What are the advantages of a CCD camera vs. a tube camera?
There are many advantages of a CCD camera in comparison with its predecessor, the tube camera. CCD or a charged couple device is a microchip that is connected to a camera. This chip increases the quality of the footage taken by a camera. Among some of the most important benefits of a CCD camera is that it is easier to maintain and uses less power. Moreover, in terms of quality, a CCD camera gives better, more accurate, and permanent geometry and registration.
That means that a CCD camera is better in defining the shapes of objects, and can also align blue, green, and red signals into the fine lines. The other significant advantage of a CCD camera is that it doesn’t age as fast as a tube camera does. This makes CCD cameras work longer, which saves money. In addition, a CCD camera has no blooming and also doesn’t burn-in, which was quite a serious flaw of all-tube cameras. Besides all that, a CCD camera weighs less and needs less power, and so it is much easier to maintain, transport, and produce.
What are Pan and Scan?
Pan and scan is a method that allows adjusting film images from one format to another. Pan and scan use 4:3 proportions, or 1.33. This method is used to make widescreen films with proportions 2.35:1 adaptable to the formerly standard television screen with proportions 1.33. In the video, the lecturer notes that because pan and scan were not taken into account by directors, it often gave an inaccurate presentation of the film content.
But in former times, pan and scan allowed people to watch movies on TV that were originally meant to be shown in the cinema. The lecturer gives an example of two people talking on the right and left sides of the screen. Proportions 2:35 can show this scene accurately without editing, but using proportions 1:33, the camera appears to switch between the two actors, showing only one of them at a time. In reality, the camera did not change positions in the scene; this effect is the result of the editing done so that a viewer could comprehend the film.
Pan and scan formerly referred to a section of the viewfinder where the most important film elements appeared and were fixated. Even though much more was shot than only this 1.33 section, producers were saying that this content would not be seen by the viewers. This was all before the widescreen era.
What is the significance of 100 IRE and name two ways it can be measured?
A specific IRE value is represented by the diagonal lines in a viewfinder.
It is done so that the operator can have a vision screening in order to control what he or she films. The IRE value is created to measure the degree of brightness on a scale of 1 to 100, with 1 being pure black and 100 representing pure white. At either extreme of the scale, any kind of image disappears. The normal IRE value usually falls at around 70. When the IRE value is 100, no image can be taken because there is no more image.
In fact, IRE 100 is widely used in post-manipulation processes. There are two ways to control and measure IRE 100: with Master Ped or by adjusting Gamma. Master Ped is a segment of the video that reproduces black and is, therefore, a very important component. Adjusting Master Ped can significantly change the image. By decreasing the number in Master Ped, one can increase the black level and create contrast. By increasing the number in Master Ped, one can reduce black levels and lower contrast.
On the other hand, Gamma has less power than Master Ped to change the image, and its adjustments are not as radical because it does not affect the black or white colors that dominate the scale. In the video, Gamma defines the way in which the mid-grays are reproduced in either a whiter or darker color by moving the scale up or down. When one changes the number of Gamma, the black and white color schemes are either stretched or compressed.
What are Butterfly, Rembrandt, and Half Lighting?
Butterfly lighting is lighting that is arranged so that light is aimed directly at the front of an actor’s face. Because this effect produces a shadow with a shape that is similar to a butterfly, it is called butterfly lighting. The light, being aimed at a steep angle, allowed classic Hollywood operators to make actors appear younger, nicer, and more handsome than they were in real life. Rembrandt lighting is when a light is aimed at the side of the actor’s face. As such, it creates shadows and leaves a lighted triangle area bordered by the eye, cheek, and nose. In other words, a light that is shaped in the form of a triangle is placed on the actor’s face. Half lighting is when half of the actor’s face stays in light while the other half remains in shadow.
How is Kino Flos different from regular fluorescent lights?
Unlike average fluorescent lights, the Kino Flo was developed to deal with problematic aspects that were in the way of more practical usage of fluorescent lights during the shooting process. Kino Flo uses flicker-free ballast that allows speeding up the flicker rate when shooting off-speed videos. Average fluorescent lights were giving this flicker, which made shooting problematic because fluorescent light is not continuous.
Thus, the camera needed to be able to compete with the frequency of the flashes in average fluorescent lights. Average fluorescent light did not have kelvin temperature (kelvin spectrum) because, instead of a spectrum of light, the gas in the tube of a fluorescent lamp provided a spike of light with color coming out. All these factors made fluorescent light unfriendly to photography. In contrast, Kino Flo is able to adjust the heavy green color and also adds red to balance it, which was not the case with original fluorescent lights. In Kino Flo, two sets are used. The inside set has a temperature of 3,200 kelvins.
The other one is on the outside and has a temperature of 5,600 kelvins. As a result, for the proper results in photography, there is no more need to change the intensity of light. The color temperature is corrected by a bulb, while flickers are moderated by the ballast. Modern Kino Flo became very successful because it generates less heat, and also because it is more economic. It is widely used in studio settings and in shooting news footage.
What is Depth of Field and how does Aperture, Lens, and Image Capture size affect it?
The depth of field is also called a focus range. It is a range of distance that appears acceptably sharp. Aperture, image capture size, and lens are the three components that affect depth of field. Aperture can be defined in the following way: It is an amount of light that is let through with an opening of a lens’s diaphragm, calibrated by a photographer/operator. When the lens is wide open and more light appears, it makes the depth of field lower.
To increase the depth of field, one must stop down a lens. The lens greatly affects the depth of field, and lens size plays an important role. Lenses that are longer have less depth of field. To obtain more depth of field, one must have shorter lenses. Image capture size is also called chip size, and it affects the depth of field as well. The bigger the imaging size, the less depth of field there will be. The idea of focus is mainly based on the contrast to something that is not in focus, which makes the objects that are in focus more detailed. Furthermore, in contrast, the smaller the imaging size, the more depth of field there will be.