1. Photo Shoot: Beekeeper PortraitInitial test shots| 00:00 |
Male Jim, I'm going to have you right
in here on this, on this patch.
| | 00:02 |
And, and you're taller than Dave.
So I'm going to have some, I'm going to
| | 00:06 |
have some geometry to make up here.
No offense.
| | 00:10 |
(INAUDIBLE).
(LAUGH).
| | 00:12 |
That's right.
Okay.
| | 00:16 |
So I'm looking.
So right now, I'm, I'm, I'm looking at it.
| | 00:18 |
And, and, I'm going to pop these frames.
And actually, just hold it down in your hand.
| | 00:22 |
And, and, maybe have it in your other
hand, so I can see the bees when you're
| | 00:25 |
looking at it.
And cheat it towards me a little, a
| | 00:28 |
little bit,
Let me show you.
| | 00:30 |
So this, this would be where they were,
where I can see it.
| | 00:34 |
Jim As if I'm reading?
Male Yeah, a little bit.
| | 00:36 |
And so I'm, what I'm trying to do is
cheat the angle of your face and the
| | 00:38 |
bees, where it has a natural sight line
between the two.
| | 00:41 |
But I can also see both objects.
Jim Alright.
| | 00:43 |
Male So there's a little bit of a, of a
geometry half here.
| | 00:46 |
Jim Keep talking to me.
Male Okay, so looking at you, and I'll
| | 00:49 |
maybe have your other hand up, too.
wherever you want it, is good with me.
| | 00:55 |
I'll back up to where I can see you.
So everything looks good in the back.
| | 00:58 |
I've got a little bit of a light on the
bee, beekeeper equip, what is that called?
| | 01:01 |
A hive?
Jim Hive.
| | 01:03 |
Male The hive.
And the one thing I don't have right now
| | 01:05 |
is your face.
So we're going to fix that with a special.
| | 01:09 |
So Dave Keil is holding a, an SB800 with
a handle grid on it.
| | 01:13 |
and I want to have you come around this
way a little bit, Dave.
| | 01:16 |
So, you can see his face.
You can see everywhere that light's
| | 01:19 |
going to hit.
the thing you're going to worry about on
| | 01:21 |
this side is that, that shadow that the
last white thing is going to produce on
| | 01:24 |
his face.
Dave Yep.
| | 01:26 |
Male And on the other side, you
probably don't want to be seeing his
| | 01:27 |
other ear too much.
So, that's, that's going to give you your zone.
| | 01:31 |
I'll see if this is popping.
Yep.
| | 01:34 |
Tiny little bit of flash should make some
difference.
| | 01:37 |
(SOUND) Oh, absolutely.
So I'm going to shoot with it and without
| | 01:41 |
it real quick.
Here's with (SOUND).
| | 01:43 |
And there's without (SOUND).
Jim, let me show you this real quick.
| | 01:49 |
So what Dave is doing is coming in and
just adding.
| | 01:52 |
Jim Very good.
Male So dave I want to cheat this a
| | 01:55 |
little up and little to the right and
what we are going to do with that is to
| | 01:59 |
control the spill on his jacket.
5 layers down and the cellphone goes off,
| | 02:08 |
okay, so we've got no lights on, and now,
okay (MUSIC) (SOUND).
| | 02:16 |
Male We lost the flash over here
(INAUDIBLE) (INAUDIBLE).
| | 02:18 |
>> (UNKNOWN).
Male No, on the ground.
| | 02:20 |
Male Oh, it just fell down.
No worries.
| | 02:23 |
They do that.
Okay I think I'm good.
| | 02:26 |
Now your bees is a second issue.
Dave might have you go ahead and have
| | 02:31 |
that light fall down his face a little
bit.
| | 02:34 |
Dave The background a little light.
Male Yeah.
| | 02:36 |
So Jim, if you show me those bees a
little more.
| | 02:39 |
There you go.
That's good.
| | 02:41 |
That's good.
I can see everybody now.
| | 02:44 |
(SOUND).
Alright.
| | 02:46 |
I think we're ready to uh, (SOUND).
Think we're ready to make some pictures.
| | 02:50 |
Let me look at it close.
So Jim, I'm going to have you kind of go
| | 02:54 |
back and forth between looking at the
bees and looking at me.
| | 02:56 |
And, and, this is, this is, we got
everything technical is taken care of so.
| | 03:01 |
Oh, there goes the hot rod.
