Getting the most from your Tennis Video, Part 3

The Environment

Now that we have a more solid understanding of the way video cameras work, it's time to talk about how to set up the shot so you get the best results possible.  In this section we will discuss lighting and framing the shot properly, and using a tripod.

Lighting

Lighting a shot properly is hands-down probably the single most important factor in terms of how good and how useable the resulting footage will be.  If the light is too harsh, to flat, too dim, or is coming from the wrong direction, the quality and “visual information content” of a shot will suffer tremendously.  A well known Hollywood director once said something to the effect of, “If you can't light the shot, you might as well just go home.”  That is not to say that you have to be a professional cinematographer to get good looking results when shooting tennis video. 

Thankfully, Mother Nature helps us out a great deal here when we shoot outdoors under the sun.  It is also possible to shoot tennis video indoors and still get good results.  Shooting indoors may indeed be the only option for people who play during the winter in colder areas.  I must warn though that most peoples' results while shooting indoors will vary greatly.  The quality of your footage will largely depend on the type of lighting inside the bubbles (whether or not it is designed to emulate natural sunlight), and whether or not your video camera can adjust its color temperature.

Shooting Indoors

I do not want to get into too much technical detail here about color temperature, but I will briefly touch on this since it can improve the quality of your video greatly when shooting indoors.  When your video camera records an image, the computer chip inside it attempts to determine what “color” white is.  It then uses that determination to color in the rest of the picture.  This can lead to disastrous results if what the camera thinks is white is not actually white. If this sounds strange, it may surprise you to know that the human brain is actually programmed to do the same thing (and usually does a much better job than the best camera can do).  Take a quick look at a wall painted white in the room you are sitting now.  It certainly looks white, doesn't it?  Take a closer look.  If the room is lit with normal incandescent light bulbs, the wall actually probably looks a little yellow-reddish.  Your brain knows subconsciously that the wall is painted white, and so assumes that it should be colored white when you look at it.   

The light being given off by a bulb is not pure white, but in fact has a different temperature than white light.  All light sources have what is called a color temperature, which is the average color of the light being given off (again, this is my simplified definition, not a scientific one).  Contrary to cultural perceptions, red and yellowish light is actually very “cool” light, while blue light is very “hot.”  Pure white light is a mixture of all colors of light, from red through blue, and so can be thought of as residing between red and blue.

So how does this tie into getting better quality when shooting indoors?  Most cameras come preprogrammed to assume that you are shooting video under direct sunlight, which is a “hot” light source, meaning more whitish-blue.  It bases its judgment of what should be “white” on that assumption.  When you take the camera indoors, which is lit by incandescent light bulbs, the camera may start to make all of the colors look extremely yellowish and unnatural because the color temperature of the lighting has dropped into the yellow-red range.  Again your brain has no trouble making the adjustment, but many cameras have real problems here.   The solution is usually relatively simple.  If you are shooting indoors and your footage is coming through looking very yellow, check to see if your camera has the ability to manually change the color temperature setting. Most consumer camcorders will have temperature settings conveniently labeled things like “Outdoor” and “Indoor,” or “Fluorescent,” “Incandescent,” etc.  Change the color temperature setting of your camera to match the light you are shooting under.

Finally, remember that shooting indoors will severely limit your ability to manually force higher shutter speeds (Getting the Most from your Tennis Video Part 2).

Shooting Outdoors

Shooting outdoors under direct sunlight can give great results when done properly.  Ideally, you want to avoid shooting on days when it is overcast because the lack of highlights and shadows causes the image to look very flat and unnatural.  It also significantly lowers the contrast of the picture (more on that later).  If possible, wait for a cloudless day to film your strokes.

The most significant challenge to shooting in bright sunlight is avoiding backlighting.  Thankfully this is easy to do.  When filming, you always want the light source (the sun!) on the same side of the subject as the camera.  In other words, you don't want the camera to be sitting in the player's shadow.  Check out this amazing diagram I made that shows light source, camera and subject. I spent all day making it.

