IntroductionWelcome| 00:06 | If you've been doing this photography
thing for a while then you already know that
| | 00:09 | there's a lot of stuff you've got to
remember: shutter speed and aperture
| | 00:13 | and ISO and the reciprocal nature of all
those things, and the list goes on and on and on.
| | 00:18 | When you get ready to go out in the
field, though, whether it's for a day of hiking or
| | 00:22 | weeks of traveling, you're going to
go face an entirely different set of
| | 00:25 | concerns and to prepare for those
kinds of excursions, you've got to learn to ask
| | 00:30 | yourself a very particular set of questions.
| | 00:32 | You can divide the decisions that you
need to make to prepare for a shooting
| | 00:37 | trip into a few different categories.
| | 00:39 | How are you going to power your gear?
| | 00:41 | Where are you going to store your images?
| | 00:43 | How are you going to edit
your images, if you need to?
| | 00:46 | How are you going to send those
images to other people, if you need to?
| | 00:50 | How are you going to go carry all of your stuff?
| | 00:52 | In this course, we're going to look
at all of these issues and go through
| | 00:56 | the process of learning how to
equip for many different types of field
| | 01:00 | shooting situations.
| | 01:01 | In the next movie you're going to see a
kind of roadmap that will show you a few
| | 01:05 | different ways that you can use this course.
| | 01:07 | Then after that we are going to launch
right into learning how to predict and
| | 01:11 | plan for what you might need and from
there, we're going to go into some specific
| | 01:16 | examples of gear selections that I
made for different kinds of trips.
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| A roadmap for using this course| 00:00 | There are a few different
ways you can use this course.
| | 00:03 | In these first few chapters you've going to see
me at home before I go on a trip, trying
| | 00:08 | to spec out the gear that I want
for a particular shooting situation.
| | 00:12 | You going to get to see me go into
detail about different kinds of the battery
| | 00:15 | chargers, lens selection, different kind
of bags, different storage options, and
| | 00:20 | you're going to see my thought process.
| | 00:22 | If you're the type of person who
likes to understand how to make decisions
| | 00:26 | amongst lots of different variables,
then those chapters will probably be
| | 00:30 | very helpful to you.
| | 00:31 | If you're the type a person who just
wants a recipe for a particular problem,
| | 00:35 | then you might want to jump ahead to
the scenario chapters wherein I show you
| | 00:39 | three different setups for
three different scenarios:
| | 00:42 | a heavyweight scenario where you've got
the luxury of being able to carry lots
| | 00:46 | of stuff and power lots of stuff and
have a place to store a lots of stuff; a
| | 00:50 | middleweight scenario where you've
still got a little bit luxury in terms of
| | 00:54 | power and storage and carrying things,
but you want to keep the weight down; and
| | 00:57 | an ultra-light scenario where keeping
weight down is of paramount importance and
| | 01:01 | you've got to run with a
really stripped-down set of gear.
| | 01:05 | Now in those chapters we are
showing you specific situations.
| | 01:08 | For example, I go camping with the
middleweight scenario. But the gear that I'm
| | 01:12 | showing you works equally as well for
any time when you're willing to carry that
| | 01:15 | same amount of weight.
Maybe you're taking a train across Asia.
| | 01:18 | So even though I'm showing you
specific scenarios, the type of the gear that
| | 01:23 | I've chosen is appropriate to lots of
different situations and we talk about
| | 01:27 | those in those chapters.
| | 01:28 | Finally, of course, you can watch
things all the way through and see my thought
| | 01:32 | process, how I choose to pick different
pieces of equipment, how the final kit
| | 01:36 | works in the field, and what it all looks like.
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1. Cameras and Other EssentialsChoosing a camera| 00:01 | Different shooting expeditions might require
different types of cameras and you may own
| | 00:05 | more than one type of camera, or you may be
wondering if the camera you have is right
| | 00:09 | for the particular type of
shoot that you are going to go on.
| | 00:12 | In this movie we're not going to talk about all
of the particulars of how you choose a camera.
| | 00:16 | That's a very complex discussion.
| | 00:17 | Instead, I am just going to give you a few
questions that you may want to answer when
| | 00:22 | you are thinking about the trip you are going to go
on and what might serve you best photographically.
| | 00:28 | There are a lot of different types of cameras,
and different types of cameras have different
| | 00:31 | strengths and are more
appropriate to different kinds of shoots.
| | 00:34 | Depending on the trip you are going on, you may
find that one type of camera is better than another.
| | 00:38 | Now I am not saying that at the beginning
of your excursion you need to go out and buy
| | 00:42 | a new camera, but you may already own more
than one camera and are wondering which one
| | 00:46 | to take. Or you may be thinking, this camera
I've got didn't work well on my last trip.
| | 00:50 | I wonder if it's right for this next one.
| | 00:52 | There are some kind of high-level questions
you can ask yourself about what's going to
| | 00:56 | serve you well on a particular trip.
| | 00:58 | We are not going to get into all the
details of the best way to choose a camera.
| | 01:01 | That's a huge discussion.
| | 01:03 | But by asking a few simple questions, you can
determine if the camera you have is the right
| | 01:07 | one for your next trip, or if you're trying
to choose between a few different cameras,
| | 01:11 | which one might work best.
| | 01:12 | First and foremost, how much are you
willing to carry? Different sized cameras take up
| | 01:16 | more space, weigh more. If you know you are
going to be on foot a lot, if you know you've
| | 01:20 | got to carry a bunch of other stuff,
you might want to go with a smaller camera.
| | 01:23 | However, against that, you will be
constantly balancing image quality.
| | 01:27 | Unfortunately it's still true that in almost
every case, the bigger the camera, the better
| | 01:31 | the image quality.
| | 01:32 | So if you are planning on coming back and,
say, blowing your images up really large, or
| | 01:37 | you know that you really, really need the
finest level of quality you can get, then
| | 01:41 | that may inform your decision and may lead
you to understand that you simply have to
| | 01:44 | carry a bigger, heavier camera.
| | 01:47 | There are other things to consider. Do you
need any special capabilities. Do you know,
| | 01:50 | for example, that you absolutely
want to be shooting in raw format.
| | 01:53 | Do you need to be able to work with
particular types of lenses? Maybe you're going into
| | 01:57 | a situation, say, on a safari, or going to shoot
a sporting event where you know you're going
| | 02:02 | to want a really lens.
| | 02:04 | That might require you to take a camera with
interchangeable lenses with a good lens selection.
| | 02:09 | Or maybe you're thinking, I am going
somewhere where it's going to be difficult to get to
| | 02:13 | the locations where I want to shoot, so portability is
paramount, so you are going to go with a smaller camera.
| | 02:19 | These are the types of decisions you
are going to be checking and balancing.
| | 02:22 | And it's probably going to come down to one
of about four different categories of camera
| | 02:26 | that we're looking at here.
| | 02:28 | First of all, the full-frame SLR.
| | 02:30 | This is a Canon5D. It has a full frame sensor,
meaning it's a sensor that's the size of a
| | 02:34 | piece of 35 mm film.
| | 02:37 | It's a large camera and a lot of the
lenses that come for it are also very large.
| | 02:41 | When you are considering your SLR, remember
you've got to take lenses with it and those add
| | 02:45 | bulk and weight to your camera bag.
| | 02:47 | The great thing about the full-frame SLR is
I can get a really shallow depth of field out
| | 02:51 | of it, and I can get
really low noise out of it.
| | 02:54 | So, if you're used to shooting with really
shallow depth of field, if you are used to
| | 02:58 | shooting in low light and you're already
accustomed to this level of performance, it can be a
| | 03:02 | little bit difficult to give it up.
| | 03:04 | That's one of the things about this decision
is you've got to already know the capability
| | 03:07 | of your camera, to be able to
intelligently compare it to other options.
| | 03:12 | Down from the full-frame SLR,
I have the cropped sensor SLR.
| | 03:15 | This means it has a sensor that's
smaller than a piece of 35 mm film.
| | 03:19 | The advantage of a cropped-sensor camera is
that it's just physically smaller and lighter
| | 03:24 | and if I buy lenses designed specifically
for the cropped sensor, those will also be
| | 03:28 | smaller and lighter.
| | 03:29 | I can easily chuck a couple of pounds from
my camera bag by going down from a full-frame
| | 03:34 | sensor to a cropped-frame sensor.
| | 03:37 | There's a new category of camera.
| | 03:40 | That's the--it doesn't really have a name.
| | 03:42 | I'm not really sure what to call this.
| | 03:43 | There are a lot of
different variations of this idea.
| | 03:47 | This is a micro four-thirds camera.
| | 03:49 | That's not a brand, but this
particular camera is a Panasonic.
| | 03:51 | Micro four thirds is a standard that has
been agreed upon by a consortium of companies,
| | 03:56 | including Panasonic, Olympus, and some others.
| | 03:59 | What's nice about this camera is it's just
physically small, much smaller than an SLR,
| | 04:03 | but it still has interchangeable lenses.
| | 04:05 | Now if I look inside the camera into what
should be the mirror chamber, I can see that
| | 04:09 | there's no mirror here.
| | 04:11 | That's because this camera does not have an actual
optical viewfinder; it doesn't actually need a mirror.
| | 04:16 | Instead I just have to use the LCD screen on the back.
| | 04:19 | By eliminating the mirror, I can get the lens
closer to the sensor, and that's partly what
| | 04:24 | makes it possible to make this camera smaller.
| | 04:26 | So the big advantage here is less weight,
smaller size, still get my interchangeable
| | 04:32 | lenses, and I can get very good image quality.
| | 04:35 | The downside is I don't
have an optical viewfinder.
| | 04:37 | I have to just use the LCD screen, and
personally I really don't like shooting that way.
| | 04:42 | And I do take an image-quality hit.
| | 04:44 | It's a very small sensor compared to an SLR,
and at the moment, I just can't get lenses
| | 04:49 | that are as good as what I can
get with my higher-end SLR lenses.
| | 04:54 | There are other options to the micro four-thirds
system. Fuji has a system. Nikon has a system.
| | 04:58 | As I said, there's no real name for this
category yet. Some people are calling these compact
| | 05:03 | interchangeable lens cameras; others
are calling them mirrorless cameras.
| | 05:07 | But they're worth considering if you really
need to get your weight down and you still
| | 05:11 | want lens flexibility.
| | 05:14 | Finally, there are point-and-shoot cameras
and you may think, well, there's no way I'd
| | 05:17 | use that point-and-shoot camera seriously;
that's just kind of a toy thing isn't it?
| | 05:20 | And it--that would have been true a few
years ago, but these days there are some very,
| | 05:24 | very good point-and-shoot cameras, point-and-
shoot cameras that can shoot in raw format that
| | 05:27 | have extremely high-quality, very fast lenses,
point-and-shoot cameras that do very, very
| | 05:32 | well in low light at high ISO.
| | 05:35 | The great advantage of a point-
and-shoot camera is it's tiny.
| | 05:38 | You can carry it anywhere.
| | 05:40 | It's not going to weigh you down if you're
trying to get into a difficult place. It's
| | 05:43 | not going to add a lot of bulk.
| | 05:44 | The disadvantage is you're still going to
take an image-quality hit over pretty much
| | 05:48 | any of these other formats.
| | 05:50 | And also, it's going be slower to operate.
| | 05:53 | I don't mean that the burst
speed is going to be slow.
| | 05:54 | It's just, it's going to take
it longer to write to the card.
| | 05:57 | There might be a little shutter lag.
It's going to take it longer to auto focus.
| | 06:00 | If you are moving into a really dynamic
situation, if you're used shooting in a really dynamic
| | 06:03 | way, then a point-and-shoot
camera may not be for you.
| | 06:07 | As with the micro four-thirds camera here,
most point-and-shoot cameras do not have an
| | 06:11 | optical viewfinder; they
just have the LCD screen.
| | 06:14 | So these are a bunch of different
factors that I'm balancing here.
| | 06:17 | Well, I want image quality, but I do want it
to be too heavy, but I want a real viewfinder,
| | 06:20 | but I like interchangeable lenses, but I've
got to shoot raw, but I know I am going to be
| | 06:24 | shooting in low light.
| | 06:25 | Obviously the way that I begin to balance
all of these and pare them down is to really
| | 06:29 | think about where I'm going and
what I am going to be shooting.
| | 06:32 | If I am going on safari, I can figure well I
am going to be sitting in a safari vehicle
| | 06:37 | most of the times, so weight
isn't going to bother me that much.
| | 06:40 | And I know that I want a long reach and I
know that I want to be able to work quickly.
| | 06:43 | So maybe I'll go ahead and take my larger SLR.
| | 06:46 | If I'm going to be hiking with a heavy backpack
through difficult terrain, then I might think
| | 06:52 | I am actually not going to be shooting that
much on the go, I am going to--but I really
| | 06:57 | want to keep my weight down, I am
going to go with a smaller camera.
| | 07:00 | These are simply the types of
decisions you are going to have to make.
| | 07:02 | I typically take two cameras.
| | 07:04 | I take an SLR and I take a point-and-shoot.
| | 07:06 | The point-and-shoot is great for those days
when I'm thinking I just want to go out and
| | 07:10 | enjoy myself, I don't want to have to mug
a bunch of gear, but I still might want to
| | 07:13 | take a picture, so I'll bring
along my small point-and-shoot.
| | 07:15 | I also like point-and-
shoots for shooting video.
| | 07:18 | I typically don't go out to shoot
professional-grade video when I am out; I am just wanting
| | 07:23 | to document something.
| | 07:24 | And shooting video with a point-and-shoot is much
easier, less cumbersome than shooting it with an SLR.
| | 07:30 | Another option, finally, is sometimes I take
something of a specialty camera, and there
| | 07:34 | are a lot of variations on these.
This is a little helmet camera.
| | 07:38 | This is an HD video camera that can be mounted
to a helmet or to the side of a car or something
| | 07:43 | like that. It doesn't weigh very much.
| | 07:45 | And if I'm going out somewhere where I know
I am going to be in a car a lot, or riding
| | 07:50 | a motorcycle or something like that, these
can be really fun way of getting some video
| | 07:53 | that I might not get with a normal camera.
| | 07:56 | What's great is they are small and light, easy
to toss in a bag along with something else.
| | 08:00 | And you might find--you'll find there are
lot of variations of helmet cameras. You might
| | 08:03 | find some other specialty type cameras that
don't add a lot to your camera bag but that
| | 08:08 | are still worth having with you.
| | 08:10 | And last but not least,
there is your cell phone.
| | 08:12 | And again, like point-and-shoot cameras a few
years ago, a cell phone would never have been
| | 08:15 | a reasonable alternative for any kind of serious
shooting, but they are getting better and better.
| | 08:19 | I think of my cell phone as just my
documentation camera. Whether I've got my SLR with me or
| | 08:24 | not, sometimes if I just know oh, there is
the thing that I want to show somebody, I'll
| | 08:28 | shoot it with my cell phone.
| | 08:29 | The great thing about shooting with my cell
phone is immediately I can get it from there out
| | 08:33 | of the phone and into the
net via email or however.
| | 08:37 | So of course that's a good option.
It's not really a substitute for real camera.
| | 08:41 | So these are some of the
questions you need to ask yourself.
| | 08:43 | It's a balancing act what the right choice is.
| | 08:46 | And if you're going with an SLR, you are going
to have the additional consideration of lenses,
| | 08:49 | and we are going to talk about those next.
| | 08:54 |
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| Assessing your lens options| 00:01 | There are a lot of reasons to travel:
| | 00:03 | the opportunity to see things you haven't
seen before, to explore different cultures,
| | 00:07 | to meet different kinds of people.
| | 00:10 | And of course, it might give a reason to by new
lens, or maybe you already have a lot of lenses.
| | 00:14 | Either way you're going to need to think
about what lenses are appropriate for the type of
| | 00:18 | trip that you're going on.
| | 00:20 | Now if you're going on the type of excursion
where you've got someone else to carry your
| | 00:24 | stuff and you're going to be living in
someplace where there is plenty of storage, then maybe
| | 00:28 | you go ahead and take all
of your lenses with you.
| | 00:30 | Most of us though, if we have a selection
of lenses, need to take a subset of those
| | 00:33 | lenses where you're trying to travel little more
lightly and only carry what we're going to need.
| | 00:39 | That means that we have to really make some
decisions ahead of time about what is going
| | 00:43 | to the best lens choice to take.
| | 00:44 | Obviously if you're not taking a SLR,
this is not an issue that you'll face.
| | 00:49 | So where do I start what I'm looking a whole
bunch of lenses like this and trying to pick
| | 00:53 | out just two or three that are going to
be appropriate for my next excursion?
| | 00:58 | I start by trying to predict
what it is I might be shooting.
| | 01:01 | Now in some cases this is very simple.
| | 01:03 | If you're going on a trip for a very
particular reason--I'm going to Africa to go on safari,
| | 01:08 | well, then safari, you're going to get a nice
long lens, preferably one with stabilization,
| | 01:12 | because when you're zoomed in real tight
that stabilizer can make a big difference.
| | 01:16 | Or maybe you're thinking I am going to go
wander the streets of Paris and street shoot
| | 01:19 | like Cartier-Bresson. Well, then maybe you want to take a 50
millimeter just like he did, or maybe you want to hedge
| | 01:25 | your bets a little bit and give yourself an
easier time and take a nice a walk around
| | 01:28 | zoom lens that can go a little bit
wide to a little bit telephoto.
| | 01:32 | Either way the first step is to determine
what it is you might be shooting and pick
| | 01:36 | lenses that are appropriate.
| | 01:37 | Now obviously there are times when you don't
know what you might be shooting. Or you're
| | 01:41 | thinking, well, I am thinking I am going to
shoot this, but there is a possibly that
| | 01:44 | that will happen and I want to be ready.
| | 01:46 | With that in mind, let's consider the different
characteristics of lenses and the things that
| | 01:51 | you'll be weighing here.
First of all, there is focal length.
| | 01:54 | Obviously, longer lenses
give you more telephoto power.
| | 01:57 | If you don't normally shoot fine details,
if you normally don't shoot things that are
| | 02:00 | far away, then maybe you
don't need to worry about that.
| | 02:03 | If you're thinking, well, there's
little chance there might be something,
| | 02:05 | it still may not be worth carrying an extra long
lens if it's not something that you normally use.
| | 02:11 | At that point, consider your camera.
What's the pixel count on your camera's sensor?
| | 02:15 | Does it afford you a lot of cropping capability?
If it does then maybe you can get away with
| | 02:20 | the moderate telephoto length of your walkaround
lens and just know that you'll have to crop a bunch.
| | 02:25 | It'll limit your final print size, but if
you're not planning on blowing thing up a
| | 02:28 | real big, maybe that doesn't matter.
| | 02:30 | In addition to focal
length there is lens speed.
| | 02:34 | Are you going to be shooting a lot in low
light? Are you going to be shooting a lot
| | 02:37 | at night? Are you going to be wanting as much
depth-of-field control as possible? In that
| | 02:43 | case you, may want to go
with a really fast lens.
| | 02:45 | Now the problem with a really fast lens is
it's going to be physically much larger.
| | 02:49 | This is a 50 millimeter lens, but
it has a maximum aperture of 1.2.
| | 02:53 | All of the glass that's required to get
that really wide maximum aperture results in a
| | 02:57 | lens that's very, very large.
| | 02:59 | It's actually larger than this 85
millimeter lens, which is a physically longer lens in
| | 03:04 | terms of focal length.
| | 03:05 | So these are the
trade-offs I'm playing with here.
| | 03:08 | Well, I want a fast lens, but my bag is already heavy,
because I decided to go with a long telephoto.
| | 03:14 | So what you may want to do is mix it up. Take
maybe one really fast lens, something really
| | 03:19 | in the middle of the focal length range.
| | 03:21 | That's a nice thing about a fast 50 is it's
a pretty versatile lens, and then I don't
| | 03:25 | need such fast lenses on
my other focal lengths.
| | 03:28 | For example, I have on here
24 to 105. That's an F4 lens.
| | 03:32 | Not super fast, but it's a good average maximum
aperture that's going to be good for the bulk of my shots.
| | 03:39 | If I do get into a low-light situation,
I knock on the 50 millimeter one too and have some
| | 03:44 | good low-light capability.
| | 03:46 | Another option here that I use a
lot, this is a nice wide zoom.
| | 03:49 | This is a 16 to 35.
That's a 28 lens.
| | 03:53 | So it's still pretty fast.
| | 03:54 | It's a good complement in my 24 to 105.
| | 03:57 | So with these two lenses, I've got a focal
length range of 16 to 205 millimeter with
| | 04:04 | about a third of that at a
really fast maximum aperture.
| | 04:08 | So these are ways that I can balance
different ends of the focal length range with faster
| | 04:15 | or slower maximum apertures and come out with
something that may work well in one situation or another.
| | 04:21 | So these are just the sorts of
thought processes you need to go through.
| | 04:25 | If you're having to winnow down a big
selection something smaller. What are you possibly going
| | 04:29 | to shoot? What focal lengths do you usually
use? Do you need a fast lens? If so, can you
| | 04:34 | augment some focal lengths with other
lenses that are a little bit faster.
| | 04:38 | You can probably find that you can mix and
match these things, keep the weight down,
| | 04:42 | and get it down to just two or three lenses.
| | 04:47 |
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| Using tripods and other stabilizers| 00:00 | Earlier I mentioned image stabilization.
| | 00:03 | This is a technology that can be built into
some lenses, and it can help even out or completely
| | 00:08 | eliminate hand-held camera shake.
| | 00:11 | Image stabilization is great.
| | 00:12 | If you're a Nikon shooter, of course
I'm talking about vibration reduction.
| | 00:15 | If you're Sony shooter, I'm talking of course
about the fact that your image sensor is stabilized.
| | 00:21 | A lot of Olympus cameras work that way.
| | 00:23 | What's great about these technologies is in
lower light I don't have to worry as much
| | 00:27 | about camera shake or hand-held shake
as I do with a non-stabilized lens.
| | 00:31 | Nevertheless, these technologies are no
substitute for actual stabilization hardware,
| | 00:37 | something that I can mount my camera on and
get it held down really tight while I'm doing
| | 00:40 | long exposures or other low-
light-type shooting scenarios.
| | 00:45 | Now carrying a tripod is not essential, and in
some cases it might be a complete waste of time.
| | 00:49 | If you know you're going to be shooting in
bright daylight all the time, then there's
| | 00:52 | no reason to lug around
the extra piece of gear.
| | 00:54 | But if you want maximum shooting flexibility,
then it's worth considering taking some kind
| | 01:00 | of stabilizing hardware.
| | 01:01 | We've got a few different options right here.
| | 01:03 | Let's start with the really cute little.
teeny-tiny tripod over there on the end.
| | 01:07 | That is actually going to be completely
useless for the camera that I'm looking at here.
| | 01:12 | But if I have a little point-and-shoot, these
little tabletop tripods, like this one right
| | 01:15 | here, are very handy.
| | 01:17 | They're great for setting up self-portrait
shots with the timer on your camera or just
| | 01:21 | having fun doing macro work.
| | 01:22 | So many point-and-shoot cameras
have really great macro features.
| | 01:25 | So a tiny little tripod can be a nice addition
to your bag if you're carrying a point-and-shoot.
| | 01:30 | This is a Gorillapod.
| | 01:31 | I really like these because
they're very, very versatile.
| | 01:34 | The legs fold up into lots of different
shapes, giving me a lot of options for how I want
| | 01:38 | to mount this somewhere.
| | 01:39 | I can wrap it around things.
| | 01:41 | I can wrap it around a telephone pole.
| | 01:43 | I've still got a plate up here that's good for
a standard tripod socket thread on my camera.
| | 01:48 | Gorillapods come in lots of different sizes.
It's all about weight-bearing.
| | 01:53 | This is beefy enough that it'll
hold up my SLR or a point-and-shoot.
| | 01:56 | A smaller one obviously is not going
to work so well with a larger camera.
| | 02:00 | I take these a lot on motorcycle and
bicycle trips because I can wrap them around the
| | 02:04 | handlebars, not while I'm riding, but I
can turn the bicycle into a tripod itself.
| | 02:08 | It will stand there. I can wrap these around the handlebar
and set up my shot and leave it that way.
| | 02:12 | And they're very light.
It's all plastic, but it's surprisingly sturdy.
| | 02:16 | So this is a good option when you
don't want to go for a full-on tripod.
| | 02:20 | A full-on tripod of course is going to give
you the most stabilizing effect and the most
| | 02:23 | versatility for how you set it up.
| | 02:25 | There are lots and lots of tripod options,
and the easiest way to winnow it down is to
| | 02:32 | start by thinking about what's the most
weight that you're going to need to bear, how much
| | 02:35 | does your camera weigh, and what's the
biggest lens that you're going to put on it?
| | 02:39 | A tripod has a certain carrying capacity and
you need a tripod that's at least big enough
| | 02:44 | to carry, or to hold, your
camera and its largest lens.
| | 02:48 | You don't need one that's set up
for carrying more weight than that.
| | 02:51 | There's no reason for you to be lugging
around a tripod that's capable of supporting more
| | 02:54 | camera than you will ever use.
| | 02:56 | So as soon as you address the weight issue,
that's going to immediately winnow the field
| | 03:00 | down to something much, much smaller.
| | 03:01 | It can be tempting at first when you see those
really big fancy tripods. You go, well, that's
| | 03:05 | what I need, but that's probably
actually a lot more than you need.
| | 03:09 | Next is going to be the
consideration of how tall a tripod do you need?
| | 03:13 | Tripods can go up to different heights,
and tripod legs extend and then in addition to
| | 03:20 | those, you very often have a
center column that can go up.
| | 03:23 | When I put this whole thing up,
I get up to a certain height.
| | 03:26 | I probably want it to be at least as tall
as my eye, although that's not essential,
| | 03:30 | but it makes it a lot more comfortable for
shooting if I can just stand here and have
| | 03:34 | my eye right behind the tripod.
| | 03:35 | If I have to hunch down,
that's a little less comfortable.
| | 03:38 | On the other hand, if you're thinking you're
not going to use your tripod that much, then
| | 03:41 | you may want to suffer a shorter
tripod to get it down to lighter weight.
| | 03:46 | So height will be your next
consideration: How tall do you want it?
| | 03:49 | Next, you get to materials.
| | 03:51 | This is a carbon fiber tripod.
| | 03:53 | This is just about the
lightest weight material you can get.
| | 03:55 | It's very sturdy, very light,
but it's going to cost you more.
| | 03:58 | So there's a tradeoff there. How much
do you want to invest in your tripod?
| | 04:00 | If you really want to go for light, then
you're going to want to go for a lighter material.
| | 04:04 | Otherwise, you can spend a little less,
but it's going to cost you in back pain.
| | 04:09 | The legs extend by
releasing some kind of lock here.
| | 04:12 | There are typically two different kinds of
releases: twist releases, which are like screws,
| | 04:17 | and these flip-up levers.
| | 04:18 | I much prefer the flip-up levers, and the
reason is I can close them all with one movement
| | 04:24 | and I can get them open very
quickly and extend the legs.
| | 04:28 | The twist mechanisms, they just bug me.
| | 04:30 | They take a long time.
| | 04:32 | The advantage of the twist mechanisms is
they're less mechanical, so there's less to break.
| | 04:36 | I've never had a problem with these.
| | 04:38 | This is a Velbon carbon fiber tripod and these I
believe are magnesium or some fancy metal of some kind.
| | 04:46 | So I can extend my legs.
| | 04:47 | Another nice thing to look for in your
tripod legs is here I've got an uneven surface.
| | 04:52 | I want to get my tripod set up leveled,
but I've got this staircase here.
| | 04:56 | With this tripod, I can pop up this release
right here and now my legs will go all the
| | 05:01 | way out to the side.
| | 05:02 | So that gives me a way to get my tripod here
on this uneven surface and still have a good
| | 05:10 | solid--here we go--a good solid
platform to put my camera on.
| | 05:15 | As I mentioned before, many tripods have
a center column that can go up and down.
| | 05:19 | You want to be careful with this.
| | 05:20 | I am turning the wrong
knob here. There we go.
| | 05:23 | You want to be careful with this, because
you may think, well, my legs don't go that
| | 05:26 | high, but once I put the center column up, then
boy, it's as high as I'll ever need it to be.
| | 05:30 | The problem is that as this point I'm
basically using, to a degree, a monopod.
| | 05:36 | Up here is not nearly as stable as down here.
| | 05:39 | So again, if I'm going to be shooting in very,
very windy conditions, I typically want to
| | 05:43 | keep the center column as low as possible.
| | 05:44 | So you don't want to rely on the center
column to get the height you need if you're going
| | 05:49 | to be in situations where it
could possibly be tossed around some.
| | 05:53 | There's a hook right here on the
bottom, or in this case there's a thread,
| | 05:56 | I can attach a little thing down here that gives me
a hook that allows me to hang my camera bag here.
| | 06:01 | That puts a bunch of weight that pulls the
tripod down and that can give me some extra
| | 06:04 | stabilizing effect.
| | 06:05 | So that can be a handy feature
to look for. One little tip:
| | 06:08 | when you're setting up your tripod, if you're
not going to pull the legs out all the way,
| | 06:12 | always pull the bottom
ones out all the way first.
| | 06:14 | In other words, this is a better arrangement
than--I'm going to do this here--this, because
| | 06:25 | now I've got all this
mechanism down here on the ground.
| | 06:27 | If I'm working in sand or
something, sand can get in here.
| | 06:30 | So it's much nicer to always
have this foot as far as possible.
| | 06:35 | Typically when you buy a tripod, you have a
choice of buying a tripod that has a built-in
| | 06:39 | head or one that has no head at all.
