The ten rules of photography...

Addendum to rule #1. Two-sided headsets are fine for interviews and controlled situations. A small earpiece in your right era works better for breaking news coverage...if you don't have one, pull the earcup off your left ear when you are shooting breaking news. Your next shot will probably happen because of something you heard in your left (uncovered) ear.

Addendum to Rule #3. Have a set of car keys hidden somewhere (on your camera, somewhere on the exterior of the car).

Another rule. Pack everyday like you'll be gone for a week. On breaking news, never leave your stuff in the hotel room thinking "I'll be here again tonight." Treat each day as if you'll be sleeping in a different bed that night.

Rule to go ahead of all previously stated: You are a NEWS photographer. Not a production photographer. Your assignment and schedule can change in a split second. Keep eyes and ears open. Understand the scanner. Always wonder where the fire trucks are going. Your natural curiosity may lead you to a great story (and get you pulled off the dreadful assignment you were headed to before you wondered "what's all that smoke coming from...?") Strive to be the photographer that reporters want to work with.

About tripods. Tripods are fine if they don't slow you down, and if they don't hamper your ability to explore new angles. Your first rule of shooting should be to "get close, stay wide and build sequences." In that respect, your hand-held stuff and your tripod work should be good enough to edit together in a package. You should learn all the little secrets that one may employ to make non-tripod stuff look rock-steady.
 
Douglas said:
It's okay to break all of the above rules? Sure, go ahead and CHOOSE to shoot with a dirty lens or a crooked tripod and see how far that's going to get you in your career. I've been working in the business for 30 years and I've never felt the need to break any of the rules that have been posted here. You're either a professional, or you're an idiot who uses exceses to make up for bad skills.

Limitations are to be overcome, not to be used as an excuse to "break the rules". Rule #1 should be not to listen to people that don't have a clue.
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I didn't mean to touch a nerve. Some like rules and some are so uncomfortable getting creative they feel better adhering to routine. The bottom line is do what works for you.
 
David R. Busse said:
You should learn all the little secrets that one may employ to make non-tripod stuff look rock-steady.
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There are some great De-shakers that help in post some... there are times I just do not have a tripod in my hand yet have a small cam around my neck when I am in semi-off duty mode and out somewhere and something happens ( I NEVER consider myself ever totally off duty!)

There was also previous mention of using other natural obects to stready shots... indeed... Great Advice!
 
`The other thing I noticed was Zebras are not crutches. I couldn't shoot without them, and I've been shooting for 20 years. NEVER trust the viewfinder 100%. The one time you do somebody will have changed the brightness or some other setting. Been there, made that mistake...
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Exactly the point I was making.
 
another one

YOU ARE THE ONE IN CONTROL. STEP UP.

If you're shooting an interview and the sound isn't quite right - STOP THE INTERVIEW. If your reporter is doing something that looks goofy - TELL THEM. If their hair is sticking straight up (unintentionally) in a standup - TELL THEM. You are responsible for what you get on tape - and you need to be confident enough to take control of those situations that you have control over.
 
Douglas said:
7) When shooting on a tripod, use your left hand to focus AND zoom. Your right hand should be on the pan handle and free to change any settings on the camera. In other words, do not hug the camera and attempt to reach the zoom rocker with your right hand. This is a bad habit that I see a lot of news photographers use that makes it so much harder to smoothly pan, tilt, change settings on the camera, and isoloate your breathing and body movements from being translated to the image. see #3 above.
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Doug, unless you're talking about shooting interviews (in which case I agree whole heartedly) I'd argue a significant exception to the rule above. I think a good many shooters are going for the "hug" because there is no intention of moving the shot once they start rolling. For instance: I have my rocker set to the fast speed. I frame with the rocker (both zoom and pan/tilt) and continue to make minor adjustments while focusing and setting my iris (often white balancing too). If I'm not in a spot news situation I typically have my camera set to "save" (I'm on a Sony SX) so once I've hit record and taken my hands off the tape is just beginning to spool up and roll. It works pretty well. All that said, in general, if you're not doing a move you shouldn't be touching your camera and sticks at all while you're rolling.

One other point of contention; I often shoot at 1/100th just to bring out the DOF and get some better definition in my images. SX has a bad habit of flattening out the image in a lot of settings.

Finally, another rule: When going hand held frame with your feet, not your fingers.
 
