How to Use Your Mirrorless or DSLR Camera for Recording Videos

1. Introduction: Hi there. It's Thomas George and welcome to this Camera Settings Course for Video Makers. This course is for anyone that has a mirrorless or DS Lar camera and creates videos, but just leaves it an auto and doesn't know how to properly set up the camera to help them make the best looking videos possible. I know riding the manual for these cameras can be a little complex and also a bit dull at times. So I've created this course, you can learn how to quickly and efficiently use your camera for creating videos. I've now made over 1,000 videos online. And in this course, I'll teach you what I've learned over the years on making videos. So you can start using manual mode on your camera and use it to its best ability to help you make great looking videos. In this course, I'll be talking about video resolution, frame rates, aspect ratio, the rule of thirds, shutter speed for video, aperture, ISO white balance lenses, filters and much more. This course is not camera specific, and you should be able to apply the tips and techniques I teach you to any mirilus or DSLR camera. So by the end of this course, you should learn how to get out of auto mode. You should feel a lot more confident making videos on your camera. So we've got a lot of stuff to get through, so let's get started and I'll see you in the first lecture. 2. Video Resolutions: Hi there and welcome to this video where I'm going to be talking about different resolutions for recording videos. So video is made up of a series of photographs or frames per second, and each photo is made up of a series of pixels. A pixel is the smallest unit that a digital image can display on the digital device, and the more pixels we have, the sharper image will be. Common resolutions are four ATP, 72010 TP 14 44 K 5k6k, and eight K. Four ATP is known as standard Definition. However, I'd argue that standard definition nowadays is more like a ten ATP or four K. For four ATP is still known as standard definition. Four ATP has 480 pixels vertically, or the height of the image. Videos are also in a rectangle shape. So horizontally, or the width of the video will actually be more than 480 pixels, most commonly 854 pixels. However, I'll talk about these ratios in a moment. For example, you might see ten ATI on Youtube or other video sites. You'll see it says not I. However, I recommend working on P rather than I, as P will generally give you a better image. This is also for video recording and video playback. Also, these videos on Youtube have a 16 by nine ratio, which means the width will have a ratio of 16 and the height will have a ratio of nine. For example, ten ATP, which is known as full high definition. A ratio of 16 by nine will have 1080 pixels high and 1,920 pixels wide. 720 P, which is known as high definition, will have 720 pixels high and 1,280 pixels wide. Even though a lot of phones, tablets and TV's may not play back higher than ten P or four HD, you may wish to record in a higher resolution, such as 4k5k or even eight K, if your camera allows you to do this. Four K is known as ultra HD and is 3,840 pixels horizontally and 2,160 pixels vertically. It should really be called 2,164 K. As the previous resolutions we looked at name themselves after the vertical pixel amount. Four K is named after the horizontal pixel amount. And the name rounds up to 4,000 pixels, even though it's actually 3,840 pixels wide. Four K is essentially 410 ATP resolutions put together. We can also shoot and four K on most modern smartphones, as well as most modern mirrorless cameras and point and shoot cameras. Okay, so we've looked at four ATP 700 2010 TP and four K. But there are a few more resolutions that are a little less common that you may wish to use. One resolution that I used a lot for Screencast tutorials is 14 40 P. That's because Macbot monitors or screens aren't currently four K. And the highest 16 by nine ratio that you can record these screens at is 2,560 by 1,440 14 40 isn't as sharp as four K, but it'll have more pixels and ten ATP. So it's a good compromise for recording screencast tutorials. However, on a camera it'd be very rare to use or even see the option 14 40 P. When editing though, you could have your project set to 14 40 P and then import four K footage, so you can zoom in and not lose inequality. Let me show you this. Now this project that I'm using is set to 14 40 P, but I'm using four K camera footage. So I can zoom in like this without losing equality. A lot of Youtubers will use this technique. So the video project will be set to ten TP or 14 40 P. Then they can use four K camera footage and zoom in in their video editing software, and not lose quality when they zoom in. Anyways, as I said, 14 40 P is really in between ten TP and four K. We would only really use this resolution when editing videos or recording your computer screen. Some cameras allow you to record five K, six, and even some allow you to record up to eight K, such as the Sony one. Most people won't be able to play back these higher resolutions on their devices, but if you're recording eight K, for example, you could have a four K editing project and zoom in on the software without losing resolution. A Youtube called Ya Poland does this technique, for example, where record is video at eight K, but the actual video exports at four K. So we can zoom in on this editing project without losing any equality. Just be aware though these larger resolution video eclips can get pretty big in size. So a larger resolution isn't always the most convenient. Also, if your computer isn't the fastest, it may struggle when you're editing these larger resolution videoclips. Okay, so that's a really quick overview of video resolutions. I hope you found this video useful, and I'll see you in the next one. 3. Frame Rates: Hi there and welcome to this section where I'm going to explain frame rates for recording videos. So on the camera we can set the frames per second or FPS, as well as the resolution video is a series of photographs which is similar to those flip books that you may have seen before. So we can set how many photographs or frames per second we have with our frame rates. This video that you're looking at right now is shot at 25 frames per second. So 25 still photographs per second. There are other frame rates that I can set my camera to, which are 50 frames per second and 100 frames per second. 25 Fras per second will look natural, but if I change it to, say, five Fras per second, you can see it doesn't look very natural at all. Just to make things a little more complex, we have different frame rates for different locations in the world. If you're in North America, Mexico, Japan, South Korea, and a few more countries, you'll be using NTSC. If you're in Europe, most of Asia and Africa, you'll be using Pal. I recommend finding out if you're in a Pal or NTSC region. I'm in a Pal region, but I'll talk about NTSC two in case you're in NTSC region. The reason we have different frame rates in different locations is to do with lighting. Have you ever filmed the video before and noticed that the lights in the room are flickering on the video? That's often because you have the wrong region selected. This won't normally happen with LED video lights, but it can happen with non video lights. For example, the lights in your room. A lot of cameras may have a default setting that may be different to the country that you're in. So you may need to go into settings and change it from NTSC to Pal, or vice versa. You can see here with this example, when it's in NTSC, we have these flickering lights. But when it's in Pal there are no flickering lights. So we have these different formats due to lighting in these countries. If you're in NTSC region, you have your lights at 60 hertz, and if you're in a power region, you have your lights at 50 hertz. For Pal, the frame rate is 25, which goes into 50. And for NTSC we have 24 30, where 30 goes into 60. I don't want to get too technical of this as this is a beginner's course, but that's why we have NTSC and power regions. So if you use a correct format in your location, then you shouldn't get flickering lights in your video. Pal is a little easier to understand, but let's now talk about NTSC and 24 frames per second. So it's not actually 24 frames per second, it's 23.976 frames per second. The reason for this is that back in the old TV days there was an issue using 24 FPS. So they reduced the frames by 0.1% and this fixed the issue. So they made it 0.1% slower than 24, which is 23.976 This is also the same for 30 FPS in NTSC region, 30 isn't 30, it's 0.1% slower. For the same reason, it's actually 29.97 frames per second. But people around these numbers to 24.30 Also in this course, I'll be saying 24 FPS and 30 FPS, but what I actually mean is 23.976 FBS and 29.97 FBS. So just bear that in mind. So let's now talk about why you might want to use either 24 or 30 FBS in an NTSC region. For example, North America videos with dialogue, So someone speaking, you want to use either 24 or 30 FPS For films or anything cinematic, people usually use 24 FBS, but for sports or the news people normally use 30 FPS. That's because 24 frames per second may not look as smooth as 30 FPS. But they will look more cinematic to our eyes, as this is what Hollywood and the movie industry have been using for a long time and it's what we're used to. Also, for anything a bit more fast paced, like sports or anything that doesn't need to be cinematic, like the news, I recommend recording at 30 FPS. I can't actually show 24 30 FPS because this video is in 25 frames per second. That's because you'll need to record, edit, and publish your video in the same frame rate. So if you want to have a 30 FPS video, then you need to record, edit, and publish a 30 FPS. I also wouldn't recommend using 30 FPS in a power region as you may get some flickering light issues as I mentioned earlier. So it's important to know what FPS you want before you hit record on your camera as 24.30 Mathematically, do not go into each other. If you mix these frames together, you may get some issues. If you put a 24 FPS clip in a 30 FPS editing project, then your video will duplicate some of these frames to compensate, as 24 FPS will have six fewer frames per second. It's also the other way around. If you put a 30 FPS clip in a 24 frames per second project, miss out some of the frames as 30 FPS has six more frames per second than 24. It's not the worst thing, but it will look natural. So again, be aware of your frames per second before you record. You also have 60 frames per second in NTSC region, but I wouldn't recommend this for videos of dialogue. But it can be useful for slow motion footage. Just be aware that the more frames you have, the bigger your file size of your footage as you will be recording more photographs per second. However, for non speaking footage, maybe B roll or an instrumental music video slow motion can look great. If you want to use slow motion, then you will want to record in a higher FBS. What we need to do is record in a higher frames per second and then slow it down in post. In your video editing software for power, we can record at 50 FPS and then have Edison Project of 25 FPS. So we'll need to slow eclipse down by 50% to get natural looking. Half speed slow motion. You may have seen clips in slow motion that look unnatural and don't look smooth. The main reason for this is they don't film in the correct FPS. Let me show you this now. So this footage is at 25 frames per second and at 100% regular speed, it looks fine. But if we slow it down to 50% we only have 12.5 frames per second and it doesn't look smooth at all. If we slow it down to 25% it looks really unnatural. So we need to increase the FBS so that when we slow it down, it still has 25 frames per second and still looks natural. Let's now talk about creating slow motion and using higher frame rates than an NTSC region. For