Tripod
A very quick and simple way to give your video a little boost in the professional-look department, is to get that camera on a tripod. Most tripods come with a spirit level – for most work it is essential that you get that level. Your video is suddenly much more friendly to the human eye, in relation to the natural nature of the horizon in the video (horizon lines will now all have that perfect flatness to them, with no viewer disorientation whatsoever).
Some simple moves with the tripod will work just fine. It’s also so much easier than lugging around kilos of equipment all day, and your hands are free to undertake other tasks. In short, tripods increase the quality of the appearance of your video while increasing productivity on the shoot. An utter no- brainer.
White Balance
An often overlooked department is white balance, and it is most definitely a department which confuses and plagues the amateur videographer. A simple explanation is that the white balance selects the setting of the color white in your project and adjusts the spectrum of colors accordingly to reflect that setting. This can create a great deal of in-camera flexibility on shoot days as to how you want your project to look. What’s done here, however, cannot be undone! I think it’s really worth remembering that! I find that it is best to shoot as clean as possible, with- out tricking the camera, because you can do the tinkering you need in post production. Help the camera make the right white balance setting for the lighting on the day, using a blank white sheet of paper. Failing that, if you are in daylight set it using the onboard settings, or if you are in artificial light use the guide settings for that too. Point us, help the camera to help you.
Exposure
To keep it brief, exposure essentially is the balance between aperture and shutter speed which results in the image being exposed correctly on the film. This one is usually easily solved by the automatic settings on your camera, and when you switch your camera on, the rough correct exposure settings will immediately be achieved. While this can jet you out of a bind, it can also betray you from time to time. One of the biggest giveaways of an amateur project is that shift between exposure settings when the camera follows a subject between lighting settings – I’m sure you know what I mean. The image suddenly goes dark, then suddenly much brighter. This is the camera catching up. It’ll take a bit of practice, but if you play with your cameras expo- sure lock settings, and manually set exposure shot per shot, your skill will increase and your overall video look will increase in quality. However, low end cameras won’t have an exposure lock facility on there, but not to worry. Remember, we are in the online sphere here – low- budget is just fine as long as the basics are right.
Lighting
In low budget video, there are simple lighting solutions which can help no end, but overall there is one overriding tip – make sure it is well lit! If you have clean bright images (not overly bright though!) your post-production experience will be infinitely easier. A clean well-lit image is also the hallmark of budget – fool your audience into thinking you threw some real money at this! Now I know the first suggestion would be to get your subject by a window, to get some natural light in the scene. WRONG. First thing I do on ANY shoot is block off the natural light – because I can’t control it! Last thing I want to do is start shooting then have a cloud come over, then the second half of the video looks different to the first! Another dead give-away of a cheap video! Think about what light you have at your disposal, and how you can get the best out of it. It’s easier to switch off and reposition lights than it is to switch off the sun or reposition a cloud.
Author Bio
Charles West is a professional content writer and blogger since last 2 years. I have writing expertise in technology and certification topics specially. I love to share that recently I passed my 350-030 exam from SAS institute and 642-994 exam from VMware. Thanks for reading.