| | 06:42 | Let me just take the head off here so
you can see what the difference is.
| | 06:45 | If I take the head off of this tripod, because
when I bought this tripod, it was just the sticks.
| | 06:49 | It was just the legs.
| | 06:50 | It did not had a head; it
just had this plate here.
| | 06:54 | That allows me to choose my own type of head.
| | 06:56 | The reason I like that is because very often
tripods that have a built-in head, the head
| | 07:01 | wobbles a bit, it's not super sturdy, and
you have no real control over fixing that.
| | 07:06 | Also, there are a lot of different types of heads
available and I like the opportunity to choose.
| | 07:12 | Typically, for shooting still photos, a
ball head is the way to go, and you can see it
| | 07:16 | very clearly here.
| | 07:17 | This is just a ball and socket and when
I loosen it, I can rotate that around.
| | 07:21 | This is very different from a video tripod
head, which will typically have different releases,
| | 07:25 | allowing me to unlock just one axis so that I
can pan without tilting and so on and so forth.
| | 07:30 | I don't shoot video, so I
don't have that problem.
| | 07:33 | So when you're ready to shop for a head,
again, my best suggestion for just shooting stills
| | 07:38 | would be to go for a ball head.
| | 07:40 | At that point you have a lot of options again, and
the first thing you want to consider is weight.
| | 07:45 | And just as with tripods, you're
going to find if you want to go lighter,
| | 07:47 | it's going to cost you more money.
| | 07:49 | This is an Acratech
Ultimate Ballhead. So there.
| | 07:53 | This is apparently, I guess, it doesn't
get any better than this. I don't know.
| | 07:56 | I picked this one because I like
the mechanism. It's all open.
| | 07:59 | It's all clean.
| | 08:00 | I shoot a lot in desert conditions.
| | 08:02 | If sand gets in here, I can just
blow it out with compressed air.
| | 08:05 | But the main thing is it's very light.
| | 08:06 | This weighs less than one pound
and it can still support my camera.
| | 08:10 | This is a standard screw size here.
| | 08:13 | My tripod, though, had a
smaller screw than standard.
| | 08:17 | You can get these little shims at any camera
store that can go on here and that can bump
| | 08:20 | it up to standard size.
| | 08:21 | Tripod heads typically just screw right on,
and they also typically come with a plate
| | 08:27 | that goes on your camera,
a quick release plate.
| | 08:29 | So you can see that right here.
| | 08:31 | I've got the plate on here and what's nice
about this is, yeah, it's an extra thing that
| | 08:35 | I have to have attached to my camera and you may think,
well, that makes the camera bigger and heavier.
| | 08:39 | Fortunately, this plate
doesn't weigh very much.
| | 08:41 | It's very low profile and because it
just lives on the camera all the time,
| | 08:45 | it's very, very easy put
to my camera on the tripod.
| | 08:50 | There it's on, it's solid, and
when I want it off, it's off.
| | 08:53 | That's the advantage of a quick release plate.
| | 08:56 | If you have the option for different plates
for your tripod head, try and find one that
| | 09:01 | has two features.
| | 09:02 | In addition to being low profile and light
if it's got a place to attach a strap, that
| | 09:06 | can be handy, because as you'll see later,
there are some strapping mechanisms that can
| | 09:10 | work with your tripod plate and
see if it has a pass-through.
| | 09:14 | That is, see if it has another tripod
socket here, because the advantage of this is if
| | 09:19 | I'm ever out with my camera and I've forgotten
my tripod but a friend has his tripod there
| | 09:23 | and he's just got a thread on it, I can still
get my camera onto his tripod without having
| | 09:27 | to take the plate off.
| | 09:28 | So that can be very handy.
| | 09:30 | So a tripod can be essential
for certain types of shooting.
| | 09:34 | It's not essential for every
trip that you might go on.
| | 09:37 | It's one of those things that you're going
to need to really consider before you take
| | 09:41 | off, whether it's worth
carrying the extra weight.
| | 09:43 | If you do your shopping right and really look
around for legs that don't weigh that much
| | 09:48 | but offer the features that you need, and a
head that doesn't weight that much and offers
| | 09:51 | the type of control that you like, then
having a tripod with you doesn't necessarily have
| | 09:55 | to weigh you down much more.
| | 09:58 | Another option is to ditch two of
the legs and go with a monopod.
| | 10:02 | What's nice about a monopod is it's small
and it's light and it still gives you a good
| | 10:06 | amount of stability.
| | 10:07 | It's not the kind of thing where you're going to
leave the monopod set up for a 20-minute exposure.
| | 10:11 | But if you're shooting in low light and just
want to get the hand-held shake down a little
| | 10:15 | bit, get a little bit of an extra boost and
give yourself a break, the place where you're
| | 10:19 | not having to bear all the weight of your
camera, if you've got a long lens on, a monopod
| | 10:23 | can be a really good choice.
| | 10:24 | Again, some monopods have
removable heads, some don't.
| | 10:27 | So a lot of the same issues that you face
when shopping for a tripod will come up when
| | 10:31 | you're shopping for a monopod.
| | 10:33 | Once you've got your camera on the tripod, you may
want to think about how you want to trigger it.
| | 10:39 | It doesn't do me much good to put the camera on the
tripod and then be mashing the shutter button down.
| | 10:43 | That can vibrate the camera.
| | 10:45 | It can cause jitter.
| | 10:46 | Also, it means I've got to
be standing near the camera.
| | 10:49 | A remote control can give me a lot of
flexibility once the camera is on a tripod.
| | 10:53 | I can stand farther away from the camera.
| | 10:56 | I can be sure that I'm not shaking the camera.
| | 10:59 | Now in the old days it used to be you could
spend $7 on a cable release and have lots
| | 11:03 | of remote control.
| | 11:04 | Camera vendors figured out a way around that.
| | 11:06 | Now you have to have an electronic
remote control, which costs 35, 40 bucks.
| | 11:10 | This is a very basic remote control.
| | 11:12 | It's just a shutter button, but it's
got a lock, which is worth looking for.
| | 11:16 | This allows you to use
bulb mode on your camera.
| | 11:18 | In bulb mode, as long as the shutter button
is held down, the shutter will stay open.
| | 11:22 | So this is a good way of doing long exposures.
| | 11:25 | Really no frills and not that expensive, but as
long as you're investing in a remote control,
| | 11:30 | you may want to go up to
something with a little more capability.
| | 11:34 | This does all the same
thing that that one does.
| | 11:36 | It's got a shutter release button here and it
has a lock, but it's got some other features,
| | 11:40 | the main one being an intervalometer.
| | 11:42 | If you want to do time-lapse, that is,
shooting a single frame at regular intervals over a
| | 11:47 | stretch of time with the idea that you're
going to string those into a video of some
| | 11:50 | kind, this is the way to do it.
| | 11:52 | I can program this to say take X number of
pictures every so often for so long and it'll
| | 11:57 | just sit there and do it.
| | 11:59 | It's battery-powered; the other one is not.
So that's another thing.
| | 12:03 | If you're going to take this, you've got to consider
whether you want to carry batteries with you or not.
| | 12:07 | I really like this remote control.
| | 12:09 | If you're really into self-portraits, you've
got a little bit of an issue because the cable
| | 12:13 | is only this long.
| | 12:14 | Even if you take that knot out of it,
it's still not that much longer.
| | 12:16 | So you're going to be looking at self-
portraits of your nose or your cheek or an eye, and
| | 12:21 | that's probably not what you're interested in.
| | 12:22 | So in that case, you might want to
go with a wireless remote control.
| | 12:27 | These typically come in two components.
| | 12:29 | This plugs into the remote control socket on
my camera and this I can either just leave
| | 12:32 | hanging off or tie onto the tripod
or mount into the camera's hot shoe.
| | 12:36 | This is actually a cold mount.
| | 12:37 | There are no contacts there.
| | 12:39 | So if I'm using a flash, I'm would need to
put this somewhere else because my flash will
| | 12:42 | be on the hot shoe.
| | 12:43 | And then this is my remote control.
| | 12:44 | It's just got a little antenna.
| | 12:46 | I turn it on, I've got a shutter button.
| | 12:48 | I don't actually have a lock on this one.
| | 12:50 | Again, this stuff is battery-powered so you've
got to be sure that you've got power with it.
| | 12:54 | Range on these.
This is not a very expensive one.
| | 12:56 | I think this was only $20-$25.
| | 12:57 | The range is 30 feet maybe, which
is probably more than you need.
| | 13:02 | But if you were planning on something in
particular where you know you need a lot of range, you'll
| | 13:05 | want to look for a remote control or maybe radio
trigger that with a little more range than this one.
| | 13:12 | But again, remote control is
something that works very well with a tripod,
| | 13:15 | so that's something to consider
depending on the type of shooting you're doing.
| | 13:20 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Holding it: straps| 00:00 | So you've paid for the nice camera or two.
You've bought a couple of lenses. You probably
| | 00:04 | think, wow, I am spending a lot of money.
| | 00:05 | I am probably just about done now, right?
Have you considered your strap? Yes, you can
| | 00:11 | upgrade your camera strap.
| | 00:13 | And you may think okay, now
he is just being ridiculous.
| | 00:15 | But actually the strap you use can have a
big impact both on how easily you can handle
| | 00:20 | your camera and also how tired you get over a
day of shooting, of carrying your camera around.
| | 00:26 | I've got a pretty basic camera strap on here;
it's still something that's a little more
| | 00:29 | advanced than what came with my camera.
| | 00:30 | I've replaced the stock camera strap
with this, which is called an UPstrap.
| | 00:35 | That's just UPstrap.
| | 00:37 | And it's just a loop just like any other camera strap
would be, but it's got a couple of extra nice features.
| | 00:42 | First of all, this rubber pad here, it's a
really nice solid piece of rubber with this
| | 00:46 | non-skid little texture thing here, and it's
amazing what a difference this makes on the shoulder.
| | 00:52 | The camera simply does not slide.
| | 00:54 | You may think, well, I've never had a problem
with my camera sliding off my shoulder before,
| | 00:58 | and that's very likely because
you've been walking around like this.
| | 01:01 | You may not realize how much you're trying
to keep the camera from moving by hunching
| | 01:05 | all day long and that can get tiring,
particularly if you've got a very heavy camera.
| | 01:08 | The UPstrap really keeps the
camera from sliding around.
| | 01:11 | Another nice feature, like most camera straps,
it mounts through the strap mount on your
| | 01:16 | camera with this complex little buckle
mechanism here, which means that if I wanted to take
| | 01:20 | this off, it's some work to
unthread all of this stuff.
| | 01:23 | So they gave me this quick release here.
| | 01:26 | So I can just undo that--and
there is one on the other end.
| | 01:29 | I can get the strap off the camera.
| | 01:31 | Now, these things are still hanging here,
but if the idea is I want to mount the camera
| | 01:35 | on a tripod and not have this strap hanging
around, getting this bit off really, really
| | 01:39 | does make a difference.
| | 01:40 | I have heard people question the integrity of these
connectors and I've got to say, that's just nuts.
| | 01:46 | I've seen them bear loads up to
hundreds and hundreds of pounds.
| | 01:50 | It's what I've used on backpacks, on
motorcycle bags, on all sorts of gear; these things are
| | 01:55 | really, really sturdy.
| | 01:57 | No one is going to pull this apart
trying to take the camera off your arm.
| | 02:01 | Like the strap on your camera, you can
wear it over your shoulder or over your head.
| | 02:06 | I'd like to offer one other tip: tuck
the lens towards your spine like this.
| | 02:12 | If you flip it around the other way,
particularly if you've got a long lens on, your camera
| | 02:17 | more easily flops around.
| | 02:19 | It's much easier for the
lens to bump into something.
| | 02:22 | If you just rotate it 180 degrees and put
it like this, it tucks into the small of your
| | 02:26 | back and it's really sturdy.
It really stays there.
| | 02:28 | It's also a little more low profile.
| | 02:31 | If you're street shooting and people don't
necessarily see you so much walking around
| | 02:34 | with the camera, you can look
somewhat incognito this way.
| | 02:37 | So no matter what type of just regular loop
strap you have, it's a pretty important thing
| | 02:41 | to carry your camera that way.
| | 02:44 | Here is a variation.
| | 02:46 | This is a camera sling.
| | 02:48 | So it's a little bit like a normal strap,
in that it goes over my head, but otherwise
| | 02:53 | it's pretty different.
| | 02:55 | So I put this thing on and now
my camera is here at my side.
| | 03:01 | The difference is, rather than having to take this
off and pull the camera up to my eye, I just do this.
| | 03:06 | What I've got here is a mechanism that's
sliding along the strap, and the camera can simply
| | 03:12 | slide up and down.
| | 03:14 | And it's the weirdest thing when you first
use one of these, because you just walk around,
| | 03:18 | and just whenever you need your camera,
it's just right there and you just pull it up.
| | 03:20 | You feel like there is this little table
following you around or something with a camera on it.
| | 03:24 | The downside to this is that trick that I
just showed you about tucking the camera into
| | 03:28 | your back. You can't
really do that with a sling.
| | 03:31 | The camera is free to move around a lot more.
| | 03:34 | And while I can kind of keep it tucked in, it's
still going to flop around a little bit more.
| | 03:39 | If you're someone who tends to end up
running sometimes when you're shooting, if you're
| | 03:42 | shooting in a really active environment,
this may not be the solution for you.
| | 03:46 | But I really like it for just casual
shooting and casual walking around.
| | 03:51 | There are a number of different slings on the
market, so you might want to shop around.
| | 03:55 | Finally, I am going to show you something
that's pretty new and pretty different from
| | 03:59 | what we've seen before.
| | 04:01 | And this is made by a company called Luma.
| | 04:04 | This is a camera cinch, and it's a variation,
a nice variation, on a normal camera strap.
| | 04:09 | Let me show you how it connects, first of all.
| | 04:12 | It ties in here, like it normally would, to
one of the camera mounts, and then there is
| | 04:16 | this little screw gizmo here
which screws into the tripod socket.
| | 04:20 | So it's mounted on the side and the bottom.
| | 04:23 | And what I do is I put it over my
shoulder, just as I normally would.
| | 04:28 | Now, to address the problem of just carrying
the camera, notice the strap is nice and short,
| | 04:33 | so it tucks in here. I can really move around
a lot, and it doesn't budge from the middle
| | 04:38 | of my back, which is great.
| | 04:40 | But then when I want to go shooting, I would
like to have a longer strap and so I've got
| | 04:44 | this cinch thing here.
| | 04:45 | I just grab this and pull, and now I have
this nice long strap that I can use to get
| | 04:50 | the camera up to my eye.
| | 04:52 | When I'm done I just cinch it back up and
I am back to having a small camera strap.
| | 04:59 | So this is a really nice
kind of halfway point between.
| | 05:02 | It's not like a sling, in that I can't move
the camera right up and down it, but I can
| | 05:06 | keep it tucked in really tight like a normal
camera strap and then quickly get it out long
| | 05:10 | and have something that's much more usable so
that I don't have to take the thing completely
| | 05:13 | over my head, just like I would with a sling.
| | 05:15 | I just leave it on all the time.
| | 05:17 | So these are a few different options.
| | 05:19 | There are still some other options that we're
going to look at in a minute that aren't actually
| | 05:22 | straps, but things that go on your belt.
| | 05:25 | This is a non-strap option.
| | 05:27 | This is the Spider Holster.
| | 05:29 | You can see I've got this big belt on here
that comes around and I've got this big pad
| | 05:33 | here on my hip and this contraption here.
| | 05:36 | And the way this works is, I just pull the
camera out, shoot up the place, and then it
| | 05:40 | goes right back in there, and
the camera rests against this pad.
| | 05:44 | This all works because I've mounted onto the
bottom of my camera this contraption here;
| | 05:50 | it's a big plate, kind of like a tripod plate.
| | 05:52 | In fact, it's got screws here
for attaching a tripod to it.
| | 05:55 | And it's got this big ball thing here, and
this ball thing here slides into this groove
| | 06:00 | right here, and so the
camera just goes like that.
| | 06:05 | What I really like about the Spider Holster
is it's keeping the weight of the camera off
| | 06:08 | of my neck and shoulders.
| | 06:10 | So it's a really comfortable way of
carrying a fairly heavy camera around.
| | 06:14 | If I was going to be wearing another backpack--
maybe I am out backpacking and I've got a
| | 06:16 | big pack on my back with all my tent and
everything in it, and so no way I am carrying a camera
| | 06:21 | bag--then this is a way of
carrying the camera down lower.
| | 06:24 | Even if I'm just day hiking and wearing a
hydration pack, this is a nice alternate way
| | 06:29 | to carry the camera.
| | 06:30 | Now, notice it sits in
here and it's pretty sturdy.
| | 06:33 | I can move around a lot and
it doesn't shake too much.
| | 06:36 | However, it does just pop right out like that.
| | 06:39 | There is a lock right here that I can just flip
down, and when I do that, now it won't come out.
| | 06:44 | So if I was in a situation where I needed to run
or something, I can lock the camera in there.
| | 06:49 | If I am in a situation where I am just
walking around shooting, it comes out very easily
| | 06:54 | and then it goes back in very easily.
| | 06:56 | So this is a way of freeing up my hands and my
shoulders, keeping space open on my back for a pack.
| | 07:01 | This is the Spider Holster.
| | 07:03 | We're going to look at
another belt-level mechanism next.
| | 07:07 | Finally, we have the Capture
Camera Clip System from Peak Design.
| | 07:12 | Now, I don't get the Wild West quick draw
action from this, but I do get to use my own
| | 07:18 | belt, which is kind of cool.
| | 07:19 | I am going to take the camera out for a
second, and you can see that this is just a little
| | 07:22 | contraption that my belt threads through and
it tightens down, and then I put this plate
| | 07:26 | on the bottom of my camera.
| | 07:28 | One thing that's cool about this plate is
it is square, so I can actually slide the
| | 07:32 | camera in any one of four different directions,
depending on whatever I think works best.
| | 07:37 | To get it out, I just press this big red
button here and it just slides right out.
| | 07:41 | So again, this gets the weight off of my
shoulders, relieves my neck, frees my back up to carry
| | 07:46 | a different kind of pack.
| | 07:47 | But if you notice, I've switched cameras here.
| | 07:49 | I am not using the big SLR that I had before.
| | 07:51 | I am down to my micro four-thirds camera,
because since it's attached to my belt instead
| | 07:57 | of having its own belt, it can't
quite bear as much weight I find.
| | 08:00 | If I put my full-frame sensor SLR on here,
it starts pulling my belt down some.
| | 08:05 | So if you've got a smaller camera,
this might be a good option.
| | 08:09 | So, you may think you're doing fine with
your stock camera strap, but maybe you're not.
| | 08:13 | Maybe you want to look into something else.
| | 08:15 | You've seen some of these other straps which
offer some different options and now these
| | 08:18 | belt options which can get the
strap off your shoulder completely.
| | 08:22 | So as you're out shooting, gaining a little
more experience, think about some of these
| | 08:25 | other options you've seen.
One of them might be right for you.
| | 08:30 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Storing it: media cards| 00:00 | I like to say a few words
about choosing media cards.
| | 00:03 | When you go media card shopping, you're
probably going to find a number of options.
| | 00:06 | First of course, there's capacity, and you
can choose to have a few really large cards
| | 00:12 | or a bunch of smaller cards.
| | 00:14 | The idea with a bunch of smaller cards is that
if a card fails, you don't lose as many images.
| | 00:18 | The problem with smaller cards is you've got
to swap more and you've got to carry more.
| | 00:21 | If you are going to be event shooting and things
like that, smaller cards don't make so much sense.
| | 00:26 | Also along with capacity, you're going to be
seeing speed ratings, and there are a number
| | 00:30 | of different speed ratings. Older cards will
simply have a multiplication factor. Newer
| | 00:35 | cards will probably have a bit rate.
| | 00:38 | If you're looking at SD cards, there will be a
class number, which is a single-digit number.
| | 00:43 | In all these cases higher is faster and that
means that images will transfer more quickly.
| | 00:48 | How fast you actually need? When you're
looking you'll see that well, here is a really fast
| | 00:52 | card, but it's going to be much
more expensive than a slower card.
| | 00:55 | Do you need the fastest card? Not necessarily.
| | 00:58 | If you're shooting video, a faster card makes
a big difference, but to a still shooter what
| | 01:02 | difference does speed make when
we're only shooting one image at a time?
| | 01:06 | Well the fact is, we often don't
just shoot one image at a time.
| | 01:08 | If you tend to shoot bursts of images,
the buffer in your camera will fill up and you
| | 01:13 | won't be able to shoot again until that
buffer is emptied. How quickly that buffer empties
| | 01:18 | is partly dependent upon
the speed of your card.
| | 01:20 | So if you're going into a situation or if
your normal style of shooting is that you
| | 01:24 | tend to shoot bursts and you want to shoot
lots of bursts in quick succession, then you
| | 01:28 | should get a faster card.
| | 01:30 | If you don't even know how to turn burst mode
on on your camera, then a faster card probably
| | 01:34 | isn't going to matter to you.
| | 01:35 | If you're tend to be more conservative in
your shooting and you shoot single frames
| | 01:40 | here and there, then you're going to be able
to get away with a less expensive slower card.
| | 01:44 | If you want, you can mix it up.
| | 01:46 | Get some fast cards. Get some slow cards. Overall
you'll spend less money than getting all fast cards.
| | 01:51 | If you're going into a situation where you
know you need lots of fast burst shooting,
| | 01:55 | then drop one of the
faster cards into your camera.
| | 01:58 | That way you can have a mix of performance
capabilities without breaking the bank and
| | 02:02 | you can save your money for some other gear.
| | 02:07 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
2. Hardware and Software ConsiderationsStoring your photos| 00:00 | I remember seeing this
picture when I was a kid.
| | 00:03 | He was a National Geographic photographer and he was
getting ready to go on an assignment down the Amazon.
| | 00:07 | So he had this big metal canoe and he was
filling it with all the stuff that he needed,
| | 00:11 | so he had his tent and his sleeping bag and
he had his off and he had his on and he had
| | 00:15 | his camera, but mostly the canoe was just
filled from one side to the other with film,
| | 00:22 | lots and lots of films, because he
was going to be on the river for ever.
| | 00:27 | We have it so much easier now.
| | 00:29 | Our storage is small. It can
hold tons and tons of pictures.
| | 00:32 | Nevertheless, if you are going to be on the
road for a while, you need to think about
| | 00:36 | a storage strategy.
| | 00:37 | Where are you going to put all of your
pictures as you take them, how much is it going to
| | 00:40 | cost you, and are you
worried about redundancy?
| | 00:44 | Now one of the simplest ways to handle your
storage concerns when you travel is simply
| | 00:48 | to take a lot of storage cards.
| | 00:51 | If you have a camera that uses SD cards,
take a bunch of SDs; if you use compact flash,
| | 00:56 | take a bunch of compact flashes.
| | 00:57 | If you are carrying maybe an SLR that uses
compact flash and a point-and-shoot that uses
| | 01:03 | SD, that's fine; take some of both.
| | 01:05 | This is possibly the smallest, most
efficient way to manage your images.
| | 01:10 | It's also probably the least cost-
effective in terms of price per megabyte.
| | 01:14 | There are a lot of different strategies
about what size cards you should use.
| | 01:18 | Some people think that you should use lots
of smaller cards so that you don't have all
| | 01:22 | of your eggs in one basket.
| | 01:23 | If a card fails, you don't lose that much.
| | 01:26 | Other people think that you should just
carry larger cards because chance of failure is
| | 01:30 | very small, and then you don't have to carry as many
cards, and you can carry lots of storage that way.
| | 01:35 | I'm starting to err on that side more and more.
| | 01:37 | I rarely if ever have card failure, and so
I'm starting to carry larger cards with me
| | 01:43 | with the idea that I can simply not worry
about any other storage solutions and just
| | 01:48 | pack a whole bunch of the
appropriate kind of cards.
| | 01:51 | I really like these little Lowepro card carriers,
both because they're sturdy and they are impact
| | 01:56 | resistant. They are not waterproof or anything,
but you can carry them in a dry bag if you
| | 01:59 | are going to be in that kind of situation.
| | 02:01 | And they hold a lot, and as I shoot a card
and fill it up, I can just turn it over in
| | 02:06 | here and know which cards are
used and which are still available.
| | 02:11 | So this is one way to go: just buy
yourself a bunch of storage and take it with you.
| | 02:14 | Now as I said this--there is a
question of redundancy when you're traveling.
| | 02:18 | We're going to talk about
that a little bit later.
| | 02:21 | This is not a real redundant solution.
| | 02:23 | If you're taking a computer with you, you can
just be dumping your cards to your computer.
| | 02:27 | Now, depending on how much storage you have on
your computer you may want to take an external
| | 02:31 | hard drive with you.
| | 02:32 | That gives you more storage or the
possibility of making an extra copy.
| | 02:36 | This is just a simple USB drive.
| | 02:39 | It's a USB2 drive.
| | 02:41 | You can also get USB3 drives which
are backwards compatible with the USB2.
| | 02:44 | What's nice about these is they are bus-powered,
meaning they are actually powered by the computer.
| | 02:48 | I don't need to carry an extra power supply,
an extra power brick, or anything like that.
| | 02:53 | All I need is the appropriate cable to get from
here into my computer, and that's just a USB cable.
| | 02:59 | Now USB cables come in lots
of different shapes and sizes.
| | 03:02 | You want to be sure you get the kind that's
got the computer end on one end and the right
| | 03:07 | small USB connection on the other.
| | 03:09 | At this point now you're going to be
finding drives with three possible connections:
| | 03:13 | one that looks like this, one that is the
small USB and then one that's the smaller
| | 03:18 | USB. You've just got to be sure
you have the right ones.
| | 03:21 | And before you go, you want to see if you're
taking multiple hard drives, if they need
| | 03:26 | separate cables, in which case you are
going to have to carry a mess of cables.
| | 03:29 | I really like these
little zip retractable cables.
| | 03:33 | You can get these in a lot of formats.
| | 03:34 | This is actually a USB extension cord, which
can be handy if you need to get your drives
| | 03:40 | or other USB gear further from your computer.
| | 03:42 | So, this is another option.
| | 03:45 | A variant of this, if you're going to be in a
really rough situation, maybe backcountry,
| | 03:51 | maybe you are backpacking, maybe you are
going on Safari and you know you are going
| | 03:55 | to be in a rough vehicle, would be to buy
your own enclosure, your own external hard
| | 03:59 | drive enclosure and put a
solid-state drive in it.
| | 04:02 | Solid-state drives are expensive.
| | 04:04 | They don't hold as much,
but they're really durable.
| | 04:06 | You are not going to have a drive crash
from impact with a solid-state drive.
| | 04:11 | Another option if you're not taking a computer, or
even if you are, is to simply take optical media.
| | 04:19 | Blank DVDs, blank CDs, you can take your
images, burn them off to DVD and either carry the
| | 04:24 | discs or go ahead and mail them home
so that they're out of your hands.
| | 04:28 | This can be a way of offloading things or
shipping things offsite if you do fear that
| | 04:32 | you're may be going on that trip down the
Amazon and you could lose all your stuff in
| | 04:36 | the river or something.
| | 04:37 | This would be a way of getting some
images out for safekeeping. Discs are cheap.
| | 04:41 | They are a good solution if you don't have a
computer with you and you are going to be
| | 04:45 | staying in a hotel where
there might be a computer lab.
| | 04:47 | And nowadays, around the world in my
experience, most hotels have a computer setting in the
| | 04:54 | lobby that is free for you to use,
and these days most computers have burners.
| | 04:58 | You might want to check ahead before you rely on
this as your sole way of offloading your images.
| | 05:03 | I would not say that this is a great primary
storage medium; it's a good backup, again,
| | 05:08 | if you want to get things off site or just
have another place to put some images while
| | 05:12 | you are on the road.
| | 05:14 | Another option if you don't want to take a
computer and you don't want to take lots of
| | 05:18 | cards, because you think you're going to shoot
so much that carrying lots of cards just isn't
| | 05:24 | cost effective, is to go with these
little digital wallet-type devices.
| | 05:29 | These are both hard drives.
| | 05:30 | They are just the same type of hard drive that
we saw in this drive earlier. The difference
| | 05:35 | is that these have card
readers built into them.
| | 05:38 | On this one you can see there's a CF Reader
right here and there is a slot over here that
| | 05:43 | can do SD or Sony Memory
Sticks and some other formats.
| | 05:47 | And I can put a card in here, press a button, and the
card will actually just transfer right onto the drive.
| | 05:53 | You can get these in various capacities.
| | 05:54 | I think this is a 500 GB drive right now, so
that's a lot of storage of the lot of cards
| | 05:58 | that I can shove in here.
| | 06:01 | This is a variant but that has
the extra feature of a screen on it,
| | 06:06 | an actual little color LCD that lets me
view my images after they go on here.
| | 06:10 | It knows how to read a lot of raw formats; it
can certainly read JPEGs and TIFFs and so on.
| | 06:14 | So I can put my images and
actually review them on here.
| | 06:17 | A lot of people prefer a device like this
with a screen because on a device like this
| | 06:22 | you put your card in, you have to transfer a
button, it goes, and when it's done you just
| | 06:26 | have to take your word for it
that it actually copied your images.
| | 06:29 | I have never had a failure with one of these.
| | 06:32 | One way around your concern about
effectiveness of this device is to carry two of them; then
| | 06:37 | you've got redundancy.
| | 06:38 | Put the same card in both, the odds of
both of these drives failing is very small.
| | 06:43 | The odds of a failure--of a file
being bad on both drives is very small.
| | 06:47 | A nice thing about these HyperDrive
gizmos is that they also work with the iPad.
| | 06:53 | I can transfer images into this and later plug
this into an iPad and get images off of it.
| | 06:59 | I can also store movies and things like that
that I might want to watch on my iPad later.
| | 07:03 | So if you are going to use an iPad-based
workflow on your trip, which we'll talk about later,
| | 07:07 | this can be a good solution.
| | 07:09 | These devices, like this other drive that I
was looking at earlier, come in a kind of kit
| | 07:14 | form, where you can get just the
enclosure and put your own drive in it.
| | 07:18 | So if you've already got a drive lying
around, that can be very cost effective.
| | 07:21 | If you want to use a solid-state drive, you can.
| | 07:25 | These are very good options for times when
you don't want to take a computer with you.
| | 07:29 | They are powered by just regular AC power.
| | 07:33 | And this is probably not something that you
want to take with you, but it's something
| | 07:36 | you should really have at home,
and that's a good label maker.
| | 07:39 | This is just a basic digital label maker.
| | 07:41 | I keep all of my little power things labeled,
because I have often enough plugged them into
| | 07:46 | the wrong device and blown it up.
| | 07:48 | This makes packing faster. It makes it
easier to get the right thing, when you need it.
| | 07:52 | They are cheap. It's a really easy way to go.
| | 07:56 | Now getting back to that question of redundancy,
so I've maybe decided to go with a card-only solution.
| | 08:03 | I've shopped these cards up and I put
them here and now these are my only copies.
| | 08:07 | If something happens to them it's over.
| | 08:09 | A lot of people panic over that and they think well no,
no, no, I am supposed to have another copy somewhere.
| | 08:14 | The National Geographic guy in the canoe only
ever had one copy of his film and film's a
| | 08:19 | pretty volatile medium.
| | 08:20 | The only reason we worry about redundancy
nowadays is because we have the option.
| | 08:24 | And certainly it's a good option to have,
and if you're shooting for money, it's great
| | 08:28 | to be able to make things redundant.
| | 08:29 | I'm not always so picky about that.
| | 08:31 | I very often will have a computer with me.
| | 08:34 | I'll back things up as I go.
