Canon DSLR Videography - Better your Video Production Skills

Put the camera anywhere except eye level. My general rule is 6” or more above or 6” below. Watch your shots come to life!

Follow these tips on horizons and framing people to make more pro looking results.

look for an angle, don’t shoot things straight on unless you’re looking for symmetry – and if that’s the case make sure you nail it

Colour first – why? I’m distracted if colour is wrong, and colour is independent of the three decisions about exposure, ISO, aperture and shutter.

Q/I’ve always heard that for shooting video you have to do a white balance. What’s different here? A/All a white balance is is the camera looking at a reference (something white) and then depending on the way the electronics are set up, setting a colour temperature value in K°. This is automated, so akin to your auto settings, you wouldn’t have control over it and most often it wouldn’t even tell you what that number is. So, not a good way. Besides, I prefer the term “Colour temperature assignment” to “White Balance”. Makes more sense to me plus you get a lot more control over your look. Head to the next section for how to get your colour happening quickly.

Let’s look at how to control colour on your camera – presets vs numeric. Problems with presets (aren’t usually in order, usually don’t tell you what the numbers are and don’t have same level of incremental control). Numeric is best, if your camera has it

Find the colour controls on your camera and toggle through the range – look for the trends on your LCD – see how the presets jump around and compare to numeric. Don’t worry about the other settings for now, any ballpark exposure will work for now – focus on colour

HOLD THE LINE: Colour temperature Ballpark: scientific, measured in K°, part of energy spectrum from Infrared, visible spectrum, through to invisible again at Ultraviolet, numbers trend from reddish/orange at lower end to blue/violet at upper end. The part we’re concerned with is 2000°-10 000°

If you want your video to look like what you see with your eyes 1/Keep your   lighting sources the same (don’t mix) 2/set your camera to match the source   3200° for tungsten, Matching for fluorescent or numbered bulb, 5600° for   daylight.         

For numeric control - If you followed the steps in the previous lessons and your colour doesn't look right, here's what to do because it should be very close.

Try adjusting a couple hundred degrees in either direction. Lower numbers always make the image colder or more blue and warmer numbers always make it more orange or warmer

Recap: to get colour like what you see with your eye, keep lighting sources the same type, set your camera to match. That’s a wrap on colour

Congrats, let's move on to Exposure

mostly benign but in low light digital grain introduces colours that aren’t part of your shot, banding - using auto can allow this to happen without you realizing until later

Find the manual ISO control on your camera

if shooting outside in full sun, start at 100; inside in medium light 400-640 and in darker situations 800

Congrats…recap of what you’ve learned and wrap up, looking at aperture next

Aperture is the second of the Exposure cousins and responsible for the most commonly known characteristic of the “film look” – shallow depth of field

Aperture is an adjustable opening or iris (like your eye) inside lenses. Bigger openings let more light in and give less depth of field (shallower) and smaller openings give less light and more depth of field (deeper). Unit of measurement is called f-stop. Small numbers are bigger openings and bigger numbers are smaller openings.

Why do bigger openings have smaller numbers and smaller openings have bigger numbers? This seems to go against reason.Because it’s a ratio, otherwise thought of as a fraction. It’s the ratio of diameter of the opening to the focal length of that lens. We’ll cover lenses in more detail later on. For now it’ll be helpful if you just put a 1 over any f-number to grasp it’s relative size. For example, ½ is certainly bigger than 1/16

Shoot four tests – your longest lens at widest and shallowest openings, your shortest lens at widest and shallowest openings, your shortest lens with widest opening, subject at minimum focus, your shortest lens with widest opening, subject three feet out from minimum focus. You will have to adjust ISO and shutter to accommodate changes in exposure. Reminder: verbal slating will be easier to achieve. Watch your tests on a computer or monitor as soon as you can after shooting.

The closer you bring the subject to the camera, the better your chances are at seeing shallow depth of field. The wider your lens the more pronounced this will be

recap on what you've learned - one more topic in exposure...shutter is up next.

