Evolution of Camera Crews in Dubai: Atlas Television's Role in Shaping the…
You’re at your kid’s soccer game or covering the local basketball tournament, and you think you’re getting amazing footage. Then you get home, watch it back, and it looks like you filmed during an earthquake while riding a roller coaster.
Camera shake is the enemy of good sports filming especially when you’re shooting with digital cameras or HD cameras that capture high-detail movement. And it’s way more common than you’d think.
The thing is, sports are fast. Players don’t wait for you to get the perfect shot. They’re running, jumping, and changing direction in a split second. You’re trying to keep up, and that’s when the shake happens.
At Atlas Television, this is a problem we deal with on real sidelines, not just in theory – our crews shoot school tournaments, club matches, and corporate sports days across the UAE most weeks, and the fixes below are the ones that actually hold up once the whistle blows, not just the ones that sound good in a camera manual.
But we have got good news. You can fix this if you keep these few things in mind.
Here’s what we’re covering today:
Let’s talk about how to get those steady shots.
Seriously, if you’re going to buy one thing, make it a monopod.
Think of it like a walking stick for your camera. It’s not bulky like a tripod, so you can still move around the sidelines. But it gives you that anchor point you desperately need when the action picks up.
We’ve seen people try to handhold cameras for entire games even with pro-level E-mount lenses or HD lenses attached. By halftime, their arms are shaking worse than the footage.
If your camera has image stabilization, use it. That’s literally what it’s there for.
This matters even more if you’re using lightweight rigs with matte boxes & filters or shooting with long zoom lenses. Check your settings before the game starts. One button can save you from hours of shaky footage.
It’s like having a tiny assistant inside your camera who can make things smooth for you.
Use a fast shutter speed. We are talking 1/500th of a second or higher. Some people go even faster for really quick sports like hockey or track.
Fast shutter speed freezes the motion better. It also hides some of your camera movement. You’ll see the difference immediately when you play back your footage.
Before you hit record, take a breath. Let it out slowly. Film while you’re exhaling.
Your body naturally steadies when you breathe out. Snipers do this. Wildlife photographers do this. And now you’re going to do it for sports filming too.
Don’t just stand there like a tree in the wind.
Lean against the bleachers. Rest your shoulder on a fence post. Use that goalpost. Anything solid helps.
When filming youth sports, you must always look for what you can brace against. It’s like giving yourself an extra leg to stand on.
Stop holding your camera like you’re about to take flight.
Keep your elbows tucked against your ribs. Your whole upper body becomes one stable unit instead of a bunch of wobbly parts.
If you’re filming with one hand, stop right now.
Both hands on that camera. No exceptions. One hand supports the bottom, the other steadies the side. You need both to keep things smooth during sports filming.
Here’s a mistake everyone makes at first. They zoom in and out while filming, and it looks terrible.
Zoom magnifies every little shake. It’s like putting your mistakes under a microscope.
Pick your zoom level before you hit record. Then leave it alone. If you need to get closer, actually move closer. Your legs are better than your zoom button.
If you’re filming a lot of games, a shoulder rig might be worth it.
It spreads the weight across your shoulder and chest instead of just your arms. You can film longer without getting tired. And tired arms mean shaky footage.
Plus, you’ve got multiple contact points with your body. That’s always better for stability in sports filming.
When you’re following a player down the field, don’t whip your camera around like you’re swatting flies.
Move slowly and smoothly. Pretend you’re stirring honey, not water. Deliberate movements look professional. Jerky movements make it look like your camera’s possessed.
Practice this before the game. Follow cars driving by or kids playing. Get the feel of smooth panning down.
Long lenses feel like the obvious choice for sports – you want to get close to the action from the sideline. But the longer the lens, the more it magnifies every small movement in your hands, the same way a laser pointer wobbles more the farther it travels. A wide or standard lens forgives far more shake than a telephoto does.
Where possible, pick a shorter focal length and physically reposition yourself closer to the play, rather than relying on a long zoom lens to close the gap. If you do need reach – filming a full football pitch, for example – pair the longer lens with a monopod or gimbal from tip 12 rather than handholding it. And if your lens has its own optical stabilization separate from the camera body, turn both on; they’re built to work together, not one instead of the other.
A monopod is brilliant for holding a position — courtside, behind the goal, on the touchline. But the moment you need to jog down the sideline following a breakaway, a monopod runs out of road. That’s where a handheld gimbal earns its place in the bag.
