Shoot Video With Your DSLR

Shooting video with your DSLR. If you want to shoot cinematic looking video using your Digital SLR, then read these top tips.

Steps

  1. Take the camera off Auto.
  2. Read the manual.
  3. Set the ISO lower. If you are shooting exterior in bright natural light make sure you set your ISO to a low setting to avoid unwanted grain. If you want a grainy image for effect, it is very easy to add in post-production. When you are filming in low light situations, experiment and only push your ISO to what looks acceptable for your individual camera.
  4. Make sure you set your White balance to the correct setting. This is really important when moving from indoor to outdoor and between different lighting environments. If you shoot in indoor mode (3200K) outdoors your image will have a blue colour cast and your skin tones will look unnatural. This is down to colour temperature. Our eyes are amazing at dealing with change in colour temp, however, cameras need to be told this. Colour temp is measured in degrees Kelvin, any vague memory of the Kelvin Scale from Science class..? Daylight is approx 5600K. If you set the colour temp to the wrong one, unlike stills even with the most advanced colour correcting tools, this is incredibly hard and time consuming to correct in video and you will never be able to get it to look 100% natural.
  5. Set your shutter manually and as a rule of thumb leave it at double your frame rate for regular shooting i.e. if you are shooting at 25fps (European standard) set your shutter to 1/50 of a second. Increasing the shutter speed is good for shooting high-speed action i.e. a racing car. Regular action shot with a high shutter will have a staccato effect and look unnatural. Horror movies often use this as an effect.
  6. Get a fluid head tripod. Even though you are using a stills camera, you do need some video tools and accessories. A fluid head tripod is one of them. This will allow you to do smooth pans side to side and tilts up and down.
  7. When shooting, don’t be lazy and just continuously record. You will end up with hours of rubbish to trawl though in the edit. It is better to turn over (record) 4-5 seconds before your action starts and cut 4-5 seconds afterward. If you are doing a move i.e. a pan of a landscape, then record 5 seconds of the static frame at the beginning then pan then continue to record 5 seconds of the end frame. This will give you 3 shots instead of just one.
  8. Make sure you use manual focus. Auto focus, can be great on stills, but for the moving image it will continuously ‘hunt’ for focus. This is because the camera will be looking for what to focus on. This is especially true in low light situations when you have a much shallower depth of field. Practice following movement, the more you practice the better you will get at manually focusing.
  9. Take your camera off Auto. Learn about Manual Exposure. It is 100% better to manually set the aperture (F Stop). This way you expose for what is important in the frame and the exposure won't change when you pan from something light to dark. Exposure has a direct effect on depth of field. Read up on this and how you can select what is and isn’t in focus. A shallow depth of field will give your image a much more 3D quality.
  10. Use good filters. Buying a screw on neutral density (ND) filter will help you control the amount of light that enters your camera and hence the exposure. This will help you correctly expose using a wide aperture and regular video shutter 1/50 shutter speed ensuring a shallow depth of field even in bright light.
  11. Talk to who you are filming, build a relationship with them. Get them to feel comfortable with you and being filmed. Giving them encouragement will increase their confidence and in turn increase the quality of the end product.
  12. Learn how to frame. Framing is one of the most important aspects in filming. Watch movies and good quality TV series with the sound off - This way you will concentrate on how the images are framed without getting drawn into the story. Look at how the sequences are edited together and how different angles cut together.
  13. Enjoy and experiment. Try shooting hand held. Learn how to be comfortable with the camera. The more you feel comfortable and in-control behind the camera the more your filming skills will improve.
  14. Get hold of some basic accessories to make your life easier. A follow focus unit will make focusing much more accurate. A viewfinder will allow you to see your image much clearer so you can spot focus and exposure easily.

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