DSLR Video Weekly

This is article #36 in the DSLR Video Weekly series.  If you'd like the whole thing in one shot, check out the book Creating DSLR Video: From Snapshots to Great Shots. Once you get the hang of video, be sure to monetize it by becoming a contributor to Adobe Stock. __________________________________ Low light shooting really pushes your lenses. So, I usually switch to prime lenses in these scenarios. I typically carry a 28mm, 35mm and 50mm prime lens for low light shooting. These are affordable lenses and offer a range of coverage. If I … [Read more...] about DSLR Video Weekly: Changing your f-stop

This is article #35 in the DSLR Video Weekly series.  If you'd like the whole thing in one shot, check out the book Creating DSLR Video: From Snapshots to Great Shots. Once you get the hang of video, be sure to monetize it by becoming a contributor to Adobe Stock. __________________________________ It is essential to first clarify what I mean by low light. Low light does not mean sitting in a room with the shades drawn and the lights off. Low light does not mean a lunar eclipse. Low light means shooting in an environment that has dimmed … [Read more...] about DSLR Video Weekly: The challenges of shooting in low light

This is article #34 in the DSLR Video Weekly series.  If you'd like the whole thing in one shot, check out the book Creating DSLR Video: From Snapshots to Great Shots. Once you get the hang of video, be sure to monetize it by becoming a contributor to Adobe Stock. __________________________________ Let’s continue to explore the skills you’ll need to shoot in different situations. This chapter discusses conditions in which low light levels will pose a challenge. Low light makes focus and exposure difficult. What is low light? You’ll use … [Read more...] about DSLR Video Weekly: Shooting video in low light

This is article #33 in the DSLR Video Weekly series.  If you'd like the whole thing in one shot, check out the book Creating DSLR Video: From Snapshots to Great Shots. Once you get the hang of video, be sure to monetize it by becoming a contributor to Adobe Stock. You’ll remember we discussed earlier of the differences between raw photos and unprocessed video.  Don’t panic, video is a pretty weak medium as far as color fidelity goes.  The compression formats used by your DSLR camera throw away a lot of information.  Unlike raw … [Read more...] about DSLR Video Weekly: Why Do My Photos Look Better in the Same Light than My Videos?

This is article #32 in the DSLR Video Weekly series.  If you'd like the whole thing in one shot, check out the book Creating DSLR Video: From Snapshots to Great Shots. Once you get the hang of video, be sure to monetize it by becoming a contributor to Adobe Stock. When it comes to video, you really want to get the shot as close to right as possible in the camera.  The reasons for this are twofold:  First, rendering color correction filters during editing is relatively time-consuming with video because there are so many frames to … [Read more...] about DSLR Video Weekly: Controlling a Camera in Daylight

This is article #31 in the DSLR Video Weekly series.  If you'd like the whole thing in one shot, check out the book Creating DSLR Video: From Snapshots to Great Shots. Once you get the hang of video, be sure to monetize it by becoming a contributor to Adobe Stock. The sun is generally incredibly useful to photographers, but it can occasionally be annoying. If the sun hits your lens at an undesirable angle, you can end up with spots or flares that ruin a shot. Flares generally take on a geometric shape and may be easy to miss while … [Read more...] about DSLR Video Weekly: Avoiding Lens Flares

This is article #30 in the DSLR Video Weekly series.  If you'd like the whole thing in one shot, check out the book Creating DSLR Video: From Snapshots to Great Shots. Once you get the hang of video, be sure to monetize it by becoming a contributor to Adobe Stock. If you have the benefit of a second set of hands, you might try bouncing the light in your scene by using a reflector—a common photography tool.  This highly reflective flexible disc can be folded into a small size and easily carried.  Keeping a small reflector in your … [Read more...] about DSLR Video Weekly: Bouncing & Diffusing Light

This is article #29 in the DSLR Video Weekly series.  If you'd like the whole thing in one shot, check out the book Creating DSLR Video: From Snapshots to Great Shots. Once you get the hang of video, be sure to monetize it by becoming a contributor to Adobe Stock. When choosing where to shoot your video, you’ll want to give some thought to where you put your subjects.  Try to find a place that is slightly out of direct sunlight, for example, under an overhang or under the shade of a tree or tall building. This will potentially diffuse … [Read more...] about DSLR Video Weekly: Choose Shooting Locations Wisely

This is article #28 in the DSLR Video Weekly series.  If you'd like the whole thing in one shot, check out the book Creating DSLR Video: From Snapshots to Great Shots. Once you get the hang of video, be sure to monetize it by becoming a contributor to Adobe Stock. No matter how good a photographer you are, you can’t completely control the way the sun affects your footage. It moves in your scene (more quickly the closer you are to sunrise or sunset).  It also can vary greatly in quality and quantity.  The longer you’re shooting in … [Read more...] about DSLR Video Weekly: Understanding Sunlight

This is article #17 in the DSLR Video Weekly series.  If you'd like the whole thing in one shot, check out the book Creating DSLR Video: From Snapshots to Great Shots. Once you get the hang of video, be sure to monetize it by becoming a contributor to Adobe Stock. An essential concept in photography is the exposure triangle. Three settings in your camera affect how your camera exposes an image: ISO, aperture, and shutter speed. If you’re used to shooting in Automatic mode, you may have never adjusted these properties. However, … [Read more...] about DSLR Video Weekly: The Exposure Triangle

This is article #11 in the DSLR Video Weekly series.  If you'd like the whole thing in one shot, check out the book Creating DSLR Video: From Snapshots to Great Shots. Once you get the hang of video, be sure to monetize it by becoming a contributor to Adobe Stock. Why Does Video Look Different than a Photo? When you look at the video your camera records, it may not look as clear or rich as the photos you’ve taken with the same camera. The reason for this quality loss is due to many factors that you need to … [Read more...] about DSLR Video Weekly: Why Does Video Look Different than a Photo