As we’ve seen in our exploration of its features so far, the Nikon D3400 is superbly equipped for taking still photographs of very high quality in a wide variety of shooting environments. But this camera’s superior level of performance is not limited to stills. The D3400 camera is unusually capable in the movie-making arena as well. So, even though you may have bought your camera primarily for shooting stationary scenes, you acquired a device that is equipped with a cutting-edge set of features for recording high-quality video clips. This camera can record high-definition (HD) video. Whether you’re looking to record informal clips of the family on vacation, the latest viral video for YouTube, or a set of scenes that will be painstakingly crafted into a cinematic masterpiece using editing software, the D3400 will perform admirably.

Working with Live View

Live view is one of those features that experienced SLR users (especially those dating from the film era) originally thought they didn’t need—until they tried it. While dSLR veterans didn’t really miss what we’ve come to know as live view, it was at least, in part, because, until the feature became universal, they couldn’t miss what they never had. After all, why would you eschew a big, bright, magnified through-the-lens optical view that showed depth-of-field fairly well, and which was easily visible under virtually all ambient light conditions? LCD displays, after all, were small, tended to wash out in bright light, and didn’t really provide you with an accurate view of what your picture was going to look like.

The Nikon D3400 has a versatile 3-inch LCD monitor that can be viewed under a variety of lighting conditions and from wide-ranging angles, so you don’t have to be exactly behind the display to see it clearly in live view. It offers a 100-percent view of the sensor’s capture area (the optical viewfinder shows just 95 percent of the sensor’s field of view). It’s large enough to allow manual focusing—but if you want to use automatic focus with contrast detection, the D3400 can do that, too. You still have to avoid pointing your D3400 at bright light sources (especially the sun) when using live view, but the real-time preview can be used for fairly long periods without frying the sensor. (Image quality can degrade, but the camera issues a warning when the sensor starts to overheat.)

Fun with Live View

You may not have considered everything you can do with live view. But once you’ve played with it, you’ll discover dozens of applications for this capability, as well as a few things that you can’t do. Here’s a list of live view considerations:

• Shoot stills and movies. You can take still pictures or movies using live view, and alternate between the two.
• Preview your images on a TV. Connect your Nikon D3400 to a television using a video cable, and you can preview your image on a large standard-definition television or HDTV screen.
• Preview remotely. Extend the cable between the camera and TV screen, and you can preview your images some distance away from the camera.
• Continuous shooting. You can shoot bursts of images using live view, but all shots will use the focus and exposure setting established for the first picture in the series.
• Shoot from tripod or hand-held. Of course, holding the camera out at arm’s length to preview an image is poor technique, and will introduce a lot of camera shake. If you want to use live view for hand-held images, use an image-stabilized lens and/or a high shutter speed. A tripod is a better choice if you have one.
• Watch your power. Live view uses a lot of juice and will deplete your battery rapidly. The optional AC adapter is a useful accessory.

Beginning Live View

Activate live view by pressing the Lv button on the back of the camera (just to the right of the LCD monitor) until the mirror flips up and the live view preview is shown on the display. You can change the amount and type of information overlaid on the LCD by pressing the Info button (on top of the camera) repeatedly. This is one special case where the Info button does more than simply turn the information display on or off.

Not all of the information appears all the time. For example, the Time Remaining indicator shows only when there are 30 seconds or less remaining for live view shooting.

The indicators overlaid on the image can be displayed or suppressed by pressing the Info button, and the LCD cycles among these screen variations:

• Live view screen overlaid with shooting information.
• Live view screen overlaid with only minimal information.
• Live view screen overlaid with basic information, plus a 16-segment alignment grid.

The first thing to do when entering live view is to double-check three settings that affect how your image or movie is taken. These settings include:

Metering Mode

While using live view, you can press the i button to view the information edit screen. There, you can select the metering option (it’s the third selection from the left in the bottom row) and press OK. Then, choose Matrix, Center-weighted, or Spot metering.

Focus Mode

While the information edit screen is visible, adjust the focus mode. As mentioned in the last chapter, the available modes differ slightly from those possible when not shooting in live view. You can select AF-S (single autofocus), AF-F (full-time servo AF), or MF (manual focus).

Focus Area

Also as described in the last chapter, you can choose the D3400’s AF-area mode for live view, either using the information edit screen or in the Shooting menu. A recap of your choices are as follows:

• Face-priority AF. The camera automatically detects faces, and focuses on subjects facing the camera, as when you’re shooting a portrait, and you can’t select the specific focus zone.
• Wide-area AF. You can select the focus zone with the directional buttons.
• Normal-area AF. Includes smaller focus zones for you to choose from with the multi selector directional buttons.
• Subject-tracking AF. Select a subject and let the D3400 track it to maintain focus.
• Manual focus. In this non-automatic focus mode, you can select the focus zone to use with the multi selector buttons, press the shutter release halfway, and then adjust focus manually by rotating the focus ring on the lens.

