Hey, there, and welcome to non-techie video tip podcast series.
My name is Ozzy Eyre and I’m your non-techie guide to the wonderful world of video creation.
Over the last few shows, I’ve been trying on different tunes for size – and I’ll be doing the same in this show and the next. After that, I’m going to play a snippet from each and I’m going to ask you and all the other listeners to vote on which you like best. The winner will then become the them tune for the rest of the series – so I’m placing a heavy responsibility on your shoulders 🙂
So here’s today’s tune…
________________________________
What do you think?
If you already have a favourite and don’t want to wait to hear them all, you can drop me an email to ozzy at elitevideoacademy dot com – you can contact me there’ too, with questions or you could always head over to the Elite Video Academy Facebook page and post your question or comment there.
While we’re talking about having your say, you can now leave a review on iTunes and a bunch of stars (5 is such a lovely number, don’t you think?) and subscribe as well – that way you won’t miss another episode.
Just so you don’t leave here thinking I’m the most needy person on the planet, the reason I ask for the review and the stars is because it helps the podcast rise in the rankings on iTunes – and if it rises in the rankings, it’s easier for folks – folks like you who are looking for non-techie video tips – to find.
OK – let’s get started with today’s tip.
Have you ever noticed that, sometimes, when you’re watching a movie, or maybe look at a photo in a magazine, the scene or image really stands out – it catches the eye in a way that you can’t quite put your finger on.
Well, today I’m going to let you in on a secret that is quite likely to be the reason that image capture the imagination so much. And, once you understand this, you’ll see it being used everywhere…
It’s called the rule of thirds.
Now, I could go into a long explanation of how this works. I could talk about the thing called the Golden Ratio. I could even talk about the Fibonacci Sequence – but I’m not going to.
Why? Because this is a non-techie video tip podcast and, while that stuff all lies behind why the rule of thirds works so well, you don’t need to understand all that to learn how to use it. It’s like you don’t have to know what’s going on under the hood of your car to be able to drive it.
The cool thing is, if you dig into the settings of your digital camera or phone camera, you’ll most likely find somewhere there’s a setting you can select that overlays a grid on your screen. It looks like what we in the UK would call a noughts and crosses grid and what I believe in other parts of the world is known as a tic-tac-toe grid.
Essentially, it comprises two horizontal lines and two vertical lines that divide the screen into thirds, both horizontally and vertically – hence the rule of thirds.
We’ll come back to this grid in a moment but first, let’s talk about the most common mistake made by beginners, whether in photography or video making. When framing their image, they will typically place the most important thing in the picture slap-bang in the middle.
Now, this isn’t exactly wrong – and there have been some powerful images made like that but, in the main, we can usually do better.
I want you to start regarding the lines of the grid as your friends, as they, for the most part, indicate the strongest areas of the image from an aesthetic point of view.
So, for example, you should frame your image so the horizon is on the upper or lower horizontal line and if, say, you’re shooting at the beach, if you can frame your shot so the line where the sand meets the sea is on the lower line and where the sea meets the sky is on the upper, you should find you have a composition.
How about if you’re taking a shot of, say, a tree, or a tall building? Then try to align them on either the left or right vertical.
But we can make our composition stronger still.
At the four points where the grid lines meet, they form the four absolute strongest compositional points, so try to place the main focus of your interest at one of these 4 points.
If we’re talking about shooting a landscape, then any of the four points can usually be made to work.
However, if we’re talking about filming a person, then we would usually want to make the centre of attention the eyes. So align your shot so the eyes are more or less along the topmost horizontal line align the head and/or body along either the left or right vertical line.
It’s a really simple trick to add interest and even tension to a scene – and now you know it, you will spot it everywhere. You’ll also spot the times when it’s not being used and learn to recognise when the rule is being deliberately broken, or the person shooting the video simply didn’t know the rule.
Like a lot of these tips, it’s easier to show you than to describe it in words. If you’d like to receive a series of short videos with more tips delivered to your inbox at absolutely no cost to you, then head over to https://elitevideoacademy.com/non-techie-videos/ – don’t worry, I’ll put the details in the show notes – leave your details in the box telling me where to send the links and I’ll do the rest
I’ll be back again with another tip soon and, remember, we’re keeping this non-techie. In the meantime, here’s a reminder of today’s music and there’ll be a different track next time out.
Until then, I’ve been Ozzy Eyre, your non-techie guide to the wonderful world of video creation – take care and make some video!
