Hi George enjoyed your video I was a wildlife cameraman for 30 years but not done anything for 10 years so got out my gear for lockdown and now have bug again putting camera trapsnout this evening many thanks john Anglesey north wales
Thanks Bill..! It’ll be a few more weeks before I can put together another video on camera trapping when I’ll update more comprehensively but I will say for you now that a major part of the solution is choosing a “shady” or darker location.. and a second is aperture priority..! All the best..! g
Nice update George. For daytime and nigh time shots, If you set your camera to aperture priority and an f stop of around F8- F10ish and dial in -2 to -3 stops of exposure compensation, have your iso around 400 - 800, then tune your flashes to give correct exposure. You should get well exposed images with some ambient light showing both day and night, Assuming that the daytime is not too bright or this may make your camera select a shutter speed that is too fast to synch with the flash (i.e above 1/250). Hope that makes sense. 🤔
Thank you Martin.. I think it depends on the Fox.. I’ve had one be bold as brass and another be totally timid and put off.. the Wildcat was merely surprised for a mo and carried on regardless.. and the Boar was totally unfazed.. I’ve yet to see how the jackals will behave.. cheers for the comment.. all the best.. g
Hi George, Andrew here in Ottawa Canada, originally from the Uk. Just wanted to say thanks for sharing the videos, these are really good and loved your setup for camera trapping. Cheers Andrew
Thank you so much Andrew..! I really appreciate you taking the time to comment and I’m so glad you like my videos 😊 very best to you over in beautiful 🇨🇦
Hello George, Very interesting as I have just taken delivery of some Camtraptions gear for exactly the same purpose as you. I know that we have regular hedgehog and fox visits as I have captured them on my trail camera at night attracted by the hedgehog food - and now the dog biscuits - that I have been putting on the lawn. My first attempt at overnight trap photography was reasonably successful but I suspect that the fox got spooked by the sound of my camera shutter as I only caught it once as it emerged into the garden. The hedgehogs were not bothered at all either by the flash or the sound of the shutter. The second night was less successful - most likely because I departed from the "Quick Start settings for the Camtraptions PIR and also got too ambitious with the positions I used for everything - it will be back to basics tonight! FYI I am operating fully wirelessly using a Canon camera and a couple of Nikon SB-28 flashguns which I believe are the only ones ready to fire immediately on wake up after standby mode. Looking forward to your future videos about exposure settings.
Hi Alan and thank you..! I love the camtraptions gizmos but they do take some getting your head around the many configurations you can possibly have. I too am only using the most basic for the mo..! I’ve been quite pleased with the results so far but with only limited field testing.. I heard the same thing about the Nikon flash you’re using but my Canon speedlites haven’t missed a beat yet so I’m quite happy.. I think the Canons probably lose battery charge faster than the Nikon’s though. My next proper field testing will be from Greece in the autumn for Jackals and wildcats.. I too have found the foxes quite jittery.... I look forward to hear from you how you get on so I hope you stay in touch... all the best.. g
Hi Guillermo.. thank you for your comment.. the link to the ones I used is below but I would try to find something a little stronger if I were you.. it's why I haven't linked them in the description as I can't really recommend them after all for this purpose as the weight of the camera and housing is too much for them.. hope of some help...g LINK: HITSLAM Mobile Phone Tripod, Mini Tripod for iPhone/Samsung Galaxy/Huawei Cellphone, Small Camera with Bluetooth Remote Control, Phone Mount www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07XG7ZH1N/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_fabc_1E179FG3T92RBGZSC6AD?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
Hi John.. I have two canon speedlites.. a 580EX and a 550EX.. I also tried using a Neewer 565EX so that I didn’t have to put my more expensive 580 at risk but it was inconsistent at waking from sleep mode.. the Canons work a treat though ! Hope of some help..! All the best.. g
Hi George, just a quick question. I know nothing about flash photography and I have been researching the subject for my underwater photography. For my kind if set up it was recommended to use TTL flash. Would that be applicable to your situation given the change of light during the early hours? Otherwise my inexperienced self would have chosen Aperture priority to deal with the changes in light.
Hi Marieta.. good to hear from you.. in all honesty I hardly ever use ttl as it can be unpredictable.. I usually use manual power setting to balance with ambient.. in some conditions you may like to use colour filter on the flash too to either warm up or cool down to avoid that hard light that flash makes.. hope of some help..! g
@@GeorgeSBlonsky yes they use filters to compensate for the loss of red colours after a certain depth. However, I don’t scuba dive, I just snorkel and free dive so my natural ability to go deep is kind of limited.
Does your camera have an auto iso feature? I have a very similar setup to yours and using auto iso helps find a balance of exposure between day and night and still being able to use manual mode.
