Filming Your Hunts!
By Matt Schauer

Posted: February 22, 2012

Tips for Filming Your Hunts from Silent Draw Outdoors

As you know, most sportsman today are trying to capture their hunts as they unfold for future memories. This has become very popular and most are finding it to be very difficult to do. With our years of experience doing this type of filming for our TV show, I felt compelled to give a few pointers that will help you get the home video you are looking for. We are asked daily on tactics we use and this will help you out.

First off, you need to realize it is very difficult to do when on your own. One of the big problems is shakiness of the video. Always us a tripod. I know it is just one more thing to carry in the field, but without it, you always get video that has too much motion in it.

As you know, when that bull of a life time walks into bow range, your nerves are going to be going out of control. You need to realize your camera man has those same nerves. Allowing him or her to be able to film hands free will make a world of difference on the film when the shot happens.

Another thing I see in a lot of amateur video is zooming in and out too fast. You mainly see it when the animal is about to be harvested, the shot takes place and you see the camera zoom out real quick and you loose the nice fluid motion of the camera. Practice in you back yard filming something, and try your best to zoom in slow and zoom out slow.

Another big mistake is focus. Most cameras people are using have auto focus. This is great when you are in the back yard filming your kids, but in the field it is a nightmare. Always remember your camera is going to focus in on the closest object it picks up. So you are in a tree stand and you have a branch in front of you. Your camera is going to focus in on the branch and your buck is going to be out of focus and blurry looking. If you can’t do a manual focus, remember to zoom in on something farther out, and then slowly pan back to your animal.

The final tip for this blog would be white balance. You always want your film to be as crisp and natural as can be. White balance is a huge part of that. The best example I can use for this is if you are filming in snow. Without white balance correction, your snow will have a blue tint to it. We all know snow is not blue, but if you white balance your camera in the field while hunting, you will get the nature color you are looking for.

I hope this helps you out and allows you to have the film you are trying to get on your next hunt. Good hunting from Silent Draw Outdoors!!

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