iMovie 6 & iDVD: The Missing Manual

Sports

Filming sporting events is, in general, a breeze. Most take place outdoors, neatly solving all lighting problems, and the only sound that’s important at a sporting event is usually the crowd’s reaction, which your camcorder captures exquisitely. Most of the time, you’ll be zoomed out all the way, because there’s too much motion to worry about closeups. (And when you do want closeups, you’ll know exactly when to zoom out again, thanks to the structured nature of most sports. Every baseball play begins the same way, for example.)

If your aim is to film a player for training purposes, or to study a golf swing or tennis stroke as it’s played back in slow motion or frame by frame, consider using your camcorder’s high-speed shutter feature. When you use this special recording mode, the camcorder records the action in a strange, frame-flashing sort of way. When you play this footage back, you can use the slow-motion or freeze-frame controls on your camcorder with sensational, crisp, clear results.

Caution

The high-speed shutter is effective only in very bright, sunny, outdoor light. If you try to use it indoors, outdoors when it’s overcast, or in shadow, all kinds of unpleasant side effects result. You may get flickering and stuttering motion, the autofocus feature may stop working, colors may not look right, and the picture in general will seem too dim.