Techniques

Making Movies with the D5000

When the D90 came out, its D-Movie capability was my chance to realize my movie-making aspirations. Then the D5000 added a twist to the potential with its Vari-Angle LCD. Raising the bar even more, the introduction of the D300S added an external stereo mic input for improved sound.

None of these cameras fully replaces a camcorder, but all sure boost creative image-making by adding the option of motion.

And pretty sophisticated motion, too: I get to film through a NIKKOR lens, prime or zoom; the camera’s DX sensor, which is larger than a camcorder’s, provides incredible resolution and depth-of-field capability; and I can choose the f/stop of the lens for depth-of-field control not typically found in common camcorders.

I recently shot video clips and stills of a local fire department’s training session, and I thought I’d pass along some of the things I’ve discovered that have made a big difference in the quality of my Nikon D-SLR video efforts.

For instance, I routinely program the AEL/AFL button so that pressing it locks and holds the exposure reading of the part of the scene on which I want the exposure to be based. Now I can move the camera as I film and maintain that setting. The result? No more of the lightening and darkening (the automatic ISO gain control) you often see in home movies. I’ve found it’s a great technique when I want my movie—or one scene of it—to have a deliberate, constant exposure. Of course I can rely on the camera’s auto gain, or mix the techniques in one movie, by pressing the button and unlocking the exposure hold. It’s sort of like instant lighting direction.

When I select D-Movie mode, the camera is essentially using an electronic shutter on the sensor itself, so there’s no control of ISO or shutter speed, but I can select the f/stop and thus dictate depth of field (and, ultimately, the shutter speed) by my f/stop choice. Because ISO is totally automatic, I often like to choose an aperture that gives me great depth of field and let the ISO change to handle low-light scenes. The auto ISO gain permits only a couple of stops of change, so the lighting won’t vary radically once I’ve set the aperture. Plus, I can use the camera’s exposure compensation to influence the look of the scenes.