Ways to Improve Your Videos/Photography

[quakecitystudio]

My friend Jonathan's 4 15's in 4th order blowthrough shot on Nikon D3s with 24/70 f/2.8 lens. Audio recorded on camera.

For those of you interested in improving your videos here are some pointers to consider. And if you have any suggestions feel free to add to this thread as well.

For All to know:

• Know your camera/phone: various settings, what it can and cannot do. See if you can control the audio on your camera

• purchase a decent tripod or monopod(one legged extendable tripod)

• If you're shooting in low light or at night, bring some kind of Flash Light or LED light.

• Have a plan of what you're going to shoot and how you're going to shoot it.

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Basic Level:

Some Camera functions to know:

• Point and Shoot and on DSLR:

-Auto= noobie mode, or do it all for me,

-M=Manual Mode (you're in control of everything),

-A=Aperture Priority Mode (you set the aperture and the camera adjusts the shutter speed accordingly),

-S=Shutter Priority Mode (You set the shutter speed and the camera sets the Aperture accordingly)

-P= Program Mode (like an advanced auto mode, camera adjusts shutter and aperture based on the given light of the subject you are shooting.

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Aperture: The F-Stop value that is assigned to the given size opening that ls letting light into the lens/camera.

i.e. F/5.6. The smaller the number the wider the opening. F/5.6 To F/32.

Shutter Speed: How fast the given light is allowed to enter the lens/camera. i.e. 4 seconds ( 4") or 1/4000.

ISO: If you remember buying rolls of film. This is the film's speed number. The higher the number the "faster" it can capture the image. Also, the higher the number the grainier the image can become. And vice versa, the lower the number the greater quality the captured image can become, but also the longer the time it takes to capture the image. i.e. ISO 400 and ISO 3200.

*The Door Analogy:

Imagine opening a door. How wide you open the door, is the aperture, i.e. cracking the door open vs. opening the door fully wide. How fast you open and close the door determines the Shutter Speed, slowly opening the door vs. snatching it open quickly and slamming it shut.

Metering: In the camera there are these indicators: - .......0....... +

• If you are taking a pic and the camera meters the subject based on a given setting and the meter is "+", the captured image will be OVEREXPOSED, or washed out.

• If you are taking a pic and the camera meters the subject based on a given setting and the meter is "--", the captured image will be UNDEREPOSED, or a dark image.

• If the meter is "0" then the camera will capture an overall correctly exposed image based on your given settings.

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Advanced Level:

Lens: Kit vs. Prime-

• Kit Lens= 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6, or 18-270mm f/3.5-5.6

- The f/3.5-5.6 means at 18mm the Widest aperture is 3.5 and at 55mm the widest aperture is 5.6

- some kits come with VR lenses which stand for Vibration Reduction, which is great for handheld video/pictures. But never to be turned on when on a tripod.

• Prime Lens= 50mm f/1.8 or 28mm f/2.8, or 24-70mm f/2.8 or 70-200 f/2.8

- The aperture on these lenses can go down to that f-stop number (and at any focal length on a zoom lens). i.e. a 70-200 can be as wide as 2.8 at 70mm and at 200mm.

In-Camera Settings:

EV - Exposure Value, it's a given starting point, say if you were using filters that darken the image to a negative but you want that to be your 0 starting point, so you adjust back to 0 from the negative number.

AE-L- Auto Exposure Lock- So when shooting video the camera doesn't automatically adjust exposure.

Filters:

UV - Ultra Violet - mostly used to protect the lens.

ND - Neutral Density Filters, can cut the amount of given light going into lens by means of f/stops but without making an Aperture changes. Analogy - a car with a window tint vs. a car without.

Circular Polarizers- Cuts some light, but mostly used to photograph objects that tend to put of a glare like cars or buildings. This is used to cut the glare and in some cases allow to see through shiny surfaces, i.e. water.

-Audio Levels, mostly set on auto but if recording music, set to lowest setting and if yhou can preview your levels, do so, or if the camera has a mic input, invest in a professional audio field recorder like a zoom H4n and an audio splitter, so you can connect headphones to hear the audio your recording, monitor and adjust the audio levels, and pipe the audio directly into your camera.

Some advanced cameras as that used above will allow you to control ISO, Shutter Speed, and Aperture while using video. Other you may have to trick them, like using Aperture Priority on a D5100 and adjusting the EV values for it to adjust shutter speed.

Shutter Speed - for cinematic purposes (on a really light level) rule of thumb is if shooting a 24 fps (frames per second) video to set shutter speed at 1/60 or twice as fast. To capture the action especially rapid movement, higher shutter speeds would be desired. For more natural or some bluriness, then use slower shutter speeds.

You don't need Adobe Premiere Pro or Final Cut to edit, sometimes I use the Youtube editor to cut videos.

Also, it's better to shoot 10 seconds of a 4 second footage, instead of 3 minutes of the same thing. (more for editing and storage space).

Also, think wide shot, close up, and creative/panning

And rule of thirds, try not to shoot something centered in the viewing area. Divide the screen by thirds horizontally and vertically and where the lines intersect, be sure that your subject's interest, i.e. eyes or hands are located in that particular area.

And one more thing, it's okay to shoot video in vertical mode, not everybody has to shoot video in horizontal fashion.

I hope this helps, if you have any questions let me know.

[JasonJones]

Another thing to add is if you are shooting a demo or a vehicle is to map out your plan of attack. AKA don't go hustling from the front of the car to the back then back to the front if you plan it out everything comes out much cleaner cuz the viewer won't be getting bounced around constantly.