Photo and Video Tips

I hope you noticed yesterday's post. I am having problems with Blogger scheduler for the posts. Anyway, yesterday's post is below the post from Tuesday!

For today, here is a video I made from requests that I have gotten. It goes through my set-up of how I take photos of my projects, plus a mention of how I video. It cost me around $3.00! Just check out the video. I only use my camera. You can click here to see what camera I use to do this. Someday I will get a Flip or other video camera, but for now, it is my trusty digi cam!

One thing, I forgot to mention in the video, is lighting and sound. I haven't gotten anything perfected yet! But here are the technicalities that I have learned from reading.  For lighting, the important thing to remember is natural light is better than regular lights. It gives a truer color and more clear photo. However, don't think that you should film with bright sunlight. You want natural filtered light. Film in front of a window, but if the sun is bright through it, place a white curtain or shade between the window and the video set up.
Also, notice shadows that you are creating as you video or photograph something. I have seen several videos where people have a light that faces the camera, but this creates shadows that make it hard to see the image or project. There are fabulous tutorials out there in YouTube-land, but it is so hard to see what the people are doing that I can't follow along well. So, put the light beside the camera, and you will get better results. If no natural light is available, then use a lamp with the light aimed at your workspace and plenty of overhead lighting.
Finally, I needed to mention sound quality. My sound quality is not great. I need major improvement in that area. My sound is recorded through the camera. With Flip and other video cameras, sound quality will be better. However, you can get by without anything fancy, if you just speak up.
My biggest tip is for you to make a practice video. See how the lighting, sound, and shadows are. Then adjust and create the real deal!
Good luck and enjoy!
Leslie