| Shooting
sports action well can be one of the greatest challenges facing
a videographer. There are tricks to doing it. If you master
them, you'll see your sports action tapes improving with each
event.
Picking a Location
STEP 1: Arrive early to allow for setup time.
STEP 2: Park as close as you can to where you'll be taping.
STEP 3: Check out sunlight or electrical lighting to be sure
neither will shine directly into your lens or onto your viewfinder.
STEP 4: Select a shooting position where nobody is likely
to be standing in front of you or jumping up to yell during
the event.
STEP 5: Check to be sure your pans left and right are equally
clear of spectators.
STEP 6: Try to find an elevated location where you can look
down on the action.
STEP 7: Choose a level shooting position - don't fight gravity
by trying to shoot from the side of a hill.
STEP 8: Bring your tripod (borrow one if necessary).
STEP 9: Select a place close to house current so you can run
your camera off the power supply instead of batteries.
# If you park close, your run to the car if
you need something will be shorter and you'll miss less action.
And when you're through, you won't have to carry your equipment
as far.
# Arriving early means you'll have a better
choice of shooting positions. You can also set up your equipment
in a leisurely way, and have time to run back to get something
you forgot before the action starts.
# If you select a hillside shooting position,
you'll tire more quickly and your taping will stop being fun.
# If you set up in the grandstands, a rowdy
crowd may make the stands jiggle, and that will make your
pictures jiggle too.
Setting Up the Equipment
STEP 1: Adjust the viewfinder for sports coverage before you
set up your tripod.
STEP 2: Set the height of the tripod so that when you're looking
straight ahead, you're looking straight into either viewfinder
at eye level.
STEP 3: Make your tripod head level by lengthening or shortening
the legs.
STEP 4: Adjust the pan control (if there is one) on your tripod
so there's a small amount of drag as you pan and tilt.
STEP 5: Put a handheld microphone (if you have one) away from
spectators.
STEP 6: Arrange your extra equipment (camera bag and so on)
so it's out of your way as you move about behind the camcorder.
STEP 7: Make sure the power cord (if you're using one) does
not pass through the area where you'll be standing, so you
don't trip over it.
STEP 8: Use a plastic garbage bag with a hole cut in it to
protect your camcorder if you think it might rain.
* Adjust an optical viewfinder so its axis is parallel to
the axis of the lens.
* Adjust an LCD viewfinder so its screen is perpendicular
to the axis of the lens.
* Some tripods have a leveling ball. If yours doesn't, you
can buy one at the hardware store and put it on your tripod
head. It makes leveling the head much easier.
* When you tilt down to cover field action, you may find that
the viewfinder is too high for comfort. Don't adjust the viewfinder
- it's set correctly. Instead, lower the tripod height.
* If you separate the microphone from spectators, you'll hear
only generic crowd noise and not individual conversations.
* Try stashing your equipment ahead of the tripod position
and underneath the lens. If you put it behind you, you may
back into it, and, even worse, while you're paying attention
to the event, somebody could come along and steal it.
* Find a dry place to put your charger if it rains. If you
can't find one, put the charger and battery in a plastic bag.
Be sure to unplug the charger before you take the battery
off charge.
Beginning to Shoot
STEP 1: Be sure you're familiar with the flow of action in
the type of sporting event (baseball, tennis, and so on) you're
going to cover, so you know what to tape and what to ignore.
STEP 2: Plan to shoot a fairly wide shot, during the first
few events you tape, until you catch on. You can tighten up
and shoot closer shots as your skills improve.
STEP 3: Keep both eyes open when you tape sports.
STEP 4: Use your left eye for the "big picture"
and your right eye for determining what you're taping.
STEP 5: Anticipate a likely play and be ready to cover it
when it happens.
STEP 6: Note that if most of the action in a potential play
will be in a restricted area, you can go tighter for a better
close-up of the action. But be ready to pull back to a wider
shot if you guessed wrong.
STEP 7: Aim toward keeping the principal player in the shot
all the time. But be ready to switch principal players if
the shot calls for it.
STEP 8: Roll on every play or potential play if you want to
get all the action.
STEP 9: Start recording an instant or two before the play
action starts.
STEP 10: Count "1-2-3" to yourself when the play
is over, then stop taping.
STEP 11: Shoot cutaways sometimes, but not always, in between
plays.
STEP 12: Come off tripod and go handheld if you think you
can get access to the field for a different vantage point.
STEP 13: Bring extra tape and batteries if you change vantage
points.
STEP 14: Change vantage points only at a natural break in
the action.
# It takes a little practice to get used to shooting with
both eyes open, but once you master it, you'll never know
how you got along before. If you lose the action, you'll find
it faster with your left eye open.
# The greatest plays happen when your camcorder is off. So
plan to shoot them all.
# People don't want to see the crowd on your tape; they want
to see the sports action. So don't spend a lot of time on
cutaways, and if you must shoot them, don't make them longer
than a second or two.
# The wider your shot, the less likely you'll be to lose the
action, but the smaller the sports figures will be. Conversely,
the tighter your telephoto shot, the larger the sports figures
will be, but the more easily you'll lose them. You'll have
to find a happy medium that works for you.
# Shooting at field level is much more difficult than shooting
from a platform at the back of the stands. From field level
you're closer to the action, and the action moves from one
side to another much more quickly. The rule is, The closer
you are to the action, the harder it is to shoot.
What
is Videotape ? | Audio
& Video Tape Preservation |
Video
Tape Conversion to NTSC or PAL or SECAM | Save
a Videocassette |
How
to Get a Digital Video Recorder | How
to Buy a VCR | How
to Videotape Sports Action |
Transfer
Audio From a Videotape to a Computer | Transfer
Audio From a Videotape to a Cassette |
Transfer
Video Onto the Computer | How
to Program a VCR | Video
Tape Formats |
Video
Tape Time Comparisons | Tape
& VCR Tips | Camcorder
& Recording Techniques
|
