Tips on how to shoot beter home videos

Some of my clients bring me there home videos to edit or transfer and I just wanted to share a few tips for shooting better home videos.

The basics:

Zoom- Do not over use it! Zooming in and out will make you dizzy and zooming in without a steady hand or tripod just makes the video shaky.
If you want to zoom in do it nice and slow keep it there for at least 30 secs then come on back out.

Turn off Digital Zoom- your camera has an optical zoom then a digital zoom, it most cases just leave the digital zoom off these images are too far away to be in focus and if not on a tripod the shakiness will give you motion sickness.

Turn off the date and time- If you want to know the date say it at the beginning of the recording or turn it on for a minute then turn it off. Most current formats are recording this data hidden so its on the tape just hidden.

Video cameras cannot be turned on their side, I have had this more then once. ;)

Try and not to talk too much. I know your having fun too but if you want great footage you are behind the scenes (you could always hire me. ) ;)

Stopping and Starting Recording- When you hit record think before you hit stop and give it 5-10 extra seconds. Is the crowd still clapping? Is the song in the middle? Things like this break up the video.

Use a tripod

More tips:

Auto Focus- if you can turn yours off it may help in situations that are very busy like dance recitals and etc.
How to set manual focus- zoom all the way in on your subject, set the focus then zoom out. It’s now set.

Turn off Auto Gain- This is what makes your video look grainy in dark situations. If its too dark without gain – use an on camera light. Again for things like dance recitals the stage is nice and bright but the crowd is dark so the camera turn on the auto gain and blows out the image on the stage.

Audio is a big factor with home video cameras. There are some easy solutions. You can buy a simple 1/8 inch audio cable and plug into a sound board at an event.

Buy a microphone there are some low cost wireless or wired microphone systems that you can use the cheaper the more interference, but better then your on camera mic.

You can also use a mini disc or mp3 recorder for off camera recording (these will have to synced during editing)

And remember its better to have some on video then nothing so do have fun.

If you have any question feel free to shoot me an email dynamicvideo7@aol.com