Hi there! Do you notice that in many videos, people don't pay much attention to the background? What most videographers tend to do is to focus on the subject (i.e. the actor or actress) and forget about what's behind them.
Good backgrounds help to make great videos. For example, if you have an interview to shoot, wouldn't it be more interesting to set the background against a large window overseeing the city, instead of a plain wall? Or, if you're interviewing an athlete, it'd be more interesting to interview him or her on the sports arena itself, where the audience can see what's going on with the other sports men or women.
In this article, I'll share with you 5 tips for controlling your video backgrounds – so as to enhance your overall video production quality.
- Compose Videos
The first tip about video backgrounds is to compose your videos properly. I can't remember how many potentially good videos out there, ruined by poor composition. You should always try to apply the “Rule of Thirds”, dividing your video scene into nine squares and making sure the points of focus are at the intersection points of the squares.
It's also important to analyze the backgrounds in a scene. If you have a very busy background, but your subject is talking about a serious topic (e.g. healthcare), it can be very distracting to the audience.
You'll also want to check the sides of your video frames. Sometimes, some objects or people can “slip” into your scene at the edges without you realizing it. Make sure you find a place where the background has no chance of being interrupted.
- Dealing With Wasted Space
The second point about controlling video backgrounds is to avoid wasted space in your video. I'll give you an example. Now, many people like to be in the video shot with a large sign or a background object. However, I've seen shots where the subject is so close to the sign or object that there's nothing else in the video scene.
What you should try to do is to achieve better depth composition by taking the subject away. Move the subject further away from the sign or background object so that other elements can appear in the scene.
- Adjust Brightness
Another thing I like to do to control my video backgrounds is to play with the brightness in the scene. One of the more common ways to adjust brightness is to get a reflector or bounce card to give a similar exposure to your subject and the background.
One point about lighting your subject and background should be noted. You should always try to make sure the background in the scene is evenly lighted with your subject. If your subject is lighter than the background, what you get is an overexposed scene. If your subject is darker than the background, you'll get an underexposed scene.
- Height Level Of Your Subject
Another tip is to shoot at appropriate level of your subject. What I mean here is that you should take note of your subject's height. If I'm shooting videos of children at a birthday party, I'd go down on my knees to shoot their facial expressions. I'd not put my camcorder on a tripod or shoot them from my height.
In addition, you should not focus too closely on your subject. Give enough space for the background scene elements to come through. Position my camcorder appropriately so that the background is revealed.
- Soft Focus
One thing you can do to achieve a nice video background is to take advantage of the out of focus area. Professional videographers understand the value of the background and foreground. So in a scene, they'd typically use a long lens to achieve a shallow depth of field and create a “soft focus” effect. Soft focus is very common in wedding videos, e.g. I may be shooting a close up of the wedding cake and I want to blur out the guests in the background.
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