All posts by Terry Pitts

Terry is a retired school teacher, retired Army Reservist, and retired civilian Department of the Army Civilian working about half the time as a pilot and flight instructor. He has been flying since age 19, adding gliders in 2011. He's been an FAA certificated flight instructor since 2013.
Photography, Technology, Video

Tips for making a better video

I have considered myself a “serious” still photographer for a long time. But, I enjoy doing video work as well. I like to have the best possible output I can. I’m appalled by what I see people post on YouTube – please edit out the parts where you’re walking along and the camera is recording your feet and the grass! (Several of the links below open on Amazon’s website. If you happen to buy it, I get a few cents. I’m now at just under $15 lifetime earnings!)

The picture above shows my efforts at making better video. Notice the camera is sitting on a tripod (it happens to be one I bought in high school as my better one was stolen a while back). On the front you will notice, from the left to right, a lens hood attached to a Cokin P-Series Filter Holder. Then comes a Circular Polarizer because what a polarizer can do for color quality and image control cannot be duplicated on the computer with “tweaks” or “digital filters.” A good one is not cheap, so this is sized to fit my largest Nikon lens and adapted to everything else with stepping rings. The last item before talking about the camera is the Canon DM-100 microphone that gives much better results than using the built in one. It records in stereo.

The Canon HF200 camera in the picture has been replaced. I learned a while back that most video camera manufacturers put some high end features on the entry level camera to compete for sales to schools. Schools often put out a request for proposals on a camera that must include an external microphone jack. This particular camera has a filter ring on the front and jacks for a microphone and for headphones. I use them all and wouldn’t buy a camera without them!

Want to make a better video?

Support the camera. When the camera moves, the picture moves. Do you really want the picture jumping up and down and rolling left and right? If you actually have the talent to pull this off, you don’t need my tips! You can support the camera in many ways. Tripods work really well, but are bulky and can be inconvenient. In a restaurant you can rest the camera on top of a glass. Outdoors, lean against a wall, fence, or a car and tuck your elbows in tightly. You can also support the camera by bracing it against a light pole. Any time the camera is resting on, or pressed against a solid object, you remove at least one of the three dimensions in which it can inadvertently and unattractively move.

Let the subject move, not the camera. Zooming during recording rarely works well. Zoom to get the shot you want, then leave that button alone while recording. “Moving” pictures of things that are not moving are not very, uh, “moving.” With practice you can pan smoothly along the front of a building, but sometimes you can solve the problem by waiting for a car to drive by. If you want to move the camera, consider moving to a different spot for a different point of view!

Get as close as you can. This lets you fill the screen with your subject and reduces distracting background clutter. If skilled filmmakers think in terms of wide, medium, and close shots, I think most beginners end up with wide, wider, and just too darn far away shots.

Improve the sound. You will find many references pointing out that people will tolerate mediocre video if the audio is good. If all you have is the camera’s built-in microphone, try to turn off as many extraneous noise sources in the room as you can. The camera’s microphone isn’t really “bad.” It’s so good that it can pick up everything in the room – your subject, your breathing, your TV in the background… If your camera has a microphone jack, get a lavalier microphone like you often see on the collar of people being interviewed on TV. These start as low as $20 if you get one from Radio Shack. For a camera without a microphone jack, you can hold a smart phone or a digital recorder close to your subject, but out of the picture, and easily learn how to add the audio in during the editing process. With the right adapter(s), you can connect the lavalier to your cell phone if the “talent” is too far from the camera. I have a Canon DM-100 shotgun microphone that I use frequently.

Have a plan for a story in mind. A short video for a birthday might start off with a “happy birthday” banner, then show someone bringing in a cake while singing, followed by a close up of blowing out the candles, and so on. Hollywood can turn a 1000-page book into a two-hour movie and people follow the story; you can show a birthday party from poster to presents in three minutes with some planning and editing.

Shoot a lot of footage, then delete most of it. Your editing software is you friend. The camera usually wiggles a bit when you start/stop recording. Cut that part off. Many scenes on TV are only 10-15 seconds before the camera changes. Ten different shots of a birthday party might only total 150 seconds (2-1/2 minutes) yet give you a nice tight video. I’ve read that people move on to the next video in less than three minutes. If your work is good, they will stay. Reward your viewer by getting rid of surplus footage.

Let there be light, in the right places. When you are beginning, it’s hard to think about “light,” let alone take steps to control it. In general, you want as much light as you can possible have on the subject, but not behind it. Try to keep the sun behind you until you can some skill. Turn on as many lights indoors as possible that are between you and the subject, but minimize the light behind (lamps, open curtains, etc.) to avoid a subject in shadow.

