A roundup of tutorials on how to capture the best possible image, technically.
As part of an introduction to a longer course, Matti Haapoja gives a brief overview of tools used for getting correct exposure on set (starting at 1:04):
Histogram – if you’ve ever adjusted Levels or Curves in Photoshop, you’ve worked with the histogram: a representation of how the range of tones, from dark to light, are spread across an image. Spread too much to one end or the other, means the image is either under- or over-exposed, and therefore losing detail. It’s also crucial in still photography – more on that, and the example below, from Shutterbug:
Zebra Pattern – most often used to indicate where the image is being overexposed (or where detail is being lost). Wolfcrow suggests setting a second zebra pattern to indicate (Caucasian) skin tone (here’s a roundup of discussions about lighting black and brown skin tones).
False Colour – Aputure (featuring Ted from Indy Mogul) has a handy two-minute explainer on false colour and how to use it:
Scopes: Waveform + Vectorscope – here’s a three-minute explainer about the Vectorscope, which is crucial in colour correction (via LensProToGo):
Further Viewing
Scopes figure prominently in post-production – so here’s a roundup of tutorials of scopes and colour correction:
Beyond getting a basic exposure, visual storytelling really begins with how contrast is managed: