Follow the easy steps and pro tricks in our tutorial below and you'll be recording better DSLR videos in no time!
Think making movies takes time, experience or fancy software? Think again. If you own a DSLR, a tripod and a couple of lenses you already have everything you need to find your inner videographer and produce professional looking footage.
We headed to the Forest of Dean to film an action-packed mountain bike movie and walk you through our five top tips to avoiding the more obvious mistakes and wobbly angles of amateur home videos. They'll instantly making your movies look better.
SEE MORE: DSLR Video Recording – everything you need to know (and more!) about making HD movies
6 steps to better DSLR video
01 Learn to think video
Take off your photographer hat and start thinking like a director, in stories and clips. A variety of angles and scenes is key to making an engaging movie.
You can't just press record and film a whole long scene straight off the bat – professionally shot films are made up of hundreds of short clips ranging around two to twenty seconds each.
That may seem like a lot of video, but it's easily edited down into a short film using computer software.
If you want to make a two-minute film, for example, expect to shoot at least 20 minutes of raw footage.
SEE MORE: Best free video editing software for photographers
02 Plan it all out
Draw a rough storyboard of the clips you want to include in your film, giving it a clear beginning, middle and end.
Planning first makes things much easier when you're setting up each shot and directing the action.
When it comes choosing your movie's size, full frame, or 1920×1080, is the best choice for getting high quality footage.
Frame rate is the frequency at which consecutive images are displayed – our Nikon D3100 will only shoot at 24fps, but more sophisticated DSLRs give you more options – European videos tend to be shot at 25fps, whilst American video and action clips are normally 30fps.
03 Get focused first
Avoid the telltale wobble of handheld home movies by keeping things as steady as you can with a tripod.
Never move the camera suddenly to change your angle whilst filming, and avoid the temptation to pan the camera to follow a moving subject. Instead, set up a shot in one position and let your subject move through the frame.
To avoid blurring your footage, never refocus whilst you're filming. When you're ready to film a clip, switch to manual focus, then press record.
If you want to refocus on something that has moved, stop filming, focus again and film a new clip.
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