If you want to be a good camera operator, bury your head in the viewfinder. Don’t stand back looking at the side flip out viewfinder on your camera. You need to be totally absorbed in the frame with no distractions to do your best work.

Remember this: “The fewer elements in the shot - the more power the
shot will have”. Try to compose your frame with no more than six main items in the frame.

Always check the end of your tripod legs after shooting out doors or in farmer’s field. You don’t want to set up on Aunt Fanny’s new carpet after working around cows.

Composition has a lot to do with balance in the frame. You want to also have some object as your point of emphasis. Smaller objects can balance large objects.

Lets say you are on the beach shooting out toward the ocean. You have both sky and sea in the shot. Don’t place your horizon line directly in the middle of the frame. When you do this you’re inviting the audience to make a choice on which is more important in the shot, the sky or the sea? Better to give two thirds of your frame to either of these to make a stronger shot.

Remember also that in our world with buildings, telephone polls, lamp standards etc., we know that these objects are straight, so they should line up with the edges of your frame. The same applies to horizontal lines. If in your shots the lines are not straight, then you as the camera op. are not paying attention to composition.

Now there is in the film business a term known as “Dutch Angle”. This simply refers to tilting the camera by at least 20 degrees to throw off vertical and horizonal lines to give the audience a feeling of unease. You would see this kind of thing horror films or when people are under the influence.

To really understand great composition take a look a the great painters of a few centuries ago. They were masters of composition. You could also just study photographs in a magazine such as National Geographic or Life Magazine.

It is second nature to any seasoned cinematographer to always have a well composed shot. This person is totally concerned with keeping the picture pleasing to the eye.

Cheers, Barry

You can pay a lot of money for camera filters these days, with the biggest problem being what filters do you really need?

In the professional world you can purchase low contrast filters, soft contrast filters, ultra contrast filters, fog filters, double fog filters, enhancing filters, diffusion filters, net filters, star filters, sephia filters, coral filters, polarizing filters, neutral density filters to name a few.

To make things even more complicated, many of these filters come in grades ranging from one eighth to a number five. Each increasing grade has a little more density in the filter.

In the professional world we often try to make video look like film by using filters. (I might point out here that it is rare that we try to make film look like video) The idea behind this is to take out the overly sharp look of video and soften the look. Often a double fog or black promist filters are used for this effect.

Rather than going out and spending a lot of money on filters you can actually create your own filters that will do a similar job. Of course if you want to spend the money you will find that filters can run you well over $100 each. The 3 X3 filters that fit onto the mat box
(the hooded black unit on the end of lens) for my Betacam camera can run anywhere from $130 to $200 each.

Try putting a nylon stocking over your lens. Secure it with an elastic band and pull the stocking so that t is smooth across the front of the lens. You can use a white stocking or even a brown or black stocking. Make sure you check the look on your monitor or TV
set to really see the difference in the look. This stocking idea was created in the early days of filmmaking and is still used today by some directors of photography.

You could even try using a splatter screen from you frying pan or anything that will let most of the light through but still soften the image.

Try shooting a candle in a dark room with the stocking on the front and notice what happens to the glow of the candle?? Kinda cool looking isn’t it.

Give this idea a whirl and let me know what you think.