an NTSC region, the higher frame rates you can use will be for a 30 FBS timeline. So 6,120 and all the way up to 240 frames per second. Before you record though, you will need to decide whether you want this footage to be slow motion or not. And what speed of slow motion. The more you slow your footage down, the more you will stretch out the footage. And the more frames per second you'll need. So just remember, the more frames per second recorded, the more you can slow the footage down. In your video editing software, just remember, when you film at higher frame rates, your camera may not film at the highest resolution. You may also need a faster UHS two memory card to film at four K at higher frame rates. For example, my Sony seven S three needs a faster UHS two memory card to record four K at 100 FPS, but it can record with a UHS one memory card at four K at 50 Fras per second. So you will need to check to see if your camera and memory card is capable of filming high frame rates with higher resolutions. So you might be thinking, why did it just film everything at a high FPS amount? Then you have the option of slowing it down or not. However, if you have too many frames per second in your footage, then you will lose a lot of that natural motion blur. Remember, we will use the high FPS footage and slow it down to 25 FPS in a power region or 30 FPS in NTSC region. So if I film this footage at 100 FPS, you can see it doesn't look too natural. We've lost a lot of that natural motion blur and we can see too much of the movement. Let's swap this back to 25 frames per second. And you can see the natural motion blur in the movement, which looks more like what our eyes will see. For example, if I wave my hand in front of my face. Or if we look at a moving fan, you can see there's a bit of natural motion blur. And we really want to have this in our videos for them to look natural. So that's why I recommend having your final video at either 24, 25 or 30 FPS. Okay. So this section has been an overview, our frame rates. I hope you find this section useful and I'll see you in the next one. 4. Aspect Ratios: Hi there and welcome to this video where I'm going to give you a brief overview of aspect ratios. I did briefly mention aspect ratios in the resolution video, but I'll go into more detail now. So the most common aspect ratio for videos online is 16 by nine. This is what the Youtube player uses, for example. So horizontally or the width is 16, and vertically, or the height is nine. So ten ATP has 1,920 pixels wide and 1080 pixels high. When we use a 16 by nine ratio. Also four K has a width for 3,840 pixels and the height of 2060 pixels. When we use 16 by nine, there are a few other aspect ratios that aren't as common as 16 by nine. It may have a use for them at some point in your video production journey. We have the widescreen aspect ratio. This is 2.35 horizontally by one vertically. This aspect ratio is very common for movies or films that are shown at the cinema. So using this aspect ratio can give your videos a cinematic look as this aspect ratio is what people are used to from watching movies at the cinema. So if you want to use this aspect ratio for online videos on sites like Youtube and not at the cinema, what you need to do is add black bars above and below your footage in your video editing software. Okay, so now let's talk about the four by three aspect ratio. This is actually an older one and it's four horizontally by three vertically. This three by four aspect ratio can be useful if you want to give your footage a vintage feel or throw back feel. Also, if you're making your footage grainy or black and white, you could also use this aspect ratio to add to that vintage feel. Also, if you choose this aspect ratio than this, we'll add black bars on the side of your footage. So 16 by nine is actually in between 2.3 51.4 by three, which is why I believe it was chosen as a new standard as it's in between widescreen 2.351 and the older four by three. We also have vertical video aspect ratio two, which is a more modern aspect ratio and comes from smartphones and social media apps. This vertical aspect ratio is useful for short video clips and for applications where people scroll through their news feed to find videos on their smartphone. I believe these vertical videos can be useful to get views on short videos. But I personally want to have a four movie or even a music video with this vertical aspect ratio. But as technology progresses and more people use smartphones on social media sites to consume videos, maybe vertical videos could be used for longer videos. Okay, so to summarize, generally I'd recommend using the 16 by nine aspect ratio. You may wish to consider the 2.351 for that cinematic fill for your video, or even the four by three for an old fashioned vintage field for your video. You may also wish to consider using vertical videos two for certain social media platforms. Just be aware of what aspect ratio you wish to use before you record so you don't crop out any important part of your image or adjust your aspect ratio and your video editing software after you film your video. Okay, so that's the end of this video. Thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next one. 5. The Rule of Thirds: Okay, so in this video I'm going to be talking about the Rule of Thirds. Learning how to use the Rule of thirds can help you compose your shots. So the rule of thirds applies to photography, but we can also apply it to certain videos, including documentaries, films, and also Youtube videos. It's easiest to think about the rule of thirds by looking at a grid. Most cameras also allow you to display a grid which can help you compose your shots. You may wish to turn off this grid as most of the time it may be distracting, especially if you're one person video maker and it's you present in the videos. But if you need to photography or videography, I do recommend leaving this on for now to help you understand the rule of thirds. So the grid has two vertical lines and two horizontal lines, each spaced evenly apart. Let's now have a look at a shot where I've used this grid to help me set up this shot. Here we can place a subject on one of these vertical lines and this can look pleasing to the eye. Artwork and photography also uses this rule. If there are two subjects, then we can place each onto one of the vertical lines. You can also adjust or corrupt your video in your video editing software to apply the rule of thirds. But I do think it's better to set up correctly beforehand as zooming in on your footage and your video editing software may ruin the quality of your footage. This is just a general rule though, and you don't always have to follow the rule of thirds. However, for an interview, podcast or documentary, I would normally follow the rule of thirds. Okay, so that's a brief description of the Rule of Thirds. I hope you find this video useful, and I'll see you in the next one. 6. The Exposure Triangle Introduction and Light Meter: Okay, so for recording videos and also taking photos, we want to be able to properly expose our image or it can look too dark or too bright. We can adjust exposure and video editing software, but it's always best, in my opinion, to properly exposure image before you hit record. And we can expose our image by using the exposure triangle. The exposure triangle consists of aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. I'll be covering these in detail in the next few videos as understanding the exposure triangle and knowing how to properly exposure image is an essential part of videography and photography. So to properly exposure shot, I do recommend using manual mode for everything on your camera except maybe auto focus this way. If you use manual settings, then all of these settings will be fixed and things won't change throughout your video. So to record the best possible video, I do recommend getting away from those auto settings or modes on your camera. Some of these auto settings or modes can be useful for photography, but for video, I do recommend switching your camera over to manual mode before we look at the exposure triangle. It's also important to know that most solars and mirrorless cameras will have a light meter, which can often help you properly expose your image. If the number is above zero, then your image will be overexposed or too bright. If the number is below zero, then your image will be underexposed and too dark. Okay, so now let's have a look at the free areas of the exposure triangle starting with shutter speed. As I believe this is the most important one for recording videos. 7. Shutter Speed for Video: Hi there and welcome to this video where I'm going to explain shutter speed for recording videos. So when we talk about shutter speed, we're talking about the electronic shutter that opens and closes to that light into your camera. And the shutter speed is how long that electronic shutter is open for. The shutter speed is measured in fractions of a second. A shutter speed of one 50th, for example, means the electronic shutter will be open for one 50th of a second. A shutter speed of 1100 means the shutter will be open one 100th of a second. Also, the lower you set your shutter speed, the more light that will be let into each frame, and the brighter your image will be. So you have a brighter image with a lower shutter speed and you'll have a darker image with a higher shutter speed. When you lower your shutter speed, this means the electronic shutter will be open for longer. And this allows your camera not only to let a more light for each frame, but also introduces more motion blur. So if you have a really slow shutter speed, let's say one tenth of a second, and you're filming at 25 frames per second, you have a lot of motion blur whenever there's any movement in your video. However, if you have a much higher shutter speed, let's say 1200 of a second, then there will be a lot less motion blur. If your shutter speed is too low, then things will look slow and choppy. But if your shutter speed is too fast and things will look too crisp and unnatural for our video to look natural, we want to make sure there's some motion blur when we use a shutter speed that's double the frame rate number. This will give us motion blur similar to what our I see in real life. We should be able to change the shutter speed of a dial on the Mirrelus or DSlar camera. I'll show you now how to change this on Sony seven S three. But changing the shutter speed on other Mils or Sl cameras should be very similar. You can see here when they move this dial, the shutter speed changes. Just remember though that shutter speed for video is different to the shutter speed for photography. In photography, you can adjust your shutter speed to help properly expose your image. However, when filming videos, you want to have your shutter speed double your frames per second number to help you achieve natural motion blur. If you're filming a video at 25 frames per second, you want to have your shutter speed at one 50th to give you a nice blend of sharpness and motion blur. However, if you're in NTSC region such as North America and you're filming at 24 frames per second, then I recommend setting your shutter speed at one 50th of a second. Of course, double 24 is 48. However, most cameras won't allowed to choose one 48th of a second. And one 50th will still be fine. If you're in NTSC region and you're filming at 30 frames per second, then you want to choose one 60th of a second for your shutter speed. If you're filming in a higher FPS, let's say a power region at 50 Fras per second, then your shutter speed needs to be on 100. And if you're in an NTSC region at 60 Fras per second, the shutter speed needs to be on 120. However, it does come down to your stylistic choices on what kind of videos you want to make. For a creative effect, you may wish to have a different shutter speed amount, but for a natural looking video, you want to