genetic
Honorary Master
Video cameras... remember those?
Most people these days have DSLR's - which in their own right have discarded consumer video camera's into the trash heap. But there's a catch. Crappy video is still crappy video.
This is a mini guide to understanding the basics of shooting video on your DSLR.
The staple diet in any amateur videographer's handbook is a DSLR of some or other sort these days. I detest them. The reason being is that every Tom, Dick and Harry now has access to semi high end video equipment, that was only accessible to prosumers just 10 years ago... This doesn't change the fact that no matter how good your tools are, if you don't know how to use them, they're useless to you.
If you have any inkling to venture into more than just home movies with your DSLR, you need to have a basic understanding of what the most important settings on your camera are.
A mere 5 years ago we were shooting most of our lower end mass market commercials on to HDV / HDCAM or BETACAM SP tape. This was the industry standard, tape based linear media. It was robust, had a characteristic professional look, and was relatively cheap, NLE applications such as Apple's Final Cut Pro, Avid Media and Adobe Premiere ingested the MPEG2 based codecs without a hitch. The quality of the footage is what you'd expect from the standard of the day, if you owned or operated one of these desktop based solutions.
DSLR video has changed the game, but there are many amateur downsides to this new DSLR technology... One being the dreaded CMOS 'jello wobble'. Sensors had increased in size, got bigger, and thus faster lenses allowed a lot more light in, the average user had no idea how to effectively control the power at their disposal.
This resulted in very 'over-sharp', contrasty, shakey, wobbly and choppy images that we are accustomed to on 90% of YouTube channels. With the 'shallow' depth of field being the aim of most indie filmmakers, came at a cost of good production.
I typically call this the hipster (uneducated) or student look.
For instance;
Most people will always adjust their shutter speed to control exposure, and in a video world, that is a no-no. You can't blame them though as given the sensor size and larger lenses, you are left with a lot less options to control light coming into the aperture other to control the electronic shutter for a shallow depth of field. There is no solution to this other than to add filters, such as variable ND's, or polarised filters. but not all of us have access to these.
So my point of this mini overview is to get those aspiring filmmakers that don't have access to all the big professional gear, to align their video's closer to that of a higher end production, than to that of the typical wannabe aspiring YouTube bedroom star. This is a very basic overview just to get the beginner started.
Step 1 - The camera.
It can be any DSLR that is capable of shooting 720/1080/25p video. As long as it can handle a steady frame rate of 25fps or even 30fps at 1080p, then you're good. You get many different sensor sizes, accompanied with their lens counterparts.
Many have their advantages and disadvantages. This overview will not focus on the differences between sensor and lens sizes, but rather the basic operational settings to get you to shoot decent video.
Step 2 - Exposure
This is the most important part of the process. You need to control the amount of light entering the lens and aperture, and the most basic way of controlling the amount of light hitting the sensor is by controlling aperture. This is determined by the F-Stop number. The lower your F-Stop, the greater the depth of field, and thus resulting in more light let into the lens. Drop your F-Stop a couple of stops, you lose the narrow depth of field, but you're then able to properly expose the picture.
Step 3 - Shutter Speed
This is known as your electronic shutter. An electronic shutter in basic terms is the image capture process of a digital camera. Once the pixels on the sensor have been energised, the information is sent to the signal processor as an entire frame. The image is processed and gets stored to the external memory card. There are slight discrepancies between different chips, but that's another story
Lets say you have a shutter speed of 1/250th of a second, and your video frame rate is 25fps, that means the imaging sensor accepts light 3.5 times as fast as the frame rate transfer per frame. In simplistic terms, the shutter speed refers to the amount of time light is supplied to the chip during the recording of each frame.
So if you are recording at 25p at 1/50, the camera is sending an image at 25 times a second to the sensor, but exposes and freezes that image for half the duration of the given frame rate.
So then if you're recording at 25fps at 1/100, the camera is sending an image at 25 times a second to the sensor, but only exposing that frame for 1/4th for that frame, thus giving you a 1/100 shutter.
The basic rule for video is that what ever your frame rate is, double your shutter. 25fps = 1/50. 50fps = 1/100fps. This ensures natural motion blur.
A common technique by DSLR film makers is to adjust the shutter speed to control exposure and depth of field. This makes for very shaky and choppy video. This makes every frame crisp, and leaves no room for natural motion blur. This is often refereed to the Saving Private Ryan Effect, and is generally NOT desirable for video unless there is an intent to do so.
Increasing your shutter speed reduces the amount of time light has to enter the camera, it allows you to open the aperture, increasing depth of field, and having that shallow focus plane - at the expense of smooth motion blur. Many cheaper camera's that don't have mechanical aperture controls rely on an electronic shutter for their exposure (think GoPro). A choppy fast shutter can cheapen your production, and should be avoided, unless there it can be justified.
Lock your shutter speed to avoid motion artifacts.
So you lock your shutter and now have to close your aperture for exposure, losing shallow depth of field in the process... Now what? Unfortunately there is nothing much you can do unless you invest in ND or neutral density. These filters reduce the amount of light entering the lens and allow you to open the aperture without adjusting your shutter speed for increased shallow depth of field.
