6 of the most common mistakes made by videographers

Let's be honest, every now and then we all make silly mistakes while filming that we kick ourselves for later on in post production. Or maybe you've never heard these rules before... honestly I don't know. What I DO know, is these are the most common mistakes made by videographers that are keeping your projects from just being that much better:

Rule of Thirds

A very common mistake made is not using the rule of thirds. The rule of thirds is simply dividing your screen into 3 quadrants so that you have 9 total parts:

The rule of thirds states that when you place the subject or points of interest along the 4 lines that create the rule of thirds, you get a more balanced image. This concept is used all around the film industry and can be found in arguably every film at one point another.

A tactic to keep in mind with rule of thirds is leading. This is placing your subject on the opposite side of the frame from their attention. For example, if a subject is looking to the right side of the frame, they should be placed on the left side of the frame along the first line of the rule of thirds:

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HeadRoom

Arguably the most common mistake I see being made by videographers is too much head room. When adjusting your framing for headroom, you want to have a reasonable space between their head and the top of the frame. Too much headroom gives the effect that the subject is small or sinking, while not enough headroom cuts off the subject.

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Exposure

In an ideal environment you want everything in frame to exposed properly, but there are certain situations beyond your control when you have to make do with what you got. In situations such as a bright background compared to your subject, I would argue it is more important to expose your subject and let the background stay blown out. The focus is the subject, not the background.

In the picture above, the background could be considered a little over exposed, but the main focus is the door and wall, which are exposed properly.

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​White Balance

Light has a temperature value measured in Kelvin. Typical daylight from the sun is anywhere from 5000-6500 K while tungsten bulbs are around 2500-3500 K. Not setting the white balance on your camera properly can result in either a blue or orangish color to your image. Slight imperfections can be corrected in post, but major imperfections to white balance are a lot harder to correct in post. With that in mind, it is important to properly set your white balance before filming.

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Frame Rate

Choosing the correct frame rate for the product you are filming is important. If you want a cinematic look to your work, the standard for film is 24 FPS. Unless you plan to use slow motion, anything intended to look cinematic should be shot at 24 FPS. Most content for live broadcast are shot at 60 FPS but it can vary depending on the final product. The key thing to keep in mind is your end product. Shoot with the mindset of what you want to do with the footage: slow motion, etc.

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Shooting in 4K

I might touch a few nerves here, but in my opinion for the average videographer, there is no need to shoot in 4K. First, 4K monitors/TVs are not widely common yet. Second, most content that is uploaded online is compressed and the extra file sizes for the little quality boost you get is simply not worth it. Unless you absolutely want to shoot in 4K, can afford the file sizes, and have a computer that is capable of easily working with 4K footage, it's not worth shooting with that extra resolution.