While most of us dream of working on a big budget video production, until then, we need to prove ourselves with what we've got. That means a high expectations from whatever budgeted equipment we can afford. Here are some tips and tricks to improve your capabilities.
Knowing all the capabilities of your equipment will guide you out of mistakes and save you plenty frustration if trying to fix them afterwards. At the same time, knowing their strengths might compensate for other weaknesses. It all depends on your creative vision. Here are a few lessons that I recently found during a project which challenged everything I thought I knew.
My Equipment - Canon Legria
A long time ago, I bought a Canon Legria to capture sports moments for videos. I needed to livestream matches and the camera had the capabilities I was looking for at a budget which I can afford.
Capabilities I was looking for
Live Streaming
I knew I would like to livestream sports matches at some point, so YouTube taught me that I'll need an HDMI out with a capture card to send usb-type footage to my laptop. OBS, a free platform would recognize the usb as a webcam and voila, Bob's your uncle.
Getting to grips with all of OBS' capabilities would take some time as some work some of the time while others are added as the program is being developed. Luckily, the basic functions stay the same and are stable enough to create a reliable stream to whatever platform you choose.
Auto Focus
For Sports, especially live action sports, one don't have time to adjust the focus according to the shot that you want. The CMOS auto focus of this camera is brilliant with face detection tools. All you need to do is point and shoot together with a fantastic zoom which frames the action according to your creative instinct.
However, I did find that zooming in and out dramatically causes the camera to loose focus, but that don't look good in livestreams anyway. It's better to use more cameras for additional angles that to do all with one camera. YouTube has plenty editorials on how to add cameras to a stream deck, not that I can afford one yet. My laptop limits my video footage input to three sources, but I rarely use more than two.
Light to Transport
With an expanding range of equipment, I needed to travel light. Larger cameras cost more anyway, I sometimes need to climb up scaffolding for a better view of the match, so the light and easy to carry opt
The one downside about my Canon Video Camera was that its lowlight capabilities is extremely poor. Since I almost exclusive recorded footage outside during daytime, it never bothered me until a client asked me to livestream their rebound session one evening.
It was one of those days when everything seemed to have looked alright, but after looking at the saved footage, I saw that it was nearly useless.
YouTube videos confirmed this about my camera and I started looking at what it would cost to purchase a suitable camera. It was and still is way out of my price range, but a recent project taught me something I thought wasn't possible.
An Exclusive Solution
Generally, photographers frown upon the auto function of any camera. On video cameras, it creates havoc when the conditions change a lot, which tends to people moving in and out of your shot which adjust your focus to unwanted subjects. At the same time, the white balance and exposure jumps around to create an awful colour to work with. The trick is to create order by controlling what happens in your shot even when you don't know what is going to happen.
In studios, everything is under control, but the chances of other creatives who read this having access to studios are little.
I recorded a music performance at night. Exactly the opposite of what my video camera was created for and a similar situation as the rebound livestream which was a disaster. The only difference was that this was only a recording and this time I was going to get paid. So it had to be perfect.
Test footage showed that there was a lot of noise in the shadows, and with the show being at night, there would be a lot of them. YouTube solutions gave me the feeling that night shots should embrace the darkness. If you feel confused, don't worry, I'll explain.
Fighting the environment is an endless uphill battle. If you're going to make a night shot look like a day shot with budget equipment, you're going to have a lot of frustration. Here is what you can do.
Zoom in on the subject
The chances are, the lighting will focus on the subject, or in my case the performing artist. The lights will be set up so that the subject looks good to the audience, not for a video production which is a lot brighter. Zooming in on the subject makes the shot more personal, which is what you want, and helps your camera to focus on the light part. It is a no brainer, the more light there is, the better the camera knows where to focus and eliminate the bystanders who could have walked in and out of the shot.
Darken the shot with more contrast
Darkening the shot with more contrast in post production just enough to highlight your subject and darken everything else. The shot is dramatic, but you can lighten the mood by increasing the temperature. The added bonus is that if people passed between you and the subject, they will be dark shadows and won't draw too much attention from who you're filming.
Other cameras that worked well
Not sure whether this was the perfect setup, but I felt that the gamble paid off well.
I had a pretty good webcam on a tripod at the feet of the artist, looking up at him/ her. I had an extended usb cable which brought the footage to my laptop where I recorded it with OBS together with audio feed from their sound engineer.
I walked around with my Canon video camera to get interesting closeup shots with the employers much more expensive camera recording the safety shot from a neutral position.
This was a gamble, but I purchased a dashcam for b-roll footage. Not knowing yet what the stage would look like, I wanted a camera that was good in low light conditions and stability features if needed. I wanted to place the dashcam between the performing artists in a spot where an audience member would have wished to sit. Normally, the dashcam would need power from a car since the battery wouldn't last very long, but this problem is easily salvaged with a power-bank and a usb charger. The footage was awesome.
My Process - learning to Colour grade
II used to work on Wondershare Filmora. Got pretty good using the free features, but like every other software nowadays, you don't buy a program anymore. You just rent access to use it. At a particularly low cashflow period, I didn't have the funds to renew my yearly subscription, but I was looking at alternatives anyway.
For a few months, I was looking at Davinci Resolve. It is a free program with industry standard colour grading tools. Many of the paid features in Filmora was available on Davinci Resolve for free, so I had to learn the program quickly.
During my YouTube learning process, I found that the footage looked best when graded to REC709, a term I only learned during this period. It is also when I found that my Canon recorded footage in a S-Log format, which I struggled to look good as soon as anything looked slightly under exposed. Davinci Resolve cleared up that problem and impressed me with the clarity that my footage actually had all along.
With my newfound ability to get the colour right, I battled to fight the coloured lights that were swinging across the stage. Later, I decided to embrace the colour changing lights all over the show by just correcting the white balance. The result was a good looking image while the light concentrated on the subject while embracing the mood when the colour changed on the artist's clothes and skin.
Feedback
I'm no expert in videography of photography, but this is what worked with my equipment. Maybe it can sort out one of your challenges. The following articles will revolve around this subject, including sound recording and sports broadcasting. Name something you are struggling with and maybe I've also came across the same challenge.
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