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Lesson Info

Equipment: Sound and Cameras

the last of my handle pieces is gonna be, in fact, the bottom of these little audio mixers. Now, this sprang and I'm gonna name remain nameless because I don't really like this brand. However, it does do a pretty good job, and it's got a couple of problems with it, but the problems don't seem to really kill it. But is this a way to support your camera? Yeah, it really is. It's got a really nice mount on the bottom 1/4 20 mount that allows you to put it wherever you want it to. So you can use this as amount. Then it's got a nice little rubber piece on top that you can mount your camera on top of. So is this a way toe hold and sorry. Hold and stabilize your camera. Yes. Yes, it is. Yeah. Yeah. It really is not one of my favorites, but yeah, it sure is. Okay. Go ahead, buddy. Your audio mixers I've been playing around with, you know, direct video. Mike, direct into camera. Yes, sir. And I'm wondering what the difference is or what the benefit is to going on the mixer and great question. L...

et's go into microphone. Shall we? Let's do it when we talk about microphones. We have got a lot to learn. And one of the great things about me being here. And I stay late when I'm working here a creative life. Is there audio team that they have here? You think they're video team is good there. Audio team is good here too, man. So I get a chance to ask all those questions I can't get answers to because I'm a photo guy. And when I go to motion picture guys and I go to video guys, they don't have the same set of parameters that I do. They don't understand. I want equipment that's lightweight, inexpensive, durable. I want multi use. I don't have unlimited budgets, right? I can't spend $4000 on a directional microphone, man. I can't do it. Come on. So I don't get the answer that I need to from some of my city friends. And in Chicago, when I go to those places or worse, when I go to Los Angeles, all I get is basically get out of here, kid. You know, you don't even know how to answer. You don't ask a question. So why would you even be in here so? Well, we talk about microphones. Let's talk about the basics, right? The basics are lavallee or style microphones. And of course, I'm wearing Elavil ear style microphone. Now that's actually taped underneath my shirt. And it works very well, right? You could hear me. There's no echo. Now you hear the echo in the room, The tear and I'm assuming, Do you hear echo When you hear me in on TV when they're listening that you hear some sort of room echo So that does the live audience here any sort of life? No. All they just here is me. And it's nice annexing clean, right? Nice. Really nice. Well, if you were here, you notice there's a little bit of live echo. It's actually sounds really nice doing so well. Way use our own lava layers and those of you that watch my little of log posts. You see, if you get a cool shot of this here, Willie, that is a little Louis. Yeah, and we get over here just for a second. We make fun of Louis constantly, and there are times when we make Louis where a burgundy shirt and light blue shirts and then whip your hair up and then put your face right down there by there and you'll notice. Look, look, look. It's a little Italy e gave you embarrass. You know, your mama, Joe. I'm so I o thistle, Lava Lear. Now you don't buy it this way. We make him this way, right? So we just take the Laval ear microphone just like any livelier microphone, and then we go find whatever we want to make these into. Then we drill a hole in them, and then we put the livelier up in, like the top of the head of the little Louis here, there. And I'm sorry, buddy. I'll leave that down there for you right there and then that's gonna connect backwards into a basic body pack Right now, this is this is one of the top of the line brands. This is a brand called Sennheiser, and we've had for the most part, I don't know. What should we do here, Chris? That's it. These air Sennheiser and we will use these a lot. In fact, there's a microphone and then there there's a receiver. Now they both look the same, but they're called body packs, and I actually have one on its on my belt in the back there that I don't know what brand it is, but these just literally take batteries. And then the microphone here is gonna take little Louis and you'll notice on the back of little Louis, we have glued one of those rare earth magnets. You know, those super magnets that will do absolutely anything. And in fact, I've got the other one right over here. So when you see me do my block posts on hybrid photo dot pro and other spots, you'll see me with little Louis. Literally. Just microphone right here. I run the microphone underneath my shirt and then it goes to my excuse me, my microphone body transmitter that will leave right there and then over on the camera. There's a receiver best I can. Sorry about that little receiver. Okay? And they're both on the same channel so that we're able tohave about 1500 feet of range so I can be wherever I want to. Particularly in the city. It doesn't seem to matter. So when you see me doing all those crazy vlog posts. Typically, this is what we're gonna do. Let me tell you a funny story. Once upon a time before we had all this digital stuff, I used to photograph a lot of presidents. So we would need microphones because you have to communicate between all these people, right? Well, we would buy these microphones that were the same ones that the police departments would use this or big, heavy microphones. They were beautiful, right? Well, the problem of those microphones is that they just didn't have a lot of