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Squarespace here in the northern
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hemisphere we've entered those cold dark
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winter months and in fact just a month
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ago the clocks went back which meant
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that the sun's Now setting at around 400
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p.m. and there's a lot less light to
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play with out there during the day for
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street photography but there's no excuse
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to sit and hibernate I mean yes it's
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true that that bright Summer Sun that I
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like that kind of overhead direction
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that past those Deep Shadows that sort
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of light won't be around for months yet
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but there's a different sort of light
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that I like to chase in these dark
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winter months and it's the artificial
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light of our cities at night after all
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light is light and in the absence of
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that natural light that we like to play
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with in the summer there is no reason
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that we can't be going out into our
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cities and instead using the man-made
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multicolored lighting that we have
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available to tell really interesting
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visual stories so at this time of year
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especially when a lot of our city have
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Christmas lights going up which add even
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more lighting to our streets I thought
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I'd make a really practical video and
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take you onto the Streets of London and
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show you some of the rules I work by
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when making street photography images at
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night
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[Music]
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[Music]
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okay so let's talk about settings a lot
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of photographers say to me well I don't
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shoot at night because I don't like high
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isos because it makes my images really
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noisy but you don't need High isos to
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shoot at night honestly when I'm
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shooting uh in scenes like this at night
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I very very rarely go above ISO 800
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maybe 1,600 at a push but on Modern
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cameras that's still going to give you a
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pretty clean image the fact is I'm
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always exposing like I do during the day
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for the highlights and I'm letting my
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Shadows Fall dark in the frame I'm not
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walking down dark Alleyways to try to
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get shots cuz the lighting down there is
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going to be very low but it's also
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probably going to be very flat and even
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and not that interesting so if you're
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exposing for your lighting and looking
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for those pockets of Lights to create
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interesting images you don't actually
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need a high ISO so in this case I'm
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shooting on manual so I can control my
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settings and I can actually expose for
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the light sources that I want I'm on ISO
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800 I'm on f1.8 the thing is with night
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photography you're going to need a
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faster Prime you're going to need
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something where you can open that
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aperture wide up and I've got a 50 mil
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1.2 which is a gorgeous lens for
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nighttime but I knew if I used it in
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this video a lot of people would say
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well that just proves you need a super
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expensive lens to be able to do this so
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instead I'm using actually one of my
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favorite lenses is this Zeiss 55 mil and
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it only goes to 1.8 but that's still
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plenty to be able to do this sort of
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Photography at night and in any camera
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range no matter what brand you use there
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will be a 50 mil equivalent lens that
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goes to 1.8 and it will usually be
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fairly affordable so take a look at what
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you can grab a hold of so I'm opening
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the aperture wide up to 1.8 I've got ISO
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800 and now I'm just exposing for my
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light sources with my shutter speed that
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third point on the exposure triangle
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and 1 over 100 1 over 80 of a second is
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absolutely fine my lighting looks good
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my Shadows look dark I'm exposing for
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those bright lights and that's why I
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don't use aperture priority because I
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don't want the camera changing my
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Shutter Speed without me knowing what
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it's doing or being able to pay
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attention to it because if I go too slow
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that third point of the exposure
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triangle the shutter speed is going to
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affect movement in the shot and I don't
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want blurry images unless it's on
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purpose where I want to capture movement
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or something I want sharp clean images
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so the basic rule you want to follow is
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to make sure those images are sharp at
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night your shutter speed should never be
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slower than your focal length and by
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that I mean for example if I'm shooting
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with a 50 mil lens I should never be
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slower than 1 over 50th of a second if I
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go down to 1/4 of a second I'm going to
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start to get shake and blurry images so
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I need to be 150th or above if you're
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shooting with 100 Mil lens you should be
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100th of a second or faster to make sure
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your images are clean and sharp but now
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that I've got the settings in the camera
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I can just go around I can use this and
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just dial that shutter speed that's what
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I'm going to be changing to expose the
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lighting where I want it to be
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[Music]
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one of the great things about shooting
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at night is you've got a lot of color to
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play with so normally in the daytime
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when you got Sun hitting things colors
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will pop that sunlight bounces off a red
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wall or a greed siding and it makes
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those colors bounce back but at night
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everything goes very flat but
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fortunately we've got man-made lights
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and there's lots of different colors in
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cities so you've got like uh backlit
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posters and Neons and you know hoarding
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that's up at night with different
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colored lights on it to protect you from
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going where you shouldn't or or bus
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adverts and there's loads of different
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sorts of colors to look for so the trick
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is to think about how can I use those
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colors to tell interesting stories and
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you have to start by going what do
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different colors make me think about so
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what does blue make me think of and how
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could I use blue to tell that story or
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what does red make me think of what does
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it make me feel is it is it anger is it
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love is it hate is it something else how
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could I use that with subjects in front
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of it that would make me think something
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about that color in that situation and
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the other thing to think about at night
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is rain now tonight like there's nothing
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it's very dry it's a very clear night
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but if it does start to rain rain so
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many of us think well that's going to
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get a bit miserable I should probably go
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home but actually it starts to get
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really magical when the rain hits so
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don't use it as an opportunity to give
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up and go away look at what it's doing
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to the streets if you think about a film
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anytime that they're filming in a
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location they will go through that set
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beforehand especially if it's an outdoor
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Street and they will hose the whole
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street down they call it a wet down and
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that street becomes wet on the surface
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on the Pavements on the road on the TAC
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on the walls and that means that every
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light that's in a scene is actually
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bouncing and reflecting around so you
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double every light source and you're
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seen with the reflections and the colors
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that it actually creates so don't go
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home when that happens when it rains it
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might be about to get really good
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probably just jump into your local store
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somewhere just a corner shop get
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yourself a plastic bag and put your
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camera inside the plastic bag poke a
