Making daddy or hopper legs

[Cap'n Fishy]

I was inspired by paulfish_1's first ever fly-tying video. Decided to have a go at doing some video work over the winter. I've been very much a stills photographer over the years. This is despite my cameras having had video mode available for the past 10 years! I have barely used it. I did have a go at filming myself doing the hackle on a paraloop mayfly, back in July, and ended-up giving myself a dose of the shakes. Stage fright! Well, I was determined to get over that.

The other thing was the whole positioning of the camera. Paul followed the likes of Davie McPhail and sat it directly opposite himself, focused on the fly, with his white T-shirt as the backdrop.. When I did the paraloop, I was thinking I would be better to have the camera on my side, as that was where the lighting was coming from. However, doing it that way meant a lot of the time I was masking the fly with my hands. So, I decided to try Paul/Davie's way.

The first thing I had in mind was that someone asked about how to do the knots in pheasant-tail fibres. I decided to give it a go. The first problem was how to keep my hand movements in the correct place. If you are tying a fly, you can pre-focus the camera on the fly and get on with it and it will be in focus the whole exercise. Not so easy when there is no 'anchor' to focus on. However, my camera has its own Wi-Fi ability, and I can hook it to my tablet and project what the camera is seeing on the screen of the tablet. I had a go at doing it this way, and it worked not too bad. You will see a pause at the start of each fibre - that is me holding it and checking I am lined up OK in the tablet before continuing.

My only prop is a small dubbing needle I use to tuck the end of the fibre into the loop I have formed, before pulling it tight. The key is to make the first knot close to the tip of the fibre, and then put the second one in, a bit further back. If you only want single-knot hopper legs, just stop after the first knot.

... and bear in mind, I am left-handed, so for most of you it is a mirror image.

Col

 

[wobbly face]

Well done on giving it a go Col.
Unfortunately I got repetitive stress syndrome after 1.5 mins. Of watching.
I was impressed in your neatness and consistency in where the knots ended.
Are you tempted in doing any more vids now?

 

[Cap'n Fishy]

Well done on giving it a go Col.
Unfortunately I got repetitive stress syndrome after 1.5 mins. Of watching.
I was impressed in your neatness and consistency in where the knots ended.
Are you tempted in doing any more vids now?

Cheers, Ged. Aye, I will have a go at doing some stuff. Might try doing the whole paraloop spinner, not just the hackle!

I'll need to get myself a plain white T.

"Hey There Delilah"

 

[wobbly face]

Those I've done (and not very well at that ), I've just gone for a plain shirt or such in a neutral colour (God, I've gone all Next or M&S ). My problem is what lens to use??? I ended using a macro but feel it's too restrictive, narrow, only on jaws and hook and focus goes when slightly off shot. I went manual and fixed focus. I've got an ugly mug and didn't want in vid.
Must admit, I got all hot and bothered when doing and posting my first vid.

 

[GEK79]

I was inspired by paulfish_1's first ever fly-tying video. Decided to have a go at doing some video work over the winter. I've been very much a stills photographer over the years. This is despite my cameras having had video mode available for the past 10 years! I have barely used it. I did have a go at filming myself doing the hackle on a paraloop mayfly, back in July, and ended-up giving myself a dose of the shakes. Stage fright! Well, I was determined to get over that.

The other thing was the whole positioning of the camera. Paul followed the likes of Davie McPhail and sat it directly opposite himself, focused on the fly, with his white T-shirt as the backdrop.. When I did the paraloop, I was thinking I would be better to have the camera on my side, as that was where the lighting was coming from. However, doing it that way meant a lot of the time I was masking the fly with my hands. So, I decided to try Paul/Davie's way.

The first thing I had in mind was that someone asked about how to do the knots in pheasant-tail fibres. I decided to give it a go. The first problem was how to keep my hand movements in the correct place. If you are tying a fly, you can pre-focus the camera on the fly and get on with it and it will be in focus the whole exercise. Not so easy when there is no 'anchor' to focus on. However, my camera has its own Wi-Fi ability, and I can hook it to my tablet and project what the camera is seeing on the screen of the tablet. I had a go at doing it this way, and it worked not too bad. You will see a pause at the start of each fibre - that is me holding it and checking I am lined up OK in the tablet before continuing.

My only prop is a small dubbing needle I use to tuck the end of the fibre into the loop I have formed, before pulling it tight. The key is to make the first knot close to the tip of the fibre, and then put the second one in, a bit further back. If you only want single-knot hopper legs, just stop after the first knot.

... and bear in mind, I am left-handed, so for most of you it is a mirror image.

Col

Thanks for sharing Col.. I eagerly await episode 2..

 

[Cap'n Fishy]

Those I've done (and not very well at that ), I've just gone for a plain shirt or such in a neutral colour (God, I've gone all Next or M&S ). My problem is what lens to use??? I ended using a macro but feel it's too restrictive, narrow, only on jaws and hook and focus goes when slightly off shot. I went manual and fixed focus. I've got an ugly mug and didn't want in vid.

