Lesson Info
17. Photographing Snowflakes
Lessons
Class Overview
06:28 2Types of Panorama for Outdoor Photography
18:05 3Gigapan and Action Pano for Outdoor Photography
09:46 4Additional Lighting: Light Painting, Flash and Ambient
27:06 5Extended Depth of Field
17:00 6Macro Photography Techniques
05:47 7Tele-extenders and Outdoor Photography
33:54 8HDR as a Tool
06:02Time-lapse Outdoor Photography
13:10 10DSLR HD Video
09:09 11Cinemagraphs for Outdoor Photography
09:50 12Photographing Birds
22:51 13Photographing Mammals
30:58 14Photographing Birds and Mammals Q & A
08:30 15Macro Photography and Flowers
28:37 16Photographing Butterflies
11:37 17Photographing Snowflakes
06:00 18Photographing Landscapes
07:25 19Photographing Lightning
05:22 20HDR Landscapes and Time Lapse
27:54 21Final Outdoor Photography Q&A
18:06Lesson Info
Photographing Snowflakes
Snowflakes I had to move from california to colorado springs in order to find snowflakes, but I'm standing outside the front door and I'm wearing a police jacket and I looked down at my my arm and I'm seeing these crystals that are just absolutely plea stunning and yeah, I remember reading about the fact that every snowflake is different and all that kind of stuff, and it brought it home in a fraction of a second, and then at that point, I started to work on trying to photograph snowflakes, not knowing that there was a guy out there that was the world's best snowflake photo photographer and he had books that would, you know, make you quit because they're just so good. But anyway, I started on this project and then later found out about it, and it helped me even do a better job. But the idea is that you have this piece of black card and you hold it out into the snow and you find you can see what which ones are beautiful or not, and you take a little tiny paintbrush and you bring it over...
to your equipment, which is outside and is cold is everything else is because if it wasn't, it would melt, everything would melt immediately, so you gotta have it really cold you have to have some pretty crazy equipment in the sense that you have to shoot between four and eight x I'm now I've made this equipment much less well when you see it, he won't think it's less, but this is a big copy stand a couple of flashes underneath this snowflake we've got lights on here that lighted up so that I could see it the focus it we talked about this theo suit us utility program that comes with your cameras I'm using my laptop to do that I have a snowflake elevated with a clear plastic cylinder so that the light could come up underneath it a snowflake has no color, so we add color by putting a red and a blue gel from underneath it and it gives us some pretty interesting ways of looking at them. Uh this one's a little weird because it's got rime ice on it as the snowflake is moving around in the cloud it's building itself up as a crystal as it moves around within the cloud but sometimes there's a little tiny bits of ice that are up there and they had here to the snowflake inside this bunch of little tiny pieces of ice is a snowflake but it's it's gold rime ice these air the kind of still flicks I was looking for and there's all kinds of different views of it this is a stack of snowflakes and we're using stacking we're using high magnification macro we're trying to bring light underneath we're putting a background under there which is another light with a gel on it so it's gotten pretty crazy this is one of the latest ones I've done one problem with oregon is it has a lot of rime ice and I go up to mt bachelor where the ski area we go up there to run eight, nine thousand feet and uh you confined snowflakes throughout the throughout the winter except that they got a lot of rime ice I'm still looking for good snowflakes in oregon so this is my latest rig and I could take this out in the back of my car because I have to go to the snow instead of this snow coming to me and here's a little small tripod and it's a fix it's a fix to this base so that everything doesn't move around there's our stack shot again and there is the comptroller for it and I have of the little led like these big lights that are honest now but they're just little small ones they're like thirty nine forty dollars and you can get them through amazon and they've got maybe thirty some little tiny bulbs in him and so forth with a gel and that's giving me my light coming from underneath now to give me the reds and the blues instead of these two big strobes I now have a little boy book lights if you go on amazon and you put in book light, you'll find ellie or put in led book light and you find his little book lights that clamped to the page and there's little goose arm that you could move anywhere you want it they're just wonderful and some have six ladies in them, some have three led, some of them have one led uh, and they're