Camera Settings for Cinematic Sports Videos

in today's video I'm going to go over the best camera settings for cinematic sports videos welcome back to the channel everyone what is up welcome back Pete [Applause] here what is up everyone my name is p gotcha content producer for Major League Baseball welcome back to the channel if you are returning and welcome if you are a new viewer and as I mentioned today I want to make a brief video about the best camera settings for making your sports videos more cinematic I want to keep this brief and concise I'm going to start off by just defining what cinematic means cinematic means of or relating to film or or Cinema obviously I hate that term like I said but yall search for it a lot which is why we're calling it that today it's a very subjective term because a lot of content goes out on social media now which is not you know the movies or Cinema so these film making Styles and and things have evolved over time we're going to go over just the strict camera settings of what I have used in the past and and pretty much what I use on a day-to-day basis when I shoot MLB games or other events because everything I think should look cinematic whatever you want that to mean first off we're going to start off with aperture which is also known as depth of field and this is going to be very dependent upon what your lens situation is if you are new to this game to photography or cameras or videography whatever your aperture is basically how much light the lens is letting it at a certain time so the lower that number is if I'm at f2.8 like I am right now now the blurrier the background is now the more zoomed in you are on a lens the more blurrier it's going to be at a higher number if that makes sense I'm not going to do a whole video on that you can look it up put it short your depth of field is probably one of the biggest indicators of cinematic almost because it's it's an easy way to get a really movie like look you see a lot of movies do a 50 mm prime lens at 1.8 or 1.5 1.4 whatever it be and that gives you whenever your subject's in focus a really blur BL background here on this shot for example not everything is going to be blurry even though I'm at f2.8 because I am wide so I'm at like 18 to 20 mil right now The Wider it's going to be the more it's in Focus but if I was zoomed in at like 70 at f2.8 the blur the background is going to be really blurry so to make your sports videos really more cinematic always shoot on the lowest aperture available if you have a prime lens that will give you that better depth of field at like a 1.8 like I said on a 50 and if you're on an a 7 need to 200 use f2.8 my rule is I always go for the most part as shallow as possible on that depth of field and and as low as I can on that f- stop because that's what people want to see that's what separates your shots from broadcast when you're shooting sports always shoot on a lower f- stop to make your videos more cinematic there are times where I use a high f- stop if I'm shooting like a Scenic of a stadium and I want everything to be in Focus or if I'm on a Gimbal and I'm using autofocus and I don't want that Focus to kind of get tricked a lot more or if I'm wider for example I will go a little higher and if I'm shooting up from an angle and I want the ground to be in focus and I don't want it messing between like the subject and the ground any situation where you want more stuff to be in Focus raise your f- stop but if you want that shallow depth of field lower your ftop number the second thing I want to talk about is your shutter speed if you are unaware of what shutter speed is it is basically how quick your camera is opening every frame but simply put it is going to control how much motion blur is in your image technically if you want to achieve a cinematic look in sports most movies are shot at 24 frames or 29 frames and that is what is going to give you that movie look so if we do the double your frame rate rule your shutter speed should be 1 over 50 or 180° rule whatever you want to call it your shutter speed will be about 1 over50 the reason that is done is because that is what your eyes kind of resemble whenever you see something moving across a plane that is what your eyes are going to see at that one over 50 roughly you know what I mean that is what a cinema look would be so if you want to be more cinematic you shoot 24 frames a second one over 50 but there are times where you don't do that now obviously Sports is different there's going to be quick moving subjects the ball is flying around Ball's getting kicked athletes are moving fast so if you want to shoot in some slow motion like a higher frame rate 60 frames a second 120 frames a second you're going to need to up your shutter speed if you're in 60 frames a second shoot in 1 over 125 and furthermore if you are shooting in 120 frames a second which is an awesome look you shoot in 1 over 250 shutter speed now the higher your shutter speed goes the less motion blur there's going to be but all of those numbers are in accord with that one W frame rate Rule and 180°. like I said earlier in the video these things are changing constantly there's another school of thought on this Theory and like I used to be a part of this I used to shoot with the thought of a really high shutter speed now what are your benefits there it's going to give