Photographing otters, DEPTH OF FIELD explained, how to clean your sensor, Fuji GX-617 in action.

coming up on this month's show we unravel the  Enigma of depth-of-field look at how to clean   your gear take a few shots on a ridiculously  big camera and we take to the skies well we try welcome to our May edition of photography  online on this beautiful spring day you know   when we launched our show at the beginning of  the year I never thought I'd be presenting a   show from my back garden but apparently  I am Thank You coronavirus it's a far   cry from the location we did have in mind  for this month so I will just have to keep   that for a future episode later on I'll  show you around we've got a slight a wee   tunnel thing and a paw patrol bucket and  spade everything you need for the perfect   garden party if you can bear the anticipation  let's get this show on the road by joining   our resident wildlife expert Harry Martin  as he tells us everything we need to know   about finding tracking and photographing  one of the UK's most charismatic mammals authors have to be one of Britain's most enigmatic  animals and I've got to be near the top of most   photographers wanted list their elusive their  difficult to get close to and short there's no   shortcuts there's no cheating when it comes to  otters its proper wildlife photography field   skills and he needs some knowledge I've spent  the last five plus years photographing otters   here on the Isle of Skye crossed to the Outer  Hebrides and all the way up to the Shetland   Isles now here in Scotland and primarily along  the west coast they've adapted to living along   our shorelines in seawater otters though can be  found in every county around Britain now they've   even been spotted in Manchester and Edinburgh  city centres throughout most of the rest of the   country they live along river systems much  of what I'm going to talk about relates to   Scotland and the coastline but it's applicable  to otters anywhere around the country so if you   want to photograph some otters what's the first  step well my recommendation is do your research   this applies to almost any aspect of photography  whether it's wildlife landscapes or commercial   shooting do your research learn your subject learn  some locations and in the long run that's really   going to pay off so depending where in the country  you are you're gonna want to look in different   places here on sky I look along the shores of  our many sea lochs the intricate coasts shallow   water lots of seaweed and abundant food supply  it makes them the perfect habitat for otters we can narrow down our search while Apache coast  line by looking for signs of otters now the most   obvious of these is their olfactory calling card  better known as Sprint or to most people who now   otters are creatures of habit and they'll use  the same spot over and over again and if you   manage to come across a really good sprinting  sight just like this one I really recommend you   just get in there give it a big old sniff now  you might think it's gonna be really unpleasant   but it's more just musty and many people say  you get a hint of jasmine personally I'm a   fan I think it's most fantastic now because  they're creatures of habit as they use this   area over and over again they gradually stain  any rock or enrich the grass until it turns   a really vibrant green you can spot this from  a really really long distance and so when you   turn up at a Patrick host you can get a pretty  good idea if there's good author activity just   by having a quick scan in the sea and offers  activity is primarily dictated by the rising   and the falling of the tides now for any animal  life is about energy conservation and efficiency   otters do this by restricting the depths that  they dive to and the amount of time that they   spend in the water feeding so they don't get  too cold so the best time to look for otters   is generally about two to three hours before  and after low tide that isn't a strict rule of   thumb though I've seen officers feeding at almost  every time of day and every level of the tide so   as always just get out and give it a go because  you'll never know when you might see something spotting an otter then is just the first step  in getting a photograph of an otter but in my   opinion the hardest one pair of binoculars is  absolutely essential because even an otter is   generally about a meter long they're so incredibly  difficult to spot by far on the way the easiest   place to spot them is when they're out in the  water feeding the ripples the movement and any   action are going to draw the eye far easier than  when they're on land even if they're quite close   to you so what are we looking for when we're  looking out into the water trying to spot an   otter and what sets it apart from other animals  that you might see well as an otter is swimming   it forms a very very distinctive v-shape in the  water as it swims along this is quite different   to the shape generated by say a seal as it's  swimming along or indeed birds like cormorants   or divers as a seal swims along you generally just  see this bulbous head and when they dive they do   so just by sinking underneath the water cormorants  when they dive do so with a really big action and   they really dive down and you see the whole body  flick up otters when they dive under water they do   so have a very characteristic flick of the tail  has been many times when I've been out on the   coast and that's the only thing that has drawn my  eye to a particular patch of water and allowed me   to find the otter in the first place once we've  found that otter the next challenge of course   is getting close enough to get a photograph  everything we do at this stage prioritizes   the otter no photograph is worth disturbing a  wild animal and upsetting its natural routine   so even if it means we don't get a photograph if  we have to stay away then that's what we do now   the first thing we want to do is check the wind  direction good old finger lick test will do the   job here so the wind is at the moment coming from  my back that means what I want to do is I want to   walk into the wind with it on my face authors  have an incredible sense of smell and if they   get a slight whiff of a human being they'll be off  a notice hearing is also very acute so we need to   make sure we move quietly and that our cameras are  set to quiet or silent mode continually shooting   not a noise you've got more chance of scaring  off an otter with your rumbly tummy whilst an   artists vision is much poorer than our own that'll  still pick up movement bright colors and tones and   any silhouette up against the skyline so we  need to make sure we stay low and while we   don't need to be kitted out in full camo what  you want to make sure is that you've got nice   subdued earthy colors anything dark greens Browns  that sort of thing so I'm afraid the Instagram   compatible red and yellow jacket is going to  have to stay in the closet this time around so to stop an otter spotting you as you move over  slippery rocks and seaweed with camera and tow you   only want to move when the otter is below the  surface it's like a game of musical statues as   you slide your way over soon as the otter pops  up freeze typically an otter spends about 20 to   30 seconds underneath the surface feeding so I  tried