Monday, February 26, 2007
Using a Camcorder to Record Family Events Quickly and Easily
Let's start there (but not pass too much time on it because you are probably already checked out on their use):
On/Off - On some trade names you actually have got to happen two or three electric switches to carry through this. You may be required to take between photographic camera and videocassette recorder or VTR, you may have got got to open up shutters over the lens system system or take a lens cap, and you may have picks about snapshots, locked, standby, or video. You're probably ready when you see a image through the view finder with no unexpected icon flashing in the middle.
Zoom - Changes the lens system scene from broad angle to telephoto. You see what's happening in the viewfinder.
Red "Take" button - Rolls the tape. Usually "REC" demoes in the view finder when recording and "STDBY" demoes when the tape is stopped.
Beyond that everything else is automated on most consumer camcorders. You only have got to get the hang all those other buttons if you desire to take control of things like focus, exposure, shutter speed, colour balance, stabilization, depth of field, freeze motion, volume, and dozens of other particular personal effects and titling. On most camcorders the default maker scenes are the place to start -- they've done a very good occupation taming all these options. You should only necessitate to do alterations for peculiar scenes when you see things going wrong. So let's not drag through all the buttons and bill of fare options out there correct now. Instead let's concentrate on you and all the jobs you can create.
Let's analyze other countries that separate the professionals from the beginners. It's always said, and frequently demonstrated, that if you set the cheapest heap of debris camcorder in the hands of a pro, the resulting footage will look dazzling. It doesn't work the other manner around. It's not the tools that separate the 8-year old baking her first bar from her grandmother -- it's lots of small things, some of which are difficult and boring to document, and some of which fall into treatments and hot statements that mightiness be lumped together under the class called "style."
Let's acquire you started with some of the obvious areas. As you hit video you will naturally acquire competitory with and wonderment why your footage doesn't measurement up to the footage you see on television and in the movies. This volition cause you to start adding fast ones to your trade consciously and unconsciously. Most of us are very critical viewing audience of television and movies.
The first mark that there is a rank recreational running the photographic camera come ups when you recognize it is being hand-held because the image bouncinesses around (and may actually do some viewing audience seasick, ticker out!). The criterion reply to this is to Lug a tripod around with you. This is great if you are going to be positioned in the same place for more than than three proceedings filming a game or phase performance, but if you are zipping around like a fly on the wall you have got to take other measures. Here are some:
Lean on things while filming to stabilise yourself. Find a tree, a wall, a table, a friend . . .
Take a deep breath and hold it. Dig your elbow joints into your exaggerated rib cage creating a triangular bracing system between the camcorder and your stable chest. Bash not reply any inquiries thrown at you and halt filming before your whole organic structure starts convulsing trying to purge the stale air.
Zoom out (going to a broad angle setting) and then travel yourself and photographic camera in stopping point to the subject. Wide angle shots are much easier to hold steady. Zoomed in telephotograph shots really necessitate a good tripod.
Practice, practice, practice. While rolling tape, choice a stationary physical object near the corner of the viewfinder, lock in on it, and don't allow it travel around in the viewfinder. This bends your whole nervous and muscular system into a self-correcting stabilisation machine. It goes 2nd nature if you work at it enough just as a waitress can transport a tray of drinks without spilling any.
Push the "take" button to halt resonant tape when you recognize you are about to lose stability. You'd be surprised how many shots run until the photographic camera operator bumps into something, loses concentration or literally falls off a step.
Be certain the camera's built-in motion stabilisation characteristic is turned on. On some trade names the stabilisation characteristic reportedly snarls and dorks the image too much as the photographic camera is moved around. You'll hear that the characteristic should be turned off. Don't accept this advice as Gospel -- play with it for a piece first because this expostulation is true on lone a little per centum of camcorders.
Don't disregard using a little infectious mononucleosis cod or very light portable tripod for those "on the go" shots. These won't function you well when shot a long event but may be just the ticket when moving around like a fly on the wall.
Another rule to see is how long your shots should be. Watch television and count how long their shots run. You'll detect that the norm 30-second commercial may have got 20 different shots. Pretty much the same with MTV. Now watch state of affairs comedies and bulls and robber narratives -- maybe shots remain on 3 to 5 seconds. Follow up with slow running talking shows on PBS. Even there they switch over the photographic photographic camera before 10 secs have got gone by.
Back when you were getting advice with your place camera movie film from Kodak, the advice they gave was to number to 7 and close the shot down. They advised against tons of jerked meat short clips. While that was in a slower and more than graceful time period of time, it's calm a rule to seriously consider. Tightly edited gross sales pitches, action packed film cartridge holders and music videos may demand one to three 2nd clips, but this is too fast for general household footage. We happen that when people set photos together in a video presentation, six secs for each photograph is about the right time.
On the other hand, you'll lose your audience if you do your shots too long. I can't state you how many times I've seen shots of a babe being Federal in its high chair that a proud parent allows axial rotation for over a minute. It's equivalent to a 3-hour discourse in Christian church or a filibusterer in congress.
