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After speaking with Chang, I was eager to try his idea of using one key light behind the camera because this would save transporting another light on portable shoots and would guarantee absolute even lighting across the face. Rather than using the

As mentioned above, the interviews with local band No Speed Limit were primarily to create a DVD to send to festival promoters along with a couple of songs from a concert I shot on New Year's Eve. The group also wanted to upload the interviews to

I had my own opinions on the matter of which lighting technique to use for streaming. However, I wanted confirmation, so I contacted Roger Chang, who produces two shows for Ziff Davis Media — DL.TV with Patrick Norton and Robert Heron and Cr

Our tasks are arguably a bit out of sequence here, because when I apply compression I typically do it before normalization or other amplification. But for discussion purposes, it’s better placed here. To apply Soundbooth’s Advanced Co

Although AVCHD first appeared in consumer camcorders, a variation—AVC-Intra—will soon show up in broadcast cameras from Panasonic. Given that the MPEG-4 technology that fuels AVCHD is roughly twice as efficient as the MPEG-2 technology used in HDV, the new Sony-Panasonic standard will likely supplant HDV in the prosumer space. For this reason, it’s a standard you need to know about, …

Writing is a lot like video editing, in that you tend to fool yourself about how long a column, article, or wedding edit will take to complete. “I’ll do that in 20 hours,” you confidently claim to yourself, and then six weeks lat

So, little Suzie had her big recital, and you brought the new camcorder and tripod, enduring “Who does this guy think he is, Spielberg?” stares from other parents (and likely your spouse). Now it’s time for your big reward: You get to show the world the gorgeous new video of your future American Idol winner. You finish up the basic video …

You’ve found an irresistible video on YouTube that you just have to show to your friends, so you want to download it to your Apple iPod. You search in vain for theDownload to iPod button that should be there on the YouTube page but isn’t. YouTube doesn’t make it easy; you’re going to have to do it yourself. Before getting started, let’s …

The Canon XH A1 is as close to perfect as any camcorder in its price range, with great resolution, very high contrast ratio, and extraordinary customizability. I did find the auto-focus somewhat lacking, which may be a concern for some potential b

You set the main controls via the familiar power dial that toggles you through VCR, automatic, TV (shutter priority), AV (aperture priority), full manual, spotlight, night, and easy recording modes. It took me awhile to get used to the operating c