Setting Up Your Camera for Video

Are you looking for a tutorial on how to set your camera up for video? This video walks through setup of the Canon EOS R6, but could be used as a guide for other cameras as well.

I hope you enjoy and please feel free to leave your comments or questions below! if you prefer to read more about Pinterest Video Pins you can find the full transcription of the video in the text below.

Video Transcription

Hey, everyone. It’s Kelli here with She Learns Video, and today I am going to show you how to set up your Canon EOS R6 to shoot video. If you have recently acquired this camera, you are going to love the capabilities it has when it comes to filmmaking. And today I’ll show you exactly how to set your camera up so that you can get started creating films. So let’s jump in.

So today I’m going to be showing you how I set up my Canon EOS R6 for shooting video. If you are a photographer, you are probably going to be coming over from this little manual mode up here on the dial, or if you’re shooting in any of the other photography modes, you can see them here. And then you’ll just want to switch your camera over to the little video camera option here, and that will have you all set up for shooting video. You’ll notice down here that you can see the mode that it’s in on the back of the screen. So you want to make sure you’re here in video mode and on manual. So there are two different movie modes quote/unquote, so video modes and you’ll just want to make sure you select manual. And then from here, you will see lots of different options as far as the camera goes.

I will, a lot of times, have it switched over to manual focus, depending on what I’m shooting. And I’ll show you some of those settings, and then we’ll also talk about how to set up the exposure, white balance, and setting up your audio. So when I am getting ready to make a film, the first thing I’m going to decide is what frame rate I want to be shooting in. If you hit the little Q button here, you will see, it will give you lots of options to select, and then this longer box here is going to be your frame rate. You’ll see all the different options here along the bottom, and you can use this little toggle joystick to go back and forth. For the most part, I am shooting in 60 frames per second, and I like to have it in 4K when possible.

And then if I’m going to be shooting people, speaking to camera or utilizing any type of audio, I will be shooting in 24 frames per second. And you can see that here. So there’s the 4K option for 60, 30, and 24 frames per second. And then there are also full HD, which is 1080p, here on the back, and you can select that for 60, 30, and then there is 24 frames per second for 1080. So there you have it. You’re going to want to decide that first. For me, most of the time I am in 60, so I’ll set it on 60 there. And then after I decided my frame rate, the next thing you’re going to want to choose is your shutter speed. As a rule, shutter speed should be around double your frame rates. It’s kind of a loose rule, but for the most part when setting up cameras, that is where I like to start.

So if you go in here, you can click, and then you can change that. If I was shooting in 24 frames per second, I would probably try to be right around 1/50 of a second for my shutter speed. But because we are in 60 frames per second, I’m going to go to 1/125. So that’s my shutter speed there. Select it. I also have a dial here on top set to select shutter speed. So you’ll see, as I change the dial, the shutter speed also changes. So you can set up your camera, however you like, but that is what I have set up. And it’s also a touch screen, which is really nice as well. The next thing is your aperture. And for me, I do like to shoot pretty wide open when possible. It depends kind of on what I am shooting, but for the most part, if I’m doing family films or any type of B-roll for weddings, a lot of times I’ll be pretty wide open.

And then if I’m doing more of a talking head style interview, I want to make sure everyone’s in focus, so I’ll probably be a little more around a 4 to a 5.6. So you can definitely decide what look you want, what style you want, and your aperture can help you to create that. I have a dial set up here where I can adjust that as well, or as you saw, you hit the little Q. Or actually you don’t even need to hit the Q, you can just touch it and you can move it. So got to love the touch screen options there. And then from there, I use my ISO to balance the exposure out. And just depending on how much available light you have, you can do that here. The next thing I will do is set up my white balance.

So if you hit the Q, right now I have it set in Kelvin, and that is where I like to shoot. And I recommend when you’re starting out with video, you definitely learn how to shoot in Kelvin. It’s actually really helpful for photography as well. But when you select that, you can adjust to make it really warm, or you can go down into the four thousands and make it a lot cooler. So depending on what you need, you can adjust that there. And once you have it at a good spot for your backdrop and whatever you’re shooting, you just set it and then it will stay consistent throughout the time that you’re filming. There are other options in here, in the white balance menu, that you can select. I would encourage you to select something that’s constant rather than using auto white balance, because you don’t want that white balance shifting around while you are filming. I know a lot of photographers use auto white balance for photos, which it is really easy to change that if you’re shooting in raw in post-processing, but with video, it is much more challenging.

So find the right white balance, find the right exposure, get it right in camera, and it will make your editing process a lot easier on the backend. So now that we have our exposure set, our white balance selected, we know what frame rate we’re shooting in, I always like to make sure my focus settings are where I want them. I will… When you go into the menu, you hit the little Q, select up here, I haven’t set for facial tracking and eye tracking with my autofocus. And you can select a lot of different options here. So depending on what you’re shooting and what you need, you have many different options with the Canon EOS R6. I like to stay on face tracking with the eye autofocus enabled because I do photograph and film a lot of families, a lot of small businesses and weddings, where there are people moving, and that is what I would desire for my films.

So you can decide what you think is best. This is a full touch screen, so if you want to focus on something, you just click and your camera will start the process of autofocusing on it. You can also switch over to manual focus, if you prefer. So if you click this on your lens over to manual focus, then you can use the dial here to focus your camera and adjust the focus where you need it. I do sometimes use manual focus when I am shooting B-roll or I want kind of that dreamy out of focus look, coming into focus for my film.

So it is a creative tool that you can use, and I think that it’s one over time you definitely learn when it works best and when you need it. So manual focus is an option. And then autofocus on this camera is fabulous with the face tracking and eye autofocus enabled. So the last thing we’ll want to check are our audio settings. You can see down here as I speak, the levels are bumping up and down. When I’m quiet, you can see them go down. And then when I’m speaking, you can see them bounce up. So what we’ll do to make sure these are set properly is hit the little Q button here, and then down here, you see the little microphone and the M. You’re going to click on that, and you’ll see here, you can adjust your levels based on what your microphone is picking up.

So with this microphone, I don’t have as many options. This is the Rode VideoMicro. The Rode VideoMicPro does allow you to adjust the levels right on the back of the microphone. But with this one, you need to do it all in camera. So we’ll hit the Q, go to our microphone here, and then right now you can see it’s really low because it’s not picking up much. So you’re going to want to raise that so that you start to see those levels bump up and down. You’re going to want to make sure you’re kind of right around here is your safe zone at this 12 decibels in order to make sure that the audio you’re picking up is quality and that you’re able to hear it when you go in to edit and on that playback. So you don’t want it to get too high because then your audio will be clipped, and it will sound really distorted.

So if you see it up here, kind of towards the end of the yellow into the red, you definitely need to lower it down. And you’ll just have to play around with it, depending on what type of microphone you are using. I do encourage new filmmakers to pick up an external microphone just because the audio quality is going to be much better than if you were just using the internal microphone on the camera. So I hope that’s helpful. If you have any questions, definitely let us know. But if you have the new Canon EOS R6, I have been super impressed with its ability to record video, and I’m so excited to see what you create. I hope that was helpful. If you have a Canon EOS R6, this is going to be a great way to get you started with shooting video on this new and beautiful camera. I am so excited to continue using it for all of my filmmaking needs, and I hope that you can do the same soon.

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