Camera Checklist

A Basic Guide To Camera Operating

These Are Basic Rules of Thumb, Some Deviation Can Be Good

In case you don't know it's Monday, 25/11/2024

Things to take with you if shooting outside the Studio:

• A suitable camera (HD ones are better quality and look amateur-professional, Canon ones are more portable and less obtrusive).
• Battery (charged)
• Tape (Useable)
• Maybe a Tripod (& Quick release plate if applicable)
• Maybe an External Microphone
• Maybe a pair of headphones/earphones to check wound is okay

Composing a shot:

General Views (GVs):

These are good for doing ‘voice-overs’ during editing. They set the scene or introduce a topic, they can also be used as a pause or transition between topics.

It is often good to have some movement, by means of panning, tilting, dollying, jibing, zooming, focus pulls or any combination of these. It is usually best to make any movement as gradual and steady as possible. A tripod should be used, especially for static GVs.

Perspective: This relies heavily on ‘Zoom’.

With the camera close to the subject and at a wide setting there is a lot of coverage of the background. This is good if the subject is a person talking about something in the background.

With the camera further from the subject but zoomed in, the subject appears the same size as before on the screen, but there is less coverage of the background and objects in the background appear larger. This is good if you want to draw attention to the subject, but activity in the background may be even more distracting. Also sound may be a problem with the camera a long way away if the subject is a presenter and there’s no external microphone.

Interviews:

Using a tripod is certainly recommended to avoid a shaky, hypnotising shot. Though it often takes time to set up and this sometimes deters strangers from being interviewed.

Usually it is best to ask the interviewee to look at the interviewer and not at the camera. If you want the interviewer in shot in an ‘over-the-shoulder’ style make sure they don’t obstruct the shot of the interviewee too much.

If you want the interviewer’s and interviewee’s faces to be seen, and one is a lot shorter than the other then asking them to sit down may be best so their heads are at the same level. If you do want them standing then inclines or stairs are useful (but don’t make them visible in the shot).

Generally it is best for subjects’ eyelevel to be about two-thirds the way up the screen, and have the camera at their eye-level. Many of our tripods do not extend above 5’6” so this is not always possible.

Having the camera looking down at the interviewee (ie with it above their eye-level) may make them look inferior. Having the camera looking up at the interviewee (ie with it below their eye-level) may make them look authoritative.

Action Shots:

These are often used at music shows or sport events. They often require sudden and rapid movement of the camera. This is very difficult as it combines many operations of the camera, zooming and focussing simultaneously can be especially difficult when also keeping the subject near the centre of a moving shot (autofocus can be unreliable in dark or rapidly-changing shots).

Terminology (Not Often Used):

Optical axis:Along the line of sight of the camera, it is from the back of the camera to the lens centre.

Pan:Camera remains stationary but rotates left or right about its vertical axis.

Tilt::::Camera remains stationary but rotates up or down about its horizontal axis perpendicular to its optical axis.

Roll: Camera remains stationary but rotates anticlockwise or clockwise about its optical axis (useful for unusual shots).

Zoom: Zoom in makes the subject larger on the screen (more telephoto, larger focal length, lesser angle of view).

Zoom out makes the subject smaller on the screen (more wide, smaller focal length, greater angle of view).

Jib: Camera doesn’t rotate but is moved vertically up or down.

Dolly: Camera doesn’t rotate but is moved horizontally in some direction.

Focus Pull: When a shot is made to change to (or from) being entirely blurred from (or to) focussed on a particular object – or from being focussed on one object to being focussed on a different object.