have it double your FPS. Okay? So once we've set our shutter speed, we don't really want to change it unless we're going to be changing our frames per second. Okay, so that's a brief overview of shutter speed for video. Thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next one. 8. Aperture: Hi there and welcome to this video where I'm going to be talking about the next part of the exposure triangle which is aperture. Aperture allows us to control how much light enters our camera and also allows us to control the depth of field of our shot or how blurry we have, the background of the shot. Adjusting the aperture allows us to adjust the hole in the lens. This is where the light travels in and hits the sensor of our camera. Aperture basically affects how much light hits the sensor of the camera. Cameras are designed like the human eye. In the eye, we have the iris, which controls the size of the pupil from shrinking and expanding. The aperture is essentially the pupil. The larger the pupil, the more light will fall onto the retina. And the larger the aperture of the lens, the more light that will enter the camera. In videography and photography, aperture is measured in F stops. F stops describe how open or closed the aperture is. The smaller the F stop number, the wider the aperture, and the more light will get let into the lens and into the camera. The larger the F stop number, the smaller the aperture, and less light will get let into the lens and into the camera. For example, 1.8 will have a larger aperture than 11.1 0.8 will let in more light than 11. The aperture also affects the depth of field for your image. This is the area for image that's in focus. A narrow or shallow depth of field means you have a small area of your image and focus a wide depth of field means you have a large area for image and focus. A large aperture or small F stop number such as 0.8 will have a small area of the image and focus and will have the foreground and background outer focus. This could be useful for isolating the subject or for getting a blurry background effect. Also, if you want to get a blurry background effect, the subject will need to be far from the background and you'll need to use a low F stop number. However many kit lenses, which the lenses that come with the camera, may only have a maximum aperture of 3.5 for example. This really isn't enough to get that blurry background effect most of the time. It's also normally the more expensive lenses that open up to a wider aperture, such as F 1.81 0.4 or 1.2 something between the F 1.2 to 2.8 could be used to isolate the subject to get that blurry background effect. For this shot you're looking at right now, I'm using F 1.8 Any more than this, say F 1.4 or F 1.2 there may not be enough of my face and focus. For example, it may put my ears out of focus when the camera focuses on my eyes. As F 1.2 or 1.4 does give a very shallow depth for field. For a talking head video like this, I do recommend around F 1.8 if you want to get a narrow depth for field, but still have the facial features and focus. For many years though, I did use a lens that had a maximum aperture of F 2.8 which was fine also, but the background wasn't quite as blurry. I also needed to properly expose my image with more light, or a higher ISO number, as using a low F stop number like F 1.8 or let in more light to the camera, say F 2.8 Which means if you're using a high F stop number or a low aperture, then you may need more light in the room. Or you may need to apply more ISO to properly expose the image. Iso is digital lights, and with higher amounts it can introduce noise or grain toy image. Generally, you want to use a low ISO number. However, I will be talking about ISO in detail after these aperture videos. Also, just be aware that you don't always need to use a low F stop number to get a good shot. You may wish to decrease your aperture or use a high F stop number if you want to get more of your background in focus. This could be useful if you have multiple people in the shot in different places. Or if you film in landscapes where you want a wide depth of field for your shot. Even for sports, for example. If there are multiple people in the so that are not standing next to each other and you want to get them in focus, you may wish to use a high F stop number or a lower aperture. For example, we could decrease the aperture to say, 22 to get more of the background in focus. As we use a lower F stop number, you'll notice the background becomes less in focus. If you want the background to be in focus, I recommend using a smaller aperture or a higher F stop number such as 22 to get a wider depth of field. Okay? So now let's have a look at an example. Here I'm shooting with the ISO in auto, so I can quickly change the aperture and it will properly expose the image. Also, the shutter speed is at one 50th, because I'm shooting at 25 frames per second. And we want to have the shutter speed double the frames per second number. Also, right now, the F stop number is 5.6 and you can see some of the background in the distance. It's not completely in focus, but we can still see it's there. Let's now increase the aperture to 2.8 and you can see it really blurs a background, isolates the subject. Even at 2.8 we still get a really blurry background because the subject is far away from the background. Let's now increase the aperture to 1.8 which is the lowest F stop number for this lens. And you can see here, it really blurs the background with this high aperture setting. Let's now decrease the aperture to a much smaller aperture. Let's choose F 22. And you can see now a lot more of the backgrounds and focus. If you're going to be near the background, it may be difficult to get that blurry background effect even if you open up the aperture wide. As I said before, if you want that blurry background effect, I recommend having the subject far away from the background. If you're going to be shooting indoors and you're in a small room and you want that blurry background effect, I recommend using a lens that opens up wide, maybe around 1.8 However, if you're outside or somewhere like this, where the subject is far away from the background, you can blur the background out with an aperture like this, which is 2.8 okay. So that's aperture. And it allows you to affect how much light hits the sensor of your camera and also the depth of field for your image. Thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next one. 9. ISO: Hi there and welcome to this video. I'm going to be talking about ISO or ISO, shutter speed and aperture control, the amount of light that enters your camera, and ISO is essentially a digital light that you can use to help properly expose your image. Before digital cameras, you would have film, and the film would have numbers on the box such as 100,200.400, which were the ISO numbers for the film. These ISO numbers still apply to the digital world, but now there's a lot more numbers available on your digital camera. Most digital cameras will have a base level ISO of maybe 8,100 or 200. And that's ideally where we want our ISO to be to get the best possible image. So, for example, ISO 100 is a low ISO amount and has a low sensitivity to light. Depending on the conditions though, we can't always use the base level ISO, or the image or video may be underexposed or too dark. I recommend first adjusting your aperture to try and properly expose your image. Remember though, when recording videos, we don't want to adjust the shutter speed, as this needs to be double the frames per second after adjusting your aperture, if the image is still underexposed, that recommend increasing your ISO. However, when you increase your ISO, you're basically adding digital light to your image. Using a high ISO can be useful if you're recording in a dark room or if you're recording at night. But increasing your ISO does have some side effects and the main one is digital noise. This is something that you will introduce when your ISO number is too high. And the higher the ISO number, the more digital noise you'll have in your image or video. And digital noise can make your image look grainy. Higher ISO values will also decrease the color accuracy and the dynamic range of your colors. So just bear that in mind too when using higher ISO amounts. However, you do really need to experiment with your camera and see how high you can push your ISO without damaging the quality of your image. Some modern mirrless cameras allow to increase your ISO quite high, with only a small amount of noise, especially compared to, say, a phones camera. That's because of the size of the sensor. The sensor on the phones camera is much smaller than the sensor on a DSLR or mirrorless camera. Basically, a larger sensor can handle higher ISO's better than the smaller sensor can. Generally speaking, the bigger the sensor, the larger ISO number can go without the image looking too noisy. So, when doubling the ISO 100-200 the camera needs half the amount of light for the same exposure. And this brings me on to stops, which I'll quickly mention now. So, you'll notice a pattern here, 200, it's double 100, 400, it's double 200, 800, it's double 400, and so on and so forth. Going from one of these numbers to the next, it's called a stop, and stops work in doubles and halfs. Increasing one ISO stop will double the ISO number and will half the amount of light needed to properly expose our image. So going down a stop, 200-100 this will half the ISO and we need to double the amount of light to properly expose our image. Stops also apply to shutter speed and aperture. You should be able to change ISO with a dial or using a button or scroll wheel with your camera. Let me show you how to do this on my Sony seven S three, but if you're using a different camera, it should be very similar to this. Okay, so now let's have a look at a few different ISO examples. As I mentioned before, generally you want to have your ISO as low as possible, so that get the least amount of noise and allows you to get the highest quality image or video possible. However, that's not always possible. There are situations where you may need to increase the ISO. For example, ISO's may be needed for slow motion or higher frames per second footage, as you will need to increase your shutter speed. When you increase your shutter speed, your image will get darker. And if you can't increase your aperture anymore, or if you don't want to increase your aperture, then you may need to increase your ISO to properly expose your image if it's too dark. For example, this footage here. I've increased the frames per second to 100. I've increased the shutter speed to 1200 of a second. I've also increased the aperture to 1.8, which is the highest it can go with this lens. Now, to properly expose the image, I will need to increase the ISO as the image is currently underexposed and too dark. Also, if you're filming at night and you don't have any video lights with you, then you may need to increase your ISO to properly expose your image as there's just not enough light. Also, if you're filming in a room that's dark or not properly lit, even when you increase your aperture to the maximum amount, the image may still be underexposed. Again, we may need to increase the ISO to properly expose the image. However, if you're recording a Talking head video, like the one I'm doing right now, I do recommend using some video lights, or at least sitting opposite window, so you get some natural light. So you don't need to increase your ISO number too much, as, again, it can add noise to your image. But if you're recording in a location where you can't control the light, increasing your ISO can help you properly expose your image. So here we're in a well lit room, and this image is properly exposed. The aperture is at the highest it can go through this lens, which is 1.8 The shutter speeds at 01:50 of a second, which are double aprons per second, as I'm recording, at 25 