Want to Shoot Your Own Video? Read This First.

You’re finally going to do it!

You’ve got an idea, you’ve written a script, and you’ve recruited a few people to help you shoot a video for your business. It’s a simple thing — just thirty seconds or so of you talking about who you are and what you can do for potential customers. You don’t have a fancy camera, but you’ve read in the previous edition of Fresh off the Vine that you can use your iPhone! So, you head out and film the video, but return to your computer to find that you can barely see your own face and the footage looks grainy. Plus, you’ve always loved the look of footage shot by more professional agencies, but have no idea how to make your footage look like theirs. What went wrong, exactly?

The struggle is real, folks.

There are a lot of things that can go wrong when shooting video, and you shouldn’t expect everything to go perfectly in your first try. There’s a reason why this discipline is an entire field of its own, and why major films have a cinematographer, who’s job is exclusively to decide what sort of cameras and lenses to use to get just the right look. We certainly can’t cover everything in this post, but I’d like to at least give you a crash course of the basics. Please bear in mind: this is not going to magically make your footage look like a Hollywood masterpiece, but it will at least help you avoid some of the more common pitfalls that beginners encounter.

What Camera Are You Using?

In today’s technology-saturated world, you don’t have to spend thousands of dollars to shoot good footage. Earlier, we mentioned that you can use a smartphone if it’s all you have handy. However, it’s important that we temper expectations when it comes to smartphones. Smartphones serve many purposes, a camera being only one of them. Although smartphone cameras have come a LONG way in recent years, the camera is one of only many parts of the device. The people who designed it were smart enough to know that they couldn’t blow their whole budget on the camera, so they designed it to be as economical as possible. In other words, quality is a secondary concern with smartphone cameras. Some of the issues with smartphones are simply due to the physical limitations of such a small camera. You can only fit so much hardware into such a small space, and although smartphones have remarkable power for their size, they won’t replace a dedicated camera.

“So…does that mean I need a professional video camera to get good footage?”

Not necessarily. There are plenty of “middle-of-the-road” options. DSLR cameras have also come a long way in terms of their power. A decent DSLR camera can cost as little as a few hundred dollars, and will have the added benefit of being able to take still photos as well. And if “a few hundred” sounds too expensive to you, consider that your smartphone likely cost double that or even more. At Branch & Vine Media, we use a Canon EOS 90D as our main camera. While it’s probably not the most “budget friendly” option out there, it’s still a far cry from “professional” cameras in terms of price. Here’s an example of some footage I shot with it:

Looks pretty good, right? If you need something lighter on the wallet, just head over to B&H’s website and search “DSLR”. You’ll find that the top-selling DSLR camera is less than $500 (at the time of writing this blog). If you’re serious about getting better footage, this would be a great place to start. So what is a DSLR camera, anyway? Well, I’ll save you the technical details, but DSLR stands for “digital single-lens reflex”. What that means for the average consumer is that DSLRs are digital, usually allow swapping lenses, and have a host of features that are digitally controlled by the camera’s software. This makes DSLRs flexible and easy to use.

So what separates high-quality cameras from mediocre ones? There are a host of things, but most notably are things like image sensor size, low-light shooting capabilities, the ability to shoot in multiple frame rates and resolutions, and many more small optimizations. It’s important to remember that an expensive camera in the hands of an amateur, will still look like it was shot by an amateur. You can’t put an average person in a racecar and expect record lap times, and you can’t give an average joe an expensive camera and expect Oscar-worthy footage.

Learn How Your Camera Works

A lot of people seem to think that operating a camera involves little more than pointing it at the subject and pressing the “record” button. While this isn’t untrue, there’s a lot more to it than that. There’s a reason why fancy cameras have a dozen or more little buttons and dials on them. While you don’t have to know what everything on a camera does, if you can get a handle on a few basic settings, it will help you adjust to a variety of situations.

The most important step is learning to stop leaning so heavily on the “auto” feature of your camera. While allowing your camera to make all the decisions for you may grant you a temporary peace of mind, you may not feel the same way when you review the footage and discover that it looks very little like you expected it to. While filming, you may find that your viewfinder or small screen doesn’t do a great job of accurately representing what the footage will actually look like on a computer screen. It’s also important to remember that when your camera is on auto, you’re allowing the small onboard computer to make all the decisions about what the footage should look like. Computers aren’t exactly known for being creative, so they’ll often make bizarre decisions about what the proper settings should be.

For example, if you’re filming a subject in front of a bright source of light, the camera will lower the exposure settings to compensate, which will often make the subject’s face too dark to see well.

So what should you tell it to do instead? Here are the basics:

Frame rate: How many frames are in each second of video (fps)? The standard “cinematic” look is usually 24fps. If you want a smoother look, you can go with 30fps, or if you’re shooting something with a lot of movement like sporting events, you could even go up to 60fps. Higher framerates, like 120fps, are usually reserved for things like slow-motion effects.