So if i can have you think about one
| | 03:05 |
thing i know that you spend a lot of time
with these hives and specifically you
| | 03:08 |
rescue this hive and you want to grow it
into a viable hive, so there is a very
| | 03:11 |
strong connection between you guys.
Rather than just passively looking at it
| | 03:16 |
just be thinking about what's important
to you.
| | 03:18 |
It'll come across on your face.
Jim Okay.
| | 03:20 |
Male And that will, so I can take the
ball to the one yard line, but you're the
| | 03:22 |
one that pushes it in basically.
I want to make sure that after all this
| | 03:26 |
technical stuff, we get an expression
that is meaningful because there's some
| | 03:30 |
thought behind it.
Jim Okay.
| | 03:34 |
Male And I know that's not something
you take lightly either.
| | 03:36 |
So I, just to make you aware of it.
Alright, so we're going to come out with
| | 03:39 |
the actual bees in just a second.
| | 03:41 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| The photo shoot| 00:00 |
Jim Now, this is what I took out of
that.
| | 00:04 |
Male Oh, cool.
And that's, that's the core of the hive there.
| | 00:08 |
That's what you're building on?
Jim This is plain old comb and it's got
| | 00:14 |
lots of honey in it.
Male I'm rethinking this whole being a
| | 00:20 |
foot away from bee sting without the net
so, we'll, we'll see.
| | 00:23 |
>> (INAUDIBLE).
Male Oh, you got one on your jacket
| | 00:25 |
just crawling around.
I'm going to give them a second to settle.
| | 00:28 |
Is that okay?
Jim Yep.
| | 00:30 |
Male And rotate around more towards
where Dave is.
| | 00:33 |
yeah, Dave in black.
There we go.
| | 00:37 |
I'm going to come in quietly.
Okay, Dave, I don't know if you're going
| | 00:45 |
off in there.
Dave I don't see it going off.
| | 00:47 |
Male Okay, hold for a second.
Check our connections, one, two, half the button.
| | 00:57 |
There we go, Yep.
So, you want to be on his face.
| | 01:03 |
Yeah, I can see now.
Raise it up just a little bit.
| | 01:05 |
Oh, no.
Okay, so Dave Pyle raise the light up
| | 01:07 |
just a little bit.
Jim, you, Jim you're doing great.
| | 01:17 |
Dave Do you want a different piece of
comb?
| | 01:19 |
Male No, I like this a lot.
Dave Shows up against the white
| | 01:23 |
background, maybe.
Male It does.
| | 01:26 |
Very well.
And this is the kind of thing I'll go in
| | 01:27 |
and tweak, after the fact.
Rather than try to light it against the
| | 01:30 |
white, I'll tweak it in Photoshop to
bring those levels up just a little bit.
| | 01:33 |
I didn't say that out loud, but that,
that's common.
| | 01:36 |
Jim, if you could rotate around a little
more to your left.
| | 01:38 |
Jim I'd like to get another piece with
more bees on it.
| | 01:40 |
Male Okay, okay.
Jim If we're talking bees, (UNKNOWN).
| | 01:44 |
Male I'll take it.
So, looking in this now.
| | 01:50 |
The, the, the special that Dave Keil is
holding is a is an SB800, now down as far
| | 01:54 |
as it can go.
So, that's 128 power.
| | 01:58 |
We're running a little grid.
A little 1/8 inch grid, which obviously looks.
| | 02:01 |
Jim This says lots of activities on
them.
| | 02:04 |
Male Okay.
You've got my full attention.
| | 02:07 |
Never mind.
Male Okay.
| | 02:10 |
So, rotate around a little to your left,
Jim.
| | 02:12 |
Jim My left.
Male Other left.
| | 02:13 |
There you go.
Jim Stage left.
| | 02:14 |
Male And come forward just a little
bit.
| | 02:16 |
Jim} Alright.
Male You're tall, so I'm cheating your
| | 02:17 |
height a little bit.
Jim Right.
| | 02:19 |
Now, this has some.
I, I broke off, and there's honey exposed.
| | 02:26 |
Male Is that firing?
Dave I tested it.
| | 02:27 |
Male Yep, it is, yes it is firing, I
just checked it.
| | 02:31 |
Okay?