My very first day on the job I was training with National POY winner Doug Legore. He taught me something that has stuck with me, and that goes against what many of you have said... Don't over white balance. If the subject walks near a red neon light then so be it. It's accurate. His face would look red to the naked eye... Sometimes you want that dusk video to look slightly blue, to show the viewer that it *is* dusk. If you WB, it wouldn't look like dusk... You want your sunsets to look nice a orange... Keep your color consistent. WB once when you get to a new location and then be done with it.

If you worry too much about WB, you'll drive yourself crazy and lose focus from what really matters... telling a good story.
 
adam said:
One other point of contention; I often shoot at 1/100th just to bring out the DOF and get some better definition in my images. SX has a bad habit of flattening out the image in a lot of settings.
.
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Well, shutter speed is not going to anything at all for your Depth-of-Field. Not anything all. If you want to open your iris to reduce the DOF (the only way to change the DOF), the proper thing to do is add ND or reduce the gain. Boosting the shutter speed just so you can open the iris is not the correct way to do it because it has unwanted side-effects with motion.

As for your defense of the "camera hug" technique of wrapping one's self around the camera, we'll have to disagree on that one. I think it looks really stupid and you'd never see anyone that didn't come from a news background man-handling the camera that way. There's no way you can smoothly pan or tilt the camera more than a few degrees without your body getting in the way -- not to mention the smaller range of motion yio have when you've got the camera in a bear hug. Since the invention of the film camera, the proper technique has always been to stand a few inches away from the camera and use your right hand on the pan arm and your left hand on the lens. The only part of my body I want touching the camera or tripod is my finger tips. The "wrap around" is a bad technique that gets passed from news shooter to news shooter like VD. Okay, I admit it, it's a pet peeve of mine.

I'll tell you what, I challenge you to a dual at 20 paces to see who can follow action better. :-) Hey, I think we need the Cameraman Olympics.
 
JoeyO38 said:
Don't over white balance.
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Okay, I can go along with that advice once you have enough experience to know when to white balance and when not to white balance. But most newbies/interns are going to get it wrong too often to risk it. When in doubt, play it safe and white balance. If you white balance correctly, the neon sign, the sunset, etc. are going to look just fine.
 
True that. I forgot we were discussing interns.

Douglas said:
Okay, I can go along with that advice once you have enough experience to know when to white balance and when not to white balance. But most newbies/interns are going to get it wrong too often to risk it. When in doubt, play it safe and white balance. If you white balance correctly, the neon sign, the sunset, etc. are going to look just fine.
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There are some fantastic tips buried within this thread, but the ones that start with NEVER and ALWAYS scare the hell out of me. Fundamentals must be adhered to, but I find a concrete set of rules such as some have listed to be limiting, if not laughable. Then again, I'm less of a tech-heavy photog and more of a journalist who knows how to shoot and edit. Younger photogs would do well to absorb what is taught here, but never let a rote set of guidelines stop them from adapting their methods around the asignment's needs. Check-off lists are for technicians. Tell me a story - in such a way that I never have to think about the way it was assembled.
Oh - and listen to that Busse guy. Dude knows of what he speaks.
 
"you'd never see anyone that didn't come from a news background man-handling the camera that way"

I think that's exactly it. I'm going to guess that a majority of the people reading this board are local news shooters. Most of us have ditched the pan handle in order to have a faster, lighter set of sticks. Almost all of us set our gear up for breaking news and tweak it if we're shooting a feature or lighter fare. Most of us are taught or have learned to shoot largely in sequences and the pan or tilt is a rarely used shot. We shoot four shots or so, pick up and move or make a quick pan and shot a different spot. I need both hands up front because I'm riding audio, iris, focus and zoom all in short order.

Is it bad technique if you want to do some long follow shots? Yes, but I generally don't do that. If Obama comes to town and I have a 150 foot throw then I'll break out the pan handle for sure. You're right, it's a better way to move the camera when you're rolling tape. I'm not arguing that at all.

An argument on a technicality: when the film camera was invented, and for a half dozen decades thereafter, there was no rocker or audio on a camera... our little hands are busier than ever.

Another point you're technically right on but just doesn't work in news. I was shooting at an elementary school today. 5 minutes before a principal has to take the kids on playground in we need an interview and we can't show any identifying shots of kids. I go to filter 2 ND and open pretty wide, but as we're talking the sun starts pushing through a light cover and I have to iris down. The kids that were cleverly out of focus a second ago are becoming defined. I don't have time to get into the menu and break out a -3db gain and I'm not going to bump to my thickest density on filter 4 and then gain up to make the exposure. 1/100th took care of the problem. In a perfect world I'd break out a matte box or stop the interview to make adjustments but that's not reality.