I'll try and keep two copies.
| | 08:37 | But if you're trying to travel really, really,
really light, don't get so hung up on that
| | 08:40 | that you carry extra pounds of
gear just trying to get redundancy.
| | 08:44 | You can try to be careful with your media.
Make sure it doesn't suffer a static shock,
| | 08:48 | make sure that it stays in a waterproof bag
when you're traveling, and so on so forth,
| | 08:53 | and you can minimize some
of that redundant risk.
| | 08:55 | So, those are just a few strategies for what to do
with all of those images that you are shooting.
| | 09:00 | Next, we need to figure out what you want in
the way of computer and how you are going
| | 09:03 | to power all this stuff.
| | 09:08 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| What kind of computer is appropriate?| 00:00 | In addition to all of your camera gear, you
may want to take a computer of some kind,
| | 00:04 | and these days you've got a lot of options.
| | 00:07 | The tricky thing about the whole computer
question, though, is that you use the computer
| | 00:10 | for more than just your kind
of digital darkroom things.
| | 00:13 | When you're traveling, you might also want a
device that lets you send email or browse
| | 00:17 | the web. It can be a really valuable resource for
trip planning on the road and that sort of thing.
| | 00:22 | So, what you should take in the way of computer
is a little bit of a tricky question, because
| | 00:27 | you've got to think of all the things that you might want
to use it for, not just your photography applications.
| | 00:34 | So of course the first thing you could
do is take a laptop computer of some kind.
| | 00:38 | This is certainly the most versatile option.
| | 00:40 | It gives you a lot of
storage for offloading images.
| | 00:43 | It lets you run possibly the image editing
software that you're used to using all the time anyway.
| | 00:48 | So for example, I can run a full version of
Photoshop on this computer and have all the
| | 00:52 | image-editing power that I want, including all the
plug-ins that I might use, and that sort of thing.
| | 00:56 | It also gives me web browsing.
| | 00:58 | It gives me email. I can manage my iPod.
| | 01:00 | I can watch movies on it.
So this is a really versatile option.
| | 01:04 | The downside to this is even though this is
a very small, light computer, it's still an
| | 01:09 | extra 3 or 4 pounds that I have got to carry.
| | 01:11 | It takes up some space,
and it's possibly a little fragile.
| | 01:17 | This has to go in a very particular kind of
bag, and I want to be careful about what I
| | 01:20 | put on top of it and that sort of thing.
| | 01:22 | So there are some trade-offs here
for taking this amount of power.
| | 01:27 | We are now in the era of the tablet of course, and
what's great about a tablet is it's really indestructible.
| | 01:33 | It's not going to flex.
| | 01:34 | There is no keyboard that's going
to get dirty and that kind of thing.
| | 01:37 | The downside to a tablet
is storage is limited.
| | 01:39 | I'm not going to probably going to use this for
offloading images, unless I'm shooting in JEPG mode.
| | 01:44 | I do get web browsing. I do get email.
| | 01:46 | I do possibly get movies and music and all that
other stuff, but I don't get the image-editing
| | 01:51 | software that I'm used to using.
| | 01:53 | Now there are--this is
an Apple iPad of course--
| | 01:55 | there are some great image
editing applications out there.
| | 01:58 | They all have their trade-offs compared
to full desktop image editing software.
| | 02:03 | If I don't need to do a lot of editing on
the road then a tablet may be a good way to
| | 02:07 | go. It doesn't take up as much space.
| | 02:09 | It's lighter, but it still gets me the other
applications that I might want, computer
| | 02:14 | applications, the other navigation and
web surfing and that kind of thing.
| | 02:19 | This is another computer option.
| | 02:21 | This is an inexpensive netbook computer.
| | 02:24 | This only weighs a few pounds.
| | 02:26 | It's a very small.
| | 02:27 | It's very light and only cost $200 or $300.
| | 02:30 | What I like about the netbooks are they--
they don't cost very much, they don't weigh very
| | 02:36 | much, and if I drop it in a
river, I'm not out that much money.
| | 02:39 | This is a small Dell mini-netbook and one
nice thing about it is it can be made to run
| | 02:46 | the Mac operating system.
| | 02:47 | It's a violation of your license agreement,
but if you're a Mac user, this is a nice way
| | 02:51 | of getting an inexpensive, really
small Mac that you can take with you.
| | 02:56 | If you're taking a smartphone with you,
you've got email and web and all that other stuff
| | 03:01 | that you may want.
| | 03:02 | You've even got a camera and some
image editing software if you want.
| | 03:06 | Is this a full computer replacement? Well, it
gets kind of tedious typing with your thumbs
| | 03:10 | if you need to send a bunch of email,
but you can take a keyboard with you.
| | 03:14 | Really, the way to go for a
keyboard is something like this.
| | 03:16 | This is a Bluetooth keyboard.
| | 03:17 | This is like my little James Bond keyboard.
| | 03:19 | It folds out and I have this full-sized
keyboard and I can just stick my phone on right there.
| | 03:24 | It's a Bluetooth connection.
| | 03:25 | I can type email just as if I'm
sitting on a normal computer.
| | 03:28 | This thing will also work with the iPad.
| | 03:30 | So, if you really want to travel light,
this is a nice way to go. It doesn't get me a lot
| | 03:34 | of photo capability, but it maybe gets me the other
things that I was going to take a computer for.
| | 03:39 | So those are the issues that you
need to weigh and think about.
| | 03:42 | There are some trade-offs to each of these
and to get to the bottom of what the right
| | 03:45 | choice is, you first need to identify how much
photo editing do I want and what other applications
| | 03:51 | do I need to be able to run?
| | 03:56 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Handy miscellaneous gear| 00:00 | Obviously there are a lot of other things
that you probably need to take with you on
| | 00:04 | a long trip, like clothing, things like that.
| | 00:07 | There are some little odds and ends and little bits
of miscellaneous gears that can be helpful too.
| | 00:11 | Now, some of these are photography-related,
and some of these are things that you might
| | 00:14 | you consider because they just work well with
other gears that you have with you and they
| | 00:18 | are nice to have around.
| | 00:19 | You're going to need a card reader if you're
taking a computer or a tablet or some other device.
| | 00:24 | The main thing is to we bear in mind that
you've got a card reader that supports all
| | 00:28 | of the formats that you have with you.
| | 00:29 | So if you're taking an SLR and point-and-
shoot you may have different formats.
| | 00:32 | Now your laptop computer may already
have, say, an SD card reader in it.
| | 00:36 | If you're also carrying an SLR that uses
compact flash, then you'll want a CF reader.
| | 00:42 | You used to need to worry about the speed
of card readers, but these days they're all
| | 00:46 | pretty much speedy USB2.0 readers.
| | 00:48 | If you're using an older
reader. you may want to update.
| | 00:51 | It's nice having these multifunction readers
just because if you change cameras at some
| | 00:55 | place along the line,
you know you've got a reader for it.
| | 00:59 | And obviously you need the
cable that goes with it.
| | 01:02 | If you are working with a tablet, like the
iPad, then you need a special camera connection
| | 01:06 | kit for that, and that's available from Apple.
| | 01:08 | Just look into that. They're easy to find
in any place that sells iPad accessories.
| | 01:12 | If you're taking an SLR, then you need to
think about the possibility of a dirty sensor.
| | 01:17 | A dirty sensor can leave spots in your images,
smudges in your images, things like that.
| | 01:23 | Sensor cleaning as beyond the scope of this
course. You can learn more about it in my
| | 01:26 | landscape photography course,
Photoshop CS5 for Landscape Photographers.
| | 01:30 | Typically sensor cleaning involves a few
different tools: a blower and special sensor cleaning
| | 01:36 | brushes and equipment.
| | 01:37 | This is one of the visible dust selections.
| | 01:39 | I really like their gear.
| | 01:41 | It's small, it's very light and
it's easy enough to take with you.
| | 01:46 | It's especially important to take this if
you think you're going somewhere that's going
| | 01:49 | to be prone to sensor dust.
| | 01:50 | If you're going to be in the desert a lot,
if you're doing wilderness shooting, then
| | 01:53 | you may want to think about
some sensor-cleaning gear.
| | 01:57 | Now, some of this stuff, again, as I
said, is not directly photo-related.
| | 02:02 | If you're planning some night
shooting, a headlamp can be indispensable.
| | 02:05 | Yes your camera may have a lighted display
of some kind, but you still need to be able
| | 02:09 | to see the buttons and the levers on
your tripod and that kind of thing.
| | 02:12 | So a good headlamp is a very good tool.
| | 02:14 | If you're carrying a lot of external drives and
other devices, a little USB hub can be really handy.
| | 02:20 | I really like these. This is the Dr. Bott T3.
| | 02:23 | So this plugs in to my computer and
on this end I've got three USB ports.
| | 02:28 | Now this not a powered hub, so it's not
going to be able to run necessarily all of your
| | 02:33 | devices that take USB power, but for getting
in a hard drive and say a card reader, this
| | 02:39 | can be a really easy way of managing a lot
of devices in your computer at one time.
| | 02:44 | If you're taking an iPhone or an iPad with
you and you've loaded up with movies and you've
| | 02:48 | been watching them on those little screens
| | 02:50 | but you're in a hotel room,
it has a nice big TV in it,
| | 02:52 | you might want to consider
having one of these handy.
| | 02:54 | I plug this into my iPhone or iPad and these things
into the TV and I can watch my movie on the TV.
| | 03:01 | There is also an HDMI version of this.
| | 03:04 | This doesn't take up a lot of space;
it's a handy thing to have around
| | 03:06 | if you've got movies on one of those devices and
you know you're going to be in a hotel room.
| | 03:11 | Now this may sound a little strange, but I
never go anywhere without a photo printer,
| | 03:15 | and here's one now.
| | 03:16 | This is a nice little, tiny 2 x 3 inch printer.
| | 03:20 | It prints on these little bits
of special Polaroid Zink paper.
| | 03:24 | It's not actually made out of zinc.
| | 03:26 | That's just a little name for it.
| | 03:27 | 2×3 inches, peel-off back, so these are actually
stickers if you want them to be. The print quality is so-so,
| | 03:33 | but it's pretty fun to be sitting out in
the middle of nowhere and cranking out little
| | 03:36 | prints and you can stick them on
postcards and things and mail them off.
| | 03:39 | It attaches via USB to your computer.
| | 03:43 | With some phones you can use a Bluetooth connection
and print directly from the phone to the computer,
| | 03:47 | so that's pretty fun.
| | 03:49 | Again, if you've got an iPod or an iPad with
you, if you got a friend with you, you may
| | 03:53 | want to think about one of these:
this is a headphone splitter.
| | 03:56 | You could both listen this is great if
you're stuck on an airplane together.
| | 03:59 | If you're going to rent a car, most rental
cars nowadays have an auxiliary input to their
| | 04:05 | stereo and there may be a little mini-plug
somewhere that you can plug your device into,
| | 04:10 | so I always take a mini-to-mini cable with me.
| | 04:13 | And when I get in a rental car I can dig around.
Sometimes they're hidden in the little compartment
| | 04:17 | and that's between the seats.
| | 04:18 | Look for one, and then you can plug your phone, or
your iPad, iPad, or you're iPod into the car stereo.
| | 04:25 | Again if you're traveling with an iPod and
you want to be able to hear your music or
| | 04:28 | any other kind of small mp3
player, this is an iMainGo.
| | 04:32 | That's I-M-A-I-N-G-O, a set of
speakers. I really like these speakers.
| | 04:38 | They sound great, they're rechargeable,
they don't take up much space, and you can just
| | 04:41 | stick the iPod right in the back
there, or whatever mp3 player you use.
| | 04:45 | Very good sound and
they're not that expensive.
| | 04:47 | These are only 40 or 50 bucks, so if they end
up getting crushed or mangled or destroyed,
| | 04:51 | you're not out too much money.
| | 04:52 | Finally, you've got to have a
place to put all of this stuff.
| | 04:55 | I use this little Eagle Creek bags. I think
they are very flexible and I can cram a lot
| | 05:00 | of stuff into them and I can carry a
lot of them inside of a bigger bag.
| | 05:04 | They stretch pretty well. You just get
your stuff in there and zip it all up.
| | 05:08 | It's really worth having some kind of smaller
management inside your larger bag, particularly
| | 05:12 | when you're in a hurry.
| | 05:13 | If you're trying to get to a piece of gear to
get a shot in a scene that's unfolding quickly,
| | 05:17 | it's good to have your
stuff as organized as possible.
| | 05:19 | So those are just some extra little bits
that may want to throw in, depending on how much
| | 05:23 | you're willing to carry.
| | 05:25 | One great thing about this category of stuff
is as your gears get too heavy, this is where
| | 05:29 | you start jettisoning things.
| | 05:30 | You go, I don't need sensor cleaning, I
don't need the speakers, and so on and so forth.
| | 05:34 | Next problem is how do you power all this
stuff, and we're going to talk about that in
| | 05:37 | the next lesson.
| | 05:42 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Powering your gear| 00:00 | I want to talk to you about how you can get
more power for your gear when you're traveling
| | 00:05 | because it's an issue; when your batteries
die, you need a way to recharge them.
| | 00:09 | So there are a lot of options depending on
what kind of trip you're going to be on and
| | 00:13 | what kind of access you're going to
have to outlets to plug stuff into.
| | 00:16 | One of your big concerns of
course is keeping your camera charged.
| | 00:19 | Now one of the great things about SLR
batteries these days is they last forever.
| | 00:24 | Even a lot of point-and-shoot
batteries will last a long time.
| | 00:26 | Nevertheless, if you're going to be gone
more than a few days, you probably need
| | 00:29 | to think about what's going to
happen when your battery dies.
| | 00:32 | Now you can carry multiple batteries, charge them
up at home, and that's often a very good solution
| | 00:37 | if you're wanting to keep weight down and
you're not going to be gone for too long.
| | 00:41 | Remember though that batteries do wear out.
| | 00:43 | They lose both their shelf life and
their--the duration of their charge.
| | 00:47 | So if you're really going to go for a long
time, you might want to spring for some new,
| | 00:51 | fresh batteries for your camera.
| | 00:53 | You can of course buy batteries from your
camera vendor and your camera vendor will
| | 00:57 | tell you that if you use third-party batteries,
there's a good chance you'll damage your camera.
| | 01:02 | Third-party batteries, though, are much cheaper,
and I've never had any problem with them.
| | 01:08 | I've used a lot of third-party batteries.
| | 01:10 | I just find them on Amazon, read the
user reviews, and I've never had an issue.
| | 01:14 | I've not damage the camera.
| | 01:15 | So that's something to consider.
| | 01:16 | Nevertheless, if you're cautious and you
absolutely want the best performance, go with your camera
| | 01:20 | manufacturer's batteries.
| | 01:22 | This is a battery charger that
I use for my Canon 5D Mark II.
| | 01:26 | It is not a Canon one; I got this one third
party and I decided to go with this for a
| | 01:30 | couple of reasons.
It's got some really cool features.
| | 01:32 | First of all, the actual plate
where the battery goes comes off.
| | 01:37 | So if you're lucky and you have the right
configuration of cameras, you can carry this
| | 01:41 | one thing and a couple of different plates,
if you're carrying multiple cameras, and just
| | 01:45 | snap the right one onto
charge whatever battery you want.
| | 01:48 | So that's very convenient.
| | 01:48 | Another thing is it's got a jack here for
plugging in an included car cigarette lighter adapter.
| | 01:55 | The best thing is this is only like $20.
| | 01:57 | It's very lightweight and again, it's
so cheap if something happens to it,
| | 02:00 | it's easily replaceable.
| | 02:02 | No matter what gear you're taking, you want
to be sure that the power adapter or battery
| | 02:07 | charger for it will work with the voltage of
whatever country you're going to, if you're
| | 02:12 | going to a different country.
| | 02:13 | It's very easy to tell. On the back, there
will be a section that says Input and here
| | 02:17 | it says 100V-240V, 50 or 60/Mhz.
| | 02:21 | That pretty much means this
is going to work anywhere.
| | 02:24 | The good news is these days, most
power adapters and chargers are like that.
| | 02:28 | Nevertheless, you'll want to check out yours.
| | 02:31 | If yours doesn't look like it's going to work
in the country you're going to, you may want
| | 02:34 | to get ideally a cheap third-party one that
will, rather than having to take a transformer,
| | 02:39 | which is going to heavier and yet
another piece of gear to carry.
| | 02:43 | So that'll take care of
your camera, or cameras.
| | 02:46 | And next, there's your
computer, if you're taking one.
| | 02:50 | Again, this should--most computer power
supplies are switching power supplies; that means they
| | 02:54 | will switch to the voltage
of whatever country you're.
| | 02:57 | Some power supplies, like this Apple one,
you can actually pop the--this is where
| | 03:02 | it plugs into the outlet--you can actually
pop this off and put different connectors in.
| | 03:07 | So I can take the one that's appropriate for the
country I'm going to and just stick that in there.
| | 03:12 | That keeps me from having
to carry plug adapters.
| | 03:14 | Now for this other stuff, of course, I'm
going to need plug adapters anyway, so maybe it's
| | 03:17 | not worth it. Just take a bunch of
plug adapters and then you're okay.
| | 03:20 | Remember, there's a difference between an
adapter that simply plugs the thing into the
| | 03:24 | wall and something that
actually transforms the power.
| | 03:27 | With the switching power
supplies, all I need are adapters.
| | 03:31 | Now, you might be carrying a lot of gizmos
that are charged up by plugging a little thing
| | 03:36 | like this into the wall and then sticking
in a USB cable that goes to your device.
| | 03:41 | Your phone might work this way.
| | 03:43 | Your MP3 player might work this way.
| | 03:45 | Your tablet might work this way.
| | 03:47 | If you've got a bunch of those, it can be a
drag when you're in a hotel room to figure
| | 03:50 | out where to plug everything in, because
invariably, they put the outlets behind the bed or behind
| | 03:54 | the TV or something like that, and you
end having to rearrange the furniture.
| | 03:58 | I used to say "carry a power strip with you."
| | 04:00 | The problem is power strips are very rarely
switching power supplies, and so it's difficult
| | 04:05 | to find one that will work
under lots of voltages.
| | 04:08 | I've blown up lots of power
strips in lots of hotel rooms.
| | 04:11 | They're also big and heavy.
| | 04:12 | And these days, there's another option.
| | 04:14 | If mostly what you're going to be doing is
plugging in these USB-based devices, then
| | 04:18 | get one of these things.
| | 04:19 | It plugs into the wall just as normal, but on
the other end, it's got a bunch of USB ports.
| | 04:24 | This is like a power strip for
USB devices. It's very small.
| | 04:27 | It's very lightweight.
I can get four of them in here.
| | 04:30 | Now one of the things about these USB chargers,
whatever kind you're using, is they will deliver
| | 04:35 | different voltages.
| | 04:37 | You probably aren't going to damage any
equipment by plugging things into the wrong one, but
| | 04:40 | it will affect your charging time.
| | 04:42 | For example, if I take my iPad, which has a
5V charger, and plug it into a smaller charger
| | 04:47 | like the one for my iPhone, it's going
to take the iPad a long time to charge.
| | 04:50 | Maybe that matters to you, maybe it doesn't.
| | 04:52 | I tend to just go ahead and use the iPhone
one because it's better than carrying a bunch
| | 04:55 | of adapters around.
| | 04:56 | Nevertheless, this is a really handy way
of charging multiple USB-based devices.
| | 05:02 | If you're taking flashes, radio remote
controls for your flashes, anything else that uses
| | 05:09 | batteries, AA batteries or AAA batteries,
I would really recommend going with rechargeables.
| | 05:14 | They last longer. You can
recharge them on your own.
| | 05:17 | Now there are a number of different
kinds of rechargeable batteries these days.
| | 05:20 | Pretty much the only ones you need to think
about are nickel-metal hydride or something
| | 05:25 | that are called LD nickel-metal
hydride, meaning low-discharge.
| | 05:31 | They last longer and they
typically come charged up already.
| | 05:34 | I really like these Eneloop ready-to-use
rechargeable batteries is what they're called.
| | 05:39 | Now there's a trade-off
between those two different kinds.
| | 05:41 | Regular nickel-metal hydride batteries will
hold more of a charge; they'll last longer.
| | 05:45 | The problem is they don't hold the charge
for very long and I never remember to recharge
| | 05:49 | my batteries until I'm
ready to run out the door.
| | 05:52 | So I'm willing to sacrifice a little bit of that extra
capacity for a battery that's going to last longer.
| | 05:58 | If you're going to be on the road a long time,
it's nice to have the longer-lasting batteries
| | 06:02 | also because you can charge them up at home,
carry a big bag full of them, and a month
| | 06:05 | later know that they're going to be okay.
| | 06:07 | I really like this charger.
| | 06:08 | This is the La Crosse Technology charger.
| | 06:10 | They make several different ones.
This is the BC1000.
| | 06:13 | A few things I like about this charger.
| | 06:15 | It's not that expensive. It's very
careful about not overheating itself.
| | 06:19 | That can damage batteries.
| | 06:21 | It can lower their capacity.
| | 06:22 | It can ultimately wear them out.
| | 06:24 | It's also got a couple of different functions.
| | 06:25 | It can test batteries so that I don't waste time
charging batteries that have stopped working.
| | 06:30 | It can also recondition a battery, which is--it
will automatically drain it and recharge it.
| | 06:35 | Now, rechargeable batteries come in different
capacities that you will see written on it somewhere.
| | 06:43 | Here we go, milliamp hours. That's--I don't know if you can
see this on there. That's mAh.
| | 06:48 | This is a 1,900 milliamp hour battery.
| | 06:51 | The higher the number, the faster the battery can
be charged, if you have a charger that can do it.
| | 06:57 | This charger can charge
at three different speeds.
| | 06:59 | You can even get chargers
that'll charge faster.
| | 07:01 | You can get some chargers that'll
charge these things up in 15 minutes.
| | 07:04 | They tend to get very hot and so you
risk some battery life when you do that.
| | 07:08 | Nevertheless, rechargeable batteries are really
great tool, particularly if you're a flash shooter.
| | 07:13 | Now all of these things we've looked at so
far are contingent on you having an outlet
| | 07:17 | in a wall to plug them into.
| | 07:19 | So if you know you're going to be staying
in hotels--even if you're not going to stay
| | 07:22 | in hotels all the time, if you're going to
only be in a hotel once a week--maybe that's
| | 07:27 | enough to recharge all your stuff.
| | 07:30 | If you know you've got a week's worth of capacity,
you can just gas things up when you get into
| | 07:34 | the next hotel room.
| | 07:36 | If not, if you're not going to be in hotel
rooms that often, or you don't want to be
| | 07:39 | dependent on it, but you know you're going
to have a car, then maybe what you want to
| | 07:42 | do is opt for cigarette lighter
chargers for different things.
| | 07:46 | As I mentioned before, this camera charger
that I've got here has an option for cigarette
| | 07:51 | lighter charger, and it comes with that.
| | 07:53 | It plugs in and you plug it
right into the cigarette lighter.
| | 07:55 | You can also get these kinds of things.
| | 07:56 | This is a dedicated charger for my phone.
| | 07:59 | Plug this end to the cigarette lighter,
this end of my phone. It'll charge up.
| | 08:03 | It's kind of big and heavy and if I've got
many devices that need these, it's
| | 08:08 | kind of a drag carrying all those around.
| | 08:10 | But all of these devices that I'm talking
about can be charged again off of a USB connector.
| | 08:14 | So I really like this little thing.
| | 08:15 | This is made by Griffin.
| | 08:16 | This plugs into the cigarette lighter socket
and actually it fits flush with it so that
| | 08:21 | the cigarette lighter socket
just becomes two USB ports.
| | 08:24 | And then I can just plug my USB devices
in there and charge them up in the car.
| | 08:28 | If you're trying to charge something and you
don't have a cigarette lighter adapter for
| | 08:33 | it and you can't one or one is not available,
you might consider a transformer like this.
| | 08:38 | I plug this into the cigarette lighter, and then
I've got just a regular power outlet right there.
| | 08:43 | This is a good way of charging up computers and
other things that you may not have a cigarette
| | 08:48 | lighter adapter for or that cigarette
lighter adapters are very expensive for.
| | 08:52 | So I really like these things.
| | 08:53 | This one is the CyberPower one
and I've had good results from it.
| | 08:57 | Now if you're not going to have a car,
if you're going completely off the grid, then
| | 09:02 | you may want to consider some
alternative technologies, such as solar.
| | 09:05 | I've got a few different solar chargers here, and
for the most part, they all work the same way.
| | 09:09 | There are series of solar panels, but
they have a battery built into them.
| | 09:13 | So during the day, you leave it out in the sun.
| | 09:16 | It charges up the battery, and then when you
get back to your camp or wherever you've left
| | 09:21 | them, you plug your devices
in and they can be recharged.
| | 09:25 | All of these work the same way.
| | 09:27 | They have an adapter into which you plug a
different tip, and there are lots of different
| | 09:32 | tip heads that you can
get for different devices.
| | 09:35 | All the standard cell phone devices can be
plugged into here and you can even find some
| | 09:39 | more obscure camera
devices and things like that.
| | 09:42 | This is the Freeloader Pro, which I really like
because it comes with this cool camera caddie.
| | 09:49 | This is engineered to fit
just about any camera battery.
| | 09:53 | Your camera battery fits in there and this
is spring-loaded and keeps it snug, and this
| | 09:58 | thing actually delivers enough power to
recharge most DSLR batteries that you'll ever find.
| | 10:03 | One thing about solar chargers is
they take a long time to charge.
| | 10:07 | It's nine or ten hours in direct sunlight
to get this thing completely gassed up.
| | 10:11 | What's nice about it is it will charge a
device in only a couple hours, so they're
| | 10:14 | pretty quick to get rid of their power.
| | 10:17 | But you've got to have full sun for that.
| | 10:18 | In partial sun, it's going to take longer
to get any power out of them, and they don't
| | 10:22 | necessarily maintain enough level current
output to get your battery charged up completely.
| | 10:29 | And these nickel-metal hydride batteries,
sometimes that last 10% can be a little bit difficult.
| | 10:34 | That's still not a deal-breaker.
| | 10:35 | If I can get my camera battery half-charged,
it'll give me a couple of days of shooting
| | 10:39 | and I can just keep charging it up a little bit
at the end of every day with my solar charger.
| | 10:43 | So these are very nice.
They're lightweight.
| | 10:44 | They're very easily backpackable.
| | 10:46 | I take them on my motorcycle all
the time. They work really well.
| | 10:50 | One new technology that I don't have here
because at the time of this shooting, it's--
| | 10:54 | there are people talking about it and trying
to raise money for it and I'm seeing prototypes,
| | 10:58 | but they're not actually out yet.
| | 10:59 | They are kinetic chargers.
| | 11:01 | These are little things that you just put
in your bag and as you're walking around,
| | 11:04 | the movement of your walking rocks them
around and they charge up a battery, and then at
| | 11:09 | the end of the day, you can, just like these
charters, discharge that into whatever your device is.
| | 11:15 | So keep an eye out for those.
| | 11:16 | They're not on the market yet, but I think they're
going to be kind of a thing once they hit.
| | 11:20 | So these are a lot of different options.
| | 11:22 | Which one is right for you is going to depend
on what kind of trip you're taking and what
| | 11:26 | access you're going to have to regular power.
