Camera Basics: What are all these settings?!
You have your camera in your hand, and you’re ready to roll… but the lens cap is off and your screen is dark… or super bright… or blurry… or… or… or…!!!
Don’t freak out! Knowing what all the settings on your camera do can be intimidating. So, we’ve made you this handy vocabulary guide to get you on your way to being the next Roger Deakins.
Sensor - the physical part of your camera that captures light and converts it into an image.
You can kind of think of this as a digital piece of film. The larger the sensor, the better low light performance, depth of field control, and color reproduction you will get. Often this is one of the first things you want to compare when deciding on a camera to use for your project. On DSLRs most DSLRs, there is a mirror that bounces the image up to the sensor, but on any “mirrorless” cameras, when you remove the lens, it’s visible. Keep this protected and NEVER touch your camera’s sensor. It is very sensitive (hence the name) and easily broken.
FPS - Frames per Second
Options on DSLR cameras usually are 24, 30, 60 and higher if the camera is high-speed capable. Most often you’ll want to shoot your short film projects in 24 FPS as this is the speed movies shot on film often run (as do many theatrical projectors). So, you’ll get a better “film look” at that speed. In some cases you might want to change this setting though. Higher frame rates can give a more “video” look or sort of hyper-real aesthetic. So, if you’re making something that you want to look like a video game, it could be good to set it at 30fps. Higher frame rates are also great if you’re planning on making a shot slow-motion as you won’t end up with choppy footage when you slow it down. So, if that’s what you’re going for, crank this setting up!
Shutter Speed - the duration of time your frame is exposed to light before a shutter closes and proceeds to the next frame.
The shorter it’s open, the less likely it is to catch motion blur. Often, you’ll want this setting to follow this equation:
Shutter Speed = 1/2xframe rate
So, if your frame rate is 24, that’s 1/2x24 = 1/48. Now, most cameras will round these numbers and they drop the top of the equation. This means you’ll be looking at setting this to 50 for most of your work. Now, there are situations where you might decide to cheat this. If the lighting in the room you’re in is creating a sort of rippling effect in the background of your shots or you’re filming a screen and seeing lines on the screen. This often means that that screen or the lights in your room are also flickering at a different speed. So, you’ll want to toggle your shutter speed slightly to make that distracting effect go away. Also, if you’re in a space that is VERY low-lit and you won’t have many big movements from your actors, you may decide to go for a slower shutter speed (to keep the shutter open longer) which will allow a little more light into the shot. That all being said, more often than not, you’ll want to make ISO or Aperture adjustments before changing this setting if lighting is an issue.
Here’s an example video that may better show the differences in motion blur at various shutter speeds.
Aperture- the opening in the lens that allows light through.
This is measured in f-stops. The higher the f-stop, the smaller the hole left for light to come though. So, if your image is too bright, you can close the aperture (so pick a higher f-stop #) which will block more light that makes it through to your camera’s sensor. There’s a correlation between this an the depth of field, but we’ll touch on that in the Depth of Field section!
Exposure - the amount of light that hits the film or sensor.
We describe a shot as over-exposed image when too much light is making it through to the sensor and our image becomes blown out. An under-exposed shot means the shot is too dark and this can be corrected 1 of 4 ways (or a combo of these): 1) add more lights to your environment. Maybe take a lampshade off or add another light. 2) Open your aperture, allowing more light to flow through the lens to your sensor. This will effect your depth of field though, so be sure you’re alright with that. 3) turn up your ISO, although you won’t want to go much higher than 800 or 1600 or your image will get some serious digital grain/noise. 4) Set your shutter speed to a slower speed so that the shutter is open longer, but if there’s much movement in your shot this could cause some motion blur.
You’ll notice, our preference is usually to try to cheat more lighting into the space so we’re not compromising other camera settings that we may have decided that we really liked.
ISO - a measure of the light sensitivity of your film or sensor.
