5 Tips for DSLR Beginners

Posted October 26, 2017

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When you are just starting to shoot video you are going to make mistakes. This is OK. Mistakes are great for learning and developing your own workflow and style. When you are working with a DSLR (or any cameras really) for the first time and take it out of automatic you are bound to make some mistakes when it comes to the technical settings. There are some things you can learn right now to save you some trouble and help you get great images and video.

In this video from B&H, photographer David Flores walks you through some things to consider when you are first starting out shooting with a DSLR and some mistakes to avoid. While the video is focused on photography, the tips can easily be applied to video.

Here are the mistakes mentioned in the video:

Not familiarizing yourself with the camera you are working with. Before you start shooting for real with your camera, take it out for a test shoot and familiarize yourself with the camera. Figure out the manual settings and how to adjust them and learn how it handles in different lighting.

Choosing the wrong lens. When you are going out to shoot make sure you have the right lens for what you want to shoot. The wrong lens can make your image not look right depending on what you are shooting.

Shooting in bad lighting. Lighting is everything in video. Too little and you won't get what you want to shoot; too much and your image will be blown out.

Ignoring the Rule of Thirds. Composition is important in video, and when you are shooting things can seem to be moving too quickly for your take the time to compose your shot correctly. This is wrong, you have enough time no matter how fast the action is moving. Take a breath, calma, and make sure your composition is perfect before you hit record.

Not shooting in 4K. This one depends on what kind of camera you have, and whether your computer and editing program can handle 4K. If you have the capacity, go for it, but this one isn't super important as long as your shooting in HD. 4K, though, gives you a lot of flexibility in the edit and can give you some really rich and detailed images.

Got any other tips?

Let us know in the comments.

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