Shooting in Live View

Shooting stills and movies in live view is easy. Just follow these steps:

1. Press the Lv button. Activate live view by pressing the button. The D3400 can be hand-held or mounted on a tripod. (Using a tripod mode makes it easier to obtain and keep sharp focus.) You can exit live view at any time by pressing the Lv button again.
2. Zoom in/out. Check your view by pressing the Zoom In button (located at the lower-left corner next to the color LCD monitor, third button from the bottom). A navigation box appears in the lower right of the LCD with a yellow box representing the portion of the image zoomed, just as when you’re reviewing photos you’ve already taken using Playback mode. Use the multi selector keys to change the zoomed area within the full frame. Press the Zoom Out button to zoom out again.
3. Make exposure adjustments. While using an automatic exposure mode, you can add or subtract exposure using the EV settings, as described in Chapter 6. Hold down the EV button (just southeast of the shutter release) and rotate the command dial to add or subtract exposure when using P, S, and A modes. The back-panel color LCD monitor will brighten or darken to represent the exposure change you make.
4. Shoot. Press the shutter release all the way down to take a still picture, or press the red Movie button to start motion picture filming. Stop filming by pressing the Movie button again. Movies up to 4GB in size can be taken (assuming there is sufficient room on your memory card), which limits you to 20 minutes for an HDTV clip.

Shooting Movies with the D3400

As you’ve probably gathered, movie making is an extension of the live view concept. Once you’ve directed the output of the sensor to the LCD monitor, capturing it as a video file—with audio—is relatively easy. All the focus modes and AF-area modes described for plain old Live View mode can be applied to movie making, too. Here are some considerations to think about:

• Stills, too. You can take a still photograph even while you’re shooting a movie clip by pressing the shutter release all the way down. You won’t miss a still shot because you’re shooting video. However, movie shooting will cease after you take the still, and must be re-activated by pressing the red Movie button again.
• Exposure compensation. When shooting movies, exposure compensation is available in plus/minus 3EV steps in 1/3 EV increments.
• Size matters. Individual movie files can be up to 4GB in size (this will vary according to the resolution you select), and are limited in length by the frame rate and image quality you choose. The speed and capacity of your memory card may provide additional restrictions on size/length. For example, video captured using the Miniature Effect are up to three minutes long when played back. Otherwise, the maximum length video clip possible is:
  • 1920 × 1080/60p. High Quality: 10 minutes; Normal Quality: 20 minutes.
  • 1920 × 1080/30p/24p. High Quality: 20 minutes; Normal Quality 29 minutes, 59 seconds.
  • 1280 × 720/60p. High Quality: 20 minutes; Normal Quality 29 minutes, 59 seconds.

In the Movie Settings entry of the Shooting menu (see Figure 8.1), you can make the following choices:

• Frame size/frame rate. Choose your resolution. Use the Movie Settings entry in the Shooting menu. Or, when live view is activated, and before you start shooting your video clip, you can select the resolution/frame rate of your movie. All use progressive scan, in which all the lines are captured one after another in order. (See Figure 8.2.)

Figure 8.1 Movie settings.

Figure 8.2 Choose frame size/rate.

• Your options are as follows:

  • 1920 × 1080 at 60/50 fps, progressive scan (60p/50p)
  • 1920 × 1080 at 30/25 fps, progressive scan (30p/25p)
  • 1920 × 1080 at 24 fps, progressive scan (24p)
  • 1280 × 720 at 60/50 fps, progressive scan (60p/50p)

• Movie Quality. Choose High quality (to capture up to 10 minutes of action at 60p, or 20 minutes at 30p and 24p) or Normal quality (for up to 20 minutes at 60p or 29 minutes, 59 seconds of video per clip at 30p and 24p). The High setting has a maximum bit rate requirement of 24 Mbps; if your memory card won’t handle that, the Normal setting reduces the demand to 12 Mbps, at the cost of some additional compression that reduces the size of the file and cuts resolution/image quality slightly.
• Microphone. Here you can set audio sensitivity for the built-in microphone. (See Figure 8.3.) Choose from Auto Sensitivity, Manual Sensitivity, or Microphone Off. With the Manual Sensitivity setting, a set of volume unit (VU) meter bars appears on the menu screen showing the current sound levels. Press the right directional button to access a screen where you can select a manual sensitivity level from 1 to 20. (See Figure 8.4.)
• Wind noise reduction. Gusts of wind can interfere with clear recording of your desired audio, so this options allows you to turn a built-in wind noise reduction feature on or off. In quiet surroundings you’ll want to disable the feature for overall better sound quality.
• Manual movie settings. Select On if you’d like to be able to adjust shutter speed and ISO sensitivity when shooting movies in Manual exposure mode. Select Off if you won’t need this capability, which is explained in the next section.

