Tips for making videos

[Noel]

Some Video Tips

 

Below are a synopsis of some tips I got years ago from a friend who was a professional camera man. I'm not a professional but I found his advise useful.

 

• Light the scene properly - avoid back lighting and strong overhead light that casts dark shadows, natural daylight through windows is best combined with indoor lighting that has a horizontal angle component. Set white balance on camera to suit candescent lighting, fluorescent lights, or sunshine if scene lit exclusively from windows on sunny day. Smartphones try and figure this out themselves.
  
• Plan scenes - avoid birds eye view of model railway stock, best is side on or slightly elevated view
  
• Avoid camera movement - use tripod or hold smartphone against solid object to avoid camera shake, or hold by hand as steady as possible.
  
• Generally never zoom or pan a camera - allow the action to move through the scene.
  
• If panning rotate camera very slowly and never back and forth
  
• On rare occasions when zooming do so very slowly and only once per shot
  
• If doing a tracking shot only the slightest horizontal tracking movement is needed to create the effect, avoid 'running' around a layout after a train. Use separate clips edited together.
  
• Sound - avoid unwanted background noises (e.g. background talking, barking dog, etc)
  
• Videoing moving model railway stock may work better if camera’s image stabilisation is turned off (avoids judder)
  
• Take multiple clips and then quilt together as a short movie using one of the many free video editing suites that comes with Windows, Mac or Smartphones.
  
• Use gentle transitions between clips (i.e. scene changes). Avoid sharp flick, most video editors even on smart phones allow various fades and scene blends.
  
• Be ruthless when editing to cut unnecessary material and avoid repeat shots.
  
• Sound - consider editing sound levels of recorded video if too loud
  
• Sound - consider adding a backing music track that is not too loud, nor incompatible with the scenes depicted (e.g: meat loaf and sedately moving steam train are not really compatible). Soothing music that enhances rather than distracts from the viewing experience
  
• Credits at start and end to summarise movie content is useful and allows a few seconds before movie starts
  
• If relevant add the odd short caption during the movie for example to explain a scene location, etc, but avoid over doing it and keep text to a few short word.
  
• When editing, cut, cut, cut - less is more if clips well edited together.
  

Edited September 26, 2017 by Noel

[MikeO]

Noel

 

A very comprehensive set of tips. I have tried the side and slightly elevated views but still get a "blurred" picture of the passing train due to the movement of the train itself. My camera does not have image stabilisation, as far as I am aware.

 

Any other tips on taking shots of a moving train.

 

MikeO

[Noel]

. . . I have tried the side and slightly elevated views but still get a "blurred" picture of the passing train due to the movement of the train itself. . . . Any other tips on taking shots of a moving train.

 

Hi Mike.

In simple terms the key to avoiding motion blur is a faster camera shutter speed, which can usually be achieved by providing more light (i.e. brighter lit subject and/or larger lens aperture). BTW for video recording, shutter speed is nothing to do with frame rate. Typically video is shot at 24fps or 30fps (frames per second), think of each frame as an individual still photograph, each still photograph should have a faster shutter speed if recording moving objects. Without getting technical about things like aperture, shutter speed and ISO, basically just make sure the scene is very bright when filming fast moving objects. Smartphones nicely bury the need to know any of this photography techno mumbo jumbo and will guess the best exposure, so just make the scene bright and well lit. Dark = motion blur, Bright = sharp in focus moving objects. Hope this makes sense.

Cheers.

Noel

[Broithe]

This is a bit rough, but I mounted a small camcorder on a bogie flat, with a mirror at 45 degrees, to get a "passenger's eye view" of a friend's layout. It could be done a lot better than this with a bit more time and thought.

 

[Noel]

This is a bit rough, but I mounted a small camcorder on a bogie flat, with a mirror at 45 degrees, to get a "passenger's eye view" of a friend's layout. It could be done a lot better than this with a bit more time and thought.

 

 

That's a great idea Broithe. Your friend has an impressive layout.

[MikeO]

Noel

Thanks. In video mode my camera does not provide any option to adjust the shutter speed. I will try more light to see if that helps and also slow the trains down even more than i do already. i will experiment with the slow running qualities on my German DCC layout.

 

MikeO

[Warbonnet]

Excellent advice Noel and I would agree with all pointers. I'm about to put up a video which flies in the face of a lot of the advice above but conditions were somewhat against me, being on a step!

[WRENNEIRE]

Very clever vid Broite, well done

Did I spy 3 MRSI anniversary wagons at one point?

[Broithe]

Very clever vid Broite, well done

Did I spy 3 MRSI anniversary wagons at one point?

 

Possibly, I know he has two and my one may have been leased out there at that time.

 

There is a passenger's-eye-view of his other layout, too.

 

 

Nice bit of flange-squeal simulation on that one, courtesy of the mirror hitting simething.

 

 

And driver's-eye-views, without the mirror.

 

 

[Noel]

Excellent advice Noel and I would agree with all pointers. I'm about to put up a video which flies in the face of a lot of the advice above but conditions were somewhat against me, being on a step!

 

Thanks Fran, don't worry one bit, I too have sinned and often 'flown in the face' of my pals advice. Since moving to Mac a few years ago it's taken me a while to transition to iMovie from various window apps I was familiar with, but I really started to enjoy what iMovie can manage all by itself without needing to use Final Cut Pro. It's quite powerful for a basic editor.

[Noel]

Possibly, I know he has two and my one may have been leased out there at that time.

 

There is a passenger's-eye-view of his other layout, too.

 

 

Nice bit of flange-squeal simulation on that one, courtesy of the mirror hitting simething.

 

 

And driver's-eye-views, without the mirror.

 

 

 

Most enjoyable video and views.