Either you know you're going to be able to
| | 11:29 | plug in and you just take the appropriate
adapters to get everything charged or you're
| | 11:33 | going completely off the grid and you
might want to go with something like solar.
| | 11:37 | Whatever you use, just be sure you have the
right cables for them and that your voltages
| | 11:41 | are all correct and that they will work
in whatever countries you're going to.
| | 11:46 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Communications: staying in touch| 00:00 | When you're on the road, you may want to send
pictures back home, stay in touch with people;
| | 00:04 | you may have to send pictures back home if you're
working on an assignment or job of some kind.
| | 00:08 | You have a lot of different options in this
regard. As I mentioned earlier, one of the
| | 00:12 | cheapest is simply to carry blank
discs with you, blank CDs, blank DVDs.
| | 00:17 | If you've got a computer with you,
you can burn images onto these.
| | 00:20 | If not, you can try and find an Internet
cafe or may be a computer in your hotel.
| | 00:24 | Now, while blank discs offer a lot of storage
for very little money, regular mail is typically
| | 00:29 | pretty slow, so this is not a
way of getting stuff back quickly.
| | 00:33 | What's more, whoever's on the receiving end
of it has to have a computer that can read
| | 00:36 | the disc and if you're using a particular
raw format, read that, and so on and so forth.
| | 00:40 | It's a great way of offloading images if you
want to be sure that you've delivered some
| | 00:44 | images safely back home, if you're possibly
worried about having your stuff stolen or
| | 00:48 | damaged, that kind of
thing, so that's one option.
| | 00:51 | Now you may be thinking, I am just going to
do what I do at home; I'm going to find some
| | 00:54 | free Wi-Fi and connect to the net that way.
| | 00:56 | If you live in the States, you're use to the
fact that Internet access is not metered.
| | 01:01 | We don't pay by the megabyte; therefore a lot of
people are willing to give away their Wi-Fi for free.
| | 01:07 | In most of the rest of the world people pay
per a certain amount of data transfer, so
| | 01:13 | Wi-Fi is usually locked up.
| | 01:15 | That means that you may be able to find some
free Wi-Fi in your hotel, but just walking
| | 01:19 | around hoping to find that cafe with free
Wi-Fi is pretty difficult, so that's not something
| | 01:23 | that you necessarily want to count on.
| | 01:25 | If you're really needing access while you're
on the road, you'll want to check with your
| | 01:29 | hotel ahead of time to
find out what they may offer.
| | 01:33 | If you have a 3G or 4G
phone, you have another option.
| | 01:38 | Now there are different kinds
of cellular radios in the world.
| | 01:41 | There is CDMA radios, which are what most of
the cell phones here in United States use.
| | 01:46 | The rest of the world
uses something called GSM.
| | 01:49 | Here in the states AT&T and
T-Mobile offer GSM phones.
| | 01:54 | Now what's cool about a GSM phone is that
somewhere on it there is a little door you
| | 01:58 | can open, and when you do, if you pull it out,
you find a little computer chip here. This
| | 02:04 | is called a SIM card.
| | 02:05 | This is actually a micro-SIM card.
| | 02:08 | It's smaller than a regular SIM card.
| | 02:09 | It's actually being cut
down from a regular SIM card.
| | 02:12 | On the back of it is this little computer chip.
| | 02:14 | What's cool about GSM and its SIM cards is that this
is actually my identity on the cellular network.
| | 02:20 | If I take this SIM card and stick in someone
else's GSM phone, if you call my phone number,
| | 02:24 | that new phone is the one that rings.
| | 02:27 | What's great about this is I can go to
another country, buy a local SIM card, stick it in
| | 02:32 | my phone, and suddenly I'm a local.
| | 02:34 | I've got a local phone number and I don't
have to pay international roaming rates.
| | 02:39 | As you may have already determined from your
own cell service, the one you're used to--AT&T
| | 02:44 | for example, charges a lot
for international roaming.
| | 02:47 | So buying a local card is way to really cut down
international phone calls if you're traveling,
| | 02:52 | and you will probably get data also,
and that can give you an Internet connection.
| | 02:58 | Now, there are a few caveats here.
| | 03:01 | First of all, this only works
if your phone is unlocked.
| | 03:05 | Here in the states, typically phones are
locked to a particular cell company, so if I have
| | 03:10 | an AT&T iPhone, it will only
work with an AT&T SIM card.
| | 03:15 | Many companies will let you unlock your phone.
| | 03:18 | So if I have a phone, I might be able to go
into AT&T and say or T-Mobile and say "I'm
| | 03:22 | traveling internationally. I
would like my phone unlocked."
| | 03:24 | They'll take it into the backroom, do some
things to it, bring it back out, and it will
| | 03:27 | now work with other SIM cards.
| | 03:29 | Apple doesn't allow that.
| | 03:30 | So if you have an iPhone, you have to go
through a few hoops to get the phone unlocked.
| | 03:35 | There is a process called jailbreaking.
| | 03:38 | Now, a couple of years ago the federal
government here decided that jailbreaking was legal.
| | 03:43 | And jailbreaking is a necessary
step to get your phone unlocked.
| | 03:47 | At the time of this shooting,
jailbreaking is still legal. That may change.
| | 03:52 | So if you're really worried about breaking
the law, you might want to check into that
| | 03:54 | before you unlock your phone.
| | 03:57 | Whether it's legal or not,
it absolutely voids your iPhone's warranty.
| | 04:01 | Apple will not repair a phone if it's broken and you
take it in and it's been jailbroken and unlocked.
| | 04:07 | Note that jailbreaking and
unlocking is not a one-way trip.
| | 04:09 | You can restore your phone to
its original factory settings.
| | 04:12 | So if your phone breaks, maybe you can
restore it and then take it in and get it fixed.
| | 04:16 | A couple of other caveats. When you jailbreak
your phone, you jailbreak a very particular
| | 04:21 | firmware version.
| | 04:23 | You may already know that from time to time
Apple pushes out a new version of the firmware
| | 04:26 | for the phone and that gives you
new features and things like that.
| | 04:29 | If you've jailbroken and unlocked your phone
and new firmware comes out, you don't want
| | 04:33 | to do the firmware update, because that
will undo your jailbreak and your unlock.
| | 04:37 | If you want the firmware update and you want
to stay unlocked, you have to wait till the
| | 04:41 | new version is unlocked and you have to
re-hack your phone and so on and so forth.
| | 04:45 | There's a lot of information on the web about unlocking.
There are services that will do it for you.
| | 04:49 | You may even be able to find an
unlocked phone at auction on eBay.
| | 04:53 | So those are all options for getting
your iPhone to work internationally.
| | 04:56 | Again, if you have a non-iPhone, your phone
company may very well unlock it for you or
| | 05:01 | there may be
jailbreaking-unlocking mechanisms for it.
| | 05:04 | That gets me an unlocked phone that I can
use inexpensively internationally, which means
| | 05:08 | that I can take pictures with my cell phone and
easily send them up to the web and so on so forth.
| | 05:12 | But what good does that do me with
the pictures I've taken with my camera?
| | 05:15 | Well it may be possible to tether your computer or
your tablet or another computer or tablet to your phone.
| | 05:22 | A lot of phones offer a tethering option and
basically that turns the phone into a little
| | 05:26 | Wi-Fi hot spot. Or sometimes
it works over a USB cable.
| | 05:29 | Then you attach your device to the phone and
it's basically acting like a cellular modem.
| | 05:34 | Your computer talks to the phone, the computer
talks to its cell radio, back up to the network,
| | 05:38 | and now you got Internet access through your
phone. If you've got a cheap data rate, because
| | 05:42 | you have a local SIM card,
that's a very, very viable option.
| | 05:45 | But again, it's contingent on this
jailbreaking and unlocking process, so you're going to
| | 05:49 | want to think about that and look into
the details for your particular phone.
| | 05:53 | Finally, there's satellite.
| | 05:55 | Satellite is not the kind of thing you want
to invest in if you're just interested in
| | 05:58 | updating your Facebook page
while you're on the road.
| | 06:00 | Satellite phones are expensive, satellite service
is also very expensive, and you pay it by the byte.
| | 06:05 | So, it's really only a viable
thing if you're working a paid gig.
| | 06:09 | If someone else is willing to pay for
the satellite phone, great; go for it.
| | 06:13 | Check into coverage of your satellite phone.
If you're going to the Arctic or to extreme
| | 06:19 | poles, you may need a very
particular service to get coverage.
| | 06:21 | But again, that's really only an option if
you've got someone footing the bill, because
| | 06:25 | it's a pretty expensive way to go.
| | 06:27 | So a few options there.
You can work by mail.
| | 06:29 | You can may be hack your phone and get it
working. Maybe you don't have to hack your
| | 06:33 | phone to get it working. Either way, you can
aim for those cheap phone rates and cheap
| | 06:37 | data service, or you can
go for a satellite phone.
| | 06:39 | I would also offer the suggestion that if
you're going on vacation, maybe you don't
| | 06:43 | want to mess with this.
| | 06:44 | Don't worry about staying in
touch. Relax, take some time off.
| | 06:48 | If you do need to get images back because
you're working for an editor or you've promised
| | 06:51 | someone pictures of whatever it is you're
seeing, then these are a few of the options
| | 06:54 | that you have.
| | 06:59 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
3. Camera and Computer BagsChoosing the right bags| 00:01 | So you've picked out your stuff: you've got
your camera gear, you've got your lenses,
| | 00:04 | you've got your accessories, you've got
whatever computing solution you want if you're going
| | 00:07 | to take one at all; now you
need a bag to put it all in.
| | 00:11 | Choosing a bag is not as
simple as it may seem at first.
| | 00:13 | There are a lot of different things to weigh.
| | 00:15 | You need a bag that can
carry all of your stuff.
| | 00:17 | You need a bag that's comfortable enough
for the long haul and one that allows you the
| | 00:21 | access that you need when you need
it to get to specific pieces of gear.
| | 00:27 | There are two categories of bags.
| | 00:29 | There are shooting bags; those are the bags
that you actually use when you are out shooting.
| | 00:33 | They typically are smaller.
| | 00:34 | They're the bags that you use more frequently.
They carry kind of a subset of your stuff.
| | 00:39 | Then there are luggage bags.
| | 00:40 | Those are the bags that use to get all of
your stuff, including your shooting bag, to
| | 00:44 | wherever it is you're going.
| | 00:46 | You may even need both a shooting bag and
a luggage bag or if you're real picky like
| | 00:51 | me, you may need dozens of bags.
| | 00:53 | Anyway, before you can start your bag
selection you need to know exactly what it is you're
| | 00:58 | going to be taking.
| | 00:58 | Obviously, you need to know what gear you
have before you need to know what--before you
| | 01:03 | can find out what kind of
bag you need to put it all in.
| | 01:06 | There are few different questions to ask
yourself before you start this process. First of all,
| | 01:10 | are you flying? If you are, then you need
to consider are you checking bags, are you
| | 01:16 | carrying bags on, are you
doing some combination of both?
| | 01:19 | Obviously, you don't want to check your fragile
camera and computer gear, both because it could
| | 01:24 | get damaged and it might get lost.
| | 01:27 | But you might have more
camera gear than you can carry on.
| | 01:31 | So, if that's the case, then you might need
a sturdy bag to put some of the excess in.
| | 01:34 | I typically carry as much camera and computer gear,
as well as other things, on the airplane with me.
| | 01:40 | So I've got all the stuff that I'm too
afraid to check, plus maybe my MP3 player and my
| | 01:45 | Kindle and the other stuff that
I want just during the flight.
| | 01:47 | And then all my other luggage I check.
| | 01:49 | And sometimes that includes may be some extra
flashes or batteries or things like that that
| | 01:53 | aren't such critical pieces
of gear and aren't so fragile.
| | 01:58 | You need to think about, are you
going into potentially bad weather?
| | 02:00 | Is water going to be an issue, is dust going to
be an issue, or are those not a concern at all?
| | 02:05 | You also want to think about, are you carrying
any other luggage that's going to really put
| | 02:10 | an impact on the carrying
system that you might want.
| | 02:12 | You want a backpack, you want a
shoulder bag, you want wheels.
| | 02:15 | If you've got another piece of luggage to manage,
then that may really weigh on that decision.
| | 02:20 | So, before we get started on looking at these
different bags and these two different categories
| | 02:24 | and what sits in them, I want to
offer one other piece of advice.
| | 02:27 | I hear a lot of people talking about risk.
| | 02:30 | They're afraid to take certain pieces
of equipment into certain situations.
| | 02:34 | I'll hear people say "Well, I don't
know that's a really bad crime area.
| | 02:37 | I'm not going to take my nice gear."
| | 02:39 | My attitude towards that is, any area that's
sketchy enough to put your gear at risk is
| | 02:44 | probably full of really interesting pictures.
| | 02:47 | Now, that's a very personal decision. It can
impact the bag that you're going to carry.
| | 02:52 | That's just up to you to decide.
| | 02:53 | I would argue that you probably got interested
in photography, though, because you really wanted
| | 02:57 | to see more of the world.
| | 02:59 | So, don't be too afraid to
take your gear with you.
| | 03:01 | I've traveled all over the world in some
pretty sketchy situations and never had a problem.
| | 03:05 | I also know that my gear is ensured, so that's
something else you want to maybe check into before you go.
| | 03:09 | Check your renters insurance or homeowner's
policy or something and see if it covers your
| | 03:14 | camera gear and other computer
stuff that you might be taking.
| | 03:16 | All right, let's look at some bags.
| | 03:21 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Reviewing shooting bags| 00:00 | If all you typically carry is a single
camera and a single lens, then you probably don't
| | 00:05 | need a shooting bag of any kind.
| | 00:07 | You might want something to put your camera
in when you pack it into another bag, but
| | 00:10 | you don't actually need
anything to facilitate shooting.
| | 00:13 | If you tend to carry multiple lenses though,
or flashes or other accessories, then you'll
| | 00:18 | want a way to carry all of that
extra gear along with your camera.
| | 00:21 | A good shooting bag is one that allows you to
carry exactly what you need for a particular
| | 00:26 | shoot and that provides easy access to
all the critical pieces of gear inside.
| | 00:31 | As with any bag, your most important
consideration is to figure out what all you need to carry.
| | 00:36 | I have a core set of lenses
that I carry in most places:
| | 00:39 | my 24-105 and my 16-35. These cover the
focal lengths that I use the most and they give
| | 00:45 | me a good mix of lengths and speeds without
requiring me to carry huge pieces of glass.
| | 00:51 | Sometimes though, if I think I'll need more
reach, I'll add a longer lens. Or if I think
| | 00:56 | I'm going to be shooting portraits or working
in low light, then I'll add maybe my fast 50.
| | 01:01 | So I usually use a shooting bag that's big
enough to carry my camera body and three lenses,
| | 01:07 | even though most of the time
I'm only carrying two lenses.
| | 01:09 | Now depending on what you're doing, you might
need some other things, foul weather clothing
| | 01:14 | or snacks or water or
something to read and so on.
| | 01:17 | These concerns all inform
your shooting bag decision.
| | 01:21 | Now there are lots of bags out there from
lots of bag vendors and there's no way that
| | 01:27 | we can show you everything that's out there.
| | 01:29 | But I would like to show you some bags that
have some especially nice features and walk
| | 01:32 | you through some of the concerns that I
think about when I'm looking for a bag.
| | 01:37 | When I'm shooting, I like to be able to get
to my other lenses as quickly as possible,
| | 01:42 | and so these days I'm mostly
using this Tamrac Velocity bag.
| | 01:46 | It's a shoulder bag, it goes over one shoulder,
and I can put it either on this shoulder or
| | 01:51 | put it over my head, which
works a little bit better.
| | 01:54 | And what I like about this bag is I can put
a couple of lenses inside it and still have
| | 02:00 | room for my camera with a lens attached.
| | 02:03 | So when I'm walking around and I need
access to my camera, it's right here on my hip.
| | 02:09 | What's great about the shoulder bag is
it frees up my back for other things.
| | 02:12 | If I'm hiking, I can put a hydration pack
on, or if I've got more stuff to carry, I
| | 02:16 | can put a daypack or even a camera
backpack that has other stuff in it.
| | 02:20 | When I'm actually shooting,
everything I need is right here.
| | 02:23 | I don't have to be taking a bag off;
| | 02:25 | I can just get my camera out and go.
| | 02:28 | Now one thing to think about a bag, when
you're looking for it, is you really need to work
| | 02:31 | through the handling of it, because if you're
working with an SLR and multiple lenses, you're
| | 02:35 | going to be changing lenses and you need a
way to manage all the stuff that you have
| | 02:39 | to hold through that process.
| | 02:41 | So I've got my camera
that I need to take care of.
| | 02:43 | I've got this lens.
| | 02:45 | I've got the lens that I'm going to
change to. Where do I put all that stuff?
| | 02:48 | Well, with this bag right here on
my hip, it can be holding this bag.
| | 02:52 | It can serve as a little
workspace for me while I change lenses.
| | 02:54 | A couple of quick lens-changing tips here.
I see people working with two hands to get
| | 02:59 | their lenses off. Just so you know,
| | 03:01 | it's very easy to get the
lens off with one hand.
| | 03:04 | This is the lens release button right here.
| | 03:06 | As I go in to grab the lens, I can just bump
my finger into it and twist and very quickly
| | 03:12 | get the lens off.
| | 03:13 | If I've got the camera on a strap hanging
around my neck, I can just do all that one hand.
| | 03:18 | I don't need to hold it with this hand.
| | 03:19 | I can just come in here and get the lens off,
stick it in the bag, get out the other lens,
| | 03:25 | and get it onto the camera.
| | 03:26 | As far as getting the other lens on,
I've got this cap that I need to worry about.
| | 03:30 | It's pretty easy to get rid
of that with just is one hand.
| | 03:33 | You can either put it in the bag.
| | 03:34 | I tend to hold it in my
mouth--I don't know why.
| | 03:38 | So, lens goes on, and then I get the cap
onto the other lens, the lens that I took off.
| | 03:43 | So the bag is not just a place to hold things;
| | 03:45 | it's kind of a workspace that I work with
while I'm changing lenses and so on and so
| | 03:50 | forth in the field.
| | 03:52 | Some other features of this bag that I like
is--it doesn't have a lot of features, but
| | 03:56 | it's got just enough extra storage to deal
with the extra things that I need to carry.
| | 04:01 | Extra media cards, a white balance card.
| | 04:03 | I also tend to carry this very small little
reflector here, not just because it's adorable,
| | 04:08 | but because it's very handy for portraits
when I'm shooting up close and that kind of
| | 04:11 | thing, and all of that stuff that's in here.
| | 04:13 | I'll also usually stick a little wired remote
control in here in case I'm going to be doing
| | 04:17 | low-light shooting and
want to get off the camera.
| | 04:21 | So, this is a nice bag.
| | 04:23 | It's maybe a little small. I can only get
these three lenses in my camera in here, a couple of accessories.
| | 04:28 | If I want to go for something bigger, I could
go for something like this Lowepro messenger
| | 04:32 | bag, which I really like.
| | 04:33 | It's a classically designed messenger bag.
| | 04:36 | One thing that's really nice
about it is it doesn't look like a camera bag.
| | 04:39 | If you wanted to go stealthy with
your camera, this is a great way to go.
| | 04:42 | A couple of nice features about this bag.
| | 04:45 | It's got a lot of space inside.
| | 04:47 | This bag comes, like many of these bags that
we're looking at, comes in many different sizes.
| | 04:51 | When you're looking at bag specifications,
you'll very often, if it's an SLR bag,
| | 04:55 | see vendors talking about
pro camera or compact camera.
| | 04:59 | What they're talking about is typically a full-
frame camera or a camera with a battery pack in
| | 05:04 | it or a cropped-sensor
camera, which is a little smaller.
| | 05:08 | So I've got room in here to
carry lenses and my camera.
| | 05:11 | These dividers are all movable and
these days that's pretty standard.
| | 05:14 | They're this velcroed in. I can put
them in any configuration I want.
| | 05:18 | They're L-shaped.
| | 05:20 | They have a bend in them so they can form
little shelves inside of the bag, which is nice.
| | 05:25 | The camera just goes in like this.
| | 05:27 | There's a lot of extra space in this bag.
| | 05:29 | I've got a big compartment right here, which
is nice, and there's a lot of little dividers
| | 05:35 | and things for holding media
cards and so on and so forth.
| | 05:37 | Something that's interesting about this bag is when I
close it, it's just a magnet that holds this shut.
| | 05:42 | But it doesn't hold it shut really well; it
holds it shut well enough, but if I'm going
| | 05:45 | to stick this in an overhead compartment on
an airplane or something, I might want it
| | 05:48 | to be a little more sturdy.
| | 05:50 | So I can lift this up and unfold this and
stick it underneath here and now I've got
| | 05:57 | these big Velcro patches which hold
it shut and that's much sturdier.
| | 06:01 | You may think, well, why not just leave those on
there all the time. Because they're real noisy.
| | 06:06 | So I can put it basically in this quiet little stuffed
mode where it's just a magnet that's holding it shut.
| | 06:11 | Another really nice feature
back here, I can open this up.
| | 06:14 | I've got a zippered pocket, except that I
can unzip the bottom of the pocket and this
| | 06:18 | becomes a sleeve that fits over the handle of the
suitcase, so it makes it much easier to carry around.
| | 06:24 | Now, the downside to this bag and that Tamrac bag
is that they keep all the weight on one shoulder.
| | 06:30 | If you think you would like things more
evenly distributed and you want a little extra
| | 06:34 | carrying capacity, then you
might consider a backpack.
| | 06:36 | Here's a very basic Lowepro backpack.
| | 06:39 | It holds lots of stuff and
yet it's still very small.
| | 06:42 | You can see inside I've got a
lot of rearrangeable compartments.
| | 06:45 | I've got a lot of zippered pouches over here,
more over here, stuff on the side, but
| | 06:50 | it's pretty basic in
terms of its functionality.
| | 06:52 | To get anything out of it, I have to take
it off completely, turn it around, set it
| | 06:55 | down, open it up, all that kind of stuff.
| | 06:57 | I can't get access to it without taking it off.
| | 07:01 | Because that might be a bit of a hassle, you
might want to consider something else, maybe
| | 07:04 | something like this.
This is another Lowepro bag.
| | 07:08 | This is the DSLR Video Pack.
| | 07:12 | So they're aiming this at people who want to
shoot video with their SLRs, and it's great
| | 07:15 | for that, but it also has nice
features just for still shooters.
| | 07:19 | It's got this nice contraption over here
that you can put the leg of a tripod in, or the
| | 07:23 | leg of a DSLR video rig in, and a
place to cinch stuff up up here.
| | 07:28 | So I can carry a tripod or a shooting rig
on the side, actually on either side. A lot
| | 07:33 | of flexibility in that regard, which is nice.
| | 07:35 | I've got a big pocket up here on top.
| | 07:38 | But what's cool about this, as far as a
backpack goes, is I can put it on as a backpack and
| | 07:43 | all of my gear is in there.
| | 07:45 | When I want access to the inside, I can
simply slip one arm out and the whole thing slides
| | 07:51 | over here, and now all I have to do is unzip,
and you can see I've still got the sectioned
| | 07:57 | camera compartment in here.
| | 07:59 | So I can easily get that out, zip it
back up, and just put the pack back on.
| | 08:04 | So this is a way to--this is a backpack that I can
get inside without having to remove it completely.
| | 08:10 | Very compact, very
lightweight, a very nice bag.
| | 08:14 | If you're a really active shooter, either because
you move quickly through a situation or because
| | 08:19 | you shoot in situations that require you to
climb or maybe scramble up and down hills
| | 08:23 | or maybe you ski or run or something, then you
might want to consider this Lowepro Photo Sport bag.
| | 08:30 | Again, I've got, up here, a nice big space that I
can easily stuff power bars and maybe fleeces
| | 08:42 | and things to stay warm.
| | 08:43 | And then I've got the same contraption
here on the side like the video bag has.
| | 08:48 | You can see there's a
nice big compartment here.
| | 08:50 | Now what's cool, in both of these bags, about
this compartment is that this little box that
| | 08:55 | the camera fits into
actually compresses inside the bag.
| | 08:58 | So if I don't have the camera in here,
I can squish this down to get it out of the way
| | 09:02 | to open up a lot more space inside.
| | 09:04 | And in that regard, this bag can double
as a way of carrying a lot more gear.
| | 09:09 | Something else that's nice about this bag
is I can unzip this back here and I've got
| | 09:15 | room to put in a hydration reservoir.
| | 09:18 | So this bag can actually serve as my camel
back. And I don't have to bother and zipping
| | 09:22 | that all the way.
| | 09:23 | There's just a thin little pouch back there.
Stuff my hydration reservoir in there, and
| | 09:26 | now I'm carrying water and all my camera gear.
| | 09:29 | One of the big changes in going from a
shoulder bag like this to a backpack like this or any
| | 09:34 | of the other backpacks is these packs are
big enough to hold a lot of that extra stuff
| | 09:38 | that I might want to carry:
water, and so on and so forth.
| | 09:40 | Whereas, with these bags, I typically carry
my camera stuff in here and use another bag
| | 09:45 | to carry all that other stuff.
| | 09:46 | Again, the upshot of all of these bags is
they're meant to be used for active shooting.
| | 09:51 | They're not just for getting my
gear from one place to another.
| | 09:54 | If I don't have much in gear to take or I'm
not traveling very far, they may work for that.
| | 09:58 | But mostly, they're about when I'm really shooting,
this is the bag that I use to hold all my stuff.
| | 10:03 | Of course shooting is not just about cameras
these days; it's about post-production also.
| | 10:08 | So if you want to carry on your computer or
take some extra gear like that, you might
| | 10:12 | need a slightly different bag, and
we're going to look at those next.
| | 10:17 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using camera and computer bags| 00:00 | Digital photography doesn't just
involve camera gear of course.
| | 00:03 | We've already discussed how you might need
to take a computer of some kind with you,
| | 00:07 | and obviously you're going
to need a way to carry that.
| | 00:09 | There are a lot of backpacks out there that
let you carry a good amount of camera gear
| | 00:13 | with enough space left over to fit a
computer and a good number of accessories.
| | 00:17 | Now, these aren't necessarily
shooting bags, though they can be.
| | 00:21 | I think of them more as bags that I use to get a
small selection of gear to a particular location,
| | 00:26 | but that's because I don't typically
need a computer when I'm on location.
| | 00:29 | However, some of these backpacks do provide fast
camera access, so you can use them as shooting bags.
| | 00:35 | They will just be a little bit heavier
because you'll have your computer in there.
| | 00:39 | For example, the Lowepro DSLR Video Pack that
we looked at in the last movie has a special
| | 00:44 | compartment right back here in
the back that can fit a computer.
| | 00:48 | This particular bag can fit a 13-inch laptop.
| | 00:50 | I happened to have one right here.
| | 00:52 | And of course, different sizes of this bag
can fit bigger computers. It fits in right
| | 00:57 | there, zips pack up, and then my camera
and other stuff of course goes in here.
| | 01:03 | Now, all of the backpacks we're going to look
at today have the same computer configuration.
| | 01:08 | It goes in the very back, up against
the part that presses against you.
| | 01:12 | What's nice about this is it's nice and flat.
The computer goes in and out very, very easily.
| | 01:16 | The downside to this design is that when
I set the bag, when I fill up the bag with
| | 01:21 | stuff, and set it down like this, all the way
of everything that's in the bag is going right
| | 01:26 | onto the computer.
| | 01:27 | Now, if you are a Mac user or a user of some
thinner other laptops, you may have encountered
| | 01:33 | that when you put a lot of weight on the
computer, it mashes the keyboard into the screen and
| | 01:37 | that leaves marks on the screen.
| | 01:39 | So that's kind of a drag.
| | 01:40 | I cannot find a camera backpack that has
the computer in the front, on top, up here.
| | 01:47 | So you can work around that, you can be
sure to try and set the bag down like this.
| | 01:51 | You can pack it carefully
and so on and so forth.
| | 01:53 | Or you can put something between the keyboard
and the screen when you close the computer.
| | 01:57 | So this is not a deal-breaker, and it does
make forth really nice, easy, quick access.
| | 02:02 | It's a bit of a tight squeeze in this bag,
but it really goes in, in and out, without
| | 02:06 | too much trouble, and I
like the small size of this.
| | 02:10 | Now the Lowepro CompuDay Photo, this bag right
here, offers you more space, but still gives
| | 02:17 | you quick access to your camera
right here, just the way that bag does.
| | 02:20 | So I can get my computer in here.
Again, it goes right back here.
| | 02:24 | There's a nice big pocket.
| | 02:26 | There's actually other pockets
in front that are very nice.
| | 02:28 | And when I'm wearing the bag I still have
access to my camera through this side pocket
| | 02:32 | like we saw earlier.
| | 02:34 | And as with the other bags, this camera
compartment that's in here is compressible, so I can get
| | 02:39 | it out of the way if I need to.
| | 02:42 | Now, here is a discontinued Lowepro bag, but
it's kind of representative of another design
| | 02:48 | that's still around.
| | 02:49 | I like this bag. This is their CompuDaypack.
| | 02:52 | Again, I've got my computer compartment back
here in the back, but for my cameras, I've
| | 02:56 | got this nice big area right here.
| | 02:59 | It's a full divided
camera compartment back here.
| | 03:03 | Now, I can't get to my camera
gear while I'm wearing the bag.
| | 03:06 | I've got to take it off completely.