Figure 8.3 Adjust the built-in microphone’s sensitivity.

Figure 8.4 You can manually adjust the microphone’s sensitivity.

To shoot your movies, follow these steps, which are similar to those for using live view:

1. Start live view. Activate live view by pressing the Lv button.
2. Choose a focus mode. Select from AF-S, AF-F, or MF, as described earlier.
3. Choose an AF-area mode. Choices include Face-priority AF, Wide-area AF, Normal-area AF, or Subject-tracking AF.
4. Activate and lock in focus. This was also described under the live view instructions.
5. Preview framing. If you want to preview the image area that will be captured when shooting video, you can press the Info button (the one on top of the camera) to show movie indicators. During actual capture, the movie frame area will be enlarged to fill the LCD monitor, so what you see is what you get.
6. Start/Stop recording. Press the red movie recording button. Press again to stop recording.

Movie Exposure

Exposure in Movie mode is much the same as in Live View mode. You can use Manual exposure, any of the semi-automatic modes (Program, Aperture-priority, or Shutter-priority), as well as Scene modes and Effects modes (capturing video in Effects modes can produce some particularly inventive movie “looks”).

• Semi-automatic modes. As in live view, just rotate the mode dial to the mode you want (P, A, S) prior to capture, whether in live view or non–live view modes. You can change to another mode while capturing video, but the recording will be interrupted and you’ll need to press the movie button again.
• Scene modes. Use the mode dial to select Portrait, Landscape, Child, Action, or Close-up Scene modes. To select any of the others, rotate the command dial. A screen will pop up showing each of the non-dial modes. Press OK to confirm (or, pause for a few seconds, and the D3400 will activate your choice). If you change Scene modes while capturing video, the recording will be interrupted and you’ll need to press the movie button again.
• Effects modes. You can select an Effects mode exactly as you do a Scene mode, except that the mode dial needs to be rotated to the EFFECTS position. Just rotate the command dial to choose an Effect from the screen that pops up.
• Manual exposure. With the mode dial set to M, and Manual Movie Settings activated in the Movie Settings entry of the Shooting menu, you can select shutter speed and aperture while shooting movies. If your D3400 is set for a “forbidden” shutter speed prior to activating Movie mode, the camera will automatically adjust to an appropriate speed.

  The option to increase the shutter speed to a shorter value can be useful when capturing action and you don’t want individual frames to have too much blur. Your best bet is to use a shutter speed that is about twice the frame rate, for example 1/60th second when shooting at 24 fps or 30 fps, and 1/125th second at 60 fps. You can up the speed a notch—say, 1/125th at 24/30 fps or 1/260th at 60 fps. However, using a much higher shutter speed, while freezing action, may make your images look jittery and unrealistic. The ability to adjust ISO settings manually allows you to compensate for the higher shutter speeds used, if necessary.

  In all cases, however, your shutter speed range is limited to 1/4000th second at the high end, and no slower than 1/30th second at 30/24 fps rates or no slower than 1/60th second at 60 fps.

Viewing Your Movies

Once you’ve finished recording your movies, they are available for review. Film clips show up during picture review, the same as still photos, but they are differentiated by a movie camera overlay. Press the OK button to start playback. The screen shown in Figure 8.5 will appear, with the controls overlaid for a few seconds before they blink out of sight until you use one of them.

Figure 8.5 Viewing your movie.

During playback, you can perform the following functions:

• Pause. Press the multi selector down button to pause the clip during playback. Press the multi selector center button to resume playback.
• Rewind/Advance. Press the left/right multi selector buttons to rewind or advance (respectively). Press once for 2X speed, twice for 8X speed, or three times for 16X speed. Hold down the left/right buttons to move to the end or beginning of the clip.
• Single Frame Rewind/Advance. Press the multi selector down key to pause the clip, then use the left/right buttons to rewind or advance one frame at a time.
• Slow-motion. Press the down button while the movie is paused to begin slow-motion playback.
• Skip 10 seconds. Rotate the command dial to skip forward or back 10 seconds.
• Change volume. Press the Zoom In and Zoom Out buttons to increase/decrease volume.
• Trim movie. Press the AE-L/AF-L button while the movie is paused.
• Exit Playback. Press the multi selector up button to exit playback.
• View menus. Press the MENU button to interrupt playback to access menus.

