Tips for taking effective videos using your camcorder or cellphone camera

I was watching a program on BBC recently. They had some interesting tidbits on how not to look like an amateur when taking videos. Almost all cell phones now come with reasonably good cameras. Everyone is into capturing something that interests them. So, I thought I would share these tips with all of you.

Buying a Camera
If you are buying a camcorder, buy something that offers advanced video formats, has flash memory or pen drive facility, has more buttons rather than layers of touch-screen options. Usually 10x zoom is good enough; a zoom more than this would only obscure the picture.

Some handy tips for a shoot
1. Hold the camcorder by standing still in one place at a fixed height from the ground. Movement on an axis yields better results than forward or backward movement (for this you can use zoom).

2. When shooting, focus on your subject, offset it rather than making it the centre of your focus, hold your shot for a good few seconds, now pause and change the angle and refocus. Try and contain actions inside the frame. Using different angles, pausing frequently, and holding a shot for a while each time is the key.

3. To avoid shaky movement, use your body as a tripod or lean on a static object close to you.

4. Light is generally friendly for taking good videos. Morning and evening sun is good. When you are shooting at other times of the day, do not use auto exposure. Instead, choose your subject and lock exposure. Or choose objects and backgrounds with similar amount of light on them.

5. Avoid Auto focus for dense or packed backgrounds. They leave your camera confused.

6. Sound is often neglected and can easily reveal your amateurishness. Maintain appropriate distance from your subjects so that you also capture sounds well.

7. Do not use effects such as fades etc during the shoot. Add them later in editing.

8. Think about the composition of your video. Each video tells a story, so plan your shots accordingly. Based on the theme of your composition, you can edit them later to add background music etc.

9. For editing videos you could use basic software like Windows Movie Maker.

10. For tweaking audio files, you can download a free tool like Audacity. I use audacity quite often for editing guitar compositions for my upcoming guitar website for Indian learners. It is a simple-to-use tool with some basic documentation available to get you started.

Hope these tips were helpful to you. Leave a comment or send me links to some of the videos you took. I will be happy to watch them.