MEDIA TIP #1: Camera Basics
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MEDIA TIP #1: CAMERA BASICS
By Aron Africa, Support Centre Video/Web/Sound Editor
Common questions that usually come up when recording video include: “What’s your shutter speed, aperture, and ISO? And the white balance? What about the colour profile and frame rate?”
At the beginning of my videography journey all these settings overwhelmed me, as I just wanted to point and shoot. So I would switch the camera to Auto and let it do all the work, giving me less stress. That is until we needed to edit the footage. It would end up taking more time to “fix it in post (production)”, which ended up looking the opposite of what we had envisioned – either leading to a reshoot or having to do all we can to save the project. I then realised that to get the best out of the camera, I would need to start by understanding how it works. And so I turned to my best friends Google and YouTube to find out what camera functions I could improve on.
Here’s what I learned:
Lighting is key
Before adjusting anything on your camera, first look at the speaker/pastor and the background. How much natural light does the person have on and behind them? Can we add or reflect light onto the subject to separate them from their surroundings?
A 3-point lighting setup illuminates a subject effectively and pleasingly by simply using three different lights.
Setting up the Exposure on your Camera
Once you have your lighting setup, we can move on to the camera and start adjusting the following exposure settings:
- Shutter Speed – the length of time a camera shutter is open to expose light into the camera sensor.
Shutter speeds are usually measured in fractions of a second when they are under a second. Slow shutter speeds allow more light into the camera sensor and are used for low-light and night photography, while fast shutter speeds help freeze motion. Examples of shutter speeds: 1/15 (1/15th of a second), 1/30, 1/60, 1/125.
- Aperture – a hole within a lens through which light travels into the camera body.
The larger the hole/spot, the more light passes to the camera sensor. Aperture also controls the depth of field, which is the portion of a scene that appears to be sharp. If the aperture is small, the depth of field is large, while if the aperture is large, the depth of field is small. In videography, the aperture is usually expressed in “f” numbers (also known as “focal ratio”, since the f-number is the ratio of the diameter of the lens aperture to the length of the lens).
Examples of f-numbers are f/1.4, f/2.0, f/2.8, f/4.0, f/5.6, f/8.0.
- ISO – a way to brighten your photos if you can’t use a longer shutter speed or a wider aperture.
It is usually measured in numbers. A lower number represents a darker image, while higher numbers mean a brighter image. However, raising your ISO comes at a cost. As the ISO rises, so does the visibility of graininess/noise in your video.
Examples of ISO: 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600.
My camera settings for perfect exposure:
Understanding White Balance
White balance is a setting that tells your camera how to register colour temperature. For example, you might be recording inside a building with fluorescent light, which tends to be on the warmer side (visually) on the camera. To counter this, we “balance” the colour temperature (measured in Kelvin) manually or using the presets on the camera, which will automatically adjust as the colour temperature changes.
The goal is to visually find the closest white point on the camera or use the spectrum graphs (usually a feature on Canon or Sony cameras) that help with accuracy.
White Balance for video explained:
Finalising the Look on your Camera
Once you’ve set the perfect exposure and white balance, the last thing you want to do is calibrate your camera’s colour profile/filter/look for your final video image. The colour profile helps with consistency in your videos and saves some time needing to add/edit this in post. Bear in mind that if you prefer to edit your final look in post, you will need to record a flat/log video image.
By default, your camera already has colour profiles loaded onto it. You can look through them and see which ones you like as this is more of a personal preference.
Understanding Video Picture Profiles:
Frame-Rate, Resolution and Final thoughts
Once you’ve set your exposure, white Balance and colour profiles, the last thing you want to check before recording is your frame-rate and the resolution. As standard for our sermon and broadcast videos, we record 1080p (1920×1080) @ 25 frames per second (PAL). For high speed or slow-motion capture, we bump the frames per second (FPS) to 50/120 depending on the purpose of the footage. 50 FPS works great for worship or music videos when recording an instrument like the drums. That gives a great effect, allowing us to see more motion in the video.
You are now ready to hit that red button and get creative. Remember to have fun, continue to refine your knowledge on how your camera functions through practice, and prep everything you need beforehand so that when your speaker/talent arrives, they can jump in front of the camera and start right away.
Lights? Check. Camera? Check. Sound? Check. Action!
Resources:
Understanding ISO, Shutter Speed and Aperture – A Beginner’s Guide (photographylife.com)
What is white balance? How to perfect white balance in video production? | Clipchamp Blog
Intro to Video Frame Rates and Frames Per Second Shooting Speeds – BorrowLenses Blog
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Aron, this was so helpful!
Thanks so much for all your effort putting it together!