We've got it, okay, an action second.
| | 02:36 |
Yeah, it's sometimes it's very hard to
see, it's just a little bit of a wink.
| | 02:39 |
And Jim, I want to make sure I can see
your face, as you're, there you go,
| | 02:41 |
that's, that's good, when you're looking
down at them.
| | 02:44 |
at the bees.
Yep.
| | 02:49 |
I've got you in there now.
Jim I haven't had a phone call all day.
| | 02:51 |
(LAUGH).
| | 02:58 |
Dave That one was sound.
Male It's firing.
| | 03:01 |
Okay hold for a second.
Jim No flash.
| | 03:04 |
Male Yep, I most certainly have a bad
bad cord in there.
| | 03:08 |
Now, I'm set on a 128 power back on here
and a 16th power up there, so I almost,
| | 03:11 |
literally motor.
I don't have to wait for these flashes to
| | 03:15 |
recharge at all, it's fantastic.
Alright Jim, we're ready whenever you are.
| | 03:19 |
Jim This is a piece of comb.
Male Okay.
| | 03:24 |
Jim There's some root closest to my
left hand.
| | 03:29 |
Male Okay, Dave are you firing?
Yep, you are.
| | 03:31 |
One more stop of power out of that Dave,
if you could.
| | 03:34 |
Jim There's some open honey there.
Male Okay, there we go, now we got it.
| | 03:42 |
Okay we're good, that's it.
So, they're actually, they're working in
| | 03:49 |
there now.
Are they mostly staying warm?
| | 03:52 |
Are they, are they making something or?
Jim they will be covering the brood.
| | 04:05 |
And at some point they're going to tap
the honey over there.
| | 04:09 |
Do whatever's next.
It's late in the season for them to be
| | 04:13 |
tapping honey.
Male We, we got the one warm day this,
| | 04:17 |
this, this week where we felt comfortable
bringing them out.
| | 04:20 |
Jim Yeah.
Male Okay, I've still got intermittent
| | 04:24 |
on this flash here.
Let's check and see.
| | 04:28 |
Okay?
Let's give it a try.
| | 04:32 |
Okay, and rotate around a little to your
left and move right into there if you could.
| | 04:38 |
There we go.
All right.
| | 04:42 |
Okay, aim right at his face Dave, there
you go perfect.
| | 04:50 |
Jim It's too bad this is sort of
special case meaning that these aren't
| | 04:54 |
you know, your typical frame bees.
Male I kind of like that natural look
| | 04:58 |
though to be honest with you.
Jim It is interesting.
| | 05:02 |
Male Okay, let's see if we're firing.
Okay, don't cover that window.
| | 05:08 |
There we go.
Okay, Jim, turn in where you're facing
| | 05:13 |
almost more in towards.
There, there we go.
| | 05:15 |
I want, I want that light to be able to
see your face.
| | 05:17 |
There we go, perfect.
Let's switch the raws for just a moment.
| | 05:24 |
Bump, bump, bump.
Now, a hard thing, I want to make sure
| | 05:32 |
I'm focusing up under this veil.
And I am.
| | 05:35 |
I'm, it's hard to it's hard to see that
light up under there.
| | 05:40 |
There we go.
Okay, I'm on my last two frames.
| | 05:45 |
down like you were a little more.
There, there you go, just, because he can
| | 05:49 |
see you fine up under there.
And rotate a little around more towards
| | 05:52 |
your left.
That's good.
| | 05:54 |
And here comes the sun all of the sudden,
not a moment too soon.
| | 06:08 |
Okay, could you rotate the bees to where
I could see them just a little more?
| | 06:10 |
perfect, perfect.
All right, that's great.
| | 06:22 |
I'm going to grab a close up of those
guys in just a moment, okay?
| | 06:26 |
So, we look nice up under his face so
that's good.
| | 06:29 |
I'm double checking focus while everyone
is still here.
| | 06:31 |
It's not easy to focus up under that that
bee veil.
| | 06:38 |
That's actually pretty neat.
Hey Jim, just pop down in there just like
| | 06:48 |
you did just a moment ago.
So, the special light that we've got on
| | 06:54 |
the on the bees, is working as an
interesting light for him too.
| | 07:02 |
It's funny, you know, I spend all the
time doing the lit shot and this might be
| | 07:05 |
the shot that ends up going in the in
the, in the web site.
| | 07:08 |
Never, never like, pass up that little
moment, turn around and see it.
| | 07:11 |
Thank you very much.
| | 07:12 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Lighting notebook: Beekeeper portrait| 00:00 |
Okay, so here is an overhead look at what
I saw when I walked up, and this is we
| | 00:04 |
were looking from maybe 10 feet overhead.
