Prevent out-of-focus or shaky videos from ruining your videography project. Knowing how professional videographers solve or eliminate filming challenges will help you significantly improve your footage quality.
eosdoc.com gathered essential information and pro tips on how to improve your videography skills and capture more captivating footage.
What is Videography?
Videography is defined as the practice or art of recording images, events, or actions with a video camera. A Videographer is a person responsible for recording live events or small-scale video productions.
Note: Videographers typically focus on smaller productions like documentaries, live events, short films, weddings, birthday parties, sports events, commercials, corporate events, and professional training videos. Consider the following film tips to help you capture more superior footage:
1. Keep Your Camera Steady
Whenever possible, use a tripod. Refrain from constantly zooming in and out or panning right to left. Ideally, you should record at least 10 seconds of each individual shot in increments. Let the components, people, and action in the frame do the work for you.
Tip: Go completely remote. If your camera has wireless network capability, you can download the corresponding app and control its functions without disturbing the camera’s position.
2. Use Appropriate Lighting
Photography lighting principles should be applied to videography. Always ensure your subjects (people, animals, or objects) are well lit. Consider the following:
- Key lighting is the primary (strongest) light source in a scene or on the actor
- Fill lighting adds dimension and softens any harsh shadows created by the key light
- Backlighting is placed behind the subject or actor to further define their features and distinguish them from the background
Note: When filming outside, avoid putting a subject with their back to the sun or under a shady tree with bright scenery in the background.
3. Frame Your Video Footage
Artistic expression and style often merge when framing your video shoot. However, it is always a safe bet to utilize a standard framing style and apply the rule of thirds from photography. The rule of thirds is explained as:
- An image is divided evenly into thirds, horizontally and vertically
- The image’s subject is placed at the intersection of those dividing lines or along one of the lines itself
Note: In most modern video equipment, these “gridlines” can be turned on and off on the camera’s preview screen.
4. Avoid Zooming for Close-ups
Generally, an image loses quality when you zoom in. When zoomed in, the image will also tend to be shakier, especially on hand-held shots.
Tip: Whenever possible, move your camera position closer to whatever subject you want a close-up of. It will look significantly cleaner, easier to edit, and produce a more professional result.
5. Clean Up the Background
When shooting an interview or a speech, pay close attention to what’s in the background. You can either move your camera to get the best angle, move the subject in front of a more appropriate background, create an entirely new background, or shoot in front of a blue or green screen and add in the background later.
Tip: Always ask yourself if your background supports the story visually. And what could be added or subtracted to create a more impactful message?
6. Close-up, Wide, or Medium
For each scene you shoot, get multiple angles, so you are left with choices in the post-production editing process. Consider the following shots:
- Capture wide-angle shots from multiple perspectives when possible
- Then capture close-up footage of the faces, objects, or action
- Then capture some medium shots of people and objects from a ground-level perspective
Use the 10-second rule for recording each shot.
Tip: In pre-production, visualize the type and duration of the shot(s) you want to be captured and include explicit directions for your videographer to follow in the script.
7. Shoot Enough to Edit
When recording scenes, you’ll want to capture multiple angles and a few “extra shots.” Doing this will leave you with choices when piecing your final cut together. Capturing surplus footage will save you time and effort that may otherwise be spent on reshooting. This also keeps you from settling on subpar/inferior shots that could make your work look rushed and unprofessional.
Tip: When you edit your video, it is recommended to use simple video editing software that you can get accustomed to before moving on to more complicated/professional programs.
Bonus Tip – Study Other Videographers
YouTube videos, movies, TV shows, and commercials are all examples of videography at work. Watch everything you can with intent to determine if they are following the rule of thirds? How are they framing their shots? How are they using their backgrounds? Watch similar videos to what you’ll be shooting and ask yourself what the videographer is doing well and what you could do better.
Videography Tips
In this article, you discovered what videographers do and multiple pro tips on how to significantly improve your skills for capturing higher-quality, more captivating video footage.
Knowing how to capture a more compelling scene and which shots to shoot will help you produce a more professional and coherent video product.
Capturing unusable, out-of-focus, or irrelevant video footage can cause your project to run overtime, over budget, and appear unprofessional if you can even finish it.
Sources:
multimedia.journalism.berkeley.edu/tutorials/video_filming_tips/
brand.uark.edu/visual-media/video_tips.php
platt.edu/blog/video-production-tips-from-pros/
nfi.edu/videography-vs-cinematography/
users.rider.edu/~suler/photopsy/rulethirds.htm