How to Use a Camcorder: Keeping Your Image Steady

You're about to take part in the world's shortest psychological test. Ready? All right, then. Please note your reaction to the following word: tripod.

Now check your response against the results of our nationwide scientific survey:

• I wonder what's new on the mail order pages: 43.2%.
• Gee, this column's going downhill: 37.5%.
• ZZZZZZZZZZZZ: 19.1%

To be sure, two-tenths of one percent responded, "Tripods are my life!" Of course, his name turned out to be Bogen.

Camcorders? Wow! Neat editing hardware? Yesss! But when the topic turns to camera support, the brain turns to stone.

Too bad, because the function of camera support is to help create a steady image, and a steady image is the first and most obvious mark of competent videomaking. Also, there's much more to this topic than just tripods and stuff, so work with me here, okay? We'll cover some ingenious ways to steady a hand- held camera and then look at monopods, tripods, camera stabilizers and special purpose hardware. (For the record, image stabilization systems also add steadiness, but they're a topic unto themselves.)

And if you still need a lure to keep you reading, there's even going to be a dandy craft project for a rainy afternoon!

Before surveying ways to steady your camcorder, we need to establish why you should bother in the first place.

The answer begins with that great tyrant of the video world: the frame. (The word "frame" also refers to a single video image, but here, we're using the term to mean the picture border.) Though you rarely think about it, every second of every film and video ever made is imprisoned in the iron rectangle of the frame.

Human vision, by contrast does not include this immobile boundary. To demonstrate this, extend your arms at eye level with both index fingers pointed skyward. Staring straight ahead, slowly sweep your arms sideways as you wiggle your index fingers. (Better try this in private; it saves tedious explanations.)

Concentrate on those wagging fingers. As they move into your peripheral vision, they will grow more and more indistinct. Finally, at somewhere around 160 degrees of arm spread, they gradually fade out. Notice that they don't suddenly pass some border that masks them from view, that is, they don't move "out of frame." The reason, of course, is that our vision has no distinct frame around it to move out of--it's a continuum from acute in front to vague on the sides to finally, well, nothing.

The point of all this is that when you walk around, run or drive, the image delivered by your vision system waggles as constantly as the shakiest video footage. But without a motionless frame to compare it to (literally, a frame of reference) this movement is seldom noticed. Your eyes and brain collaborate in an "image stabilization system" that works almost perfectly.

But when you view a video, shaky footage calls attention to itself because even the tiniest movement contrasts with the perfectly motionless border around it. Since good video encourages you to notice the picture content rather than the image itself, unsteady images are almost always undesirable.

Many videomakers shoot hand-held much or even all of the time, so let's check out some ways to steady your camcorder without a tripod or monopod. In a nutshell, your strategy for hand holding is to brace the camera, and if you can't do that, brace yourself and if you can't do that, keep it slooooow.

Wherever possible, set the camera down on something--a wall top or railing, a table or bookcase-- any horizontal surface. To see what you're shooting, angle the viewfinder upward so that you can look through it (provided your camcorder has a rotating viewfinder). Better yet, use an external LCD screen, either built in to the camera, or riding its accessory shoe.

Don't overlook vertical surfaces. True, you can't do much with the side of your camcorder pasted to a wall, but with full-size units, at least, you can brace your own back as well as the camera's against a wall, a tree, a light pole--anything.

If you can't brace your camera by one of these methods, try to brace yourself as you hand-hold it. Again, lean against a vertical support or prop your elbows on any handy horizontal surface. For low angles, try kneeling rather than squatting. The four-point spread of your knees and feet offers a more stable camera platform than your feet alone.

Where it's impractical to brace your camcorder or yourself, practice good hand-holding techniques. Briefly:

• Use an external viewfinder to keep your hard forehead from touching the camera. If you have only an internal viewfinder, remove your eye from it at least slightly.
• Hold the camera with both hands, elbows spread away from the body so that they can act as shock absorbers. Some people recommend holding your elbows tight at your sides for extra bracing, but that works only if you breathe about as often as a whale.
• If the shot will not run too long however, try to not breathe. Take a deep breath, let half of it out, then hold the rest and shoot.
• Work with your knees slightly bent, again so that they act as shock absorbers.
• If you pan the camera, stand with your feet parallel to the middle of the movement, then twist your upper body back until you can frame the beginning. That will prevent the human pretzel effect that ruins the ends of many pan shots.

• Digg This!
• del.icio.us
• Technorati
• StumbleUpon
• Reddit