Just because you can’t afford the high-quality equipment doesn’t automatically mean that you should give up producing quality videos. This guide will prove that you don’t need to spend a lot of money to get good results.

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The Camera

First off, you need a camera to shoot video (obviously). Unless you plan on spending over $500, you’ll probably end up with a point-and-shoot camera. This isn’t a bad thing, since a lot of newer point-and-shoots record pretty good video. I went with the Canon ELPH 300 HS for $150 (it was as low as $130 on Cyber Monday). It shoots full 1080p HD video at 30 FPS, has a wide 24 mm lens, a CMOS sensor (as opposed to the inferior CCD sensor, which most point-and-shoots have) and a Digic 4 processor (the same processor that’s in the 1D Mark IV). For the price, it’s an amazing camera.

Now that you have your point-and-shoot camera, it’s time to make the magic happen. I’ve gathered up some great tools and methods for shooting great quality video on a point-and-shoot budget. Let’s give them a try.

Image Stabilization

Stabilization is one of the most important aspects of a great quality video. You don’t want your video shaking all about to the point that your viewers start to get motion sick. Stabilization can be accomplished using several methods.

The most obvious stabilization technique is using a tripod. You can get a cheap tripod on eBay for less than $20. While they won’t have fluid heads or be rife with features, you get a decent stand to mount your camera onto, which is all you need most of the time.

If you want to shoot moving action shots, you can get what’s called a “fig rig”. It basically adds handles to your camera so that you get a better-stabilized shot. A real fig rig costs hundreds of dollars, but you can make your own mini fig rig for your point-and-shoot for about $5. All you need is a Nintendo Wii steering wheel remote adapter from the dollar store and a mini ballhead that you can get on eBay. Instructions/Demo here.

Lighting

Lighting is also one of the most important aspects of a great quality video and it can certainly be what makes or breaks your video. Your subject needs to have adequate lighting in order for the shot to turn out well. Lamps and other usual light fixtures in a home just don’t cut it by themselves. I’ve found that construction work lights are great for adequate lighting and the type of light source they provide is actually not much different from those fancy lights you see in television studios. You can get a pair of high-powered, halogen work lights for around $40 at any hardware store. I ended up getting a pair of smaller 250 W work lights for $8 a piece. They work great!

You can also go the even cheaper route and get clamp lights with reflecting hoods, which cost about $5 a piece and you can use any type of screw-in bulb that you want. However, since you’re using a household lightbulb, you won’t get the power and brightness of a halogen work light, so just keep that in mind.

Time Lapse

We all love a good time-lapse video because they’re so mesmerizing to watch, and a lot of filmmaking hobbyists enjoy making them. Most point-and-shoots come with a time-lapse feature on board, making the process even easier, but you can add even more quality to your time-lapse videos by adding a panning motion. A cheap and easy way to accomplish this is to mount your point-and-shoot on a kitchen timer. Obviously, kitchen timers make a complete rotation every 60 minutes, which makes them great for getting a nice, slow panning motion during the time-lapse. I prefer Ikea’s Ordning Kitchen Timer that can be had for $6. It not only looks cool, but it has a smooth, flat surface that makes it easy to stick your point-and-shoot on. Instructions/Demo here.

Slider Dolly

A slider dolly is one of the coolest filmmaking accessories around. It’s a simple device that gives you smooth, gliding shots of a subject and just adds overall zing to your videos. A professional slider dolly can cost a few hundred dollars (even more than that at times), but fortunately, there are ways to build your own slider dolly that can achieve very close to the same effect. There are literally dozens of different ways to build one and a quick Google search will get you in the right direction. The slider dolly that I built (seen above) cost me only around $15!

You can also get slider dollys that move on wheels rather than a track system. Cineskates are a great example of this. It’s basically a Joby GorillaPod that has three rollerskate wheels attached to the legs. However, you probably took a peek at the price tag, which reads $200 just for the wheels ($300 for the whole system). Fortunately, you can assemble your own removable wheels to attach to a GorillaPod for the price of rollerskate wheels and a few small hardware parts.

Be Creative

In all honesty, the most important thing to keep in mind when making a quality video with a point-and-shoot camera is to just be creative, and there are hundreds of different ways that can be done. Are there tools and methods that you know of that aren’t in this guide? Let us know about them in the comments!

The post How to record amazing videos with a point-and-shoot camera first appeared on Techerator.

Most people when they want to post their photos online will turn to Flickr, Picasa, or Facebook. There’s nothing wrong with any of them, but sometimes you just need a quick and dirty way to post your photos online.

And two services, DropMocks and min.us, allow you to do just that. Let’s take a peek at both of them.

