Camera Settings

Post your questions regarding setting up your camera! But first, check out the following information on camera settings.

First off is your white balance. This function tells your camera what color is white, which it then uses to figure out every other color. This is probably one of the most important features of a camera, as it sets how good/bad your colors will look. Most cameras have white balance settings to fit indoor or outdoor settings, tungten lights, fluorescent lights, and more. It may also have the "one push" setting, which is what you'll want to use. What you do is simply select this while pointing your camera at something thats white. You can also experiment with different shades to see how the colors turn out. The golden colors you see in a lot of skate videos are achieved by white balancing off blue, like from the sky.

Then theres shutterspeed. Shutterspeed determines how many times per second light is let into the lens. For instance, if you have a shutter of 1/120, then the shutter is open for 1/120th of a second. A faster shutterspeed will give a more crisp image, while a slower one will give the image more motion blur. It will also effect how bright or dark the image is. A faster speed will make it darker, and slower brightens it. Usually in the daytime I like to use a SS of 1/180 or 1/250, and in lower light either 1/120 or 1/60.

Iris/Aperture controls how wide/thin the hole is that lets light into the camera. It is denoted by an F stop. The bigger the f-stop, the more light is let in. F/1.4 would be brighter than f/5.6, etc. Aperture also effects depth of focus. A larger aperture gives a gives a shallower depth of field, meaning less of the image will be in focus. This can be really useful for getting artsy shots, by having the subject in focus while the background is out of focus. You can learn more about that in the photography section. Finally, a narrower iris will give a deeper depth of focus. Usually you'll want this higher so everything is in focus. I like to have mine at f/5.6, keeps it in focus while not being too dark.

Exposure is the last option you have to brighten/darken your shot. You usually don't want to mess with this too much because it can cause noise, or make the image look sandy/grainy.

Those are your basic settings that come with most cameras. Get those dialed and your footage will look prime!

It would be cool to see a mash-up of 24p footage for intro's and other bits in people's edits. Especially since a lot of cameras are now allowing the feature.

Quick Question
May be dumb or already covered but I need help

While Filming inside (under only artificial light) this winter my footage comes all grainy and gross is there any way to fix this.
Any help is appreciated.

This happens a lot with typical public lighting.

Some things that have helped me are to use a filter and raise my exposure along with adjusting white balance to something white in the area with the same light hitting it.

Hope this works for you.