Comments on: Camerawork tips

By: Christopher Carter

Christopher Carter — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 14:53:37 +0000

this article is very informative, I’ve just started reading through your articles and find them to be interesting. however some are a bit shallow such as the ‘lighting’ segment. I thought background lighting for mood was missing. Also, don’t film use key lighting too. whats the best way to deal with shadows in film making?

By: Steve

Steve — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 17:12:36 +0000

One thing about DSLR’s is that when you are focusing manually you can use the focus points as focus confirmation- just pick a point, put it on the eyes, then focus until the point lights up.

For consumer camcorders, some of them have aperture mode, so you can open up the aperture and the shutter speed will compensate. Also, moving the camera back and shooting at a telephoto setting will reduce the depth of field.

By: videofilmmaker

videofilmmaker — Sat, 01 May 2010 15:14:14 +0000

A reader emailed this comment:

Hello, I loved all of your videography tips. As a know-nothing consumer
just trying to avoid the biggest blunders, I found your insight into
professional video- and film-making very interesting. So, thanks for
posting.

One thought: Now that DSLR cameras are becoming increasingly used for videography, the parfocal lens focusing trick doesn’t work consistently since so many of the lenses in use are from the still photography varifocal family. I tried it on a Canon 70-200 2.8L, an excellent still camera lens, and noticed a slight shift in focal plane over the zoom range. Other high-end lenses historically made for DSLRs suffer the same design limitation. Since more and more folks are crossing over to videography without using classic filmmaking equipment, I think this tip could use a warning about its applicability to only parfocal lenses and how to check them.

Thanks again for sharing your expertise!

Best,
Mike