to aim to move for around 15 seconds and   then stop and wait for it to pop up and then as  soon as it's under I go again let's give it a go now this start/stop approach should let  you get close enough to get a photograph   when it officers out feeding in the water  it'll eat anything small on the go the best   chance we have of getting a decent  photograph though is when it comes   on to land so the challenge and what  comes with experience is being able   to judge where they come ashore Reviver  a fish or to come and groom and sleep now if you're incredibly lucky you might not  need any specialist photographic equipment in   order to capture an otter I remember  a really memorable evening I was out   leading a landscape photography workshop on  a beach in the West of Scotland and we just   set up our tripods wide-angle lens is on  when an author claims straight out of the   sea ran up the beach towards us with a  great big flatfish in its mouth and it   only turned around at the last moment and  I managed to film it on a wide-angle lens chances are however you're going to need something  geared a little more towards wildlife photography   now if you've got money to burn then something  like a 500 mil prime is a really good option   though they're quite heavy and bulky can  be difficult to stalk over slippery rocks   slippery seaweed trying on one of these with  you something I really regularly and I love is   something like a hundred to four hundred mils  ohm really light really flexible especially   when coupled with 1.4 times teleconverter a  lens that I've been using a lot recently is   Sigma's 60-600 mm super zoom this is fantastic  quality lens much more affordable and very very   flexible especially when an otter comes that  little bit closer you can see my review of the   Sigma 60- 600mm in our February episode so  if you'd like to see a little bit more about   this lens then check that out over all the  longer the lens that you can afford to use   then you can stay further away from an otter  and decrease your chances of disturbing it camera wise use what you have today  I've got a Canon EOS R mirrorless   camera which is by no means designed  for wildlife or sports what you want   to do is prioritize something that's got  fast autofocus and a nice quiet shutter otters move quickly so settings wise we need  everything geared towards a nice fast shutter   speed I'm going to start off by selecting around  one thousand two hundred and fiftieth of a second   then we just select the widest aperture that your  lens can shoot at and the final bit in the camera   equation is our ISO and I'm just going to use  that to balance the overall exposure I always   tend to select just a single autofocus point  this allows me to be as accurate as possible   and position focus point right over an otters eye  lastly I just make sure I've got I have a silent   or quite shooting enabled on my camera once you  are close enough to an officer to actually get a   photograph it's important to remember don't go in  all guns blazing shooting a million images at once   take one or two pictures a slow relaxed approach  is the key to success for photography make sure to   pause and check see whether the author has heard  the sound of you or your camera and you think it   has just wait and see if it settles back down also  make sure you continually refocus the camera our   autofocus systems are far from 100% accurate  so the more you refocus and the more images   you take overall the better the chances you are of  getting a hundred percent accurate pin sharp shot I've tried to cover as much as I can in this short  feature about stalking and photographing artists   but it's by no means meant to be a comprehensive  guide to getting the perfect shot that takes time   dedication and a lot of patience here on sky  I run Auto photography workshops and as part   of that we spend a good portion of the day  getting into the perfect place I see it as   my responsibility to educate people about what  we're looking at I like to tell people about an   doctors behavior its ecology conservation so that  even if we don't get the perfect shot people have   left with a bit more knowledge and hopefully  they can go out by themselves and put some of   what we've learned into practice you'd like to  learn more about photographing otters or any   of Scotland's wildlife then just get in touch if  you're interested in joining hairy to photograph   otters I'll put a link in the description below  which will give you all the information you need   notice harry mentioned binoculars are essential  for spotting wildlife and we're giving away a   pair of kite binoculars kite are one of the  premium makers or binoculars and the pair   we're giving away are worth over two hundred and  fifty pounds to win them all you need to do is   tell us how many otters are in this photo the  images also on our website along with details   of how to enter so go to the Kate binocular link  below now every month we bring you a photography   quote and this month is from Peter Adams who  once said great photography is about a depth   of feeling not depth of field and while this is  very true that the field is an important topic   to understand but one which does cause more  than its fair share of confusion even among   the more experienced photographers so to try  and answer some of the many questions we get   asked about the subject here's Marcus to take  us through it from the very beginning I warn   you know though this is quite advanced so grab  a pencil and paper and make yourself comfortable when it comes to understanding the technical side  of photography there's one area which causes more   confusion than any other that's depth of field  is however quite easy so rather than feeling   snookered see what I did there I'm gonna show  you in layman's terms just how easy it is if you   saw April's edition of photography online Harry  explained all about something called playing a   focus an invisible wall which moves further and  closer from the camera as we turn the focus ring   on the lens only subjects which are positioned  exactly on this plane of focus are ever truly   sharp all objects closer or further away are  always going to be out of focus but to varying   degrees and this is where depth of field comes  in many photographers assume that by changing   the aperture we change the amount of our scene  that's in focus but this isn't actually true   anything behind where we're focused or in front  of where we're focused is always gonna be out   of focus regardless of which aperture we use so  let me demonstrate with some colored balls so if   I focus on the pink ball here you can see that  the red ball which is behind the plane of focus   is clearly not sharp and the blue ball which is  in front of the plane of focus is also not sharp   only the pink ball or anything on that plane of  focus is sharp so if I place a yellow ball at the   same distance from the camera as the pink ball  it's impossible to get one in focus and one out   of focus you focus on one the other one will  automatically be sharp now let's look at what   happens when we change the aperture this diagram  shows us snooker ball setup we are looking sidon   to the camera and we are using a large aperture as  can be seen by the big opening in the lens which   is letting lots of light through here's our pink  ball