Home Video Hints: Common Camcorder Mistakes (page 2)

Having a lot of light at your disposal while shooting a scene may sound like a good thing. It is, except for those circumstances in which more light is coming from behind your subject than in front of your subject. Such situations occur when shooting someone in front of a window, or rolling tape when the sun is low in the sky behind your subject. In these cases, the light coming from behind, called backlight, is so intense and so directed at your camcorder's lens you will end up shooting a silhouette.
To deal with this situation, you have three choices. First, most camcorders offer functionality, activated with the press of a button, which compensates for scenes with too much backlight. It will electronically overexpose the backlight so that more of the light in the foreground can be "seen" by your camcorder. You will lose definition in the background but the foreground subject will be more discernable.
Second, you might turn on some lamps to add more light to the front of your subject, compensating for the intensity of the backlight so that the subject is no longer in silhouette.
The third and final option is probably the easiest and most effective. Simply reposition yourself or the subject a little so the bright backlight is no longer a problem.

Don't you hate it when you pick up your 35mm film from the local drugstore only to find those two or three pictures you didn't intend to take? You know, those shots of your feet or the ceiling. Those same unwanted shots can show up in your video footage - in far greater numbers - if you aren't careful about monitoring whether or not your camcorder is recording at any given time.
Because you control your camcorder's recording ability with the simple press of a button, it's easy to forget to stop recording when shooting is finished. It's important to actively check whether or not the camcorder is still in record when you are between shooting scenes or finished shooting for the day. This is as simple as double checking the viewfinder, which will often report to you whether or not your unit is recording. If you are notoriously forgetful about taking your camcorder out of record mode, teach yourself to actually power the unit down when you are not shooting. That way you can be sure that you're not recording footage you don't really want.

Today's camcorders can make you a lazy videographer, if you let them. That's because they are designed to do everything for you. They focus, adjust exposure and color calibrate. These automatic features are real time savers, and they make it easy for you to get good footage without being an expert cameraperson. However, automatic everything is not always suitable for every situation.
For example, low light conditions can confuse the heck out of your camcorder's autofocus. If you are shooting in candlelight, your unit will drift in and out of focus desperately trying to find something to focus on. In situations such as these, don't be afraid to turn off some of those automatic features and take control for yourself.
Autofocus, for example, deactivates with the touch of a button. Turning off auto-exposure lets you take control of how much light enters the lens. Deactivate auto-shutter to tell your camcorder how best to catch high-speed action.
Then, after you have met the demands of your unusual shooting environment, turn those automatic features back on for conventional shooting.

Think you'll ever be completely comfortable with your ability to shoot good video? Of course you will. That's not to say you won't make mistakes, even some of those mentioned here. Don't fret, though. Over time your mistakes will become less frequent, and along the way you will learn more about how your camcorder works, and how to make it work for you in the creation of outstanding video.

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