Why You Should Never Settle On Your First Shot

So you got your camera out – you see the scene in front of you – you have an idea of what you want – you give it a shot and it’s just pure beauty on the first try! Nailed it! One hitter quitter. What a pro! You knocked it out of the park on the first try.

Well, maybe. But odds are there are 3 more options you not only didn’t see but had no idea how good it could look until you break your back, get the camera in a totally different perspective and see how the camera sees it.

DOES THE CAMERA LIKE IT ?

Most often when I’m filming I have an idea of what I want. I’ll stand there with my camera in hand, “seeing” the shot, and then i’ll be asked by the client or the director, “what do you think, is this the shot?” It’s become habit to give the same answer for years now – “I don’t know, let’s see what the camera says.”

The point is that as much as you have a vision for a shot the only thing that really matters is what the camera sees. Often what you thought was great is what I like to call “solid”, but if you had moved the camera down a foot and went around the subject by 30 degrees … voilla! (thats v’walla for us Americans!)

All of a sudden the light is just a bit more flattering, the background has a few spectacular aspects you never knew were back there and the lines in your composition are more impressive (more on these elements soon!).

Let’s look at a simple example and see how it pays to try several angles before you pull the trigger.

DO YOU ACCEPT YOUR FIRST SHOT?

OR ARE YOU WILLING TO BREAK YOUR NECK FOR ANOTHER ANGLE?

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