But, again if my goal is to just transport a bunch of
| | 03:10 | gear, this works just fine and also offers
me this nice big pocket up here, where I can
| | 03:16 | stick a bunch of other stuff.
| | 03:17 | Finally, maybe you already have a backpack
that you'd like to use, but it doesn't actually
| | 03:21 | have camera compartments in it for stowing
stuff. Obviously you don't want to just throw
| | 03:25 | your camera lenses in a bag
and have them knock around.
| | 03:28 | You might want to do something like this.
| | 03:30 | This is the Crumpler Haven.
| | 03:32 | It's just a bag that has normal camera-type
dividers in it, but it doesn't do anything else.
| | 03:38 | It doesn't have its own
straps and things like that.
| | 03:40 | You put it in any type of bag that you like.
| | 03:43 | In addition to letting you use a bag that
you already have, the Haven lets you carry camera
| | 03:47 | gear without necessarily looking
like you're carrying camera gear.
| | 03:50 | You can sneak it in somewhere else.
| | 03:53 | Better lenses are almost always heavier lenses,
and as your lens collection grows, you may
| | 03:58 | find that shoulder bags
just don't cut it anymore.
| | 04:00 | So a backpack like one of these may be the
best way for you to go, especially if you
| | 04:04 | also need to carry a computer or a
tablet and all of the associated accessories.
| | 04:09 | Your main concern is going to be deciding
whether you need fast, easy camera access
| | 04:14 | or simply a way to port a bunch of gear to a
location before you switch to another bag.
| | 04:19 |
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| Discussing luggage| 00:00 | Sometimes you want to be prepared for any
shooting eventuality, or maybe you know that
| | 00:05 | you are going to be traveling through a lot
of different shooting situations that will
| | 00:08 | require a varied assortment of gear.
| | 00:10 | In those cases, you'll probably want to consider
stepping up a bag that sit more in the luggage
| | 00:15 | category than in the simpler back
categories that we've been looking at so far.
| | 00:20 | You could start by considering a larger
backpack, like this massive Tenba pack, which lets me
| | 00:25 | fit a tremendous amount of camera
stuff as well as a large laptop.
| | 00:30 | This is a really well-made pack with a lot
of great features, and you can certainly fit
| | 00:34 | a large varied array of gear.
| | 00:36 | If you are an outdoors person, if you're going
backpack and you are back packing and you've
| | 00:40 | already got a pack that you are going to
use, this is kind of a midsized pack that I use
| | 00:44 | more for just trekking sort of things
where I know I don't need to have tent.
| | 00:48 | But I still might want to
get some camera into it.
| | 00:50 | This is a variation on
something we saw in the last movie.
| | 00:53 | This is made by Mountainsmith.
| | 00:55 | It's a really nice little bag that just
gives me camera compartments that I can stuff in
| | 00:59 | here and stick in another bag.
| | 01:01 | I really like these. They are also great for
sticking in motorcycle bags and things like that.
| | 01:06 | They allow me to convert any larger bag
into something that can carry a camera.
| | 01:11 | The problem with these backpacks is that as
you go to larger and larger backpacks, they
| | 01:15 | are going to get heavier and heavier.
| | 01:16 | So you may want to think about just how much
load you really want to have on your back.
| | 01:21 | If you've got more that you need to carry
then you feel like you can comfortably schlep
| | 01:25 | on your shoulders, then you might
want to consider a roller bag.
| | 01:29 | This is the Lowepro roller light,
and it has some very cool features.
| | 01:33 | It's nice little roller bag.
| | 01:36 | If I open it up here, you'll see that it's
got inside pretty much what you've come to
| | 01:40 | expect from those backpacks:
| | 01:42 | Rearrangeable compartments that
I can customize however I want.
| | 01:44 | We got a sleeve here for holding a computer and
some other nice pockets for carrying accessories
| | 01:49 | and things like that.
| | 01:51 | If you look on the back of the bag, you'll find
just what you would expect from a nice roller bag.
| | 01:55 | I have got a handle here and as we have
already seen, there are some other types of camera
| | 02:00 | bags that have sleeves on
them that fit right over this.
| | 02:02 | So that's a way of packing
even more camera gear onto it.
| | 02:05 | A cool feature about this bag is also
tucked in back here is a little raincoat.
| | 02:10 | This is a raincoat for the bag, not me.
| | 02:13 | This is similar to some of the backpacks we
looked at earlier, have this feature also:
| | 02:16 | a nice little rain jacket that I can
pick out if the weather turns foul.
| | 02:21 | This is good if I know I am going to go
somewhere where it might be rainy or don't forget, sand
| | 02:25 | can be a real problem.
| | 02:26 | If you are a desert traveler and you might
get caught in a sandstorm, having some weather
| | 02:30 | proofing like that can be really handy.
| | 02:33 | Here's a larger variation of that bag.
| | 02:35 | This is the Lowepro Roller x100,
and it's got a lot of really cool features.
| | 02:41 | I know that sounds far too excited to
get about a bag, but I am that way.
| | 02:46 | If I open it up, I have got, again,
the rearrageable compartment here.
| | 02:50 | I have got all the normal things out here.
| | 02:52 | Some of the cool things about this bag.
I can load it up with gear and actually use
| | 02:58 | it while I'm shooting pretty effectively,
because here on the back, I can pop this thing
| | 03:03 | out and tilt the bag back like this.
| | 03:06 | When it's weighted down, it's really sturdy.
| | 03:08 | Now if I zip it open,
all my stuff doesn't fall out.
| | 03:10 | I can actually position it like this and
have working access to the gear that's inside,
| | 03:16 | which is very nice.
Let me put that back.
| | 03:19 | I've got my handle right here that
pops up just as you would expect.
| | 03:23 | But it's got an extra
kind of cool feature in it.
| | 03:26 | I am going to open this back up and inside
you'll find that I have got this little ditty
| | 03:32 | bag which is velcroed in here.
| | 03:34 | I can stick cables and all
sorts of other stuff in there.
| | 03:37 | But if I look inside it,
I find this little contraption.
| | 03:39 | Now you may think, that sure looks a lot like
a tripod screw there, and you would be right,
| | 03:47 | because here in the top of the handle is a
little socket that I can screw this into and
| | 03:53 | turn the handle of the bag into a tripod.
| | 03:56 | I can mount my camera right on top of there and
actually have a sturdy platform for shooting.
| | 04:01 | So it's really nice if I am going somewhere
where I know I am going to have the bag and
| | 04:04 | I think I might need some stability but I'm
not sure that I want to invest in the extra
| | 04:08 | hassle of carrying a tripod,
| | 04:10 | I can just actually use the handle on the bag.
| | 04:12 | If I do know that I'm going to carry a tripod
though, the bag helps facilitate that also.
| | 04:17 | It comes with this little thing, which velcros in
right here and gives me a place to plant my tripod.
| | 04:23 | It can lay up here and be lashed down.
| | 04:27 | So that's a very easy way of
carrying a larger piece of gear like that.
| | 04:32 | Two other really cool features of this bag.
| | 04:33 | I have got a lock over here.
| | 04:36 | Now you probably already know that the
authorities don't like you locking zippers on your back
| | 04:41 | because they want to be able to get into
your bag if they need to inspect it, especially
| | 04:44 | if it's got gear on it.
| | 04:45 | So you are not supposed to put a padlock
on there, because they will cut it off.
| | 04:48 | So this bag has got this gizmo here.
| | 04:50 | It's actually got a combination lock on it
and I can pull out this little table here
| | 04:56 | and when all the zippers are up, I can
thread it through the handles of all the zippers
| | 05:02 | and then put it back in there and lock it
and now I can't get any of the zippers open.
| | 05:06 | But when I am handing it to the security
people, I can take the cable out, and then it just
| | 05:09 | retracts back into there.
| | 05:11 | So this is a really versatile, useful lock,
because I can undo it if I need to and know
| | 05:15 | they are not going to cut my bag apart.
| | 05:17 | Another very cool feature here.
| | 05:19 | There are times when rolling the bag is great.
| | 05:21 | There are other times when rolling
the bag might not be so practical.
| | 05:25 | So this bag is actually kind of a convertible.
| | 05:28 | I can undo this one big master zipper here
and then the whole real meat of the bag, the
| | 05:34 | part that actually carry stuff, lifts out
and it's got backpack straps on the back.
| | 05:39 | So now I've turned my camera-carrying stuff into
a backpack. Meanwhile the roller part over here,
| | 05:46 | I just zip this up and I have got
a place to stash all my souvenirs.
| | 05:51 | So this is a really versatile bag.
| | 05:52 | It gives me a couple of ways of
carrying it and a lot of different options.
| | 05:56 | There are some other things you need to
consider though, when you're trying to decide between
| | 05:59 | a large backpack and a roller bag, and one
of them is something that this bag addresses
| | 06:03 | which is, are you traveling
somewhere where you can actually roll a bag?
| | 06:08 | If you're facing locations that lack pavements
or you're going to be traveling through any
| | 06:12 | kind of environment where rolling isn't going to be
possible then a backpack might be a better choice.
| | 06:18 | Something else to consider: Are you
taking a rolling suitcase with you also?
| | 06:23 | If you are, then trying to manage
rolling two bags could be difficult.
| | 06:27 | If you are talking long international trip
with lots of connections then you might want
| | 06:31 | to consider ditching the rolling suitcase in
favor of a shoulder-carried bag or a backpack.
| | 06:36 | Then you only have to hassle with that second
bag when you're going to the airport and from
| | 06:40 | the airport to wherever you are staying.
| | 06:42 | You check that bag and then for the rest of
your journey you just roll your camera gear.
| | 06:46 | Now of course if you have a lot of travel on the
other end of your flight, that may not be practical.
| | 06:50 | So here's a quick way to think about it.
| | 06:52 | If your trip will involve a lot of walking
and your camera gear is heavier than the rest
| | 06:57 | of your luggage, put the rest of your
luggage in a backpack and check that.
| | 07:00 | Put your camera gear in a roller
bag and carry it onto the plane.
| | 07:05 | Then you're rolling the heavy camera gear.
| | 07:07 | You're carrying a lighter
clothes and stuff on your back.
| | 07:10 | Weight is an important consideration
when you're traveling internationally.
| | 07:14 | Some airlines are very picky about
the weight limits for carry-on bags.
| | 07:18 | Check your airline before you go and make sure
that you carry-on fits those specifications.
| | 07:23 | If it doesn't, when you get there, they may
ask you to take something out of your bag,
| | 07:28 | and that gets very complicated with fragile
camera gear, because you might take out your
| | 07:32 | expensive lens and suddenly you
have got this lens to carry around.
| | 07:35 | So if you're at all unsure about whether your
carry-on comes in underweight, just take along
| | 07:39 | the cloth shopping bag.
Keep it in your suitcase.
| | 07:42 | If you're asked to take something out, you
can just pull out the cloth bag, stick the
| | 07:45 | extra thing in that, and use
that bag as a second carry-on.
| | 07:50 | So these are the last of the options that
we are going to look at, and you have got a
| | 07:53 | lot of choices here.
| | 07:54 | As I said, we can't look at every bag and
there are other bags that also have nice features.
| | 07:58 | I really like the features of the bags
that we have looked at. I consider them.
| | 08:01 | I think about the actual usability of the bag
when I am in the field before I commit to one.
| | 08:05 | These are all things that you
want to balance and consider.
| | 08:10 |
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|
|
4. In the Field: Heavyweight RigGetting there| 00:01 | It seems kind of silly to talk about airline
travel being tiring when I've just been sitting
| | 00:07 | all day, but I'm exhausted. It's tiring
getting your stuff to the airport and dealing with
| | 00:10 | security and then sitting on the
plane for hours and hours and hours.
| | 00:15 | But there are some things you can do
to make it a little less stressful.
| | 00:17 | As photographers, of course, we have the extra
stress of carrying all this expensive, fragile
| | 00:21 | photo gear, and we want to be sure it gets
to where we're going and we want to be sure
| | 00:24 | it gets there in one piece, and that
of course comes down to smart packing.
| | 00:28 | You want to carry on your expensive fragile
photo gear and check your clothes and all
| | 00:33 | the other stuff that can withstand
being tossed around a little bit.
| | 00:36 | That said, I still pack a fair amount
of photo gear in my checked baggage.
| | 00:40 | I'll put my tripod, flash diffusers,
battery chargers, things like that that can really
| | 00:46 | stand a beating.
| | 00:47 | Those I will put in my checked baggage, and
a lot of that stuff, it's not so expensive
| | 00:52 | if I end up having to replace it.
| | 00:55 | You may be thinking, yeah, but if I carry
on my camera gear, that's less stuff that I
| | 00:58 | can carry with me because I'm only
allowed one bag and one personal item.
| | 01:01 | So, what about the stuff that I want on my
plane, particularly if it's a long flight?
| | 01:05 | Check this out. If you go to the
TSA website, you'll find this:
| | 01:09 | "You may carry one (1) bag of photographic
equipment in addition to one (1) carry-on
| | 01:15 | and one (1) personal items
through the screening checkpoint."
| | 01:17 | In other words as photographers,
we get to carry an extra bag, maybe.
| | 01:22 | If you look a little further, it says, "Air
carriers may or may not allow the additional
| | 01:26 | carry-on item on their aircraft.
| | 01:28 | Please check with your air carrier
prior to arriving at the airport."
| | 01:31 | So, just because you can get it through the
security checkpoint, doesn't mean you can
| | 01:34 | actually get it on the airplane; be sure
that you do check with your carrier before you
| | 01:39 | back with this strategy.
| | 01:40 | Now, that said, you still may not be able to
get it through security, because just because
| | 01:44 | this is in the rules, doesn't mean that the
agent you're dealing with actually knows that.
| | 01:48 | So it's not a bad idea to print
out this page and carry it with you.
| | 01:51 | If they hassle with you, if they say
"you're carrying too many bags," you can pull this
| | 01:54 | out and say "actually, I'm allowed to do this.
| | 01:56 | This is a bag of photo gear."
| | 01:57 | If you're polite about it and friendly,
that'll almost always let you get through.
| | 02:02 | If you're traveling domestically here in the
States, you really don't need to worry about
| | 02:06 | stuff being stolen out of your bag.
| | 02:07 | I say knock on wood. It has never happened to me.
It's actually never happened to me internationally,
| | 02:11 | and that's even traveling to some
countries that are maybe a little rougher.
| | 02:15 | Nevertheless, you do want to be sure that
you're insured for theft and disappearing
| | 02:22 | bags and that kind of thing, if it does happen.
| | 02:24 | So, those are a couple to tips to make it a
little bit easier going through the airport.
| | 02:29 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Settling into the location| 00:01 | I decided I need a vacation.
| | 00:03 | I've been working really hard lately and I
thought I really want to just go somewhere
| | 00:06 | where I can relax.
| | 00:07 | So I decided I find a nice little kind of
resort area somewhere and I just go hang out
| | 00:12 | there for a few days, and I've ended
up here and it's a really nice spot.
| | 00:15 | I really like this place.
| | 00:17 | And as you can tell, I brought a lot of stuff.
And you may be thinking, wow, can't you travel
| | 00:23 | a little lighter than that? And I could if
I was simply going to come here, but here's
| | 00:27 | what I'm thinking.
I thought I'll come here.
| | 00:29 | I've got this nice little villa to stay in, and it's
got a lot of storage and it's got power outlets.
| | 00:35 | I can really take a lot of photo gear.
| | 00:37 | So, I brought lenses for days and flashes
and flash diffusers and all sorts of other
| | 00:42 | stuff, and I figure I can sit here for a few
days and just really indulge a lot of different
| | 00:47 | kinds of shooting that I want to do.
| | 00:48 | I can wander the towns nearby.
| | 00:50 | I can go out at night and do some night shooting and
really just indulge nothing but photography for a while.
| | 00:57 | The thing is, I'm not
that great at vacationing.
| | 01:00 | I know I'm going to get bored if I stay
here for too long, so I thought, there are some
| | 01:03 | other things that I'd
like to get out and do also.
| | 01:05 | I'm going to do some camping.
I'm going to do some car camping.
| | 01:07 | I am going to rent a car later and head up
into the mountains, and so that's going to
| | 01:11 | be a different set of gear.
| | 01:13 | I'm still going to--I am going to have a
car trunk so I can carry a lot of stuff and
| | 01:16 | I'm also going to have a cigarette lighter
in the car, so I can power a bunch of stuff,
| | 01:19 | so that will be good. But that's a little
bit different than the full assortment of
| | 01:22 | stuff that I brought with me.
| | 01:23 | Thing is, once I start thinking about car
camping then I think, well, but don't I really
| | 01:27 | want to get really out in the backcountry
and go backpacking? So I brought a backpack
| | 01:31 | also, so I'm going to do some of that and
that's an even more refined set of gear.
| | 01:35 | So I had to bring all these different bags
and all these different ways of carrying
| | 01:39 | all of this different gear, because I've
got these three different shooting things.
| | 01:42 | So that makes for a lot of stuff.
| | 01:43 | Now this is a pretty unusual trip.
| | 01:45 | I'm managing to take a whole lot
of time off and so that's great.
| | 01:48 | I can do these three different things and pack for
each of them, and you'll see how I've done that.
| | 01:52 | Now you may be thinking, I don't camp and I
don't backpack so what good is this going
| | 01:56 | to do me? The thing is, these scenarios that
I'm going to outline for you are not necessarily
| | 02:01 | specific to particular situations.
| | 02:04 | There are specific to specific
amounts of stuff that you can carry.
| | 02:07 | So for example, here in this area where I've
got lots of storage and lots of power, I've
| | 02:12 | got the ability to bring lots of stuff.
| | 02:14 | This is going to be a real heavyweight
scenario that you can use for certain types of trips.
| | 02:18 | When I go car camping, I'm going
to be scaling it down a little bit.
| | 02:21 | When I go backpacking I'm going
to be scaling it down even more.
| | 02:23 | So I think you'll find that some of these
scenarios will fit lots of different things.
| | 02:27 | If you are, for example, a weekend business
traveler, then you might find that the ultra-light
| | 02:31 | scenario that I'm going to use on backpacking is
really going to help you out in those situations.
| | 02:36 | If you are going on a cross-country trip with
your family then you might find that the kind
| | 02:40 | of middleweight scenario we're going to
outline is going to be good for that.
| | 02:43 | So don't get too hung up on the
specific situations I'm describing here.
| | 02:47 | I think you'll find that the methodology I'm
going through for gear selection and the way
| | 02:51 | that I'm basing it around weight is going
to help you apply what I'm going to show you
| | 02:55 | to lots of different situations.
| | 02:57 | So I need to get all this stuff unpacked
and find out what all I've forgotten, because
| | 03:02 | I'm sure there is something. But I
really don't feel like doing that right now.
| | 03:05 | I'm going to go find something to eat and
just sit down and wait for the jetlag to hit me.
| | 03:14 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Packing strategies| 00:00 | So as you saw, I brought a lot of stuff
with me. And it's morning now, and I've got my
| | 00:04 | clothes put away.
I'm ready to start thinking about my gear.
| | 00:07 | One of the great things about this kind of
heavyweight scenario that I'm in is that there's
| | 00:12 | not really anything special about it.
| | 00:13 | I get to do just what I do at home.
| | 00:15 | I brought the computer that I use at home.
I just need to get it and my various power
| | 00:19 | concerns set up just like I would at home.
| | 00:22 | So, getting the computer plugged in and
charging, getting my phone plugged in and charging,
| | 00:27 | and I'm starting to think about getting all
of my other batteries charging: my camera
| | 00:30 | batteries and the AA
batteries that I brought for my flash.
| | 00:33 | I'm going to be honest with you though,
I told you earlier that you're not supposed
| | 00:37 | to check rechargeable batteries.
| | 00:38 | I decided to try it and I got away with it.
| | 00:40 | I put them in my bag.
| | 00:41 | Now, as you may or may not know, rechargeable
batteries can lose their charge if they get
| | 00:46 | cold, and the baggage compartment of
an airplane can often be very cold.
| | 00:50 | So when I get somewhere, I tend to top off
my batteries right away, just in case they've
| | 00:53 | lost some charge from the trip over.
| | 00:55 | Again, because I get to work in this luxurious
environment with all the same trappings that
| | 01:00 | I would have at home,
I brought some extra hard drives.
| | 01:03 | I'm going to just be safe and keep
two copies of everything that I shoot
| | 01:06 | so I've got two little bus-powered drives.
| | 01:09 | That means they take their power from the
USB port on my computer. I don't have to worry
| | 01:12 | about extra outlets.
| | 01:13 | Speaking of extra outlets, it's a good
idea to have a power strip with you.
| | 01:17 | You never know the outlet situation in a
kind of place where you're going to be staying,
| | 01:20 | especially if you're
traveling internationally.
| | 01:21 | So, that's all squared away.
I've got everything plugged in.
| | 01:24 | I'm ready to go on the post-production front, and I'm
sure that I've got the power supplies that I need.
| | 01:29 | So now the thing is, my camera gear.
| | 01:31 | I need to start sorting through it and
make sure that everything got here okay.
| | 01:36 | Something we haven't talked about yet is the
hard case, in this case this Pelican case.
| | 01:41 | I could not fit all of the lenses that I
wanted to bring in my carry-on bag, so I decided
| | 01:45 | to take the risk and checked some of them.
| | 01:48 | These cases are good and hard.
| | 01:50 | They have a waterproof seal on them.
| | 01:52 | So, though I could still lose it, though it
could still be stolen, I at least don't have
| | 01:58 | to worry with a case like this
about something getting broken.
| | 02:00 | So that's a good alternative if you
do need to check something fragile.
| | 02:05 | I brought the bulk of my
gear in this case right here,
| | 02:08 | so I'm just going to look at it and see that
it all got here and that it got here intact.
| | 02:12 | I almost always forget something, so I
want to check it out and see how things went.
| | 02:17 | Once I got on the plane, I realized right
away, oh boy, there's one thing that I don't
| | 02:21 | have, and it's not because I forgot it.
| | 02:23 | It's because they don't actually make it yet.
| | 02:24 | I usually shoot with this Canon 5D Mark II
and it's got my tripod plate on it, which I
| | 02:29 | use to mount on this Acratech
tripod head that I really love.
| | 02:33 | But just before I left, I bought a new
camera and don't have a tripod plate for it.
| | 02:38 | They don't actually make one yet.
| | 02:39 | So I'm not going to be able to mount
my newer camera on my nice tripod.
| | 02:43 | So, I ran out and got myself a Gorillapod.
| | 02:45 | You can get these all over the place.
| | 02:47 | You can get them at Best Buy or RadioShack, just
about any place like that or any camera store.
| | 02:51 | So, this is no substitute for a real tripod,
but it's at least going to give me some stabilization
| | 02:56 | options on my new camera.
| | 03:00 | I also see that I didn't
bring my flash diffusers.
| | 03:03 | I don't know if I'm really going to
need them, but I can improvise that.
| | 03:07 | If you are looking for a nice diffusion
material, go buy a plastic gallon of milk and drink
| | 03:12 | it and what you've got left behind is a
shaped nice diffusion thing that you can cut apart
| | 03:16 | and put over your flash.
| | 03:17 | If you are lactose intolerant,
buy some orange juice. That works also.
| | 03:21 | Media, of course, for my
camera is very important.
| | 03:23 | I brought both compact flash and SD cards
because I've got cameras that use both.
| | 03:28 | If you forget your media entirely or if you
decide that you haven't brought enough and
| | 03:33 | you're worried about running out and
thinking that you need to get some more, you can of
| | 03:37 | course just go out and buy some.
| | 03:38 | If you're here in the States, that's not a
impractical idea at all, although if your
| | 03:43 | camera needs compact flash, you may run into
trouble because these days a lot of retail
| | 03:47 | outlets no longer carry compact flash cards, because
most point-and-shoots and consumer cameras use SD.
| | 03:52 | So you may need to mail order that and
have it shipped to wherever you're staying.
| | 03:56 | If you're traveling internationally,
things are a little bit different.
| | 03:59 | You'll probably find that prices are much higher
in other countries than they are here in the US.
| | 04:03 | If that's the case, then you want to try and
zero in on the least amount of storage that
| | 04:08 | you can get away with, so that you're not
overpaying for stuff that you can get cheaper at home.
| | 04:12 | So, I'm feeling pretty good about all of that.
| | 04:14 | I think that I've got all of the
stuff that I meant to bring with me.
| | 04:18 | I've got a toothbrush and everything,
so that's good news.
| | 04:20 | Now, I'm ready to start thinking about, how
am I going to get this stuff moved around?
| | 04:25 | As you saw earlier, this bag can turn into a
backpack, which is cool, except just because
| | 04:29 | I brought every piece of gear with me doesn't
mean that I need that on every single shoot
| | 04:33 | that I'm going to go on.
So, I also brought some shooting bags with me.
| | 04:37 | I brought a couple of bags that collapse.
| | 04:39 | They're nice and mushy.
| | 04:40 | They go into my suitcase.
They're not going to take up a lot of space.
| | 04:43 | It allows me to carry a few
different lenses with me.
| | 04:45 | And then I brought this backpack, which can
carry a fair amount of gear, and a lot of
| | 04:49 | other stuff, including a hydration pack.
| | 04:51 | So this is going to be a good shooting bag
for going back country, or even for staying
| | 04:55 | around town and choosing to
carry a bigger assortment of gear.
| | 05:00 | Finally, something else that you saw earlier
are these nice little lens and camera bags
| | 05:08 | that can go in your suitcase and give you a
safe way of carrying some extra gear without
| | 05:13 | having to have an entirely separate bag.
| | 05:16 | I will be honest, I put
one lens in my suitcase.
| | 05:21 | And it was a risk, but I wrapped it up in a
lot of clothes. I stuffed it in here, and
| | 05:25 | that was because I didn't have room for it
in here, and I figured it would be safe if
| | 05:27 | it was buried down in there.
| | 05:29 | These sorts of gizmos are great for
packing delicate stuff in your suitcase.
| | 05:33 | So, it looks like I've
got all the stuff I need.
| | 05:35 | I want to get out and do some shooting today,
and so next, I need to think about how I'm
| | 05:40 | going to pare all of the stuff down into
just what I need for the type of shooting that
| | 05:44 | I want to do today.
| | 05:49 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Shooting strategies| 00:00 | Just because I brought this comprehensive
set of gear doesn't mean I want to carry a
| | 00:04 | comprehensive set of gear; in
fact, that was never my intention.
| | 00:07 | My idea when I brought this huge assortment
of stuff was that I would build dedicated
| | 00:12 | little packages of stuff for different
shooting tasks and I would have different bags and
| | 00:16 | whatnot for getting the gear
into those different tasks.
| | 00:19 | So, when I am setting out for the day, what I
need to do is to decide what gear I want to take.
| | 00:24 | Now, you may think, well, I'm going to want
my wide angle because I like really wide-angle
| | 00:27 | shots, but I'm going to take my telephoto
because what if I see something far away?
| | 00:30 | And that's not a good way to go.
| | 00:32 | It's a better idea to pick a type of shooting that
you would like to do that day and just focus on it.
| | 00:38 | So, the other day, first, I
decided I was ready to get out of town.
| | 00:41 | I was going to go do some landscapy-type stuff
just in some of the parks and preserves nearby.
| | 00:47 | So, I put together a kit that was set for that.
| | 00:51 | I didn't take my macro lens; I didn't figure there
were going to be great macro opportunities there.
| | 00:57 | I took a general-purpose lens, I took a wide-
angle lens, and I took a slightly more telephoto
| | 01:02 | lens, the type of lenses I am
going to use in that environment.
| | 01:06 | It's actually an advantage to have
to pare your system down this way.
| | 01:09 | It makes you concentrate on the
particulars of a particular type of shooting.
| | 01:13 | It can be tempting to go, well, I can always
run back to the room and grab another lens.
| | 01:17 | But then you're going to be spending more
time getting around town than you are shooting.
| | 01:21 | It's good to have some limitations on yourself
to make yourself hone in on a particular type
| | 01:25 | of subject matter.
| | 01:26 | On another day, I did decide I
wanted to go macro shooting.
| | 01:29 | I had only recently gotten this macro lens,
so I was curious to get it out and try it.
| | 01:34 | And because that's just one lens that I need
for that, I thought, it's no problem to take
| | 01:38 | another lens with me.