A gimbal uses small motors to counteract your movement in real time, so even a jog or a quick pivot stays smooth on camera. It’s not a replacement for the monopod — it’s the tool you switch to for moving shots, while the monopod stays your go-to for anchored ones. Many videographers now carry both and swap between them depending on whether the next shot is static or on the move.
Standard 24 or 30 frames per second is fine for an interview. It’s not built for a player changing direction at full speed. Shooting sports at 50 or 60fps (or higher, if your camera supports it) gives you two things: footage that reads as smoother during fast motion, and the option to slow a play down for a replay without it turning into a blurry mess.
Higher frame rates also make minor handheld shake less noticeable, because the same amount of movement is now spread across more frames instead of a few. If your camera lets you choose between resolution and frame rate, for sports it’s usually worth dropping resolution a notch to get the higher frame rate.
The steadiest camera operators aren’t reacting to the play – they’re anticipating it. If you know the sport, you can usually tell where the ball or the play is heading a second or two before it happens. That head start means you can start a slow pan early instead of whipping the camera around to catch up, which is where most of the visible shake in sports footage actually comes from.
Before the game, watch how the two teams typically move: which side attacks more, where the fast breaks tend to start, where a goalkeeper’s clearance usually lands. Position yourself where the play is likely to come to you instead of chasing it across the whole field. Less last-second movement means less shake, full stop.
Even with good technique, some clips will still come out slightly shaky – that’s normal, not a failure. Editing software such as Adobe Premiere Pro’s Warp Stabilizer or DaVinci Resolve’s built-in stabilization tool can smooth out a shot after the fact by analyzing the footage and compensating for the movement.
Treat this as a backup, not a first option. Digital stabilization crops into the frame and can introduce a slight warping or “jello” effect on fast pans or very shaky clips, so it works best on footage that’s already close to steady. The techniques above should be doing most of the work; software stabilization is there to clean up the handful of clips that need a little extra help.
A surprising amount of “camera shake” is actually gear that wasn’t set up properly. A loose tripod plate, a monopod foot that isn’t fully extended, a stabilizer that wasn’t calibrated, or a grip that’s slightly too small for your hand will all show up as shake on screen, even with perfect technique.
Run through a two-minute check before the first whistle: image stabilization on, shutter speed and frame rate set, monopod or gimbal locked and balanced, battery and memory card checked. It’s a lot easier to catch a loose plate on the sideline than to notice it for the first time when you’re reviewing footage at home.
You don’t need to master all ten of these techniques today. Start with two or three that seem easiest.
Maybe grab a monopod and work on your breathing. Or focus on keeping your elbows in and using both hands. Build from there.
The goal isn’t perfection. It’s getting footage that people can actually watch without getting motion sickness.
You can use a tripod if the action stays in one spot, but most sports don’t work that way. Players move up and down the field or court. A tripod locks you in one place, which means you’ll miss half the action. A monopod gives you support but lets you pivot and move quickly.
No problem. Focus extra hard on the other techniques, especially using a monopod and keeping your elbows tucked. You can also bump up your shutter speed even higher to compensate.
The trick is to anticipate where the action’s going instead of just reacting to it. Watch the game flow. If you know basketball, you can guess where the fast break is headed. If you know soccer, you can predict the pass. Also, zoom out a bit more than you think you need to.
Use whichever matches the shot. A monopod is faster to set up and better when you’re holding a fixed position – courtside, behind a goal, on a tripod-style base. A gimbal is the better choice when you need to move with the play, like jogging the sideline to follow a breakaway. If you can only buy one to start, a monopod is the cheaper, simpler entry point; add a gimbal once you’re regularly filming moving shots.
Aim for at least 50 or 60fps if your camera and card can handle it. It smooths out fast motion and gives you clean slow-motion replays without the choppiness you’d get from slowing down 24 or 30fps footage. If storage or camera limits force a trade-off, prioritize frame rate over resolution for sports.
Wind mostly affects long lenses and tripods with a large surface area, like a windsock catching a gust. Keep your monopod or tripod legs low and wide rather than fully extended, avoid raising a windscreen or shade higher than you need to, and where possible position yourself with your back partly to the wind rather than side-on to it. A shoulder rig or gimbal, held close to your body, is also less affected by gusts than a fully extended monopod.
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