which is appearing on the sensor as finally   focused points of light as it is lying on our  plane of focus the blue ball which is in front of   the plane of focus is being brought to a finally  focused image behind our sensor which means that   when it hits our sensor instead of each point of  light appearing sharp they appear as fuzzy areas   known as circles of confusion the red ball which  is behind our plane of focus is being brought to a   finally focused image in front of the sensor which  means by the time the points of light have reached   the sensor they have crossed over and are now also  appearing as circles of confusion the further away   from our plane of focus the subject is the larger  the circles of confusion will be as we focus the   lens moves closer and further away from the sensor  bringing different distances into focus so let's   stick with our set up here where I'm focused on  the pink ball now I'm not gonna move any balls   and I'm not gonna move the camera what I'm gonna  do is reduce the aperture down to a tiny value   what this is going to do is it's going to make the  surface of confusion so small that it's difficult   to distinguish between circles of confusion  and finally focus points of light however if we   enlarge the image enough we'll see that things  that originally appeared in focus are actually   still out of focus so let's go back to our diagram  and see what happens when we close the aperture of   the lens you can see that the pink ball is still  being finally focused onto the sensor the blue   ball is still being focused behind the sensor but  the lines are crossing at a much shallower angle   meaning that when they hit the camera sensor they  appear as smaller circles of confusion than they   did when using a larger aperture the same happens  with the red ball which is still being brought to   a finally focused image in front of the sensor but  the smaller aperture is now causing the points of   light to cross over at a shallower angle meaning  that the circles of confusion on the sensor are   smaller so in contrast to what many photographers  believe changing the aperture doesn't actually   mean more of our scene is in focus it just means  that anything behind or in front of the plane of   focus is less out of focus of smaller apertures  than it is a bigger apertures so it could be   argued that there is no such thing as depth of  field as a lens can only focus on a single plane   at any time however we need to imagine depth  of field does exist in order to control how our   scene is rendered so in your mind imagine that  depth of field is the thickness of your plane   the focus and as you change the aperture of your  lens this invisible wall gets thicker and thinner   got that good because now we're going to look at  the other influences of depth-of-field there were   three in total the first one we've already  looked at is aperture the next one is focal   length and the last one is our distance to the  plane of focus when it comes to focal length   the longer the lens the shallower the depth of  field will be at any given aperture so here I   have three lenses I have a 50 millimeter have  a 24 millimeter which is exactly half the focal   length and then I have a hundred millimeter  which is exactly double the focal length so   we're gonna start by looking at the difference  between the fifty millimeter and the hundred   millimeter so first of all I'm going to take  the shot with a 50 millimeter lens at f/8 now   the balls aren't gonna move and the cameras  not going to move I've got the white ball   here to make sure that the camera when I change  lenses the cameras position is exactly the same both of these images are taken at f/8 and the  distance to the pink ball our plane of focus   remains the same the only thing which has changed  is the focal length which is why the balls in the   hundred millimeter version appeared twice the  size because we've doubled the focal length   or zoomed in twice as much as you can see the  blue and the red ball appear more out of focus   in the hundred millimeter version so now I'm  gonna take the same shot again this time at 24   millimetres still at f/8 and the camera hasn't  moved because I'm gonna back it up onto the cue   ball here the blue and the red ball appear to  be more in focus but this is only because the   circus of confusion is smaller on a wide-angle  lens that may are on a telephoto when it comes   to our distance to play in a focus the closer  we are to our subject the shallower our depth   of field and the further away we are from our  subject the deeper our depth of field so I'm   going to take the same shots again this time with  a 50 millimeter lens and I'm going to use f/4 and   I'm going to take two shots one close-up which is  there so I'm still focused on the pink ball and   I'm going to take the same shot again from back  here still focusing on the people same aperture   same lens nothing's changed in that regard look  at these two examples both taken f4 with a 50   millimeter lens the one where I was close up to  the pink ball has rendered the red and the blue   ball far more out of focus than the shot where I  was further away oh my god and in rest thank you okay so now we know the three influences have  depth-of-field here's how they affect the image   we see if we double the aperture value say from  f4 to f8 or from f11 to f-22 we double the depth   of field if we double the focal length ie  from fifty millimeters to 100 millimeters   we effectively half the depth of field twice if we  double the distance to our plane of focus say from   two meters to four meters we effectively double  the depth of field twice so for those of you who   are still following me you may have noticed that  those bottom two actually cancel each other out   let me show you if I use a 50 millimeter lens and  focus on the pink ball from around one meter away   and use an aperture of F 5.6 the shot looks like  this if I now want to increase my depth of field   to render the blue and red balls more in focus  I can move back and double the districts of the   pink ball to two meters which were now in effect  double my depth of field twice and now take the   shot and it looks like this as you can see the  blue and red balls are less out of focus than   they were when I was only one meter away however  the balls have become too small for my liking as   they are now half their original size because I  doubled my distance from them to get them back   to their original size there's only one thing I  can do without moving closer to them and that's   to zoom in by using a longer focal length if I  double the focal length the size of the balls   will also double getting them back to where  they were but by doubling the focal length   I effectively half the depth of field twice  undoing what I had gained by moving further   away so I'm back where I started and haven't  actually changed the depth of field at all   so we only tend to use aperture to control depth  of field because it has no counter effect unlike   the other two influences which will always  cancel each other out it is however important   to understand that our distance to our subject  and our focal length also affect depth of field   if we understand this then we'll realize why if  using a long lens and focused at something quite   close we're never going to be able to get a deep  depth of field or on the other end of the scale if   we use a very wide angle lens and we're focused  a long way into the distance we can never get a   shallow depth of field both of these scenarios are  impossible because two of the three influences of   depth of field are working against you a small  aperture won't always give you a deep depth of   field and a large aperture won't always give you  a shallow depth of field the two other influences   focal length and distance to play the focus  of working against you if you want a really   shallow depth of field then choose a long lens  a wide aperture and try and get as close to your   subject as you possibly can you now have all three  influences all pulling in the same direction all   leaning towards that shallow depth of field if you  want everything in focus then choose a wide-angle   lens a small aperture and try and come as far  back from your subject as you possibly can all   three things are now leaning towards maximizing  your depth of field now before I leave you with   brain overload if you have one of those apps  or charts which tells you all about depth of   field and where to focus throw them away because  they're of no use whatsoever here's why the most   important question to answer when it comes to  deciding what is sufficient depth of field is   how big is your image going to be and how close  are you going to be viewing it from take a look   at this photo it looks like there's sufficient  depth of field to render all the snooker ball   sharply so the depth of field is sufficient for  the scene if this image is only ever going to   be viewed as a thumbnail however if we enlarge  the same image say it's going to be used as an   advertising billboard at a train station then it's  going to be printed at a large magnification and   importantly people are going to be able to view it  at close distances we now need a totally different   depth of field to render all the balls sharp I  can do this because I've asked myself those two   important questions hey how big is my image going  to be and be close is it going to be viewed from   no Apple chart is ever going to ask you those  questions which is why they're next to useless   so hopefully I've given you enough information  now to work out depth of field for yourself well hopefully that allows you to get a mental  picture of what depth of field actually is I   always think if you can envisage something  it makes it all the easier to understand and   remember it was a lot of information though  to take in at once but you can always watch   again like I did as every time you do a little  more information we'll hopefully sinking now   previously I mentioned how our team are putting  together online workshops and other ways to   continue teaching during the current situation  they've been hard at work to create a series   of new photography webinars the first of these  builds on skills in lightroom and editing your   images but more are planned around composition  and getting the right shot you can find the links   to all of these webinars in the description  below no no lots of you enjoy our code date   of our top ten views on the sky but before  we carry on with that I thought I'd show you   a view which was never in the running and it's  this it's my peach shed if you don't know what   Pete is it is this this is a cut of the ground  has been done so for generations in Scotland   and in Ireland and it's a fuel for the fire and  keeps lots of Celtic communities going all the   way through the winter we still cut it as do a  few families not so many anymore but yeah great   stuff but even with this beautiful leading  line of the path being framed perfectly on   either side it wasn't able to compete with our  number six location of our top ten views on sky number six of our top ten  views on sky is nice point most people come here to see the lighthouse but  for photographers it is a location of the white   house rather than the building itself which  is a real attraction this car park here at   this point is the furthest west you can drive  in the UK about getting on the ferry on without   the Hebrides are further than that making  this an ideal location to watch the sunset from the carpark is not possible to see the  lighthouse but there is an inviting path   leading steeply downhill which may enters  over the horizon to where the lighthouse   is situated most visitors make a beeline  straight down this path if you want the   best view of this point then you really don't  want to be going down that way as I mentioned   before as the lighthouse is setting which  is the real attraction and to see in a pre   sheila's you need to head out to the west  along the cliff top after just a couple of   minutes the lighthouse comes into view and you  start to get flavor of what you're about to see in my opinion the best time to visit is between  May and July when the Sun sets way around to   the northwest and if the skies are clear on the  horizon the cliffs get lit up with gorgeous warm   light the only time they receive direct sunlight  in the entire year ideally you want to have a good   amount of cloud overhead but with a clear patch  to the west to allow the sunlight to bus route you the tides are pretty much irrelevant here but  if you can time your visit for when there is   good motion in the water you'll get a nice  white key line at the base of the cliffs   which really helps and standout this location  works at any time of the year but only real in   the evening if you're here in the morning  the sunrise right behind you which is not   great if here in the winter you're pointing  the camera pretty much into the Sun as the   Sun sets however if you get a great sky  afterwards mikeg the difference and the   summer however that's really the best time  the Sun setting at your 3 o'clock position   so it can cast this really nice light on  the clefts eyes which can be brilliant expect to do lots of waiting around for those  brief moments of perfect light but one of the   good things about nice point is that it's one  of the UK's best locations to see whales and   dolphins from the shore so trying to spot them in  the vast area of water really helps pass the time once you finished admiring or photographing the  view it will most likely be getting quite dark   but the car park is only a 5-minute walk away  so you won't either head torch the drive back   to your accommodation may take a while go and  there are no fuel stations nearby which will be   open so don't arrive with lost supplies or else  you'll be sleeping in the car now should be said   that most of the features have seen today were  recorded prior to the current restrictions on   movements we are however now in a situation where  we've got no further top-10 features film so we   are hoping that the guidelines change in the  next few weeks otherwise my garden shed really   might be our next feature of viewpoints if you're  familiar with sky I wonder if you can guess which   locations are in the top five if you want more  information about the places we've features so   far along with many others then the photographer's  guide to sky showcases the top 50 locations on the   island with information on each including how  to get there what equipment you'll need and   what to expect when you arrive it's available  in both digital and hardcopy as well