today and DSLR video skills how she hot our focus can come in handy
to get repeatable sharp focus and your video shots
Adorama TV presents DSLR video skills
with Rich Harrington where you learn all about videography
and photography I was returning for Adorama TV
and I'm walking through today how to use the Follow Focus now this is a common
piece of equipment that a lot of folks use
when shooting video on a DSLR or
Digital Cinema Camera and what it does is it allows you to better control
focus now normally on a camera like this you have focus controls
and if you were to crank this ring it's very susceptible to your movement it's
really easy to have a shot
job work feel really abrupt and autofocus
just doesn't work so we're actually walk through the steps needed to use wannabes
a follow focus doesn't make it easier to focus it just makes it more precise
anyone over her support so what exactly is included with the Follow Focus
you know that the cameras attached receta rails which makes it much
easier to attach all the pieces appear that we need we've got the camera in a
good position
and then I've attached the Follow Focus unit here now
on the camera itself is a gear draining what's gonna really happen here is these
two
an act now the good news is that you can adjust this
and by turning the tension knob here it will release this
and you can move this in and out until it makes a good connection with the gear
their
which want to do is get that in there pretty nicely good strong fit
and then tighten it down alright
evidence connected and couple straight for things that we have two pins
to make it easier to now where the focus should stop
but I don't know where those points are yet so many to rehearsal my subject
additionally on the side here we have a nice dry race
ring and sometimes I want more than two marks so the good news is with the dry
erase marker
you could actually put a small tech mark indicate where that focuses gonna fall
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iframe the initial shot I want to do now is go
find some places to set marks we're gonna have our subject walking through
the scene
and as you shoot with a shallow depth of field it's quite possible they're going
to fall out of focus
I was a course you actually adjust the focus and that's the whole purpose here
you'll also note I'm using a larger monitor to make it easier to see
we'll talk about monitors more on a future episode let's put some marks in
place
to do this I've got some cones which is fine
you can use truck or you can use available things that are in your scene
the key obviously is to make sure that what you mark out doesn't show up in the
shot
I'm gonna walk to see now in figure out where I want are shopper
to walk through into our window shopping and then we'll rehearse alright
my counts are not in my shot which is great now that I've placed them
relatively crude estimates not important that your critical
you just need something that you could see out when I'm doing the Follow Focus
I'm gonna be on this side of the camera because I'm doing all of my own
operation
it's important that I can easily see the controls
and see the marks that i sat on the ring I
refine my focus am I use the built-in pin here
as well as put a small little tick mark on the wheel
pellegrino my starting position can you go ahead and move to the second position
by the dresses
their ego I got it not much movement
to go to the next position please fortunately these pins here
are gonna let me lock the spot now what's really important is that you
tight nose down
so that they don't slip so now basically I have a very small turn
as she moves through but that's gonna help me keep focus
action
good take 10 K it's always a good idea to do a few tries
whenever you doing something like power focus it is a bit tricky so
make sure you get a couple extra takes in the can I'm also using the focus in
red feature on the monitor help me see the edges
and that's going to make it a bit easier as I practice was tried a couple times
more
in
one other way that the power purpose works well
is when you really compress the distance so I have my subject close to the camera
and the background far away so now I could pull focus
as I pander in
in I hope you enjoyed learning a bit more about how of our focus works and
what it's useful for
remember if you haven't already Adorama Learning Center there's tons of articles
including a bunch of videos that I've done
all about shooting video and professional productions
remember the Follow Focus very useful item
but it really works hand in hand with the great monitor out here in this
bright light if I didn't have this monarch see what I was doing
would be very difficult so coming up in future weeks in a walking through
all the benefits that using a monitor like this and you'll see how they come
together
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my name's rich Harrington thanks for joining
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