So I took my general-purpose lens.
| | 01:40 | Because even though my idea was I am going
to focus on macro shooting, I thought, yeah,
| | 01:44 | but there's probably going to be
something to see on the way here or there.
| | 01:48 | One thing about this vacation-type shooting is
you're not just trying to get pretty pictures;
| | 01:53 | you're also probably
trying to document your trip:
| | 01:55 | you're taking tourist photos, you're taking
snapshots, you're taking pictures of landmarks,
| | 01:59 | and things like that.
| | 02:00 | So a good walk-around lens is
always an important thing to have.
| | 02:03 | By walk-around lens, I mean a lens that's
got a focal length that's going to get you
| | 02:07 | through a lot of different situations.
| | 02:09 | My walk around lens is a 24 to 105 millimeter
lens and that's in 35 millimeter equivalency
| | 02:15 | because I use a full-frame camera.
| | 02:16 | So that gives me a nice wide angle.
| | 02:18 | It gives me a fair amount of telephoto reach.
| | 02:21 | It's not too heavy.
| | 02:22 | It's a good-size lens.
| | 02:23 | It's not super fast.
| | 02:24 | It's f/4 all the way across.
| | 02:26 | So I am not going to get really great
super-shallow depth of field out of it, but it's
| | 02:30 | also not going to put a lot
of weight on my shoulder.
| | 02:32 | So, that's a walk-around lens.
| | 02:34 | I might again choose to
accessorize that with a macro lens.
| | 02:38 | Now, in a situation like that where I am only
carrying two lenses, I may not even take a bag.
| | 02:42 | I keep one lens on the camera, and
depending on the pants that I'm wearing, I can just
| | 02:45 | stick the other lens in my pocket.
| | 02:47 | So, that can get me working really
ultra light in those situations, which can be nice.
| | 02:52 | On another day, I might just
choose to go street shooting.
| | 02:55 | And by street shooting, I mean not just hoping
to get that kind of classical street-shooting
| | 02:59 | stuff of daily life, the decisive moment,
that kind of stuff, but also the landmark
| | 03:05 | shots that I want to get, the things
that I want to show people when I get home.
| | 03:08 | For that situation, I would
take my walk-around lens.
| | 03:11 | I have a wide-angle lens that I
really like, a 16 to 35 that's very fast.
| | 03:15 | I'll put that in my bag.
| | 03:17 | And then lately, I've been experimenting a
lot with this fisheye lens that I just got,
| | 03:20 | which is a lot of fun, and it can be a way of,
if I get out and I find that actually there
| | 03:25 | is not much going around town that day,
the fisheye can help me just find something interesting
| | 03:31 | in terms of geometry and that kind of thing.
| | 03:33 | Again, I'm paring down to
about three lenses there.
| | 03:36 | If you don't typically shoot a lot of wide
angle, you might want to substitute the wide-
| | 03:39 | angle lens for a really long telephoto.
| | 03:42 | I don't tend to see subject matter that I
would use with a telephoto lens; I am more
| | 03:46 | partial to wide-angle lenses.
| | 03:47 | So you could swap that out.
| | 03:49 | I've also got extra media with me. And I might
sometimes, like I did when I went out landscape
| | 03:54 | shooting, take a couple of other
things like an infrared filter.
| | 03:57 | I have been experimenting a lot with infrared
shooting lately, and I took my tripod because
| | 04:01 | I knew that infrared was
going to require a tripod.
| | 04:05 | Once you're out, it's pretty
much just straight shooting.
| | 04:08 | The only thing you need to figure is, do you
have a good way of changing your lenses? Is
| | 04:13 | there a bag you can pick that will help you do
that by getting your place to stash something
| | 04:16 | while you're swapping out other lenses?
| | 04:19 | Your lenses are durable.
| | 04:20 | You don't have to be super careful with them,
but obviously you don't want to drop them.
| | 04:24 | You want to work quickly, so that you don't
get dust inside your camera or on the lens.
| | 04:28 | How you do it just works out to
your own personal coordination.
| | 04:31 | I've found that I can work it by holding one
lens and sticking a lens cap in my mouth
| | 04:36 | and doing some other things.
| | 04:39 | That works for me, and I don't even think
about when I am doing it at this point; it's
| | 04:42 | just the coordination I have.
| | 04:44 | So, that comes with practice
after just a few lens swaps.
| | 04:47 | So, that's my first kind of heavyweight
solution to, what do I do when I'm traveling and I
| | 04:55 | want to take a bunch of gear and have a lot
of options, but I don't want them all at one
| | 04:59 | time? I pare them down.
| | 05:00 | I make sure I have the right bags.
| | 05:02 | As you'll see later in this course, there
are going to be other times when you make
| | 05:04 | those paring-down decisions
before you even leave the house.
| | 05:07 | But for now, I've got the luxury of choosing
whatever gear I want, wherever I am, for whatever
| | 05:12 | type of shooting I feel like
doing on that particular day.
| | 05:17 |
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| Post-processing on location| 00:01 | I had an enjoyable day out stomping around
in different places, taking pictures, and
| | 00:05 | I'm back here in my room, and I
want to do a little post-production.
| | 00:08 | Now, I wouldn't necessarily do that
at the end of every day of shooting.
| | 00:11 | I am on vacation, after all, and sitting in front of
a computer doesn't feel particularly vacationy.
| | 00:16 | But I would like to clear some cards off, because I
know they're filled up and I need to replace them.
| | 00:22 | I also want to do a little bit of editing
because I've got one little chore that I need
| | 00:25 | to get done here.
| | 00:26 | The great thing about being in these luxury
accommodations where I've got places to plug
| | 00:31 | things in, and where I have been able to
bring a full-on computer, the great thing about
| | 00:36 | that is that I can do my normal post-production just
like I would do at home. I can plug in a card reader.
| | 00:41 | I can take the cards out of my camera, stick
them in, and copy them over to my computer.
| | 00:46 | I'm actually copying
them to an external drive.
| | 00:48 | Actually, I'm copying them to two external
drives, so that I will have two backups.
| | 00:52 | And when those copies are done, I'm erasing
the cards and putting them back in my camera
| | 00:57 | and back into my card wallet.
| | 01:00 | Every time you erase the cards, it's important
to remember to use the Format command on your
| | 01:04 | camera, not the Erase All command.
| | 01:06 | That's going to make your
cards a little more reliable.
| | 01:08 | Now, I'm ready, using the software of my choosing,
to go through my normal post-production process:
| | 01:15 | rating images, finding the pick
images, getting them organized.
| | 01:18 | I am doing that in Adobe Bridge.
| | 01:21 | You could of course be doing this in Lightroom or
Aperture or iPhoto, any number of different applications.
| | 01:26 | The overall process is still the same:
you find your pick images, you rate them.
| | 01:31 | I'm going to actually do some editing on one
of these images, partly because I want to see
| | 01:34 | if it worked out the way that I thought it
did, and also because one of the reasons I've
| | 01:39 | been able to take this long vacation is
that there's some work I can do on the road.
| | 01:44 | I'm writing a magazine article, and I need
a particular image that serves a particular
| | 01:49 | teaching point, and I think this
image of this tree here is the one.
| | 01:52 | So, I've edited that up into a final thing
that I think I like, and it's time for me
| | 01:57 | to send that off to the editor.
| | 02:00 | And connectivity is very often something you
need to figure out before you go on vacation,
| | 02:06 | so that you can be sure you've got
the connectivity options that you need.
| | 02:08 | I knew that I was going to be needing to
transfer some large files while I was here, and again,
| | 02:13 | that's because I've got some work.
| | 02:15 | But even if you're not having work or
professional-related reasons, you might want to ensure
| | 02:19 | that you've got connectivity because maybe
you want to be able to send pictures to your
| | 02:23 | friends at home or post images on Facebook or
feed them to your Flickr stream, things like that.
| | 02:28 | Before I came here, I called ahead and
found out that they do have wireless high-speed
| | 02:32 | Internet in every room.
| | 02:33 | I often don't trust that, to be honest,
because in a large facility like this, depending on
| | 02:38 | where you are, it may or may not work
and it may not work particularly fast.
| | 02:41 | I always travel with an ethernet cable also,
because a lot of rooms that have wireless
| | 02:45 | also have ethernet connections, and those are
sometimes more reliable than a wireless connection.
| | 02:51 | I'm actually right next to the office, which
means that I can't throw wild parties, but
| | 02:55 | it does mean that I've got
really high-speed wireless here.
| | 02:58 | I've been doing some file transfers
already and they work really well.
| | 03:01 | So, all I'm going to do is take this
image that I need to get to my editor,
| | 03:06 | I'm going to FTP it to them.
| | 03:07 | On the Mac, I use an FTP program called Transmit
that I really like, and I can simply do a drag-and-drop
| | 03:14 | from Bridge into the
Transmit window to get that going.
| | 03:18 | And fortunately, as I mentioned before,
I've got nice high-speed access here.
| | 03:23 | It's giving me, well, I said I had nice high-speed
access, and now it says it's going to take half-an-hour.
| | 03:28 | Bear in mind that a lot of times in a hotel
you're going to have slower access in the
| | 03:32 | evenings and in the mornings as everyone
is waking up and getting online. During the
| | 03:35 | middle of the day, you might be
able to have very speedy access.
| | 03:37 | In the middle of the night, you might be
able to also. If you need to do big transfers,
| | 03:41 | you can leave them running at those times
and probably have a better go at it then.
| | 03:46 | So, that's the bulk of the post-production that
I'm going to work through here in this situation.
| | 03:50 | As I said, it's pretty much just like being
at home. My only concern is that I'm working
| | 03:56 | on a laptop computer here, and I do have a
tower computer at home, and I'm going to want
| | 04:01 | to be sure and be able to get
all those things synchronized.
| | 04:03 | We're going to talk more about that later.
| | 04:06 | What I'm doing to facilitate that now is
building a directory structure on my external drives
| | 04:11 | that's just like the ones I have at home.
| | 04:12 | I'm putting images into the same types of
folders and that kind of thing, and I'm managing
| | 04:16 | all that manually. If you're using a program like Lightroom or
Aperture, it's very likely taking care of
| | 04:21 | all of that for you, and we'll
discuss that in greater detail later.
| | 04:25 | My cards are cleared off.
| | 04:27 | I'm ready either for some night shooting
tonight or another day of shooting tomorrow.
| | 04:31 | I know that right now I'm hungry,
so I'm going to go get some dinner.
| | 04:37 |
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|
|
5. In the Field: Mid-Weight RigGetting there| 00:02 | So I'm moving on to the
next stage of my trip here.
| | 00:04 | I've left the resort and I'm
heading off to go camping now.
| | 00:08 | A lot of things have happened
in moving out of the resort.
| | 00:11 | I'm shifting into a different kind of gear
because this is a very different kind of trip.
| | 00:15 | Obviously I don't need--well, it's not
practical to carry all of the gear that I took with
| | 00:20 | me to the resort,
so I've pared down.
| | 00:22 | I've change to some
different ways of carrying stuff.
| | 00:25 | That left me with a lot of stuff left over.
I didn't bring my flashes and a bunch of other stuff.
| | 00:29 | So I actually left that at the resort.
| | 00:31 | It's often very easy to leave bags in the baggage
room at a hotel or at a resort or at a motel.
| | 00:37 | A lot of places will let you do that for free.
A lot of times you got to pay a very small
| | 00:41 | fee to be able to do that.
| | 00:42 | And I've never had any
problems with stuff disappearing.
| | 00:45 | So I've left bunch of gear back at the hotel.
| | 00:48 | I'll pick that up later.
| | 00:49 | And I've shifted into my
car-camping configuration here.
| | 00:53 | This is the same
configuration that you could use.
| | 00:55 | It's actually the same configuration that
I have used when traveling through Europe,
| | 01:00 | trying to travel light, going from
hostel to hostel or hotel to hotel.
| | 01:04 | So it's a good middleweight scenario.
| | 01:07 | It's not gear that I'd want to carry all the
time with me, but it's light enough that it's
| | 01:12 | easy to get from hotel to
hotel or hotel to an airport.
| | 01:15 | It's easy enough to get on and off of
buses and trains and things like that.
| | 01:18 | And in this case it's good for car camping.
| | 01:20 | Now of course, the other advantage that I
have with car camping is the car can provide
| | 01:25 | not only a way to carry a little more gear
that I'd want to carry on my back all the
| | 01:28 | time, but it gives me some power options:
I can charge my camera batteries, my phone
| | 01:35 | and my iPad all off of the car here.
| | 01:38 | As I mentioned, that I've ditched the
computer and switched an iPad, so I'm heading into
| | 01:41 | a much lower level of
post-production, but that's okay.
| | 01:44 | That's going to give me the
chance to really focus on shooting
| | 01:46 | and hopefully give me a
chance to focus on relaxing.
| | 01:48 | This is supposed to be a vacation and I've
been spending all this time trying to finish
| | 01:51 | up a little bit of work,
doing a lot of post-processing.
| | 01:53 | So I think I'm going to
shift into a slower gear here.
| | 01:59 | I found what I think is a nice spot here.
| | 02:01 | It's a really pretty location.
| | 02:03 | I've got a river down here,
| | 02:04 | a lot of nice trees hanging over. I think
there is some shooting potential down there.
| | 02:08 | It's also just a nice place to camp.
| | 02:09 | I was worried that maybe it would be real
crowded because it's getting close to the
| | 02:12 | weekend here, but it's
surprisingly empty, so I'm happy about this.
| | 02:16 | I think this is going to be a nice
place to stay for a couple of days.
| | 02:19 | I'm ready to get started setting up my camp.
| | 02:21 | The light is still a little flat, so I
don't really feel like doing that much shooting
| | 02:24 | right now, and I hate
setting up my tent in the dark.
| | 02:26 | So I'm going to go ahead and get camp set up.
| | 02:28 | And then I'll be able to go out
shooting when the light gets good.
| | 02:31 | As you know, I flew here and I rented this car.
| | 02:35 | When you're camping by airplane it gets a
little complicated because you can't bring
| | 02:40 | camping fuel with you.
| | 02:42 | And you might have trouble packing all of
your gear, so I actually didn't all of my
| | 02:45 | normal camping gear.
| | 02:47 | I brought my backpack and my tent and my
sleeping bag and my sleeping pad, but I found a place
| | 02:51 | ahead of time to rent some camping gear.
| | 02:53 | So I was able to rent a stove and
some of the other things that I need.
| | 02:57 | That saved me from having to bring that stuff.
| | 02:59 | If you're going somewhere where you can't rent
gear, a lot of times what I'll do is make sure
| | 03:04 | ahead of time that there's place that I can
buy fuel for my stove, and then I'll go ahead
| | 03:07 | and just check that with the rest of my baggage on
the airplane and pick up fuel when I get there.
| | 03:12 | Rental is also a great
thing to do for camera gear.
| | 03:15 | Like I mentioned earlier, I'm normally
not a big telephoto lens shooter.
| | 03:18 | I don't have really fast, really long
lenses, and they're pretty expensive to buy,
| | 03:24 | so I don't really want to invest in one for
the two or three times out if the year when
| | 03:28 | I want to use one.
| | 03:29 | So lens rental is a great way to go.
| | 03:31 | I can rent some lenses to kind of buttress
my collection for a trip like this or if I'm
| | 03:35 | curious about something, if I want to try a
different kind of lens, maybe a tilt-shift
| | 03:39 | lens or some specialty lens or a really fast
version of a lens that I already have, lens
| | 03:44 | rental is a great way to go.
| | 03:46 | Don't worry if there's no place where you
live to rent camera gear; online rental is
| | 03:50 | a great way to go.
| | 03:51 | It's very affordable. It's a
really efficient way of renting lenses.
| | 03:54 | You can keep them for a good amount of
time without having to pay a fortune.
| | 03:58 | So don't forget about lens rental and
trying out some new things when you go.
| | 04:02 | So I want to start getting set up.
| | 04:03 | It's little bit cooler than I was expecting,
so I'll be glad to get moving around and get
| | 04:07 | out in the sun where I can do some shooting.
| | 04:09 | So I'm going to try and get my camp set up
so that I can get out on the trail soon.
| | 04:14 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Packing strategies| 00:00 | All right! First of all, let me say I
never actually set up a tent this quickly.
| | 00:04 | I particularly don't
set up this tent this quickly.
| | 00:07 | I borrowed this tent from a friend and it turned out
to be much more of a tent then I bargained for.
| | 00:11 | It actually says on the side that it's a
manor and I believe that I think it's bigger than
| | 00:15 | the room I was staying in back at the resort.
| | 00:17 | So I'm excited about this.
| | 00:18 | I'm living in the lap of luxury
here in the middle of nowhere.
| | 00:21 | Something that's actually good about a tent
the size is if the weather turns bad, I can
| | 00:25 | get all my gear into it.
| | 00:26 | Of course, I could also put it in the car,
but sometimes you don't have that much time
| | 00:29 | with weather changing quickly.
| | 00:31 | We don't have to worry about that here--the
weather is going to fine--but that is something
| | 00:34 | you need to think about when you're out
camping obviously, or even just doing long, long day
| | 00:38 | hikes in the city or the
country, is inclement weather.
| | 00:43 | Your camera is much more durable than you
probably think it is. Just because it's raining
| | 00:46 | outside doesn't mean you shouldn't go out and
shoot. But if it's a real downpour, obviously
| | 00:50 | you need a way of keeping your stuff dry.
| | 00:52 | So I'm glad that I could retreat into
the manor that I've set up if needed to.
| | 00:58 | So, this is what I brought.
| | 00:59 | I have culled my gear down.
| | 01:02 | I've packed a bunch of it away at the
hotel and I've chosen to bring mostly this.
| | 01:06 | It's still lot of gear, because I've got the
great luxury of course of traveling by car.
| | 01:10 | For the most part,
I have brought all my lenses.
| | 01:13 | I ditched one of them, and
that was my 50 mm f/1.2 lens,
| | 01:18 | for the simple reason that honestly I
don't do a lot of shooting at 50 mm.
| | 01:22 | I know Cartier-Bresson used that
lens exclusively, but he was a genius.
| | 01:26 | I just usually find that I want something
a little wider or a little more telephoto.
| | 01:31 | I love it for its speed.
| | 01:33 | It's a great portrait lens, it's not
something that I typically find myself using out here,
| | 01:36 | and it's heavy, so I left it behind.
| | 01:39 | So what I've got is pretty similar to
what I had working around the towns.
| | 01:43 | I've got my walk around lens, my 24-105.
Again this gives me a little bit of wide angle,
| | 01:48 | little bit of telephoto,
reasonable speed at f/4 all the way across.
| | 01:52 | I have my 16-35 f/2.8.
| | 01:54 | This is probably the lens that I'm going to
be using the most around the campsite or
| | 01:58 | here under the trees.
| | 02:00 | It gives me a really nice wide angle that
I can use for composing with the kinds of
| | 02:05 | things that you find in the forest.
| | 02:07 | I have two long telephotos.
| | 02:08 | I've a 75-300 that has--that can go 3. 5 -5.
| | 02:14 | 6 across its range, or I have
this 70-200 that is 2.8 all the way across.
| | 02:20 | This is a heavy lens.
| | 02:21 | It's a big lens, and it doesn't quite have
the reach of this lens, so why would I choose
| | 02:25 | this over this? It's a faster lens and
it's actually just better-quality glass.
| | 02:29 | It's got this extra kick in them contrast
that this lens just doesn't quite have.
| | 02:34 | This is a great lens for those times when
I want the extra reach and I want shallow
| | 02:39 | depth of field or if I'm needing to get
my shutter speed up to stop some motion.
| | 02:43 | So, I think for some of the hiking that I'm
going to be doing, I'm going to be carrying
| | 02:47 | this lens instead of this lens, because there
are some birds around here and I think I might
| | 02:50 | like to try a little bit of wildlife shooting.
| | 02:53 | I have my micro lens,
which could be fun around here.
| | 02:55 | I haven't had a chance to look too much into
macro possibilities around here. And I've got
| | 03:00 | my fisheye that I've been playing
with and I'm still really enjoying.
| | 03:03 | I'm not going to carry all
of these lenses at once.
| | 03:07 | So even out here, I'm going to be making the same
kind of decisions that I was making in town.
| | 03:11 | I'm going to say, you
know, today I'm doing birds.
| | 03:13 | I'm going to really
practice my wildlife photography.
| | 03:15 | I'm going to pack this
lens and my walk-around lens.
| | 03:18 | I might even pack both of these because this
one has a little bit longer reach, but I know
| | 03:22 | I really want to kind of get better at that
and practice that. It's not my usual thing.
| | 03:27 | If it is your usual thing, then you're certainly
going to want to spend at least a day just doing that.
| | 03:31 | On another day, I might again decide to commit
to some macro stuff, maybe not all day, but
| | 03:35 | maybe I want to spend a morning doing that.
| | 03:37 | In either situation, I'm going
to take my walk-around lens.
| | 03:39 | It always goes with me.
| | 03:41 | I'm also going to head out
and just do some hiking.
| | 03:43 | Now, some of these lens
decisions depend simply on weight.
| | 03:47 | What am I going to carry? I want to carry
quite a few lenses, but I also need to carry
| | 03:52 | water for the hike.
| | 03:54 | I need to maybe carry some snacks, maybe a rain jacket
or something with sleeves in case it gets colder.
| | 03:59 | So, I need a bag that's big enough to carry
all that, but more importantly, I need something
| | 04:02 | that's going to distribute
the weight on both shoulders.
| | 04:04 | I don't like carrying two or three or four
lenses, four heavy lenses on a shoulder bag.
| | 04:09 | It makes my neck hurt.
| | 04:11 | So I've got this backpack
that I'm going to be using.
| | 04:14 | Now, I've got a couple of other
accessories that I like to have with me.
| | 04:17 | I am going to be hiking with my tripod again,
because this is just day hiking and I'm down
| | 04:22 | here under the trees.
| | 04:22 | There is some running water down there.
| | 04:24 | I think I may want the opportunity to set up
and trying to do some blurry water shots,
| | 04:28 | so I also have a neutral-density filter.
| | 04:31 | This is a variable neutral-density filter, so
rather than having to carry a lot of filters
| | 04:35 | that I stack up, this is
kind of like a polarizer.
| | 04:38 | I can dial it to get
different amounts of ND effect.
| | 04:42 | So this is a nice lightweight way of
dealing with a lot of filter situations.
| | 04:47 | I've still got my infrared, because I've
been playing with that, got extra media, I've a
| | 04:51 | remote control, a wireless remote control,
because I was thinking, it might be fun to
| | 04:54 | do some self-portraits
or something around here.
| | 04:57 | I have, for power, my car.
| | 05:02 | I know that my batteries are really good here.
| | 05:04 | I've got, on this Canon camera,
my batteries will last for days.
| | 05:08 | Now it's a tricky thing is I've got a lot
of batteries and some are newer than others.
| | 05:13 | And so I've marked them according to their
age, and I'm very careful about what battery
| | 05:17 | I put in here. I have maybe five batteries.
| | 05:19 | I don't want to bring them all with me on
this trip, so I left a lot of them behind
| | 05:22 | at the hotel room. I brought
only the really good ones.
| | 05:25 | I can charge those in the car.
| | 05:28 | This looks like a pretty
normal battery charger.
| | 05:29 | I slip the battery in here and it can plug
in to the wall, but it can also plug into
| | 05:33 | a cigarette lighter adapter.
| | 05:35 | This is not a Canon battery charger.
| | 05:38 | This is an--I don't
know what battery charger.
| | 05:40 | It's just a generic
charger that I found on Amazon.
| | 05:42 | This with the card charger was only $15.
| | 05:46 | Normally Canon sells just the charger for 35
or more, so these are really great bargains
| | 05:52 | for getting a good
variety of charging options.
| | 05:55 | So, I've got a battery in here now that I
think is going to last a couple of days.
| | 05:59 | That might be all that I need.
| | 06:01 | If I need to charge, I can charge it up in
the car, and very often on a trip like this,
| | 06:05 | you might be driving other places.
| | 06:06 | There is another trailhead up the road that
I want to go to, so that's a chance to get
| | 06:10 | my battery some juice. Or if you're not in
a camping situation, again, if you're in a
| | 06:13 | backpacking-across-Europe kind of situation,
if you rented a car, you can charge it there.
| | 06:17 | Otherwise, you can charge in whatever hotel rooms
you're staying in when you get there in the evening.
| | 06:22 | So I'm good for power.
| | 06:23 | For storage, I've got a fair amount of
media cards, but in the evening I'm going to be
| | 06:27 | offloading them to my--in this case it's a
HyperDrive. So this is simply a hard drive
| | 06:33 | with a media slot, so I'll
be dumping my cards in here.
| | 06:36 | I am then going to not erase the cards
until I need them again and so in that way I'll
| | 06:40 | have a little bit of redundancy.
| | 06:41 | We'll look at that again later.
| | 06:43 | I did not bring a computer.
I brought an iPad.
| | 06:46 | So in the evening if I want, I might be
transferring images to the iPad, not for storage, but because
| | 06:51 | I may want to see if I got good
results from what I was trying to do.
| | 06:53 | I may want to go ahead and start some
editing and I may want to prepare some images for
| | 06:57 | sending off somewhere else.
| | 06:58 | I have no connectivity here, but that
doesn't mean I couldn't find some nearby.
| | 07:02 | So, that's my setup here.
| | 07:04 | Of course, I've also just got the
normal things that I need for hiking.
| | 07:06 | I got good hiking shoes on.
| | 07:08 | Again, I've got a pack.
| | 07:10 | This pack in addition to carrying camera
gear can also carry a CamelBak hydration pack,
| | 07:15 | so this is how I can carry water on the
trail, got some snacks, that kind of thing.
| | 07:19 | The light starting to turn good.
| | 07:21 | I want to get out there on the trail, so I'm
going to start packing my bag and head out
| | 07:24 | to start shooting.
| | 07:29 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Shooting strategies| 00:02 | When you're ready to hit the trail of course
the first thing you've got to do is pack your
| | 00:05 | shooting bag, and again you've got to decide
what kind of shooting you think you want to do.
| | 00:09 | I decided to outfit with my walk-around lens
because it's very reversible, my wide-angle
| | 00:14 | and my fisheye, because it's taken the
bulk of the day to get here to the camp site.
| | 00:18 | I don't think I am going to go that far,
and this river near here looks really nice and
| | 00:22 | it's still got some dappled light on it.
| | 00:23 | So I am just going to stay around the river,
and that's about being in a space that's enclosed
| | 00:28 | with a lot of trees.
| | 00:29 | So I think I am probably mostly
going to want wide-angle stuff.
| | 00:32 | So I'm throwing that in the bag.
| | 00:34 | I've taken some food, flashlight just because you
never know when you might end up staying out after dark.
| | 00:40 | I've got a knife, which can come in handy for
cutting branches out of the way and that kind of thing.
| | 00:44 | And I got my wireless remote control,
because I am thinking some self-portraits might be
| | 00:48 | fun if the light is still good.
| | 00:50 | Curious thing about bags. It's--I don't know
what the actual definition of fetish is, but
| | 00:55 | I've definitely got a thing about bags.
| | 00:57 | The search for the perfect camera bag is both
exhilarating and really frustrating, because
| | 01:03 | there is no such thing as
the perfect camera bag.
| | 01:05 | On the upside, that means you
need a whole bunch of them.
| | 01:07 | The thing about a bag is, for a long time I
was thinking I've got to have one really easy
| | 01:11 | access to every single thing that I
am carrying, and that's not true.
| | 01:15 | I need easy access to the things
that I'm using a lot, like lenses.
| | 01:19 | Things like my infrared filter, my neutral-
density filter, my remote control, I'll use
| | 01:24 | those maybe once or twice on a trip.
| | 01:26 | I don't have to have instant-
ready access to those all the time.
| | 01:29 | It's okay if I need to stop, take the bag off, dig
those out, and then put them back when I've done.
| | 01:34 | So don't get hung up on,
| | 01:35 | well, this bag is great for this,
but I can't get to that really easily.
| | 01:38 | You only need this easy access to
the stuff that you regularly use.
| | 01:41 | I really like this bag pack,
because it's got a lot of space.
| | 01:45 | It evenly distributes the
weight on both shoulders.
| | 01:48 | But I can sling it off one shoulder, get into
it, dig the lenses out that I need, and make
| | 01:53 | my lens changes very comfortably without
having to take it completely off, and then I can
| | 01:57 | get it slung back on. Now occasionally I get a little
bit tangled up in it and to be honest, that doesn't bother
| | 02:02 | me that much because that's not something
I need to be looking at while I am doing.
| | 02:06 | I can feel my weight through it and while I
am doing that, I look around for other shots.
| | 02:10 | Same way with the tripod.
| | 02:11 | Setting up the tripod, taking it down, it's a
chance to look at the area around you while
| | 02:15 | you're adjusting your tripod.
| | 02:17 | I also really love this tripod.
| | 02:19 | It's a great lightweight, very sturdy,
very durable tripod that's great for hiking.
| | 02:25 | I have a larger tripod that I use if I'm working at
home or if I'm not going to be carrying it a lot.
| | 02:32 | It gets me a little more
altitude on my camera.
| | 02:34 | It's got a few more features.
| | 02:35 | But this has pretty much everything I need
for most of the type of stuff that I want
| | 02:39 | to do out in an environment like this.
| | 02:41 | One of the most critical is that the
legs can be extended straight out.
| | 02:45 | That lets me stabilize the
camera very low to the ground.
| | 02:48 | So if I am wanting to get low-angle
shots I can set up my tripod for that.
| | 02:52 | Of course, your tripod head is critical.
| | 02:54 | I really love these ball head.
This is the Acratech ultimate ballhead.
| | 02:58 | It's single motion to get my
camera position. It's all open.
| | 03:02 | It's very easy to clean and
it weighs less than pound.
| | 03:05 | So tripod and head selection is very critical.
| | 03:08 | I am using a camera that
has two media slots in it.
| | 03:13 | That means it can take both a compact
flash and an SD card at the same time.
| | 03:18 | Now there are a few different advantages to
this, and we're going to look at some others
| | 03:22 | when we get to that scenario.
| | 03:24 | What I'm using it for here though is in
the SD slot I'm keeping an Eye-Fi card.
| | 03:29 | This is a normal SD card.
| | 03:31 | It's a pretty speedy SD card.
| | 03:33 | It's got 8 GB of storage, but it
also got a Wi-Fi transmitter in it.
| | 03:38 | That means it can automatically
communicate with other Wi-Fi devices.
| | 03:41 | I decided that I wanted to take a self-portrait,
because when I get back to it an area with
| | 03:45 | some connectivity I want
send out a picture of myself.
| | 03:49 | And the type self-portrait I wanted to take,
I wanted to really show the trees around me,
| | 03:52 | so I needed a really wide angle.
| | 03:53 | It was something that I
couldn't do with my phone.
| | 03:55 | It's hard to do self-portraits with
the phone, other than an arm's length.
| | 03:58 | I knew I wanted a winder vantage point.
| | 04:00 | It was kind of dark.
