I'm a Photographer and Videographer, not a computer geek even though by osmosis I seem to becoming a geek I still prefer to spend my time behind the camera instead of in front of the computer monitor wrestling with Adobe products.
If you are involved like me with stock video or stock photography then you realize it's a volume game, or certainly a balance between volume and quality imagery, therefore you are probably spending countless hours processing video clips, making the small adjustments that we need to do to make our footage pop.
The very first step of producing a quality video clip apart from a great creative subject matter and good lighting is getting the camera set up. A good set up will cut hours out of computer time in post processing and it just takes a few extra seconds of your time and some preparation to get some accessories to help us.
Whichever camera you use to capture footage you need to take time to make sure the settings are correct for this shoot. The chances are the settings in the camera were from the last time you used it. If you are using a DSLR for video capture, the first two second trick which should become a reflex action, much in the same way you put your seat belt on when you get in the car, is to press every exterior button on your camera, apart from the shutter or video start button. Look and see what settings appear on the LCD of your camera and either confirm in your mind that they are correct or change them.
Next is to set up the shot and exposure then do a custom white balance using either a white card or 18% grey card, ExpoDisc or a gamma style target like the Digital Calibration Target which gives a black, white and grey target in your first few frames, so in post you can set the levels and remove color casts easily.
These white balance, exposure targets are a good way for you to get volume shots that look great and do not need a lot of time in post trying to get rid of color casts or getting more grain because your exposure was off in the shadows, just another way to crank up the volume on your stock video portfolio.
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