How to Take Great Pictures with Your Digital Camera

(there is a video on this topic below the blog entry)

I currently use a Kodak 5MP camera with (Kodak Easyshare C530) to take pictures of all the AV events I am part of and all the pictures for my fun website, simplyannoying.com. I bought it for less than $100.00 about two years ago or so and I don't want another one right away - it has everything I need, even though it's pretty tiny. It's a user-friendly camera aimed at the consumer, not pro.

No matter who a camera is designed for, never let that get in your way of taking great pictures; even someone who has a 10MP SLR can take bad pictures, if they don't know how to use it. With knowledge of a few simple principles and techniques, anybody can take decent pictures with an inexpensive camera.

I once took a picture for a restaurant owner to be published in a major newspaper and, after following guidelines, the owner loved it, it was printed and the rest is history. I am not in the business of taking newspaper photos, but that just proves that the 2MP camera I had at the time was, in the right hands, capable of taking great pictures (I am a videographer/filmmaker and I am very particular when composing/shooting images).

So, here are the guidelines to follow if you want to take great pictures with an inexpensive digital camera:

1) Say no to digital zooming! In my experience, I've never had a good shot with digital zooming from either a still camera or video camera. The specs might read: 30X Digital Zoom, but that means the resolution of the pictures will go down significantly as evidenced by excessively pixilated pictures. Optical zoom, where the lens itself moves, is the way to go when zooming. If you need more zoom, get a camera with a higher zoom capability or interchangeable lenses.

2) Use a tripod instead of a flash indoors. Tripod and flash in the same sentence? Yes, because when a camera is hand-mounted, the environment must be sufficiently bright in order to take blur-free images. If it is not so bright, a tripod will allow you to open up the iris (f-stop) and keep the picture still. I have a tripod that I got for $20.00 and it folds up into a small carrying case, is lightweight and has a removable wedge plate for quick mounting.

A flash does have it's place, though, when taking quick vacation photos or happy-time pictures at a social event or when taking pictures of people outside on a bright day - the flash will fill in their faces nicely.

3) When taking product shots, get up close and light the scene. But don't get too close if your camera can't focus up close. I use a technique called 'three-point lighting', where I set up a 'key light' in front of the product (on an angle, not straight on), a less intense light, called a 'fill' light (to fill in undesirable shadows and reveal detail) and a 'back light' (to add light from above in order to separate the subject from the BG or fill in shadows from above - also called a highlight or rim light, depending on how high above the back of the subject it is shining down from).

(See below for lighting techniques)

4) Monitor your temperature (of your color, that is) when taking product shots. When using more than one light, be sure they are the same color. Color temperature means that you should mix the right color values from lights to create even color reproduction. Daylight has a much higher color temperature than a standard light bulb. Even the new CFL bulbs are available in different color temperatures.

One of my favorite lights is the halogen, available in any hardware store. Try lighting techniques to see which works best for you. Check out these comparisons - taken with the EasyShare C530 for my eBay listings (by the way - the backdrop was bought at a fabric store for about six dollars! When put over my Ikea chair, there is no horizon line).

5) The rule of thirds - compose your shot so that you balance the frame with the subject. The product shot below (the first DaVinci photo) has the front corner of the VHS box just off center because the longer portion of the box occupies the left side of the frame. Picture your frame containing 9 boxes of the same size (two horizontal lines, two vertical lines) and balance your subject within those boxes.

Key, fill and highlight - the finished product shot!


Key light only.


Fill light only.


Highlight only.


Key light and highlight (no fill).


Flash only.


Flash and 3-point lighting. (The big difference between this shot and the first shot is the shadow around the left edge on this shot - the flash, from directly in front, causes that shadow and doesn't separate the subject from the background very much - you can also see the flash lighting up the edges of the tapes on the right side).


A picture of my workstation (2007) - I was trying to capture the lighting I use when I work at night recording and editing.


A product shot of Bodum cozies (aka 'French press').


One of my favorite shots - from a an AV gig the first time I went to Las Vegas. I held the camera still on an overpass garbage bin to get the steady shot with no blur.


A picture I took of an event I worked at in Toronto, in early 2009 (I take these for my website at www.presentation-av.com)

Hope this helps!!

- Buck Moore

Save Money on Content Creation for Online Advertising and In-Store Display Screens

I watched it happen in the music world and I'm seeing it happen on the internet - people are making wiser decisions when it comes to producing content - and now, the timing could not be better.

Thinking 'Indie'
Independent musicians are the ones who don't have major contracts and are left on their own to record their own music and produce their own videos. Because computers got cheaper and more useful, musicians no longer had to rely on major record companies to get stuff done.