Aye, the focal length is certainly one of the main considerations. I knew that one was going to be a close-up of my hands, so I went with the 100 mm macro lens, positioned with the front of the lens about 1 ft away from my hands. I pre-focused on the edge of the table and then tried to keep my hands level with the edge of the table. When I did the paraloop, I accidentally left the lens on autofocus and it spent the whole time hunting back-and-forth - so that was a lesson learned!

Must admit, I got all hot and bothered when doing and posting my first vid.

I sorted that one out by having a treble Glenlivet before doing it. No nerves this time!

Col

 

[wobbly face]

Nothing like a good single to settle the nerves.
I do like the "live view" on screen of what you are doing and how the light and focus is. Another help is having everything ready and to hand, though I have missed place the odd tool or feather got moved.

 

[Cap'n Fishy]

Nothing like a good single to settle the nerves.
I do like the "live view" on screen of what you are doing and how the light and focus is. Another help is having everything ready and to hand, though I have missed place the odd tool or feather got moved.

I just reckoned on the white shirt backdrop making it underexpose a bit, and I dialled in +1 EV. Might have taken another half stop, but it wasn't worth reshooting the whole thing for it. I went for aperture priority and f11.

I lined up half a dozen fibres on the table and simply went through them. But for sure, if I do a whole fly, I will have everything sitting ready. End of the day, you can always edit and chop bits out. There is an edit in there - where I spent too long looking at the tablet screen. There is also a join, where the camera forced a file break, which it apparently does after every 4 GB of video... for reasons best known to itself.

Col

 

[Cap'n Fishy]

The other thing I would add about that video is it will tolerate going full screen view. I am no expert on how much YouTube compresses files, but the original footage was shot at 1920 x 1080, so you can expand it to full screen on a 27 inch monitor.

Col

 

[PaulD]

Excellent clarity! I'd be interested to know how you lit the filming area.

PS. Nice nails!

 

[ejw]

Excellent, well done.
I have tried and failed with a camera, so far, but your efforts have encouraged me to have another go.
I did try a head cam and that worked (ish). No focus to play with and good clarity, but !
I was tying with the head cam mounted on a tripod, looking at me ? I did several "shoots" as I had to get the head cam within 10" of the fly, just to cut me and the rest of the room from view. It got to the stage of me hitting the head cam each time I moved the bobbin over the vice.

Thanks for posting yours .

 

[dgp]

I was inspired by paulfish_1's first ever fly-tying video. Decided to have a go at doing some video work over the winter. I've been very much a stills photographer over the years. This is despite my cameras having had video mode available for the past 10 years! I have barely used it. I did have a go at filming myself doing the hackle on a paraloop mayfly, back in July, and ended-up giving myself a dose of the shakes. Stage fright! Well, I was determined to get over that.

The other thing was the whole positioning of the camera. Paul followed the likes of Davie McPhail and sat it directly opposite himself, focused on the fly, with his white T-shirt as the backdrop.. When I did the paraloop, I was thinking I would be better to have the camera on my side, as that was where the lighting was coming from. However, doing it that way meant a lot of the time I was masking the fly with my hands. So, I decided to try Paul/Davie's way.

The first thing I had in mind was that someone asked about how to do the knots in pheasant-tail fibres. I decided to give it a go. The first problem was how to keep my hand movements in the correct place. If you are tying a fly, you can pre-focus the camera on the fly and get on with it and it will be in focus the whole exercise. Not so easy when there is no 'anchor' to focus on. However, my camera has its own Wi-Fi ability, and I can hook it to my tablet and project what the camera is seeing on the screen of the tablet. I had a go at doing it this way, and it worked not too bad. You will see a pause at the start of each fibre - that is me holding it and checking I am lined up OK in the tablet before continuing.

My only prop is a small dubbing needle I use to tuck the end of the fibre into the loop I have formed, before pulling it tight. The key is to make the first knot close to the tip of the fibre, and then put the second one in, a bit further back. If you only want single-knot hopper legs, just stop after the first knot.

... and bear in mind, I am left-handed, so for most of you it is a mirror image.

Col

Well done - the lighting and focus is spot on. Let's see some more ! ( I find using tweezers is better than a dubbing needle to pull the end through the loop)

 

[Cap'n Fishy]

Excellent, well done.
I have tried and failed with a camera, so far, but your efforts have encouraged me to have another go.
I did try a head cam and that worked (ish). No focus to play with and good clarity, but !
I was tying with the head cam mounted on a tripod, looking at me ? I did several "shoots" as I had to get the head cam within 10" of the fly, just to cut me and the rest of the room from view. It got to the stage of me hitting the head cam each time I moved the bobbin over the vice.

Thanks for posting yours .

Aye, I think a headcam is quite a wide-angle field of view, so you will need to come in very close to cut out all the dead space. The payback is that you get good depth of field, focusing with a wide angle lens. Here is my set-up with the 100 mm macro lens...