reach. Right, because police microphones are made to go to a tower. And then that tower was to relay them toe where it needed to go. Well, we don't have the ability to do that with regular ones. So I'm from Chicago. And of course, my grandfather was head of the Electric Electrician's union, and he says, Hey, I got this guy. You go down to the south side. You got on there? Yes, for a guy named Mike. My skin pop up there. You're telling me, Are you saying you need to have the microfinance walkie talkies to be a little longer? Okay, so I go ahead and did well, I use them for years. I couldn't believe that they have this range. It was terrific. There were, like, three times longer than anything else until I'm in Atlanta, Georgia, and I'm on assignment, photographing former President Carter and I'm in that beautiful park. It's called the Carter Center, I think. And it was terrific. And I noticed that there was a lot of really nice people just sitting in the park, a little pregnant lady over here. And there's a gentlemen over there having a picnic. And next thing you know, I pull out one of my microphones and I need to talk to one of my guys. And I said, Hey, I'm over over by the statue of the president. Need to go over. And, man, all these bad things happened at once. Guess what? Yeah, we happen to be on the Secret Service is frequency. And you know what happens when you use a microphone when you're on the Secret Services frequency? Yeah, they take him. Yeah, that's not the worst thing. Right? So I got yelled at the first time I met Lady Rosalynn Carter was when I got yelled at by her for using the secret services. Yeah. So, by the way, that you didn't go well, I don't have very good shots of President Carter. And now, Now you know why. So just just passing that by I didn't go to jail or anything, so I'm okay. All right. Next piece we need to talk about is going to be cameras. Let's talk about cameras, okay? Please, please realize I don't have anything wrong with DSLR, so I don't have anything wrong with medium format for a long time. Those of you that have known my past known that when we shoot all those big factories around the country and around the world. And when we went from film to digital, one of the tools that I used was a medium format back right. I was a leaf back and then I used a phase one back. So I've been big boy digital stuff for a long time. Well, I think and as you saw in that little video there that I think that DSLR they're going to go away, not whether I'm right or when I'm wrong. Doesn't matter. I don't mean to make anybody angry, but I know I'm gonna anyway, But they are four by five, was great for by five, got replaced by medium format. Medium format was great. Medium format got replaced by small format and then kind of got replaced by digital. In the early days when we saw digital, we said This stuff horrible. There's no way my Hasselblad I'm going to give up the hassle. Bland's I can remember saying There's always gonna be need for Hassell blend. I don't have a house and you have half split anymore. You have have Sablan No, have so glad. Okay, well, one of these days we're going to say I had a Nikon d four. Boy, that thing was expensive as heck and it was beautiful time. But now all of a sudden I got a camera like this does 10 times more than it does now It does. This doesn't do 10 times more than a deformity for is a wonderful divine camera. However, let's get right to the chase, the chases. We want to be able to shoot hybrid photography. We want to be able to shoot photo and we want to be able to shoot video and we want to use the least amount of post processing possible. You know, that means that means I don't want to do anything in the camera to fix a file. Ever. Right. All right. This two things in the Internet if you post you look at will Crockett, you see how much trouble I get into, right? There's two topics. One that have already been proven right on, which is hilarious. The other one that hopefully I'll be proven right now. But I might be dead wrong, right? 1st 1 is once upon a time you were never supposed to use s RGB. You're only supposed to use Adobe rgb. Well, I had to use Adobe RGB because as a commercial photographer and I need the inkjet printer and I still use Adobe rgb from Egypt Pretty. But guess what? Yes, RGB one s rgb happens to be the color space of that TV. The apple IPod. It's give you going to measure its color space. It's s rgb cameras or s rgb Look, it's OK. It's on the wrong srg Bs Color space is just fine. Isn't the best color space in the world. Oh, heck no. Is there much better Color spaces are half Yeah, it's very close to video. Video doesn't have a color space, but if it did and be very Coast ass RGB So let's leave it alone. Yeah, these cameras can go toe adobe rgb. Who cares? It doesn't matter. The other thing is raw files. I outlaw raw files in my studio. When I get those kids from Columbia College and they want to come and they want to interview me, the first thing I asked him is if you can make any chip print Okay, here's a J Peg. I said, There's a Mac. There's an each other's of being chip printers. I got six of them. Pick whatever you want, Teoh. Here's a box of paper, right? Musema lab paper. Right. And they usually give a piece of paper that they never used before. I go here, you nobody and go here. How much? Go make me a print on this and they're gonna look really scared, right? That's good, because when they look scared, that means they're gonna go learn something. So off the oath, they take this piece of paper and they could take as much time as they want to in the back and they can ask other guys. Hey, you going over there and figure it out? Okay. So if they come