Cameraman - Blog

Shooting Green Screen with the Sony FX6 Camera

Shooting Green Screen with the Sony FX6 Camera

A few years ago, whilst we were all in the height of shooting with our FS7s, I wrote blog piece detailing the best settings to use when shooting green screen. It still is one of my most popular articles yet. To follow that up, I thought I’d do quick article to show the best settings for shooting green screen with one of the most popular video [...]

15 USEFUL 3D prints every cameraman should have

15 USEFUL 3D prints every cameraman should have

Page Content: What is 3D printing? 15 USEFUL Prints for cameramen D-Tap Voltmeter Sunhood Follow Focus Gears V-Lock battery plate for 30mm rod Screen protectors Universal Push On lens cover DJI Ronin SC2 Cable Clips Controller Protector PL Mount conversion adapters AA Battery Storage Box Hidden holder for Rode smartLav Board Marker Holder 15mm [...]

Filming in Europe Post Brexit

Filming in Europe Post Brexit

Introduction ATA Carnet Duplicate List Travel Goods Movement Reference (GMR) Introduction In this post-Brexit, post-Covid world, travelling around Europe with filming equipment is a challenge upon itself. Before our worlds changed due to political reasoning and pandemic ongoings, travelling into Europe for work was tricky, but also a regular and [...]

15 Top-tips to Becoming a Freelance Videographer

15 Top-tips to Becoming a Freelance Videographer

Top tips to Becoming a Successful Freelance Videographer Introduction 6 years ago, after a fun and prosperous career working within various different agencies and production companies, I decided to take the leap. I chose to leave a reliable and steady world of 9 to 5 for the topsy turvy world of freelancing. And after many ups, a few lows, a [...]

Getting to grips with grip - how to PROPERLY setup a tripod

Getting to grips with grip - how to PROPERLY setup a tripod

Recently Wex Photo Video - the UK’s leading photography and video store, asked me to make a film about getting the most out of a fluid head tripod. As a professional cameraman with over a decades worth of experience, it put me in a good position to do so. I thought I’d write this up into a blog to help anyone else out there getting to grips with [...]

Filming Green Screen with the Sony FS7

Filming Green Screen with the Sony FS7

Recently I was DP'ing a shoot for the return of a BBC primetime comedy show. As we were getting set up I had the usual pre-shoot conversation with the client... what's your workflow, what resolution would like, what gamma settings would you like, etc... and as often is the case, the client didn't know. I always like to establish if the client has [...]

Top cameraman hacks to save money and time

Top cameraman hacks to save money and time

I just thought I’d take 10 minutes out to share my top hacks that help me as a freelance cameraman to save time and money whilst out and about on shoots. Whilst none of these are revolutionary, they make my life easier and so may well make yours easier too… Sugru First up, Sugru. I discovered this on a shoot I did for Amazon. Mouldable glue which [...]

Shooting on the Sony FS7 for broadcast

Shooting on the Sony FS7 for broadcast

Having now used the Sony FS7 for over two years, Wex Photo and Video recently commisioned me to produce a film to share my views on using the camera in the long term. Trying to keep it as indepth and honest as possible, I set out to create something that could be handy for someone coming to the Sony FS7 for the first time. Looking back a few [...]

Cameraman Charging Peli Case

Cameraman Charging Peli Case

A familiar problem to us traveling cameramen is the constant battery charging. At the last count I had 10 different batteries and devices that needed charging for a shoot. This is all ok when you’re at home with your kit laid out but when you hit the road, charging just become an absolute nightmare. This got me thinking, there must be someway of [...]

A Film-Maker's Review of Shot Put Pro 6

A Film-Maker's Review of Shot Put Pro 6

Why aren't all camera operators doing this? For some time now secure offloading software has been available. Whilst it's widely used by DITs and Data Wranglers, there is a slow but gradual uptake of use by camera operators, editors and videographers. I've personally been using ShotPut Pro 5 for the last year and whilst it does double the offload [...]

Run and gun videography with the Sony FS7

Run and gun videography with the Sony FS7

I thought I'd do a quick blog post on the kit I use for a lot of my work. As a self-shooting producer/director, a large amount of my work is run-and-gun, documentary style film making. Often, I will be shooting solo and responsible for ensuring that the lights, sound, camera and direction is of top-notch quality. I have to be ready to shoot in [...]

What my cameraman blog posts will cover

Here are some other posts related to my work as a cameraman. These posts will contain hints, tips and tutorials on how I approach my filming work.

As an overview to what this blog my cover, it’s my responsibility as a cameraman to ensure that my camera and necessary equipment is setup correctly. Cameramen (and women!) have to understand how to use a camera to capture a story and deliver the intended message. As well as this, they also have to understand the technical aspects of how the camera works, how to light and how colour will be affected.

Equipment maintenance is another large part of the job that often goes unnoticed. Knowing how to clean camera equipment, how maintain tripods, basic electrical repairs and how to clean lenses and camera sensors is all knowledge that is helpful when you own your own kit.

Another element in the work of a multi skilled cameraman, is understanding how to work in a studio. Lighting is generally the biggest challenge whether you’re working on a green screen chroma key studio or a plain white or black studio. Lighting has to be balanced to ensure you get a balanced key. It then has to separate the onscreen talent from the background and reflect any post-production effects or graphics that may be added at a later point.

Keeping on top of the latest equipment can be challenging. With kit being updated so regularly and manufacturers constantly trying to encourage you to upgrade, knowing what to buy can be an issue. It’s important to note that any camera equipment you do buy, will depreciate pretty quickly. I’ll endeavour to review equipment in my blogs that may be of interest to other cameramen without promoting products that I don’t think are good quality. Having bought a heck of a lot of camera equipment of the years, I’ve come to learn what’s a good buy and what’s not a good buy!

Something else to bear in mind when purchasing camera equipment, is what the long term implications will be. So often popular “influencer” style reviewers on camera equipment news websites and YouTube, will have the kit for a couple of days and then release a 90min documentary on said piece of equipment. These are of no use to anyone. I personally find it much more helpful, finding out how other cameramen cope in the long run with their equipment before evaluating whether that could fit into my setup or not. For that reason, I think updating this blog with equipment I’m using on everyday shoots can be helpful for other cameramen.

My aim is to cover all of this and anything else that springs to mind on my blog, when I periodically remember to update it!