In case anyone is interested, I've just released an 8-hour Wildlife Cinematography master class.
Chapter 1 is on YouTube. The other 22 chapters are on Vimeo.
https://vimeo.com/ondemand/wildlifevideo



https://youtu.be/2JmUZeQZYLE

Doug, curious. What camera/lens did you use to shoot the portions of the video where you are speaking to the camera?

I shot it myself with my Sony Z750. It was a bit of a rush though as the sun was setting and I had to shoot it that day. Do you think it looks okay? I did make a big blunder on the audio though by leaving the wind filter setting turned on, so it doesn't have a very rich sound to it. My mistake. Too many things to think about when you're working alone. The rest of the series was shot in my home "studio" under more controlled circumstances.

Doug, there's been a terrible mistake. It's only 1080 HD on YouTube. There's no 4K.

Andrew

Shoot in 4K . . . deliver in HD. That is the times we live in. :-)

I shot it myself with my Sony Z750. It was a bit of a rush though as the sun was setting and I had to shoot it that day. Do you think it looks okay? I did make a big blunder on the audio though by leaving the wind filter setting turned on, so it doesn't have a very rich sound to it. My mistake. Too many things to think about when you're working alone. The rest of the series was shot in my home "studio" under more controlled circumstances.

The reason I asked is I like the natural look of your skin tone. I currently own a Z CAM F6 and Canon
XF605. Still struggling with the cameras to get what I consider to be natural looking skin tones.

Thank you. I shot it in S-LOG and then graded it in Resolve, so it's not straight out of the camera.

Shoot in 4K . . . deliver in HD. That is the times we live in. :-)

See. That there is why we all upgraded our gear to 4K. You can really see the difference in the quality of one's HD video. :-)

Andrew

Well Doug, it looks like you have another winner. I hope you get a lot of people to sign up. I remember how much I learned by taking your incredible video tutorial on "How to make money shooting stock footage". Man did I learn a lot. Thanks to you I am still making money selling stock footage on both Shutterstock and Pond5. I recommend that anyone that is into filming wildlife to take your course. Stay safe, Bob

Hi Bob, thanks for the kind words and I'm glad to hear the stock footage course has paid off. I do like having that steady income trickling into my PayPal account.!

I wasn't going to watch, not being that interested in wildlife - but the shots are stunning. I'm kind of thinking maybe I should actually try? Thanks for this.

Thanks for the compliments, I'm glad you like the shots. If anyone here is serious about signing up, please use the code DVINFO to save 25%.
BTW, much of what I talk about, particularly choosing cameras, lenses, tripods, and getting them setup properly applies to much more than just wildlife.

As said above, the skin colour is spot on. It gives me an easier sense of relating to the people on camera; probably helpful for what's going to be 8 hours. I like the pace and tone of your narrations too. (FDR-AX700 Master Class customer).

Wildlife footage at this quality gets me sentimental, looking back to the period of the 1970s and 1980s. The camera operator for The Nature Of Things in the 1970s and 1980s was a member of our church in Toronto along with his family. Neville Ottey. He was obviously absent most of the time, shooting on location all over the world.

Thank you Charlie, I appreciate those comments. The rest of the video series takes place under more controlled circumstances in my home "studio" so I hope I got the tones right there too. But either way, I'm just happy to have this project completed and the monkey off my back. Now I can enjoy the rest of the summer.

Wildlife footage at this quality gets me sentimental, looking back to the period of the 1970s and 1980s. The camera operator for The Nature Of Things in the 1970s and 1980s was a member of our church in Toronto along with his family. Neville Ottey. He was obviously absent most of the time, shooting on location all over the world.

I'm guessing Doug's church is the cool one now?

BTW, Aussie wildlife photographer Ken Duncan has been known to ask God to shift things (clouds etc) around so he can get the right light to make a photo an absolute stunner. I've seen him in action on a TV clip. You can see his website here (https://www.kenduncan.com/) and check out the absolute stunner images he gets to capture.

I myself have some epic stories of 'putting in an order' for weather, mostly at stopping the rain so I could still film. In one of them, I told the interviewee up front (before I travelled over an hour to get there) what was going to happen despite the bollocking massive rain storm conditions. He later told me that he had been watching the weather radar until I arrived and noticed the storm clouds move (or part?) around his area despite otherwise being on a collision course. We got the filming done.

Pro tip (from another instance): Don't have the rain resume the very moment the event is over. You still need some time to pack up your gear. How I know this isn't worth stating out aloud.

Andrew

I remember how much I learned when I took Doug's source on selling stock videos, and how excited I was when I actually started making money that I decided to sign up for his Wildlife Cinematography Master Class. Since about 85% of the clips I have sold on Shutterstock and Pond5 were of nature or wildlife this course should give me the edge to selling more clips. I am really looking excited and am forward to taking this course. I will let you all know how it goes. Bob

Hi Bob, thanks for signing up for the workshop! I look forward to hearing any comments you may have -- both positive and negative. Take your time, though, I tried to make it easy to digest the content in small chunks as you are ready for each new chapter.

