Hi!
Just put this short video together from some footage I took at the weekend.

Currently looking at getting a new tripod which has a ball head on it rather than the one I have just now which causes shake or judder if trying to pan left to right slowly. Im also looking at getting a camera stabilizer and a wide angle lens but for now here is what I have managed.

YouTube - Vicky Park - Chilled Kiting

I took your advice from my last video and kept it short. I would like to read your thoughts, good or bad.

Cheers,
O.

Using a tripod certainly makes the video easier to watch. Apart from a couple of dodgy horizons and a shakey pan, I feel that you did very well with the tripod you used.
Where you do need to take care is in the exposure. A lot of the footage was underexposed when the sky came into the picture, so you should switch off the auto exposure if possible.

Apart from that it was very watcheable, just about the right length, I don't think the subject could hold interest for any longer without some sort of commentary or interviews though.

Maybe you should think of making a story next time. Explaining a bit more about what's happening and so on, it's a subject I know nothing about and, for me, a short documentary would be something I'd like to see.

Hi!
Thanks for your feedback.

A storyline could be a good idea. I keep on forgetting that not everyone is in to the sport as much as I am or indeed knows anything about it! The videos tend to be aimed at people in the sport but it could be a good project to make a video which promotes the sport and gives a short intro to it. Hmmm, got me thinking now!

I will look in to the auto exposure thing, I had noticed it got dark at times. If I set the camera to auto, what should I look out for and not do when its on manual? Does that make sense?

Cheers,
O.

It worth thinking about autoexposure like this...

I magine that the camera takes all the pixels, adds them together and works out an "average" value. This value should be a mid grey. If there is a lot of bright sky (or snow) in the picture, then there are a lot of bright pixels. When the camera works out an "average" these bright pixels make the average a "light grey" and the camera compensates by reducing the exposure.
Unfortunately, in doing so, it makes the sky correctly exposed and anything else underexposed.

What you need to do is either switch off the autoexposure when the camcorder is pointing slightly downwards so that it remains on that setting (that way it doesn't overcompensate when the sky comes in to frame) or press the "backlight" button when a large expanse of sky comes into the picture.

With a consumer camcorder, getting the exposure right in situations like yours, isn't at all easy.

The camera I have is a Sony DCR-SR30E

Ive just had a wee look in my manual and now you mention it I can turn on backlit or manually adjust the exposure. I will have a play with it the next time I am out

Thanks again for your help!

O.