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hole in the front and just push your
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lens through the front so you can
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protect your camera if it's not weather
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sealed if it is you can probably risk it
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a little bit and wait for that rain to
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settle in look at what puddles are
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reflecting and what the lights are doing
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and the fact that all those colors and
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lights are being bounced around all over
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the
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[Music]
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place one of the questions I get asked a
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lot is do I use a promist filter at
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night and the answer is yes I do I don't
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use it for a lot of other sorts of
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photography it doesn't work for me in
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daytime photography for example and
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certainly not for portraits I don't like
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that very kind of soft Misty look for
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portraits I like something a bit cleaner
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but for nighttime it's perfect and I
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know they become super trendy over the
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years because people like the glow it
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gives to the lights but for me it's a
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more deliberate purpose than that it's
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for two reasons one is because I want a
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smooth roll off between the blown out
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whites of the actual light source itself
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and the first of the highlights because
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one of the quirks of digital is you get
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often a very hard break point point or a
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line between that blown out light which
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you're never going to be able to expose
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for and the first of the the color or or
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or the highlights that roll off that as
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well so it Smooths that transision for
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me and the second reason is that it
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slightly lifts the Shadows which gives a
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little bit more dynamic range back to
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the shot and helps with grading the
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filter I use is the tiffen quarter
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promist filter there's loads of
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different brands out there I'm not
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necessarily you know one over the other
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you can look at reviews if you care
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about that stuff so choose the brand you
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want quarter works well for for me
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because I find that it's a good balance
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between an eighth which doesn't do very
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much and a half which to me is just too
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strong everything starts to Glow too
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much but what a quarter does is it gives
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me something that feels to me like when
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you used to shoot film at night with
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something like sinin still 800t where it
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would actually Bloom those highlights
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and it gives about the same amount of
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Bloom so if I use this as an example in
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the background you've got this eyes eyes
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eyes uh neon in the background I'll show
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you a shot with the promis filter there
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and then if I take the prist off I'll
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shoot one without so you can see the
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difference it's actually
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making you can see that with the promis
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filter on it's smoothing out those
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highlights especially the roll off from
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the actual light source to the first of
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those highlights but everything is still
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very crisp and very clean and when you
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look at the one without you can see that
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slightly harder digital Edge to where
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that highlight is blown out to the first
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of those highlights so that's why I
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really like to use at night it just
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gives that soft roll off especially to
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my highlights and there's this idea that
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if you use a promist it softens the
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whole image but if you actually zoom in
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on a promist image you'll still see that
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there's a lot of detail in there all
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your sharpness and micro contrast is
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maintained it just helps you set the
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scene a little bit and control those
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lights
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[Music]
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I suppose the last thing to mention is
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to make sure that you stay safe out at
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night because you're going to be out on
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the streets with a camera that's
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probably quite expensive or at least
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means a lot to you and isn't easy to
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replace and you're going to be
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hyperfocusing on things looking for
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shots so I would say try and stay as
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situationally aware around you as you
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possibly can and I always wear a wrist
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strap so someone can't come past and
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just grab this camera out of my hand in
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London in particular at the moment we're
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dealing with a lot of crime where we
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have electric bikes coming past and
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people will grab phones and grab cameras
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off you because people aren't aware
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enough so stay aware have a strap on you
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make sure all the zips on your bag are
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closed properly so no one's taking
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anything out of your bag while you're
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shooting and just stay aware of what's
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going on around you and I know that some
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of you who are watching will say to me
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well even if I do that not safe to shoot
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in my particular country and I know what
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you mean when I was in South Africa I
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couldn't have taken an expensive camera
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out on the streets at night it just
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wasn't worth the risk so if you live in
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places like that I'm sorry stay safe
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maybe night photography is not for you
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but if you feel you can go out safely
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and maybe you need to take a friend with
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you to go and make sure that you're
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staying safe have that strap on bag
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closed up stay a away around you and get
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the shots that you want to get so I
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approach nighttime photography like I do
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daytime photography I'm looking for
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those interesting pools of light I'm
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exposing for the light letting the
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Shadows Fall dark playing with the
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colors that that presents looking for
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Reflections if the surfaces are wet and
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trying to work out what stories I can
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tell I'm not necessarily trying to make
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everyone recognizable I'm using Shadow
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to make people Anonymous and trying to
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tell interesting stories that feel like
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our cities at night so if you're
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thinking during these winter months I
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can't go out because it's just cloudy
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and cold and there's nothing to shoot
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try going out at night give nighttime
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photography a go and see what you come
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up with
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[Music]
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[Music]
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[Music]
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so I hope you found this video helpful
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and this will be the last video that
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I'll make for this year so I want to
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wish you all the best for the holiday
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season and I will see you again in the
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new year and just before I go I want to
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remind you that there are still copies
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in my Parable magazines available there
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are four editions out now and each one
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features my own writing and photography
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around a different theme and 5 will be
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out in January of 2025 so look out for
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that there are physical copies available
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and digital copies I will leave a link
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down below so you can go and check them
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out and then lastly thanks again to
00:13:10
squares space for sponsoring this
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episode if you need a new website or a
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domain they're a fantastic option I've
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used them myself as my website of choice
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for over a decade now one of the biggest
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reasons I chose Squarespace from my
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website years ago long before the
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than myself with Squarespace that had a
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very very simpl to use back end where I
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could just create my page structure and
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my navigation and then just drag in
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images and text blocks and contact forms
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and Galleries and video pages and
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whatever I wanted to see but the design
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of those templates was so well put
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together by professional designers it
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was very minimalist and it was in the
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