back over and they figured out an affiliate, at least have a picture on there. That's a good sign. If they don't have a picture on there, that's a bad sign. And they failed right there. Right? Okay, I get it. We still need to have a jet prints in this whole universe. Can I bank Egypt? Print off these cameras? Of course I can. Do I have to worry about print size? Sure I do. Let's talk about DSLR versus mere lis. There's a difference in sensor size. There sure is. There's a big difference in sensor size. In fact, there's a difference between muralists Camera's sensor size. The sensor size in this Fujifilm camera, for instance, is a much larger sensor size than what's in this top of the lying food. U G H three camera, right? Doesn't really matter. Well, it depends if you're making 40 by 60 prints than it matters, doesn't it? Yeah, it sure does. Okay, now, just imagine this. All right, Imagine this. Imagine you get a phone call from Magan Celeste here from creative life. And they say, Well, we need to decorate your set if you don't mind in some of your prints that said, you know, we don't We don't print like you. And, you know, we've got the finest inkjet printing materials that there are image printed. All the whole stuff is part of my deal. I'm master whatever. Printer nonsense. All right, so we only shoot in J peg in my studio, right? And when we have a photo session that we're gonna shoot in black and white, we're actually gonna shoot black and white, the cameras set up in black and white so we don't shoot color and then and then convert. We just don't do that. And I'll tell you why we don't do that in a little bit. So if you'd like to take a look that you'll see, here's a really nice picture, and this is maybe Oh, that's 24 by I don't know, 37. Now what? I have gotten a lot sharper and a lot more detail on that photograph. If I would have shot it with a d 40 heck, yeah, Yeah, I sure would. Yeah, that was shot with little mix GH three. Which is what? A 29. Even a 20 minute megapixel megapixels. Anybody know what Jade three is 16. 16 megapixels. Now that shot in a 16 by nine. So it's probably not cropped. OK, now you guys in the front here, you're taking a look at that. All right, Now say you're not a photographer. Say you're an accountant and you came to me for a portrait and you got that for a portrait. And that's hanging in your living room. Are you mad at me because it's not been shot with a D four would have more quality. Okay, Okay, okay. Is there a problem with the quality of that at all? Okay, You want something else is that's actually a one light shot. The only post processing it has is an automated vignette. That's it. There's no highlight. There's no whatever nobler, no sharpening know whatever that's all done in the camera that's called pre processing. So one of the reasons I'm really glad that they chose that particular print is it's a really great example. Now the print that I have of that is significantly better. Why? Because I'm using image print, which is not Photoshopped. I'm using ultra premium papers. I've got particular ways in which that we print, and that's one of the things that we do. But I still don't have a problem. That print whatsoever. That print was made with this camera in J Peg in black and white mood. Now, if you look at that and it makes you cringe, it's OK. It's really okay. That's I mean, you can be mad at me. You can't go. Sorry. You can't be mad at me for that, right? I decide. That's what I want to dio. I'm selling that in my studio and my studio is successful. I also if I can accept that type of photograph. I also opened up another door, and that other door is I can shoot video that looks just like that when I shoot my de Flore, my photo, the black and the white quality. And when I shoot my video on the D four, they don't match. They're not the same shape. They're not the same tone, Alan. They're not the same there close, but they're not the same. Okay, to a lot of people, that doesn't matter. But you don't. That doesn't mean that doesn't mean that I now have to post process. Remember, here's where we're going. We're choosing equipment that's affordable equipment. That's portable equipment that will allow me to not have to post process. I don't want a post process. I don't want to pay that kid. Fix color and contrast problems that air caused by the photographer not doing it right in the camera in the first place. When you're in a studio and your inner control environments and you're like Will Crockett and your complete moron and you have things like taller meters, right, you ever seen a color meter? This is what a color meter looks like, right? This is $ worth of color meter, and it will tell me the color, temperature and the color balance of every light that's in this joint, and I'll be able to dial it in within 10 10 points if that this happens to be the probably the most accurate cult, the accurate flash meter that's iconic has ever made. In fact, if you want to see something that's really interesting, this is that one of the few pieces that I ever cherish you know, why hasn't Gold sticker on the back and we're gonna get Make sure I get that for you, too. There's very few pieces of equipment that I'm I'm attached to in any way, and this has happens to be one of them because it's got two things on him. Up on the top. It's got the gold sticker that shows that it's a master calibration meter, that there's only six of those. And the only one that's ever been let out of the factory in Japan was given to me on a project that I did for So Konica as a gift. And if you look underneath that's actually inscribed in gold toe Will Crockett and I'm not bragging. Here's what I'm doing. I'm just