GSTC Toolbox/Audiovisual

Photography - Taking a picture

Taking a photo is something that most everyone has performed, quite often with mixed results. Taking a candid photo is a different skill than taking an eye capturing subject focused image like a professional photographer.

Basic concepts of photography

As you begin to explore the terminology of photography, greater explanations on settings, focal length (camera lens choice or zoom), depth of field (sharp or blurry background), and composition (does it draw your attention?) can be found here:

The art and science of photography in hand surgery. - good overview of a photographing a hand surgery with example or good photos to have ("shot list")

Camera's settings - the different modes and hot to apply them

Focal length

Composition - what will your picture look like?

Introduction to photographic composition

Backgrounds - what is the focus of the picture?

Panoramic photos - "extra wide" photos

Smartphone (iphone) use

Editing (Post-processing)

Once you have captured your photos, some editing can occur by software (or phone app) manipulation. (Often it is faster with better results “during the shot” instead of post processed. It is great to make small changes however creating something from nothing in software is often more time consuming that a physical retake.) Post processing (software manipulation) still has its place for things like blurring the background, cropping an image smaller, or other quick task. For more information on post processing software and apps:

Software for editing

Apps for smartphones

Tripods - support for your camera to stabilize (remove vibration) and provide constant point of view

How to make a phone tripod

Camera mounts

Lighting - How to add light to a picture or video (remove dark and make scenes even contrast)

Techniques for lighting - how to control lighting

Lighting gear - how to add light

Diffusers/reflectors - how to redirect lighting or soften harsh lighting

Softbox - diffused lighting

Video

Video clips are commonplace with social media and numerous phone apps. Taking video for sharing with friends is vastly different than trying to apply video for an educational tool. Video for education require clear subject focus, deliberate lighting, and a clean background to draw the attention exactly where the education is occurring. Videography is something that can be learned quickly with great outcome since you get instant feedback as you change lighting, focus, position, and other items.

Educational video recording and editing for the hand surgeon. - good overview on entire video effort and equipment

Basics on video

Editing (Post-processing)

Once you have your video, editing sections together, trimming sections out, or adding items into your video can be found here:

Software

Apps for smartphones

Audio

Audio is rarely a standalone function in today’s digital world. It is often coupled with video as an included “benefit” to video capture. However, audio that is for instruction is slightly different than that of social media. In an instructional setting, the audio should be clear without background distractions, loud enough for the listener to hear the dialogue (i.e. dedicated microphone), and potentially with subtitles for easier comprehension.

Guides on audio capture and presentation

Closed captioning

Use of closed captioning to increase understandability, allow for easier translations, removes ambiguity of a speakers accent.

Translation

Guide to translation services and best practices.

Audio editing

Ocenaudio - Download - cross-platform, audio editor
Audacity - Download - cross-platform audio software
Descript - allows editing audio through an automatically-generated text transcript. This can speed up and simplify producing audio narrations.