If you are backlit when filming your strokes, you won't be able to make out any detail of yourself.  You will be “silhouetted” against the background picture.  Make sure that the sun is shining on the same side of you that the camera is looking at.

Shooting under direct sunlight also increases the contrast of the picture. In simple terms, contrast describes how bright and how dark objects next to each other in the scene can be.  Generally speaking, higher contrast pictures are better than lower contrast pictures. When you can have a bright object and a dark object next to each other without the two “bleeding together” or muddling, your brain sees that as a sharper image.  Having nice bright highlights where the sun hits your shoulders for instance, and having nice dark shadows (but still being able to see detail in the shadow) means you have a picture with good contrast, and it will look sharper.  If you shoot on an overcast day, you will lose this contrast and the image will look significantly worse.

Framing the Shot

Framing a shot properly also has a great effect on how usable the footage will end up being.  Namely, you want to be zoomed in the correct amount, and you want the camera to be level relative to the scene you are shooting. 

Let's first examine zooming in properly.  Ideally, you want to zoom your camera in enough so that the entirety of your swing just barely fits into the frame.  This means everything from the racket takeback to your swing to your follow through.  If you are filming a serve, this means to include the full toss in the frame as well.  You don't want the racket to be clipped out in any part of the shot because seeing what angle the racket is at during various parts of the shot is important.  At the same time, you definitely don't want to be zoomed out too far.  If you are, then you will be very small in the frame and it will be difficult to make any detail out.  The usability of your footage will drop significantly.  Most of the self-made tennis strokes video I see on the internet suffers from this.

I think the reason that this occurs is because people can't look through the viewfinder and hit at the same time, and so they err on the side of caution and zoom out to make sure they capture their stroke completely.  When setting up to film your strokes, do yourself a favor and record one or two strokes, then zoom in and record one or two more, and play them back on the camera.  Taking less than 5 minutes to adjust your zoom properly can really make your video a lot more usable.

Using a Tripod

The final issue I want to touch on here is how to set up your camera.  Many people simply set their camera down on the court bench and go hit.  The problem with this is that it really limits the angles you can film from, and also means that you must hope that the bench is level.  It goes without saying that if the surface you put the camera on isn't level, the camera won't be level, and neither will your shot.  A shot that isn't level is hard to look at, and it may be visually confusing to you when trying to analyze your strokes.  A simple tripod is the easiest way to fix this problem.  Tripods are everywhere, and they're inexpensive. 

You want to use a tripod that will get the camera at least 4 feet up off the ground.  You also want to make sure that the tripod is rated to hold the weight of your video camera.  The good news is that since you will not be doing serious film-quality work with this tripod that probably nearly any tripod you find will do the trick.  The main point is just to get a stable base that can adjust the direction, height, and level of the camera.  You should be able to find a new tripod at a retail store like Best Buy for under $35.  If you're really looking to save, check out craigslist or estate sales.  Bottom line: get… a… tripod.

Shooting Angles

Finally, the angle at which you film yourself can have an impact on how useable your footage is.  If the camera is too low or high, it can make it difficult to tell exactly what is happening during your strokes.  The best method, I have found, is to place the camera between waist and shoulder height.  This simulates a natural point of view from a person's eyes. 

Where on the court you place the camera is also important.  Make sure that you place the camera in a location where it will not be hit by a ball or racket.  Beyond that, I have found that it is generally easiest to analyze strokes when the camera is looking directly down the baseline (or more generally, directly to the side of the player), directly in front (this risks hitting the camera with a ball though), or halfway in between (what's called the 3-Quarters perspective).  Shooting from directly behind yourself can also be used when looking at rallies. 

These angles tend to make sense because they allow you to visually understand better where the camera is in relation to the player, and this allows you to look at certain mechanics like body rotation with more perspective information.

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