When you are attempting to film a wild deer, turkey, elk, bear, etc, your heart is going to be pounding. This is going to compound your shaky and "fast" camera movements. Here is what I like to do when an animal presents itself to me while filming hunts:
- Hit record. Sounds obvious, but you would be amazed how many times people will go through the motions and forget to begin recording. Or, worse yet, they double hit the record button. This is where you hit the button to start recording, and in your excitement, you hit it a second time and stop the film without even realizing it. Imagine double clicking your mouse. Always look for the moving timecode or red record light in the viewfinder to be sure you are rolling.
- Find your animal in the viewfinder with the camera zoomed out. This is way easier than trying to find it with the camera zoomed in tight. It is pretty tough to find an animal, especially when they are not moving and there are a lot of leaves on the trees, when the camera is in tight.
- Once you see the animal in the viewfinder, zoom in all the way quickly and focus. This can be done with the focus ring, or if your camera has it, but hitting the "auto" button and then releasing it back to manual focus. This method is usually a lot quicker but you need to practice it so you can find the button by feel since you will be looking in the viewfinder, not at the camera housing.
- Once focused, zoom out a bit and frame up your shot.
- Now that the technical procedure is out of the way, you need to become rock solid. Most of the time, all the video that is recorded during the focus and framing process will not be used, but once framed, treat your video as "live video". This is where you want to be steady and smooth in your movements.
- When you pan or tilt to follow an animal, be slow. Even if you accidentally allow the animal to leave the frame for a short time, it is better than jerking the camera too quickly.
- If the animal is standing still, even for just a short time, let go of your camera. This is key! as long as your tripod/camera arm head tension is set correctly, you should be able to let go of the camera and it will remain in position. This takes all of your shaking movements away and will make your video look way more professional.
Until next time...I'm Rolling!
Brian
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