and I'll   put a link in the description below now it's time  for kit corner and we thought that when most of   a jog refers currently being stuck indoors is the  perfect time to do some general camera maintenance first of all let's look at lens cleaning now  all lenses have a coating on the front that if   you rub them enough eventually they will come  off so we only want to clean if we really have   to now it's better to do this outside if we can  because there's less dust and the light is going   to help us to spot any marks and scratches on the  lens the first thing you want to do is check that   there's nothing large like sand present on the  front of the lens and we can do that just using   a blower and use it to dislodge anything on the  front of the lens if you do have sand present on   the front of your lens then it's pretty much the  same as using sandpaper yeah that's not even any   good at all then using an absorbent microfiber  cloth we will start off by wiping the middle   of the lens and slowly working our way out to the  outside edge nice and gently and this will remove   any loose dirt and smudges on the lens however  if we do this with a synthetic cloth as we rub   we're going to generate static-charge that's  going to attract more dust and we're gonna   have to rub more to get rid of that eventually  you're going to end up in a frustrating battle   that just makes you want to chuck your lens over  a fence once any loose dirt is removed oil marks   from fingerprints or salt residue from sea spray  might still be present on the front of the lens   now these will need a liquid to get rid of and you  can use a dedicated liquid solution like this or   simply breathe onto the front of your lens nice  and gently the same goes for cleaning filters   and it's especially important to keep these clean  because we typically use a lot of these when we're   shooting into the light and that's when any marks  and scratches are going to show up for this reason   glass filters are a better choice as they're more  durable resin filters will scratch more easily and   a scratch can't simply be wiped away it's a good  housekeeping exercise to make sure all your lenses   and filters are crystal clear so the next time  that you go out you won't ruin any shots now let's   move on to cleaning a camera sensor it's generally  better to do this indoors so let's head there now cleaning your camera Center is not something you  want to do just for the sake of it only do it if   you can see contaminants on your sensor or any  dust spots we can do this simply by looking at   the images on the computer any dust spots will  be most visible up in the bright area such as   the sky especially if we've taken an image  at a small aperture even a smallest speck   of dust will look huge when you're examining  your image at a hundred percent so it's extra   important to make sure our sensors are clean  the kitchen is probably the best room in your   house in which to clean your sensor they're  usually free of soft furnishings like sofas   carpets curtains and these are all dust  traps don't know about you but it's also   the room that tends to get cleaned most so  less dust and that's better for cleaning our   sensor there are two basic methods for cleaning  your camera sensor wet and dry we're going to   look at dry first as this is probably the  method you're going to want to use first most us is attracted to the camera sensor due  to a buildup of static so first of all we want   to reduce this as much as possible really good  way is to touch something that's grounded like   a metal tap and then to reduce any further static  buildup we can use an anti-static mats like this   one while we're cleaning a dry clean is only going  to remove loose particles but these are the ones   that you're most likely to have present anyway  if you have a digital SLR then we need to flip   the mirror out of the way in order to gain access  to the camera sensor we can do this via the camera   menu and it should be similar for most camera  brands importantly we also need to make sure we've   got a fully charged battery if not it's likely  to run out halfway through lockdown the mirror   and trap whatever cleaning implement we've got  against the sensor that's a much bigger problem   than just a couple of dust spots when you clean  your sensor make sure you hold it upside down as   then gravity is working with you to help clean  there are a number of different methods for dry   cleaning your camera's sensor but I'm going to  show you two which I think work really well the   first is just using a normal blower brush however  we don't want to use this one that we used on the   lenses earlier what we want is something a little  more specialized this has a filter on the back so   what it does when we squeeze it draws the air  in filters out any dust that means when we blow   air out the other side it's completely dust free  ensuring we're not blowing anything extra onto the   sensor apart from clean air while on the subject  of blowing it never blow onto your sensor using   your mouth it's very likely that we're going to  end up lying bits of saliva onto the sensor and   these are particularly difficult to remove also  don't use air from a compressed can as this also   has moisture in it and can be a real pain to  get off also and I'm saying this from stories   I've heard never use your vacuum cleaner to clean  your sensor that sucks sucks nevermind the second   method we can use is something like this clever  static brush made by visible dusts they're based   in Canada and they make a whole range of sensor  cleaning products it's super simple to use we   simply turn it on and as it spins it builds up a  static charge you then turn it off please don't   put it into the camera while it's spinning up I  feel that simple but I need to say that we then   put it into the camera and without touching the  sides of the camera otherwise it'll dissipate   the static charge we've just built up in one  continuous sweep brush across the sensor and   this will attract any dust that's on the sensor  remove it turn it back on to get rid of any dust   rebuild up the static charge and we're good to  go again this is a really good way to clean your   sensor it's not cheap but if you said your camera  way to have it professionally cleaned then you're   going to save some money off two or three cleans  and you don't have the inconvenience of being   without your camera either of those methods  are great for removing loose particles from   the sensor but what if we've got something that's  actually bonded onto it typical examples include   salt if we've been changing lenses near the coast  oil from the camera itself or pollen from the air   a dry cleaner is never going to remove these from  a sensor so that brings us on to how to wet clean   our sensor there are a number of swab products  out there but the ones I'm going to use are also   from visible dust their products were used on  the Hubble telescope so if it's good enough for   NASA it's definitely good enough for me it's  much the same method I showed you with the   static brush all you do is apply some cleaning  fluid to the swab insert it into the camera and   gently swipe from one side to the other in a  continuous movement all the way to the other   side you must not stop halfway otherwise you'll  get a dry mark just like