FPS. You can see here the ISO is at 100. But if I turn off the video lights, you can see the image isn't properly exposed anymore and we need more light. So, let's increase the ISO. And you can see now the image is properly exposed. However, in situations like this, you may wish to turn up the video lights and decrease your ISO, because as I said, adding too much ISO can add noise tore image. Let's now have a look at an example outside where we can't control the light, okay? So now outside and it's very bright, even when the ISO is at the base ISO, the image is overexposed. In situations like this, we may need to lower the aperture to properly expose the image, or use an end filter. So if you don't want to lose that shallow depth of field by decreasing your aperture, you may wish to use an ND filter. This is basically like sunglasses for your camera to help you properly expose your image. I also recommend using a variable ND filter, which means you can select how dark you want your ND filter to be. This can be really useful when recording videos outside, as every situation can be different. However, I will be talking about ND filters in detail later on in this course. Okay, so let's have a look at another example. So here we're outside again. And for this shot I want to have a wide depth of field. Because I want the viewer to be able to see the trees as well as the subject. So we need to decrease the aperture to get a wider depth of field. But this will let in less light and we'll make our image darker. Now, we need to increase the ISO to properly expose the image again, ideally you want to be shooting at your base level ISO. But there are situations where you may need to increase your ISO. Remember, increasing your ISO may add some digital noise. Also, the larger the sensor, the better it can handle high ISO values. Which is why investing in a good camera with a large sensor can really help in low light situations. Okay, so that's ISO. I hope you find this video useful, and I'll see you in the next one. 10. PAL Region Downloadable Guide/Cheatsheet: Okay, so now let's have a look at this Videography settings guide. Created this so you can quickly look at what type of video you want to make and just see the basic settings for it here. And you can download this PDF as a downloadable resource in the Project and resources tab of this class. I'm going to be covering the frames per second on the camera. The frames per second for the editing project and export, and also the shutter speed. I won't be covering other settings like aperture and white balance, as these can vary depending on the situation and what you need. Okay, so now let's have a look at power region. This includes most of Western Europe, China, some parts of Africa, India, Australia, New Zealand, and some more countries too. Let's first look at normal speed video with dialogue or speaking. You will need to set 25 frames per second on your camera. Then you also want 25 frames per second on your Edson project, and also exports as we're filming in 25 frames per second. We want the shutter speed to be double this number, so we need to use one 50th of a second for the shutter speed. Now let's have a look at the settings that you might want to use. If you want to create slow motion video for 50% slow motion, you will need to double the frames per second number. We'll need to use 50 frames per second on the camera. In our editon project, we will be using 25 frames per second. And then we will slow the footage down 50% in our video editing software. And to achieve natural looking motion blur, to have the shutter speed double the frames per second number. For this the shutter speed needs to be at 1100 of a second. Okay, so now let's have a look at 25% slim motion or quarter speed. As this is quarter speed, we need to times the frames per second by 425 times four. So we're going to choose 100 frames per second. However, we're still going to keep a 25 Fras per second editing project and export. And in our video editing software, we're going to change the footage to 25% Then to achieve natural looking motion blur, we're going to have the shutter speed double the frames per second number, so we're going to have 1200 of a second for the shutter speed. There's some essential settings for recording videos in the power region. Thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next one. 11. NTSC Region Downloadable Guide/Cheatsheet: Okay, so now we're going to have a look at my Videography Chi, chi, or Settings Guide for NTSC region, which you can download as a PDF in the project and resources tab of this class. An NTSC region includes most of North America, parts of South America, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, and the Philippines. If you're in a power region, feel free to skip this video as it won't be applicable to you. Okay, so in the NTSC region, we actually have 24 fragns per second and 30 frames per second. But let's first have a look at 24 fragns per second. So use this for any videos with dialogue or speaking, they want to look cinematic. I recommend choosing 24 fragns per second on the camera, and then also 24 fragns per second in your editing project and also export. And then you want to have your shutter speed double the frames per second number. But on most cameras you can't choose one 48th of a second. And the closest will be one 50th of a second for your shutter speed, which will still look fine. Okay, then we have the other type of normal speed video with dialogue, and that is 30 frames per second. This will look smoother than 24 frames per second, and this frame rate will result in smoother feeling footage, and it's typically used for sports concerts, live broadcasts, and also soap operas. For this, you want to choose 30 FPS on your camera and also 30 FPS on your Editon, project and export. And then you want to have your shutter speed double the FPS, number one, 60th of a second. Okay, so now let's have a look at the settings. If you want to create slow motion in creating slow motion in NTSC region, we're going to be using a 30 FPS editing project for creating 50% slow motion or half speed. We want to double our frames per second, so we're going to choose 60 frames per second on the camera. Then as I said, we're going to have a 30 FPS editing project and also a 30 FPS export. Then for your shutter speed, I recommend choosing 120th of a second or 125th of a second if your camera does not have 120th of a second. Okay, now we're going to look at creating 25% slow motion or quarter speed for this, again we're going to be using a 30 FPS editing project and export. So our frames per second will be four times this number, so we're going to choose 120 frames per second. Then we're going to have our shutter speed double this frames per second number, 240th of a second or 250th of a second if your camera does not have 240th of a second. Okay, so that's my videography settings guide in the NTSC region. Thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next one. 12. White Balance: Hi there and welcome to this video where I'm going to talk about white balance. White balance allows you to tell your camera what pure white is on a camera. We will have an auto white balance setting, and this is where our camera is taking the educated guess, which can be okay. But often our eyes can be better for setting the white balance. You may also not want to use auto white balance if you want to make your shot a bit more creative or if you want to make your shot a bit warmer or cooler. Looking also light from a candle, for example, will be a different temperature than the blue sky. We can look at the light source as warm or cool, and standard daylight will be neutral, white color. We set our white balance by choosing a temperature of light, which is measured in Kelvins or Kelvin units. The lower the Calvin number, the warmer the light, and the higher the Calvin number, the cooler the light. For example, 2,500 K or Klvins will look warm or orange, and 6,500 K will look cool or blue. On average though, light will be 2000-10 thousand klvins. You may notice that light bulbs in your house have a Kelvin number. Light bulbs often have a pretty warm or orange color and are normally around 3,000 K. Led lights may be around 5,000 K to 6,000 K, and the light will look a lot whiter compared to most standard light bulbs. If we want our light source in our shot to appear true white, then we need to adjust our white balance to the same Calvin number as the light in the shot. So, if you're using video lights set to, say, 5,500 K, then we need to set the white balance on a camera, also to 5,500 K for the white color in the shot to be true white. However, if we change our video lights to 3,000 K, or if we're shooting in a room of light bulbs that are 3,000 K, then we will need to set the white balance on a camera to 3,000 K to achieve true white and to match the color temperature of the light in the room. But if you're in a room that's slit with lights that have a temperature of 3,000 K, and you set your white balance to 6,000 K. Then the camera will think true white is 6,000 K, so anything below 6,000 K will appear to be warm and may give your shot a warm or orange glow. Let's say it's the other way around. So you set your camera's white balance to 3,000 K, and you're in a room where a light source is 6,000 K. This shot will now look cooler and will give a blue glow. This might be fine for a creative effect or if you want your shot to look warm or cool. But if you want your shot with true white, do you need to make sure your camera's temperature matches that of a light source in your location? It's also useful to set your white balance different to a light source of your location If you wish to create a cool or winter scene, or if you wish to create a warm or summer scene for creative effects, the white balance doesn't need to be exactly the same as a light source. However, I do think it's important to think about your scene before you hit record. Do you want your shot to have a true white look or do you want it to look cooler or warmer? Let's now talk about auto white balance some more with some examples. I don't recommend using auto white balance when there's a fire or candle in the shot with a person. That's because auto white balance may set the white balance for the person in the shot, which can make the flame look unnatural. This is because fire gives off a warm orange glow, which is around 2,100 Kelvins. If the auto white balance is set to say, 5,000 Kelvins, then this will get rid of a lot of the orange glow in the shot, and we'll make it look unnatural. We can adjust the color temperature in post, and if you record it in raw, then you can adjust the white balance in post. However, it's not always ideal to record and raw as it will be a larger file and you may need to convert this footage. Okay. So for the best results, I recommend setting your white balance as close as what you want before you hit record to help you achieve the best possible shots. Auto white balance is getting better. But I still recommend using manual and setting the white balance yourself. Also, your camera may come with different presets for white balance. But again, I think it's best to use manual and to set the temperature of your white balance so you can set it just how you like it. We do really want to get away from auto and presets and learning that intern outs and your camera and videography can really help you create a better video. Okay, so that's white balance. Thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next one. 13. Different Types of Camera Lenses: Okay, so now let's talk about the different types of camera lenses that you might want to use for shooting videos or taking photos. The first lens you'll probably come across is a kit lens. When bind your camera, it may come of a kit lens or if it doesn't come of a kitlens, it'll say body only. If you have the kitlens included, then you may have to pay