Editing Your Movies

In-camera editing is limited to trimming the beginning or end from a clip, and the clip must be at least two seconds long. For more advanced editing, you’ll need an application capable of editing AVI movie clips. Google “AVI Editor” to locate any of the hundreds of free video editors available, or use a commercial product like Corel Video Studio, Adobe Premiere Elements, or Pinnacle Studio. These will let you combine several clips into one movie, add titles, special effects, and transitions between scenes.

To do in-camera editing/trimming, follow these steps:

1. Activate edit. While viewing a movie clip, press the down button to pause, and then press the i button. The Edit Movie prompt will appear. (See Figure 8.6, left.)
2. Select start/end point. Select Choose Start/End Point and press OK. Then select Start Point or End Point and press OK again. (See Figure 8.6, right.)
3. Resume playback. Press the center button of the multi selector to start or resume playback. You can use the Pause, Rewind, Advance, and Single Frame controls described previously to move around within your clip.
4. Mark trim point. When you reach the point where you want to trim, press the Pause button (if the movie is not already paused), and then press the multi selector up button. All frames prior to the pause will be deleted if you’re in Choose Start Point mode; all frames after the pause will be deleted if you’re in Choose End Point mode. Your trimmed movie must be at least two seconds long. (See Figure 8.7.)
5. Confirm trim. A Proceed? prompt appears. Choose Yes or No, and press OK.
6. Save movie. You’ll be asked whether you want to save it as a new movie file or to overwrite an existing file. You can also preview your clipped movie. (See Figure 8.8, top.) When you begin saving the movie you’ll see the screen shown in Figure 8.8, bottom, and a green progress bar as the D3400 stores the trimmed clip to your memory card. Storage takes some time, and you don’t want to interrupt it to avoid losing your saved clip. So, make sure your camera has a fully charged battery before you start to edit a clip.

Figure 8.6 Choose a start/end point.

Figure 8.7 Mark the point and continue viewing to the end point.

Figure 8.8 Save your edited movie.

Saving a Frame

You can store any frame from one of your movies as a JPEG still, using the resolution of the video format. Just follow these steps:

1. Pause your movie at the frame you want to save. Press the i button to access the Edit Movie screen shown in Figure 8.6.
2. Choose Save Selected Frame and press OK.
3. Choose Proceed to confirm.
4. Your frame will be stored on the memory card, and will be marked with a scissors icon.

Some Fundamentals

Recording a video with the Nikon D3400 is extraordinarily easy to accomplish—just press the Lv button and then press the prominent red button at the upper right of the camera’s back to start, and press it again to stop.

Before you press that button, though, there are some settings to prepare the camera to record the scene the way you want it to. Setting up the camera for recording video can be a bit tricky, because it’s not immediately obvious, either from the camera’s menus or from Nikon’s manuals, which settings apply to video recording and which do not. I will unravel that mystery for you, and throw in a few other tips to help improve your movies.

I’ll show you how to optimize your settings before you start shooting video, but here are some considerations to be aware of as you get started. Many of these points will be covered in more detail later in this chapter:

• Use the right card. You’ll want to use an SD or SDHC card with Class 6 or higher speed; if you use a slower card, like a Class 4 or especially Class 2, the recording may stop after a minute or two. Chose a memory card with at least 4GB capacity; 8GB or 16GB are even better. If you’re going to be recording a lot of HD video, that could be a good reason to take advantage of the ability to use SDXC cards of 64GB capacity. Just make sure your memory card reader is SDXC compatible and your computer can read the files from that type of card. I’ve standardized on fast Class 6 or Class 10 16GB SDHC cards when I’m shooting movies; one of these cards will hold at least three hours of video. However, the camera cannot shoot a continuous movie scene for more than 20 minutes. You can start shooting the next clip right away, though, missing only about 30 seconds of the action. Of course that assumes there’s enough space on your memory card and adequate battery power.

  One aspect that doesn’t always occur to new movie shooters is that the capacity of the card matters only with respect to the number and length of video clips you intend to shoot. Larger cards let you capture more and longer sequences. You don’t need to upgrade the size of your card because you’ve upgraded the resolution of your camera. A 36-megapixel D800 and a 24-megapixel D3400 both record full HD movies using the exact same 1920 × 1080–pixel resolution. The upscale model may outperform your D3400 in other respects, but when it comes to HD movie making, the playing field is level.

• Minimize zooming. While it’s great to be able to use the zoom for filling the frame with a distant subject, think twice before zooming during the shot. Because you are not able to use an external mic, the sound of the zoom ring being spun will be picked up by the internal microphone and it will be audible when you play a movie. Any more than the occasional minor zoom will be very distracting to friends who watch your videos.
• Use a fully charged battery. A fresh battery will allow about one hour of filming at normal (non-winter) temperatures, but that can be shorter if there are many focus adjustments. Individual clips can be no longer than 20 to 29 minutes (depending on the Quality setting), however.
• Keep it cool. Video quality can suffer terribly when the imaging sensor gets hot so keep the camera in a cool place. When shooting on hot days especially, the sensor can get hot more quickly than usual; when there’s a risk of overheating, the camera will stop recording and it will shut down about five seconds later. Give it time to cool down before using it again.
• Press the Movie button. You don’t have to hold it down. Press it again when you’re done to stop recording.

