) of video DSLRs. This includes the Canon 5D Mark II, 7D & 1D Mark IV. Please note that I do not have first hand experience with the Nikons, but from what I have been told the situation is similar.
The reason you should not be relying on on the built-in recording capabilities of these video DSLRs, is because these cameras have what is called an Automatic Gain Control or AGC, feature. What this means is that the camera will dynamically and continuously adjust the sound recording level. What this means is that if you are recording in an environment where there is noise all around you, and you are using a lapel (or lavaliere) type microphone, the sound will vary wildly in your recording.
For an example of what I mean watch this video that I recorded in Dec, 2009.
Notice how the sound of the breaking waves in the background changes? Pretty annoying don’t you think? Well the way to get around this is to be able to control the audio recording sensitivity (or gain) and not have it fluctuate while you are recording.
To get good sound in any situation like the one in the video above, what you need to do is set the recording level, or gain, to a level where the voice would be clear, not too loud and not too soft. Wearing a lapel microphone, which is meant to pick up the voice of the speaker, the sound of the surf in the background would be very soft and hardly noticeable. This is both good and bad; good in that now you are able to hear the speaker clearly and at a consistent volume, but bad because sometimes it is nice to have some of the environmental background sounds to place the speaker.
This is easily remedied by recording a separate track, either at the same moment as you are recording the video or at another time. Then in your video editing software package you can mix the sound tracks while adjusting the volume independently.
This is not unlike what we photographers are doing when we shoot two images for later blending in photoshop; in one image we shoot for the highlights and the other for the shadows, we then mix to taste.
For an example of another video where I used this technique check out the video below.
Ok, so now let’s get to the gear. Obviously, if you can’t use the camera to record the audio you will need some sort of external recorder which provides you with much more control over gain levels and ideally provides you the capability to record multiple tracks. For the past few months I have been using a great portable recorder from a company called Zoom. The recorder I am using is the Zoom H4n. This recorder is incredibly versatile, it has a nice and big LCD with peak levels to help you set the right gain, it can record up to 4 channels simultaneously, and accepts just about every type of input you can throw at it. (Mini jack, 1/4″ jack, and XLR). Additionally it allows you to monitor the sound that is being recorded, important to make sure you confirm you are recording.
The H4n records on standard SD cards, and accepts AA batteries, therefore it fits easily with all your other photo accessories. The H4n runs about $300.
Next are the microphones. The Zoom H4n has a pair of GREAT microphones that will record in stereo. If you can get the unit within 5 feet or so of your subject you may be fine using the built in microphones. Also these built-in mics are great for recording environmental sounds, like the sound of the water rushing by on the gloves review video above.
However if you can’t get the Zoom in that close, you may have to resort to other kinds of Microphones, like shotgun or parabolic microphones.
Let’s talk about lapel, or lavs (short for lavaliere), microphones, these are those tiny microphones that you see all the news anchors on TV wearing. They are small and are designed to pick up the voice of the wearer while filtering out most of the ambient noise.
Lavs come either wired or wireless. It goes without saying that the wireless mics are much easier to deal with as you don’t have to worry about tripping over cables. However, traditionally, good wireless mics have been VERY expensive, in the order of $2,000 – $3,000 per receiver or transmitter. Yes you could get cheaper ones, but they where usually not that great. You could get much better sound from an inexpensive wired mic (less than $50) than an inexpensive ($300-$800) wireless system.
However like most other things on this space this has changed, and dramatically. In the past few years Sennheiser has released a series of relatively inexpensive ($500 – $600) wireless microphones that not only have GREAT sound quality, but hav switchable frequencies (important in case you encounter interference), are durable, and use AA batteries.
Late in 2009 I acquired a Sennheiser EW100 G3 wireless lapel microphone system that is incredible versatile, and sounds great.
However if your budget can’t afford the wireless stuff, I have had great results with this Audio Technica ATR-3350 Lavalier wired lapel microphone. You can easily connect this mic to the Zoom and record away!
Another accessory that is a MUST for the Zoom is a quality Windscreen. A windscreen is usually a piece of foam or similar material that you place over the microphone to reduce the noise of wind. The Zoom comes with a cheap foam windscreen that I think is pretty much useless. I use and can recommend to you the windscreens from Redheads Windscreens, these are incredibly effective at cutting down wind noise, plus you can get them in all sorts of fun colors.
I can hear you thinking…. how do I make all this stuff work together and how do I merge and sync my audio with the video…
I will cover that and more on the second installment of this article in a few days.
in the video window to view the video full-screen.