more than just having the body only. A kit lens isn't the best, but it may be okay if you're a beginner and you're just starting out with videography or photography. If you want a more professional set up, then you probably don't want to use the kit lens. In most cases, a kit lens will be a variable aperture zoom lens. This means when you zoom in or out on the kitlens, the maximum aperture or lowest F stop number will change. For example, if the kit lens is 18 to 55 millimeter, 3.5 to 5.6 When you zoom out all the way to 18 millimeter, the lowest F stock number will be 3.5 But if you zoom in all the way, the lowest F stop number will be 5.6 So with a variable aperture zoom lens, when you zoom in, the aperture settings will change. This might be okay if you're taking photos and you're using auto ISO for example. But if you want to film video and you're using manual settings and you want to zoom in and out with this lens, then this may not be ideal, as the aperture settings will change when you zoom in with a variable aperture lens. The kit lens will also start with quite a low aperture such as 3.5 If you want to let it more light and get that blurry background effect, then this F stock number may be a little too high. And you may wish to consider a lens that allows you to have a higher aperture amount. This is where you might want to consider a lens with a lower F stock number. And if you want to zoom lens, you may wish to consider a fixed aperture zoom lens. A fixed aperture zoom lens will have the same lowest F stock number when you zoom in and when you zoom out. A good common fixed aperture zoom lens is a Sony Master 2,472.8 This will have a maximum aperture of 2.8 from 24 70 millimeters. Fixed aperture lenses will be more expensive than variable aperture lenses, but generally they'll be more suitable for professionals as the aperture is fixed and they have the same lowest F stop number. There will also be heavier than kit lenses as they will have more glass. Okay, so that's kit lenses and zoom lenses. Next let's have a look at prime lenses. Prime lenses have a fixed focal length, which means you can't zoom in or out with these lenses. Prime lenses though, will often have a lower F stop number than most zoom lenses and will go all the way down to 1.2 prime lenses do tend to give a sharp image than zoom lenses, and often smaller and lighter than zoom lenses. They are smaller and lighter as there is fewer moving parts in these types of lenses. Prime lenses are at different price points, but many manufacturers will have a set of inexpensive prime lenses that can be great for beginners. I'm actually using a prime lens right now. This is a Sony 35 millimeter, 1.8 The main disadvantage of using a prime lens is you can't zoom in. They're out. So there may not be ideal for situations like filming sports or somewhere where you can't control where the subject will go and where you can't physically follow them In a studio environment like where I am now, where I'm not going to be moving from this spot. I would use a prime lens as they do give a sharper image and have a lower F stop number than most zoom lenses. Okay, so that's prime lenses. Next let's talk about some other types of lenses. These are less common than the ones I've already talked about, but you may wish to use them for some things every now and again. The first is a macro lens. These tend to be prime lenses and allow you to focus on something that's very close to the camera. These might be useful for filming insects or closets for product photography or videography. For example, a non macro lens will not focus when you get really close to the subject. But a macro lens allows you to get really close to the subject and still keep in focus. The next type of lens is a telephoto lens. This could be a zoom lens, something like a 70 to 200 millimeter or even a 200 to 600 millimeter. These types of lenses allowed to zoom in a lot. This could be useful for sports or wildlife where you want to be far away from the subject and you don't want to get too near the subject. Also, when you zoom in on a telephoto lens, it will actually compress the image and can look more flattering at times. You can also get prime telephoto lenses, but these weren't allowed to zoom in or zoom out. Telephoto lenses can also be used for portrait photography. Often the focal length, 70-90 millimeters, can look great for photographing the human face. Next is wide angle lenses. This could be a zoom lens, something like a ten to 18 millimeter. A wide angle lens could also be a prime lens, something like a 15 millimeter. These types of lenses could be useful if you want to get a lot of things in shot. Maybe a landscape for example. Wide angle lenses can also be useful for blogs or selfie videos. So you can hold the camera at arm's length and film yourself and still get all of your head and shoulders. In shot however, you will tend to get some warping when the focal length is less than 24 millimeters. So it can look a little strange recording a person's face with anything less than 24 millimeters, this could be useful as a creative effect or for landscapes and scenery. However, I don't recommend a wide angle lens. If you want any natural looking shots of people, then it's fisheye lenses. These are even more extreme than wide angle lenses and have extreme curvature on the edges. These tend to be prime lenses and we're very popular with skateboarding videos, so the videographer could follow the skateboarder with this wide angle shot and get them doing the trick on a skateboard and get it all in shot. These lenses might also be useful for creative effects, but I personally wouldn't use them as just too much warping for anything that I'd want to film. Okay, so that's some other types of lenses. Thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next one. 14. Focal Lengths: Okay, so now let's talk about focal lengths of lenses and why there might be useful. Standard lenses have a focal length 35-70 millimeter. The focal length number tells us how zoomed in or out the lens will be. The higher the number, the more zoomed in, and the lower the number, the more zoomed out and the wider the shot. A zoom lens will actually have two numbers. For example, 24, 70 millimeter. This means the more zoomed out or the widest the shot will be is 24 millimeters. And the more zoomed in it will be is 70 millimeters. If you just have one number on your lens, then it'll be a prime lens. For example, 55 millimeters. If you want a slightly wider shot, then you may wish to consider something like a 24 millimeter. This could be useful if you have a tight space shooting street photography or landscapes. A more general purpose focal length may be 35 millimeter, which is what I'm using right now. I use this focal length as it looks natural and doesn't warp any of my features. But still allows me to get a bit more of the background and shot. So if you're in a tight space, but you still want the subject to look natural and you also want some of the background and shot. Then the 35 millimeter should be good for portraits. Around 50 to 55 millimeter will often be used, as this is the similar focal length to what I see and will look very natural. Okay, so that's a quick overview of focal Lmps. Thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next one. 15. Thread Sizes and Lens Mounts: Okay, so now let's talk about Fred sizes and lens mounts. If you want to get ND filter or polarizing filter, then you need to know what fred size your lens is. However, this isn't the same number as your focal length on your lens. You will see a small circle with a line through it. And this is your lens fred size. For example, this lens here has a focal length of 35 millimeters, but the fred size is 55. So just make sure you're aware of this before purchasing any filters for your camera lens. You also get stepper rings which allows you to put a larger filter onto a smaller lens. You also need to be aware of what type of lens you can use with your camera. Different lens manufacturers may not fit on your camera. For example, a Canon lens will not fit on a Sony camera. You can get lens mounts for mirrorless cameras, which allow you to use different lenses from different manufacturers on your camera. You can also get third party manufacturers which make lenses for different manufacturers such as Sigma, which can be a great option too. Also, just be aware that not all lenses from the same manufacturer will work on your camera. For example, just because you have a Canon camera doesn't mean all Canon lenses will work with your camera. For example, you need to see if your camera is a mirrors or DSLR camera and make sure you get the correct lens for it. You also get different lenses for crop sensor cameras and for full frame cameras. So I recommend doing your research before you get any new lenses to make sure they will work with your camera correctly. Okay, so that's the end of this video. Thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next one. 16. ND Filters: Okay, so now let's talk about filters for your camera lens. Let's first talk about ND filters, which stands for neutral density filter. These are basically sunglasses for your lens and will make your image darker. So an ND filter will juce the amount of light going into your lens and hitting your sensor. It's an essential piece of equipment if you're going to be filming videos outside. Some cameras like the Sony Z V One do have a built in end filter, but most cameras will not have one. Built in An end filter is not as necessary for photography, but it's definitely something to have in your kit bag if you plan to film videos outside. Let me explain exactly why you need one for recording videos outside. So when you film videos, you want to make sure your shutter speed is double your frame rates. Let's say we record at 25 frames per second. Now shutter speed needs to be one 50th. This number is fixed. But we can adjust our ISO and aperture. The lowest ISO for most cameras is maybe 80 or 100. If we set our aperture to the lowest F stop number, for example, 1.8 then image may be overexposed, as there's a lot of natural light when we film outside. To properly expose our image, we need to decrease the aperture or increase the F stop number on our camera. If we do this though, then we may not get that shallow depth of field or blurry background, which we may want to make our shot look more cinematic. So to get this blurry background when recording outside, what we need to do is reduce the amount of light going into our camera and hitting our sensor by adding an ND filter. That way we can increase our aperture and use a low F stop number to allow us to get that blurry background effect on filming outside. We actually get two types of end filters, hard stop and variable end filters. A hard stop end filter has one level of darkness and you can screw this onto your lens and it will let less light enter into your camera. We can select how dark we want, this hard stop end filter, and how much it will reduce in stops. We could choose one stop, three stops, five stops, or seven stops. For example, hard stop end filters can be high quality than something like a variable end filter. But variable end filters may be more convenient at times as if you're outside. You may not know the exact amount of light that you wish to reduce. And you may need to have a collection of different hard stop end filters and you still may not be able to get the exact level of darkness that you need for your shot. Variable End filters, on the other hand, allow to adjust the strength of your end filters darkness. You could put this on your lens and then twist the variable end filter to set the desired level of darkness. A variable end filter is essentially two pieces of glass that you twist to properly expose your image outside for when you want to have a low F stop number. I recommend these when you want to film outside quickly and you don't want to buy a large collection of filters, the quality may not be quite as good as hard stop end filters. But as I said, they're much more convenient. Also, end filters will come in different strengths, so just be aware of that. For example, it may go from three stops of darkness to seven stops of darkness. By the way, the higher the stop, the darker the end filter will go. You can get one end filter, or you can get a kit which has two end filters, which may be high quality. A lot of kits will go from say, two to five stops and six to nine stops. These will cost more though, but as I said, there may be high quality. A lot of different ND filters can actually use different numbers to describe the strength of the ND filter, which can be a little confusing at times. When you look up ND filters online, on stores like Amazon, it may say something like N D two to N D 32. Or it may say numbers like 0.3 to 1.5 These are both the same, but some filters will use a different way of displaying the filter strength. D two is one stop of darkness and 0.3 is also one stop of darkness. This is the stops on your camera, so going 4-2 0.8 is one stop and going from F 2.8 F two is also one stop. Let's talk about the end system for measuring stops N D two is one stop. N D four is two stops. D eight is three stops. N D 16 is four stops. N D 32 is five stops, and so on and so forth. Let's now talk about the next system for measuring stops, and that is the end decimal system. 