Tips for Shooting Better Video

Once upon a time, the ability to shoot video with a digital still camera was one of those “Gee whiz” gimmicks camera makers seemed to include just to have a reason to get you to buy a new camera. That hasn’t been true for a few years now, as the video quality of many digital still cameras has gotten quite good. The D3400 is a stellar example. It’s capable of HD-quality video and is actually capable of outperforming typical modestly priced digital video camcorders, especially when you consider the range of lenses and other helpful accessories available for it.

Producing high-quality videos can be a real challenge for amateur photographers. After all, by comparison we’re used to watching the best productions that television, video, and motion pictures can offer. Whether it’s fair or not, our efforts are compared to what we’re used to seeing produced by experts. While this book can’t make you a professional videographer in half a chapter, there is some advice I can give you that will help you improve your results with the camera.

Lens Craft

I’ll cover the use of lenses with the D3400 in more detail in Chapter 10, but a discussion of lens selection when shooting movies may be useful at this point. In the video world, not all lenses are created equal. The two most important considerations are depth-of-field, or the beneficial lack thereof, and zooming. I’ll address each of these separately.

Depth-of-Field and Video

Have you wondered why professional videographers have gone nuts over still cameras that can also shoot video? The producers of Saturday Night Live could afford to have Alex Buono, their director of photography, use the niftiest, most expensive high-resolution video cameras to shoot the opening sequences of the program. Instead, Buono opted for a pair of digital SLR cameras. One thing that makes digital still cameras so attractive for video is that they have relatively large sensors, which provides improved low-light performance and results in the oddly attractive reduced depth-of-field, compared with most professional video cameras.

Figure 8.9 provides a comparison of the relative size of sensors. The size of many professional video camera sensors is shown at lower left. The APS-C sensor used in the D3400 is shown just north of it. You can see that it is much larger, especially when compared with the sensor found in the typical point-and-shoot camera shown at right. Compared with the sensors used in many pro video cameras and the even smaller sensors found in the typical computer camcorder, the D3400’s image-grabber is much larger. Only the most expensive Super 35 video cameras use a sensor as large as that found in APS-C cameras like the D3400.

Figure 8.9 Sensor size comparison.

As you’ll learn in Chapter 10, a larger sensor calls for the use of longer focal lengths to produce the same field of view, so, in effect, a larger sensor has reduced depth-of-field. And that’s what makes cameras like the D3400 attractive from a creative standpoint. Less depth-of-field means greater control over the range of what’s in focus. Your D3400, with its larger sensor, has a distinct advantage over consumer camcorders in this regard, and even does a better job than many professional video cameras.

Zooming and Video

We’re back to zooming (or not zooming) again! When shooting still photos, a zoom is a zoom is a zoom. The key considerations for a zoom lens used only for still photography are the maximum aperture available at each focal length (“How fast is this lens?”), the zoom range (“How far can I zoom in or out?”), and its sharpness at any given f/stop (“Do I lose sharpness when I shoot wide open?”).

When shooting video, the priorities may change, and there are two additional parameters to consider. The first two I listed, lens speed and zoom range, have roughly the same importance in both still and video photography. Zoom range gains a bit of importance in videography, because you can always/usually move closer to shoot a still photograph, but when you’re zooming during a shot most of us don’t have that option (or the funds to buy/rent a dolly to smoothly move the camera during capture). But, oddly enough, overall sharpness may have slightly less importance under certain conditions when shooting video. That’s because the image changes in some way many times per second, so any given frame doesn’t hang around long enough for our eyes to pick out every single detail. You want a sharp image, of course, but your standards don’t need to be quite as high when shooting video.

Here are the remaining considerations:

• Zoom lens maximum aperture. The speed of the lens matters in several ways. A zoom with a relatively large maximum aperture lets you shoot in lower light levels, and a big f/stop allows you to minimize depth-of-field for selective focus. Keep in mind that the maximum aperture may change during zooming. A lens that offers an f/3.5 maximum aperture at its widest focal length, may provide only f/5.6 worth of light at the telephoto position.
• Zoom range. Use of zoom during actual capture should not be an everyday thing, unless you’re shooting a kung-fu movie. However, there are effective uses for a zoom shot, particularly if it’s a “long” one from extreme wide angle to extreme close-up (or vice versa). We all can recall those memorable long shots of a building, seen from a distance, followed by a quick zoom in on Steve McGarrett poised outside that building with a steely glint in his eye.