when you clean a window   with a squeegee these swabs come in a variety of  different sizes to suit any camera on the market   crop sensor cameras full-frame all the way up to  medium format they even have corner shaped swabs   too well to get into the corners the ones with  the orange handles of the cameras such as the   Canon 5d SR that use low-pass cancel a filters the  green ones are for standard cameras these torches   are also quite nifty as these double up as a light  and a holder for the little swabs it means you can   light up the inside of the camera so you can see  what you're doing as you swipe across hopefully   this information has given you the confidence  to go out and clean your own sensor and not have   the inconvenience of having to send it away every  time you get a little spot if you're in the UK and   you'd like to purchase any of the products that we  featured here then head to Ford's a photographic   they stock a wide range of cleaning equipment  if you're outside of the UK then we recommend   you head to the visible dust website we'll put  links to both of these in the description below Thank You Harry no we're actually giving away a  visible dust cleaning kit worth over 250 pounds   this month it contains lots of products you saw  Harry using there all you need to do is go to   the link in the description below next month on  Kate corner we're going to be looking at photo   bags because we're often asked which ones we use  so make sure you're subscribed to our Channel in   addition to the main monthly show we do sometimes  like to surprise you with a bonus feature as well   so make sure you've clicked on the bell icon so  you're notified every time we upload a new video   now last month we launched a brand new feature  called analog affairs which looks at taking photos   with a film camera we've had a great response from  viewers asking for more so that that's what you're   gonna get although Markus did draw the light and  dressing up as a cowboy again the beauty of both   film photography skills that was they formed a  foundation for all photography so don't think   this is only for those people with a film camera  an understanding of light exposure and Composition   are all essential for digital users as well let's  find out where we're going and what camera will be   joining us today this is the chosen camera the  Fuji GX 61.7 so what we're going to do is we're   going to take it out and we're going to shoot some  film on location when we were outside it might   be a bit windy we got to go to the coast so there  might be a bit of background noise with the waves   so it's probably easier than I explained a little  bit about this camera now for those of you who   don't know it's a medium format camera it's the  largest of the medium format formats if I open up   the back here you can see that's the size of the  negative so it's a panoramic format 17 centimeters   from left to right 6 from top to bottom we've  got three lenses to choose from we've got a 90   millimeter got 180 millimeter here and then we've  got the long one which is the 300 millimeter   here now these are very different from what you  would expect the focal lengths on a full-frame   mirrorless or DSLR camera so it's a beautiful day  outside we've got clear blue skies a few fluffy   white clouds around a little bit of a breeze just  to pick up the motion in the ocean I know just the   place to go to put this bad boy through its paces  right here on Geary Beach Isle of Lewis west coast   of Scotland now let me show you around it's full  of sea stacks this Beach which makes it attractive   for photographers but the tide is really high at  the moment so we can't get round there but that's   not a problem because the one that I've come  to photograph is this one here which will work   particularly well in the panoramic format hence  why we're using the fuji GX 61.7 and crucially we   wanted to come when the tide was washing around  the base of this rock here so what I'm gonna do   is I'm just going to set up my viewpoint here and  we'll get the camera on the tripod and then we'll   see how things go so one of the good things about  the GX 61.7 is it has separate view finders one   for each lens so the good thing about this is that  I don't need to keep changing lenses to decide   which one I want I can just you look through the  viewfinder so this is the 90 millimeter one I   already know this is going to be too wide but  yeah so for the Panisse I'm getting the whole   beach I don't want the beach I just want the rock  on its own so we'll go to a longer focal length   and I've got a 180 lens and a 300 millimeter lens  I'm guessing it's going to be the 180 which is   this one and yeah that's pretty perfect before I  put the film in I'm gonna need to focus the camera   sometimes you don't need to do this if you want  maximum depth of field you can just set it to you   know f/32 and you can just use the scale on the  lens and just judge it but that rock is probably   15 meters away I don't know exactly so I'm going  to have to put the ground glass screen in I need   to do this before I put the film in and I'm gonna  how to focus manually what I need to do now is   trip the shutter and open that and now I can see  on the back obviously the image is upside down but   now I can focus I just need to get a loop and then  I can put the loop on the ground glass and I can   just manually focus it and make sure that C stack  is pin-sharp so now we're focused it just need to   make sure I don't touch the focus ring close the  shutter before I forget to do that if I put the   film in with a shutter rope and then that's going  to obviously ruin the film take the ground glass   out and then we put the film in this is a kodak  portrait 160 and I normally shoot landscapes on   Velvia but this is quite a contrast II scene and  it's probably going to be too contrasty for Velvia   so we're going to use negative film instead  of positive film and there's a little arrow   here on the back of the camera just line those  two arrows up like that and then I'm going to   close the back of the camera and then it's just a  simple case of winding forward the film until the   camera doesn't allow me to wind anymore there  we go that's locked now now it's just a case   of putting a filter on to give me a long enough  exposure to capture the desired movement in the   waves so this is a lis filter holder and you can  see that I've had to hack saw the the corners off   here because without those corners missing it  won't fit into the gap there but this will just   about fit in there we go so that's the holder  in place now we just need to get some filters   I use a three-stop ND filter combined with an  aperture of f-22 to give a one second exposure   back in a minute to learn all about filters check  out our filter feature in our January episode what I want is I want the waves to come right up  in front of the camera because I don't want any   sand visible at the bottom of the frame here we  did you so I'd probably be taking photos by now   and just looking at the back of the screen and  seeing how the waves were moving but I can't do   that so it's just a case of using my eyes and  being patient there's lots of elements that   we need together we need the light we need  the walls are up high enough ideally I want   the water going sideways across the front of