0.3 is one stop, 0.6 is two stops. 0.9 is three stops. 1.2 is four stops, and 1.5 is five stops. When getting an end filter, I recommend getting one that goes down to at least seven stops of light. Seven stops of light will be N D, one to eight, or 2.1 Or if you're going to be filming in really bright conditions, maybe consider getting one that goes down to nine stops. This will be N D 512 or 2.7 Remember, if you want to film outside and you want to use a low F stop number, they recommend using an end filter. I generally recommend a variable ND filter as these can be more convenient than hard stop end filters. And also recommend getting one that goes down to maybe seven to nine stops of lights. That way you can get that blurry background effect for your shots outside. Okay, so that's ND filters. Thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next one. 17. Polarising Filters: Okay, so now let's quickly talk about polarizing filters. Polarizing filters screw onto the end of your lens, and they allow you to cut out glares and reflections from the sky and also help you increase color saturation. There's a lot of polarized light in the sky, and using a polarizing filter allows you to see the clouds a bit better. These are also very useful for ocean shots, as these will help you get fewer reflections and get more vibrant colors. So I recommend getting one of these if you're going to be filming Nature, where you might be filming the sky and water. It can also be useful to have one if you plan on filming reflective objects such as cars and windows. So maybe product shots or anything with glass, a polarizing filter will have a ring on it, which allows you to adjust the strength of the effect. You can also get some Di and polarizer combos. So a filter that combines both an Di filter and a polarizing filter, which may be useful. Okay, so that's a quick overview of polarizing filters. Thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next one. 18. UV Filters: Let's now quickly talk about UV filters. These are really used as a protective filter to help stop your lens from getting scratched. So if you drop your lens, then it's better to scratch or damage a cheap UV filter than an expensive camera lens. A UV filter is similar to protective tempered glass as applied to a screen of a smartphone. A UV filter, however, was originally designed to help filter out any UV light that the camera may pick up. Nowadays though, digital camera sensors are not as sensitive to UV light as older film cameras once were. Just be aware that your footage may have a lower contrast when there's a UV filter on your lens, and the image may look slightly better without having one on. However, it will look pretty much the same. And I do recommend using an EV filter just in case you drop your camera lens. And especially if you're going to be filming outside of a studio environment where accidents are more likely to happen. So if accidents do happen and you scratch or damage your lens, then you may have to buy a new lens, which will cost a lot more than getting a new filter. Okay, so that's the end of this video. Thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next one. 19. DSLR vs Mirrorless Cameras: You may hear the term DSLR and mirrorless and you may not be too sure what the difference is. In this video, I talk about the differences between these two cameras in case you're thinking about getting a new camera, you're not too sure which one to get. First of all, both Sls and mirrorless cameras are very good and you can create great videos. And ever these cameras both have a large sensor and allow you to change lenses. So DSL stands for Digital Single Lens Reflex. The first DSLR came out in 1988. Dsls have a mirror inside, and mirrorless cameras do not, hence why they're called mirrorless inside a traditional DSLR camera, once the light travels through the lens and into the camera, it'll hit a mirror and then will reflect or bounce this light into a prism, which will then go into your viewfinder. This is a little different with more modern DSLR cameras though. With these, only part of the light will go through an optical viewfinder or part of the light will hit an auto focus sensor. This is a beginners course, so are trying not to get too technical, but just remember in a DSLR you'll see approximately the same light as what's in front of you. So if you're in a low light situation, for example, outside at night, your image may be too dark. This is one of the drawbacks of DSLRs, which is why you may wish to consider a mirrorless camera for situations like this. A Mirrorles camera has no merit inside it and no optical viewfinder. The first mirrorless camera came out in 2004. Since there's no merit inside the camera, mirrorless cameras can be smaller and lighter than DSLRs. With a mirrors camera, the light will pass through the lens and into the camera and then into the sensor. This sensor will handle the autofocus and then we'll pass the light through the screen display or the electronic viewfinder. There's always new cameras coming out, but from the date of this recording, here are some popular DSLRs and mirrorless cameras. However, I do recommend doing some of your own research and think about what exactly do you need your camera for before purchasing a popular DSLR camera is the cannon 90 D. I actually used to use the 70 D quite a while back, and it was a good camera to get started with in my video production journey. A popular mirrorless camera for recording videos is the Sony seven S three, which is the one I'm using right now. A good hybrid camera is the Sony 74, which means it's good for photos and videos. A more affordable mirrorless camera is the Canon N 50 and M 50 Mark two. Most camera companies nowadays only really seem to focus on new mirrorless cameras and lenses, as these are the new technology. But you can still make great videos with DSLR cameras. However, there are a lot of great lenses out there for both DSLRs and mirriless cameras. And camera companies like Sony continue to come out with new lenses for mirrorless cameras. I do generally recommend getting native lenses for your camera. So these are lenses that are made by the same camera company and designed to use with that exact camera. This is because it'll all work perfectly fine as they were designed to work together. However, there are some great third party lenses available from companies like Sigma and Tamron. Also for mirrorless cameras, you can use adapters, so you can use lenses that aren't necessarily designed to use with that camera. For example, a Canon lens with a Sony camera. This is just for mirrorless cameras, though. You can't use adapters like this with clar cameras, there are some great DSlars that perform well in low light. But generally, mirrorless cameras do outperform DSlars in low light. However, if you're going to be filming in a studio environment where you're going to be using video lights and there's plenty of light in the room, then this may not matter too much. Many mirrorless cameras have body image stabilization, and many DSLs have electronic image stabilization. Body stabilization is better really, and will give you smoother footage than electronic image stabilization. However, if you're going to be filming static shots on the tripod, then this won't be an issue. Mirrorless cameras are the future and do generally outperform DSLs, especially in size, weight, and low light performance. However, depending on your situation and also your budget, you may wish to consider DSLs as you can still film great videos with these. Okay, so that's the difference between DSLRs and mirrorless cameras. Thanks for watching. 20. Talking Head Video Setup Walkthrough: Hi there and welcome to this next video where I'm going to show you how to record a Talking Head video. I'm going to jump into the camera in a moment and show you the exact settings I used to record these types of videos. However, you can use the tips and techniques to teach you and apply them to other types of videos, such as video podcasts. Let's now have a quick look at some of the equipment I'm going to use in this video. First of all, the camera I'm using is a Sony seven S three with a Sony 35 millimeter 1.8 lens. This is on a man photo tripod for the key lights or main lights. I'm using a soft box light, and the temperature of this light is 5,500 Kelvins. To fill in the shadows on the other side, I'm using a fill light. This is a small LED light, and the temperature of this light is also set to 5,500 Kelvins. Then in the background I have these RGB lights. I have two of them. They're both set at the same temperature, which gives me this orange glow in the background to make the backdrop a bit more exciting. Here's my subject, obviously not a real person, but you can apply these techniques that I teach you with a person. Okay, so that's the equipment I'm using. Let's now look at setting up the camera. First of all, I'd look at where I want to record to make sure the location is suitable for a Talking Head video. The background doesn't need to be epic or anything, but having a nice backdrop can help for my background. I've set up some RGB lights. I've set the color to an orangey red, but other colors can be suitable. But for this shot, I think a nice orangey red glow can add to the ambience of the shot. Then I will need a key light for this. I'm using a soft box light, which has a temperature of 5,500 Kelvins. Later, I will need to remember this temperature for my white balance. So let me just turn off and on the soft box, and you can see there, it makes a huge difference. By the way, a soft box light can give you nice soft lighting compared to say, LED lights, which can give you much harsher lighting which can produce shadows. Which is why I like using a soft box light as the key light. And it have the key light around 1.5 meters away, angle 45 degrees. Then I have the fill light. So we use this to fill in any shadows on the other side of the face. This light doesn't need to be as bright as the key light, so you can get away with a smaller, less bright light. For this, I'm using an LED light again with the temperature at 5,500 Kelvins to match the key light. Let me just turn off and on this fill light so you can see the difference. Then there's just the regular lights in the room which may change the temperature slightly, but it shouldn't be very noticeable. I do recommend testing to see what the room looks like with the regular lights on and off, and choose which you prefer. Let me just show you