I needed a higher ISO.
| | 04:01 | It was really a job from a SLR.
| | 04:04 | So I shot through the Eye-Fi card
rather than to my normal compact flash card.
| | 04:08 | When we get back to camp you'll why I did that.
| | 04:10 | I can actually transmit that image directly
to my phone and later I'll be able to
| | 04:15 | send it out somewhere.
| | 04:17 | This strap is something that I've used in
other lynda courses and I get lots of email,
| | 04:22 | people wanting to know what it is.
| | 04:23 | It's not exactly a strap so much as a sling.
| | 04:26 | The camera slides up and down the very easily.
| | 04:29 | This is something called a Luma loop made by Luma
Labs and unfortunately, they don't make it anymore.
| | 04:34 | There are other camera slings out there.
| | 04:36 | I don't like any of them
nearly as much as this one.
| | 04:38 | So if you're interested in this kind of
mechanism, take a look at some slings.
| | 04:42 | It's very convenient, because your camera
just hangs out down here by your hip and you
| | 04:46 | slide it up and down.
| | 04:47 | Whether you're using a sling or a normal
camera strap, I really recommend one that's got a
| | 04:52 | release mechanism up here
for getting the camera off.
| | 04:55 | This is great if you're
working with a tripod.
| | 04:57 | I can just pop it off the strap,
stick it on a tripod, and pop it back on.
| | 05:01 | So it's a much easier than having to take it off
over my head, particularly if you've got a pack on.
| | 05:06 | You may have noticed that I'm keeping the
camera strap underneath the backpack strap.
| | 05:10 | That's why I can get the
backpack slung off one shoulder.
| | 05:14 | Finally, one last thing: a lot of times you
set out into an environment like this with
| | 05:18 | a particular something in
mind and you don't find it.
| | 05:22 | Very often, tromping through the woods
you don't what you're going to find.
| | 05:25 | Same thing tromping
through a little European town.
| | 05:28 | If you don't find images that your were hoping to
get or if you just feel like, well, I don't know,
| | 05:33 | I am not really seeing anything, then
just relax and start playing with light.
| | 05:38 | That's what I started doing here.
| | 05:41 | Shooting inside of forest is hard.
| | 05:42 | There are all these lines everywhere, and it's hard
to shoot the whole forest for the trees, if you will.
| | 05:48 | So I just started looking for the
interesting light and working that.
| | 05:50 | I started playing with the
geometry of the trees and working that.
| | 05:53 | So I was very glad that I
had my wide-angle lenses.
| | 05:55 | That was the right choice for this situation,
because it allowed me to just fall into an almost
| | 06:01 | purely mechanical mode of, I'm just going to
start doing exercises until I start seeing
| | 06:05 | something and working with the lines, working
with light and shadow really got my eyes going.
| | 06:10 | And I feel like after while I've got warmed
up to the environment than I was in and I
| | 06:14 | started seeing more things that were more
interesting to me than when I first set out.
| | 06:19 | Again, that's partly because I made the
right gear choice and partly, that's experience.
| | 06:23 | Pay attention to the lenses that you're using
in a particular circumstance, the lenses that
| | 06:26 | work out well for you in particular
circumstances, and you will have an easier time choosing
| | 06:32 | the right lenses when you go
into that circumstance again later.
| | 06:37 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Post-processing on location| 00:01 | One thing to remember about sunset:
no matter what your almanac tells you, if you're in
| | 00:04 | a canyon or a valley, the sun is going to
go down sooner than you thought it was, and
| | 00:08 | that's going to impact your shooting--you're
going to have less light--but also, if you
| | 00:12 | head out hiking, you may be hiking back
in the dark when you weren't expecting it.
| | 00:15 | So that's a good
reason to carry a flashlight.
| | 00:18 | It's time for post-production.
| | 00:19 | Even though I am in the field, I still get
to do post-production, but it's going to be
| | 00:22 | very different than it was when I was back in
my room, because I am carrying very different
| | 00:26 | gear. I didn't bring a computer.
| | 00:28 | Instead, the bulk of my post-production is
going to center around this gizmo right here.
| | 00:33 | This is a HyperDrive.
| | 00:35 | It is basically a hard drive, a tiny
title hard drive, with media slots.
| | 00:39 | Now, the HyperDrive is not the only one of
these that you can get. Epson makes one. A
| | 00:43 | company called Digital Foci makes one.
| | 00:45 | There are a lot of others.
| | 00:46 | Some of them have screens that let you
review your images, some of them don't.
| | 00:49 | The idea is I put my card in and
it gets transferred to the drive.
| | 00:52 | And it's a large drive, so I
can fit a lot of images on here.
| | 00:55 | So I am just going to go to my camera and take out
my compact flash card and stick it in the HyperDrive.
| | 01:02 | Now, once I do that, it can read it and
copy all of the images automatically.
| | 01:08 | It's got its own little operating
system, its own little set of controls.
| | 01:11 | So I can review images.
| | 01:13 | I can look at them on here.
| | 01:14 | One advantage of the HyperDrive over some
other similar devices though, is that this
| | 01:18 | can actually talk to the iPad.
| | 01:19 | After I have copied images to this, I can
plug it into the iPad and the iPad basically
| | 01:24 | just thinks of it as a camera.
| | 01:25 | So I am here. I am going to go over
here and just tell it to start importing.
| | 01:28 | I am going to say Import All.
| | 01:30 | I can also ask it to import only new images
since the last time I imported from the
| | 01:34 | same card, so if you're not erasing
your card, that's a good way to go.
| | 01:37 | And you can see here that
it's going to copy them.
| | 01:39 | It's estimating that it's going to take,
| | 01:41 | well, right now, a little over five
minutes, which is a good speedy transfer.
| | 01:46 | Transfer speed depends a lot
on the speed of your card.
| | 01:49 | So that's taken care of my main image backup.
| | 01:52 | Every night I will come home
and dump my cards into there.
| | 01:55 | Right now I am thinking that I
am not going to erase the cards.
| | 01:57 | After I copy them into here, I'll take the
card out and I'll put it back in my little
| | 02:01 | card case, and I'll put it face down to indicate
that its got images on it that have been copied
| | 02:05 | to the HyperDrive. I'll grab another card, put it in
the camera, and shoot off of that.
| | 02:08 | That way I don't have to erase any
cards until I am out of storage.
| | 02:12 | It may be that I get all the way back to my
computer before I need to erase any cards,
| | 02:17 | and that means I am redundant.
| | 02:18 | I've got the images still on my card
and I've got them on the HyperDrive.
| | 02:22 | So this is just one storage strategy.
| | 02:24 | If you don't have that many cards, you can
obviously reformat the card after you've gone
| | 02:28 | to the HyperDrive.
| | 02:29 | I've used these types of devices a lot
and I have, so far, never lost an image.
| | 02:36 | If you are feeling particularly nervous about
this kind of thing, you can carry two of these
| | 02:40 | and it's still much
lighter than carrying a laptop.
| | 02:42 | Then you've got redundancy.
Then you can erase your cards.
| | 02:45 | This is the cheapest price per megabyte of
any storage media you can get, but still, cards
| | 02:50 | are pretty cheap, so it's not
unreasonable to just carry a bunch of cards.
| | 02:53 | Now, I've got some other
things that I want to do.
| | 02:55 | Earlier you saw me shoot a self-portrait in
the middle of a river, as one does, and I
| | 02:59 | shot that to my camera's Eye-Fi card.
| | 03:02 | The Eye-Fi card is a little secure
digital card, just like any others.
| | 03:08 | It's a speedy card.
| | 03:09 | It has got 8 gigabytes of storage, and it has
got a built-in little Wi-Fi transmitter in it.
| | 03:14 | With that card I can communicate from
my camera directly to my smartphone.
| | 03:19 | In this case, I am using an Apple iPhone,
but this will also work with an Android phone.
| | 03:23 | The way it works is the Wi-Fi transmitter in
here just connects up to the Wi-Fi in my phone.
| | 03:29 | To make that happen, I need
to enable Eye-Fi on my camera.
| | 03:34 | So I am going to turn that on here.
| | 03:36 | And if you have a compatible camera--and the
Eye-Fi card is not compatible with all cameras;
| | 03:42 | you can find a list of it on the Eye-Fi web site--
if your camera is compatible, there's a way
| | 03:47 | to come in and activate, or in this
case, enable Eye-Fi transmission.
| | 03:53 | So that's set up.
| | 03:54 | Now, on my phone I have an Eye-Fi application.
| | 03:58 | This is a free application that
you can get from the App Store.
| | 04:01 | And once Eye-Fi is activated, the camera
will automatically start sending any new images
| | 04:09 | directly to the phone, new images being
images that have not already been transferred.
| | 04:14 | And so here they come.
| | 04:15 | I've got raw images.
| | 04:16 | I've got JPEGs, because I was
shooting both raw plus JPEG.
| | 04:19 | I shot raw images because I want to be able to edit
them with my full suite of raw controls when I get home.
| | 04:25 | I shot JPEG images because I thought, well,
I'll go ahead and have a small JPEG file that
| | 04:29 | can just beam to the phone and now I can
edit that JPEG file and when I'm done, email it
| | 04:35 | out through the phone's cellular connection,
or post it to my Facebook page or whatever.
| | 04:39 | I don't have a cellular connection here.
| | 04:40 | That's one of the
reasons I came here actually.
| | 04:42 | I don't have a cellular connection here,
but when I get back into cellular coverage, I'll
| | 04:46 | be able to do that.
| | 04:47 | So what's nice about this is without a
computer, it's still a way for me to send some images
| | 04:52 | from my camera out to the rest of
the world while I am still gone.
| | 04:55 | In other words, I can bore people with my
vacation pictures before I even get home.
| | 04:59 | But that's kind of the age we live in now.
| | 05:02 | I need to make some
decisions about how to use it.
| | 05:04 | You may think, why aren't you shooting to
the Eye-Fi card all the time? Well, it's only
| | 05:07 | 8 gigabytes and it's $100
for those 8 gigabytes.
| | 05:10 | I can get a lot more storage than that for the
same amount of money buying non-Eye-Fi cards.
| | 05:15 | So the way I am using it here is, when
there's something that I think I am going to want
| | 05:19 | to transmit out of my phone later,
I'll tell it to store it on the Eye-Fi card.
| | 05:23 | Again, I've got two media slots.
| | 05:24 | If I didn't, I would simply take
out one card and put in another.
| | 05:27 | There are other uses for Eye-Fi.
| | 05:29 | If you are shooting in a city where there's a
lot of Wi-Fi access around, you can be shooting
| | 05:34 | and the camera can automatically be going
out through Wi-Fi connections in cafes or
| | 05:39 | anywhere you've got free Wi-Fi and
going up to the cloud in various forms.
| | 05:42 | If you're shooting in a studio, it's an easy
way of doing a wireless tethered situation
| | 05:46 | back to your computer.
| | 05:47 | So a lot of nice uses for that card.
| | 05:49 | Here I am using it simply as a way to give me
cellular transmission of my images out of my SLR.
| | 05:54 | Finally, I have my iPad with me.
| | 05:58 | I am going to use this just to get a better
look at some of the images that I've shot.
| | 06:01 | I want to know if I've got certain pictures, because
if not, I may want to go back tomorrow and get them.
| | 06:05 | It's a bigger screen.
| | 06:07 | It's nicer to look at.
I can edit on it.
| | 06:09 | That said, the iPad is not a full replacement
for my computer, in terms of post-production.
| | 06:15 | I still can't get the post-production
workflow that I want out of the iPad.
| | 06:19 | And by that I mean, I
normally shoot raw files.
| | 06:22 | I want to be able to edit with
all of my normal raw controls.
| | 06:24 | I want to be able to edit white balance
and recover highlights and all that stuff.
| | 06:28 | I want my edits to be done nondestructively.
| | 06:30 | And when I get home I want to be able to
take that back into my normal workflow.
| | 06:34 | I cannot do that with the iPad.
| | 06:36 | If you're a JPEG shooter, things are better.
| | 06:38 | You can import your JPEGs, you can edit them,
you take them back out, and it's pretty much
| | 06:41 | going to be the same
workflow that you have at home.
| | 06:43 | But if you're a raw shooter,
things are more complicated.
| | 06:45 | Now, you may think, well,
I won't do any editing.
| | 06:47 | I'll do the other parts of my
workflow. I'll rate images,
| | 06:49 | I'll keyword them, and when I get home I'll
pour all that back into my system at home.
| | 06:53 | No, you can't do that either yet.
| | 06:55 | There's just not any software available.
| | 06:56 | So what I am using the iPad for in the field
is more of the social networking kind of stuff.
| | 07:01 | I can get images in here, look at them on
my nice big screen, make sure I got what I
| | 07:04 | wanted, and then when I get back to Wi-Fi,
I can spill them out into the world.
| | 07:09 | If you have a 3G or a 4G iPad, then obviously you
could do that without having a Wi-Fi connection.
| | 07:15 | I have only a Wi-Fi-only, a Wi-Fi iPad.
| | 07:18 | Poor me! This is why I've come
out to the middle of nowhere.
| | 07:21 | I can't stand the
embarrassment of having only a Wi-Fi iPad.
| | 07:24 | What I am doing now is plugging
in my iPad camera connection kit.
| | 07:29 | This is basically a USB cable.
| | 07:31 | You can buy these at Best Buy or
off at Amazon, any Apple Store.
| | 07:36 | You get two different gizmos.
| | 07:38 | You get an iPad dock connector
that's got a USB port in it.
| | 07:43 | So this allows me to take a normal USB cable
out of my camera and stick it in the iPad.
| | 07:48 | And as long as the camera is turned on,
it will automatically appear and show me all
| | 07:54 | of the images that are on the current card.
| | 07:58 | So I am going to select the
ones that I want to transfer.
| | 08:00 | I can import them all or I can
just import some selected ones.
| | 08:02 | The great thing about just importing selected ones is
that I don't have to chew up all my iPad storage.
| | 08:07 | This is a 64 gig iPad, but I've got it half
full of other junk movies and crossword puzzle
| | 08:12 | applications and things like that.
| | 08:13 | So I don't really want to dump everything
on here because I am going to be shooting
| | 08:16 | a lot more than that.
| | 08:17 | My goal is to pick the select
things that I want to work with.
| | 08:19 | Hit the Import button, Import
Selected, and they come in.
| | 08:23 | They go right to my camera roll, and now it's
just like any image that I would have shot
| | 08:27 | with the phone or imported any other way.
| | 08:29 | When it's done, I can get to work editing them.
| | 08:32 | The bulk of my field workflow with this
configuration is built around, in this case, my HyperDrive,
| | 08:39 | because I didn't bring a computer and
this is a great mass storage device.
| | 08:44 | I may or may not be erasing my cards, depending on if I
need them, so I may or may not have some redundancy.
| | 08:49 | Thanks to the Eye-Fi card in my camera,
which I will use sometimes, I can get images out
| | 08:54 | of the camera, into my phone,
without having any wireless access point.
| | 08:58 | They just talk directly to each other.
| | 09:00 | That gives the ability to email images out of my
phone over a cellular connection when I get that back.
| | 09:06 | And then finally, I've got my iPad, which is
going to let me look at images on a bigger screen.
| | 09:10 | It's got limited storage, so I am
not going to pour everything into it.
| | 09:12 | I am going to pick and choose my images,
figure out things that I might want to email out
| | 09:16 | later when I get back to a Wi-Fi connection.
| | 09:18 | I like this setup.
| | 09:19 | It's lightweight.
It works well for camping.
| | 09:22 | It works well for taking trains across Asia,
whatever it is you're doing where you don't
| | 09:26 | want to be burdened by the bulk and
lower battery life of a computer.
| | 09:30 | However, I think you're going to see that
when I go ultra lightweight for backpacking,
| | 09:34 | I am going to pare this down even further.
| | 09:39 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
6. In the Field: Ultra-Light RigGetting there| 00:02 | I'm on to the third part of my trip, and this is
the part I've really been looking forward to.
| | 00:06 | I got rid of the car,
| | 00:08 | I got rid of most of my gear, and I'm down
to just a backpack. I've hit the trail and
| | 00:13 | I'm out here in this
beautiful spot for a few days.
| | 00:15 | Obviously, I have had to really pare
down not just my camera, but everything.
| | 00:19 | In packing for a situation like this,
obviously you start with what you need to survive.
| | 00:24 | So I've got, you know, food and a stove and a place
to sleep and clothes and all that kind of stuff.
| | 00:30 | With the space left over I can think
about what my camera gear is going to be.
| | 00:34 | Now this ultra-light shooting situation is
not just for people who go backcountry. Even
| | 00:40 | if you never set a foot off the pavement, you
might still benefit from the type of approach
| | 00:44 | that I'm going to show you here.
| | 00:46 | Let's say you are a business traveler who's on
the road for a week going to the nine different
| | 00:52 | cities and you want to--you don't want to
check anything; you just want to carry your
| | 00:55 | bags. You're going to be
in and out of airports.
| | 00:57 | You want to be able to move very nimbly and
quickly, so you might think about a real ultra-light
| | 01:01 | situation like this.
| | 01:04 | Maybe you're doing a variation of what we
talk about in the last scenario. You're training
| | 01:08 | it or bussing it across Europe and
you want to go as light as possible.
| | 01:12 | So, you're going to ditch the computer, you're
not going to carrying any post-production, and
| | 01:16 | you are just going to go with a
really light shooting situation.
| | 01:17 | In any of those cases you're going
to want to do what I've done here.
| | 01:21 | So, what I've done is I've
gotten rid of most of the lenses.
| | 01:23 | I am down to just two lenses.
| | 01:25 | I'm carry my walk-around lens, which is like
24 to 105, which gets me most of what I need.
| | 01:31 | And I was going to do just that.
| | 01:33 | I was going to carry just the one lens,
but then I check the weather and found out that
| | 01:37 | it's not going to rain or anything.
| | 01:38 | It's not going to be too cold, so I realized I
could ditch the tent and just take a sleeping
| | 01:42 | bag and a sleeping pad and
that would buy me three or four pounds.
| | 01:46 | So I decided to also bring my 16 to 35.
| | 01:48 | That gives me a range of 16 to 105, which is really
going to cover most of what I do 95% of the time.
| | 01:56 | Now, as I've said before, I
tend to like wide angles.
| | 01:58 | I don't do a lot of really telephoto shooting.
| | 02:00 | If you're the opposite of me, then you could
take a walk-around lens and something with
| | 02:05 | some extra telephoto reach, or find a
walk-around lens that maybe doesn't go as wide,
| | 02:09 | but goes a little farther in the long end.
| | 02:11 | So that gets me, I think, all I'm
going to need for most of my shooting.
| | 02:15 | Now, I am on a loop here.
| | 02:17 | I'm going to end up where I started,
but I've only got so much food.
| | 02:20 | I've got a kind of get through this in a set
amount of time. So I'm not going to be stopping
| | 02:25 | anywhere for a day and shooting;
| | 02:26 | I'm just going to be shooting as I'm
walking from place to place every day.
| | 02:30 | And so that's another reason I don't feel like I
need a tremendous amount of shooting flexibility.
| | 02:35 | For storage, I've gotten rid of the computer.
| | 02:38 | I'm not carrying an iPad. I have no
post-production capability of any kind.
| | 02:41 | You'll see how that's going to
work when I get camp set up tonight.
| | 02:44 | For power I've got solar
and I'll show you that later.
| | 02:47 | It was a real struggle, but I
decided I'm not carrying a tripod.
| | 02:51 | It's heavy, I've got to figure out a way to carry it,
and I'm probably going to mostly be in daylight.
| | 02:56 | I just decided it's not worth it.
| | 02:58 | I would rather be a little more comfortable.
| | 03:00 | I did bring a Gorillapod. They're light.
| | 03:02 | It's not a full tripod substitute, but I can
make this work, particularly in low light where
| | 03:05 | I might want to do some stuff
tonight. So I'm glad I've got that.
| | 03:09 | I've got my normal backpack that I
just used for backcountry backpacking.
| | 03:13 | And on my hip belt I put my Spider holster.
| | 03:15 | I'm not carrying a camera bag or a shooting
bag of any kind, and I'm really liking thing.
| | 03:20 | It's keeping the weight of the camera on my
waist, on my hips, just like where the rest
| | 03:25 | of the backpack weight is.
| | 03:27 | I could've brought a shoulder bag to carry
my lenses in, but I've already got all this
| | 03:30 | weight on my shoulders from the backpack.
This would be pulling on my neck and just on one
| | 03:34 | side, so this is working out really well,
| | 03:36 | particularly given that I have a pretty
heavy camera, so I am really liking that.
| | 03:39 | It locks so it can't accidentally come out.
The camera can't come out of the rig there.
| | 03:44 | The only headache about it sometimes is if
I'm walking uphill, my legs bump into it.
| | 03:49 | So, to make up for that, I'm also
carrying the sling that I normally wear.
| | 03:53 | Now, you can also do the same thing with any
normal camera strap that has a quick release
| | 03:57 | the way my sling does.
| | 03:58 | So, if I'm walking up hill or something,
I can pop the camera out of the Spider holster
| | 04:02 | clip it on to the sling and carry it in my
hand with a little stability and then get back
| | 04:05 | on the holster again later.
| | 04:06 | So I'm really liking this setup.
| | 04:08 | I have my other lens in an
outside pouch on a backpack.
| | 04:13 | I cannot get through it while I'm wearing
the pack, nor can I get to my extra media cards
| | 04:17 | or the infrared filter or the neutral-density
filter or the remote control that I brought.
| | 04:22 | I have to stop and take the pack off.
| | 04:25 | And just like I was talking about before,
you know, if you can't get to the stuff immediately
| | 04:30 | in with these, that's really
not the end of the world,
| | 04:32 | particularly in this scenario where to be
honest I'm glad to have an excuse to stop
| | 04:37 | and take that thing off my back.
| | 04:38 | So, if I do find a situation where I want
my wide-angle lens, I can stop, take the pack
| | 04:43 | off, have some water, set up my shot, take
the shot, and put it all back all together.
| | 04:47 | So I'm finding that works very well.
| | 04:49 | I'm in a limited-lens-flexibility situation
here. That said, I have this ridiculous focal
| | 04:55 | length range of 16 to 105.
| | 04:57 | Some of the greatest photographers in the
world worked with far fewer options than that.
| | 05:03 | Nevertheless, it's not what I'm used to.
| | 05:04 | I'm used to maybe having one more lens with me.
But rather than seeing that as an obstacle,
| | 05:07 | I'm really trying to see that as an
opportunity. This is a very good exercise.
| | 05:11 | This is a way of going out and honing
your vision within a very narrow groove.
| | 05:15 | I'm working with just these focal lengths.
I am trying to see the world in terms of those
| | 05:21 | focal lengths and really learn how
these lenses work, what they're good for.
| | 05:25 | In a lot a situations, it will
make you be more creative.
| | 05:27 | I might come to a situation and go, wow,
I really wish I had a more telephoto lens, because
| | 05:31 | I want that thing way over there.
| | 05:32 | All right, maybe that means I've to get moving,
or maybe it means I need to find it different
| | 05:36 | way of expressing whatever it is I'm feeling
about that thing that's over there that or
| | 05:39 | that scene that's come before me.
| | 05:41 | So, having to go to a more refined set of
lenses doesn't necessarily create a liability.
| | 05:47 | If you work with it, you may find it frees
up your eye. It gets you seeing and thinking
| | 05:51 | in a very different way, and you may
come back with some different shots.
| | 05:55 | So I'm ready to hit the
road again. I feel rested.
| | 05:57 | I've got long way to go and when we get to
camp tonight, I'll show you some of this other
| | 06:01 | gear that I've got.
| | 06:06 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Geotagging in the field| 00:01 | So I found this beautiful location. The light is
fantastic. I have been doing some shooting around here.
| | 00:06 | There is no wind.
The temperature is perfect.
| | 00:08 | It's a great place to spend a late afternoon.
| | 00:12 | I've got to tell you, I don't have
the foggiest idea where I'm.
| | 00:15 | The process of encoding location
information into your images is called geotagging.
| | 00:21 | As you probably know, every time you take a
picture, your camera records metadata into
| | 00:26 | the image file. That's the date and time it
was shot, the shutter speed, aperture, ISO
| | 00:30 | that you were using. All of those
camera settings get embedded in the file.
| | 00:34 | There's also room in that metadata
for latitude, longitude, and altitude.
| | 00:38 | Now the problem is you have to know your latitude,
longitude, and altitude, and I don't even know
| | 00:42 | what county I'm in right now.
| | 00:44 | So, I've brought special hardware that figures out
my location and allows me to geotag my images.
| | 00:50 | You have a few different
options if you want to do this.
| | 00:53 | First, you can get a camera that has
a geotagging facility built into it.
| | 00:58 | For example, I have this
point-and-shoot camera here.
| | 01:00 | This is a Canon PowerShot S100.
| | 01:02 | It has a built-in GPS.
| | 01:04 | Every time I take a picture it figures out my
location and stores that in the image metadata.
| | 01:10 | So this is a great way of automatically getting
geotagging for images that I've shot with this camera.
| | 01:16 | I am mostly shooting with my SLR though.
| | 01:18 | However, if I come across an image that I
shoot with my SLR and I really want to know
| | 01:22 | where it was, I could take a
reference photo, if you will, with this camera.
| | 01:26 | When I get home I could look up that GPS
information in the metadata of the image from this camera
| | 01:32 | and simply copy it into that camera.
| | 01:34 | Now another option is your SLR might have
a geotagging facility of its own, either
| | 01:39 | built-in or, as in the case of my camera,
there's an extra gizmo that I can get that I slip
| | 01:44 | in the camera's hot shoe and plug into the camera and
now all of my images will automatically be geotagged.
| | 01:49 | That's another option.
| | 01:50 | I don't have one of those, because one, it's
expensive; two, it would take out my hot shoe;
| | 01:55 | and three, I've got some other
alternatives that I like even more.
| | 02:00 | This trick I mentioned with my little point-and-
shoot camera, I could also do that with my smartphone.
| | 02:04 | I've got an iPhone here, which has a GPS in
it, and every time I take a picture with the
| | 02:08 | phone's camera, it records my location.
| | 02:12 | I don't have a cell signal right now, but that
doesn't matter because my GPS is still working.
| | 02:16 | So, this is another way that I can take a
reference photo that has my location. I could
| | 02:20 | then copy that information
to the images from my SLR.
| | 02:24 | My favorite solution is this thing.
| | 02:27 | This is a geologger. This is a tiny, little
box. It barely weighs anything. The battery lasts a
| | 02:33 | good 18 to 20 hours. And what it does is, via
GPS, via satellite link, it simply keeps a
| | 02:40 | log of where I am all the time. So I turn
it on, I put in my pocket, and I just keep
| | 02:44 | it there throughout the day.
| | 02:46 | So, what happens is every second, or maybe
even more frequently, it records, oh here is
| | 02:51 | the time and here is where he was.
| | 02:53 | When I get home, I can use special syncing
software to sync up this location information
| | 02:59 | with the images from my camera.
| | 03:00 | So the way it works is the syncing software
looks at the timestamp that the camera recorded
| | 03:05 | on an image and then it comes over to my
location log and says "oh, at that time he was
| | 03:09 | in this location" and it takes that location
information and embeds that in the image.
| | 03:13 | So what's great about this is it doesn't
take up my camera's hot shoe. It doesn't drain
| | 03:18 | my camera's battery.
| | 03:19 | Its own battery lasts forever.
| | 03:20 | It doesn't really weigh anything to speak of.
It doesn't take up much space, and it works
| | 03:25 | with all my cameras.
| | 03:27 | So this $100 geologging device gets me
location information no matter what camera I'm using.
| | 03:33 | So I really like this as an option.
| | 03:37 | If you do a lot of solo backpacking or hiking
or mountain biking or motorcycling or anything
| | 03:43 | else that takes you off into the woods on your
own, you might want to consider one of these.
| | 03:47 | This is a spot, and what this is is basically a
satellite-based one-way communication device.
| | 03:54 | I can press a button and have a message go
out via satellite to a predefined mailing
| | 03:59 | list that I've set up, and that message is
also predefined, and I can set several different
| | 04:04 | messages on this device.
| | 04:05 | So I can press one button that sends a
message that I've set up to say "here's where I am" and
| | 04:09 | it sends a latitude and longitude.
| | 04:11 | It even sends a link to, I believe, a Google
Map and whoever gets the email can just click
| | 04:15 | on that and see the map.
| | 04:16 | I have set up another message to say "here's
where I am and I don't have cell phone coverage
| | 04:20 | right now, so don't bother trying to call me."
| | 04:23 | A lot of times even if I have cell
phone service, that's the button I use.
| | 04:25 | I have a couple of other buttons I can use.
One I predefined for an emergency situation. It says
| | 04:31 | "here's where I am and I need help" and that
goes out to just a few people. And then I
| | 04:35 | have finally another button that is labeled
SOS. When I press this, actual official search
| | 04:40 | and rescue teams will
hopefully come and find me.
| | 04:43 | The reason I bring this up for geotagging
is that that email that gets send out has
| | 04:48 | latitude and longitude date and time in it.
| | 04:50 | So, if I'm carrying one of these anyway and
I don't have any other geotagging devices,
| | 04:54 | this can become a little
ad hoc geotagging device.
| | 04:57 | If I take a picture and really want to
remember where I was, I can hit one of these buttons
| | 05:02 | to send a message and as long as I'm in that
mailing list, when the message comes in I will
| | 05:06 | have a record of where I was at a certain time.
| | 05:09 | I can then go ahead and copy and paste that
latitude and longitude into the appropriate image.
| | 05:14 | So these are just a few ways you can geotag
your images, that you can get location information
| | 05:18 | into your images.
| | 05:19 | Why would you want to do that?
Well, there are couples of reasons.
| | 05:23 | Once I've got that location information in
there, I can, for example, open up Lightroom
| | 05:28 | and simply see a map that
shows where I've taken pictures.
| | 05:32 | Aperture will do the same thing.
iPhoto will do the same thing.
| | 05:35 | There are lot of other applications that
will take the location information and show you
| | 05:39 | little thumbnails across the map.