Hi Ken and thank you.. yes.. my camera does have auto iso setting but I’ve never tried it for fear of it choosing an ISO that would be too high and noisy during the night. what is the max iso you have found it goes to when on auto..? I should give it a go I guess but so far I have found that setting ISO at 800 on Av at f8 with a -2 exposure compensation gets me pretty good results.. I will make another vid in another month or two showing my results. Thanks again.. g
Francesco Albano .. hi Francesco.. I live in UK.. but you are absolutely correct.. Muntjac deer are an Asian species.. they were released/escaped from private collections in the UK many years ago and have now become almost endemic..! At least I think that is how they came to be here from what I have read.
Great footage George you have plenty of wildlife in your backyard . I think aperture priority maybe is the solution to the problem , using the iso that you had during night and you liked as a result and let the shutter speed balance during day ?
Thank you Giorgio ! I think you may be right.. though after 200th/sec shutter I will lose synchronisation with flash and I might get bars across the image.. worth testing though..!
@@GeorgeSBlonsky I don't know if the specific equipment supports high speed sync , i think it worth's to check ,you can have much higher shutter speed with no problems .
Hello George. It'a nice to see someone else going through this journey. I am guessing that you are using the Camtraptions V3 PIR and if so, they have an experimental mode that allows you to take 2 images at night using the BULB mode of your camera. One shot is taken at 0.1 second exposure and the second with a long exposure to expose the background (such as the stars). I haven personally used it just yet, but is on my todo list in the very near future.
Hi Paul and thank you for taking the time to comment..! I am indeed using the V3 PIR.. and I have tried only very recently to use exactly that mode with Bulb setting.. was very hit and miss though and I got really strong ghosting of the subject.. I mention it in one of my more recent vids and I ended up reverting back to a simple night mode with slightly increased luminosity level to get the sensor to trigger in half light as well.. thanks again and wish you well..!! g
Indeed Vickey..! I have since been experimenting and will eventually produce another video explaining my trials.. but basically what seems to work best for the situation I describe is Av mode with a -2 exposure adjustment/compensation...
Many thanks John.. both for your sub and for taking the time to comment.. very much appreciated! I’m based near Oxford. Good luck with your camera trapping too..! All the best.. g
Hi George enjoyed your video I was a wildlife cameraman for 30 years but not done anything for 10 years so got out my gear for lockdown and now have bug again putting camera trapsnout this evening many thanks john Anglesey north wales
Looking forward to how you deal with the exposure challenge. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks Bill..! It’ll be a few more weeks before I can put together another video on camera trapping when I’ll update more comprehensively but I will say for you now that a major part of the solution is choosing a “shady” or darker location.. and a second is aperture priority..! All the best..! g
Nice update George. For daytime and nigh time shots, If you set your camera to aperture priority and an f stop of around F8- F10ish and dial in -2 to -3 stops of exposure compensation, have your iso around 400 - 800, then tune your flashes to give correct exposure. You should get well exposed images with some ambient light showing both day and night, Assuming that the daytime is not too bright or this may make your camera select a shutter speed that is too fast to synch with the flash (i.e above 1/250). Hope that makes sense. 🤔
Thank you so much John..! Great advice and confirms what I had begun to suspect would be the solution..!
Hi excellent well done Regards Tim
Many thanks Tim..! 👍😊
Like what you are dong ‘ I wonder does the Fox mind the flash ‘ very sharp images
Thank you Martin.. I think it depends on the Fox.. I’ve had one be bold as brass and another be totally timid and put off.. the Wildcat was merely surprised for a mo and carried on regardless.. and the Boar was totally unfazed.. I’ve yet to see how the jackals will behave.. cheers for the comment.. all the best.. g
Hi George, Andrew here in Ottawa Canada, originally from the Uk. Just wanted to say thanks for sharing the videos, these are really good and loved your setup for camera trapping. Cheers Andrew
Thank you so much Andrew..! I really appreciate you taking the time to comment and I’m so glad you like my videos 😊 very best to you over in beautiful 🇨🇦
Hello George, Very interesting as I have just taken delivery of some Camtraptions gear for exactly the same purpose as you. I know that we have regular hedgehog and fox visits as I have captured them on my trail camera at night attracted by the hedgehog food - and now the dog biscuits - that I have been putting on the lawn. My first attempt at overnight trap photography was reasonably successful but I suspect that the fox got spooked by the sound of my camera shutter as I only caught it once as it emerged into the garden. The hedgehogs were not bothered at all either by the flash or the sound of the shutter. The second night was less successful - most likely because I departed from the "Quick Start settings for the Camtraptions PIR and also got too ambitious with the positions I used for everything - it will be back to basics tonight! FYI I am operating fully wirelessly using a Canon camera and a couple of Nikon SB-28 flashguns which I believe are the only ones ready to fire immediately on wake up after standby mode. Looking forward to your future videos about exposure settings.
