Camera Setup For Art Videos

In the upcoming 100th issue of International Artist magazine, I've written the first of a series of articles about how to shoot your own art tutorial videos. In this blog post, I'd like to excerpt a bit from that article and supplement it with more information and links.

Painting in Wyoming with separate camera tripod

First, you might ask: Why shoot your own videos? Why not use a separate crew?

Five reasons:
1. You'll know the best moments to capture.

2. You'll let the camera have the best view.

3. You'll control the edit.

4. If it's for sale, you'll keep the revenues.

5. Last but not least, if your painting is a fail, you don't have to worry about embarrassing yourself in front of a film crew. You can just press delete.

If you're not keen on multi-tasking, you might enlist the help of a friend or a spouse. For example, Laurel Holmes, the wife of Marc Taro Holmes, who I profiled yesterday, just wrote a great blog post about tips for coverage when shooting still photos of sketchers.

My wife Jeanette can't always help me because she's busy painting too and doesn't like to bother with tech too much. So I've got to make it work as a single operator. Learning how to shoot and edit isn't as hard as it might seem. Once you get used to it, it's just part of the process, as easy and automatic as laying out your palette.

Setup for shooting a sequence in my upcoming casein video.

For the same price that it would cost to hire a professional crew for a couple of days, you can buy all the gear you'll need. Modern entry-level consumer cameras and software give you better results than top-of-the line professional equipment from five years ago.

Once you learn to use the gear, your videos will be much better than a pro crew can ever hope to create anyway. The best they can achieve is to peer obliquely over your shoulder and ask you to explain what you're doing while you paint.

I find it hard to speak coherently while I'm painting without skipping a key point, repeating myself, or simply misspeaking. I'd much rather concentrate on the painting and then record a voiceover after the edit (more on audio in a future post).

What kind of cameras work best for art videos?
Modern cameras record directly to high definition digital files. Many basic consumer cameras costing between $200 and $700 have all the features you need. Storage is cheap, so you can shoot all you want, put it on an external hard drive, and delete what doesn't work.

Below are the cameras I use for videos and stills of my artwork. I happen to use mostly Canon cameras, and I stick to one brand as much as possible to maintain a consistent user interface and comparable color rendering. But I'm not a camera reviewer, and I'm not paid to endorse any particular brand. The following are the ones I decided on after researching the field, and they've served me well. But you might find competitive models from Sony, Panasonic, Nikon, or other companies.

Clockwise from upper left: camcorder, single-lens reflex,
GoPro action camera, and point-and-shoot

• Camcorder.

I use a Canon VIXIA camcorder, which gives me the necessary manual controls, a fold-out LCD screen, and an input port for external audio. If you get one video camera, a camcorder is the most versatile.

• Single-lens reflex.

I use a Canon EOS Rebel SLR camera mainly for more artistic video shots, and it's also my standard camera for shooting high quality stills. I use the standard kit zoom lens, plus a 50mm f/1.8 lens when I want maximum bokeh. You can also shoot time lapse stills if you use an intervalometer. (Edit: Two limitations to this camera: there's a 10 minute limit to the length of shots. And although it has a plug for external audio, the sound quality isn't very good.)

• Action Camera.

I use a GoPro Hero3 Black mainly for time lapse. Time lapse videos are compiled from a series of still images shot automatically at intervals with a timer. I have my GoPro set to start shooting stills at two second intervals whenever I turn it on. Later, I combine those stills into a video clip using a program called Time Lapse Assembler. The GoPro has a deep-focus lens and an excellent sensor. It also has the advantage of being small, so it doesn't obstruct my view of the painting. (More about time lapse technique in a future post.)

• Point-and-shoot / pocket camera.

I carry a Canon PowerShot ELPH 340 pocket camera in a belt holster when I'm in the field. I rely on it for shooting stills and for getting extra video coverage when it's not convenient to bring out the other cameras. The recent videos in Bryan, Texas and Austin, Texas were shot entirely with the little PowerShot. This camera, like a few others in its class, can shoot 1080p HD video, with a good image stabilizer that can turn shaky handheld shots into smooth usable footage. Smart phones are getting smarter, and can match many of these functions, but a good pocket camera will have better lenses and sensors and more useful controls. Many manufacturers are discontinuing the category because of dropping sales, so it's wise to pick one up before they become extinct.

Manual controls and why you need them
1. Focus lock. A camera set to automatic focus will keep refocusing on your hand, rather than on the painting surface, so a manual control setting is necessary to ensure a stable focus.

2. Manual exposure. If you start your painting or drawing on a white surface, the exposure needs to be raised to keep the shot from coming out neutral gray. Also, when shooting video, you don't want the exposure to keep shifting when your hand moves in front of the camera.

3. Custom white balance. This manual setting is especially important if you're working within a gamut of colors that's dominant in one particular color, such as yellow. Automatic white balance neutralizes the color cast, so it's best to have a camera that lets you control the setting. However, if you're doing long shots outdoors on a cloudy day, both the white balance and the exposure levels will change when a cloud passes over, so you may need to rely on the automatic controls under those conditions.