very inexpensive, they very good color and they're very bright and I use them as my background, and sometimes I actually use him in some macro photography as my light sources and they were made the light up a book, but they do a really great job for that. I then have this cam ranger that I have been talking about for doing this uh, very this video and the the high magnification stuff, and what I do is I then send that signal to my to my ipad so that I can monitor all of this and I'm working out there and I've got a big they don't have the rigged to show you here, but I'm working with a big umbrella over me or something in the back of my back of my vehicle because I have to be in the snow, everything has to be cold so that the snowflake doesn't melt when I stick it down onto there. I was out there doing a one time in a whole class of I think it was third graders or second graders came by, and I had to give this whole spiel about how it did this is because they wanted to know what I was doing, so it was it was fun to be out there doing that. This is this is another one of those really nice crystals, and you want they could be a much greater than this. And if you look at the covers that look at these snowflakes, this is a gentleman and kenneth liberated and he works at caltech in in california, but he travels all over the u s to find the best snowflakes, and he tells you how to do it. I don't do it the way he does it, but his way obviously works. That doesn't make any difference how you get there as long as you've got the final result. Another thing I should mention here is that there's more than one way to do all the things we've talked about here today, this is just my way, and I have proof to hopefully prove to show you that it works so in some ways I hope it gets you started and what you're doing.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials
Bonus Materials
Ratings and Reviews
R. Hetrick
Amazing class! I particularly loved the macro and how to correctly take panoramic photos sections. George was not only a great teacher but he was super funny too. Would be happy to take any of his future classes.
Berus
I watched the entire class, and found it to be a very negative experience - in contrast to all of my other experiences with Creative Live, which had been very good. The problem with this class was the instructor. Mr. Lepp, rather than giving us practical, useful information, and techniques for approaching the subject of Outdoor Photography, instead used his time to show off his seemingly endless array of incredibly expensive and cutting edge gadgetry. For the first half hour or so, Mr. Lepp seemed pleasant and interesting, but it quickly became apparent that this class was NOT about anything relating to the art of outdoor photography. Instead, it was basically a seminar highlighting exotic equipment for the 1%. I have well over $25,000 of photographic equipment, but the arena in which Mr. Lepp plays begins somewhere around the $100,000 mark, and then requires a staggering ongoing budget for chartering helicopters, hiring guides, and constant upgrades to remain on the bleeding edge of gadgetry and accessories. From his gyroscopic mounts to his 40" printer, Mr. Lepp has it ALL and continues to spend, spend, spend. I admire his deep pockets, but I would have appreciated some real insight and technique and useful knowledge on actually getting great shots. (And I must say... Mr. Lepp's work... did not impress me to the degree that other teachers on CreativeLive have.) I believe those giving positive reviews here were more or less wowed by the sheer magnitude of his extensive, well-funded travels and his off-handed way of revealing the endless contraptions and combinations of gear he uses. The passion here is clearly about the gadgetry, and NOT about finding an original and creative voice in the arena of outdoor photography.
user-f9ff5e
George really prepared a lot of information for his class. It is true, he does have a lot of expensive equipment and we may not be able to do some of the things he does with a smaller budget, but it is good incentive for us to plan for the future. He seemed to share new information constantly and stay focused and I was able to take a lot of notes. He talked about many kinds of equipment as well as software and websites he uses. I am pretty impressed that he is so up to date with recent technology. He especially loves macro/micro and stacking hundreds of images for minute focus on really large enlargements (for example, over 600 photos for one butterfly wing). That can get boring if you are not interested in doing that. I can take those tips and apply them to landscape photography though. I think it is more helpful for someone already doing outdoor photography and looking for new inspiration or new techniques as opposed to someone new to photography in general.