Video technique
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POWERTO ACCESSORISE Start shooting videomore seriously and the size of your camera outfit could grow very quickly. With the latest digital cameras, you don’t need amassive bag of kit, but a few extra accessories will make your life easier. Of course, some items you’ll already own for your still photography, but youmight have to invest in a few extra essentials. That’s what we’re discussing in this feature – explaining what you definitely need and what can wait
ND filters Neutral density filters are important for still photography, because they let you set an aperture or shutter speed to deliver your envisaged result. However, while ND filters are optional for stills, they’re essential for video. With video, an ND filter helps you set a shutter speed to conform to the 180° shutter rule, which is the relationship between video frame rate and shutter speed. For natural-looking video footage of moving subjects, you should use a shutter speed that is twice that of the video frame rate. So shoot video at 24fps or 25fps and you need a shutter speed of 1/50sec and 1/60sec at 30fps. In bright light, achieving those relatively slow shutter speeds is difficult without overexposing your shots. You can set a lower ISO, but that’s limited in how far you can go, or set a smaller aperture, but you may not want the effect of greater depth-of-field. So the best way to control how much light reaches the sensor is to use an ND filter. A handy set of fixed value NDs might be a 4x, 8x and 16x, reducing light passing through by 2EV, 3EV and 4EV, respectively. If it’s really bright and you want to shoot at wide apertures, there’s the option of combining a couple of NDs. For video, there’s the option of a variable ND filter, which works on the principle of cross polarisation and is made from two polarisers fitted in the same mount, one fixed and one in a rotating mount. Rotate the filter and the amount of light transmitted can be altered within the filter’s working range. A variable ND with a 2x to 32x range means you can vary the exposure from 1EV to 5EV and any setting in-between. Stronger variable filters are available to 8EV or 9EV, but one thing to watch with this filter type is the X-shape effect that can result towards maximum cross polarisation. Variable NDs come in a wide range of different strengths. The 77mm fit Marumi variable ND with a range from 2.5x to 500x costs £171 and the same size Novo Excel Pro ND8-2000 gives a light reduction from 3EV to 11EV at £80. Shown above is the K&F Variable NDX 2-32 range distributed by Swains in the UK, which costs £43.99 for the 52mm fit. intro2020.co.uk kenro.co.uk swains.co.uk ukdigital.co.uk
SHOOTING HIGH-QUALITY video footage with a digital camera is easy, but once you start getting into the medium, your demands and expectations will increase, fuelled by the realisation that the equipment you own isn’t enough to achieve the results you want. Inevitably, your attention will turn to the huge range of kit available to further your video skills, and at a huge range of prices, too. But before you get sucked in by the prospect of buying yourself some nice presents, you need to think about what it is that you really, really need and what could be a very expensive luxury. Naturally, what you need depends on how far you want to take your video making. Is it just some footage to show the family or something for your social media? Or are you imagining more serious vlogging for your YouTube channel? Or maybe, at this time, you have an eye on the future and you’re thinking more commercially? Over these pages, we cover some options to at least get you thinking. Hopefully this will help you take your moviemaking to the next level. For more advice and technique, please go to the Summer Festival section of the Photography News website at photographynews.co.uk
Editing software As with stills, once you have your video footage, you need do some editing to make the most of what you have. This might be fairly basic, like cutting down your footage from hours to minutes, adding title and end credits, and exporting it in a suitable format. Apple’s Final Cut Pro X (Mac) and Adobe Premiere Pro (Mac andWindows) are probably the best known and are pro-level softwares. Final Cut Pro X is £300 and Premiere Pro £19.97 per month on an annual plan, or £238.42 yearly pre-paid. But there are plenty much cheaper softwares. Adobe
Premiere Elements 2020 is £86.56, Corel VideoStudio Ultimate is £71.08 and Filmora9 is $69.99 for a lifetime plan. DaVinci Resolve Studio 16 (Mac,Windows and Linux) costs £269, but the powerful Revolve 16 version is free. VSDC’s Video Editor x64 (Windows) is also free and versatile. adobe.com apple.com/uk blackmagicdesign.com/uk/products/ davinciresolve filmora.wondershare.net videosoftdev.com
LED lights There has been a revolution in continuous lighting in recent years and it’s all thanks to the humble LED. Now LEDs have enabled powerful, compact lighting units that are fully controllable in terms of colour temperature, and they run cool, so you’re not going to fry your subjects. LED lights come in a great variety of types and sizes, starting from small battery-powered units that fit in the camera’s accessory
shoe (ideal for close-range fill-in) to mains-powered studio units featuring hundreds of individual LED bulbs. A popular unit is the Manfrotto Lykos 2.0, a water-resistant LED light with Bluetooth, with 60 LEDs giving 3500-6500K colour temperature control and an output of 1500 lumens at one metre. It costs £259.95. LED technology has also opened up new avenues for the
lighting boffins to exploit. Some units, like the Nanlite Pavotube range distributed by Kenro, do more than just deliver a continuous light, with their ability to simulate effects like a flashing police siren, lightning storm and fireworks, and have the choice of hundreds of different solid colours that you can fine-tune in terms of power and saturation. manfrotto.co.uk kenro.co.uk
RIGHT The Manfrotto Lykos 2.0 is a water-resistant LED with an output of 1500 lumens at 1m
14 Photography News | Issue 78
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