Fish n' Clips™ Video Tips
We encourage anyone to add any suggestions they have
for getting good fishing videos, for video equipment or anything related to videography or producing
video of fishing situations. The Fish n Clips Forum has a section devoted to videography. Check it out to
get more information on this topic or to post new information.
Here are a few videography tips that we’ve picked up over the years:
Ready, set, GO!
Most cameras take a few seconds to start recording after you push the record button.
Give yourself a few seconds before you or the subject start talking or moving and shoot an
extra few seconds after the action ends before you stop recording.
Know your equipment
Read the manual and practice, practice, practice. Shoot video around the house to get familiar
with the camera and what works to get the shots you want. Then, when you’re on the fishing trip,
you’ll get a lot of good video to work with instead of a lot of wasted footage.
Hold it steady!
It is hard not to jiggle the camera when moving or if your arm is tired. If possible, use a tripod or
monopod. This also allows your camera to be ready for that shot of your friend catching a lunker. If you
are shooting the video handheld, make sure the Image Stabilization is turned on and move as slowly and
steadily as possible, use two hands to hold the camera. Brace yourself, your elbows or the camera on a
non-movable surface (rock, tree, log, etc).
Blurry picture?
Keep in mind that camcorders, like movie cameras, don't really take moving pictures. They take a lot of
still pictures in rapid succession.
Fuzziness in the video occurs most often for the following reasons:
1. The shot is out of focus. The auto focus of the camera can’t be trusted if there are lots of objects at
varying distances from the camera. You can avoid this by aiming the camcorder at your subject and letting
it auto focus on the object, then switch the auto focus off and shoot the picture. Most cameras have a
switch you can tap to turn the auto focus on and off. The draw back is that the distance between you and
your subject can’t change or it will be out of focus, so it is great if you’re shooting someone casting on
a river but not so great if you are trying to capture someone fording a stream or groups of people milling
around at varying distances from you.
2. The scenes change too much between the stills (frames) -- in other words, when the camera is panning too
fast or when something is moving too quickly within the camera's field of view. (See panning tips for more information).
3. The camera is shaking. None of the individual still pictures is clear, but instead of a general fuzziness,
as you might get when the lens is out of focus, you see varying amounts of blur in each still frame. This is the
kind of motion picture in which the motion is all in the camera, and viewers usually find that more annoying than
an overall fuzziness.
Panning
Moving your camera from side to side is called panning. It is not as easy as it sounds. Pan slowly and steadily
with the Image Stabilization enabled.
Zoom
Use the zoom feature sparingly. Too much zooming in and out is annoying to viewers. It can also make the video
shaky (zoom too fast and/or move the camera while zooming). If possible, it’s better to stop filming and move
closer to your subject to get the close up. When you move closer you use a wider lens, which takes a less shaky
shot, and you also avoid digital zoom, which makes the pixels in your image larger, rather than changing the lens
size (Optical v. Digital zoom). Another way to avoid pixilation is to simply disable the digital zoom on your camera.
Outdoor Lighting
Make sure your camera is set for daylight if it has a manual control for indoor and outdoor lighting. Your video
will appear blue if it is set for indoors.
Special Effects
Don’t use the special effects offered on the camera, you’ll be stuck with them forever. The same effects can be
added with editing software.
For tips on uploading your files, please go to Upload Tips.
Have some great ideas for tips on fishing related videos? Post them on the Forum
for others to use.
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