Hey gang!
Drex here from DrexFactor.com and today I
want to talk a bit about cameras, namely the
video kind.
Sharing videos is one of the great cornerstones
of online flow arts culture and a big way
that people get recognized for the work that
they do.
Today I’m going to go through how you can
get the most out of your camera and create
the best videos possible with it.
Before we dive in, I just want to take a moment
to give a shout out to the friends of the
channel!
Big thanks to Dark Monk, Emazing Lights, Flowtoys,
Spinballs, and Ultra Poi for helping to make
the videos on this channel possible.
You can visit them all on the web by following
the links down in the description of this
video.
So to start: most video out there being taken
by flow artists is with their phones and that’s
fine.
Cell phone cameras have come a long way in
the past few years and in many cases make
for an effective replacement for entry-level
point and shoot cameras or small portable
video cameras I’ve worked with for much
of my YouTube career.
For the mostpart, there’s not a whole lot
of tweaking you can do here--these cameras
are designed to take care of most of the settings
guesswork for you and take it out of your
hands.
But let’s say that you’re where I was
at a year and a half ago and you’re ready
to make the leap to something more professional--say
a DSLR or digital camcorder.
All of the sudden there are a lot more bells
and whistles plus a lot of settings you’ve
never heard of.
This is what we’re going to be diving into
today!
So a disclaimer up front: I’ve never taken
a class on video production or camera work.
Literally everything I know comes from trial
and error or conversations with people who
have more expertise than myself.
If you are a video professional who has better
suggestions than the ones I’m sharing here,
please feel free to comment and let me know!
There is so much to cover with camera settings
that I’m actually splitting this into two
different videos.
This first video covers frame rate and shutter
speed while the next one will cover aperture
and ISO.
Each of these controls something very different
about how the camera works and together they
add up to creating the picture that you see
coming out of your video.
A change in one setting can require changes
in a couple other settings as well.
So let’s talk about frame rate.
This is usually set with a function that gives
you frames per second or fps.
Now, you may be aware that when you see video
it’s actually a series of still images that
are shown in rapid succession and due to work
that our brains do to fool us are then perceived
as motion.
But the number of still images we see in a
video can have a huge effect on how we perceive
that video.
In many cameras, you’re going to have a
choice of a few frame rates include 25 frames
per second, 30 frames per second, 60 frames
per second, and if you’re using a higher
end camera perhaps 120 or even 240 frames
per second.
So what are all of these things good for?
25 fps is usually seen as being a very cinematic
frame rate.
When you go to the movies, this is almost
certainly what the movie is being projected
at.
It’s good for people talking to cameras
but because objects move quickly when we spin
them it can sometimes seem less flattering
to flow arts videos.
30 fps is the standard for online video.
This is what lots of people on YouTube as
well as your favorite Netflix and Amazon shows
are shown at.
Think of this as the default frame rate for
online video--if you’re not sure what you
should record at then just start here.
60 fps has two uses.
The is to just display your video at 60 fps.
YouTube supports this framerate and what you’ll
see looks incredibly smooth and detailed.
60 fps is often preferred for broadcasting
sports for this reason.
The second is for slow motion videos--if you’re
editing a video at 30 frames per second and
you drop in a 60 fps clip, you can view it
in half time without sacrificing any of the
clarity of the video.
If you were to try this with a 30 fps clip,
the video might seem jerky and unnatural because
it’s missing half the frames it needs to
make the action look smooth.
I’ve done some testing between 25, 30, and
60 fps videos and I’ve found that people
really like the 60 fps ones because they look
so smooth and clean, but that 30 fps is also
acceptable.
25 fps really isn’t suited for spinning,
but in a pinch it can work.
120 and 240 fps videos are best suited to
slow-motion work.
You can show a trick in exquisite detail with
the video slowed down this much.
Bear in mind that the higher your frame rate,
the more storage space your video will take
up.
Plan accordingly.
Alright, so next up is shutter speed.
This is how long the camera collects light
each time it shoots a frame.
Generally shutter speed is expressed in fractions
of a second--the larger the number is on bottom,
the shorter the amount of time the camera
collects light for.
For most cameras the shortest amount of time
the camera can collect light for a given frame
is for the length of the frame itself.
So if you’re shooting at 30 frames per second,
the lowest shutter speed you can shoot at
is 1/30 of a second--make sense?
In most production classes or online courses,
they’re going to tell you that you want
to shoot with a shutter speed that is half
what your frame rate is.
So if you’re shooting at 30 fps, you’d
set your shutter speed at 1/60.
But I’ve found with trial and error in the
flow arts world that this rule is not always
good to follow.
Here’s what different shutter speeds do:
the longer the shutter speed--that is the
lower the number in the fraction, the longer
the amount of time light is collected and
therefore the more likely you’re going to
pick up motion blur.
The higher that number is, the shorter the
amount of time that light is collected and
the less likely you’re going to pick up
a motion blur.
So...why would you want a motion blur versus
not having a motion blur?
Let’s say for the sake of argument that
you want to use some post-production trickery
on your video and add trails to your poi spinning.
One of the easier methods for doing this is
to use the Trails plugin for Final Cut.
If you do that with video you’ve shot using
the production class trick so your shutter
is 1/60 and your frame rate is 30fps, you’re
going to find gaps in the trails your video
produces.
This is because the camera is only collecting
light for half the total length of the frame.
You can fix this by setting your shutter speed
equal to your frame rate.
If you shoot at 1/30 with a frame rate of
30fps, you can set this plugin in such a way
that you get no gaps in your trails at all.
At the other end of the spectrum, what if
you want to do something like a handheld shot
and then stabilize it in post to look like
you shot it with a gimbal or steadicam?
In this case you want to set a very high shutter
speed--high enough that you get no motion
blur at all on your video.
If you shoot this video with the production
class setup you’re going to stabilize your
footage only to find it’s got this weird
chatter to it--this is actually how the did
the effect of Professor X’s powers going
awry in the movie “Logan.”
If you set a high shutter speed and eliminate
the motion blur, however, you find you get
a nice smooth picture and that it doesn’t
matter how much the camera was moving.
Nice!
How high does your shutter speed have to be
in order to eliminate motion blur?
The slowest I’ve found for my own spinning
is at 1/1000 but I also spin slower than many
other people.
Do some experimentation and figure out where
this number should be for your own work.
So....when it comes to shutter speed, plan
ahead for what kind of shot you want to take.
If you’re just spinning for a static camera
and don’t need trails then go with the production
class setup.
If you want trails, set your shutter speed
equal to your frame rate.
If you want smooth stabilization, set the
shutter speed high enough to eliminate motion
blur.
Awesome!
I hope this was helpful or at least gave some
of you a place to start.
I’ll be back next week to talk about aperture
and ISO.
Thanks so much for watching.
If you got anything out of this video, please
hit that like and subscribe button to help
my channel grow!
Special thanks to all my awesome supporters
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do, please go to patreon.com/drexfactorpoi.
Thanks again and peace!