Independent musicians who were locked out of the major record labels had turned to the internet to showcase their talent, sell music and advertise their upcoming shows because they really had no other option. They could not get air time on TV, the radio wouldn't touch them (aside from college radio) and they could not justify the expense of print advertising (aside from street pole advertising). Suffice it to say that the internet was a Godsend to the independent musician.

Well, now that commercial TV ads are relatively expensive, I see smaller businesses turn to online video and in-store screens for advertising; and, I've seen some pretty darn good content. I've also seen some lame content, but fortunately, the content itself won't break the bank for anyone considering OOH (Out-of-Home media), digital signage or whatever it's being called these days.

Slide-Show Loops
The beauty of it is that it is not expensive to produce a 'slide-show' loop of a store's interior or products and that same slide-show can be re-purposed for a website quite easily. Not only that, once the content is created, it can be easily re-edited in various lengths. What does it take to produce a slide show video with fancy fades, moving slides and catchy titles/logos? Not much. I do it all the time. I just finished working on a documentary involving many still photos and titles and we were in a hurry to get it done. So, within four or five hours, it was done.

Live Action Ads
If a retailer decides that they want a live action ad produced, it will generally cost more, but once it is produced it won't cost much to upload it to the internet or play it in-store. One of the best options for saving money on live-action advertising is to hire a video crew to shoot the interiors with happy staff, great close-ups of products and smiling customers AND, as long as the camera is there, it may as well shoot interesting images (I've seen a few TV ads from smaller business that were pretty terrible - and, I still do!).

In summary, if a retailer or other small to medium business owner has a screen or two available, but they can't justify the expense of having an in-store network, they can easily have digital content produced for their existing screen or screens.

I was recently at a Home Hardware in Toronto and saw that they had one screen near the exit on the way out. I thought they did a beautiful job because the loop was nice-looking and informative, and it was something that caught the eye when waiting in line (a common tactic, of course). It was the only screen that I had noticed in the entire store and the effectiveness could not have been better. They could have put a few up, overhead, and they would not have worked as well as the one on the post at average eye level.

Parting Thoughts:
1) Have some content created for an in-store display (start with a slide-show).
2) Re-purpose the content and have it cut shorter for web use.
3) Upload versions of the content to video sites (shorter versions)
4) Get one or two screens and playback device (computer, DVD player, etc) and place them in the best spots possible.
5) Keep the content interesting and informative (and only repetitive enough to satisfy a long wait in line - people may be more frustrated waiting when they see the loop start again).
6) Have different loops playing for different times of day (different age groups).
7) Talk to a consultant about live action options.
8) Make the most from spending less!

Cheers!
- Buck Moore

Wireless Microphones: The Good, The Bad and The Ksssshhhh!!

I have been using wireless microphones for years on stages and film sets. They are a good thing to have during Q+A sessions with a large audience, but they are not all equal. Even some higher quality brands of the same model act differently than one another and until the technology improves, I never recommend using wireless mics without a back-up plan.

There is Something in the Air Tonight (and Every Day, too!)
There seems to be more and more being fed into the airwaves every day. Now that analog TV is out, I've read (and heard at a technology conference) that those left over frequencies are being bought up by companies who'll use it for wireless internet and cell phone communication. Check out these blurbs (and search for many like them, if desired):

"Many wireless microphones operate in this frequency space (the 700MHz band)....The FCC is wanting the devices to have geolocation services in them, so that they do not operate on known used frequencies in the area of the device. This means that all area devices (wireless microphones) will need to be registered with the FCC....Even though wireless microphones would retain their licensed, secondary use status (secondary only to digital television), the white spaces proposal creates a potential for interference to wireless microphones from unlicensed devices." - (http://production.marshillchurch.org/2009/02/04/fcc-selling-frequency-space)

"White space device prototypes reportedly were unable to detect the transmission of wireless microphones -- for instance, the kind that referees wear on the field -- prompting Shure, the manufacturer of those microphones, to proclaim in advance that those tests will "conclusively show that spectrum sensing white space devices will cause harmful interference to wireless microphones during live events." The FCC itself yet to issue a final report." - (http://www.betanews.com/article/Having-lost-its-own-bid-Google-advocates-giving-analog-TV-space-to-public/1219075156)

Suffice it to say that there is some major concern, especially during live events. At many events, cell phones and Blackberry devices are heard checking or receiving messages with their tell-tale little 'click, click, click' through a nearby speaker system. It's IMPOSSIBLE to ask people to turn off their devices and the AV people are often stared at when this sort of thing happens. We can't do much about it, though.