  But, most of the time, you’ll use the zoom range to adjust the perspective of the camera between shots, and a longer zoom range can mean less trotting back and forth to adjust the field of view. Zoom range also comes into play when you’re working with selective focus (longer focal lengths have less depth-of-field), or want to expand or compress the apparent distance between foreground and background subjects. A longer range gives you more flexibility.

• Linearity. Interchangeable lenses may have some drawbacks, as many photographers who have been using the video features of their digital SLRs have discovered. That’s because, unless a lens is optimized for video shooting, zooming with a particular lens may not necessarily be linear. Rotating the zoom collar manually at a constant speed doesn’t always produce a smooth zoom. There may be “jumps” as the elements of the lens shift around during the zoom. Keep that in mind if you plan to zoom during a shot, and are using a lens that has proved from experience to provide a non-linear zoom. (Unfortunately, there’s no easy way to tell ahead of time whether you own a lens that is well-suited for zooming during a shot.)
• Quiet autofocus motor. Nikon’s latest AF-P lenses have especially quiet autofocus motors, which reduce the possibility of picking up lens noise while shooting video.

Audio

When it comes to making a successful video, audio quality is one of those things that separates the professionals from the amateurs. We’re used to watching top-quality productions on television and in the movies, yet the average person has no idea how much effort goes in to producing what seems to be “natural” sound. Much of the sound you hear in such productions is actually recorded on carefully controlled sound stages and “sweetened” with a variety of sound effects and other recordings of “natural” sound.

Tips for Better Audio

Since recording high-quality audio is such a challenge, it’s a good idea to do everything possible to maximize recording quality. Although the D3400 does not include a jack for using an external microphone, there are things you can do to improve the quality of the audio your camera records:

• Get the camera and its microphone close to the speaker. The farther the microphone is from the audio source, the less effective it will be in picking up that sound. While having to position the camera and microphone closer to the subject affects your lens choices and lens perspective options, it will make the most of your audio source. Of course, if you’re using a very wide-angle lens, getting too close to your subject can have unflattering results, so don’t take this advice too far.
• Turn off any sound makers you can. Little things like fans and air handling units aren’t obvious to the human ear, but will be picked up by the microphone. Turn off any machinery or devices that you can plus make sure cell phones are set to silent mode. Also, do what you can to minimize sounds such as wind, radio, television, or people talking in the background.
• Make sure to record some “natural” sound. If you’re shooting video at an event of some kind, make sure you get some background sound that you can add to your audio as desired in postproduction.
• Consider recording audio separately. Lip-syncing is probably beyond most of the people you’re going to be shooting, but there’s nothing that says you can’t record narration separately and add it later. It’s relatively easy if you learn how to use simple software video-editing programs like iMovie (for the Macintosh) or Windows Movie Maker (for Windows PCs). Any time the speaker is off-camera, you can work with separately recorded narration rather than recording the speaker on-camera. This can produce much cleaner sound.

Keep Things Stable and on the Level

Camera shake’s enough of a problem with still photography, but it becomes even more of a nuisance when you’re shooting video. While the image-stabilization feature provided by some Nikon lenses can help minimize this, it can’t work miracles. Placing your camera on a tripod will work much better than trying to hand-hold it while shooting.

Shooting Script

A shooting script is nothing more than a coordinated plan that covers both audio and video and provides order and structure for your video. A detailed script will cover what types of shots you’re going after, what dialogue you’re going to use, audio effects, transitions, and graphics.

Storyboards

A storyboard is a series of panels providing visuals of what each scene should look like. While the ones produced by Hollywood are generally of very high quality, there’s nothing that says drawing skills are important for this step. Stick figures work just fine if that’s the best you can do. The storyboard just helps you visualize locations; placement of actors/actresses, props, and furniture; and also helps everyone involved get an idea of what you’re trying to show. It also helps show how you want to frame or compose a shot. You can even shoot a series of still photos and transform them into a “storyboard” if you want, such as in Figure 8.10.

Storytelling in Video

Today’s audience is used to fast-paced, short-scene storytelling. In order to produce interesting video for such viewers, it’s important to view video storytelling as a kind of shorthand code for the more leisurely efforts print media offers. Audio and video should always be advancing the story. While it’s okay to let the camera linger from time to time, it should only be for a compelling reason and only briefly.

It only takes a second or two for an establishing shot to impart the necessary information. For example, many of the scenes for a video documenting a model being photographed in a Rock and Roll music setting might be close-ups and talking heads, but an establishing shot showing the studio where the video was captured helps set the scene.

Figure 8.10 A storyboard is a series of simple sketches or photos to help visualize a segment of video.