telling you that I am so in two being able to produce quality in the camera that I've been given a gift by sick Connick for helping them out. That means so much to me. That piece it does, so I'm able to produce whatever I want inside that camera doesn't scare me. So when I'm gonna pick a camera, I've gotta pick a camera that's going to do a couple of things The first thing that I don't do when it comes to a camera is I won't be When it comes to portrait work, I won't be buying a lens that has a shifting aperture problem, right? What we're talking about sitting down in the portrait session, you'll probably find me using a prime lens instead of a zoom Lins. Primary reason is that, well, a prime lenses gonna auto focus faster. It's typically going to be a little sharper, right? It's typically going to be a little cleaner from edge to edge. But when you take some zoo lens, I don't even know if I have any hair with me. Here I do here. I have a beautiful lens. This is a 7 to 14 millimeter lens. It's for leave. Leave it up there for you. That's for Lou Mix. It's actually like a style ends, but it has a shifting problem, meaning when you said it too wide open and F four and when you it's already zoomed all the way out to 14 millimeters. When you zoom it back to seven millimeters, it's no longer really F four. It's actually F or 2/10 when you zoom it out to its seven millimeters. It actually changes its it's exposure value again. All right. Now, to most photographers, it doesn't matter because they're going to be using an automated exposure system, and it doesn't matter. That's called a shifting aperture. Zoom. Now, when it comes to mirror less cameras, that isn't as much of a problem as it used to be. Here's another one here, too. This is a really wonderful Fuji lens. This isn't 18 to and I do believe it's a shifting zoo to It's an wonderful lens. It really is. It's a wonderful camera, too. The two Fuji cameras that you'll see me shoot here are right, right in, right in front. Now what? When it comes to cameras we want to be able to go with, in this case, Mirrlees cameras. Why? Because they allow me to be more efficient and effective in shooting hybrid. I can outshoot in yogurts, and so can you. Anybody that wants to shoot hybrid, you could shoot faster with a mere list camera than you can with a DSLR just the way it is. The tools are in the right spot, and it's ready to do it you got with wireless nonsense. It's smaller. It's easier. It's lighter. Whatever. Can you shoot it with the DSLR? Go right ahead. Now what cameras are we using? What are we recommending? Well, there's a bunch of right. There's a couple Olympics cameras that we think are terrific. Just I just Personally, I just don't like him. That doesn't mean they're bad member. We have two separate. There's a big difference between my opinion. In fact, fact is the Olympus cameras, some of them are very good, right? The M five terrific camera. The fact is that some most of Fuji's cameras were really good, right? Fuji makes some mere lis cameras the smaller ones that I don't like very much. But they're bigger cameras. I like a whole time. Here's one that's a darling. This is the one you have, right? You're the to right. This is the food G E x two and the Fuji X to this one had my little little in doublet on it there for my for my list. This is a spectacular camera now that is going to have a big rock and gorgeous sensor. It's Fuji, which means it also has a bunch of beautiful color options on them. We talked about when I used to travel around the universe. I used to be able to travel with a bunch of different films. I would travel with a cooler and that cooler usedto have five or six types of film in them. There would be a role, a tongue star set of tungsten film. And then there would be a film called Pro Via that had about 20% more color to it, but it still had accurate skin tones. Then there would be a film in there called ASTA, and it had normal color, and it had very neutral looking skin tones. And there was a film in there called Vell via and Vell via had blaze and crazy colors. But it was only 50. I s o. Well, guess what? When food you got in the mirror, less cameras, you know what they did? They put all those films in the camera for me. So the minute that I first got my first Fuji camera and I turned it on and I hit the menu button and I went into the film simulation mode and I go, you got to be kidding me. I go there's of Elvia and I go down and ago There's Askia. There's pro via neg o There's black and white ago. You gotta be kidding me. I go. This is a dream come true. I go. What's next? Is there a money tree? Because the only the thing that I wanted after a digital camera that had Fujian probie and all that other stuff on there was a tree that grew money. Pretty soon it's gonna be a tree that grows money. Finally, after I got treated grows money, You know that I want the tree that grows Cuban cigars, right? That's the only thing. I want it for. The money. In fact, I might take the Cuban cigar one before I do the money tree. Well, I just have to interject. You probably don't know this, but I just got back from Cuba last week. Are not allowed to bring them back. I know, you know. Did you enjoyed? By the way I love Did you take some great pictures? Oh, did you put up online yet? They're getting there. I just got back. Please put him online with me. I will dio Amazing But I did try one of those Cubans. You did? Yeah. Which one did you try to remember? I don't know. Did it make agreeing after about the fourth puff? Yes. Yeah. It also made me cough. Okay. Yeah, because you know I'm not approach cigar smoker here. They're a little stronger boy. Are they good? They are good.