We've got bushes at camera left and we
| | 00:10 |
got a hive in the background, and most
important looking off into the trees at
| | 00:14 |
the back camera, I'm looking through some
late fall, not too many leaves still on
| | 00:18 |
the trees but little sun happening in the
back there.
| | 00:24 |
so first thing I'm going to do is I'm
going to take a picture of my own hand on
| | 00:27 |
daylight, white balance, and automatic
exposure.
| | 00:31 |
I'm shooting wide open with a, with a 35
millimeter lens because I want to throw
| | 00:35 |
that out of focus a little bit in the
background, but the first thing I noticed
| | 00:39 |
here is that my hand is obviously too
cool.
| | 00:43 |
it's being lit by open shade which is
happening over my, over my back camera
| | 00:47 |
shoulder right.
so the hand is lit okay but if, but if I
| | 00:50 |
drop that down a little the beehive is
definitely going to get dark in the back
| | 00:53 |
and the, the trees are going to get a
little darker.
| | 00:57 |
what I want to do eventually going back
to the diagram is to stick our beekeeper
| | 01:01 |
in front of and a little to the camera
right of the hive.
| | 01:04 |
And then I can work with that little
front back left right geometry.
| | 01:08 |
and I'm going to come in with a with a, a
Nikon D3 and a 35 millimeter 1.8.
| | 01:13 |
This is a special lens.
It's introduced to me by my friend Matt
| | 01:16 |
Roth who's a, a local shooter friend of
mine.
| | 01:19 |
this lens is not designed for full frame
camera which is what the D3 is.
| | 01:24 |
So, it gets a little weird as you get
close to the edges.
| | 01:26 |
It's a, it's a very sharp lens in the
middle and then it gets kind of
| | 01:29 |
vignettey, and soft around the edges and,
and that can give a neat look to pictures.
| | 01:34 |
Its, it's a very cheap lens, very sharp,
was not designed to cover full frame, but
| | 01:37 |
I use it that way.
The one caveat is you can't stop this
| | 01:41 |
lens down on full frame because then
those, coverage limitations, those little
| | 01:44 |
darkened corners are going to get really
sharp, and it's just going to look bad.
| | 01:50 |
So, let's stick a, an FP 800 zoomed out
to 105, on the hive in the back.
| | 01:55 |
Just enough to, to bring it out and to
keep it from going dark, but not enough
| | 01:59 |
to say sort of hitting you over, over the
head with a hammer say it's light.
| | 02:03 |
And the other thing that I want to do
here and we'll see in the next picture,
| | 02:07 |
my hand is to, is to change my white
balance to cloudy.
| | 02:11 |
So that's going to give me enough warmth
to in fact that may even be open shade.
| | 02:15 |
That's going to give me enough warmth to
bring out the color in my hand.
| | 02:18 |
And, and the hive's going to get warmer
in the back with that normal flash height
| | 02:21 |
going on at, even better that back lit
autumn foliage in the back is going to
| | 02:25 |
get some color popping into it.
And this is happening just because of the
| | 02:30 |
white balance shift.
So, everything I do with Flash from here
| | 02:33 |
is going to be nice and warm which is how
i tend to like it.
| | 02:35 |
I tend to err on the side of warm when
I'm shooting people.
| | 02:38 |
So, let's go back to our diagram and the
next thing I want to do is I've got my
| | 02:42 |
I've got my assistant Dave Kyle, he's
working as a stand in for the beekeeper
| | 02:45 |
because Jim is not here yet.
So, we've got a handheld pocket wizarded
| | 02:51 |
Nikon SB 800 with a Harnell grid one
eighth inch grid and that's going to
| | 02:54 |
restrict the light beam and that's what
I'm going to use to call attention to, to
| | 02:58 |
the beekeeper because he's going to be
underexposed in the setting where I'm
| | 03:01 |
going to drop him in in a minute.
So, I want to use we don't want to stress
| | 03:07 |
the bees anymore than necessary.
It's a little chilly for them to be out
| | 03:10 |
this day so I'm going to have Dave just
stand in, and, and hold his hands out
| | 03:13 |
like a beekeeper, and we'll hit him with
just a little bit of flash, and see how
| | 03:16 |
that looks.