This is one of the most important places to people look when trying to achieve the “film look” but it’s also one of the most overlooked. Hang on to your hat because this is the place where the most extensive – but also most rewarding – testing will happen.

What is shutter speed, what are the results at the extremes (motion blur/sharpness) and why the auto settings will fail you. The feel of your scenes won’t be consistent. Shutter is a key setting for feel. Why this is so different between video and stills. The blur that works for video would be unacceptable in stills.

Q/ I’ve heard that your shutter speed should be the frame rate divided by two. A/ This is one of the most common rules of thumb that people blindly rely on because it will work. However, it ignores the whole rest of the spectrum of creative choices and especially in the case of a 1/60 rate gives a result that I really don’t enjoy. But don’t take my word for it. We’re going to test these extensively in a 

little bit. The thing you do have to watch out for though is too much blur, for fast moving subjects, especially if they are close to the camera, or quick camera moves.

Wait a minute, you said the longest shutter speed can be the reciprocal of the frame rate – but how can it possibly be shorter? This is confusing. Thinking of how film cameras used to work will help understand this principle - it's a fraction - and that also explains why when you turn the numbers higher the image gets darker.

Congrats - end of shutter and exposure sections. Have learned so much....

Next up is building speed to bring all these decisions together when you're in the heat of the moment on set

Build muscle memory through practice until you can do this

Things you can do to get your camera close, even before you leave home: shooting outdoors? ISO 100, 5600K°, shutter where you want it…all that remains is aperture – 3 of 4 decisions made before you even arrive. Shooting indoors at night? ISO 800, 3200K° or 4000K°, aperture wide open. 3 of 4 decisions close to where you want them. Shooting inside a home during daytime? ISO 500, 5600K°, shutter where you want it…all that remains is aperture. 3 of 4 settings close to achieved before you leave home.

If you want to be “cinematic” then you also need to take on getting great audio. Not just good audio. Great. This section will cover standards for recording, an equipment overview for recording great dialogue and gear setup.

I can hear it perfectly fine. The perils of playback volume vs. signal input monitoring

use a/c power and or watch battery levels carefully – with my model you will lose the current file if power is interrupted while recording. Don’t skimp on batteries – always keep more than you think you’ll need 

why XLR is higher quality

gain staging and how to fix it

why the COS-11 is better than the kit mics – easier to hide – rubber mount/toupe tape, great quality, save time and focus on other things

Sony MDR-7506 are 

great quality, these work but lots of good choices on the market –just whatever you do, don’t use ear buds or open backed headphones

when getting a level, ask the person a question that has nothing to do with the interview topic. I use, “what did you have for breakfast”. This way you get a general level and don’t lose a great response to your core topic…but be ready to ride the levels once you get going. Typically people talk louder once they get into the real thing because they’re excited.

Way to go – these are the basics of getting great quality dialogue

Next up, we circle back to camera work for how to get the "Film Look"

The answer: vari-ND

By now you should have done this several times and built up some speed in changing this setting. This is an intentional result of the course. So, congrats on getting used to this.

Keep the eye line close to the camera

(hands and feet etc) – for a more organic feel, shoot them first, not after the interview

let the action go through the frame – don’t chase. If something exits the frame let it go – if it loves you it will come back. If it doesn’t, then cut and go find it again.

don’t chase, pick a spot and let the subject go through it - won't always work - but give it a try and see what happens

histogram explained and how to use it

Expose for highlights and let shadows take care of themselves

use a gorilla pod for speed and versatility

upwards compatibility, Vignetting, why you don't "lose quality" when all your lenses seem more zoomed out, 

if there isn’t enough natural contrast between subject and background, put some light on the background

exception to the rule about putting a light on the camera, but only if you have to

use available light for the key and light (or bounce) the fill side only

might seem counter-intuitive, but taking light away can work really well

less is more – the power of indirect lighting – just be ready for overexposed backgrounds

section recap