Even though you and I may have got no involvement in a "feed the baby" sequence unless we cognize the baby, it might maintain our attending if broken up into multiple shots such as as an establishing shot showing where we are, provender the baby, expression at the mother, stopping point up of the mess, stopping point up of mother's stress, image of babe wiggling feet in the air, female parent leaning back in exhaustion . . . All of this put option you the videographer to work. You have got to travel around and compose respective shots telling a story. Some shots may be long, some short, but the overall impact is dramatically improved.
Closely related to this is rule #3: avoid "hunting" with the camcorder. We've all seen shots where the photographic photographic photographic camera is panning to the left surveying the scene only to change way and pan back to the right again, then no, maybe what it is looking for is down, let's zoom along in for a second, darn it moved out of the shot, let's follow it putting everything out of focus, well heck, we look to be looking at a blank wall, and with a shingle of the camera, it's turned off finally, followed by a totally unrelated shot taken hours later.
You avoid hunting by following rule #2: close the camera off when a shot falls apart. Also you avoid hunting by getting your caput out from behind the photographic camera before you start the shot and planning out what you are going to shoot. If you desire really good footage, you might drill the shot a couple of times before you force the reddish "take" button. Bashes it remain in focus, is the motion too extreme, is there a bright visible light or window that come ups and travels as you pan causing the photographic camera to change the colour and brightness of the subject, etc., etc.?
Paint your scenes with shots that move in one direction, then quit. Don't backtrack in the same shot. This uses to all three motions you control: panning, tilting, and zooming. This looks so simple and yet this indecision shows up all over the place in the work of amateurs. You "hunt" before you "roll." A few secs of planning pays large dividends.
Rule #4 constructs on the two former rules -- change your shots. Some shots should be from a distance to set up where we are and some should be very tight so we can really see the topics in your video. Some shots should be long and some short. Here's what to avoid: tons of mid-range changeables with three or more than people posing in them.
TV is an "in your face" medium -- ticker it closely. It sit downs across the room from you. The professionals cut the tops off of caputs with impunity. You necessitate to be "tight" on a batch of shots to do it interesting but you desire to change it so as not to be too invasive.
Also you necessitate to be sensitive as to whether you are above the topics you are shooting making them look little and dominated or you are below the topics making them look lordly, controlling, and terrifying. If you acquire down on the flooring with children they look a batch more like small human beingnesses when looking consecutive at the camcorder than if you are always shooting the tops of their heads.
Rule #5: allow the movement come up to you -- be careful how much you zoom, pan and tilt. Watch what the professionals make and you'll be surprised how small zooming you see. Any cooking pans or tilts (looking from side to side or up and down) are generally very slow. When you make see the professionals pursuit the subject, you'll usually then see a series of stable shots to allow you acquire your bearings again.
The professionals detest zooming in and out. Instead they put a track, convey in a Crane or rent a well-trained Steadycam operator to follow the topic around smoothly. This engineering is beyond the insouciant user's reach, so we zoom. Best advice, zoom along along slowly and zoom less than every 3rd shot. Use the zoom along characteristic to frame in in a shot correctly before you force the reddish "take" button, and maintain your fingers off it while rolling. Fast or inordinate rapid climbs cause sickness and freak out of your mediocre audience. You don't desire to have got to supply air ill bags at your showing.
These rules barely abrasion the surface. Start by following them and when your footage looks more than respectable, you'll be ready to analyze the 100s of other things you see the professionals make in great movies and on television that brands their footage dazzle.
Now let's take on some of the many buttons on your camcorder. You should have got a big owner's manual that explicates what they make and I don't mean to reduplicate that. (Most owner's manuals were written in Nipponese first and then are translated into tons of languages, perhaps by a computer. Legal warnings probably fill up the first two pages and the really interesting material is frequently buried away in tiny-typeface footnotes. Don't acquire discouraged, you are not alone when wondering if you no longer cognize how to read.) If you've studied picture taking a lot, the information that follows may be old hat, but I've got to cover it to demo you why you may desire to research some of the buttons from time to time.
Basically you are simply managing visible light and motion. Start with light: too much visible visible visible light and everything is blistered out, too small light and inside information acquire lost in the shadows. The human oculus have a much wider scope from bright to dark in any given scene than makes any video equipment. A video shot of your "true love" that expressions all right to you standing there may play back later with achromatic blotches and bullas all over his or her face. How can something like this happen, you ask? You assumed the photographic photographic camera would "close down" automatically when the topic got too bright.
The mechanization in the camera can neglect you if there are extremes in any 1 shot. It sets for the norm brightness. Hot countries are averaged with dark areas. The scope it can manage is limited. The center or mean of the scope you are trying to hit may not be the scene you desire for a right exposure where the true topic is very "hot" surrounded by a batch of dark holes. You have got to take complaint deciding to throw away the inside information in the dark holes in order to acquire proper exposure of the chief subject. Shots of person on a phase in a limelight is the most typical illustration of having to manually take complaint of the exposure scene in your camcorder.
The other extreme happens when inside information of your true topic are crushed into a grey messiness because your topic is surrounded by a very bright background. You necessitate to open up up the exposure, throwing away the inside information in the bright background so you can brighten up and see your topic correctly. Some camcorders have got a button called "backlighting" that makes this for you.