Provide variety too. Change camera angles and perspectives often and never leave a static scene on the screen for a long period of time. (You can record a static scene for a reasonably long period and then edit in other shots that cut away and back to the longer scene with close-ups that show each person talking.)

When editing, keep transitions basic! I can’t stress this one enough. Watch a television program or movie. The action “jumps” from one scene or person to the next. Fancy transitions that involve exotic “wipes,” dissolves, or cross fades take too long for the average viewer and make your video ponderous.

Composition

In movie shooting, several factors restrict your composition and impose requirements you just don’t always have in still photography (although other rules of good composition do apply). Here are some of the key differences to keep in mind when composing movie frames:

• Horizontal compositions only. Some subjects, such as basketball players and tall buildings, just lend themselves to vertical compositions. But movies are shown in horizontal format only. So if you’re interviewing a local basketball star, you can end up with a worst-case situation like the one shown in Figure 8.11. If you want to show how tall your subject is, it’s often impractical to move back far enough to show him full-length. You really can’t capture a vertical composition. Tricks like getting down on the floor and shooting up at your subject can exaggerate the perspective, but aren’t a perfect solution.

Figure 8.11 Movie shooting requires you to fit all your subjects into a horizontally oriented frame.

• Wasted space at the sides. Moving in to frame the basketball player as outlined by the yellow box in Figure 8.11 means that you’re still forced to leave a lot of empty space on either side. (Of course, you can fill that space with other people and/or interesting stuff, but that defeats your intent of concentrating on your main subject.) So when faced with some types of subjects in a horizontal frame, you can be creative, or move in really tight. For example, if I was willing to give up the “height” aspect of my composition, I could have framed the shot as shown by the green box in the figure, and wasted less of the image area at either side.
• Seamless (or seamed) transitions. Unless you’re telling a picture story with a photo essay, still pictures often stand alone. But with movies, each of your compositions must relate to the shot that preceded it, and the one that follows. It can be jarring to jump from a long shot to a tight close-up unless the director—you—is very creative. Another common error is the “jump cut” in which successive shots vary only slightly in camera angle, making it appear that the main subject has “jumped” from one place to another. (Although everyone from French New Wave director Jean-Luc Goddard to Guy Ritchie—Madonna’s ex—have used jump cuts effectively in their films.) The rule of thumb is to vary the camera angle by at least 30 degrees between shots to make it appear to be seamless. Unless you prefer that your images flaunt convention and appear to be “seamy.”
• The time dimension. Unlike still photography, with motion pictures there’s a lot more emphasis on using a series of images to build on each other to tell a story. Static shots where the camera is mounted on a tripod and everything is shot from the same distance are a recipe for dull videos. Watch a television program sometime and notice how often camera shots change distances and directions. Viewers are used to this variety and have come to expect it. Professional video productions are often done with multiple cameras shooting from different angles and positions. But many professional productions are shot with just one camera and careful planning, and you can do just fine with your D3400.

Here’s a look at the different types of commonly used compositional tools:

• Establishing shot. Much like it sounds, this type of composition, as shown at top left in Figure 8.12, establishes the scene and tells the viewer where the action is taking place. Let’s say you’re shooting a video of your offspring’s move to college; the establishing shot could be a wide shot of the campus with a sign welcoming you to the school in the foreground. Another example would be for a child’s birthday party; the establishing shot could be the front of the house decorated with birthday signs and streamers or a shot of the dining room table decked out with party favors and a candle-covered birthday cake. In this case, I wanted to show the studio where the video was shot.
• Medium shot. This shot is composed from about waist to head room (some space above the subject’s head). It’s useful for providing variety from a series of close-ups and also makes for a useful first look at a speaker. (See Figure 8.12, top right.)
• Close-up. The close-up, usually described as “from shirt pocket to head room,” provides a good composition for someone talking directly to the camera. Although it’s common to have your talking head centered in the shot, that’s not a requirement. In the middle left image in Figure 8.12 the subject was offset to the right. This would allow other images, especially graphics or titles, to be superimposed in the frame in a “real” (professional) production. But the compositional technique can be used with videos, too, even if special effects are not going to be added.
• Extreme close-up. When I went through broadcast training, this shot was described as the “big talking face” shot and we were actively discouraged from employing it. Styles and tastes change over the years and now the big talking face is much more commonly used (maybe people are better looking these days?) and so this view may be appropriate. Just remember, the D3400 is capable of shooting in high-definition video and you may be playing the video on a high-def TV; be careful that you use this composition on a face that can stand up to high definition. (See middle right, Figure 8.12.)

Figure 8.12 Use a full range of shot types.

