Sports video guidance

[Rjdane2]

I know this is a wildlife based forum and that’s on of my passions but so is photographing my kids sports and wondering if any video guys have any insight.

I do alot of photo shooting for my kids teams and have a pretty good handle on it. Sometimes to change it up a bit I like to take video clips then stitch them together in davinci to make little highlight reels. This is my process but l'm wondering if there is a better way as I just figured it out as I went.


I'll record in 120 or 60 fps at 4k to give me cropping power and the ability to slo down parts of catches, shots or goals. I'll then start a 24fps timeline and change my clip attributes to 24fps from 60/120 and drop them on my timeline. The parts I want sped up to normal speed I'll use the retime controls to change to 200/400 % speed up. I know people say to record from the jump at the frame rate you want but I find it impossible to change it on the fly when something cool is about to happen as I never know. I tried recording in 24/30 fps from the beginning then slowing down the action sequences but the slo mo never looks clean.


Any info is appreciated.

 

[Nimi]

I know this is a wildlife based forum and that’s on of my passions but so is photographing my kids sports and wondering if any video guys have any insight.

I do alot of photo shooting for my kids teams and have a pretty good handle on it. Sometimes to change it up a bit I like to take video clips then stitch them together in davinci to make little highlight reels. This is my process but l'm wondering if there is a better way as I just figured it out as I went.


I'll record in 120 or 60 fps at 4k to give me cropping power and the ability to slo down parts of catches, shots or goals. I'll then start a 24fps timeline and change my clip attributes to 24fps from 60/120 and drop them on my timeline. The parts I want sped up to normal speed I'll use the retime controls to change to 200/400 % speed up. I know people say to record from the jump at the frame rate you want but I find it impossible to change it on the fly when something cool is about to happen as I never know. I tried recording in 24/30 fps from the beginning then slowing down the action sequences but the slo mo never looks clean.


Any info is appreciated.

There is nothing wrong with your approach. Shoot at 120, drop into a 24 timeline, and slow it down as needed along the timelines (google "speed ramping" for the best technique to do that. You didn't mention your shutter speed, but if it's not 1/250, you might have issues when playing it at normal (ie 120) speed.

Not sure what camera you have, but shooting entire match or even long plays at 4k/120 will eat up memory and if its not a Z9, might overheat. So 4k/60 might be a good compromise. Also, don't forget that sound doesn't translate to slow-motion, so think about using other sound from the game.

 

[dupcak]

There is nothing wrong with your approach. Shoot at 120, drop into a 24 timeline, and slow it down as needed along the timelines (google "speed ramping" for the best technique to do that. You didn't mention your shutter speed, but if it's not 1/250, you might have issues when playing it at normal (ie 120) speed.

Not sure what camera you have, but shooting entire match or even long plays at 4k/120 will eat up memory and if its not a Z9, might overheat. So 4k/60 might be a good compromise. Also, don't forget that sound doesn't translate to slow-motion, so think about using other sound from the game.

Thanks for the words of wisdom - I haven't done very much video but I've always wondering about shooting at too high of a FPS and using that as described above.

 

[Rjdane2]

There is nothing wrong with your approach. Shoot at 120, drop into a 24 timeline, and slow it down as needed along the timelines (google "speed ramping" for the best technique to do that. You didn't mention your shutter speed, but if it's not 1/250, you might have issues when playing it at normal (ie 120) speed.

Not sure what camera you have, but shooting entire match or even long plays at 4k/120 will eat up memory and if its not a Z9, might overheat. So 4k/60 might be a good compromise. Also, don't forget that sound doesn't translate to slow-motion, so think about using other sound from the game.

I’m using a z9 and my shutter is double my frame rate or as close as the camera allows. Thanks for the reply. Are you dropping the 120fps video onto the 24 timeline and just letting frames drop at regular speed? I have been changing the clip attributes to 24 then adding it to timeline and it shows as slo mo and I have to speed change it to faster on the normal speed areas.

 

[Alistair]

I’m using a z9 and my shutter is double my frame rate or as close as the camera allows. Thanks for the reply. Are you dropping the 120fps video onto the 24 timeline and just letting frames drop at regular speed? I have been changing the clip attributes to 24 then adding it to timeline and it shows as slo mo and I have to speed change it to faster on the normal speed areas.

I am no expert but a couple of thoughts;
24 does not divide into 60 evenly so it is logical to use 30 for that frame rate, whether you can see any difference is another matter. But the main thing I would question is when you play back a 120FPS clip at normal speed in a 24FPS timeline, you are only using every 5th frame. Does that not appear very choppy?

 

[Rjdane2]

I am no expert but a couple of thoughts;
24 does not divide into 60 evenly so it is logical to use 30 for that frame rate, whether you can see any difference is another matter. But the main thing I would question is when you play back a 120FPS clip at normal speed in a 24FPS timeline, you are only using every 5th frame. Does that not appear very choppy?

This is why I was changing the 120fps clip attributes to 24 then dropping it onto the timeline. It plays super smooth slo mo then I’ll select the portion I wanted normal speed and speed that up. Kinda opposite of what you thinking in sliding down the slo mo parts. I just did it this was playing around and was looking for the “correct” way.

Next game I’m gonna shoot in 60fps and create a 60fps timeline and just slo down a few moments might be easier.

 

[Alistair]

This is why I was changing the 120fps clip attributes to 24 then dropping it onto the timeline. It plays super smooth slo mo then I’ll select the portion I wanted normal speed and speed that up. Kinda opposite of what you thinking in sliding down the slo mo parts. I just did it this was playing around and was looking for the “correct” way.

Next game I’m gonna shoot in 60fps and create a 60fps timeline and just slo down a few moments might be easier.

OK, gotcha, the whole clip plays in slomo unless you speed it up to normal playback. You are doing the inverse but the arithmetic still works, when you speed it up, the clip length shortens. TBH I really don't think it matters how you do it, so long as you do it in a way that minimises frame loss or dwell on the pullup or pulldown.
Shooting 60fps and put in a 60fps timeline is how I usually do it but the result is the same. But the clip plays back at normal speed unless I do a speed change for slowmo in which has the clip length shortens. I use keyframes to ease into the speed changes.