All right, that may be slightly too much flash.
| | 03:22 |
this is interesting in a couple ways.
And the reason I'm leaving this in, I
| | 03:26 |
want to explain that these small flashes
can do a tremendous amount when they're
| | 03:29 |
used at close range.
I mean clearly, if I wanted to crank my
| | 03:33 |
aperture down to where Dave was the
correct exposure, this daylight that
| | 03:36 |
we're shooting in, this open shade would
go almost to black.
| | 03:41 |
So that tells me about a lot of ability
to control that environment, and that's
| | 03:43 |
what I want to do with these flashes.
And the reason Dave's about 90 gazillion
| | 03:47 |
stops overexposed, is that I knew that I
would need just the tiniest bit of light
| | 03:52 |
to him at 1.8 from a distance of three or
four feet and I had my I had my flash
| | 03:56 |
down to about 1 64th power I think.
and, and I thought, you know, maybe
| | 04:03 |
that's even going to be a little too
bright so I dropped it down to what I
| | 04:06 |
thought was 128 power but I went one
click past 128 power and it rolled around
| | 04:09 |
to full power.
So what you're seeing there is a full
| | 04:14 |
power blast from about five feet away and
a net stop of 1.8 and an ISO of 200.
| | 04:20 |
So that's plenty of extra light,you know
and it's probably 7 stops too high but
| | 04:23 |
because when we take it down to 128th
power, Dave is lit appropriately up there.
| | 04:29 |
So we got everything roughed in ,we don't
have to pull the bees out here as soon as
| | 04:33 |
we drop our beekeeper in.
Everything's going to be pretty close and
| | 04:38 |
it's mostly just working with him and and
making sure that we can see the bees.
| | 04:43 |
And we can see up under his head with
with now Dave will be holding that that
| | 04:47 |
light and aiming at him.
So, looking at this we have a we have Jim
| | 04:52 |
our beekeeper.
Everything's kind of coming into place.
| | 04:55 |
We did have a problem with the pocket
wizards here and, and it was giving me a
| | 04:58 |
heck of a time and I couldn't figure out
and when we were done it occurred to me
| | 05:01 |
that the camera in the pocket wizard.
We, we'll just say that the camera with
| | 05:05 |
the transmitting pocket wizard and the
pocket wizard on the flash were only
| | 05:08 |
about three or four feet away from each
other.
| | 05:11 |
And what can happen when you're using
radio transmitters in that close is the,
| | 05:15 |
the transmitting signal is literally so
strong that it will overpower and confuse
| | 05:19 |
the receiver so, there, there's several
tricks that you can use.
| | 05:24 |
You can orient your antennas to make them
weaker receivers at that distance or if
| | 05:28 |
you have a pocket wizard or multimax you
can dial that down.
| | 05:32 |
In the end, I think we just ended up
going with with I think, with, with a
| | 05:35 |
combination of, of optical slaves and
pocket wizards.
| | 05:39 |
So, there's always a workaround.
if you've got a couple different ways to
| | 05:42 |
sink your lights and, and the radio gods
don't smile on you, you can usually find
| | 05:45 |
a way to get, to get away with it and
still make a picture.
| | 05:48 |
But I like this picture in that our
little specials calling attention to
| | 05:52 |
Jim's face even up under that dark hood
and even though he's wearing white and we
| | 05:55 |
got the bees going.
The bees are a tad out of focus here.
| | 06:00 |
In retrospect, I might have closed down
to 2.8 maybe keep them a little sharper.
| | 06:03 |
But I like how soft those those trees and
all are in the back and I didn't want to
| | 06:07 |
lose that.
So that's it.
| | 06:10 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
2. Photo Shoot: Bee MacroSetting the stage| 00:00 |
So, I'm going to grab a flash and an
Orbis, and I'm going to do something that
| | 00:02 |
a lot of people would consider heresy,
but I really don't, and that's go into
| | 00:05 |
TTL mode.
my thinking is, I want to be able to get
| | 00:09 |
in very quickly, shoot the picture, and
get out.
| | 00:12 |
In fact, we may only do one or two
frames, just in case this light upsets
| | 00:14 |
the bees, totally self-preservation.
So rather than working out lighting
| | 00:18 |
angles and, and, and flash intensities,
f-stops and such, I'm going to go to f11
| | 00:21 |
to give me plenty of depth of field.
