Jerry's 101 Camera Tips
Jerry's CTT 101 stands for "Jerry's Camera Tech Tips 101," click below to visit the starting/main page for this series. Thanks for reading! If you have any questions, leave a comment and I'll be glad to answer!
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How to develop camera skills
One of the most common questions asked in any discipline: how to get better. As a wise man once said, “The best camera you can own is the one that is always on you.” If you always have a camera on you, it means you'll be able to take more shots. This philosophy is true, but may actually hinder you in some cases. Smartphone cameras are so powerful nowadays that they may actually stunt your skills, as the computer chip handles everything for you. When learning to take pictures, try staying away from automatic mode, and use manual or priority modes. You'll learn so much more about the camera. Using a camera on full-automatic mode won't be able to teach you about how to control aperture, ISO, shutter speed, and more.
If you want a fun challenge and want to focus on skills such as composition, a prime lens (aka, no zoom ring, set focal length) can often be a great way to progress quickly. Plus, prime lenses often are cheaper comparative to lens quality.
This a trap that every creator falls into: worrying about gear. It can be a worry that your gear isn't good enough and that you won't be able to get good shots with the gear you have access too, but often, you can create amazing content with what you have access too. One thing's for sure though, if you are part of AMHS Live, you definitely have access to some amazing gear, perhaps even overkill for most scenarios.
Oh, yea… one more thing - Lighting & Audio!
It may seem like lighting and audio don’t have too much in common. And you’d be right! But there’s one thing that is common - these are two of the most important skills to develop. I want to emphasize how important these two are, as they are often overlooked when starting out, beginners often focus on cameras, lenses, but neglect these two areas. Let’s go over lighting first.
Lighting is so important. It can make or break a picture/video. A good place to start is learning 2 point, 3 point, and types of lighting such as Rembrandt.
I don’t think I can fit an entire lighting lesson in a quick tip book, but the best way to learn is to experiment. Get a Styrofoam head or an apple and play with lighting. That’s how you’re gonna remember these skills. Same thing with using full manual mode and remembering setting ratios. If you just read it in a book, you’ll probably forget it in the heat of the moment. Editor’s note: reflectors are really useful. Consider getting one before investing in a light kit.
Audio… one of my worst nightmares. Especially when clients send me audio. Well, here’s a quick rundown.
Use the right mic
Learn about the different uses for shotgun, omnidirectional, and directional mics.
Often though, getting a microphone closer to the sound you are trying to record will provide better audio then spending hundreds on a new microphone. It's much better to have a cheaper microphone in the right position then an expensive one in the wrong position.
Get background noise
With the microphone you will be using and at the same location, be quiet and record a decent amount of ambient noise, around 10-15 seconds. You can use this later in editing to master audio. By getting the background noise, you can use software to effectively suppress the background to emphasize the foreground audio.
Start recording
If possible, get a live feed into a good pair of headphones. This will eliminate finding small issues while editing such as popping, hot audio, etc.
At the very least, make sure you can see the audio level and that not all of the audio bar is in the red.
Always record more than you think you need
Pretty simple, but start recording a couple of seconds before you call the person to start talking. The same goes for video - the extra seconds will save your life when using longer transitions, or just in general. It can be painful to have a great clip and wish it was only a second longer.
And that’s about it! When it comes to editing audio, I’ll go over that in a future audio section. That varies from software to software, so it’ll take a bit more explanation.
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