A few days ago we commented on some recommendations to make better photos of babies and today I want to offer some tips to make better videos.
Video recording a baby is one of the best ways to save some bits of your life. I don't know about you, but the first homemade videos I appear in are when I was about 14 or 15 years old and the truth is that I would have loved to see how I was when I was little.
Today, with the advancement of technology and with camcorders whose prices are available to almost all parents, babies have the possibility of being recorded for posterity.
It is up to you, my dear audiovisual media manager, to make a video worth remembering (or not). To give you a little help I will comment on some tips that can be useful when recording and editing videos. Get a digital camera. I know that you love your 8mm camera (or the VHS) and I know that you love the feeling of power when you appear with your heavy camera like Spielberg but the quality of the recording suffers, the battery life also and the Connection possibilities are lower.
Digital cameras have long surpassed performance and quality (now many are already in High Definition). With them there is no loss of quality in the data transfer and the connection with the computer is more direct (Firewire or USB ports).
The size is practically ridiculous if we compare them with the analog ones and the prices are quite affordable, so if you can afford it, don't think twice.
Forget the zoom. If there were a platform that claimed the removal of the zoom of the video cameras I would be in it.
It is useless (try to think of a single movie that makes use of the zoom), destabilize the image (if home videos already move more than prices, with the zoom zoom it is even harder to keep the frame correct) and make a little dizzy when viewing both zoom in and out of the child.
If you want to record things up close, come closer.
Do not book the recording for birthdays and holidays. Advice I sell and for me I do not have ... I am the first to ignore this advice, but if we analyze the homemade videos, they are all marked dates on which the same people appear, you saying “Say hello to the camera” and they (the people) answering “Hello…” or “Oh, don't record me!”.
Your child does not deserve that his videos be a repeat year after year.
Record him in everyday moments. It is more fun to see him regurgitate the milk on your wife's shirt, build a tower, tear it down, make a puzzle of a hundred pieces with the roll of the water paper or get lost of food than see how he receives gifts one after another with the Ohh , how nice! background.
Tomorrow, in a second part of this post, a few more tips.
