Control your camera’s exposure to get better shots. (Click on the title if the video is not visible).
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In Part 4 of How to Shoot Your Kid, I’ll show you how to control the exposure of your video camera, and improve your shooting, no matter what camera you use. Get the full DVD of How to Shoot Your Kid, Video Basics Plus here: https://patchinpictures.com/how-to-shoot-your-kid/
Expose . . . yourself. That means control the camera’s exposure, yourself. The simple way of defining exposure is to say that exposure is the brightness and darkness of your video image. You can’t always rely on the camera’s automatic settings to get this right. That’s because the camera is doing its own adjusting of how much light it records based on what it “sees,” but it does not evaluate whether or not something should be bright (such as a light) or dark (such as deep shadows). Sometimes, you can do better by controlling the exposure yourself.
Before you can make accurate adjustments, you need to make sure that what you see on your camera screen is similar to what you’re recording. The camera’s view screen has brightness adjustments. If it looks brighter or darker than what you are actually recording, you will not get what you see on the screen. You can brighten or darken the screen if it doesn’t match what you’re recording. Test the need for this adjustment by hooking up the camera to your TV and playing back something you recorded. If the camera and TV don’t match, adjust the brightness on the camera view screen to match your TV. Of course we’re assuming your TV is set to display a somewhat average brightness and contrast. If it is, this is a simple calibration method that will usually give you safe results.
Brightness/darkness adjustment is called exposure, or iris adjustment. Exposure is how much or how little light is reaching your media (the tape or drive). Cameras vary in their ease and accessibility of exposure adjustment (also called iris adjustment). The simplest cameras usually have only automatic exposure. Sometimes they have buttons for semi-automatic adjustments, such as a “backlight” button. If that’s all your camera has, it’s better than nothing. Look for the backlight button. This button is used to tell the camera that what you are shooting has more light coming from the background (a bright window or a bright area in the shot) than exists in the most important areas of the shot.
If there is a window in your shot, and you shot toward the window, your camera might try to “fix” this by making the exposure darker. If you wanted to see things in the room, this automatic adjustment could make it too dark. If you push the backlight button when shooting in this situation, the camera will not darken the shot as much, thus your shot will stay closer to what you want. Another way to control this shot is to use the manual exposure adjustment. Some cameras have a button to switch between manual and automatic exposure. Then, you can control the exposure by turning a knob or by using up and down arrows on the menu screen to brighten or darken the image. Either way, this gives you better control.
A good trick to keep the automatic feature from over-adjusting your exposure is to aim the camera in a direction where the light is consistent and “normal” for what you want. Let the automatic exposure set the initial exposure of the shot by keeping the camera aimed in the evenly lit direction until it looks right. Then, push the manual button to go into manual mode. The camera will hold the exposure your camera just set until you change it. This lets the camera pick the initial exposure first, and then keep that same exposure wherever you aim. You can do this inside or outside to maintain a consistent exposure in shots where the light does not vary much. In a room with a bright window, it’s better to have a super bright window and still see the people and things in the room, than it is to have a nicely-exposed window with everything else dark.
There are other options to control exposure; we’ll talk about those later. When you’re shooting, it’s your choice when to expose yourself. Just remember to make the choice. You might like it. Another thing to keep in mind: when setting your camera for completely manual exposure, different cameras can require different things. Some cameras have automatic “gain.” Gain is a feature that sets the camera to accept lower light (and it also makes the image more grainy). You might have to shut off this feature. You might also need to shut off the automatic shutter speed, too. Refer to your camera’s manual for exact settings and details.
About the Author:
Steve Patchin is Founder and General Manager of Patchin Pictures®. Patchin Pictures® is a Las Vegas based video production and duplication company that has been providing video services for families and businesses since 1996.