now the room lights off and on and you can see it's just a slight difference. You don't have any video lights or the ones you want aren't quite bright enough, then you could sit opposite a window and film during the day, as this is an option two. But really, video lights are better as you can control the amount of lights. Because if you're relying on sunlight, then the lights can change if a cloud goes past. When recalling during the day, I would close the curtains unless I really needed more light. Okay, that's the lighting. And for now, I think it's fine. But I may need to tweak this when I set up my camera, but this is good enough to get started with. Next, I would decide what type of lens to use with the shot. I would choose my lens depending on the viber of the video and also the location space for this, I want quite a natural looking shot and I also want some of the background in here as well. For this, I chose a 35 millimeter lens to be honest though, somewhere between a 24 millimeter and 50 millimeter should be fine for this shot as well. If you use a 50 millimeter, you will need more space as the camera will physically need to be further away. If it's myself filming and speaking, I would want the camera quite close to me so I can see myself in the viewfinder, which is another reason why I choose a 35 millimeter over say, a 50 millimeter. Okay. Now let's look at setting up the camera. First of all, I would choose the frame rate. This may be different on your camera, but for my Sony seven S three, I will need to go to Menu, then go to the Shooting tab and select Image Quality. And then go to Movie Settings. And then go to Record Frame Rate. If you have a different camera, these settings may be in a different place. Obviously, for this video, the subject is a statue. But let's say this is a video of someone speaking. Then I will want to choose 25 frames per second. I am in a power region, but if you're in an NTSC region, you may wish to choose 24 or 30 frames per second. If your camera is set to the wrong region, for example, NTSC and you're in a Pal area, then you'll need to change the camera to the other region. Remember North America and Japan is NTSC, and most of Asia, Europe and Africa is Pal. But I do recommend finding out which one you're in, as if you choose the wrong region, may get flickering lights in your video. If you have any non video lights, if you're recording a remote call, then I do recommend asking what frames per second the other person is using and making sure you have the same FPS. For example, if you're both in North America, make sure you both choose either 24 or 30. Okay. Then I would choose the resolution for my camera. The highest resolution for 25 frames per second is four K. So to do this, I will go back to the menu, then go to the Shooting tab, go to Image Quality, and then go to File Format. That's how I can choose four K on my camera. For some of these formats here, you may need to have a fast memory card, so just be aware of that as well. Let's go back to the shot now. I would choose the shutter speed. You can see right now it's set at one 30th, which won't give us a natural look. We do want to have our shutter speed double the frames per second number. For this, I'm going to change it to one 50th on my camera. I can change it with this dial here, but it may be slightly different on your camera. By the way, if you are recalling a live call and you want to have your camera go into the computer, then you will need a capture card, something like the Cam link four K should be fine, but check to see if your camera is compatible before purchasing any capture cars or devices for your camera, you can use a USB webcam but generally the quality won't be as high as a DSLR or mirrorless camera. Okay, So next I would set the aperture with this lens, the lowest F stop number is 1.8 which allows me to let quite a lot of light into the camera and also allows me to blur the background but not too much. For example, the ears on the subject won't be too out of focus when the camera focuses on the eyes. Right now on this camera, it's set to F 2.8 If I move a dial at the front, I can change the aperture. By the way, the ISO is on auto. When they change these settings, there should be the same amount of light in the shot. But later we will be setting the ISO and not using auto. As I said, I am using F 1.8 but anywhere between one point 8.4 should be fine. But using a lower F stop number means you don't need to have the video lights as bright to properly expose the image, and you can also blur out some of the background. It also means you can use a lower ISO number and get less digital noise or grain in your shot. If you set the aperture to something like F four, then the lights will need to be brighter in the room to properly expose the image. Or you will need to use more ISO compared to, say, using F 1.8 If you're filming a long form video, you may not want the lights to be too bright, as it can be taxing on the eyes and can make you blink a lot if the lights too bright, after a long period of time. Now, I'd put the ISO to the base level ISO, which on this camera is 80, and then I'll see if the image is properly exposed or not. So let's do this now on this camera, I hit this dial on the right to set the ISO. And again, on your camera it may be different. Let's scroll down from auto and choose the base level ISO, which is 80. If you set your ISO to the base level and you have too much light, then I do recommend turning down the video lights in the room. Iso is basically digital light, and ideally, you want to use the lowest amounts possible, as it can introduce grain and noise into your image. But if your image is under exposed, then first I'd recommend increasing the video lights or increase the aperture. So use a lower F stop number if you're not already on the lowest F stop number. But if this is not an option, let's say you're on the lowest F stop number already, and using natural light, so sitting opposite a window, then you can increase your ISO to properly expose the image. Or if you don't want more light in the room, for example, you want to feel relaxed filming, say a video podcast, and bright lights can be distracting. Then you can increase the ISO. But remember, it will look better with a lower ISO amount. So I do recommend using the light meter and also using your eyes. And do many test recordings. And take out the SD card and look at the recording on your computer, and not just on the screen of the camera. Okay, so now we've properly exposed the image by using the exposure triangle, which consists of shutter speed, aperture, and ISO. Let's now adjust a few more settings on the camera for a talking head video. And especially when it's you filming and presenting, you will want to use auto focus. If you use manual focus and you move around a lot, then you may go out of focus. Auto isn't perfect, but it's pretty good now. And many cameras do have eye tracking, auto focus for video, which is really great. I'd also be aware of what's in the shots. A lot of cameras will have a wide focus mode area, which is good if it's just you in the shots. But let's say you have a microphone in the shot too, and you have it set to wide focus. Then it may focus on a microphone and not on the subject. Many cameras are allowed to choose different focus modes. So let me show you these on my camera. I can do this by pressing function and then going over to a focus area. We do have these different focus modes, like Center fix. This can be handy if you're in the center and plan to stay here. But the one I like is this large spot focus area. This creates a small square on the screen and whatever's in the square will be in focus for photography. The small or medium spots can be useful, but for video, I preferred the large spot as it gives you a bit more wiggle room if you plan to move around slightly. My Sony seven S three, I can choose what area I want to be in focus with this small dial here. When using this focus mode, it won't focus on other things in the shot such as a microphone. Okay, So narrower, properly exposed, and in focus. Next I would set the white balance. Auto white balance is pretty good, but I'd set the Kelvin number of the white balance to the same number as the lights in the room. Earlier I said the keyline and fill light was set to 5,500 Kelvins. I'd set the white balance to that as well on my camera. I can do this by going to function and then going to white balance. Then they can go down to where it says temperature. You can see here, I already have it set on 5,500 and for some cameras, you can also change the color balance. I won't really adjust the color balance, unless the colors in the shot look a bit weird or unnatural, then they may change this. But auto white balance is pretty good nowadays, so you could use that if you prefer. But just be aware the white balance may change. Fight your video, but if you're using video lights and the curtains are closed and the lighting is not going to change your video, then auto white balance should be fine. So I just thought, I mentioned that as well, and I'm just going to press the shutter button to go back to the shot. Okay, so that's pretty much here. I've properly exposed the image, I've set the focus, and I've set the white balance. Also from recording a long form video, I would use a large SD card, something like 256 gigabytes or 512 gigabytes. So I do recommend getting an SD card that's big enough so you don't have to stop and change the SD card to interrupt the flow of the video. If you also plant a film for a long time, I do recommend using a power supply so your battery doesn't die during the video. For many cameras as well, you can get a dummy battery that allows you to plug the camera into the wall. Also, make sure your lens is clean, that has no dust or marks on the lens. Next isn't for the camera, it is for audio. This is a camera course, but I mentioned this quickly, as audio is very important. So if you want to record a video of audio, say someone speaking, make sure the room isn't too reverberant. If it is, I recommend putting some objects in the room to diffuse the sound of the reverb and also play some foam or soft objects in the room to diffuse the sound. You can also hang up some heavy sheets in the room to help reduce the sound of the reverb. I also recommend using a dynamic microphone, like the electro voice RE 20 or R 30 or the short seven or short 58. If you're going to be recording in an untreated room as a condenser microphone like the blue Yeti can pick up a lot more of the room. Sound Okay, so I just wanted to mention the audio quickly. As for a video podcast or a video of audio, it is very important. Okay, so we're now at the end of this video. I hope you found it useful. And I hope now you're starting to understand how you can set up your camera for recording, talking head videos. So thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next one. 21. Outside Higher FPS Video Walkthrough: Okay, So now let's have a look at filming a video outside. And for this I'm going to use a higher frames per second. The reason for this is so I can slow this footage down in my video editing software to create natural looking slow motion. Before we do this though, let's have a quick look at the final result. Okay, now let's have a look at some of the equipment I used to create this video. I'm using a Sony seven S three with a Sony 35 millimeter 1.8 lens. This lens is wide enough to capture enough of the background but not too wide the warps or distorts the image. You could also use, say, a 24 millimeter if you want the shot to be a bit wider, or if you want a bit of a tighter shot, you could use, say, a 50 millimeter, which is great for photographing or filming the human face. And once the shot is set up, we'll be swapping to the stabilizer, which is the crane free. Here as well, we have our subject, which of course isn't a real person, but you can apply the