Getting Started: Settings

When it comes to preserving special family memories, the journey starts with properly acquainting yourself with your equipment. We all know that being able to maximize what your gear can offer is a priceless advantage in creating timeless footage you can cherish through the years. Thus, it’s always a good idea to go through the settings beforehand. A few minutes of tweaking will surely save you from any grief and frustration when editing your footage afterwards. Let’s take a look at what important settings to mind when shooting.

Setting White Balance

What the human eye sees is different from what a camcorder sees, so it’s important to configure white balance settings to get the appropriate color you want. There are presets available for specific lighting conditions, including Indoor, Outdoor and Auto. Using the correct preset based on the light environment you will be shooting under will most probably spare you from video that looks unappealingly yellowish or too blue.

While the Auto White Balance does an excellent job most of the time, variable or conflicting lighting conditions may require you to choose the manual presets. Incorrect white balance settings that do not match lighting conditions may result in footage that is too warm and yellowish, or bluish on cloudy days.

If you want the colors of your footage to appear more natural, match your white balance settings to current lighting conditions. If, for some reason, you’re not satisfied with the available white balance presets (such as if the ambient lighting contains mixed colours), you’ll need to set your white balance manually. Just point your camcorder at a white card or object, and press the one push white balance icon, and your white balance is set.

Adjusting Focus

Shooting with Auto Focus will most likely be a hit or miss ordeal, especially when you are shooting a busy and crowded environment, where other objects tend to be focused on instead. To avoid the risk of putting your subject out of focus, it’s always prudent to switch your camcorder to Manual Focus. In any case, keep in mind that what’s important is to always keep your subject in clear sight and well focused!

When shooting complex scenes (e.g a crowded living room), it may be better to use Manual Focus. You can even achieve some cool effects by blurring the focus at the beginning or end of the video!

Shooting Extreme Close Ups with Tele Macro

Whenever you want to highlight your subjects or shoot them up close, it’s best to use the nifty Tele Macro feature that keeps your subjects in sharp focus while blurring out the background. This way, you are able to make your toddler stand out of the scene while playing in the park, and be able to capture the action where it counts.

Using the Tele Macro Mode will put the emphasis on your subjects, and keep unimportant parts of the scene unfocused. Plus, it adds softness and warmth to family scenes too.

Utilizing Your Zoom

As much as possible, stay away from the zoom rocker if you intend on shooting smooth and steady footage that won’t cause a nauseating viewing experience. Frequently zooming in and out will only deliver a dizzying spectacle for your audience; thus it’s wise to keep it minimal and use other techniques instead. If you want a closer shot, an agreeable thing to do would be to simply change the focal point between takes.