This doesn't intend your photographic camera can't take images in extremely bright or extremely dark places: it can if the whole scene is bright or the whole scene is dark. The thing you have got to be sensitive to happens when there is a premix of bright and dark, your true topic is not in the center of the scope of lighting intensity, and your camcorder is calculating an norm brightness setting that is incorrect for what you desire to capture.
What make you look for to set exposure? If your photographic camera is anything like most of ours, there are respective ways to set exposure -- some are redundant and others manage utmost states of affairs beyond those discussed above. How make you kind it all out?
If your photographic camera have a wheel or dial called exposure and the image acquires dark and visible light as you turn it, then that's where to start. You will necessitate to "turn it on" telling the camera's mechanization that you are taking control of exposure and to border out. This may necessitate you to read the manual -- different makers have got different ways to barricade you from tampering with their automatic settings. Once you are in control, here are respective things to see and respective words of advice:
Be certain you swear what your camcorder's view finder is telling you. In an ideal situation, you desire to play with your camcorder in some very tough states of affairs taking and reviewing street arab footage before you "go live" on location. The view finder may have got its ain scenes which if set incorrect volition mislead you. For example, if the image in the view finder looks dark and dingy, but it looks great when played back on a TV, brighten the view finder setting, not the exposure scene of the footage you're taking.
Flip out silver screens are a fantastic innovation everywhere except outside on a sunny day. Because it's so difficult to see anything on them when it's too bright outside, you may be tempted to zigzag around on the brightness setting of the impudent out screen. Fine, but this may seriously mislead you when you come up back inside again -- be careful. Try to retrieve the scene before you changed it outside and travel back to that point as soon as possible.
Once you swear what you are seeing in the viewfinder, larn what to look for that hints you when to switch over off the camcorder's mechanization and alteration to manual exposure control. Then you necessitate to cognize how to put the exposure manually. Set it incorrect and everything will come up back too dark or too bright -- sadly it's easy to do.
There is a fast one I utilize when going to manual exposure at an event such as as a phase public presentation or a wedding. Let the mechanization aid you! Before going to manual exposure, zoom along in tight on an of import face that is lit pretty much as you anticipate will be common throughout the event. The camcorder should set its exposure to a nice mid-point of the visible light on that face. Then impudent the manual exposure characteristic on. Normally this volition "lock-in" the automatic scene that you swear is OK. Bash not turn the manual exposure knob -- the camcorder is put to the desired value. You are now free to zoom along broad and pan around the room knowing that a bright window in the background won't fold the camera's lens system down and black holes won't do the faces of the chief stars to bulla out.
As I mentioned earlier, many photographic cameras have got other ways to carry through the same results when working with uneven lighting situations. Many have got a "backlighting" button that volition take faces out of the shadows in a scene with tons of hot musca volitans in the background. Solving the other problem, some have got a particular characteristics setting that shows an icon with a face in a spotlight. This characteristic will assist get rid of blistered out faces in your video where the chief fictional characters are surrounded by dark holes in the background.
You may happen these scenes are easier to utilize that trying to set the exposure manually. Just be certain to turn them off when no longer needed. We see videos shot with the backlighting characteristic turned on during normal shots -- they are all washed out.
The camcorder applied scientists didn't halt there. Lurking behind every senior male electronics applied scientist is a adolescent male child who desires to develop the perfect camcorder that volition shoot good footage in close darkness. The race is on between vendors. This agency you will likely happen still more than exposure scenes that computer address this issue. Most of these scenes result in footage with atrocious color, jerked meat motion, and grainy images. Go there if you must but all of these characteristics are outside the range of this booklet.
The adjacent basic issue centres on focus. Most photographic cameras have got a very good car focusing feature. This characteristic probably makes a better occupation by far than you can make manually if you miss experience or just utilize the camcorder from time to time. Some states of affairs mistake the automation, however, and to acquire nice footage you will have got to leap in and take charge.
There are two things to look for: 1) the photographic photographic camera is focusing on the incorrect thing, and 2) the camera is confused and is hunting back and forth for something to concentrate on. Most camcorders today expression for a crisp perpendicular border in your picture. Once found, they very quickly concentrate in and out picking which way better sharpens this border in the picture. It's the same procedure the oculus physician uses: "Which is better, A or B"?
No border in the picture: the photographic camera is lost. A clear border stopping point by and another in the distance: the photographic camera is confused which one to select. Most of the time you can assist your mediocre camcorder by just centering in on a sharply defined physical object that you desire to film. If it's really lost and is focusing on the dust on its ain lens system when you desire to hit a sunset, you can travel things along by aiming the photographic camera at a tree or something else in the distance before you force the reddish return button. Once it's focused for distance shots, it will usually remain there.
If none of this plant you are going to have got to larn how to turn off the automatic focusing characteristic and take complaint of focusing yourself. This is not complicated. One electric switch or button gives you command and usually the ring around the lens system moves so you can change focus. Some camcorders allow you travel to manual but have got a button or springtime loaded electric switch scene that allows you state the camera's car focusing characteristic to quickly make its occupation and tax return to manual operation.
