My third granddaughter was born yesterday. But I had a divine appointment, so I rode my bicycle out to Draper Lake and will visit with mother and baby today.
It is necessary to approach this video project with my best efforts. Not that I expect any kind of high-end professional production, but that I can’t blow it off. Whatever I can do will have to be good enough. So spent some time searching for an outdoor studio.
Consider that, here in Central Oklahoma, the wind is seldom still. On top of that, during the summer months we have a pretty strong representation of deer ticks and chiggers. They hang out in vegetation, so the trick is find some place to stand that has none, while offering a natural background. And it needs to have trees to dampen that ever-present wind.
With the recent construction of a new road, and some added parking area, I found a very nice spot for one of my outdoor studios.
Draper has long had roads and parking areas on about half of the points around the lake. For some reason, Parks Department added one parking area that’s not on a point, but simply atop a ridge. It would overlook the lake, but it’s screened by thick trees. Because so much of the underbrush was scraped away and dirt moved around, they dropped roll-out turf patches. It didn’t cover everything. Thus, I had this open patch of dirt in a spot that isn’t likely to grow anything because of foot traffic. Yet on a weekday morning, the place is generally vacant and I should be able to shoot some short videos without background noise.
I tested it with my iPhone — the product isn’t worth posting anywhere, just a kind of “testing, testing” thing. Still, it came out well, so we have identified one good spot. I still have to test my camera for video production, so there will be some more goofing around, but I propose to record a couple of short clips singing acapella in some other natural settings. That is, provided I can have a day when the allergens aren’t dampening my voice. Please don’t take this as boasting, but I’m a baritone with a very wide range. Not all of my vocal range sounds that good all the time. Post-nasal drip can really shred my bottom end, which is actually down in the bass range, and can make it a struggle to sing on the rest of it.
Pray with me, because it’s highly variable regardless of things I’ve tried to reduce the problem. If it works out well enough, I may be able to start posting a few simple worship choruses that you can sing along with. My real talent isn’t singing, but leading others to sing.
do you think a uni-directional mic would improve your audio quality outside, instead of relying on the mic built into your video camera?
Keep in mind that I used my iPhone 5S for that. I can’t find a socket for a microphone on it. My better camera also lacks and external mic jack, but it does have built-in stereo mics. I haven’t tested it at all yet.
They make microphones that will plug into the Lightning socket. Although most of these are more than I’d want to shell out initial, it’s a place to start looking… Might find that someone is selling a used older model for less…
http://www.micreviews.com/guides/top-10-best-ios-microphones
Yes; the price is why I didn’t take that as serious option. I am more likely to drag my camera around for this job.
We’re getting closer ……..
You want cardioid pattern because it will pick up the sound directly in front of the mic and not from the side or back.
Well, let’s see: The sum total of the advice so far points to an attachment that costs about $200 new. I’m not in a hurry to buy that, but maybe somewhere down the road it will be appropriate.