I'm going to let the Orbis, which is,
| | 00:26 |
which is something I normally use for
fill.
| | 00:28 |
And I'm literally never without this
thing when I'm shooting people.
| | 00:31 |
And I'm going to let it work as a macro
ring light.
| | 00:34 |
And I think I'm just going to go straight
TTL.
| | 00:36 |
I don't even think I'm going to use a
second light.
| | 00:37 |
Because I don't want to make this any
more complicated than it needs to be.
| | 00:40 |
I'm going to let the camera drive.
Bees are close to medium grey.
| | 00:43 |
So, just going to go in, boom, boom,
boom, on TTL, and get out.
| | 00:46 |
And he can put them back in, and
hopefully, nobody gets stung.
| | 00:49 |
First thing I'm going to do is go back to
daylight white balance, because I'm not
| | 00:52 |
using the sky as my light source,
anymore.
| | 00:54 |
So I'm going to white balance onto
daylight, going to ISO 200, because that
| | 00:58 |
the best quality ISO on my camera, and
what I've got is a flash with a TTL cord.
| | 01:04 |
I'm using everything on TTL.
We're to go in nice and tight over the
| | 01:06 |
bees, But the first thing that I'm going
to do before I shoot the bees is shoot
| | 01:09 |
something as a stand in so I don't have
to spend any more time right over these
| | 01:11 |
guys than I need to.
So I'm going to focus nice and close.
| | 01:16 |
And rather than focussing with my hand,
this is an old 55 mm micro, I'm just
| | 01:19 |
going to come in until they're in focus.
So, lean in just like this.
| | 01:26 |
(SOUND) And shoot.
This ring light is going to give me a
| | 01:28 |
really cool macro light.
I'm using it in the classic ring light
| | 01:30 |
mode which is not the way I normally use
it but this is normally used as a fill light.
| | 01:35 |
Right now, I'm using it as a main and
only light.
| | 01:37 |
It'll give a really cool look to these
bees in very close, and because we're
| | 01:40 |
working on TTL with an off camera TTL
cord, it's going to do all the math.
| | 01:44 |
And all I need to do is bend in until
this is in focus, fire a couple of frames
| | 01:47 |
and back out.
And we're good.
| | 01:50 |
So the timing that I'm going to look for
is, I'm actually going to look for the
| | 01:52 |
bees in a little bit of an interesting
formation.
| | 01:55 |
That's the only variable I have.
Everything else is solved.
| | 01:58 |
And I really just don't want to be hang,
hanging around figuring out lighting
| | 02:01 |
ratios when there are bees two, three
inches from my hand so.
| | 02:05 |
That's when I go to TTL.
| | 02:07 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| The photo shoot| 00:00 |
I am frankly a little iffy about speaking
my head down in there.
| | 00:05 |
I have been shot at, so I am not scared
to do things that are dangerous to take pictures.
| | 00:09 |
Jim You want to see bees.
Male To the extent possible, yes sir.
| | 00:12 |
we could do right down, oh, that's the
intake vent, anywhere on the ground, I
| | 00:16 |
can bend down and shoot them with no
worries.
| | 00:19 |
Jim I want to get you one.
Male Okay.
| | 00:21 |
Jim We'll go back to this one.
Male Okay.
| | 00:22 |
Jim It's got lots of bees on it.
Male Yep.
| | 00:24 |
Put them happy side up.
Jim Alright.
| | 00:25 |
You move to where you want to be, and
I'll.
| | 00:27 |
Male We can be, right down in there
would be fine.
| | 00:28 |
Yep.
Jim You don't care about the leaves?
| | 00:30 |
Male Oh no, I'm going to be in too
close for that.
| | 00:33 |
Okay?
Alright.
| | 00:35 |
We'll see if I, how stupid I am here,
now.
| | 00:40 |
(SOUND) So it's very cool.
I'm going to press my luck and go in nice
| | 00:49 |
and closely for the last one.
| | 00:53 |
(SOUND)
| | 00:57 |
We're good.
Thank you sir.
| | 01:09 |
This is cool.
I'm still like a seven year old kid on,
| | 01:13 |
on new stuff sometimes but, this is
everybody's nice and tech sharp.
| | 01:19 |
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| Lighting notebook: Bee macro| 00:02 |
Okay.
