Notes on Cameras for Photography

Practical Photojournalism by Martin Keane

·         Visible light 400 nm to 7860 nm

·         P3 when rays of light diverging from a point fall on a lens they are focused oo produce an image

·         The distance from the lens to the plane in which parallel light is brought into focus is known as the focus length of the lens

·         The greater the focal length the larger the size of objects in the image created

·         P6 A lens needs to be moved relative to the image plane to compensate for changes in distance between it and the subject

·         P7 lenses using internal focusing are sometimes designated IF

·         Aperture is the amount of light that a lens will pass

·         Settings of aperture are conventionally: 1, 1.4, 2, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22, 32

·         The smaller the number the greater the amount of light passed by the lens

·         Each setting passes half the light of the next setting numerically smaller than it

·         P8 a reduction in the physical size of the aperture when taking the picture i.e choosing a bigger number (stopping down) will mean less light coming through the lens which has to compensated by longer exposure (more camera shake) or etc… it also increases the depth of field

·         Focal length divided by its effective diameter

·         As shutter speeds vary by a factor of 2

·         To pass twice as much light, the diameter of the lens has to be increased, not by a factor of 2, but by a factor of the square root of 2 (=approx. 1.4)

Basic Studio Directing

Basic Studio Directing by Rod Fairweather, Focal Press, Oxford, 1998

• p12 ‘shouting gets in the way of useful talkback’
• p14 ‘producer and director must work as a team’ - technical teams must follow the director
• ‘on air time and exact duration’ p18
• p24 Focal length ‘If parallel light is shone into a lens the distance to the point of focus behind a lens is its focal length
• fnumbers: we use an iris (a variable size hole) in  lens to control the amount of light let through
• the more we open the iris the smaller the f number
• each stop lets in twice as much light as the previous field
• Semi profile shot, 2 shot
• looking room, head room, not centre framing, balancing shots
• non-horizontal lines
• inexperienced directors have nothing in foreground whilst crabbing
• p100 ‘slowly zooming can be highly effective’
• can be visually dull without reaction shots

Grading Basics

Gamma - shadows

Pedestal - mid tones (over tone)

Gain - highlights

Aspect Ratios

Standard Definition

SD 4:3 - 720 x 576 non-square pixels
Pillar box
can be made 16:9 by using an anamorphic lens

High Definition

16:9
720p HD frame 1080 x 720
Full HD Frame 1920 x 1080
Letter box

Quad HD = 3840x2160

2k = 2048x1080

4k = 4096x2160

Working with Lighting

Health and Safety:

Always use gloves

  Keep away from curtains and furniture

  Allow 20 mins cool-down time

Always use RCD (trip switch) 

  Always extend any cable coiling to avoid

  overheating from electrical induction (to prevent   potential melting of cabling)

  Don’t overload circuits, esp. in non-studio locations 

 Don’t touch new bulbs with fingers when changing light   bulb

Tape down all cables across throughways

  Carefully adjust sturdiness of lamp stands

  Rain!

  Wind – use sandbags to weigh down lamps 

White Balance

Cameras must be set to recognise a certain colour temperature as neutral white.  This is known as adjusting the white balance.

White light is made up of the full spectrum of these wavelengths, but different proportions of combinations of this spectrum will produce different‘tones’of white, although our eye will adjust to them and just see ‘white’.

To adjust the white-balance

•Get in manual mode

•Go to memory A or B

•Focus on a white surface (full frame) with correct exposition

•Hold AWB button until AWB OK is displayed

•The principal two are photographic daylight (usually thought of as 5600 K) and tungsten (3200 K).

•However, daylight can vary from 2000 K at sunrise to 7000 K on an overcast day.

Boom Operating

Why use a boom pole? Which is the closest place to an actor's voice, that is outside most shot framing?

What is the quickest way to change the position of a microphone?

Video formats

NTSC is used in US and Japan

30 fps

Europe's standard of definition is PAL

Old movies were 16 fps

Cameras have been 24fps since the introduction Of sound

See every frame twice so actually 48fps

Mains electricity is uk is alternating current at 50 hts and as this was used to lock TV signal in it is 25fps

Avid Editing Notes

Exporting:
go to  format options, make sure sound is checked

Keyboard Shortcuts:
s=save
h=hide
] or [=zoom in/out
j <---
l --->
c will open clip in source window
l or k to make tracks different sizes

Audio:
s button will solo a track, m button will mute a track
CDs are normally louder - adjust in import settings
windows, workspaces, audio editing
can select from fast menu to automation mix as the sequence plays, right click, modify

Dupe Detection will highlight if you've used any frames more than once

AMA linking:
If AMA link up doesn't work then delete the AMA management folder on the macintosh hard disk

Users:
To make new user go to settings, drop down from apple to new user

Save bin layout in case you mess bins up: workspaces, properties, associate a layer with a workspace

Effects:
If have green dot they play in real time without rendering
To save an effect drag its icon into the bin