techniques I teach you with a real person. Okay, now let's have a look at the image on the camera and we're outside now. It is around 01:00 P.M. and it is a bright day, but I am under the shade. Before we look at the camera settings though, let's just make sure we have the subject in the correct place and we also have the image level. Some cameras have a level meter like this, which can be useful. And right now you can see these green lights which means it's level. Okay. So as I mentioned earlier, I want this footage to be at 50% slow motion speed. I'm in the Pal area and for regular speed video I would choose 25 frames per second. So I need to double this to slow it down 50% I'll show you how to set this up on my camera now, but the set up may be different on your camera, so we need to go to Menu, Then go to the Shooting tab, and select Image Quality. And then select a Movie Settings. And then go to Record Frame Rate. And I'm going to change this 25-50 frames per second. And we can press the menu button again to get out of the menu screen. The next thing I will do is set the resolution on my camera. We can do this by going to the menu again, then go to the Shooting tab. Go to Image Quality, and select File Format for my camera. The highest resolution at 50 frames per second is four K. I'm going to select that on your camera. You may have different options to this. But just remember, the larger the resolution, the larger the file size. I do have these different options for four K. The highest quality will be this S I option here. The S I option will give me a higher bit rate, but the file size will be bigger. The S option is at a lower bit rate, but it's still going to look fine and the file size will be a lot smaller. So I'm going to choose this one on your camera. You may have different options to this, but I do recommend choosing a high quality option. But just remember, it may be a large file size. Now let's leave the menu by pressing the menu button again. Okay, the next I'm going to set my shutter speed. Remember we want to have our shutter speed double the frames per second number. Now we're at 50 frames per second. We want to have our shutter speed at 1100 of a second. Serve this dial at the back here. I'm going to change my shutter speed to 1100. This will now give us natural locking motion blur for when we slow the footage down. Later on in the video editing software, if we have the wrong shutter speed selected, then the video may look choppy or it may look too crisp. The next thing I'm going to do is set that aperture. The maximum aperture for this lens is 1.8 This allows us to let a lot of light into the lens and also gives us a shallow depth of field. With a shallow depth of field, we can blur at the background. For this shot, I think it will look good with a blurry background. Let's now increase the aperture, and I can do this with a dial on the front of my camera. Remember the lower F stop numbers will give us a larger aperture. You can see now the background is more out of focus. However, as we're using a higher aperture amount, we're letting more light into the lens and then into the camera. And this is making an image overexposed, even with the ISO at the base level ISO, which is 80 for this camera, you can still see the image is too bright and overexposed. So there's two things we can do here. We can decrease the aperture, which will let less light into the camera, which will allow us to properly expose the image. However, if we do this, we're going to lose that blurry background effect, or the other option is to use an ND filter. An end filter is like a pair of sunglasses for your camera, and this allows less light to go into the camera. We can still use a high aperture amount to get that blurry background effect, but it's going to let less light into the camera. If you plan to record videos outside during the day and you want to get a shallow depth of field, then I recommend using an ND filter. For this shot, I'm going to use a variable ND filter. Which means I can adjust the strength of the ND filter. I'm using a variable ND filter because I want to keep the ISO at the base level ISO which is 80. And I also want to keep the aperture 1.8 which is the highest it can go with this lens. With a variable ND filter, I can dial in the strength of the filter, so we can use these exact settings. I'm going to use my ND filter which is an N D two to 400. I also have another ND filter which is an N D eight to 2000. However, I'd go to use the Nd82 thousand in really bright conditions. And here as I'm under the shade, the end two to 400 should be fine. Okay, so I'm going to screw my variable ND filter onto the end of my lens and then adjust this so it's properly exposed. I also have this light meter on my camera which can help me properly expose my image. Okay, now we're properly exposed. The next thing I will do is set my focus. Later on I will be using a stabilizer and moving the camera. I will be using auto focus. If I use manual focus and I move the camera, then the subject may get out of focus on my camera. I do have different focus areas and I'll show you these quickly so we can change the focus area. We're going to function and then go into focus area. By default this will be on wide, which is fine for most things. But just be aware, if you use the wide focus area, the camera may focus on something else in the shot. Wide will probably be fine for the shot as the only other thing in this image is these plants behind which I doubt the camera will focus on. But if there's another person in a shot, or let's say a microphone, the camera may focus on this if you have wide mode selected. But let's have a quick look at a few of the other focus area modes on this camera. We have center fix, which can be useful if the subject is going to stay in the center, as whatever's in the center will stay in focus. But the one I often like to use is spot focus. We have these different sizes, small, medium, large, small and medium can be fined for photography. But for large, if you're filming a person and they plan to move around slightly large gives you a bit more space to work with my Sony seven S free. I can choose what area I want to be in focus with this small doll here. Just be aware though if you're going to be using a stabilizer and using this, just make sure what you want to keep in focus stays inside the square. Okay, next I would set the white balance on my camera. We can set the white balance by going to function white balance. However, this may be in a slight different place on your camera. Auto white balance is pretty good, but I wouldn't use this if you're going to be filming outside, that's because the light can change when you're outside and this can adjust the white balance. If you cut between two different shots using auto white balance, the color temperature could change between the two shots. When filming outside, I like to manually set the Kelvin number. And if I scroll down on my camera, I can set my Kelvin number down here. If I press the right button here, I can adjust my Kelvin number. The standard temperature for outdoor light is around 5,600 Kelvins. However, daylight can vary 5500-6500 Kelvins. So when film and go outside, what I'd normally do is select 5,600 Kelvins. Then I'd also switch to auto white balanced to see what the camera thinks as well if it's cloudy or sunny outside or it could be overclast or a blue sky. Or it could be morning, noon or evening which could all make a difference to the temperature. Don't recommend just setting, get 5,600 Kelvins all the time. Do a few tests to make sure you get the right white balance for your shots. Another thing to mention is you might want your shots to look warmer or cooler than it actually is. Again, I recommend doing some tests and find the best settings for your shot. You will also need to train your eye when setting your white balance and it can take practice. You can also adjust the color tint on this camera as well. Light can reflect and can create pink or green tint in your shot depending on where the subject is. For example, if the subject is near trees, then this can reflect green light onto the shot. And we can compensate this green tint by adding some more pink color in the camera. Also, if the image is too pink, then we can compensate this by adding some more green. But I don't recommend moving this too much unless there's some noticeable tint as a lot of this can be done in your video editing software. Okay, so we've set the frames per second. The resolution, shutter speed, aperture, ISO focus, and white balance. Now I'm going to move the camera onto a stabilizer and film a few panning and zooming shots. Lens I'm using is not a zoom lens. I will need to physically move the camera when using a stabilizer. I recommend trying to keep as smooth and stable as possible and also be aware of your frames per second and what speed you're going to put the footage afterwards. If you move too slow, then maybe the footage will be too slow and post. So just be aware of your movement and speed when using a stabilizer. Okay. I'm going to record this now with the spot focus and I'm going to record it again with the wide focus. The reason for this is so I have another shot with a wide focus just in case I move out of the focus area when I'm using the Spot Focus. Okay, let's now slow this down to 50% speed in my video editing software. I'm going to use Premier Pro, but you should be able to apply slow motion in all pro level video editing software. I'm going to import the footage into Premier Pro, then I'm going to change the sequence setting to 25 frames per second. Remember, this footage is at 50 frames per second, but we want it to be at 50% slow motion, so we'll be using a 25 frames per second project and then putting the footage at 50% speed. So can change the sequence settings by going to sequence sequence settings. Here. I'm going to change this to 25 frames per second and make sure the video is in four K, which is 3,840 pixels by 2,160 pixels. And then hit okay. It may be a slight different set up in other video editing software, but in Premier Pro you can write, click on the clip and go to Speed Duration. Then here we can set the speed. So I'm going to choose 50% and hit, okay. Now if I play this back, you can see we've got 50% slow motion. Okay, So that's how you can set up to record slow motion outside. The slow motion clips may be useful for B roll footage or anything where there's no speaking. For example, it could be clips of vehicles, holiday footage, a music video, and any shots where there's no dialogue and you want it to lock epic or cinematic. A slow motion can really help with this. Remember though, before you hit record, you do need to think about what speed of slow motion you want. Make sure you set the correct frames per second and shutter speed on your camera before you hit record. You also need to be aware of what resolution your camera can film at, high frames per second amounts. And also if your memory card is fast enough when using high FPS amounts. Okay, so we're now at the end of this video. I hope I've taught you a few different techniques about recording videos outside and using high frames per second amounts. So thanks for watching and I'll talk to you soon. 22. Thanks and Bye + Class Project: Okay, so we're now at the end of this class. Thank you so much for watching and I hope you found it useful. I hope now you understand some of the theory and fundamentals of videography to help you make better looking videos on your mirrorles or salar camera. For your class project, I want you to film your own video clip and use the settings that I recommend drawing this class. I then want you to take a still or screenshot of your video and post this as your class project. And then write down the settings you used to film this video so I can see the exact settings you used to film your video. Okay, so thanks again for watching and hopefully see you in the next class.