Composition is important. Read about the rule of thirds. Allow room between people’s faces and the edge of the frame. Look for diagonal or curved lines to lead you to the subject. Move around so different scenes are shot from different points of view. If you shoot more than one scene from the same spot, zoom in or out some or change the angle up/down or left/right enough that it’s a real change and not just a jarring bump when your viewer sees it.

Am I a great videographer? No, definitely not. However, I do try to take steps to make my work a bit better when I can. A few years ago, I had two coworkers die within a few months of each other. We had a memorial service for each of them at the base chapel. I did videos of the events for the families. I put a camera in the choir loft looking down at the front of the church. I put a camera in the front pew looking at the lectern. I used a third camera to film people in the pews as they listened/reacted. I recorded audio from the church’s mixer into my iPad. What did I learn from this? Some useful things, for sure: there is a difference between line level and microphone level that you need to understand when connecting things to each other. There is a difference between TRS and TRRS that’s more important than just “one more R” in the second one. And, if an SD card isn’t fast enough, you can’t record HD video (Try figuring that one out when everyone is waiting for you to be ready so the service can start!)

Gliders, Snow, Soaring, Weather

Soaring in the snow

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I have been very fortunate to have met some great people soaring in England. I’ve had the pleasure of flying with three different clubs. Over a recent long weekend, I had arranged to visit two of those clubs and work on aerobatic flying. My four-day trip did not go exactly as planned, but this is not about that or aerobatics even.

I’ve often admired the English countryside with hedges dividing fields of many different shades of green. This time, the hedges outlined fields of white snow.

The first day at London Gliding Club (LGC) I was found safe to practice solo aerobatics the next day (Note, “safe” is not a synonym for “good” or “proficient.”) When I went to bed, the forecast had potential. When I got up the next morning, the real world had snow!

The tow plane is from a company called Avions Robin in France. I visited the factory once in 1987. The LGC clubhouse and hangar are visible just above the cockpit.

At the glider field I spoke to the tow pilot who told me he was getting freezing mist on the canopy at 4,000 feet. The sky was completely covered, with little to no horizon. It’s hard to do aerobatics in the clouds. No visible horizon doesn’t help either. Aerobatic flying was out, but I heard someone say, “There’s wave over Tring Road.” I know where Tring Road is!

The wing runner has the tow rope, ready to connect it. Two more crazy people ready to fly. The glider is an ASK-21, the most common training glider in the world.

I added myself to the launch queue and waited my turn. I asked instructor Alan Harrison if he would go with me. Even though I had flown the day before, flying with heavy clouds in the air and snow on the ground was something new for me. “New” started with the takeoff’s ground run.

Most of my friends think I’m pretty crazy, but look at this, I am nowhere near alone in trying to fly. Ready to go, too? Ridge in the background.

Important background: 1) gliders are normally airborne before the towplane, 2) LGC’s runway is described as “undulating” grass, and 3) any takeoff is longer on snow/mush/etc. The takeoff run at LGC starts down a long slope, does up then down a short slope, then up a longer one. The tow plane rolls over the crest of the middle hump, with me already in the air. I can’t get too high without putting the towplane at risk. He’s rolling down hill as I’m flying up. However (There’s always a “but” or a “however”!) the ground is going up faster than I am. Bump! I’m back on the ground and roll over the hump, back in the air again. This, of course, put a brief, but noticeable load on the tow plane – further lengthening the takeoff run.

Looking at Dunstable from about 2,000′. The glider field and ridge are are on the other side of the glider. This is about where we found the best lift.

Finally we’re both in the air. Motors and wings perform well in the cold. We climb to 3,000 feet and release in light wave. For the most part, there is only enough energy to reduce sink from a typical 2 knots to about 0.5kts. Even if we’re “only” going down more slowly than usual, that’s a good thing. Woosh! Glider pilots know the feeling of upward acceleration when entering a thermal. Alan and I felt a strong upward shove as we found real lift. We worked hard to keep ourselves well within that lift for several minutes. You already know where this wave was, right? Yes, right over Tring Rd.

Diagonally across the picture you see the Chiltern Ridge that LGC is famous for. Centered is the takeoff/landing area.

The view from the cockpit was incredible. I’ve often admired the English countryside with hedges dividing fields of many different shades of green. This time, the hedges outlined fields of white snow. And, my iPhone was inaccessible in my pocket. Thankfully, Alan had his phone and took several pictures.

The northern end of Chiltern Ridge has a hook or bowl. I actually hovered over this spot once, matching my airspeed to the speed of the wind, giving me a ground speed of zero.

Many thanks to Chief Flight Instructor and manager Andy Roch for hosting me and to the fine instructors who flew with me.

PS The wind came from behind the ridge and down its front. I suspect this was an example of “hydraulic jump” where the wind actually ricochets off the ground and back up. You see this with water flowing over a dam or spillway.

London Gliding Club viewed from the top of the ridge. The “undulation” in the takeoff run i clearly visible.