Titles:
Tools, title tool application
...... put border on
drag box to create shadow, click in box to change direction of fade
object menu, soften shadow
click white box to open temporary control
object menu, send to front or back
roll is up and down
crawl is side to side
set in and out points to adjust the speed to credits
right click, render at position to make text work

Time Warp:
won't change sound speed
fast menu, speeding frame
use speed graph or points on graph
Roger recommends 'blended inerpolated'
put anchor in middle, click both keyframes on, make middle one another point, type -100 in first bottom box

Nesting:
Double click video track to add another effect

Colour Correction:
workspaces, colour correction
waveform monitor, rgb parade
y waveform is luminsesence
if leave video track on it applies effect to whole track
eye drop a colour cast with wrong colour
retroscope reads colour saturation
option c will save colour correction

Working with still graphics:


When editing a news story:
A1=Sync (dogs barking, people talking)
A2=Voiceover
A3=F/X (traffic noise etc)

Warnings:

• When you make a new sequence you lose your undo list
• 
  

Cinematography Quotes

 Vilmos Zsigmond

• in 2d you have to create the depth
• film noir type lighting that is a hard direct light source
• when the camera is shaking all over the place you cannot forget you are watching a movie
• seldom have arguments with directors because im trying to shoot their ideas not mine

Christopher Doyle

• th cinematographer/camera operator is the closest person to the actor
• the bridge, the conduit between the audience and what's in front of the camera
• gives resonance to the image
• have to be transparent and remove ourselves enough so that the passage between the actors and the audience is direct
• if you are working with digital etc, the energy and the challenge comes from the peculiarities of the medium not from trying to replicate film
• inform myself and the audience through visual experience and enhance it or suggest another visual experience
• 'is that all you can do?'
• I have used green moonlight in many of my films
• Art is supposed to transcend the mundane, the accepted, not condescend to it
• being an outsider is useful
• camera people not directors of cinematography

Michael Ballhaus

• Anything you can think, you can also do. Sometimes it takes a little longer, or it takes a little mor money but you can do it
• you can't move the camera in a comedy as much as you can in a drama because the timing is too important
• a bulb is a constant light but a candle flickers
• right tone between seeing enough and not too much
• every movie I do should look different

James Wong Howe

• There's one thing a light meter can not tell you, and that's whether it's the right mood or not

Ed Lachman

• painters always came from a certain personal, social and political position - you could come from a certain idea about an image rather than just trying to make it look aesthetically beautiful
• dadaism and the found image in art
• use of colour to create emotions rather than pictorial representation
• how different light sources mixed or individually create a mood through the different colour tempuratures
• What will tell the poetic or pyschological truth of an image
• images are metaphors to uncover something - helping reach interior
• you can deal with reality as the illusion and you can create your illusion as reality

Rodrigo Pieto

• I go to photography books - how could I present that visually
• Oliver Stone expects his team to propose concepts
• I do my own shot list before  I talk to the director
• I try to have the camera move as if the scene's energy makes it move
• I don't think 'good' photography is always 'beautiful' photography
• images holud just be what moves you and what will support the story

Caleb Deshcanel

• You start the movie and you finish it
• sometimes I like the chanllenge of something not being overtly visual
• visual style that tells story -repeating elements, something new
• It's really like music - it has different movements
• I like to take every scene and think about what's important
• bring an emotional context from a visual point of view
• become a real observer and  develop an understanding of human behaviour

Raoul Coutard

• I think that a film is good when you come out of the cinema totally stunned

Vittorio Storaro

• Cinema is a language of image
• a cinematographer has to design and write the story starting at the beginning, through the evolution to the end

Chris Menges

• operating a camera with ground glass you see and beleive
• you have to be driven but you also have to listen

Dion Beebe

• people have to be able to invest a lpt of confidence in your ability
• prepare thoroughly for each job
• relationships you develop for your crew
• no should never be an option
• the idea is key and having blue sky moments liberates those ideas
• create an atmosphere of trust

Jack Cardiff

Owen Roizman

Development of a TV Studio Production

1. Idea
2. Draft Script
3. Preliminary Planning
4. Final Script
5. Technical planning
6. Rehearsal Script
7. Pre studio rehearsals
8. Camera script
9. Prepare Studio
10. Camera blocking
11. Run through
12. Final Rehearsal
13. Videotaping
14. Offline editing decisions
15. On line editing
16. review
17. Transmission

Wide vs Narrow-angle Lens

Wide angle Lens:

1. Takes in large segment of scene
2. can distort picture
3. space, distance and depth are exaggerated
4. camera handling and focusing are easy

Narrow Angle Lens:

1. Small segment of scene in shot
2. Narrowest angles can give blow up telescopic image
3. Space, distance and depth are compressed
4. Camera handling and focusing harder

What a Lens Shows

Depends on:

• Size of subject
• Distance from subject
• Focal length of lens
• Size of camera's light sensor