Teach Me (Canon GL2 Camcorder) w/ Cliffnotes in first post - TriStateTuners.com :: Home of Tristate Auto Enthusiast

Jjaeger240 · 06-14-2009, 10:23 AM

For the past few years I have been operating a running website with my dad where we do event coverage of high school, youth, and road running. We have always shot video of the races and uploaded it to our website using a Canon GL2, an HD, professional camcorder.

While the GL2 has made our videos look much better due to general stability control, we still have a very amateur style and look to our videos.

For example, here's a quick video I found. This gives you a general idea of the quality of our videos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uJAKJPpjJA

After viewing a lot of videos recently of others who use generally the same camcorder, I'm pretty envious of the mere quality of image, array of colors, and lighting to the videos.

The two videos that stick out in my head that just have great color, image quality, and look really tight (sorry I don't know photo lingo) are these two:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZ9US-a8Hzw

http://vimeo.com/4528309

What I'm trying to figure out is how do I get my videos to have those clean edges, great colors, and have a really nice "look" to the general color of everything around?

Anybody understand what I mean?

I don't know the first thing to adjusting lighting or any of that jazz, nonetheless what capabilities this camcorder has in doing so, so I need a full rundown of what would needed to be adjusted to do this and how to do it.

Any help is very greatly appreciated, thanks!

-Jesse

R33E8 · 06-14-2009, 07:42 PM

Ok.. I'm not a videographer or anything but what i say may help.. This is what I try to do when taking photos...

I would recommend getting a tripod for more stable shots. Also, when zooming I would try to keep it continuous and steady..

If you plan on making a video with multiple shots I recommend getting shots of things other than the races.. Like teams stretching and such from nice angles.. A 35mm adapter for your camera may help the shot look wonderful by giving it a shallower DOF.. For example, I would take shots at the starting line at the start of the race, or some footage of the gun firing and only focus on the finish of the finals race at the end.. It would be helpful if you had a second person recording video to record all of the races while you give footage of different aspects of it..

Did you set your white balance before taking the video? I've recently started to manually set the white balance off all pictures I take and have noticed a dramatic improvement in color and such..

Do you know what EVERYTHING on your camera does and how it affects the video? If not, find out...

I hear 24fps helps show motion better by giving the subjects some blur.. That's what frame rate they use in movies if I remember correctly.. 30fps is used in news reports and such..

Have you tried manually adjusting the levels in premier? It can make a big difference.. I used auto contrast and manually changed the levels and got this look: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WGoYU_6ADI
I wasn't recording the video but the person who was used a cheap $500 1080i camera that sucked pretty bad.. That was the first video I've ever edited and don't think it came out too bad.. If I remember correctly, some of the other things I did was add vignetting, changed it to 24fps, and made it 1080p...

I think most of those effects that they get in those videos are a result from post processing.. I don't think it would be too hard to recreate some of those effects.. It seems like they use some slow motion and filters for some of the effects.. I would recommend reading some post processing techniques for photography and see which ones you can apply to video.. Adobe After Effects is also another good program you can use to make some cool effects(when made tastefully).. For the sound I think you can use an EQ to reduce the ambient noise that makes the video sound more amateur.. Maybe a better microphone will help with that..

For the physical effects that can be done in camera would be the panning, zoom, and focus pulls(???)...

Ha.. I started this post like hours ago so I've lost track of what I wanted to say.. I hope this helps and/or make sense.. I'll try to add more if I think of anything else later...

06-14-2009, 10:23 AM	#1
Jjaeger240 Tri-State Addict Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Baltimore,MD and York,PA Member #3470 My Ride: Nissan S13 iTrader: (0)	Teach Me (Canon GL2 Camcorder) w/ Cliffnotes in first post For the past few years I have been operating a running website with my dad where we do event coverage of high school, youth, and road running. We have always shot video of the races and uploaded it to our website using a Canon GL2, an HD, professional camcorder. While the GL2 has made our videos look much better due to general stability control, we still have a very amateur style and look to our videos. For example, here's a quick video I found. This gives you a general idea of the quality of our videos. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uJAKJPpjJA After viewing a lot of videos recently of others who use generally the same camcorder, I'm pretty envious of the mere quality of image, array of colors, and lighting to the videos. The two videos that stick out in my head that just have great color, image quality, and look really tight (sorry I don't know photo lingo) are these two: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZ9US-a8Hzw http://vimeo.com/4528309 What I'm trying to figure out is how do I get my videos to have those clean edges, great colors, and have a really nice "look" to the general color of everything around? Anybody understand what I mean? I don't know the first thing to adjusting lighting or any of that jazz, nonetheless what capabilities this camcorder has in doing so, so I need a full rundown of what would needed to be adjusted to do this and how to do it. Any help is very greatly appreciated, thanks! -Jesse

06-14-2009, 07:42 PM	#2
R33E8 Tri-State Aficionado Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: South Jersey Member #1362 My Ride: a slow car iTrader: (3)	Ok.. I'm not a videographer or anything but what i say may help.. This is what I try to do when taking photos... I would recommend getting a tripod for more stable shots. Also, when zooming I would try to keep it continuous and steady.. If you plan on making a video with multiple shots I recommend getting shots of things other than the races.. Like teams stretching and such from nice angles.. A 35mm adapter for your camera may help the shot look wonderful by giving it a shallower DOF.. For example, I would take shots at the starting line at the start of the race, or some footage of the gun firing and only focus on the finish of the finals race at the end.. It would be helpful if you had a second person recording video to record all of the races while you give footage of different aspects of it.. Did you set your white balance before taking the video? I've recently started to manually set the white balance off all pictures I take and have noticed a dramatic improvement in color and such.. Do you know what EVERYTHING on your camera does and how it affects the video? If not, find out... I hear 24fps helps show motion better by giving the subjects some blur.. That's what frame rate they use in movies if I remember correctly.. 30fps is used in news reports and such.. Have you tried manually adjusting the levels in premier? It can make a big difference.. I used auto contrast and manually changed the levels and got this look: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WGoYU_6ADI I wasn't recording the video but the person who was used a cheap $500 1080i camera that sucked pretty bad.. That was the first video I've ever edited and don't think it came out too bad.. If I remember correctly, some of the other things I did was add vignetting, changed it to 24fps, and made it 1080p... I think most of those effects that they get in those videos are a result from post processing.. I don't think it would be too hard to recreate some of those effects.. It seems like they use some slow motion and filters for some of the effects.. I would recommend reading some post processing techniques for photography and see which ones you can apply to video.. Adobe After Effects is also another good program you can use to make some cool effects(when made tastefully).. For the sound I think you can use an EQ to reduce the ambient noise that makes the video sound more amateur.. Maybe a better microphone will help with that.. For the physical effects that can be done in camera would be the panning, zoom, and focus pulls(???)... Ha.. I started this post like hours ago so I've lost track of what I wanted to say.. I hope this helps and/or make sense.. I'll try to add more if I think of anything else later...