Video Camera Settings that Photographers Get Wrong!

In today’s fast pace world of social media, video is easily one of the most popular pieces of content that we see.
As a photographer, this can be both daunting and scary.

Should you also start offering video or can you simply continue to only offer Photography as a service?

Our answer? You don’t have to offer video in order to be successful with a camera today.
Although, it can definitely help!

Let’s talk about a few video settings that photographers get wrong and how to fix them.

Mistake #1: Shutter Speed

We know that the 3 variables within the Exposure Triangle are Aperture (F-stop), Shutter Speed, and ISO. Those 3 are still exactly the same with video, but there are a few “rules” that you should strive to obey.

Introducing: the 180* shutter rule.

The 180* shutter rule states that your shutter speed (some cameras use shutter angle) should always be 2x (or double) your frame rate.

So, if you are shooting in 24fps (frames per second), your shutter speed should be set to 1/48 or 1/50 in most cases.

The reason this rule exists is to keep a natural looking motion blur in your video.

You can see the difference in this video example from a Podcast Episode here.

How do I keep a 180* shutter when shooting video outside?

You’re probably thinking.. wait, I really want a shallow depth of field on this shot, but you’re telling me that I can’t use a higher shutter than 2x my frame rate, how can I get a proper exposure?

This is where a Neutral Density filter comes into play. Specifically, a variable ND filter.

This is essentially sun glasses for your camera. A variable ND filter screws on the front or your lens changes in intensity as you spin it. Commonly, a variable ND will cover from 2 stops of light to 8 stops of light.

If you are outside, you’re going to need an ND filter to maintain a 180* shutter rule and keep that shallow depth of field. Here’s a link to a great ND Filter if you’re looking for one. *Just be sure to match the filter thread size to the lens that you’re going to be using it with.

Mistake #2: wrong Frame Rate (frames per second)

The next issue that we often see beginners make is choosing to record in the wrong frame rate, or the wrong frames per second.
With video, your camera is taking several pictures every second to create the video that you see. This is called Frames per second.

The Hollywood standard is 24 (23.98) Frames per second, which means every second has 24 frames (pictures) captured.

As a general rule, you should record your video in 24 fps UNLESS you are going to be slowing the footage down for a slow motion effect. Slow motion is generally shot in 60fps, 120fps, 240fps or higher). You need more frames captured with each second of time so that you can stretch/slow it down later when you’re editing your video.

CAUTION: If you attempt to slow down something shot in 24fps, it will be choppy because there isn’t enough frames to be stretched and slowed down.

Mistake #3: Using the wrong ISO

With regards to photography, you’ve probably heard that the lower your ISO value, the cleaner (or less noisy) your images will be. That also holds true with video, but it’s not as cut/dry unfortunately.

If you are shooting in your camera’s LOG picture profile, you need to be very careful to shoot with your camera’s BASE/NATIVE ISO Values. Many cameras today will have 2 base/native ISOs and that just means that if you shoot at those values, you will produce the cleanest possible images in your video. Remember, digital noise in video is something that you should avoid.

For instance, we shoot a lot of our work on the BlackMagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6k Pro (I know that’s a mouthful). We always shoot these in their LOG profile and with these cameras, the 2 base ISO values are 400 and 3200.

So, as a rule, we shoot everything that we can at ISO 400 until there’s not enough light present, and at that point, we will bump it up to 3200 ISO. We could shoot at the values in between, but they wouldn’t produce as clean of a result in the final product as using 1 of the 2 base ISO values.

If you’re recording video in a standard picture profile, you’re probably going to want to stay below ISO 800 in most cases just to be safe.

Mistake #4: Using Auto White Balance

In photography, especially if you’re shooting RAW, you could be used to using Auto White Balance because you can change the values in Lightroom or Photoshop if they weren’t captured properly in camera.

Unfortunately with video, changing the White Balance in post production isn’t as simple. So that means that you need to set a custom/manual white balance to get it right in camera.

With video, not only is it harder to correct an improper white balance in post, but you also don’t want your white balance shifting in the middle of your recording. If you are using Auto White Balance and your camera detects a change in the scene, it will change the white balance in the middle of your shot. Now you’ve really got a nightmare on your hands in post production because the same shot now has multiple white balances in it.

So, how do you know what the proper white balance is so that you can set it in camera? We use an app called LSP EVO and it’s amazing! This is a paid app, but it’s one that we use on every single production, so it’s well worth it!

Here’s a clip of how it works.

LSP Evo demonstrating how it helps you achieve the proper white balance in your shot!

As you can see, it dynamically changes as you move your phone around a scene. It’s constantly giving you a read out of what you should set your WB (Kelvin) to in camera in order to achieve a true white or middle grey.

In Summation

As we stated earlier, there are a lot of overlapping techniques and skills between photography and videography, but there are also several differences.

When we first started offering video, we made every single one of these mistakes. Our hope is to help someone avoid making them as well.

If you’d like to see more detailed explanations of these common mistakes, we discuss this in a podcast episode here.

If you have any questions for us, please don’t hesitate to reach out. We love helping people and we would love nothing more than to answer your questions. Feel free to use the form below and we’ll get back to you!