Setting Up a Shot: Difference between revisions

Setting Up a Shot (view source)

Revision as of 23:12, 17 March 2010

50 bytes added , 17 March 2010

Cleanup, manual focus tips

Simon.harris

confluence-users, domain users, jira-users, stash-users

21

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 == Focus ==
-Auto Focus works by the camera assessing the contrast at the centre of the screen.  Consider a very blurred image of something, all the light and dark areas, and all the colours will smear into a uniform colour of a certain brightness, ie it will have very low contrast.  By comparrison an image which is in focus will have many distinct areas of different colours and brightnesses.  The camera prefers the latter of these two situations and deems this to be focussed.
+''(Most of the tips in this section assume you're using the Sony HDV cameras.)''
-If you're filming in decent light, and will be zooming then auto is advised.  If you're in dark situations, or the camera shot won't be changing at all then manual focus should be considered.
+Focus on the camera can work in one of two ways; Auto and Manual. Manual involves telling the camera how far away from the lens your subject is, and that's what it'll focus on. Auto involves the camera looking at your footage and working out by itself how far away your subject is.
-In the menu press the 'focus' button lightly.  Select manual.  Here you can also alter the distance at which the camera focusses.  This is not the easiest way to focus.  Instead go back to the main menu and press 'ring set'.  From here select 'focus'.  Now the ring near the front of the camera on the barrel will control the focus (sensors detect the ring being moved and drive motors to focus).  Additionally the 'Manual' button near the front of the camera body will switch between auto focus and manual focus.
+If you're filming in decent light and using lots of zoom, then Auto is advised.  If you're in dark situations, or the camera shot won't be changing at all then Manual will give much better results. Remember that auto-focus can cause the camera to suddenly think it needs to re-focus when it doesn't, and your shot briefly dips out of focus.
-If using manual focus be sure that the shot is focussed, otherwise '''all''' of the recorded footage will be blurry.
+To set manual focus: In the menu press the 'focus' button.  Select manual.  Here you can also alter the distance at which the camera focuses. Using the LCD to set the focus on your fully framed shot is completely impossible, because the screen is just too small. A trick that works is to zoom right into the subject, switch to auto-focus, wait a few seconds for auto-focus to work its magic, then switch back to manual and zoom out.
+If using manual focus be sure that the shot is focussed, otherwise '''all''' of the recorded footage will be blurry. If you're using auto-focus, then for god's sake be careful where you point the camera!
 == Microphone & Sound Levels ==
 It is almost always best to use auto to avoid everything sounding quiet, or even wrse everything sounding too loud and clipping. [[Cameras:Sound|More on sound setup]]