Technique to shoot with tripod but make it look like it was handheld?

A

andycla

Active member
I had seen some BTS a Technique in which they shoot with tripod but the final shoot look like it was handheld?
camera is not locked to the tripod is more like is on top of something but not 100% sure what it is?
anybody have some experience with this?
 
I don't understand why you would put the camera on a tripod if you want it to look handheld. why not just shoot handheld if that's the look your going for?
 
When you need a specific or calculated move you can keep doing take after take it might be easier to mimic on a tripod.
And most likely they just loosened the bowl a little so the camera floats on the tripod
 
We use a number of techniques to achieve the handheld look in studio mode. As mentioned above, it saves the operators from having to shoulder the camera unnecessarily when there is no intention to walk around with the camera doing moving shots. It's a very popular look these days but it can really take its toll with a built-out camera, day in day out.

The most minimal way to achieve this is the "loose head" look where you simply operate in a float in pan and tilt. It can deliver a certain amount of energy but it doesn't quite duplicate handheld because it is missing the roll axis. You can pull the camera off the head and put something in the middle like a thick foam pad, rolled-up fabric etc which can also simulate the look. I can't see loosening the bowl working out well because there is enough friction in most cases that would likely add a "sticky" look to the moves.

Some specific devices have been made over the years to assist with all of this, such as rigs that mount between the sticks/dolly and the camera and incorporate objects like a deflated volleyball or similar. On my show we use a spring-based mount made by Modern Studio Equipment that I feel delivers a really believable result, see picture below. As you can see, handholding with this setup would be a real pain but it gives us the speed and flexibility of staying on the studio zooms.

springy.jpg
 
I've had good results in the past from throwing a sandbag between the tripod head and the camera body.
 
Many years ago I hear filmmaker Helvio Soto talking about the loose tripod head route as the way to go, because handheld is "too caotic and distracting"
 
When you talk about loose tripod head do you mean setting the fluid drag (for example on a sachtler) to 0, to where it has no resistance whatsoever
 
remove head from tripod
place cinesaddle on tripod
place camera on cinsaddle and hang on
 
Grug said:
I've had good results in the past from throwing a sandbag between the tripod head and the camera body.
Click to expand...

This. Except just a towel folded over few times on top of the locked head and then the camera foot placed on top of the towel. Works great even on heavily built Red Epic rigs with monster zooms. If you're doing mainly static shots, take after take, this will look more natural and save your shoulder.
 
Id love to get that modern rig, but usually I just use a deflated dodgeball in the bowl of the tripod.
 
Hanging the camera from straps is another convincing technique, especially if rigged to a dolly with a rotating offset.

But I usually just throw a SteadyBag on top of sticks.
 
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Depending on the size of the camera, a monopod may give excellent pseudo-handheld results: you get the subtle motion without the shakiness. I use that a lot.
 
I did a music video where I needed a group of sort of matrix-agents to walk by the camera. Had one guy in costume walk by the locked-down camera (tripod). Shot some handhled reference, right there from my camera position (took the cam off the tripod and shot the tripod handheld).

The locked down plates made it easy to composite the 3 guys into 1, without much roto. Then I tracked the handheld, and used that footage to make the shot "handheld" by using real handheld data vs faking motion. Shot a lens flare with a black card and a hole punch and tracked that in with the motion.

Came out great, post was very fast, and the handheld look "glued" the comp together really nicely. So, plenty of reasons to shoot locked down for a final handheld look.

cosmic.jpg
 
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