Cameras are used for numerous things in the media industry, for things such as VFX. We learned about cameras and the different settings that can be adjusted to make the footage more accurate.
There are different types of cameras. Cameras with adjustable lenses, and those with detachable lenses of different magnification. The settings on both kinds of cameras can be adjusted to make the scene brighter, darker, clearer and even change the colour.
The exposure of a picture of video is important because it will control how much light can enter the lens. The main factors that go into changing the exposure are the shutter speed, the aperture, the lighting and the ISO/ ASA.
Shutter speed is the length of time the lens will be exposed to light. a quick shutter speed will mean a darker picture. This is measured in fractions of seconds.
The aperture is the part of the lens that opens and closes when a picture is taken. This is related to the shutter speed, because the aperture control how much light will enter, and the shutter speed dictates how light it will be after.
The lighting of the picture is also important. If the scene is dark, a larger aperture and slower shutter speed would be better to get as much light as possible.
The ISO/ ASA is the sensor of how sensitive the lens will be to light when it enters the lens. Too much of it will make an image look grainy.
This is the exposure triangle, an easy way to calculate what settings to have a camera on.
All of this knowledge used together is good to start with, but there is another factor to filming an accurate reel of footage or taking a correct picture. White balance has to be considered. For example, if it's a cloudy day, the sun is pushing its light through the clouds, which would give everything below it a blue-grey tinge. Or a living room with tungsten bulbs, which would most likely give off a bright yellow colour in a photograph. This is not good if you want an accurate image with accurate colours. This can be solved by using white balance.
White balance is measured in degrees kelvin, which is used to describe the heat of metal by colour. The reason this is useful is to balance out the colours the camera is picking up by adding the opposite. A warm, yellow image would need a low measure of kelvin added, which is the equivalent of blue. The average/ auto setting on a camera would most likely be 5600 kelvin.
All of this information will help with rendering, as it will give me the settings I will have to render any VFX with. Colour matching may be a challenge, but it would be necessary to make sure a 3D model look realistic in an environment of any kind. For example, if I had a robot in an outside scene on a cloudy day, I'd have to take into account any tinges in the footage and either correct it or render the robot in the same temperature.
Overall, I enjoyed learning about cinematography. At the beginning I was unsure about how I would feel about learning this, but I'm glad I learned about it. It will help a lot when doing any VFX or camera work in the future.
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