• “Two” shot. A two shot shows a pair of subjects in one frame. They can be side by side or one subject in the foreground and one in the background. This does not have to be a head-to-ground composition. Subjects can be standing or seated. A “three shot” is the same principle except that three people are in the frame. (See Figure 8.12, lower left.)
• Over-the-shoulder shot. Long a composition of interview programs, the “over-the-shoulder shot” uses the rear of one person’s head and shoulder to serve as a frame for the other person. This puts the viewer’s perspective as that of the person facing away from the camera. (See Figure 8.12, lower right.)

Lighting for Video

Much like in still photography, how you handle light pretty much can make or break your videography. Lighting for video can be more complicated than lighting for still photography, since both subject and camera movement are often part of the process.

Lighting for video presents several concerns. First off, you want enough illumination to create a useable video. Beyond that, you want to use light to help tell your story or increase drama. Let’s take a closer look at both.

Illumination

You can significantly improve the quality of your video by increasing the light falling in the scene. This is true indoors or out, by the way. While it may seem like sunlight is more than enough, it depends on how much contrast you’re dealing with. If your subject is in shadow (which can help them from squinting) or wearing a ball cap, a video light can help make them look a lot better.

Lighting choices for amateur videographers are a lot better these days than they were a decade or two ago. An inexpensive incandescent video light, which will easily fit in a camera bag, can be found for $15 or $20. You can even get a good-quality LED video light for less than $100. Work lights sold at many home improvement stores can also serve as video lights since you can set the camera’s white balance to correct for any color casts. You’ll need to mount these lights on a tripod or other support, or, perhaps, to a bracket that fastens to the tripod socket on the bottom of the camera.

Much of the challenge depends upon whether you’re just trying to add some fill light on your subject versus trying to boost the light on an entire scene. A small video light will do just fine for the former. It won’t handle the latter. Fortunately, the versatility of the D3400 comes in quite handy here. Since the camera shoots video in Auto ISO mode, it can compensate for lower lighting levels and still produce a decent image. For best results though, better lighting is necessary.

Creative Lighting

While ramping up the light intensity will produce better technical quality in your video, it won’t necessarily improve the artistic quality of it. Whether we’re outdoors or indoors, we’re used to seeing light come from above. Videographers need to consider how they position their lights to provide even illumination while up high enough to angle shadows down low and out of sight of the camera.

When considering lighting for video, there are several factors. One is the quality of the light. It can either be hard (direct) light or soft (diffused). Hard light is good for showing detail, but can also be very harsh and unforgiving. “Softening” the light, but diffusing it somehow, can reduce the intensity of the light but make for a kinder, gentler light as well.

While mixing light sources isn’t always a good idea, one approach is to combine window light with supplemental lighting. Position your subject with the window to one side and bring in either a supplemental light or a reflector to the other side for reasonably even lighting.

Lighting Styles

Some lighting styles are more heavily used than others. Some forms are used for special effects, while others are designed to be invisible. At its most basic, lighting just illuminates the scene, but when used properly it can also create drama. Let’s look at some types of lighting styles:

• Three-point lighting. This is a basic lighting setup for one person. A main light illuminates the strong side of a person’s face, while a fill light lights up the other side. A third light is then positioned above and behind the subject to light the back of the head and shoulders. (See Figure 8.13.)

Figure 8.13 With three-point lighting, two lights are placed in front and to the side of the subject (45-degree angles are ideal) and positioned about a foot higher than the subject’s head. Another light is directed on the background in order to separate the subject and the background.

• Flat lighting. Use this type of lighting to provide illumination and nothing more. It calls for a variety of lights and diffusers set to raise the light level in a space enough for good video reproduction, but not to create a particular mood or emphasize a particular scene or individual. With flat lighting, you’re trying to create even lighting levels throughout the video space and minimize any shadows. Generally, the lights are placed up high and angled downward (or possibly pointed straight up to bounce off of a white ceiling). (See Figure 8.14.)
• “Ghoul lighting.” This is the style of lighting used for old horror movies. The idea is to position the light down low, pointed upward. It’s such an unnatural style of lighting that it makes its targets seem weird and ghoulish.
• Outdoor lighting. While shooting outdoors may seem easier because the sun provides more light, it also presents its own problems. As a general rule of thumb, keep the sun behind you when you’re shooting video outdoors, except when shooting faces (anything from a medium shot and closer) since the viewer won’t want to see a squinting subject. When shooting another human this way, put the sun behind her and use a video light to balance light levels between the foreground and background. If the sun is simply too bright, position the subject in the shade and use the video light for your main illumination. Using reflectors (white board panels or aluminum foil-covered cardboard panels are cheap options) can also help balance light effectively.

Figure 8.14 Flat lighting is another approach for creating even illumination. Here the lights can be bounced off of a white ceiling and walls to fill in shadows as much as possible. It is a flexible lighting approach since the subject can change positions without needing a change in light direction.