the  the C stack as well but it's just a waiting game we have an English word that's perfect for this  scenario bollocks despite getting wet boots the   first frame came out well exposed and the one  second exposure captures a nice movement to the   water I've already taken one shot and I'm just  looking for a variation I'm not gonna bracket   by my shots here because I'm fairly confident  I've got the right exposure but I just want a   variation of different wave movements because  every shots going to be different obviously just two frames taken that's  half the roll gone already okay right so I've taken three frames the last one  I want to put a 10 stop filter on and instead of   one second that's going to give us 15 seconds but  because we're shooting on film there's something   called reciprocity failure when you get into  long exposures you need to add extra time we'll   do another feature on that because it's quite  complicated but rather than 15 seconds I'm gonna   give it 25 seconds so the sun's about to go behind  a very very big black cloud and that'll probably   be the end of the light for the day we've got a  load of swimmers coming in they're not in my shot   yet but they will be soon so this is our last  chance okay and I'm spent let's get out of here definitely worth getting wet feet for and future  analog Affairs we'll be shooting on the Mamiya   ours 867 my we Fuji GS 645 and a Minolta X  300 a camera achievable on even the tightest   of budgets we'll also be looking at how to use a  handheld light meter and in our next show how to   develop your own film at home without a darkroom  but last month we went behind the scenes of an   annual photo competition and I promise to give you  more details of a newly launched national Scottish   border competition Scotland's photo of the year  recognizes the very best individual photos and has   over four thousand pounds in the prize fund so far  with more to be announced the new competition is   now open for entries but don't panic the closing  day isn't until the 25th of October so you've got   plenty of time to get your entries in there are  no categories so you can enter any genre or photo   and all the profits go to local charities for  full details check out the competition website   at Scotland door photography and we'll also put  a link in the description down below now it's   time to see how good Harry's timekeeping  is on this month's 60 second editing tips this month I'm going to show you how to apply  an edit to a circular or elliptical part of an   image which is particularly useful for portrait or  Wildlife images so we're in Adobe Lightroom again   and we're going to come up - funnily enough this  elliptical looking tool just up here so looking at   our image here the area that I want to apply an  edit to is the lion's face so at the moment the   rest of the image is looking okay I've already  applied a few minor edits but the Lions face is   looking quite dark it's slightly behind the tree  and all I want to do is make that a little bit   brighter and pull the viewers eye into that area  so all I'm going to do is I'm going to click and   drag just to create a circle roughly the same size  as the Lions face now you can see it's immediately   brightened up as already the whites have been  dragged up slightly on this filter and that's   already made quite a bit of a difference however  all I'm going to do is make sure I've got my   Circle right over the Lions face and then just  come in and make a few basic adjustments so a   slight increase to exposure slightly increase  to the whites and maybe a little bit of clarity   as well but a very very small amount and what I  will do is just pull the sharpness up a little   bit and maybe just a fraction more in terms of  the exposure a little bit too much bring that   back down so just by using the toggle here let's  just have a look at the difference that makes to   the image and that is looking much better in  my opinion now we have to remember if we want   to make an adjustment inside the circle we've  got to have this little invert tick here if I   antic that is going to apply my adjustment to  the outside of that circle which is not what we   want to do so make sure that's selected now we  could use the elliptical filter tool to lighten   or darken and make adjustments to other areas of  the image if we wanted to but that's for another   time for now my 60 seconds is up thanks Harry  expertly done once again I'm still waiting to   see what happens if one of them goes over at the  60 second clock maybe a trap door that opens and   swallows them whole well I can't but wish alright  well this here is our annual magazine it contains   lots of information about all the photography  holidays we offer as well as workshops in the   UK there's also loads of customer photos in here  along with some tips from our pros if you'd like   a copy of this year's magazine they are free  all you need to do is pay for the postage we're   limiting it to one per customer but if you'd like  one I'll put a link in the description down below   now if you've ever wanted to do some aerial  photography but don't have access to a drone or   want to do it where drawings aren't permitted then  we might emphasis all might have an idea for you you join us at an incredibly pivotal moment  a historic moment because we are about to   achieve flight of this camera so what I've done  here I've done a little bit of preparation and   this is completely untested by the way so we're  either going to succeed or fail together first   thing you're need if you want to try this is  a cradle as you can see this one it's been   carefully engineered from tape and cardboard  but this will fit the camera in here like this   and when that goes down like that and we're  gonna take that shot so that now can't fall   out and I've even put a little on/off button on  the top there look it's a attention to detail   for you so we're gonna put that in there and  then we're going to somehow fix this to a kite   so the other thing that you're going to need  is a children's kite something like this any   kite will do I suppose but we've got no control  over this kite it's got one string so it might   be better with a dual string kite where you  can actually twist and turn it and point it   in the right direction and the other thing you're  going to need is a roll of tape and an assistant   that's where you come in armed with everything we  needed we walk to the nearest area of flat ground so let me show you what we've got here got the  camera there take to the kite right that's now   recording you got it okay all right don't let  go before I say launch okay okay navigation   is there go never mind right go oh she's up  ah all right we'll try again it might be a   bit top-heavy this is test flight number two  three two one go she's up and we might have   a little bit of a balancing issue still  okay this is test flight number three go test flight number four three two one go rubbish I know what needs to hang along wordnet  - come here wait this is not helpful what do   they say about never work with animals  or children look at that look above you   see those power cables right I need to come  away from those don't we this is the aerial   photography kite mark - the difference between  the mark one and the mark two is this piece of   putty at the bottom here don't