So here we are with our very tight bees.
| | 00:05 |
And I've got 'em drawn in a little hive
there.
| | 00:07 |
I know you're impressed with my art
skills.
| | 00:09 |
I'm entirely, I'm entirely self taught.
so this is the key for this picture.
| | 00:14 |
every picture has a key to it.
It might be.
| | 00:17 |
My ambient light level is so high that,
that I feel like I need to start at a
| | 00:21 |
250th of a second to give me the most
flash friendly aperture that I can hit or
| | 00:24 |
the key might be that I need to choose a
certain aperture for depth of field.
| | 00:30 |
Here's the key to this picture, just a
couple inches from my face, there are
| | 00:34 |
going to be lots and lots of stingers.
So that's going to drive every decision
| | 00:38 |
that I make downstream.
And the first thing that's going to cause
| | 00:41 |
me to do is that's going to cause me to
shoot in TTL because I don't want to take
| | 00:44 |
any test shots.
I want to lean right in there and get a
| | 00:47 |
picture that's fairly close.
I can tweak it if I have to in post
| | 00:50 |
production afterwards.
But I don't think I'm going to have to
| | 00:53 |
because this is, this is a subject that's
fairly homogenous in tone and it's pretty
| | 00:57 |
close to medium gray.
So, this is the kind of thing that TTL is
| | 01:00 |
really going to like.
My light source here is going to be a a
| | 01:04 |
enormous ring clash adaptor that I've got
an SB800 stuck into and it's going to be
| | 01:07 |
stuck in there on TTL and I'm going to
control that on TTL for my camera by, by
| | 01:11 |
sticking a an off camera TTL cord in this
case an icon SC-17.
| | 01:17 |
It's an old cord that we can get for 10
bucks on eBay, and its very useful
| | 01:20 |
whether you are working on TTL or not,
and this exposure is completely going to
| | 01:24 |
overpower the sunlight.
I am shooting at 250th of the second and
| | 01:29 |
I got my aperture closed down so there's
going to be no ambient component at all.
| | 01:34 |
I'm just going to lean in there, pop this
flash a couple times, and get out, and
| | 01:38 |
hope I don't make a bunch of bees mad.
my problem is, I don't know if I'm
| | 01:43 |
going to make them mad if I lean in a
couple inches from them.
| | 01:46 |
I don't know if my flash is going to make
them mad when it goes off.
| | 01:49 |
So I want to minimize all of my odds for
setting off like 20 or 30 bees coming
| | 01:52 |
after me and chasing me down the hill,
because I don't run so fast anymore.
| | 01:58 |
So the trick with this is I don't even
want to have my hands moving, I don't
| | 02:01 |
want to have the lenses focusing.
I just want to bend in there, snap, snap,
| | 02:04 |
snap, look at the back and get out and be
done and let's put the bees back.
| | 02:08 |
So what I'll do is I'll make a test shot
and I'll come in and focus on something
| | 02:11 |
very close, test that the TTL is working.
And then I would just lean down slowly
| | 02:17 |
until the bees come into focus as I'm
leaning down with that old Macro lens.
| | 02:21 |
Grab a few shots and then back out and
hopefully we don't make them mad.
| | 02:26 |
So here's the picture, and there's one
thing that's kind of interesting going on
| | 02:28 |
here, and they didn't know this.
The beekeepers didn't know this until I
| | 02:31 |
shared my picture with them.
But if you look at that bee in that upper
| | 02:34 |
right that, that on that last bee that
you can see all of it, it's kind of
| | 02:37 |
facing horizontally into the frame.
There's a, there's a red spot right on
| | 02:43 |
it's abdomen right by that bottom wing.
So, right where the abdomen is coming
| | 02:48 |
into thorax.
That red spot is actually a red varroa mite.
| | 02:53 |
This is something that they were able to
find out by looking at my ultra, you
| | 02:56 |
know, close macro pictures.
That they could tell this bee colony was
| | 02:59 |
infested by the red varroa mite, which is
becoming an increasing problem, along
| | 03:03 |
with lots of other problems that bees are
facing.
| | 03:06 |
And in this instance our main problem
they're facing was literally a county
| | 03:09 |
zoning issue which is one of the reasons
that I was covering it for my local blog.
| | 03:14 |
This kind of stuff is really interesting.