Finally, a question of opinion (since you're technically right on everything else); I don't buy the "unwanted side-effects" argument regarding careful used of the shutter. A camera starts picking up motion blur long before the human eye would. We shoot sequences rather than panning, zooming and following all action because the latter is not how we interpret a scene (eye's locked and head slowly turning to follow around). Does taking a shutter to 1/125th, for instance, really shake a viewer's eye any more than a gesticulating hand blurring at factory settings?

If we both miss in the duel do we fix wide angles and charge?
 
Douglas said:
Well, shutter speed is not going to anything at all for your Depth-of-Field. Not anything all.
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Actually that's basic photography. The faster the shutter speed, the larger the aperture (Iris), and the shallower the depth of field. The slower the shutter speed, the smaller the aperture, the greater the depth of field.

Yes, with video, it will give you certain effects with motion, but the basic principle remains.
 
when to start recording...

Sore Shoulder said:
Set your shot THEN hit record. Do not look for your shot while recording. Stop recording THEN find your next shot. Repeat...
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Many times as soon as I step out of the car I am rolling... there are even times I am rolling as I drive there as I am recording thoughts and observations on what I am seeing before I step into the middle of it.

I have an hour tape in cam and more in the pocket. my battery usually will last 4 hours plus I have a spare.... I would rather roll some xtra tape than miss something.


It is a more structured method to set up then roll each time and yea easier to edit as you have start stop points. I do use this method when doing a commercial or a video production...

If think each one of us finds benefit of a 'works best for us'
 
adam said:
"you'd never see anyone that didn't come from a news background man-handling the camera that way"

I think that's exactly it. I'm going to guess that a majority of the people reading this board are local news shooters. Most of us have ditched the pan handle in order to have a faster, lighter set of sticks. ?
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Not so fast.

I absolutely hate it when people remove the pan handle off my tripod when I'm gone (as is the case right now--medical leave) and fail to replace it.

Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I use that pan handle for a variety of things, including panning and zooming when I attach my pistol grip to the pan handle at certain times.

Those of us who started in film with CP16s used the hand on the pan-handle as way of starting and stopping the camera. There was a switch at the rear base of the CP-16 (and the Auricon conversion I used before that) that was nicely triggered with your thumb. Allowed your left and to handle focus/fstop/zoom operation.

I never got out of the habit of having a hand on that handle.
 
Only leave the camera as high as you want it to fall.

Carry two sets of keys. Personal keys and work keys. Make duplicates of the work ones for your personal set.

Think twice about letting the reporter sit in the live truck with the engine running to warm up while you are setting up the live shot far from the station. Yes, they have been known to get out and lock the doors. If they insist, make sure a window is rolled down.

Learn three things about a person and they are your friend. It doesn't matter if you like them or not. You may need them in the future.

Enjoy your work. At the end of your life, as your life is flashing before your eyes, you're gonna have a way cooler show than most.
 
Douglas said:
As for your defense of the "camera hug" technique of wrapping one's self around the camera, we'll have to disagree on that one. I think it looks really stupid and you'd never see anyone that didn't come from a news background man-handling the camera that way. There's no way you can smoothly pan or tilt the camera more than a few degrees without your body getting in the way -- not to mention the smaller range of motion yio have when you've got the camera in a bear hug.

Uhh... I've been shooting for almost 18 years. Mostly news. So, Mr. Jensen, I look stupid without a panny? Whatever. Like I care. I've made a living teaching photogs that there 'is no box'. Once you put people in a box, creativity is lost. Rules? There are only a few simple ones... Exposure, framing, focus, creativity, and location.

I would gladly join the olympics...
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code20photog said:
Actually that's basic photography. The faster the shutter speed, the larger the aperture (Iris), and the shallower the depth of field. The slower the shutter speed, the smaller the aperture, the greater the depth of field.Yes, with video, it will give you certain effects with motion, but the basic principle remains.
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You just don't get it, do you? Please go back and take a remedial course in photography. You can only change the DOF by changing the aperture. Period. A change in shutter speed cannot change the DOF.

Yes, a different shutter speed may necessitate a diferent aperture -- that will in turn then change the DOF. But all on it's own, a change in shutter speed has absolutly no effect on DOF. Don't believe me, go try it.

Well, one thing is for sure, this thread certainly explains why I have to suffer through watching awful local news photography every single night.
 
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