Step 4 - ISO:
ISO is what used to be called (and still is called) 'gain' on professional video camera's. It's measured in dB, and usually allows you to control gain from -3dB to +18dB.
With DSLR's it's slightly different. Gain is measured in ISO, and referrers to the amount of power in voltage the imaging chip is given.
Increasing the voltage to the sensor increases the amount of light it is able to gather - at the expense of noise. A lower ISO value equates to less noise and less light sensitivity, while a higher value will give more noise, but increased low-light sensitivity. All camera's have a base ISO, which is typically the lowest ISO number of the sensor that can produce at the highest image quality, without adding excess noise to the picture, but this is hardly every factored into video production, and is almost entirely relevant to stills, unless shooting to an external recorder.
Step 5 - White Balance:
White balance referrers to the internal imaging process of altering colour shades, so that white objects appear white in camera. In video it's recommended to lock the white balance to a certain colour temperature. Either indoor or outdoor. You can manually set the white balance yourself your select from a number of predetermined presets. It's highly recommended you select a colour temperature and lock the camera to that. Left on auto-mode will leave the camera hunting to balance multiple light sources, and alter the overall colour of your scene - possibly a number of times within a single shot.
Step 6 - Sound
Sound, sound sound!!! Drop everything you've read prior and just focus on this. Sound is the most critical part of any production, and sets the pro's apart from the cons. I'd rather have good sound on at the expense of visuals.
Sound is often the most looked over part of a production, but is the most critical. Have a presenter to camera, and have a drop out in sound, you lose your story. Get a lapel, an external audio XLR recorder or decent on-board mic, and ensure you have crystal clear audio. The internal microphone on all DSLR's isn't good for anything that's more than a meter away, so invest in some sort of audio hardware.
Step 7 - Filters
DSLR's have large sensors and large lenses. You wan't to keep your shutter fixed, but maintain that film-like depth of field. You need to invest in filters. A variable ND is the best, accompanied by a polariser. This allows you to manupilate the light before it enters the lens, giving you more control at the lens barrel.
Step 8 - Depth of Field
Shallow depth of field. Sis. Honestly, if you show me any piece of material that has an insanely small amount of depth of field, I'd say DSLR!
It's a big turn-off and cheapens it IMO. Every student is asphyxiated with a shallow DoF, it isn't natural! Maintain your shutter speed at the expense of a shallow Dof. Less is more, and smother motion in video will always come across more powerful than choppy shaky images with narrow DoF.
Most people these days have DSLR's - which in their own right have discarded consumer video camera's into the trash heap. But there's a catch. Crappy video is still crappy video.
This is a mini guide to understanding the basics of shooting video on your DSLR.
The staple diet in any amateur videographer's handbook is a DSLR of some or other sort these days. I detest them. The reason being is that every Tom, Dick and Harry now has access to semi high end video equipment, that was only accessible to prosumers just 10 years ago... This doesn't change the fact that no matter how good your tools are, if you don't know how to use them, they're useless to you.
If you have any inkling to venture into more than just home movies with your DSLR, you need to have a basic understanding of what the most important settings on your camera are.
A mere 5 years ago we were shooting most of our lower end mass market commercials on to HDV / HDCAM or BETACAM SP tape. This was the industry standard, tape based linear media. It was robust, had a characteristic professional look, and was relatively cheap, NLE applications such as Apple's Final Cut Pro, Avid Media and Adobe Premiere ingested the MPEG2 based codecs without a hitch. The quality of the footage is what you'd expect from the standard of the day, if you owned or operated one of these desktop based solutions.
DSLR video has changed the game, but there are many amateur downsides to this new DSLR technology... One being the dreaded CMOS 'jello wobble'. Sensors had increased in size, got bigger, and thus faster lenses allowed a lot more light in, the average user had no idea how to effectively control the power at their disposal.
This resulted in very 'over-sharp', contrasty, shakey, wobbly and choppy images that we are accustomed to on 90% of YouTube channels. With the 'shallow' depth of field being the aim of most indie filmmakers, came at a cost of good production.
I typically call this the hipster (uneducated) or student look.
For instance;
Most people will always adjust their shutter speed to control exposure, and in a video world, that is a no-no. You can't blame them though as given the sensor size and larger lenses, you are left with a lot less options to control light coming into the aperture other to control the electronic shutter for a shallow depth of field. There is no solution to this other than to add filters, such as variable ND's, or polarised filters. but not all of us have access to these.
So my point of this mini overview is to get those aspiring filmmakers that don't have access to all the big professional gear, to align their video's closer to that of a higher end production, than to that of the typical wannabe aspiring YouTube bedroom star. This is a very basic overview just to get the beginner started.
Step 1 - The camera.
It can be any DSLR that is capable of shooting 720/1080/25p video. As long as it can handle a steady frame rate of 25fps or even 30fps at 1080p, then you're good. You get many different sensor sizes, accompanied with their lens counterparts.
