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John Aldred

Building my new video home studio to maximise space for multiple cameras

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I shoot video quite often these days. For reviews here on DIYP, vlogs, tutorials, live streams and various other content. Recently, I moved to Scotland, and I was determined to have an area permanently set aside for filming at my new place.

I’ve had a few people ask me about the new setup since I started getting it all together. I posted out a few images to Instagram Stories, a couple of clips to Facebook, and done a short live stream. So, I decided to write a little about it here on DIYP. Hopefully it’ll help somebody out there looking to setup to record video in a small space.

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This is how I promote my YouTube videos on Facebook

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I’ve only been putting content on my YouTube channel in its current incarnation for a relatively short time. I had a channel years ago that did rather well, but YouTube (and the rest of the web) was a much simpler world back then.

Social networking platforms like Facebook and Twitter had only just launched. Instagram hadn’t even been thought up. There wasn’t really a whole lot of creators out there publicly on the web, either. Today, it’s all very different. So, this is how and why I market my new YouTube content on social media.

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I’m Getting Rid of My Flash Gear and Here’s Why

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People often ask me about the flash equipment I currently use, and what I would do differently if I were to start over today.

I also often see “What should I buy?!?!” posts on photography groups on Facebook, and the simple truth is, we don’t know.  We have no idea what you need. We only know what we need.

This two part series of posts is a way for me to provide some insight into how and why I buy new equipment, and hopefully it will help you to look at your gear choices more objectively, so that you buy new gear because you need to, and not because “so-and-so said I should get this”.

In this first part, I’m going to go over my current gear and explain some of the issues I feel I’m having, what walls I’m hitting, as well as the stuff that I’m absolutely not getting rid of (and why).

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The Last DSLR I’ll Ever Need

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This post stems from a conversation started with my good friend Chris Frosin, during a rainy visit to the Lake District a few days ago. Chris and I don’t get together too often, so when we do, it’s a good opportunity to geek out on the some of the latest photo news.

I’ve been shooting with SLRs of one type or another for about the past 17 years. I switched from 35mm to digital in 2002, and for the last 7 years, despite bouncing around between other various cameras and brands for certain shoots that had specific technical requirements, my body of choice has always been the Nikon D300s, and still is.

It’s my go-to camera. It’s what’s always charged and ready to go at a moment’s notice. I use it for both personal and client work.

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Fix it in Photoshop?

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During my talk for Lancaster Photographic Society recently, I was asked a question that I’m also going to answer here. I’m paraphrasing, but it went something along the lines of…

“Is getting the right exposure in camera really all that important? Can’t we just nudge it in Photoshop?”

Before I start, I want to clarify a definition here, and a difference between “right” and “technically correct”. It is perfectly possible to make an exposure that is “right”, but not “technically correct” when you shoot with your post processing in mind in order to maximise the capabilities of your camera’s sensor.[Read More…]

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