you a lot better slow motion if you want a really good slow motion with less motion blur and you're really going to be able to see the details of all the emotions in the face and the ball moving and and the dirt kind of flying up pads hitting hard shooting your shooting a higher shutter speed go to 90° rule which would be 1 over 500 if you're shooting 120 frames a second so you're basically doubling that if that makes sense but that is where this area kind of gets muddy by technicality if you want to do cinematic you shoot like a movie cuz it resembles that shutter speed and that motion blur but things change social content changes I don't care which one you want to do ultimately you are going to shoot what you think looks best don't worry about what other people think there are times for certain edits or like zoom in ball effects I want less motion blur so I'll put my shutter speed on 90° one over 500 when I'm shooting in 120 I did it during the baseball playoffs just to get less motion blur so I could zoom in on a on a on a ball a little better but for the most part I stick to the 180° or double your frame rate rule I think it looks good it's simple I don't worry about my shutter speed all that often but simply put it it's up to you let's talk about frame rate and I know we kind of brushed on this already but when you're shooting sports I think it's important to make your videos look more cinematic to mix up your frame rates I don't think there's one that you should specifically set your mind to because there are Moments in Sports that are very slow where you don't need a high frame rate and then there's moments that look really good with a high frame rate and you want to slow down I think if you are mixing up your frame rates between the highest you can go capture that action maybe in 120 frames a second and then capture you know warm-ups walking pregame stuff in 24 whatever your camera can do I think to make your videos look more cinematic mix that high frame rate with the low frame rate cuz there is a time for the low frame rate you do get that more movie style look that looks good mixing it in with the really cool crispy slow motion now finally let's talk about ISO ISO is basically a digital exposure and it's going to add it to the image the more ISO for the most part you have have the more grain there's going to be some cameras do this better than others mirrorless cameras are going to be pretty good at it especially in low light and then your Cinema cameras are going to be pretty good at it your crop sensor cameras won't handle the higher isos as well as as your full frame and your Cinema cameras keep that in mind when you are adjusting this for the most part ISO is what I adjust all the time I normally like I said shoot at the lowest f- stop available which most of the time is F2 or f2.8 on the current setup I have and then I keep my shutter at 180° double the frame rate whatever frame rate I'm in so when I go on a higher frame rate my ISO is going to have to be higher when I'm on a lower frame rate because the shutter speed is lower that's going to brighten the image so my ISO is lower I don't need as much ISO you know there are different theories on this some people shoot with the camera's native ISO if you're new to this and I don't even know really what a native ISO is normally it's like 800 or 1,000 1, 1200 whatever but apparently you're supposed to shoot with a native ISO I don't pay attention to that I just lower the iso when I can because that's just less less digital grain this is the setting I adjust the most cuz I keep my shutter speed the same keep my aperture as low as possible for the most part just a pro tip I have a hotkey programmed in my camera right by the record button so you can adjust the iso for the most part I'm adjusting my ISO all over I have a cap on it I don't I I don't like to go over like 1,00 in normal settings there are times in really low light at Banquets or in tunnels where I'll have to go to like 2500 it happens it's okay I would say absolutely don't go over like 2500 on most cameras but anyway those are the main three components of of what I think the settings that make your sports videos look cinematic there are other things of course composition using manual focus and adding depth to your shots if you have any questions about that let me know U my DMs are always open at peock on Instagram and you can also leave a comment below I just wanted to go over the three main components of of making your image apperture shutter speed and ISO I hope y'all were able to gain some value from this video if you are new here please subscribe and hit the like button it helps out a lot happy holidays everyone and I will see y'all in the next video maybe it's in the new year I don't know

Channel: Pete Gottschalk

Views: 2,209

Keywords: pete gottschalk, cinematic a6300 vlog, camera settings, sports videography, basketball videography, sports videography gear, how to film sports, peter sarellas, sports photography, shutter speed, sports videography for beginners, filmmaking for beginners, sports cinematography, sports videography reel, sports videography lens, sports videography settings, sports videography camera settings, sports videography rig, sports videography tips

Id: zdv4vhTLGvM

Length: 9min 8sec (548 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 29 2023