Reading Response

According to Google, video is defined as “the system of recording, reproducing, or broadcasting moving visual images on or from videotape.”

Image is defined as “a representation of the external form of a person or thing in sculpture, painting, etc.”

So the term video image itself should be self-explanatory. If I was to define it based on what I read from The Filmmaker’s Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide for the Digital Age by Steven Ascher and Edward Pincus, I would say it is a final product of a video consisting of many steps that consists of editing light, contrast and sound.

Ascher and Pincus’ book has given many informative and fairly technical material, including the function of a camera and the many controls on them as well.

On a camera, you can manually control:

• The viewfinder: the monitor that allows you to see what you are shooting.
• The white balance: adjusting the camera to the colour balance of the light
• The exposure: how much light goes through the lens of a camera
• The focus: how clear the image is when you’re shooting

Before this book, I was quite uniformed about cameras in particular. I did not know that a camera had something called a sensor: a chip that converts the light coming through the lens to electric charges. I didn’t realize that the sensor had such an impact on what we see in order to produce the final video and image.

It was interesting to know that there was so much to do before shooting, such as the numerous adjustments for colour, contrast, etc. I am more used to this cheap digital camera and point and shoot. I knew cameras had to be set up, but to bring in a technician to fine-tune settings has never really crossed my mind.

Many of the terminology is new to me, including gamma which refers to the contrast of the image. Although I had an idea about shadows and highlights when it came to an image, to learn the correct term for it was refreshing. Even though I have simplified the explanation, there are many types of gamma such as normal, reduced and cine/film.