Digital Photographer’s Complete Guide to HD Video [Book Review]

This book hit me fairly between the eyes and ears. Basically it is one of the best video instructionals I have ever read. Co-author Rob Sheppard has an enviable history of writing about still photography while his writing partner Michael Guncheon has well-established credits in video production and writing, mostly in editing. However, the pair do pull off a magic trick in authoring a book that I think will undoubtedly become a standard.

But then you get a handle on its uniqueness: it’s all about shooting HD video with a DSLR camera. Not only shooting but dealing with exposure, interchangeable lenses, resolution standards, interlaced vs progressive scanning, codecs, chroma sampling, getting great audio, ideal tripods, lighting, white balance, shooting techniques, editing and post production processes, mixing sound, outputting the final video … and much more. In other words the whole box and dice.

Without doubt the advent of cameras like Canon’s 5D Mark II and 7D has rattled the cages of top end broadcast quality video cameras and costing only a fraction of the latter’s asking price, yet able to capture top quality video.

But it’s not all honey and spice: DSLRs are not designed to be handheld for long periods; they can be noisy, with bumps and grinds issuing from auto focus, stabiliser functions and the handling of controls; the sensor resolution is in excess of that needed for HD video; there is a multiplicity of codecs used in DSLRs that shoot video; the rolling shutter effect in CMOS cameras can create motion artefacts.

There are some revelations that will surprise many video fans: one is that dissolves in a video can add compression artefacts if the final edit has significant compression. In a 30 frame dissolve every pixel changes in each of those frames.

Another: when using wireless microphones, be aware that any nearby mobile phone can cause interference, even if the ringer is switched off. When the phone tower tries to communicate with the phone it will momentarily boost power. Result: interference on the sound track.

Yet another (and odd) fact: the unusual NTSC frame rate of 29.97 fps derives from US colour TV broadcasting’s need to provide a B&W display for early, non-colour TV sets.

As far as I know, this is the only book on the subject! Enormously helpful. Great value.

Authors: R Shephard & M Guncheon.
Publisher: Lark Books.
Length: 175 pages.
ISBN: 978 1 60059 699 5.
Price: Get a price on Digital Photographer’s Complete Guide to HD Video at Amazon (currently 33% off).