Shooting Video Manually
When getting to know your camera, you’ll notice a wheel on the top of your camera body. This dial contains different shooting modes and settings designed to help you capture your image. The one we’re focusing on in this article is the big “M”: Manual. Manual mode means that you are in control of the camera’s settings. Instead of letting the camera decide how your image should look for you, you can manually adjust each setting to get the result you truly want.
Understanding how to shoot completely manually is something I highly recommend getting comfortable with as a videographer. It gives you complete control over your image and, more importantly, allows you to make intentional decisions about the look you are seeking after.
I get it, that big “M” on your camera dial can feel pretty daunting at first. It did to me at first too. But once you understand what each setting does and how they work together, it becomes much less intimidating and far more useful in the long run.
Let’s break it down. Here are the settings you need to understand to start shooting video manually.
Frame Rate
The first setting we’ll look at is your frame rate or frames per second (FPS). As the name suggests, frame rate determines how many individual frames your camera captures every second while filming. The most common frame rates you’ll encounter are 24fps, 30fps, and 60fps.
24fps - this is the cinematic standard. Most movies are filmed at 24fps, and it has become the frame rate we commonly associate with a cinematic look. It also creates a very natural amount of motion blur. Anything significantly below 24fps can begin to look choppy or stutter during movement. Though there is some debate, it is commonly said that our eyes process imagery similar to the look of a standard 24fps.
30fps - This is commonly used for broadcast, television, and live video. Compared to 24fps, 30fps gives you slightly smoother motion with less motion blur. It can feel a little less cinematic, but it provides a clean and smooth image that works well for many types of video.
60fps - This is especially useful when you want to create slow-motion footage. For example, if you record at 60fps and place that footage into a 24fps timeline, you can slow it down to 40% speed while maintaining smooth, not choppy motion. If you edit your footage in a 60fps timeline, the additional frames also allow for very smooth motion with less motion blur. If you want to create smooth slow motion in a 60fps timeline, you would generally need to shoot at 120fps. However, 120fps is not available on every camera. 120fps is also a great way to get that super slow motion footage in a normal 24fps timeline.
Shutter Speed
Shutter speed is the amount of time that each frame is exposed to light. This affects both the amount of light entering the camera and the amount of motion blur in your footage. As a general rule, your shutter speed should be approximately double your frame rate:
24fps → 1/50
30fps → 1/60
60fps → 1/120
This is often called the 180-degree shutter rule. Keeping your shutter speed around double your frame rate gives you natural looking motion blur. The higher the shutter speed, the less motion blur your video will have, at the risk of being too choppy. The lower the shutter speed, the more motion blur you will have, often looking choppy and smearing the image.
Aperture
Your aperture is one of your primary tools for controlling the amount of light entering your camera. Think of it like a valve. The wider the aperture opens, the more light reaches the sensor. The smaller the aperture is, the less light reaches the sensor. Aperture is measured using f-stops, which will look something like f/1.8 on your camera.
One important thing to remember is that aperture numbers work a little differently than you might expect:
Lower number = wider aperture = more light
Higher number = smaller aperture = less light
For example, f/1.2 is much wider than f/14.
Aperture also affects your depth of field, or how much of your image is in focus. A wide aperture creates a shallow depth of field. Your subject can be sharp and in focus while the foreground and background become soft and blurry. This is especially useful for close-ups and shots where you want to separate your subject from the background. A smaller aperture creates a deeper depth of field, allowing more of your subject and background to remain in focus. This can be especially useful for wide and landscape shots where you want more of the scene to be completely sharp and in focus.
ISO
ISO is a useful, but temperamental, tool in your camera. Simply put, ISO allows you to increase the brightness of your image electronically when you don't have enough physical light available. Ideally, you should control your exposure with your other settings and the available light first. But sometimes you simply can't let more light into your camera. In that case, it’s great fix for low light videography. The downside is that the higher you push your ISO, the more noise or grain you will have in your footage. The important thing to remember is that ISO isn't free light. You're gaining brightness, but you're potentially sacrificing image quality to get it.
A general starting point for many cameras is to keep ISO somewhere between 100 and 1,000 when possible. However, this varies significantly from camera to camera. Higher end and cinema focused cameras can have incredible low-light capabilities and handle high ISO much better than other cameras. These cameras can often produce usable footage at 5,000–10,000 ISO or higher, although you'll still see more noise in your image as ISO increases.
White Balance
Finally, let's talk about white balance (WB). White balance controls the overall color temperature of your image, determining whether your footage looks warmer or cooler. To understand white balance, you first need to understand that different light sources have different color temperatures.
Some light sources produce a warm, yellow/orange light, while others produce a cooler, blue light. Think about the difference between a traditional light bulb and a fluorescent light. The former gives a room a soft, warm glow and the ladder gives a room a colder, more “bright white” glow.
The sun can also appear much cooler while most, if not all interior lighting is much warmer than the light from the sun. This becomes especially important when you're filming in a space that has both natural light and interior lighting. You're now dealing with two different color temperatures in the same space. As a videographer, you need to be aware of what kinds of light are present and how they will affect the color of your image.
Why White Balance Matters so Much
Your camera needs to know how to what "neutral" white looks like under the lighting conditions you're filming in. This allows it to produce more accurate and consistent colors, especially when it comes to skin tones. Our eyes are constantly adjusting to different lighting conditions. We generally know what a person should look like, what pure white should look like, and what a traditionally lit room should look like. When you're capturing video, you want your camera to produce that same sense of reality. You can always stylize or alter your colors later during the editing and colorgrading process later on if you so desire.
Note: A lot of people opt to use auto white balance (AWB), and there are certainly situations where it works well, if not better than what you can color match. However, there's an important problem with using it for video that you should be aware of. Lighting can change throughout a single shot. When that happens, your camera may automatically adjust the white balance while you're recording. This can cause the color temperature of your footage to shift during a single clip. Those subtle color changes can be extremely difficult to correct during post process editing.
This is why I highly recommend learning to set your white balance manually. It may take a little more effort while you're shooting, but it can save you a significant amount of time and frustration when you're editing later.
With all of that said and laid out, learning to shoot manually isn’t about making things more complicated, it’s about understanding your camera so you can make the creative decisions that your capture needs. With practice, that big “M” becomes less intimidating and more of a tool that puts the control back in your hands. Use it, break the rules, and see what amazing things you can do with your new found understandings.
Now go create some amazing videos!