I've included a few random clips from when I was doing a job this morning, and noticed a black swan - never having seen one before. This nature thing is a lot harder than it looks as they don't keep still!
https://youtu.be/6dIDkjIBFSs

I finally finished the course. It was really a learning experience. Even though he spoke about the settings on his Sony's it was easy to apply them to my Canon. I always wondered why Doug's video clips looked so good and now I know. I learned some techniques I would have never thought about, like shooting in 24p with a shutter angle of 144 instead of 30p at 180 for slow motion. Why didn't I think about that? I was always disappointed with trying to grade Clog3. It turned out my main problem was that I had the zebra stripes set all wrong, now that I know better, I am going to shoot more in Clog3 and, following Doug's simple examples, grade on DaVinci Resolve. Years ago, I met up with Doug and we spent the morning filming birds at Merritt Island NWR in Florida. We were literally 15 yards apart. He had his Sony, and I had my Canon. When I got home, I looked at my clips and thought "these are pretty good shots", then I looked at Doug's and thought "WOW, these are GREAT shots". I'll never be as good as Doug, but now I know how to get some of that WOW factor. Next week I head up to Cades Cove, Tennessee to practice what I just learned. Thanks again Doug! Bob

Hey Bob, sorry for the slow reply I almost missed your post.

Thanks for the great feedback. It always makes me feel good when people can point to the specific information that they found most useful. It's really interesting to hear which pieces of the puzzle I was able to help put into place and in order to elevate someone's shooting skills. I know you are downplaying the quality of your own video that you shot when we were on Merritt Island, but I appreciate the sentiment. If I can help you get a little better, I feel successful. I hope you'll decide to post some video from Tennessee.
I'm itching to go out and do some filming here in Massachusetts but I can't find any worthwhile wildlife this year.

Doug, before you ever think of retiring, you ought to put out a video of all your stories from filming various interviews and other setups from over the years. It would have to be entertaining.

Andrew

I appreciate the thought, but that would be a pretty boring video. :-)
Like anyone who has been in this business a few years, I can think of a few interesting stories I could share but I think you'd surprised by how few . . . and how boring most of them would be.

Your post did dredge up some old memories, though. A lot of stuff I'd rather forget!
Do I smell something burning?

Doug, even your driveway is cool. (https://www.dvinfo.net/forum/open-dv-discussion/536639-selling-stock-video-footage-12.html#post1959709)

I'm sure you have good stories, maybe a few horrors thrown in there too? It's gotta be interesting!

Andrew

https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/841479580

I made it back from Cades Cove. My timing was perfect. Filmed black bear, deer, elk, wild turkey and even an Osprey on my way home. I tried many of things I learned from Doug's course. Now remember I was only up there for a couple of days.

In the first clip I videoed the bear in Clog3 at a frame rate of 23.98, shutter speed 120fps and a shutter angle of 144. I used Doug's suggestions for color grading and for the first time I did not get frustrated. I do think that 23.98 might be a little too slow for this large, slow-moving animal. I also found out that it is a lot harder to focus in log.

Next is a shot of a deer at 23.98. This looks better than the bear, but I think I can improve the color just a bit.

Next is an Osprey taking off. This is one of my big "I can't believe that just happened" moments. I was driving down the Foothills Parkway and decided to pull over and look at the river. Just as I was stopping, I looked up and there was this osprey. I set up my tripod, set focus and exposure, and made sure my video head was not locked down so I could track the bird once he took off. Everything was perfect, until I reached down to get my hat and he flew away. Oh well, I knew where he lives.

I think I will be shooting a lot more in Clog3. I now have the confidence to start getting better at color. Now that I know how I am starting to use scopes more in my grading. I need to think more about what I am filming that day and then leave the settings alone. I wasted to much time going from Rec. 709 at 90% zebra to Clog3 at 70% and back. One time I was in such a hurry switching back to Rec. 709 that I forgot to change my zebras back to 90%. In the case of the bear and deer I set up by the side of the road and let them come to me.

There is a lot more information from the course that I was to try. Right now, I will continue to practice what I learned, and most of all, I will take my time, check my settings and focus. A great course, thanks Doug.

Hi Bob, I'm glad to hear you had a good time at Cades Cove. Having a good time is more important than the footage we shoot.

If you don't mind, I have a couple of comments on your video. The deer is a unwinnable situation where you have a dark animal in shadow situated in front of sunlit green foliage. There's nothing you can do that will turn that into a top-notch shot no matter what camera you have or skills grading in post. I'm not saying you shouldn't shoot it anyway, but that's the kind of thing I know while I'm shooting it that isn't going to pay off unless a wolf comes out of the grass or something.

The osprey sure looks like one of my own shots!
What I would do with that shot in Resolve is to freeze where its wings are outstretched and you see the maximum amount of white on his body. Then adjust the grading controls to bring that patch of white down below 90% in the waveform. Right now it appears to be clipped but you might be able to recover it and get some detail if it was not clipped in-camera.

Then, on a different node, I would use the white balance eyedropper tool to click on the white feathers to set a cleaner white balance.

After that, you might need to make other adjustment to get the colors/black leves better, but those would be my first two steps. I hope you don;t mind the suggestions. It is close, but could be better.

