Lens filters once allowed all sorts of special effects. Star filters made twinkly stars wherever a highlight appeared in frame. Gradient filters turned boring skies into dark stormy skies or brilliant sunsets. Even defusion filters to get that Vaseline smeared-on-the-lens dreamy look from your video camera. Of course for this effect a pair of nylons stretched tightly over your lens will do the trick too.
Alas, now we have computers (more…)
I hate cleaning my lens. It scares me, damn things expensive, but I’ve seen a lot of video ruined behind a dirty lens. Try and shoot a beautiful sunset behind a dirty lens and the beautiful sunset will be the second thing your viewers will notice. So keep it clean but CAREFULLY.
Contrast ratio has a lot to do with our last tutorial on the iris. You see contrast ratio is the difference between the lightest and darkest objects in a shot. Unfortunately video doesn’t do very well with this and the iris we talked about last time is the tool that has to deal with it.
Here’s another excerpt from the Mastering Videography DVD.
Plosives are a real pain in my .. well, lets just say I make a lot of them. Plosives are those annoying pops people sometimes make when talking into a microphone. P’s and B’s cause a lot of them. Its a burst of air hitting the microphone. (more…)
