Introduction to videography

While many image makers attempt to create narrative in their still images, video is a medium specifically designed to tell compelling stories. If you are a keen photographer with a modern digital camera and some knowledge of camera settings and techniques, you have a huge advantage.

As with still image making, the key is understanding the tools available, then putting them to practical use – so let’s start there.

Understanding exposure in video

When taking stills, you juggle shutter speed, aperture and ISO to get the correct exposure; this is the traditional exposure triangle.

In video, it’s the same – although these are often called shutter angle, iris and gain by old-school cinema buffs.

As in stills, aperture changes the exposure and depth-of-field, while ISO alters the sensitivity of the sensor to light. High ISO will lead to noisier images, while low ISO is for more saturated colours and fine details, especially when there’s plenty of light.

The biggest difference in shooting video is that you don’t change your shutter speed to alter the exposure. Instead, shutter speed is set as close as possible to twice the frame rate you’re shooting at.

This idea has worked well since the dawn of cinematography and gives a natural, flowing look to footage. If you go to high shutter speeds thinking it will capture action in more detail, the resulting footage appears as lots of oversharp frames that look ‘digital’ rather than ‘filmic’ and smooth.

The importance of neutral density (ND) filters

In the UK, most video is watched at 25fps, so you should stick to using 1/50sec shutter speed. Get the exposure right by changing ISO, aperture, or using neutral density (ND) filters.

That means one essential buy is an ND filter to go on the front of the lens. These can be individually graded filters, but for maximum flexibility a variable ND is easier.

While you can manage without one, if you’re shooting on a bright, sunny day at ISO 100 and 25fps – giving you a 1/50sec shutter speed – your aperture would be around f/22.

That’s OK for landscapes where you want everything sharp, but for shallower depth-of-field, it’s not great; hence the need for an ND filter.

Choosing the right frame rate

Most cameras offer a variety of frame rates including 24fps – the traditional cinema setting – plus 25fps for UK PAL and 30fps for USA NTSC TV.

These rates are ideal for normal motion in normal conditions. So, for beginners, shoot 25p – a format that gives 25fps and calls for a 1/50sec shutter speed, as we’ve discussed.

Most cameras offer higher frame rates such as 50 and 60fps – even 100, 120, 200 or 240fps – meaning you are recording at faster than normal speed. When editing, this allows the action to be altered for slow motion. Footage shot at 50fps, for example, can be slowed to half speed when watched at 25fps; 100fps can be slowed to quarter speed.

Bear in mind that if you select higher frame rates, you need to up your shutter speed. Using the 2x rule calls for a shutter speed of 1/250sec for 120fps or 1/500sec for 240fps.

White balance in videography

Just as in stills, white balance is completely crucial in moviemaking. The chances are, you shoot Raw photographs to maximise editing options. But in movies, Raw video is a setting only a select number of high-end cinema cameras offer.

Given this, using manual white balance – or a specific white balance preset – is a good idea to give your footage consistency. Plus, you can make small corrections when in the editing suite.

Using colour profiles

To get more dynamic range in your shots, some cameras allow you to shoot in a variety of colour profiles such as ‘flat’ or ‘Log’. These record very flat-looking, unsaturated footage to retain as much shadow and highlight detail as possible, which can then be boosted back in the editing stage.

However, note that using one of the Log colour profiles – or ‘gammas’ – will usually increase the minimum ISO and remove noise reduction, so they’re best left alone until you have more experience.

Resolution

Many cameras have 4K, 6K or even 8K resolution, offering dynamic range of up to 13 or 14 stops. You may think these settings are needed to produce footage good enough for a large screen, but you’d be wrong.

Any camera with more than eight megapixels can potentially record video in 4K. Even the Sony A7S III, a full-frame camera aimed at filmmakers, only has a 12.1-megapixel sensor – and it shoots impressive 4K.

When footage is shown on normal, non-HDR TVs and computer screens – which is the vast majority – it’s usually in Full HD and a Rec. 709 colour space, which has around six stops of dynamic range.

So, you’re going to be throwing away a lot of resolution and dynamic range from an 8K, 14-stop HDR wonder-camera. You probably don’t need it.

Sensor size does make a difference, but it’s more to do with the shallow depth-of-field you get from using larger sensors rather than outright image quality. So don’t discount APS-C or Micro Four Thirds sensors, especially as cropped sensor sizes are more likely to feature a more effective in-body image stabilisation system.

Recording in the highest possible resolution will then give the most flexibility for cropping when editing, but it’s far better to get the framing right in-camera. Even recording everything and editing in 4K is overkill for many.

An introduction to codecs

When shooting stills, JPEGs and TIFFs are universal formats. But in video, every manufacturer has a range of its own ‘codecs’. Luckily, cameras save video in a viewable format that’s MOV or MP4. MOV is better for editing and MP4 better for use straight out of camera.

There are other factors at play such as video compression, not just on individual frames but compression between frames. All-Intra compression is better quality and takes up more space, whereas Long GOP (Group of Pictures) is lower quality.

There are also H.264 and H.265 options, which are largely 8-bit or 10-bit respectively. Then you have bit rates to choose, and a choice of chroma subsampling, usually labelled as 4:4:4, 4:2:2 or 4:2:0. Then there are progressive or interlaced options – the latter usually reserved for TV use.

It’s confusing, but as a rule when starting out, if you are going to be editing your film in HD, then film everything in HD so you have the biggest choice of codecs, frame rates and crops at your disposal – but you won’t have options to crop in post.

At the other end of the scale, if you film in 8K, you may be limited to 25fps, so there will be no slow motion available. And once footage is downsampled to HD, all the extra quality captured will be virtually impossible to see.

Each camera is different, and offers distinct frame rates and codecs. If your camera provides plenty of 4K options, this could be the best, since you are able to crop and will still have differing frame-rate options.

Practical exercise

Understand your camera’s video settings, including frame rates, exposure and codecs.

1. Switch your camera to video mode and navigate the video settings.
2. Set the camera to shoot at 25fps and a 1/50sec shutter speed.
3. Adjust ISO and aperture for proper exposure and, if you have one, experiment with using an ND filter in bright conditions.
4. Record a short video using different frame rates (e.g., 25fps, 50fps, 100fps) and observe the differences in motion smoothness.
5. Export the video and analyse how changing codecs (MP4 MOV) affects file size and quality.

Conclusion

As a photographer taking their first steps in videography, you should now have a basic understanding of key aspects like exposure, frame rates, white balance and the use of ND filters, along with more advanced topics such as colour profiles, resolution and codecs.

Throughout the duration of this course, we will build on this knowledge, ultimately equipping you with everything you need to unlock your camera’s full potential and start capturing high-quality footage.

We’d love to see how you’ve been putting what you’ve learned into practice. Share your videos or images with us on social media and you could be featured!