In film, it is designated by the type of film being used, in a digital camera, it can be toggled in the menu to force the sensitivity of the image being captured. Unfortunately, this is a digital setting on our camera, and those can come with more issues with image quality output than messing with more physical settings. With most DSLRs for example, you won’t want to push this setting much higher than 800 or 1600 unless you have a large sensor’ed camera because you’ll begin to get a digital noise or grain. This grain can be REALLY hard to detect while watching on the tiny screen on the camera, but as soon as you play it on a computer or TV you’ll see it. What your camera does is it’s attempting to make sense of darker areas in your image, and picking the pixels around those dark spaces to brighten it. The result: a strange looking static-like noise in your image, and less sharpness around the edges of things. In some cases, there’s no way around it. For example, if you have no ability to add more lights to the space, your aperture is as open as it can be, or you’ve cranked your shutter speed to a low setting and are beginning to get unwanted motion-blur. Just keep an eye on this setting, because it can really cause entire scenes of your film to be hard to watch.
There’s a great example video comparing various ISOs and what it does to the grain of an image that can be found here.
Focal length - not a measurement of the actual length of a lens, but a calculation of an optical distance from the point where light rays converge to form a sharp image to the digital sensor.
When we talk about focal length, we’re often talking about what kind of lens we’re using or planning to use. This number is generally measured in millimeters and is printed on the lens. While you don’t really need to know the equation on where light rays converge, what is worth knowing is that the longer the lens, the more zoomed in it is. So, if you set your camera in one spot and wanted to get a long shot and a medium shot, you could change your focal length to get both without moving your camera. The longer lens (let’s say a 50mm) might be what you opt for for that medium shot, and a shorter lens (maybe a 24mm) could get you that long shot. What’s also worth knowing is that often your longer lenses (or the more you are zoomed in) can offer a shallower depth of field. We’ll get into what that means in the next section.
Prime Lenses vs. Zoom Lenses - Last thing to know about lenses is that there are two main types: prime and zoom. A prime lens can only do one focal length. For example, it’ll only be a 50mm or 35mm, BUT it is made to get the best image at that FL. The lenses inside are cut to make the light converge, etc. perfectly for that length. A zoom lens has a variable focal length, meaning it will have a range of FL’s it’s able to do. Example: most “kit” lenses that come with DSLRs are an 18-55. This will allow you to zoom in and out on this single lens and hit both the 35mm and 50mm, but it may not specialize in one particular length. This is great in situations where you need to run-and-gun (shoot quickly or not have much gear on you to cart around), but if you have the time and the access to them, a nice set of primes will usually take your image quality up a notch.
Focus - the space that is crisp in the frame.
Things that are blurry are referred to as out-of-focus. This one is pretty simple, but VERY important and can make-or-break your film. Out-of-focus shots can really distract from your narrative and cause people to remember they’re watching a movie. Our tip: check your focus during rehearsals and then always double-check it RIGHT before you roll the camera. The best way on a DSLR to do this is to tap that magnifying glass button to do a quick digital zoom in, find the focus on something like the subject’s eyes or lips, and then click it to go to the full-screen view again. After you get into the habit of checking it often, you’ll find yourself doing it automatically prior to every shot!
Depth of Field - the space, whether it be narrow or deep, that is in focus.
This is also related to how open the aperture is opened (the larger the aperture the narrower the depth of field). Many master filmmakers will use depth of field to train the audience to know what’s important or what they should be focusing on by literally putting the subject in focus and making the background be out-of-focus. For example, in the photo above, the person framing the shot, obviously wants us to pay attention to the girl with the camera and not necessarily what is down the road. This is a great example of using the camera to better tell your story!
White Balance - an adjustment for a camera to compensate for the color temperature of lighting conditions of a scene.
When you go outside, a passing ice cream truck looks white, and then you move indoors and a wall can look white. So, why does your camera give one an orange tint and a green tint to the other? Well, your brain makes this change for you when you move from one lighting scenario to another, but your camera needs to be told what color temperature it’s shooting in. That setting is called white balance! On most cameras, you don’t need to know the exact color temp (measured in Kelvin, K) as there are some settings pre-programmed: shade, full-sun, fluorescent, etc. Oftentimes, you can scroll through and pick the one that makes the most sense, and not need to change it until you change locations. That can be the issue though. Because it’s a setting you don’t change as often as some of the others, you can super easily forget about. So, when you pull your camera out of the bag to start shooting, it’s worth going ahead and pointing that at something white (back of your slate, a piece of paper, whatever you have around) to get that set, and then you’re ready to tackle all those other settings and make your masterpiece!
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Do you have some vocab that didn’t make this list? Contact us! Do you have some amazing online resources that all filmmakers should know about?! Contact us! We’ll credit you if we add it to a compilation of more recommendations on a future post!