If you want to pump your video full of energy, you have many obvious options. A couple that come to mind: Using high energy music in the background, and using several fast cuts. But in this installment of Izzy Video I review a few less-obvious tips that will help you get the energy you’re looking for.

Have more tips for the Izzy Video viewers? Please post them in the comments…

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Previously I showed you how to use a light meter to set a proper exposure for your subject. In this installment of Izzy Video, I demonstrate how to use a light meter to deliberately create contrast ratios on your lighting. This is one of the most fundamental ways of creating specific ‘looks’ in your video, and this episode will make it easy for you.

Also, I added a section that delves into F-Stops, how they work, what they do, and how one relates to another one. If F-Stops have ever been confusing to you, I believe you’ll find this section helpful.

Become an Izzy Video Member

Want more? Izzy Video Members get access to the complete collection of Izzy Video Tutorials. Please follow this link for more details on becoming an Izzy Video Member.

Want to automatically receive all the free shows as they’re released?

Subscribe to the free version of Izzy Video in iTunes, and have this episode plus future free episodes delivered to your computer by clicking on the following link:

Free Izzy Video Tutorials in iTunes

You can download the Quicktime version of the episode here.

Photography and videography have a lot in common. Many of the tools that photographers use can be useful for video shooters as well. In this installment of Izzy Video, I review the difference between reflected light meters and incident light meters, and I also demonstrate how to use them.

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Do you like this tutorial and want more? Izzy Video Members get access to the complete collection of Izzy Video Tutorials. Please follow this link for more details on becoming an Izzy Video Member.

Want to automatically receive all the free shows as they’re released?

Subscribe to the free version of Izzy Video in iTunes, and have this episode plus future free episodes delivered to your computer by clicking on the following link:

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You can download the Quicktime version of the episode here.

We’re returning to some video fundamentals with this episode. This tutorial is all about getting a good exposure. Also, I demonstrate how to to use an 18% gray card.

The specific gray card I’m using is from Lastolite. Here is an Amazon link (where I purchased mine): Lastolite 12-Inch Ezybalance Card Gray Card

You can watch the high quality version of the video here.

Want to see more videos like this one? Check out the membership information page to see how you can get access to all the other videos.

For many years, nearly all the videos you’ve seen embedded on my website have been Quicktime videos in file formats such as MP4, MOV, and M4V. I’ve used Quicktime embed code on occasion, but usually I simply link to the video files so you can click on them and watch them in your browser. I did this even when most other websites embedded Flash video files, and clearly Flash was becoming the new standard.

My reason for this has been that I’ve much preferred the quality of Quicktime files over the quality of Flash files. To my eyes, Flash videos were unbearably low quality and difficult to watch. And one of the biggest problems has been the video-sharing services like YouTube. When you upload a video to their service, they control the transcoding process, so you give up your control over quality.

Everything has recently changed. My concerns are gone because Flash now has the ability to play videos encoded with the H.264 codec. This is huge! H.264 gives you the ability to produce high quality videos with a relatively low file size. This codec is the one I use with all of the videos I distribute over the web.

In this week’s installment of Izzy Video, I demonstrate how to create a high quality FLV file (which is a Flash file format that’s excellent for playing on the web). I also demonstrate how to embed it into your website. If you’ve been wanting to embed high quality videos in your website, this episode is a must-see.

This week’s tutorial is available to Izzy Video Members only.

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Izzy Video Members get access to full versions of the show in HD and iPod resolutions. Please follow this link for more details on becoming an Izzy Video Member.

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You can download the Quicktime version of the trailer here.

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This week’s video does a couple things. It promotes my new course, Learn Final Cut Pro 6: The Izzy Video Guide for Beginners. Also the video answers a question that viewers frequently ask me: “What is your process for exporting video for the web?”

I covered the subject a while back, but my process has changed a bit since then, so it’s a good time to update you.

As I mention in the video, this free version is much smaller than the ones available as part of my Final Cut Pro course. My course offers both HD videos at 1280×800 and Small videos at 960×600, so viewers can see everything that I’m doing on the screen.

I’m really excited about this new course. It took a long time, but I’m very happy with it. I believe it’s a great way for someone new to Final Cut Pro to learn the fundamentals of the app. I’ve already started receiving feedback from people who signed up for it yesterday right after I launched it. The feedback has been quite positive so far, and of course, I’m delighted about that!

By the way, if you’re an Izzy Video Member, then you get $20 off the price of the course. Simply login to the members area and you’ll find a coupon code. If you’re not a Member, and you’re interested in learning Final Cut Pro, this is a great time to become a Member.

You can download Izzy Video 123 here.

Finally, if you have additional recommendations regarding outputting video for the web after watching the video, please post any comments here. I’d love to read additional strategies.

Of course, you can leave any comment you want. It doesn’t have to be an exporting strategy.

In this video tutorial, I demonstrate the final tool I recommend as part of your outdoor lighting gear. It’s a black net. You can use a black net for a lot of things, but it’s an excellent tool to cut the light in a background. In this video, you’ll see how I use an 8×8 Scrim Jim with a double black net to darken the background behind the subject. This is the last lighting control tutorial I have planned for the “Shooting Outdoors” series. More on shooting outdoors is still to come, but not on lighting.

You can watch the video here.

Also, if you’re interested in the live workshop I’m doing on April 17th, 2009, you can get the details here.

If you’re not an Izzy Video member, you might want to check out how it works so you can see the rest of the videos in the “Shooting Outdoors” series, along with more than 100 other videos. Members get more. A lot more.

Who says that video production can’t be a family activity?

I get requests for Motion tutorials all the time, and it’s been a while since I’ve released one, so I thought we’d have a little fun in this week’s episode. In this installment of Izzy Video, I demonstrate the steps you take in Motion to turn a face into a monster’s face. The technique uses motion tracking and keyframed filters. I hope you have as much fun with this technique as we did.

Happy Holidays to everyone!

This installment of Izzy Video is all about things you can do to shoot better video this holiday season. Hopefully this will help you get the footage you’re hoping for.

In this video, I cover several topics including:

* How to capture live events

* Adding extra lighting

* Better camera angles for shooting children

* A list of things to avoid

You can watch the free version of Izzy Video 112 here.

As always, the paid members can download an HD version of this video in the member’s area. To learn more about becoming an Izzy Video Member, please visit the membership information page.

Still photos can be powerful additions to your video, and adding movement to the photos can take them to the next level. Today’s episode shows you how to take the movement even further, by using an effect called 2.5D (two-and-a-half dimensions). In this tutorial, I demonstrate how to create the effect using a combination of Photoshop and Motion, but you could just as easily do it in Photoshop and After Effects, or even other software combinations.

The effect is difficult to describe. It’s subtle, and the best way to understand 2.5D is just to see it in action.

You can watch the free version of Izzy Video 116 here.

As always, the paid members can download an HD version of this video in the member’s area. To learn more about becoming an Izzy Video Member, please visit the membership information page.