tell anyone  it's blue tack is highly engineered aerial   photography party and the thinking behind this  is that if it's too heavy we can just take a   little bit off but we'll give it a go on that  it fills the whole kite feels quite heavy now   so you need a lot of wind to get this off the  ground okay you're gonna give it another try putty yeah it's aerodynamic party okay so  pointy - winds coming from that direction   so you need to go over there hang  on you're forgetting something this is test right number five go  rubbish test flight number six go we vote you know a lot of feeling if we can just get this balanced   then it will stay up there okay  three two one go I'll look come on no we're nearly there nearly right hang  on it's slight adjustment oh yo yo what   war so I'm going to take a little  bit of weight off the bottom and   put a little bit on this side I think  that might help solve the issue test   flight number nine I'm now the launcher  I've got a good feeling about this one one more ready go - you have cleared the tower  tensions good altitude is on the line   so Anthony is right down the middle control we have a problem we  have a main be underdressed   guys control generate over  right control do you read our mission was deemed as a successful  failure successful in that we achieved   flight and managed to safely return the  camera to earth but failed to achieve   controlled aerial photographs lessons  have been learned and we will be back   to triumph on another day height control  do you read photography online signing off if you give that go and I wore success than we  did then do please send us photos of your rig in   action I just think there's the potential to  get some great shots this way but possibly a   bigger kite might be the answer now another new  feature we launched last month was something we   called last orders where I send the guys  down the pub with an envelope containing   a topic to talk about for just 3 minutes as  with most of our content this was recorded   before the current social restrictions we're  in place let's join the guys by the log fire I was just trying to cheat sorry he wants  to Ivan it out here I have no p1 yet Ruth is obviously eavesdropping on our  conversation the other day the ideal one   two and three lens setup oh so he wants to start  there so I have a 24 to 70 there's a 24 to 1 or 5   so that's gonna add up it's how flexible you want  to be yeah for line sketch I'll see you don't get   you know I don't necessarily a lot wider than that  a lot of times I do have a 1635 but yes 24 to 105   I think yeah that's sensible well yeah I'd have  to go with us 60 to 600 cuz that was just a beast   of a lens I loved it so just to be different I'd  say 50 millimeter Prime and yeah get on with it   just zoom with your feet all right so let's add  a lens into the situation and to you you're now   allowed two lenses so okay well that's pretty much  the setup I have at the moment so I have my 1635   yeah and that covers me for most landscapes that  I like to shoot at least and then I have a hundred   to four hundred for wildlife but that also covers  me for quite a lot of telephoto landscapes well   when we were in the Dolomites yeah my my mostly  used lens was 100 to 400 and used the 70 to 200   miles off those lovely telephoto landscape so I do  two lenses pretty much every day anyway so that's   that's why I'd go for I probably have similar yeah  16 to 35 for everyday use probably the 70 to 200   just because of the extra weight the wonder of the  reins but it's not a lens I'm carrying every day   in my bag the lenses that you chosen they're both  you've got a massive gap between the long end of   the wide-angle lens and the wide end of the long  end I just have to accept that I miss out on those   a night to me I think it's pretty obvious you have  a 1635 something around that are we assuming that   we're kind of shooting what we mostly shoot just  just generic use just to give you the most options   and then I don't know maybe go back to the 24 to  105 okay I just think that for generic use you're   far less likely to use longer focal lengths than  you are to use those middle focal lengths but so   next up what were three lens I mean this is an  easy one for me but you start first well I mean   you know you get you get the Holy Trinity  of lenses don't use so you've got your your   wide-angle so nightly 16 to 35 then a 24 to 70  and then a 70 to 200 and that is meant to cover   you fur there's one thing that you're missing in  that trio what what about you is it the 50 mil   crime well no you have the 50 Meltzer I had I had  a three lens setup for years and years and years   and I swore by it so I had a 1635 yeah fo and that  was my go to landscape lens then I had a 70 to 200   yeah which was again mostly for landscapes but you  could also use it for a little bit of wildlife and   then obviously you've got this massive gap then  between 35 and 70 so bang straight down the middle   of 50 millimeter prime because then you've got  your f1 point for that yeah we're doing any kind   of portraiture whether it be people animals  whatever and you can get that shallow depth   of field or in low-light situations you know if  you're trying to do photography and handheld in   a situation where you've got very low light and  the fastest lens you've got in your bag is an f4   lens then good luck it's amazing how many people  ask the question what's the what's the best lens I   can die that's good all round and there isn't one  is that the answer is there just a little question   yeah if you could have if someone could make a 16  to 300 millimeter f1 point for zoom that wasn't   very big and wasn't very heavy that was optically  great then we'd all buy it yeah but we'd have to   employ someone to carry it round I think so well  no just said it wasn't very heavy Wow well I'm   well my strong side by the Bell drink up it's  always useful to hear what these guys recommend   for the best gear and they've certainly pointed  me in the right direction on a few occasions so   I hope you've enjoyed this month's show and if you  have please do let us know in the comment and also   give us a thumbs up if you can the production crew  worked really hard behind the scenes and getting   feedback from you guys is extremely valuable and  always so appreciated our next monthly show will   be available from the 31st of May when among many  other things we'll be looking at how to get shots   like this from your own back garden it's a long  wait in the current environment so we will try   our best to produce some extra content between  now and then to keep you all entertained with all   things photography until then stay safe, take  good care and don't forget to take good photos

Channel: Photography Online

Views: 90,251

Keywords: photography, isle of skye, camera tips, photography trips, landscape photography, photography show, photography online, highlands, scotland, photography tutorials, wildlife photography, digital photography, adobe lightroom editing, learn photography, how to take better photos, photography skills, camera skills, photography programme, depth of field, drone photography, sensor cleaning, radial filter, Otter photography, Fuji GX617, Camera cleaning, Neist Point

Id: abzjSaID6Ec

Length: 64min 10sec (3850 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 26 2020