Steve Crow
Forum Replies Created
-
Ok just some ideas:
* buy or RENT a wide angle lens, something around 20mm – that will allow you to get much closer but of course you will be seeing more to the left and the right so make sure your background on either side of you is ok to be in the picture – you say you have no money for that but you don’t need all those cameras, just one decent one – even a Canon T2i or newer will work. Or sell ALL your cameras and rent a full frame DSLR, or perhaps see if you can buy a used Canon 5D MII – or again, rent one.
* I don’t know if you have IKEA stores in your area but if not check out the lighting section in your local hardware store for cool lighting options to hang in the background, like light strips or the round paper light balls – if you can manage some depth of field blurring in your shot they will look fantastic. You can hang party decorations like stars, crepe paper rolls from the ceiling to add some interesting looks to your background too – don’t make the background cluttered, using just one or two of these ideas at the same time is more than enough
* You should consider filming in 1080 but editing in 720. That will allow you to do several things, one of which is to make “fake” camera moves inside the editing program – either zooming in, panning to the left and right or even tilting up and down.
* To compensate for the lack of real camera movement, make sure to shoot lots of different angles, (sounds like you know this one already) – try even a few weird ones, like from above, from the floor or maybe placing a GoPro INSIDE an instrument
* See if your editing program supports multicam clips which are perfect for music videos. I know Final Cut Pro X does an excellent job at this but I believe premiere has a very similar function. Search for youtube videos about multicam editing.
Steve Crow
-
I looked again and still don’t see anything. If you want a “crisp” look then perhaps try adding some sharpening during the edit. I would be very conservative with that as my personal taste is that too much sharpening takes away from the cinematic look.
On the other hand, since I typically turn down the “in camera” sharpening way down, I have to add a tad back in during editing.
Steve Crow
-
Sorry, I am just not seeing the noise you are referring to in either shot. The microphone shot’s focus seems a little soft (focusing at 1.8 can be difficult) but otherwise it seems fine too. Does anyone else see something that I’m missing?
Steve Crow
-
The monopod I have came with a tripod head from Monfrotto that allows full range of motion, pan and tilt. Actually the arm for the head can serve as another contact point for more stability
Steve Crow
-
Well the one I have, the Manfrotto 561BHDV‑1 Monopod, already comes with a tripod head but I know there is a newer model one now. The four feet at the bottom and the swivel joint are great because you are both stable and able to move.
A follow focus system would require rails and is probably more than you need right now.
Steve Crow
-
I have to say from the reviews I read on Amazon, it’s not a great piece of gear but you may find it useable if your expectations are low. One big problem is that it doesn’t come with a way to attach a weight to the back portion (the shoulder pad area) to counterbalance all the weight from the camera and lens that wants to pitch everything forward. There are ways to rig a DIY solution but otherwise expect achy shoulders and back
Here’s my thought….I think value-wise you would be better off with a high quality Monopod from Manfrotto or Benro. You can move around easily and use it with some kind of bracket or cage to add extra equipment if you need it. So far you’ve only mentioned adding the external microphone but I don’t believe you can use headsets to monitor the sound you are recording without plugging the microphone into some kind of external recorder like the Zoom H4N.
Shoulder rigs are great, I don’t have one myself but the usefulness of one is clear – assuming it doesn’t fall apart on you. Shooting inside a studio you are probably not going to be banging the shoulder rig around much but as you use it on other projects, in other environments, you might ask yourself will this hold up? Quality rigs are ridiculously expensive but often it’s better to buy a quality solution the first time around rather than ending up first buying one or two cheap solutions only to have to invest a third time in something that will last you.
Steve Crow
-
Let me ask you this, was this video shot interlaced or progressive? What resolution, what settings?
The screen capture looks very soft focus to my eye and overexposed too – the whites appear to be blown out or very close to it.
There also appears to be some moire going on in the man’s jacket, most likely due to a very tight pattern in the fabric itself that the camera is having trouble resolving.
If this video was shot interlaced, see if you convert it to a progressive format and then I’d try lowering the overall exposure in the editing program. White areas that are blown out cannot be easily modified once shot, the data there is gone – unless filmed in some kind of RAW format which I highly doubt was the case here.
Moire on the jacket is going to be very hard to deal with. Some correction programs try to blur out the areas of the image that have moire in them.
For focus issues you can try adding A SMALL BIT on sharpening in the editing – unless the wedding was shot with a custom profile in which the sharpening was purposely set way down prior to shooting. In this case you can be much more generous with the amount of sharpening applied.
Steve Crow
-
If I am understanding your question correctly, Isn’t what you are looking for simply a cheese plate that has holes drilled on the front or back of it like this:
https://www.amazon.com/Smallrig%C2%AE-Cheese-Plate-Multi-purpose-Mounting/dp/B00CDFQMLQ
and then screwing into the cheese plate a small pivot arm to hold the monitor, like this:
https://www.amazon.com/OrangeTag-Articulating-Magic-Friction-Mounts/dp/B007RBME2M
To the top and bottom of the cheese plate you’d have to attach quick release plates (the bottom one to attach to your tripod and the top one to attach to your camera)
Steve Crow
-
My only thought is that it MAY be something with:
* white balance not being reset when moving from outdoors to indoors OR
* picture profiles you are using not working well indoors??
* or both?On the other hand, shifting into auto mode doesn’t impact those two settings so I’m not very sure what is going on.
If you could post a sample clip perhaps showing moving from outside (with good exposure) to moving indoors where you are getting poor results and then shifting into auto mode while indoors to see what the camera is doing. It would be cool if you could capture a sample clip with all 3 situations in it but separate clips would work too.
Also I’d look carefully at what settings the auto mode is changing.
Steve Crow
-
No worries!
Steve Crow