shock absorber. When handholding a camera, keep your arms in close to your body and your legs and feet spread about  a  shoulder  width  apart.  Bend  your  knees  slightly, keeping your weight on the balls of your feet. Lean your body backslightly for better balance. The camera should be over your knees for greatest stability. Hold the camera firmly against your face and place your hand in the camera  strap. Control  your  breathing  while  shooting.  Each  breath you take causes the camera to rise and fall slightly. The technique of taking a deep breath, exhaling a little, and holding the rest while you shoot is an effective way to help eliminate camera unsteadiness. When shooting a long  scene,  breathe  as  evenly  and  slowly  as  possible. For added steadiness when handholding a camera, you can lean against something, such as a tree or a wall. Another method for handholding a video camera is to kneel on one leg and rest your elbow on the raised knee. When you must pan the camera, keep your elbow free and pivot your body at the waist. When  handholding  a  video  camera,  keep  the following facts in mind to reduce the shakiness problem: Concentrate on handholding the camera steady while using a wide-angle lens. Your shakiness will be reduced considerably. When using a wide-angle lens, you must get as close to the subject as possible to provide an  acceptable  image  size. TRIPODS 13-11 Shakiness is directly proportional to the focal length of the lens. Slight shakiness may be almost unnoticeable with a wide lens. With a long lens, the same amount of shakiness destroys the entire scene. (See table 13-1.) Give yourself a steady platform. Before you squeeze  the  record  button,  inhale,  then  partially  exhale. Now, squeeze. Do not pull or jerk the record button. Lean against a building, a tree, or the side of a car. Any support of this nature may provide more steadiness than free  standing. A tripod can literally be considered the “basis” for most good motion-media products. To help you realize just how important a tripod is for shooting motion media,  consider  handholding  a  movie  projector.  You cannot hold the projector steady for any period of time. The picture weaves around on the screen and is very distracting to the viewers. ‘The same result is created when a motion-video camera is handheld, but in this case, images within the picture area appear to weave around because of camera movement. The image you see in the camera viewfinder is so small that you may not notice the camera movement. It is easy to think you are holding the camera steady. Bear in mind that the slightest  amount  of  camera  movement  is  magnified many times when the image is played back While not all situations permit the use of a tripod, the use of a folded tripod as a unipod is preferable to shooting  without  camera  support.  Even  the  lightest weight,  so-called  “handheld”  video  camera  produces much  better  results  when  supported  adequately. Camera steadiness is only one advantage of using a tripod. When using a tripod, you automatically take more  time  to  compose  and  check  scenes  before recording  them. RECORDING  FROM  A  MOVING  VEHICLE Sometimes you may have to record from a moving vehicle, such as a truck or a boat. For this type of assignment, the problem of holding the camera steady becomes even more difficult. In this situation you should handhold  the  camera,  because  a  tripod  transmits vibrations and movements from the vehicle to the camera. Keep your weight on the balls of your feet, and keep your knees flexed so you can sway and bend as the vehicle  rolls,  pitches,  or  bounces.  Watch  the  horizon  in the viewfinder. A tilted or wobbly horizon is very detracting when being viewed. When shooting from moving vehicles you should use a short focal-length lens and a fast shutter speed. CAUTION When shooting from a moving vehicle, you must   follow   all   safety   precautions.   Use common sense, you do not want to jeopardize yourself  or  the  video  equipment. PANNING One of the most commonly abused motion-media techniques is panning. Panning is moving the camera from left to right or right to left. Moving it up or down is called tilting. Only a few subjects require panning while you are actually taping. The use of panning can keep a moving procession, such as a marching unit in view, show a sweep of landscape, or show the relationship between objects  or  subjects.