Shutter Speed: This is also sometimes called “shutter angle”, but both refer to the same thing. Essentially, for how long is each frame exposed? This setting is more relevant in still photography than video, but can still affect the look of your footage. This setting is a little too complex to get into here, but as good rule of thumb is to set your shutter speed to double your framerate. If your camera only has increments of ten available, then round to the nearest ten. Shutter angle is usually measured in fractions of a second so, 24fps would need a shutter speed of 1/48 ( one 48th of a second), but since most cameras work in intervals of ten, we’d round to 1/50. If you find your footage is too dark or bright, you can always adjust your shutter speed to raise or lower the exposure time to compensate without messing with your footage too much. Remember, since we’re dealing in fractions, less is more. I.E., 1/30 of a second is more exposure time than 1/50 of a second.

Still confused? Then remember, the larger the second number of the fraction is the darker your footage will be and vice versa. So, a shutter speed of of 1/100 would result in darker footage than a shutter speed of 1/30.

Aperture: Ever noticed that little iris inside your camera’s lens (smartphones have only recently started to have these, so yours might not)? The camera’s aperture setting controls how far this iris opens or closes. Aperture settings are measured in something called “f-stops”. A detailed explanation of what that means would take some time, and probably bore you to tears in the process, so let’s stick to layman’s terms. Fortunately, aperture settings are a lot like shutter speed, in that a larger number will result in darker footage than a smaller number. So a setting of f/4 would be brighter than a setting of f/12.

Aperture also has a fun, secondary effect. Ever noticed how professional photography and video often has the subject in focus, but a blurry background? This is known as “depth of field”, and is achieved through use of the camera lens’ aperture settings. Generally speaking, depth of field is achieved by having a wide aperture setting (meaning a lower number). Depth of field isn’t impossible at higher f-stops, but the focus range starts to become so broad that it’s difficult to make anything look blurry. It’s also worth noting that depth of field is not necessarily “better” than having the entire frame in focus. It gives a certain look that’s useful in specific situations, but it won’t magically make your footage amazing if there are other issues present. Furthermore, getting only your subject in focus can be tricky, and a lot of autofocus features struggle to get it right. If you have a higher-end camera, you’ll probably be fine. But don’t expect a cheap camcorder to have quick or accurate autofocus.

Below is some footage I shot that demonstrates this principle well. As I manipulate the focus ring, snow comes into focus at certain distances, but becomes blurry at others.

An example of shooting with a shallow depth of field.

Avoid Common Pitfalls

There’s no avoiding mistakes, no matter how experienced you are. However, there’s no reason you have to make all of those mistakes yourself! Here are a few things that amateur videographers often get wrong:

1. Plan ahead:

Know what you’re going to do before you try to film it. Write a script, or at least some notes, so you know what you’re going to say before you get in front of the camera. People have a tendency to clam up when they’re being filmed, even if they’ve done it before. Somehow, even gifted public speakers seem to get tongue-tied, so don’t expect to nail it on your first try. Think about where and when you’re going to film, what you’re going to say, and whose help you might need. Don’t show up in a public location with no plan and then wonder why your audio is terrible and your footage looks flat and boring. This brings me to my second point:

2. Don’t film outdoors or in public places.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s a time and a place for these locations, but they’re definitely not beginner-friendly. Public locations are difficult due to the lack of control you have over your environment, and noise from crowds or traffic. Outdoors tends to bring similar challenges, with harsh outdoor lighting and lots of noise that’s difficult to deal with. Wind, in particular, is especially annoying to deal with outdoors. If you don’t have microphones with specialized wind covers, you’re likely to hear little aside from the deafening whoosh of the wind as it buffets the mic. Now, you could get specialized equipment to deal with these challenges, or you could simply shoot indoors, where it’s much easier to control your environment.

Learning how to shoot outdoors is a skill well-worth learning for the aspiring videographer. But if you’re a first-timer just looking to make a video for your business, save yourself the hassle.

3. Don’t ignore audio and lighting

In our previous blog post, we mentioned that finding good equipment, like microphones, doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. While owning a lighting setup isn’t practical for most people, something like a microphone can be small and easily stowed away somewhere safely. You may not have a studio to film in, but you can always find something more interesting than a blank, white wall to film against. Maybe you don’t have any lights suitable for filming, but you can probably do better than the fluorescent lighting in the ceiling of your office building. Place a few lamps in the room, or add a splash of color on your backdrop if you own any LED’s or anything else that’s unique or interesting. Try your best to go somewhere quiet and isolated, so you’re not picking up random office noise like doors slamming or people talking in the background. If you can’t afford even a basic microphone for your setup, then at least try to find a room with carpet and some furniture to dampen the reverberation of your voice a bit.

The point I’m trying to make, is put some effort into your videos! Even small things like I’ve outlined above can make a big difference in the overall quality of your video. Your viewers will know that now everyone can afford to hire a professional, but they’ll also be able to tell from a mile away if you’re phoning it in.

Don’t be afraid to create something, but also don’t fall prey to these common amateur mistakes!

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Cover Photo by Seth Doyle on Unsplash