Mon Dec 13, 2010 10:15 pm by Vincent_Dark
good videos guys!!....it's great to see people getting into the production side of things.
as fas as getting your backgrounds to be as dark as my vids.
Listen to the lighting tips that Ozzie listed...he pointed out some great tips especially about the reflection properties.
Also, in my basic video tips video...the angles and the lights that i showed in that video is pretty much the way i have them angled for a majority of my vids. only making minor adjustments to the direction of the light itself for certain moves or if i'm standing, sitting, etc. but the position of the lights is almost always the same.
I also make a lot of use out of using a ground light and having it angled upwards diagonally towards the main focus of where the move is taking place..i like the effect it gives off, as the main source lighting is coming from underneath the hand and knife.
I also never have the lights angled directly at the background as it will cause glare and hotspots, and it will make it harder to get the "all black" look
Also, make use of color correction when you are editing!! adjust your brightness and contrast and color setting in your editing software...with some software..you may have save the color correction for the last step before rendering....otherwise, with some software set ups, if you color correct before you add any effects or transitions or editing...it will glitch, and all you will get is a white overlay over your entire vid.
I usually use very very little color correction on my videos...i still use it, but the adjustment i have to make is very minimal, as my raw footage with the way i position my lights almost automatically gets the "all black" look...this is because i don't drown my shot with a ton of lighting... there is no need to have every light you own on your shot all pointing at the same focal point. I use 3 light sources and they each cover a different area and angle.
If you watched my tip video, you noticed that i said i use that window a lot for natural lighting....when i want an all black shot, i shoot at night time when there is no light coming thru that window...i can still get an all black background if i shoot in the daytime...but there will be a lot more color correcting and adjustments to make,and i might not be able to get completely black without makin everything else too dark as well and losing some clarity... but i will get a more even coverage and more natural colored lighting...so it's a tradeoff depending on what i am trying to achieve overall for the shot.
however daytime filming and using my window lighting...is great for shots in which i am not using a background and just using the blank wall as the background...that window faces east...so usually at 2-5 pm...the lighting is good enough that i don't use any other lighting in the room at all..just the window.
spyderflys vid is basically what my vids would look like if i filmed with natural daylight coming from the window and all my room lights on and did not use any color correcting while i was editing, so you can see the dramatic difference that color correcting can make when editing videos. while the video still looked good, and already made a substantial jump in production by using a background...think about how much better it would look after some brightness and contrast adjustments
and gregs vid has a bit of a hotspot on the left side, which is often cause by having too much light aimed at your background instead of having the light coming in from the sides or at more of a diagonal pitch. Don't know if it was color corrected at all or if it just had ambient room lighting with one stronger light source coming in from the right...if it had been color corrected, the hotspot could have been to harsh and after the corrections, it would still show up as brown on the video, and give off the mosaic or blocky effect as well. still a great looking video though
some other tips to take note of...if you are filming with a black background and color correcting...really think about what moves you will be filming...and at what angles the blade and handles will be facing during the entire shot, and then adjust your lighting accordingly. your knife, the blade especially when mixed with lighting, has a tendency to reflect the background ..in this case, back. so at certain moments during your routine, if you are filming close up shots, parts of your knife may seem to disappear in the black background. my vids have several examples of this effect happening..hah
also, when you do find that sweet spot and get your lighting angles down perfect with no glare, wash-out, hotspots, and nice even color and coverage....take extensive notes on the exact angles and positions of the lights and camera. Sometimes when i look thru old clips on my hard drive..i see some shots with perfect lighting...but i can never re-create it cause i wasn't paying attention to what i was doing when i filmed it.
"Traveling at the speed of dark"
agent number 4..I /rollz for the lulz...a new standard has been set.
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