Shooting video with DSLR cameras (Adobe User Group meeting)

Premiere and Post Oxford group met again last week to watch Richard Wakefield‘s presentation about DSLR cameras workflow and the basics of colour correction.

Before that we had an introduction made by Glenn Clarkson and Richard Duriez. Glenn talked briefly about new update for Adobe Edge and new releases on AdobeTV. Richard played a Sundance video report that can be found on Adobe TV and gave a short introduction to Oxford Adobe User Groups, as we had a few new people in the audience.

Richard Wakefield started his presentation playing a short video explaining why he uses DSLR cameras for shooting video and he talked about advantages and drawbacks of using HDSLR equipment. Next he described and presented the gear he uses for his productions, including cameras, a choice of lenses, audio equipment and his favourite camera mounts (tripod, monopod, glidetrack, glidecam). While showing his gear Richard also explained how he creatively uses different lens and types of shots in his productions, illustrating his talk with video clips.

In the second part of the Richard’s talk we had a chance to listen about the basics of the colour correction. We could hear from Richard what techniques and software he uses to get the desired look of his videos. Richard presented us how to control the image using vectorscope and waveform monitors in Adobe Premiere Pro and briefly explained how he uses the fast color corrector effect and Magic Bullet and Color Fixer Plus plugins. After that we watched sample videos and listened about using blend modes, vignetting, gradients, mixing channels and colour contrast effects in colour grading tasks. At the end Richard quickly showed us how he enhances audio, using dynamic processing effects and equaliser in Adobe Premiere Pro. The talk was finished with a presentation of a music video, that he recently produced.