Google Earth has been geotagging tools. A lot of social
| | 05:43 | networking sites have geotag-reading tools
that are very interesting, that let you sift
| | 05:48 | and sort your photos
visually based on their location.
| | 05:52 | It's also just nice because very often I get
back from a long trip and I don't recognize
| | 05:56 | a particular thing.
| | 05:57 | I don't know where it was and I get curious.
And of course as the years roll by, I'm certainly
| | 06:00 | not going to be able to remember.
| | 06:02 | So these days it's so easy
to get your images tagged,
| | 06:04 | there's kind of no reason not to.
| | 06:06 | Now I'm going to go try
and figure out where I am.
| | 06:11 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Consulting manuals in the field | 00:00 | So I am carrying this camera that I bought
just before left so I don't have a lot of
| | 00:03 | experience with it.
| | 00:04 | I have got a solar charger that I used once
or twice a year when I am out backpacking.
| | 00:08 | I have got a geologger that's got
an interface that's just arcane.
| | 00:13 | So a lot of times I get really confused with
these devices and so that might make
| | 00:17 | you think, why am I taking advice from this guy?
| | 00:20 | But really, these were the
best choices gear-wise.
| | 00:22 | It's just it's a lot of stuff to remember.
| | 00:25 | So if you find yourself in that situation a
lot, I really recommend going to the web site
| | 00:29 | of the vendor of whatever piece of gear you
are talking about and seeing if up you can
| | 00:32 | find a PDF manual for that piece of gear.
| | 00:35 | If you can, and you have a smartphone, you can get
the PDF reader for your smartphone and just
| | 00:39 | carry all your manuals around with you.
I'm using an iPhone.
| | 00:42 | There is a really good PDF reader
that I like to called Good Reader.
| | 00:45 | And I have it loaded up with manuals.
| | 00:46 | So I've got here the manual for my geologger,
a manual for my camera, a manual for my other
| | 00:52 | camera, and a bunch of other things that I've
been slowly loading in here over the years.
| | 00:56 | I may not need them, but if I do, it's a lot
lighter and easier than carrying paper. Already
| | 01:01 | on this trip I have looked up
instructions for my geotagging device.
| | 01:05 | I've looked up something about my new camera.
| | 01:07 | It's been really, really handy.
| | 01:09 | If you typically go the vendor
web site--for example, if I go there canonusa.
| | 01:13 | com, there is usually a section on drivers
and downloads. That might include manuals,
| | 01:18 | Support sometimes is the section.
Sometimes it's just a section called Downloads.
| | 01:23 | If you can't find it, do a search on the
site and if that doesn't work, just do a Google
| | 01:26 | search for your product name and manual,
| | 01:30 | and you'll probably come up with something, and you
transfer the PDF over and you are ready to go.
| | 01:34 | So it can often get you out of a scrape if
you're out in the middle of nowhere and really
| | 01:38 | wanting to use a piece of gear that you can't
figure out. Also it kind of just gives me a little
| | 01:41 | bit of extra piece of mind that I don't
need to really figure all the stuff out before
| | 01:45 | I go. Tonight, in the tent, around the camp
fire, or whatever, if I really been stuck on
| | 01:50 | a piece of gear, I can
actually dig through the manual,
| | 01:51 | because, you know, that sounds like a
fun relaxing vacation, doesn't it?
| | 01:56 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Exploring shooting strategies| 00:01 | So I found this really nice spot here.
| | 00:02 | This is where I am going to spend the
night. It's the end of the first day.
| | 00:04 | I have got this great
clear view of with the sky.
| | 00:07 | The full moon is going to be out
tonight. It should be really nice.
| | 00:09 | I've also got, here, in front
of me, all of the camera gear.
| | 00:13 | I brought this is it.
| | 00:14 | This is my ultra-light rig.
| | 00:15 | I have my SLR with my
walk-around 24 to 105 lens on it.
| | 00:20 | I have my 16 to 35, which I've been carrying
out here. One thing is, the lens is a little
| | 00:25 | exposed here. I've got to be very careful
that I don't just drop the bag down, but this
| | 00:29 | makes it easier for me to get to.
| | 00:32 | I've also got, as I mentioned before,
this little point-and-shoot camera.
| | 00:36 | This is the Canon power shot S 100, and
I showed you that it has built-in GPS.
| | 00:41 | But that's not why I've brought this camera, because I
don't need the GPS. I've got my geologging device.
| | 00:45 | I've brought this camera because it's
smaller and lighter than my macro lens for my SLR.
| | 00:51 | And it does great macro work. I can get to
within a couple of 7 meters or something.
| | 00:54 | It's got a really fast lens on it.
| | 00:56 | So this ends up being a
very, very good macro camera.
| | 00:59 | It's also nice just because it's got a little
bit more telephoto reach them my walk-around
| | 01:02 | lens and so if I keep it somewhere easy to
get to while I am on the trail, I don't actually
| | 01:07 | have to stop and change lenses, or I can
do a little more reach to what I use to.
| | 01:11 | It's also easier to shoot
video with this camera.
| | 01:14 | So it's worth dropping one of these into your
bag if it's small and light, just for the macro
| | 01:18 | capability and to have a
little more shooting flexibility.
| | 01:23 | The other things that I've got here, as I
mentioned before, my spot if I get lost. My GPS logger.
| | 01:28 | I have the wireless remote control that you
saw in the last video in case I want to set up
| | 01:33 | some self-portrait kind of things.
| | 01:34 | To facilitate that, I've got my Gorillapod.
| | 01:36 | I've got another stabilization thing which
is this bottled water here, which helps me
| | 01:40 | hydrate. Very important.
| | 01:42 | And if I drop this thing on it, I've got a
little camera support for my point-and-shoot.
| | 01:48 | I can't use my SLR with this.
| | 01:50 | I'd ideally want a bottle with a slightly
wider top so that I get some friction here.
| | 01:55 | But this will actually hold my little point-and-shoot
camera so that fun for self-portraits and things.
| | 01:59 | I brought two filters with me that I've not
used yet and without a tripod I don't know
| | 02:03 | if I will, but I thought I
would bring them anyway.
| | 02:05 | I have got my infrared and
my neutral-density filter.
| | 02:08 | The only way that I am really going able to
work with those is setting up the Gorillapod
| | 02:11 | and obviously it's very short, so
I've got limited use there.
| | 02:16 | I have no computer. I have no iPad.
| | 02:18 | I don't even have that little
HyperDrive gizmo that I showed you before.
| | 02:21 | So I've no way of copying my images anywhere.
| | 02:24 | So for storage what I've done is I've
simply brought a mess of compact flash cards.
| | 02:29 | I've just got a lot of them.
| | 02:31 | I'm thinking I've got far more storage
than I'll need to get through this trip.
| | 02:35 | So my answer to the
storage issue is simply glut.
| | 02:37 | I am carrying them all in
this case that is waterproof.
| | 02:40 | It's also shockproof.
| | 02:41 | Its going to be very hard to damage, so I am
not too worried about losing cards that I
| | 02:45 | have already shot.
| | 02:46 | Now this gets me enough media to take all
my pictures. I don't get any redundancy, but
| | 02:52 | I actually, if I want, have an option for
redundancy and that is because my camera has
| | 02:57 | two media slots on it. A lot of SLRs have this.
| | 03:00 | Now I have a compact flash
slot and I have a SD slot.
| | 03:03 | If you notice, I've still got in the SD slot my
Eye-Fi card, so I can eventually beam pictures
| | 03:08 | to my phone if I want.
| | 03:09 | There have been a few places where I've
been up on ridge and gotten a tiny little cell
| | 03:13 | signal so if I wanted, I can
actually emails and photos out.
| | 03:17 | But what's nice is I can
program this in different ways.
| | 03:19 | I can set them up so that when one card fills up
the camera automatically switches to the next.
| | 03:24 | That doesn't do any much good out here because
it's no big deal for me to stop and switch cards.
| | 03:28 | But if you have an event shooter, this is
really handy. It means you don't have to interrupt
| | 03:31 | your shoot and risk missing part of
the event while you change cards.
| | 03:35 | I can also set this up so the
different formats go on different cards.
| | 03:38 | I can, say, put raws on the compact flash, put
JPEGs on the SD card, or I could, say, put
| | 03:44 | full-res raw on one card and half-res raw
on the other, or different resolution JPEG.
| | 03:49 | I can set these up however if I have want.
| | 03:51 | Or I can tell the camera, no matter what I shoot put a
copy of each--put a copy of everything on both cards.
| | 03:57 | So if I am shooting raw or I am shooting raw
plus JPEG, it puts everything on both cards.
| | 04:01 | I can slow down my burst rate a little bit,
but in general, it's a very effective very
| | 04:05 | easy way I having getting full redundancy.
| | 04:07 | If I wanted, I could bring an equivalent
amount of SD storage to the CF storage that I have
| | 04:13 | and know that I've got two
copies of everything I shoot.
| | 04:15 | So really there's no reason to bring a
computer with you or anything else. Storage is cheap
| | 04:20 | enough these days that you should be able to get
through your trip simply by carrying a lot of media.
| | 04:25 | You can't look at any of it.
| | 04:27 | You can't edit any of it. But bear in mind
that for the history of photography that's
| | 04:30 | how thing have been.
| | 04:31 | People took rolls of film and certainly didn't
have the option of redundancy and they managed
| | 04:36 | to make do for all the time.
| | 04:39 | Power. My batteries last a good long time,
but over the course of three days I am starting
| | 04:43 | to wonder if they are going to make it all
the way. I have a spare so I am probably okay.
| | 04:47 | But I have another option and that is solar.
| | 04:50 | I've two solar chargers here with me: the
freeloader Pro which I can use to charge up
| | 04:55 | my camera and this hot tips charger which
is very small and which is actually enough
| | 04:59 | to gas up my phone if I need it.
| | 05:01 | Now what's cool about these is they are not
the solar panels that feed electricity out
| | 05:04 | of wire; they actually have batteries in them.
| | 05:07 | So I can look at these as another set of batteries,
but batteries that are capable of recharging themselves.
| | 05:12 | I can also charge these off of USB a
connection, so I charged about before I left home.
| | 05:16 | So right now I have got two fully
charged batteries to work with.
| | 05:20 | If my camera starts going, I can recharge my
batteries off of this and then set this out
| | 05:26 | in the sun again to try and charge it up.
| | 05:28 | It should be noted that it takes a
long time to charge a solar charger.
| | 05:32 | You've got to have full daylight for 7 or 8 may be
more hours to get it really completely charged.
| | 05:37 | And even when it is, it may not be capable
of completely recharging a battery. It may
| | 05:42 | get it to 50%, 75%.
| | 05:44 | It probably can get it all the way, but it
can get it far enough to keep you going.
| | 05:48 | If you keep it recharging while you're using
the partial charge it gave you, you can probably
| | 05:52 | stay ahead of it and end up with enough
power to get you through a long trip.
| | 05:56 | These are not just for backcountry; they are
just handy for anytime where it's critical
| | 06:00 | that you be able to recharge
your battery if you have to.
| | 06:03 | So that's where I'm at.
| | 06:04 | I like this setup. It's lightweight.
| | 06:06 | It's usable for a lot of different situations.
| | 06:08 | I have got the storage options that I need.
| | 06:10 | I have storage options that I need.
| | 06:10 | I have got power if I
need it. The sun is going down,
| | 06:13 | so I'm going to get something to eat
and then set up for some night shooting.
| | 06:18 |
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|
|
7. After the ShootExploring post-shoot geotagging options| 00:01 | When I get back home there are a number of
post-production issues that I need to face.
| | 00:05 | I have got all my pictures either on hard
drives that I've been copying to in the field
| | 00:09 | or on a whole mess of
media cards from my camera,
| | 00:12 | and I have got to all of that stuff worked in
to the post-production image-editing machine
| | 00:17 | that I normally use which may
be different than my laptop.
| | 00:21 | Before I do any of that though,
I need to think about geotagging.
| | 00:24 | Earlier, you saw that I mentioned these
little geotagging devices that can keep track of
| | 00:29 | where you are and which you can use later to ensure
that geotagging information is embedded in your images.
| | 00:36 | Your camera might have a
geotagging facility built in.
| | 00:39 | If that's the case, then you don't need to
worry about probably anything else that I
| | 00:42 | am going to talk about here. But if you are
using one of these geologging devices, you
| | 00:46 | are going to have some work to do.
| | 00:48 | These work, as I mentioned before, by keeping a
running log as you're moving around, assuming
| | 00:54 | it's turned on, of where you
are at and what time it is.
| | 00:57 | When you get back home or get back to your
computer you can use special software to sync
| | 01:01 | that log file to your images.
| | 01:04 | There are a number of different pieces of software
that will take care of that syncing process for you.
| | 01:09 | You simply point them to the GPX file from
your logging device and point them to the
| | 01:13 | folder of images that you want geotagged and
the software does the work of figuring out
| | 01:18 | where you were when you shot each image.
| | 01:20 | Sometimes you need to move the logging file
from your logging device. Sometimes you can
| | 01:25 | simply plug the logging device in, depending
on whether your software knows how to talk
| | 01:28 | about specific device.
| | 01:30 | If you have a GPS device in your car, some
kind of navigation device in your car, it's
| | 01:35 | probably also keeping a GPX log, and you can
very likely get that out of that device and
| | 01:41 | into your computer and use it
with your time-stamped files.
| | 01:44 | Now you might think, well, but I parked my car
and then I go wandering off to take pictures.
| | 01:48 | Yeah, it may not be accurate to
within however far you were from the car,
| | 01:52 | but it will at least give you kind of a regional idea
of where you were when you shot particular image.
| | 01:57 | Once I have got my images geotagged,
there are some cool things I can do with them.
| | 01:59 | I can, for example, look at them in a program
like Aperture or iPhoto that will actually
| | 02:04 | show me a map of where my images were shot.
| | 02:07 | There are other applications that will show me a
map with thumbnails all over it and so on and so forth.
| | 02:11 | Because I have already imported that GPX
file into my computer, there's more stuff that
| | 02:15 | I can do with it. I can drop it into Google
Earth and actually see where I was, where
| | 02:19 | the path was when I was
hiking or driving or whatnot.
| | 02:22 | So having this geo information is pretty fun.
| | 02:25 | There is lot of stuff you can do with it
| | 02:26 | and a lot of good reasons to
have your images geotagged.
| | 02:31 |
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| Merging photos into your master photo archive| 00:01 | Once you get home and unpack and get
yourself settled in, there's one more workflow step
| | 00:05 | that you might have to go through,
depending upon how you're working in the field.
| | 00:08 | Now if you simply took a lot of media cards
with you and have just been shooting to those
| | 00:12 | cards and you didn't have a computer or
something else that you are offloading to, then your
| | 00:16 | post-production workflow is pretty simple.
| | 00:17 | You just start loading those cards into your computer
and going on with your normal post-production process.
| | 00:22 | If you took a computer with you though, and
it's not your main computer--that is, if you
| | 00:27 | have a second computer at home, maybe a tower
with more storage in it where your main image
| | 00:32 | archive lies--in that case, you've got to
get those images that you're working with
| | 00:36 | on your laptop computer in the field
into that system that you used at home.
| | 00:41 | That's my situation. I brought a laptop with
me, but I have a different computer that I
| | 00:45 | do the bulk of my work on at home.
| | 00:47 | So far, you've seen me working here in a fairly
manual way. I've been copying images to external
| | 00:53 | drives on my computer and managing them by
hand: deciding what files, what folders they
| | 00:59 | go into, using Adobe Bridge to browse those folders,
launch edits into Photoshop, and that kind of thing.
| | 01:05 | That's a pretty simple situation because now
when I get home, I simple take those external
| | 01:08 | drives, plug them into my tower computer,
and simple copy them to where I want them to be.
| | 01:15 | If you're using a different piece of
software though, things might get more complicated.
| | 01:19 | iPhoto, Aperture and Lightroom all will
require you to take a couple of extra steps.
| | 01:25 | Aperture gives you the option of
having managed or unmanaged projects.
| | 01:29 | A managed project is one wherein Aperture is
deciding where things are going to be stored.
| | 01:35 | So when you import something, it takes those
things and sucks them away inside in its library
| | 01:39 | somewhere and if you want access to them,
you have to ask aperture to give you those files.
| | 01:44 | You can also ask it to
have unmanaged projects.
| | 01:48 | That's where you get to choose where it's
going to live and Aperture simply stores a
| | 01:51 | reference to those projects.
| | 01:54 | If you're running with referenced files,
you can't simply copy those files to your new
| | 01:58 | computer and important them into Aperture
because you may not get all of the metadata
| | 02:01 | and edits that you have made in the field.
| | 02:04 | If you're working with a managed project then
you don't actually know where the files lived.
| | 02:08 | In either case, you need to ask
Aperture to export that project for you.
| | 02:12 | You just go up to the File menu, after selecting the
[roject, and choose Export > Project as New Library.
| | 02:20 | It'll simply give you a dialog box. You can
choose where you want to save that project,
| | 02:24 | and it's a good idea to
check these three checkboxes.
| | 02:26 | Consolidate masters into exported library,
that means if there were any master files
| | 02:31 | that were in a different
project, it's going to grab those.
| | 02:34 | Include previews in exported library,
| | 02:36 | that's going to save you time later because
Aperture is not to going to have to rebuild
| | 02:39 | preview files, and you can
check Show alert when finished.
| | 02:43 | Aperture will do this operation in the
background, and it may take it a while so you can keep
| | 02:47 | working and it will let
you know when it's done.
| | 02:49 | Then you just hit the Export Library button
and it'll write out a single library package.
| | 02:54 | You can then copy that package file to your desktop
computer, go up to the File menu, and choose Import.
| | 03:02 | So if I go here to Import > Library/Project,
I can then merge that into my system at home.
| | 03:08 | I am not going to do that here because I'd be
importing into the same place that I exported from.
| | 03:13 | That's going to take all of your original
photos and any edits and metadata changes that you've made.
| | 03:17 | So it's a really easy way of moving things back and
forth from a field's machine to a desktop machine.
| | 03:24 | If you're using Lightroom,
things are pretty simple.
| | 03:26 | You would select the folder or album that
you've been working on, select all the files
| | 03:32 | in it, go to the File menu, and choose
Export as Catalog. That's going to also give you
| | 03:39 | a dialog box asking you where you want to
save it and a few options here. Export Selected
| | 03:43 | Photos only, that's fine in this case.
| | 03:46 | I've selected everything I want.
| | 03:47 | I could also just say no, take
everything that was in this album.
| | 03:51 | Export Negative Files, they are using
negative in a metaphorical sense here.
| | 03:54 | They're just talking about the original master
images that you've imported. And Include Available
| | 03:59 | Preview, this is just like the Aperture thing.
| | 04:00 | If I do this here, it's going to save me
time on the back end because Lightroom will not
| | 04:04 | have to rebuild previews.
| | 04:05 | I can say Export Catalog;
it'll write out the catalog.
| | 04:08 | When I get home, I can choose to merge that
catalog into my Lightroom catalog at home,
| | 04:15 | and that's going to again pull all the
metadata and editing changes that I made and be sure
| | 04:19 | that I've an identical copy at home. Two very easy
ways of moving data from these two applications.
| | 04:25 | iPhoto is a little bit trickier.
| | 04:27 | iPhoto does not actually have a built-in
facility for moving an album of images.
| | 04:32 | I could go through and select all my photos
and export them, but that gets complicated
| | 04:37 | because I have the choice of
exporting originals or edited images.
| | 04:40 | I'd probably wouldn't want to do both, and there's still a
chance that I might mess up and lose some metadata.
| | 04:44 | There is a third-party application that's
only $20, the iPhoto Library Manager, that
| | 04:49 | will do all of this for you.
| | 04:51 | It'll give you the same kind of functionality
that you've seen here in Lightroom and Aperture,
| | 04:54 | and that's a very easy way of moving things
that you've dealt within the field back to
| | 05:00 | some kind of home-based
system that you might have.
| | 05:03 | So those are some pitfalls.
| | 05:05 | Obviously, there are particulars in each
application that you need to learn how to work, but those
| | 05:09 | are the pitfalls that you might be facing.
| | 05:11 | If you don't move things back in the way
that your asset management system is expecting,
| | 05:16 | you could lose edits. You could lose metadata.
| | 05:18 | You probably are not going to lose images,
but that can happen things if things don't go exactly right.
| | 05:22 | So depending on how you're working in the
field, you'll have this extra step when you
| | 05:25 | get home to be sure that all of your
images and edits go back into your main system.
| | 05:30 |
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| Lessons learned from the field| 00:01 | I made it back from the wild,
and now it's time for me to go home.
| | 00:05 | I packed my bags.
| | 00:06 | I'm just waiting for the cab to
arrive to take me back to the airport.
| | 00:09 | As I'm sitting here, I'm thinking
about what worked and what didn't.
| | 00:12 | It's not a bad idea after a trip to assess
your strategy, figure out what you might do
| | 00:16 | different next time. And for
the most part I think I got it.
| | 00:19 | There are some things,
though that I think I'd change.
| | 00:22 | In the heavyweight scenario,
I brought too much stuff.
| | 00:24 | Now, that doesn't matter once I get here,
since I was just dropping the stuff down and leaving
| | 00:28 | it and I have plenty of room,
but it does make the bags heavier.
| | 00:32 | I overestimated how much time I was going to have to spend
practicing and experimenting with this thing or that thing.
| | 00:38 | I didn't do as much flash stuff
as I thought I was going to do.
| | 00:41 | I brought three flashes and a
full wireless remote setup.
| | 00:44 | I could have left the remotes behind
and probably just brought one flash.
| | 00:47 | That's all I ended up using, maybe two. But
that actually would have significant lightened
| | 00:52 | this bag right here.
| | 00:53 | So I think that could have been
a significant weight savings.
| | 00:57 | Otherwise, I was glad with that setup.
| | 00:58 | I'm glad to I had my computer with
me. I had work that I needed to do,
| | 01:01 | so it was good that I had
a full post-production rig.
| | 01:04 | It was good that I had lots of ways of
making connections to the outside world.
| | 01:08 | So I'm glad with all of that.
| | 01:10 | The middleweight scenario,
I think I got mostly right.
| | 01:13 | I had the camera gear exactly right.
| | 01:15 | For post-production, I don't know
that I actually needed the iPad.
| | 01:18 | Because I was camping,
I had no Internet connection.
| | 01:21 | It was really just an extra
pound and a half to carry around.
| | 01:24 | It didn't prove to be that useful in terms
of editing images on the iPad, because there
| | 01:28 | wasn't that much I could do it with them
when I was out there, because I didn't have any
| | 01:30 | way of getting them out.
| | 01:31 | I did not end up using it for reading
or watching movies or things like that,
| | 01:35 | so that was extra weight that I was carrying.
| | 01:38 | Now, that said, that same middleweight
configuration in a different application, I would have been
| | 01:43 | glad to have the iPad.
| | 01:44 | If I was taking a train across Asia or
backpacking across Europe or something like that then
| | 01:48 | the iPad would be great, both for the
post-production capabilities and just as a computer replacement.
| | 01:53 | It's got a full-size keyboard,
virtual keyboard, that I can use.
| | 01:56 | It's much lighter than a laptop computer.
| | 01:58 | It's also more durable.
| | 02:00 | If I was backpacking across Europe or something
like that and shoving an iPad into a backpack,
| | 02:05 | I feel much more confident than shoving a
laptop computer into a backpack, which can
| | 02:10 | flex and bend, and you don't want stuff
getting in the keyboard and that kind of thing.
| | 02:13 | So I really like the durability of the iPad.
| | 02:15 | I think it would be great in that
middleweight situation for a different specific scenario.
| | 02:21 | For the ultralight situation, I had
everything that I needed to survive,
| | 02:26 | so my backpacking setup was okay.
| | 02:28 | For the camera setup,
I brought too much stuff.
| | 02:31 | I had that infrared and that variable
neutral-density filter with me that I never ended
| | 02:35 | up using, because I didn't have a tripod.
| | 02:37 | I had the Gorillapod, but it's short so
I didn't end up setting any shots with it.
| | 02:42 | And you might think well, those filters
don't weight very much. What's the big deal?
| | 02:45 | That's true. They don't weigh that much, but
they take up space and probably most significantly,
| | 02:49 | they're falling out of my bag
when I'm trying to get other gear.
| | 02:52 | I wouldn't want to lose them.
| | 02:54 | They're expensive.
| | 02:55 | So there's just no need to have them along.
| | 02:56 | I'd probably leave those behind in any
situation where I'm not taking a tripod.
| | 03:02 | Another thing on the ultralight scenario is I
could've actually gone maybe with a different camera.
| | 03:07 | I love shooting with my full-frame
SLR, but boy, it's big and heavy.
| | 03:11 | And something to consider in those
instances, if you're wanting to get weight down but
| | 03:14 | you don't want to give up your SLR, is I
could've gone to a cropped-sensor body if I had one.
| | 03:20 | Something like a rebel, something that's a
physically smaller camera, lighter weight.
| | 03:24 | It still works with the lenses that I have.
| | 03:26 | Now, of course, those lenses behave very differently.
They end up with an effectively longer focal length.
| | 03:33 | You can get lenses specifically made for
cropped-sensor cameras that are smaller and lighter.
| | 03:37 | So in an ultralight situation, I might be
willing to give up some of the advantages
| | 03:40 | of full frame, that is, not being able to get
super shallow depth of field and just generally
| | 03:45 | having a slightly
different feel to the images.
| | 03:47 | I might have been willing to give that
up to have a smaller, lighter camera.
| | 03:50 | Overall, my bag choice has worked out fine. I was
really pleased with how I was carrying everything.
| | 03:56 | The Spider holster was a real
treat on the backpacking trip.
| | 03:58 | I've never used one before,
so that was really nice.
| | 04:01 | So if I felt like the way that I was
managing my gear worked out really well.
| | 04:05 | Some other things to consider. Boy,
it's so easy to forget a tripod plate.
| | 04:10 | They're not that expensive.
| | 04:12 | So I'm wondering if I should get some
more and just stick them in different bags.
| | 04:15 | If there are a few bags that I switch
between for different kinds of trips and I'm doing
| | 04:18 | that regularly, it might be worth just knowing
that if I grab this bag, I've got the tripod
| | 04:23 | plate that I need.
| | 04:24 | I've got maybe there's a media card stuck in there,
just in case I forget to bring enough media.
| | 04:29 | An inexpensive remote control, if I am always
forgetting remote controls, that kind of thing.
| | 04:33 | Ziplock bags and each bag that you're
carrying can be really handy, just in case you run
| | 04:38 | into foul weather.
| | 04:39 | Things like that that you can stash inside
of a bag and not have to think about when
| | 04:42 | you grab that bag.
| | 04:44 | Another thing was, I haven't used that geologging
device very much and I have to relearn it every time.
| | 04:50 | And it's a drag to get out in the middle of
nowhere, thinking your own vacation and now
| | 04:53 | you got to sit around reading manuals,
even if you're able to read them on your phone.
| | 04:57 | So it's important to really be familiar with
your gear before you leave, not so that you've
| | 05:02 | got the capability of using it, but just so
that you have more time to go out shooting
| | 05:05 | or have fun while you're on vacation.
| | 05:07 | So I should have worked
through that some before I left.
| | 05:10 | Again, I was shooting with a brand-new camera.
| | 05:11 | I could have done a little
more study on that before I left.
| | 05:14 | So knowing your gear, knowing your bag,
being comfortable with your equipment before you
| | 05:17 | leave is something to spend some time on at
home so that you're not wasting time doing
| | 05:21 | that when you get to this place
that you've been dying to see.
| | 05:25 | I think that's pretty much it. Though for
the most part my choices were good and I feel
| | 05:28 | confident in the pictures that I've taken,
| | 05:31 | I'm going to be glad to get home, see on my bigger
monitor, and work them up into good final prints.
| | 05:36 | Now, I've just got to get myself home.
| | 05:41 |
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|
|
ConclusionGoodbye| 00:02 | I think I have had enough of
being indoors talking about gear.
| | 00:04 | I'm going to go hiking. The deer are out.
| | 00:07 | It's a beautiful day, and I have got my camera
with me, and I have got this cool new Komperdell
| | 00:12 | trekking pole, which doubles as a monopod.
| | 00:16 | So I'm ready to go here.
| | 00:17 | This all gets easier the more you do it.
| | 00:20 | The more different kinds of trips you take,
the more you know exactly what kind of gear
| | 00:24 | you like to have and can use, not just in
terms of bags and polls and tripods and things
| | 00:30 | like that, but how you are going to use
your camera: lens choice as well as storage.
| | 00:34 | For example, on a day like today,
I have just a couple of hours of hiking.
| | 00:37 | I know that I am not going to
take more than 100 or so frames,
| | 00:39 | so I don't need to take a massive storage.
| | 00:42 | Those same bits of experience have
informed my longer trips as well.
| | 00:46 | I know how much I tend to shoot over a couple
of weeks and so it makes things a little bit
| | 00:49 | easier than it may have seemed
in some of our descriptions here.
| | 00:53 | One last piece of the advice: when you go
somewhere, don't forget at some point to actually
| | 00:58 | leave your camera behind, put it in your room for a
couple of days, and get out without your camera.
| | 01:03 | Some people say, well, but
the perfect shot will come up.
| | 01:06 | You know the perfect shot will come again.
| | 01:08 | A camera can be a barrier sometimes, as
much as it can be something that illuminates.
| | 01:12 | So take some time without your equipment.
| | 01:14 | You might see the world in a very different
way and that might inform your shots when you
| | 01:18 | get back to shooting.
| | 01:20 | Wherever you are going,
pack your bag and have a good trip.
| | 01:25 |
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