Getting Started: Handheld Camera Techniques (page 2)

Funky Camera Moves

You need camera moves to make your video interesting. The quickest way to bore your audience is to zoom in really tight on a stationary object and not move the camera for five minutes. Camera moves are often easier with a tripod, but you can do just fine without one. You're a videotaping machine, remember?

If your stance is like the one described earlier, you are all ready to move with the action. It's just a matter of following it when it occurs. There are a few guidelines, though, that can help keep your footage free of jitters and make it a lot more interesting to watch.

First of all, use your zoom sparingly. Sure, you're stable; yes, you're a machine, but you're not made of stone. Your breathing alone is enough to shake the camcorder just a little. The tighter you zoom in on a moving object, the more obvious these little jitters will become. Take a lesson from marksmen: take steady, long, slow breaths instead of short ones to steady yourself even further. If you want to hold your breath and use meditation to reduce your blood flow, that's your business. I would suggest, however, that it may be easier just to stay zoomed out to a wide or medium-wide shot.

The most important part of shooting video is getting a good shot of everything. Watch your nightly news sometime. You're bound to catch a helicopter chase sooner or later. The camera operator will almost always stay zoomed out, wide enough to see the runaway bus and the twelve squad cars chasing it. He could zoom in if he wanted to, but since he's got a camera on his shoulder shooting from a hundred feet in the air in a helicopter traveling at a high rate of speed, he knows how jittery things could get. He's more concerned with getting a decent shot of everything than a shaky shot of just one thing.

If it is imperative that you get a close-up, you have an option. Zoom out as far as you can go and physically take the camera up close to the subject. By moving the camera and not using the zoom to get close, you can keep jitters to a minimum.

Picking the Right Pan

Suppose you know you are going to have to pan the camera to get the whole shot. You're at the drag races, for example, and you want to follow your favorite dragster out of the gate down the strip in front of you and on to the finish line.

Ooh, how you miss that tripod! How do you follow the action without dancing around with the camcorder, or worse, tripping or falling and missing the shot completely?

It's easy, you don't have to move your feet to get this shot. All you really need to do is smoothly swivel your upper body as you aim the camcorder.

If you know the action will be moving from far right to far left, position yourself, in your stance, somewhere in between. Keep those feet firmly planted on the ground. Then twist your body slightly to the right and aim your camcorder at the starting point. As the action moves toward you, slowly turn your upper body with it, following the event with your camcorder. Then turn your upper body the other way as the action moves past you.

With this technique, you are able to keep your balance while comfortably following the action as it unfolds, keeping those shaky shots to a minimum.

Should you use your zoom? Panning from one side to another is plenty of action for one shot. You might, however, consider zooming out as wide as you can before you start shooting. Then leave the zoom alone. Let the action that you are shooting dictate your shot for you.

A Proposal: Get Down On One Knee

A technique that I've used for shooting low angle shots with compact camcorders is to squat down on one knee and cup the camcorder with both hands. Swivel the viewfinder so that it points straight up at you. Position the camcorder in your hands to frame the shot. Then look down at it like it's a little TV.

You will find that your shot is really quite stable, due in a large part to the fact that you have lowered your center of gravity. Try resting your arms or hands against your legs for added stability.

Don't Use That Tripod As A Crutch!

You see? You don't need that bulky tripod as much as you thought you did. Save it for shooting, when you have plenty of time to set up. But, when you're on the go, you will find yourself to be a perfectly stable platform for your camcorder—far more fluid and mobile than a tripod could ever hope to be.