Premiere® Elements 8 For Dummies®

Chapter 18. Ten Videography Tips and Secrets

In This Chapter

• Recording more interesting video shots

• Setting white balance

• Improving exposure and lighting

• Enhancing picture quality with filters and lens hoods

• Protecting your camera

Have you ever watched a movie and wondered, "How did they do that?" Moviemakers have been perfecting their art and developing new techniques for over a century, and they've gotten pretty good at what they do. If you watch a "Making of ..." documentary, you may get the impression that modern moviemaking is all about fancy computer animation effects and massive budgets, but even the biggest blockbuster projects still rely on many time-honored and proven techniques.

In this chapter I show you ten tips and secrets of videography that won't break the bank or require you to get a degree in computer animation. Here I show ten techniques to help you to shoot better video, record better audio, and more.

Keep Your Camera at the Ready

"I wish I had my camera!"

Have you ever said that? If so, then you already know the importance of keeping a camera with you at all times and having it ready to go. Some of history's most important video recordings were not part of formal video shoots; they were shot by people who just happened to be in the right place at the right time with a camera.

Fortunately, keeping a video camera handy has never been easier because modern camcorders — especially ones that use flash memory for storage — can be extremely small and lightweight. Video can also ...