DropMocks

DropMocks is incredibly easy to use. Just navigate over to the site, open your computer’s file manager, and then drag and drop your photos into your browser’s window. Depending on the number and size of photos that you dragged and dropped, they can take anywhere from a minute to several minutes to upload.

Once your files have been uploaded, you’re given a URL which you can share with your friends and family.

As for the gallery (called a mock) itself, it’s quick and dirty. But it works. You get a basic carousel. The image you’re currently viewing is in the center of your browser window, and thumbnails appear to the left and right. Click on a thumbnail to bring that photo to the front.

While you don’t have to sign in to DropMocks, you might want to just so you can manage your mocks. You can sign in using a Google Account, and from there edit your mocks or delete them.

min.us

min.us works a lot like DropMocks. Again, you can just navigate over to the site and drag and drop your photos into your browser window. You can also upload files the old fashioned way using a file selection dialog box. Once your uploads are finished, you’re given a URL to share.

The interface is a bit more cluttered than with DropMocks. And instead of the carousel effect you get a slider effect. But people who visit your min.us URL can download all of the images in a gallery in a zip file.

Like DropMocks, you don’t need to set up an account with min.us to use it. However, you might want to do that if you need to manage your galleries.

On top of that min.us has a number of tools that make it easier to work with the site. There are desktop uploaders for Windows, Mac, and Linux; mobile applications for Android, iPhone, and Windows Phone 7; and Web browser extensions.

If you’re using one of the desktop or mobile uploaders, don’t upload one photo at a time — min.us will create a gallery for each image.

Final Thoughts

Sometimes, you just need a fast and simple way of putting your photos on the Web for your family and friends to see. Both DropMocks and min.us do just that. They’re easy to use and are a very efficient way to get your photos online.

Photo credit: ilco

The post Create an Instant Photo Gallery with DropMocks and min.us first appeared on Techerator.

One problem with large photo collections is that it can become extremely difficult to find pictures of specific people.  If I wanted to dig up a picture of one of my college buddies, I’d have to spend quite a bit of time skimming through photos, hoping the correct one pops up.  But with Picasa, you can use the fantastic Face Detection feature to tag your friends.

Face Detection works similar to Facebook’s photo tagging feature, except Picasa will automatically show you a list of unnamed faces for you to tag.  Once you’ve given them a name, you can easily find that person again in the future.

Picasa will automatically scan your photo library for your friends’ faces.  To start tagging pictures, click the Unnamed entry under the People section (this will say Scanning if it’s still identifying faces).

The Unnamed People album will contain a huge list of faces.  If you know the person, simply type their name into the Add a name box and press enter.  You will then be able to create a contact for that person (which can be reused whenever tagging photos).  If you don’t know the person, simply click the X to ignore them.

After you’ve tagged a few pictures, Picasa will begin suggesting photo tags for you.  Look for the orange question mark (?) next to a person’s name, then you can click the green checkbox if the tag is correct or the red X if it is incorrect.  I must have an easily-guessable face, because Picasa guessed me correctly in every picture.

The more photos you tag, the better Picasa gets at guessing faces.

After your pictures are tagged, you can use the buttons under the tagged person’s name to create slideshows and movies from their pictures.  The recently-released Picasa 3.8 includes a new feature called “Face Movies” which makes a slideshow that revolves around a single person’s face.  If you’re making a video for a wedding or birthday, this would be a killer feature to utilize.

Now if only there was only a way to integrate tagged photos in Picasa with people on Facebook!  Picasa is a free download for Windows, Mac, and Linux.  [Download Picasa]

The post Tag Your Friends’ Faces in Picasa for Easy Photo Organization first appeared on Techerator.

Step 1: Download and install BitPim.  This is incredibly useful software that lets you access your phone’s file system and we’ll be using it in this guide to backup your pictures.  BitPim is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Step 2: Connect your LG Dare phone to your computer with a micro USB cable.  Open BitPim and go to Edit –> Detect Phone.  BitPim should quickly identify your phone which you can verify in the bottom right corner of the screen.

Step 3: Click Filesystem in the bottom left of Bitpim, then open up the / folder tree in the next column.

Step 4: Locate and expand the folder mmc1, then click my_pix.  You should see a list of all your pictures in this directory, which will have numeric file names and end with .jpg.  Right click the mmc1 folder and select Backup entire tree…

This process can take a very long time depending on how many pictures you have on your phone.  You can monitor its progress by looking at the status bar. Be sure not to use the phone or the program while it says BUSY in the bottom left.

Step 5: When BitPim is finished backing up the files, a dialog box will pop up where you can specify the location you would like to save the files.  The files will be stored in a compressed .zip folder.

That’s it!  Your pictures are now copied from your LG Dare to your computer.

Photo credit: LGEPR

The post How to Download and Backup Pictures from an LG Dare Mobile Phone (VX9700) first appeared on Techerator.