Here are some chapters from a few Lynda.com tutorials that might be helpful.
Note that you won’t be able to watch them unless you are logged in to Lynda.com.
If you haven’t gotten access yet (It’s free through the New School) Here are some instructions.
Tutorial
Video for Photographers – Shooting with a DSLR
Below are some chapters that I selected that are particularly relevant to our project. They are more about how you approach your subject that the technical methods of using a camera.
Basic Shooting with a DSLR
Thinking about composition with your camera
Shooting Video to tell a story
This episode talks about something familiar to you: Beginning – Middle – End
Shooting for coverage
This chapter focuses on getting a variety of shots that enable you to edit.
Close ups, Middle Shots and Wide shots.
Understanding how to shoot movement
How does movement relate to the frame? Things moving in and out. Capturing the whole movement.
Shooting a moving Subject
Here’s a quote from thsi section that’s relevant to us:
Finally, think about gestures as a part of movement. Gesture is a unique or distinctive movement of your subject. You can shoot gestures as medium or close shots and you can even get cutaways of people gesturing around the main action. Gesture does not simply mean someone talking with their hands. It means watching for a unique movement or gesture, whether that is from a person, a plant, an animal or even a machine. If there is some sort of movement that gives a gesture that is unique and distinctive for your subject.
Creating Movement
Moving the camera. Panning, zooming, tilting.
Chapter:
Shooting with a shallow depth of field
from DSLR Video Tips with Richard Harrington and Robbie Carman
One thing that distinguishes a DSLR from other modes of shooting video (video camera, iphone, etc) is that you can control the focus in the image keeping the subject in focus but having a soft background. This is called depth of field and is controlled using the aperture setting in the camera. Here’s a nice description of Aperture in photography from the site Digital Photography School.
Different lenses have different apertures and therefore different focal lengths.
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| Large depth of field more of the foreground AND background are in focus |
shallow depth of field Big change of focus from foreground to background |
The chapter above is from this tutorial:
DSLR Video Tips with Richard Harrington and Robbie Carman
This is a very comprehensive DSLR tutorial, much of it is probably too detailed for what we need, but it’s a good resource if you want to explore specific aspects of shooting video with a DSLR camera.
