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Filmmaking
My exact camera settings for 6 situations
Most bad footage isn't the camera. It's starting every shoot from scratch. Here are the settings I use for six situations I film every week.
Stop starting from scratch
Most bad footage isn't a gear problem. It's someone walking onto a location and guessing. I keep the same starting settings for the situations I film most, so I only adjust instead of reinventing. These assume a mirrorless camera, a 25fps timeline and Australian 50Hz power.
The six presets
Golden hour: 25fps, 1/50, f/2.8, ND on. Café with window light: 25fps, 1/50, f/2, overheads off. Night street: 25fps, 1/50, f/1.4, 4000K. Gym and sport: 50fps at 1/100 for clean slow motion. Talking head: 25fps, 1/50, f/2.8, white balance to your key light. Product slow-mo: 100fps at 1/200, not 120 under Aussie lights.
The rule under all of it
Shutter at double your frame rate. Too bright? Add an ND filter, never crank the shutter. Live at your camera's native ISO, set white balance to your key light, and expose for skin. Those five rules make every preset work.
Why these numbers work
25fps matches our power and looks natural on phones. 50fps on a 25fps timeline gives you clean 2x slow motion, and 100fps gives you 4x while staying flicker-free indoors. 120fps looks tempting, but under 50Hz lights it flickers, so I skip it inside.
f/2.8 for talking heads keeps both eyes sharp if someone leans in. Wider apertures like f/1.4 are for night streets, where you want the city lights to do the work.
Set them up as custom modes
Most mirrorless cameras let you save custom modes. I keep golden hour, interview and slow-mo saved, so switching takes one dial turn. On a busy shoot that saves real minutes and stops mistakes.
When to break the rules
These are starting points, not laws. If the light is changing fast, adjust aperture and ND first, ISO last. If something looks wrong on the monitor, trust your eyes and check skin tones before anything else.
Save this list, try it on your next shoot, and you'll stop losing the first ten minutes of every job to guesswork.