Hi Alan and thank you..! I love the camtraptions gizmos but they do take some getting your head around the many configurations you can possibly have. I too am only using the most basic for the mo..! I’ve been quite pleased with the results so far but with only limited field testing.. I heard the same thing about the Nikon flash you’re using but my Canon speedlites haven’t missed a beat yet so I’m quite happy.. I think the Canons probably lose battery charge faster than the Nikon’s though. My next proper field testing will be from Greece in the autumn for Jackals and wildcats.. I too have found the foxes quite jittery.... I look forward to hear from you how you get on so I hope you stay in touch... all the best.. g
Hi George, What mark are the tripods? or in link
Hi Guillermo.. thank you for your comment.. the link to the ones I used is below but I would try to find something a little stronger if I were you.. it's why I haven't linked them in the description as I can't really recommend them after all for this purpose as the weight of the camera and housing is too much for them.. hope of some help...g
LINK: HITSLAM Mobile Phone Tripod, Mini Tripod for iPhone/Samsung Galaxy/Huawei Cellphone, Small Camera with Bluetooth Remote Control, Phone Mount www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07XG7ZH1N/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_fabc_1E179FG3T92RBGZSC6AD?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
Hi George nice video what flashgun are you using many thanks john
Hi John.. I have two canon speedlites.. a 580EX and a 550EX.. I also tried using a Neewer 565EX so that I didn’t have to put my more expensive 580 at risk but it was inconsistent at waking from sleep mode.. the Canons work a treat though ! Hope of some help..! All the best.. g
Sir please help to find budget cinematography camera and lens
You will have to look in your local market which you are much better placed to do than I plus I don’t know what your budget is.
Hi George, just a quick question. I know nothing about flash photography and I have been researching the subject for my underwater photography. For my kind if set up it was recommended to use TTL flash. Would that be applicable to your situation given the change of light during the early hours? Otherwise my inexperienced self would have chosen Aperture priority to deal with the changes in light.
Hi Marieta.. good to hear from you.. in all honesty I hardly ever use ttl as it can be unpredictable.. I usually use manual power setting to balance with ambient.. in some conditions you may like to use colour filter on the flash too to either warm up or cool down to avoid that hard light that flash makes.. hope of some help..! g
@@GeorgeSBlonsky well I have a long way to go with flash photography. I will need to experiment and read more about it, especially underwater. 😃
@@marieta.s I don’t know that much about underwater but I have a feeling they also use filters
@@GeorgeSBlonsky yes they use filters to compensate for the loss of red colours after a certain depth. However, I don’t scuba dive, I just snorkel and free dive so my natural ability to go deep is kind of limited.
Does your camera have an auto iso feature? I have a very similar setup to yours and using auto iso helps find a balance of exposure between day and night and still being able to use manual mode.
Hi Ken and thank you.. yes.. my camera does have auto iso setting but I’ve never tried it for fear of it choosing an ISO that would be too high and noisy during the night. what is the max iso you have found it goes to when on auto..? I should give it a go I guess but so far I have found that setting ISO at 800 on Av at f8 with a -2 exposure compensation gets me pretty good results.. I will make another vid in another month or two showing my results. Thanks again.. g
Where do you live? Cause I thought muntjac deer lived Asia
Francesco Albano .. hi Francesco.. I live in UK.. but you are absolutely correct.. Muntjac deer are an Asian species.. they were released/escaped from private collections in the UK many years ago and have now become almost endemic..! At least I think that is how they came to be here from what I have read.
Great footage George you have plenty of wildlife in your backyard .
I think aperture priority maybe is the solution to the problem , using the iso that you had during night and you liked as a result and let the shutter speed balance during day ?
Thank you Giorgio ! I think you may be right.. though after 200th/sec shutter I will lose synchronisation with flash and I might get bars across the image.. worth testing though..!
@@GeorgeSBlonsky I don't know if the specific equipment supports high speed sync , i think it worth's to check ,you can have much higher shutter speed with no problems .
Hello George. It'a nice to see someone else going through this journey. I am guessing that you are using the Camtraptions V3 PIR and if so, they have an experimental mode that allows you to take 2 images at night using the BULB mode of your camera. One shot is taken at 0.1 second exposure and the second with a long exposure to expose the background (such as the stars). I haven personally used it just yet, but is on my todo list in the very near future.
Hi Paul and thank you for taking the time to comment..! I am indeed using the V3 PIR.. and I have tried only very recently to use exactly that mode with Bulb setting.. was very hit and miss though and I got really strong ghosting of the subject.. I mention it in one of my more recent vids and I ended up reverting back to a simple night mode with slightly increased luminosity level to get the sensor to trigger in half light as well.. thanks again and wish you well..!! g
You put camera on AV mode ?
Indeed Vickey..! I have since been experimenting and will eventually produce another video explaining my trials.. but basically what seems to work best for the situation I describe is Av mode with a -2 exposure adjustment/compensation...
@@GeorgeSBlonsky Thanks george, i was till date doing it on all manual, was hesitating using AV mode. Will try it soon. awaiting your video on it..!
interesting
Thank you Alex..!
Ps where are you based john
Many thanks John.. both for your sub and for taking the time to comment.. very much appreciated! I’m based near Oxford. Good luck with your camera trapping too..! All the best.. g