Many have their advantages and disadvantages. This overview will not focus on the differences between sensor and lens sizes, but rather the basic operational settings to get you to shoot decent video.
Step 2 - Exposure
This is the most important part of the process. You need to control the amount of light entering the lens and aperture, and the most basic way of controlling the amount of light hitting the sensor is by controlling aperture. This is determined by the F-Stop number. The lower your F-Stop, the greater the depth of field, and thus resulting in more light let into the lens. Drop your F-Stop a couple of stops, you lose the narrow depth of field, but you're then able to properly expose the picture.
Step 3 - Shutter Speed
This is known as your electronic shutter. An electronic shutter in basic terms is the image capture process of a digital camera. Once the pixels on the sensor have been energised, the information is sent to the signal processor as an entire frame. The image is processed and gets stored to the external memory card. There are slight discrepancies between different chips, but that's another story
Lets say you have a shutter speed of 1/250th of a second, and your video frame rate is 25fps, that means the imaging sensor accepts light 3.5 times as fast as the frame rate transfer per frame. In simplistic terms, the shutter speed refers to the amount of time light is supplied to the chip during the recording of each frame.
So if you are recording at 25p at 1/50, the camera is sending an image at 25 times a second to the sensor, but exposes and freezes that image for half the duration of the given frame rate.
So then if you're recording at 25fps at 1/100, the camera is sending an image at 25 times a second to the sensor, but only exposing that frame for 1/4th for that frame, thus giving you a 1/100 shutter.
The basic rule for video is that what ever your frame rate is, double your shutter. 25fps = 1/50. 50fps = 1/100fps. This ensures natural motion blur.
A common technique by DSLR film makers is to adjust the shutter speed to control exposure and depth of field. This makes for very shaky and choppy video. This makes every frame crisp, and leaves no room for natural motion blur. This is often refereed to the Saving Private Ryan Effect, and is generally NOT desirable for video unless there is an intent to do so.
Increasing your shutter speed reduces the amount of time light has to enter the camera, it allows you to open the aperture, increasing depth of field, and having that shallow focus plane - at the expense of smooth motion blur. Many cheaper camera's that don't have mechanical aperture controls rely on an electronic shutter for their exposure (think GoPro). A choppy fast shutter can cheapen your production, and should be avoided, unless there it can be justified.
Lock your shutter speed to avoid motion artifacts.
So you lock your shutter and now have to close your aperture for exposure, losing shallow depth of field in the process... Now what? Unfortunately there is nothing much you can do unless you invest in ND or neutral density. These filters reduce the amount of light entering the lens and allow you to open the aperture without adjusting your shutter speed for increased shallow depth of field.
Step 4 - ISO:
ISO is what used to be called (and still is called) 'gain' on professional video camera's. It's measured in dB, and usually allows you to control gain from -3dB to +18dB.
With DSLR's it's slightly different. Gain is measured in ISO, and referrers to the amount of power in voltage the imaging chip is given.
Increasing the voltage to the sensor increases the amount of light it is able to gather - at the expense of noise. A lower ISO value equates to less noise and less light sensitivity, while a higher value will give more noise, but increased low-light sensitivity. All camera's have a base ISO, which is typically the lowest ISO number of the sensor that can produce at the highest image quality, without adding excess noise to the picture, but this is hardly every factored into video production, and is almost entirely relevant to stills, unless shooting to an external recorder.
Step 5 - White Balance:
White balance referrers to the internal imaging process of altering colour shades, so that white objects appear white in camera. In video it's recommended to lock the white balance to a certain colour temperature. Either indoor or outdoor. You can manually set the white balance yourself your select from a number of predetermined presets. It's highly recommended you select a colour temperature and lock the camera to that. Left on auto-mode will leave the camera hunting to balance multiple light sources, and alter the overall colour of your scene - possibly a number of times within a single shot.
Step 6 - Sound
Sound, sound sound!!! Drop everything you've read prior and just focus on this. Sound is the most critical part of any production, and sets the pro's apart from the cons. I'd rather have good sound on at the expense of visuals.
Sound is often the most looked over part of a production, but is the most critical. Have a presenter to camera, and have a drop out in sound, you lose your story. Get a lapel, an external audio XLR recorder or decent on-board mic, and ensure you have crystal clear audio. The internal microphone on all DSLR's isn't good for anything that's more than a meter away, so invest in some sort of audio hardware.
Step 7 - Filters
DSLR's have large sensors and large lenses. You wan't to keep your shutter fixed, but maintain that film-like depth of field. You need to invest in filters. A variable ND is the best, accompanied by a polariser. This allows you to manupilate the light before it enters the lens, giving you more control at the lens barrel.
Step 8 - Depth of Field
Shallow depth of field. Sis. Honestly, if you show me any piece of material that has an insanely small amount of depth of field, I'd say DSLR!
It's a big turn-off and cheapens it IMO. Every student is asphyxiated with a shallow DoF, it isn't natural! Maintain your shutter speed at the expense of a shallow Dof. Less is more, and smother motion in video will always come across more powerful than choppy shaky images with narrow DoF.
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