Any tips on avoiding glare for video (vblogs & videocasts)?

[John Wait]

Just arrived home after two great days at Podcast Academy. Lots of
great tips on how to control audio "noise" regarding microphones.
Today there was some great info on video.

In the videos shown, I noticed problems with video clarity (sun in
the background etc). Can anyone point to any urls with good tips on
shooting video well (so time does not need to be spent after shooting?

Many thanks to Doug and all presenters for putting this together. Very
helpful two days.

Thanks, John

[Steve Garfield]

Start here:

http://izzyvideo.com/

[larlaw]

[larlaw]

While Steve is an entertaining guy, he makes no effort to frame his
shots or consider the standards of lighting, color balance and
composition. I am entertained by the antics of the work from Steve, it
is the equivalent of MySpace for adults.

To avoid glare make sure you don't have a light source bouncing off
your lens as you shoot. If you want to shoot a backlit situation look
at your lens to see if you can see your light source bouncing off the
lens. This is what creates glare, reduces contrast and alters other
aspects of the visual aspects of what you are capturing, including
clarity.

Check out Franklin MacMahon on Creative Cow network.
http://www.fmstudio.com/blog/index.html. He has some interesting and
informative tutorials to share, as well as some podcasts that are shot
with visual content in mind.

[Steve Garfield]

Larry,

Thank you for your insight into my work.

Just for the record, what I showed in the session were 'moments
showing' type of videos where content becomes the focus.

Vloggers are using small digital cameras to capture moments that would
have been lost if they didn't have a camera with them.

I'm all in favor of vloggers learning about good lighting, sound and
camera techniques, and I certainly value this myself, but I don't
want people to be hung up by that.

Just get out and do it.

Same with podcasting. All you really need to do a podcast is a
computer and a microphone or even just a telephone.

On Apr 30, 2006, at 11:46 AM, larlaw wrote:

> While Steve is an entertaining guy, he makes no effort to frame his
> shots or consider the standards of lighting, color balance and
> composition. I am entertained by the antics of the work from Steve, it
> is the equivalent of MySpace for adults.

--Steve
--
http://SteveGarfield.com - Fighting the good fight
http://Rocketboom.com - Correspondent
http://hipcast.com (formerly audioblog) - Community Manager

[Len Edgerly]

I just watched the first episode of Izzy's tutorials and learned about
the Rule of Thirds. Thanks for the link! I am sure I can learn the
techniques and am eager to do so, but the real gift Steve offered, in
my case, was a childlike joy and fearlessness to discover this new
world of video blogging. You can't teach that in a tutorial. So when
you experience it in person, you return home very, very grateful and
eager to jump in.

[larlaw]

I absolutely agree. The joy of creating content and sharing is, and
should be, the primary driving force. Do it, and enjoy it. I also
think. as you begin to create your voice using podcast and social
blogging technologies that there is an opportunity to create a distinct
and recognizable style both in your content and in your technical
expertise as you grow within the medium. There are a variety of
helpful sites that can assist in the learning of new and better ways to
use the tools. I am hoping to create a new podcast within the week. I
have some education ideas to chase down that occurred to me as we
listened to the Duke and Harvard podcasters speak. I will keep you
tuned.

[larlaw]

Just looked at this site.http://freevlog.org/ and there was more
indication that content wins out over technique. I particularly liked
the Beantown, dishwasher music. If you can make dishwashing in a
restaurant sound interesting, that is a good thing.