I put the lens hood on it to help with contrast, as the lighting was coming in from each side from 2 angle-poises (fitted with daylight 5500K lamps).

I could have done with cleaning the screen of the tablet! I put a ruler at the edge of the desk and focused on it, then switched the lens to manual so it did not hunt about while I was filming.

One thing that I would try changing next time... I will try sitting the tablet above the camera, rather than off to one side. It was awkward looking to the side to check my alignment with each fibre. Of course, if you have a camera with a flip-out screen that you can turn through 180 degrees, then you don't need the Wi-Fi tablet faff!

Here is the view from the other side...



It was dark by the time I did it, so there was no bleed of daylight from behind.

Col

 

[Cap'n Fishy]

The tablet Wi-Fi connection thing is quite interesting. I can operate the camera remotely from the tablet up to a decent range, change settings, refocus, etc. I had a go at shooting birds on feeders by setting the camera on a tripod, pointing at the feeder, then I stood round the corner with the tablet. It worked up to a point - the point being that as soon as the shutter fired, the noise scared the birds away. Doh!

And if you place the tablet in front of the camera, so you show it what it is showing the tablet, you get a funky feedback loop...



I wasted an hour trying to connect the camera with the tablet last night. Hadn't done it for a couple of years. Couldn't get them connected. Checked what the camera was looking for - yes... Samsung device... After an hour of fruitless faffing about, the penny dropped that the Samsung device it was looking for was my mobile phone! Aargh! I must say the process is about the least intuitive I have come across in a long time. The instruction manual doesn't help. In the end you get connected almost by accident, having taken a sideways step in the menus. That's the main reason I haven't used it more.

Col

 

[codyarrow]

( I find using tweezers is better than a dubbing needle to pull the end through the loop)

Apologies for going off topic but easiest way by far for me is to put the thick end of the pheasant tail in the vice, form the loop and pull through with hackle pliers.

 

[Cap'n Fishy]

Apologies for going off topic but easiest way by far for me is to put the thick end of the pheasant tail in the vice, form the loop and pull through with hackle pliers.

As ever - more than one way to skin a cat, eh? Care to do us a video of the technique?

Col

 

[Mrtrout]

I was inspired by paulfish_1's first ever fly-tying video. Decided to have a go at doing some video work over the winter. I've been very much a stills photographer over the years. This is despite my cameras having had video mode available for the past 10 years! I have barely used it. I did have a go at filming myself doing the hackle on a paraloop mayfly, back in July, and ended-up giving myself a dose of the shakes. Stage fright! Well, I was determined to get over that.

The other thing was the whole positioning of the camera. Paul followed the likes of Davie McPhail and sat it directly opposite himself, focused on the fly, with his white T-shirt as the backdrop.. When I did the paraloop, I was thinking I would be better to have the camera on my side, as that was where the lighting was coming from. However, doing it that way meant a lot of the time I was masking the fly with my hands. So, I decided to try Paul/Davie's way.

The first thing I had in mind was that someone asked about how to do the knots in pheasant-tail fibres. I decided to give it a go. The first problem was how to keep my hand movements in the correct place. If you are tying a fly, you can pre-focus the camera on the fly and get on with it and it will be in focus the whole exercise. Not so easy when there is no 'anchor' to focus on. However, my camera has its own Wi-Fi ability, and I can hook it to my tablet and project what the camera is seeing on the screen of the tablet. I had a go at doing it this way, and it worked not too bad. You will see a pause at the start of each fibre - that is me holding it and checking I am lined up OK in the tablet before continuing.

My only prop is a small dubbing needle I use to tuck the end of the fibre into the loop I have formed, before pulling it tight. The key is to make the first knot close to the tip of the fibre, and then put the second one in, a bit further back. If you only want single-knot hopper legs, just stop after the first knot.

... and bear in mind, I am left-handed, so for most of you it is a mirror image.

Col

Is it meant to be silent Col?
S.

 

[Cap'n Fishy]

Is it meant to be silent Col?
S.

'Actions speak louder than words', was my mantra on that one, Stephen.

Would you like me to add some background music? 'The Girl from Ipanema', perhaps?

Col

 

[codyarrow]

Raining outside ,so no work, therefore the fishing permission officer has placed me on wallpapering secondment. When it stops raining I have 60m of wall to point, a roof to fit on a garage as well as fit a kitchen before Xmas.
The chances of me making a video look slim.

 

[wobbly face]

Would you like me to add some background music? 'The Girl from Ipanema', perhaps?

Col

Be careful with the music Col. Copyright and all that. It's a nice touch to add but you need software to do it and use free to use music to down load and add. You could do it in Youtube once over but I've not looked into for quite a while. I got caught out when listening to music whilst doing a vid, you could just hear it in the background. I had to re-render/re-publish the vid without sound. Ttttttttt.