No, this kind of stuff is really useful, the camera is a Canon Eos Rebel T2I
i'm not a professional but let me tell you the basic steps you're supposed to follow before doing any shot (which is really what I learned)
also I googled your camera and I think it can do all of these, which is really good.1. White balance whenever you start shooting within new lighting. If you have no idea what that is, it's essentially a process in which you tell the camera what "white" looks like. Sometimes, when you film outdoors or under like fluorescent lights, your picture will have a weird tint of some sort, depending on the kind of lighting. You can easily fix this by zooming into a piece of white printer paper and using the manual white balancing feature on your camera. Don't put the paper in front of the lines, since it won't be the proper "white" you want. I usually had the actor that was the subject of my shot hold the white balance sheet before I shot.
2. Focus on your main subject(s). If you're trying to do, say, a close up of someone, you'd zoom in all the way on their face and then move the wheel in front of the camera (at least that's where it is on mine. It might be different for you, but I think that's the standard) until you get the clearest possible image. Then, you can go to whatever desired zoom you had. If you don't do this, your subjects might look a little blurry. When something is perfectly focused, though, it just looks glorious! also turn off auto-focus if that's on because it's stupid
3. Like in photography, try to follow the Rule of Thirds. When preparing a shot, try to divide the image into three sections: Left, Center, and Right, and then three more sections, upper, middle, and bottom. Technically that's nine but whatever. You don't want to have too many (or any if it looks reasonable) shots that are smack in the center. Usually, you aim to be kind of in the middle but not really.
I personally don't understand it, but it's a rule that's used in a lot of other art forms so I kind of just went with it. I think it's supposed to help create the illusion of depth but I'm not sure. Check out the wikipedia article for it. It has some really nice pictures that shows the difference between a ROT'd picture and a not ROT'd one.
4. Make sure that there is a reasonable amount of space above (and in some cases, below and next to) your actors. Giving them headroom allows them to move around naturally without getting cut out of the shot. Too much will look strange, but too little will also. Also, on the topic of cutting things off, try to not cut off your subjects at natural lines, such as the neck or waist. Show some shoulder when doing moderate close ups, for example.
i feel like i learned something from that stupid class wow
sorry if i phrased this horribly i'm really tired but still reciting this might help me remember when I have to shoot my final project on Sunday :K
