You Are Getting Sleepy
Techsmith are the creators of what is probably the best screen recording suite on the market today, Camtasia.
It’s actually a program I use all the time and have been trying to get around to doing a review of it for some time now… no luck so far!
However apart from my lack of organization, one of the best features of the suite are the tutorial videos TechSmith have created for owners of the program.
Truth is that while many of the video are Camtasia-centric (OK, I know that’s not a word!), a great many provide solid advice on the subject of video in general.
The one referenced below has some great information on holding your viewers attention once you get them to your video.
- Holding Your Viewer’s Attention with Engaging Content
Color Correction
Another Corel VideoStudio video tutorial for Gripps this week and this time it’s an important one.
One of the most powerful tools in your video editing software toolbox is by far the one that is the least understood and, as a result, the most underused.
I am talking about color correction.
I am not going to pretend I am any good at it and I think the fact that I don’t have a color correction tutorial of my own posted anywhere on this site is testimony to that!
There is a lot to understand on this subject but at least take a look at the video below to get a little more familiar with the subject and maybe get yourself into that toolbox.
Basic Lighting and Camera Angle Tips
This is a great one page article over at ReelSEO giving a very clear and concise round up of the effect various light settings and camera angles can have on a shoot.
Probably the best part is the explanation of the angles in that they explain what the effect is if you shoot a certain way or not.
For example shooting a person at eye level creates a neutral emotion towards that person on the part of the audience.
Shooting from above eye level makes them look insignificant and shooting from below makes them look a little threatening!
DIY Bounce Boards
Bounce boards are those big flat reflective or white screens that photographers and videographers use to bounce light off light source on to a subject to achieve various effects.
They can be used to soften that bounced light or to focus it or to balance the bounced light in such a way as to highlight or hide some about the subject.
In fact they are pretty much the work horse of the pro and semi-pro video shooter.
In just about any situation where yo have a primary source of light you can use that source in conjunction with a bounce board to create a secondary “source.”
Of course the pro versions are stupid expensive so here’s a tutorial on making an cheap on for yourself.
- Simple DIY bounce Boards
Examples of Composition
Over the past few years I have tried as often as possible to refer to tips and tricks posts on the subject of composition.
One of the key reasons pro videos seem to look different is because of this subject.
Of course in a pro setting there is time to plan, stage, position and generally attend to every last little details of a shot to get it to look absolutely perfect.
I don’t really think that any of us are ever going to be in a position to set up a shot anywhere like that.
However that is still no excuse for not at least gaining or developing an awareness of the composition of the shots we are taking and try to tidy them up a little.
So, in light of that the link below is not a tutorial or tips’n’tricks article by any means.
It is simply an amazing example of the power that can be created within a scene by focusing on composition.
Remove Video Black Bars
With the almost endless choices available these days for output parameters for your video projects it is not unusual for you to end up with results not quite as expected.
One undesirable result in particular that can be the source of endless frustration is the appearance of black bars to the left and right of your video.
This can be the result of the file being unsuitable for the display method selected or that the file was simply rendered the wrong way in the first place.
Another situation can be that you have old projects that were fine at the time but now due to new technology are looking a little dated!
In any case check out the link below for an excellent article on identifying and solving this problem.
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