This downstream sort of a thing.
| | 03:17 |
How can, how can your pictures help
elevate an issue in your community?
| | 03:21 |
Or in this case, how can they help people
understand what they're doing better?
| | 03:25 |
So this is a very concrete example of
that.
| | 03:26 |
And something that always makes me happy
to be able to contribute.
| | 03:29 |
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| Insights on lighting and urban beekeeping| 00:00 |
Alright.
So, technically this shoot was very
| | 00:01 |
different than most shoots that I do and
that normally I'm thinking about lighting
| | 00:04 |
the subject first, and then lighting the
environment.
| | 00:08 |
The light source that was lighting Jim
was, was literally open shade which is
| | 00:11 |
being over powered by the sun as it's
setting now but, but at the time that we
| | 00:14 |
shot he was catching coolish open shade
light pushing into the woods.
| | 00:20 |
So if I let that shade light him and then
fix any problems I need to fix with a
| | 00:23 |
gridded flash.
And, and we did that exactly by popping a
| | 00:27 |
gridded SB800 into his, his face behind
the black mask.
| | 00:30 |
So I was able to bring just his face up,
leave him lit by the blue ambient light
| | 00:34 |
and the other light we had in this frame
is what we call a special, which is
| | 00:39 |
designed just to do one thing.
And that was a gridded flashback in the
| | 00:45 |
woods just barely popping the hive, so we
can bring it up in a subtle way, but not
| | 00:49 |
hit you over the head with a hammer, here
I am beehive.
| | 00:53 |
it's out of focus, it's lit to probably
about one stop down, and it completes
| | 00:57 |
that, that composition in the back
without being overly dramatic.
| | 01:01 |
when I first started out lighting, maybe
25 years ago, the, the impetus was to see
| | 01:05 |
how complicated I could get, how flashy.
And now, the more I do it, the more it is
| | 01:09 |
to try to let the light fall into the
background and less the light it's the
| | 01:12 |
main reason driving the picture.
To the extent that it's possible now, I
| | 01:17 |
try to back up a little bit, let the
light illuminate the subject but not call
| | 01:20 |
attention to itself.
And I think that makes for pictures where
| | 01:24 |
the subject matter of the picture carries
the tune, as opposed to just the lighting
| | 01:27 |
carrying the tune.
So this, today was a local suburban
| | 01:31 |
beekeeper's home.
And this is kind of a neat two pronged
| | 01:34 |
issue for us in Howard county.
Because in addition to the, the colony
| | 01:38 |
collapse disorder issues that are
effecting bees around the planet, there
| | 01:41 |
are also local issues that play here.
And, and there are zoning questions that
| | 01:46 |
are coming up which really speak to the
heart of whether or not someone can keep
| | 01:49 |
these in a suburban environment.
presently, these are zoned, I think,
| | 01:55 |
exactly the same way cows are zoned.
And we don't have a lot of problem with
| | 01:59 |
cows in people's backyards.
But apparently, some people have these
| | 02:01 |
and people have a problem with that.
And beekeepers are certainly lot of
| | 02:04 |
people with lot of common sense trying
to, trying to keep the issue in the
| | 02:07 |
forefront and hope that people start to
realize we do need bees and we need to
| | 02:11 |
food to be pollinated and such.
For my blog, I do think it is a
| | 02:16 |
particularly interesting subject because
it combines a, an issue that is
| | 02:19 |
international with one that is intensely
local.
| | 02:23 |
in addition to that, it's, it's a neat
visual subject, which is also another bar
| | 02:27 |
I want to hit with the pictures in my
blog.
| | 02:30 |
That's especially important as I'm
starting out and developing visual style.
| | 02:34 |
as I get further along, I'll be able to
tackle things that are more non-visual in
| | 02:37 |
nature, as long as continuity of quality
of coverage is there.
| | 02:41 |
So, for me this is an ideal subject to go
after.
| | 02:45 |
I found the Howard County Bee Keepers
Association, Inc.
| | 02:48 |
through an open house at the Howard
County conservancy, which is an other
| | 02:51 |
place where we just shot recently.
And from there, I met Janice who pointed
| | 02:55 |
me to Jim and few e-mails later we had
our bee keeper setup.
| | 02:59 |
I really tried to go these local
community events because they're a great
| | 03:02 |
place to collect people from lots of
different genres and the county who are
| | 03:05 |
doing different things and might make
good stories.
| | 03:09 |
So that's a logical place to start,
finding people like this and that's how
| | 03:12 |
we did it.
| | 03:13 |
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