First Camera Lesson

Well today was exciting, we had our first camera lesson. Our new two teachers Paul and Matt are from the technical side of our media department at Hurtwood. We were taught some tricks that we will be using a lot through out this course, such as :  

• Setting up the Tripod.
• Placing the camera on the Tripod.
• Learning the basic buttons and controls on the Camera.
• Talking and testing white balance. 

Setting up the Tripod, Placing the Camera on it:

While setting up the Tripod, our group had to unlock the legs, let the tripod stand. When it came to it standing we had a slight problem. I learned that instead of trying to adjust the legs at the right length and angle (which could take so long) you just have to bubble it. The little air bubble shows that, when placed inside the small black circle, that the camera when placed on will be at the perfect angle.

As I was taught in this lesson, you cannot as a group be so scared of the camera as that will make your nerves worse and increases the chances of having an accident with the camera. You have to obviously be careful, but relax. With this thought in mind my small group slid the camera on with ease but still with concentration. By screwing the camera into the tripod you ensure the security, but you do not need to screw it in so tight that you cannot unscrew it. 

Learning the basic buttons and controls of the Camera (White balance) :

For a few years now I have been working with a Canon XF100, which I would say has not many differences even though the Sony Nx5 is larger, basically the same controls from what I learned on this first lesson. I do feel like the lesson helped in the way that I became much more familiar with the NX5 ’s layout as a camera, as in its on and off switch, zoom wheel, focus wheel and color balance. I found it preferably easy to catch on to this. 

 

White balance is such a great tool to know about, because its sometimes very improfessional to have a certain color tone on your unedited shot. We had an orange tone, so we zoom and focused on a reflector which was white. By pressing WB (white balance button), when zoomed back and onto your once very orange toned picture is very balanced.