Light stands

 More Christmas presents to play with so I can move the lights around with ease and point them in any direction.

atli EON Time Lapse Camera

 Trying out a new camera the atli EON Time Lapse camera. First test film seemed ok. Seems to have a good battery life and stitched the photos together automatically to make a film.

More Colour Cards

 Because we use more than one camera, colour grading is really important, as different cameras get differing amount of light from the subject and the only effective way of colour grading it to get all the images the same before you start. And the Model is the best person.

How to make it look real?

 I suppose the best way to make something look real is to really do it. That doesn't stop the planning and the organisation and getting the best angle to see clearly what you are doing.

Lighting Challenge

 The Lighting was certainly a bit of a challenge with this Christmas Cake. All White and silver foil but trying to show some detail. We went for some quite dramatic high contrast lighting to get some shadows.

Depth of Field

 Depth of field is a wonderful tool to try and highlight something as well as using for artistic reasons. Making educational videos sometimes we want to high light something and putting the foreground in focus can focus the user on something we are talking about.

Epson Photo Scanner

 Time to scan in all those photos from years ago. Getting the Christmas stuff down from the loft was also an excuse to bring down boxes of photos to digitise. The @EpsonUK FF-680W photo scanner is great for this, so fast.

New Shock Mount

 New Behringer shock mount arrived. Taken a month or so to come but it holds the microphone nicely and replaces a cheap and rather broken version. Now sitting on the Elgato low rise arm.

Big or little set up

 Its a choice when we make a video. Do we set up a whole studio with lights and mics and multiple cameras, or do we just get out the DJI Osmo and make a natural light video. Both seem to work.

Using a Handgrip

 Using a handgrip with a DSLR for video work is much lighter and easier than a bulky rig.

Tripods

Tripods seem to come in 2 shapes and sizes, either to big and heavy to move, or so light and flimsy that they don't hold anything steady. Trying to find something in between seems difficult unlike this @manfrotto_uk

Coloured Lights

 Sometimes coloured lights have there uses, either for dramatic effect or sometimes to make something show up differently so we can see it in a "new light".

panel light or a spotlight

 What's best the panel light or a spotlight onto a diffuser. I find the light quality is very similar, but the panel lights take up a lot less space and are cheaper can have their shape changed, but possibly less versatile than a spot light.

DJI Osmo

 Sometimes the DJI Osmo is just the right sort of camera to get in and do the shot.

Lenses and distortion

 

There seems to often be just two ways of choosing a lens - this is the only one I have  - I choose the focal length depending upon how wide an angle I want - But better is to choose on what distortion is acceptable. The wider the  lens - usually the smaller the number the worse the distortion gets up to a point then after that as the image get more magnified the image again starts to get more distorted. It depends on what you want and what you are willing to accept. for the image you are creating. Sometimes it is this distortion that you want.

Is there a need to prepare for live streaming again

 Will we be returning to live streaming lessons again after the Christmas break? I suppose we must prepare for it. Still having to do some for Covid infected students.

Ball Diffuser

 Using a @SWIT_America S-2610 Flexible LED Panel with a Ball diffuser over the top of us gives an excellent diffuse light.

hair rim spot light

 Set up a good hair rim spot light today Nobody has noticed the extra hook on the wall - yet and its not everyone who has a lighting rail fixed to their kitchen/dining room ceiling.

Taking the shot

Using a @Benro_UK tripod to get in to the correct position to get that shot. Its very versatile and enables us to get shots that would be difficult with other tripods.

Colour chart

 

We don't seem to be able to go very far creating videos, with multiple cameras without using this for colour grading. It is the only effective way of matching the colours produced by the different cameras. We are using often the same cameras but they have different angles and therefore pick up different lighting effects. In Post Production matching the colour gives a much better look to the video.

Headphones

For teaching, its great to wear a pair of headphones so that I can hear the students, but for other video, podcasts and livestreams it is necessary. It does help me monitor the broadcast and since I don't have a studio team to do it it is sometime necessary.

Rode Podcaster

 The Rode Podcaster has rapidly become our main sound recording system. With really good quality amps the sound is good and the sound is half of the video.

Elgato wave mic arm lp.

 Trying out the @elgato wave mic arm lp. We recently bought the wave mic arm and like how the parts are interchangeable. It will prove useful for many of the camera shots being out of the way.

Snow

A good morning to get out and taken a few pictures as a sprinkle of snow on the cars and roofs make the place look a little prettier. Whenever a little snow falls and it is only a little sprinkling today, it is nice to get out with the camera, especially if the sky clears and there is a great blue sky to go with it.

Copying the files

 Probably the most important job after doing filming. Copying the data to the server and backing it up and then checking it.