Different Types of Wireless Microphones
There are two main types of wireless systems in use at live events and film/video productions - VHF and UHF. VHF is Very High Frequency (30MHz to 300MHz) and UHF is Ultra High Frequency (300MHz to 3GHz). The microphone systems operate on a certain bandwidth of those spectrums, with UHF being the better technology for live events.

Every single time I have used VHF live, there was always some sort of interference where UHF offered minimal interference. But, I have had noise problems when certain units had been shut off while the mixer still had it on an open channel. There should always be somebody at the mixer when wireless microphones are being used.

One more thing - two antennas are better than one. One antenna systems have no recourse when the signal fails on the one antenna.

Lavalier Microphones
Lavalier mics (lavs, tie-clip, lapel mic) offer a great deal of freedom for a presenter, but trouble can occur if the speaker system is too low or they go too close to a loudspeaker on a tripod stand. Plus, since they are not directly in front of the mouth, they lack clarity (not to mention the noise that can happen when wardrobe rubs against them).

There is another issue with lavs - they are cumbersome to change over if presentations are back to back and that will create scheduling problems when things run late. Plus, with two or more presenters, the rental costs can be fairly high.

I'm not dead against wireless lapel microphones, but they do have to be planned for in advance if they are to work properly.

Hand-held Q&A Microphones
One can't escape the wireless Q&A for certain types of meetings. For example, when people pay large amounts of money to be at an event, I rarely see them willing to move to far to ask a question. If the meeting were more of a public event, people are more willing to stand in line to ask a question through a wired microphone. Another issue with private meetings and wired mics - you can't put the stand anywhere without it being in someone's way of the screen, unless it's way off to the side.

In any case, a wirless Q&A mic should be UHF and fully tested the day before the event.

Back-up Plans for Wireless Mics
Q&A - if the wireless mic fails in any way (interference, dead battery), audience members should be instructed to stand and deliver, keep it short and ask the presenter to reiterate the question so everybody can hear. Having a wired mic on a stand, ready to go is another great back-up option.

Video recording - VHF mics for video cameras can wreak havoc in a sound system. Even if one could trace and eventually solve the problem, there is very little time before things get underway, so a back-up plan is needed.

Consider asking the AV person if they can somehow 'split' the wired microphone signal in the event of wireless failure. A good AV person will have a few break-out kits with many different cables and connectors to solve many last minute problems. I once installed a mic splitter right at the podium mic to give a video person a feed, just moments before the event was to begin. I could not have done that without a well stocked break-out kit.

Happy wireless and good luck!!

- Buck Moore

Taping and Cabling

The goal of taping and cabling is: safety first.

We cannot have a successful event without cables. They are not a necessary evil, they are simply necessary. Even in a wireless world, we use cables for everything from sound systems to projectors to electricity for every event and this will not slow down in the near future.

There are reasons for cabling - minimal interference, strong AV signals and fast data transfer rates. Until the wireless world catches up, I'll trust cables over wireless any day.

That being said, I must acknowledge that cables can be ugly looking trip hazards, but good AV people know how to minimize safety issues and keep things looking as good as possible. During a site visit, the issue of cabling can be planned out properly with minimal interference, especially with air-wall doorways, which will tear up taped cables every time. The problem with these types of doors is that you can't simply route the cables over the door frame because there is nothing to hold them up. Even if you could, it sure does look ugly.

One solution to that problem is to hide the AV desk behind the screens so you can avoid long cables to the sound system. The only cables exposed will be those of the projectors, but they are up front (if floor-mounted) and have minimal traffic over them.

Hiding the appearance of cables is often done with matte tape that matches the carpeting, or at least camouflages pretty well on it. The one foreseeable problem here is that, if it hides too well, people can still trip on it, especially in low lighting conditions. My choice is to tape little X's on the taped down cables with thin masking tape that is clearly visible to anybody walking over the cables.

Cables can also be hidden well with stage skirts and clever taping to a podium. If the stage is to be an open concept, fireside chat style, the cables can come from behind the stage and taped down along the cracks of the stage sections (4' x 4' is quite common for stage sections).

If you have an event in a large room where the AV team insists upon setting up at the back of the room, they will usually require a 'snake' to run all of the audio cables from the front to the back of the room. Snakes are much thicker than other cables because they contain many cables inside of them. Running a 150' snake can be tricky and there is often no point of taping them down.

One option is to ensure there are snake covers for high traffic areas - they are like a shield for the snake with a tiny ramp on each side. Be careful, though because these are trip hazards, especially in a corporate meeting where people are walking by with drinks, food and cell phones and not necessarily looking at the floor.

Whatever the plan is, the routing and tape-down of cables is a very important consideration at any event. And one more thing - ensure any taping is straight and professional looking.

Cheers!

- Buck Moore