Doug, Happy 4th of July. Thank you for reviewing the clips and for making suggestions. I always want to learn and improve. I agree with you about the deer, that is a bad shot. I am going to try your recommendations on how to improve the osprey clip. But before that I am will rewatch the chapters on color grading. I always value your comments. Thanks again and stay safe. Bob

Hey Bob, you might be ready for a little more in-depth training on Resolve than I was able to put into the wildlife course. In appreciation for taking a chance on the wildlife course, I'm going to send you an email with a promo code for the Resolve training course I produced a few years ago. It's getting a little long in the tooth because Resolve has had a lot of extra bells and whistles added, but I watched it again myself a couple of months ago and 95% of it is still accurate and pretty much the same way I'm using Resolve today. And even though the title woud imply it is only about grading Sony footage, over the years I've come to appreciate that one brand of LOG and RAW is not so different from other brands. The main difference being that you just have to use a different LUT, and then it is pretty much the same. I hope you find it useful.

https://vimeo.com/ondemand/resolve

Doug, thank you so much. Your course definitely gave me the confidence to start shotting on Log. I can't wait to start learning more on color grading. Safe travels post some clips from Maine. Bob

Doug, I just finished watching several chapters over again for about the fourth time and I am still learning new things. In chapter 16 you talked about videoing sand hill cranes at the sewage treatment facility. If that's the one in Titusville thanks to you I have been there several times. Wildlife, it's all around us. Here's a short video I did about finding wildlife. I shot this with my old Canon XF300 for one of the old UWOL challenges. Enjoy, Bob


Wildlife on Vimeo

Hi Bob, very nice video. I always enjoy your relaxing, laid back narration. As you know, I agree completely with your premise that wildlife is all around us and you don't have to travel to Africa or Antarctica to find interesting animals to film. I especially liked the footage of the bears. It feels like you were pretty close.

Yes, the sewage treatment plant I talked about in my video was the one in Titusville. The juvenile hawk in the bush was also at the same place, as were quite a few other shots throughout the series. It is a good resource to have so close to home. Speaking of home, I had to travel down to Florida for a couple of days to take care of some business and just and got back to Massachusetts yesterday afternoon. Boy was it hot down there and no animals in sight. A single ibis was the most exotic bird I saw. I'm glad I migrate north in the summers just like the wildlife! And I look forward tp the cooler winter months. I have a feeling the birding will be better this year if we don't get two hurricanes coming across Cape Canaveral again. I really think that ruined things last year. Fingers crossed.

Speaking of my master class, I decided to put chapter 2 on YouTube a couple of weeks ago.

https://youtu.be/WagKfGTewJU

Doug, glad you liked the little video. When I was filming that bear at Cades Cove he was happily eating. All of a sudden, he decided to cross right in front of me. Bear school in Alaska taught me to look down and not to look aggressive so I just stayed still, kept my head down and let him walk by to greener pastures. I know what you mean about the heat in the south. I am heading out for a three-week road trip to Colorado. While there I will spend three days filming in Rocky Mountain Nation Park. And yes, I will be using all the tricks and settings I have learned in your Master Class, especially shooting at 23.97 with a shutter angle of 144 degrees. Again, thanks so much for putting this course together. As you know I have been shooting video since 1989 and I am always learning something new. Safe travels, Bob

Bob, I wish you luck on your trip to Colorado and hope you have a lot of fun. It is a great time of year to be in the mountains.

I just spent 5 days on Cape Cod . . . . and didn't even bring a camera. My wife felt it was time for a true vacation, and I agreed. I'll make up for it when we get back to Florida in the Fall. :-)

Doug, I recently updated my video equipment and of course I had to look at several chapters of your Wildlife Cinematography course again. So, using you advise, these are the settings I'm using.

23.97P at 1/60, XF-AVC 422 10 bit, 3840x2160 Intra-frame, 240 Mbps. My question is, I have the ability of shooting at 410 Mbps. Should I stay with the 240 Mbps or go with the 410? Damn I am always learning something from watching your training videos. Bob

Hi Bob, first of all, those first settings are exactly what I recommend. However, when it comes to compression, the difference between 240 Mbps and 410 Mbps might not be visible. Kind of like the difference between ProRes and ProResHQ. Obviously, one is less compressed than the other, but seeing a difference between the two is almost impossible in most instances. The only way to be really sure is to shoot some side-by-side tests, which will take some time and effort, and sitll might be inconclusive.

If file size is not a concern, then I'd choose 410Mbps becaus I usually prefer to choose the best available codec. But will it make a visual difference? Probably not. I think you are going to be good no matter which you choose.

Doug, I really could not see that much of a difference between 240 Mbps and 410 Mbps. I'll stick with 240 for now. Thanks for all your great advice. Bob

Bob, millions of birds on Merritt Island now. Best I've seen it in years. Thought you might like to know.

Doug, sorry I missed it, I did make the Sand hill crane migration in northern Alabama. I will be going to Naples, FL area next week. BTW, I read your article on filming wildlife on Shutterstock. Congratulations on being one of five chosen to contribute to the article. Stay safe, Bob