Here I’m going to lay down some of the things that I have learnt first hand through my own experience and from those around me who have been new to shooting video much like the people most likely to be reading this post are. Over the past year my team and myself have been shooting behind the scenes videos at photoshoots and events and the following tips are a result from our experience of that. These tips are not HDDSLR specific, that’s just what I use. I will publish a follow-up post that is more specific to filming with these cameras and go into more detail.

So here you go, 5 Tip for Shooting Video with your HDDSLR Camera after the jump….

1. KISS – Keep it Steady Stupid! (har-har)

The number one thing every single person that has ever used a video camera for the first time will do, is record 100% pure shakey footage. I’m talking about handheld filming of course. Maybe not everyone but its pretty typical that you will and it is excruciatingly painful to watch. Even as still photographers with years of experience keeping it steady for a picture, you can still produce some terrible video. You absolutely MUST understand how important it is to keep your camera steady. Even when you think you are keeping it steady, you probably aren’t.

It IS possible to hand hold the camera when shooting video but you really need to be concious about what you’re doing. Keep the camera close to your body and have a firm grip on it. I usually hold it right up to my eye using a Zacuto Z-Finder or a Hoodman Loupe for an extra point of contact to stabilise things, just how you would taking a still. Don’t hold the camera out with outstretched arms because you are losing control of the camera out there and its much more unstable. That means you at a much higher risk of getting shakey footage. If you are going to move the camera at all while recording hand-held, make it very small subtle movements, and do it SLOWLY! You should know exactly what movements you are going to make before you make them and be absolutely sure to keep that motion steady and keep your subject in the frame. The movement needs to flow and be graceful. This all depends what your shooting of course, but it’s a good tip as a general rule.

2. Keep your feet grounded!

Bit of an extension to the first tip. If you start walking with the camera your footage is going turn into a rugged rollercoaster ride. Sure you can smooth some of it out in post production but if you’re reading this post I’ve got a feeling you haven’t a clue how to do that yet anyway.

If you are lucky enough to have Image Stabilised lenses (or Vibration Reduction for you Nikon folk) then you can try turning it on for hand held footage. It’s not really designed for shooting video and if you play with it you will notice that. It can fight your movements a bit sometimes but depending what you’re filming it can be a good help. If you’re shooting behind the scenes its great. If you’re shooting a film, then you might be looking to turn it off. Experiment, know what it does, and see if it works for you.

If you aren’t wanting to move the camera put it on a tripod, or as they call them in the film world… sticks. There’s a whole new language to learn in moving pictures.

3. Setup for the shot Before you record.

Set the exposure you want, set the white balance, set the focal length, work out your composition, stabilise your stance/position, grab your focus and THEN hit the record button. You don’t want to ever be changing any of those things while recording because I can guarantee you its going to muck up your video. You should be 100% focussed on exactly what you are recording. You don’t want to have to look for a button or be changing settings when recording as its going to introduce camera shake to your video or stuff it up in a number of other ways. You want to be sure you have everything correct before you record anything anyway.

4. Move with your Hips!

Moving the camera correctly and smoothly can be an excellent technique which makes things more interesting for the viewer. When going for the smaller hand-held panning shots, use your arms less and your hips more. This will help keep you much more stable. You can get almost a metre out of a good hip pan with minimal arm movement. Its a basic movement where you shift your weight from one side to the other, while keeping the camera close to your body in the same position. Do a comparison at home by trying to get the same pan by using just your arms and then try it by using your hips. Much better right? If you have a battery pack, an external microphone and a heavy lens on the end then its going to be really hard to pan with your arms stretched out anyway. So keep it close to your body and use your hips. It’s a great tip.

5. Focus Focus Focus

With these new DSLR’s and their incredible shallow depths of field, and the fact its all manual, you really must be on the ball with your focus. There’s nothing worse than an out of focus image. Moving the focus ring around to achieve focus can be a real art, especially if your racking focus between different objects. Its something you will develop a “feel” for with experience. The lenses for our HDDSLR cameras aren’t designed for video. They are designed to focus as fast as possible so we can shoot stills. You will notice that it only takes a very small turn of the focus ring to change your focal point dramatically in the scene. This is something you have to be wary of. Just something you need to be aware of. Some people don’t even realise you have to focus manually with these HDDSLR cameras.

6. Use a Tripod

In the filmmaking world they are called sticks, but as a photographer you will know them as tripods. In order to guarentee a stable peice of footage without any camera shake a tripod is a must.

7. Move The Camera!

Yes I can count, I’m just throwing in one more tip for you. It’s already been suggested in the points above but I want to emphasise it. Move the camera! With films the techniques they use usually involve camera movement.

When panning, zooming or moving the camera in any other way, use slow, smooth, and deliberate motions. This will make your videos much more watchable.

That’ll do for now. This is pretty simple stuff but I know this will help some people. It’s not always applicable and sometimes you may even want to break the rules on purpose for a certain effect. I’ll go into more detail and I’ll post some technical bits and pieces about these new HDDSLR cameras soon too.

Happy filming!

B.

EDIT: turns out I can’t count. I kept changing the numbers too much. I left it for your amusement.