Before You Book Camera Training: A Checklist for News Teams

Camera Technique Training is written for reporters and camera staff, and the mix matters. A workshop of experienced operators will go quickly into lighting under time pressure and moving shots, while a group of reporters who sometimes pick up a camera needs more time on holding the frame steady, setting exposure quickly and listening for sound problems. Think about who is truly shooting on a bad day, not who holds the job title. Often the person filming the breaking story is the one nobody has trained.

Group size is worth deciding early. Hands-on work depends on everyone getting time with the equipment and feedback on their own footage, so a smaller group usually learns more than a crowded one. If your team is larger, splitting it across two sessions is better than squeezing everyone in at once. Think also about shift patterns: a session that pulls the whole evening crew away from the desk leaves you thin on air, so agree cover before you fix a date.

Finally, consider whether an editor or producer should sit in for part of the day. People who commission shots and cut them together understand much more quickly why a certain framing is requested when they have held the camera themselves for an hour.

Training works best on the equipment your crews use every day. Make a note of the cameras, tripods, lights and microphones that go out on live jobs, and say so at the outset, because advice about a shoulder-mounted camera does not transfer neatly to a small handheld unit. If different crews carry different kit, tell us. Part of the day can then cover the quirks of each rather than assuming everything behaves alike.

Think about location too. Handheld shooting, framing and lighting under time pressure are learned by doing them somewhere that resembles the job: a car park, a corridor, a meeting room with poor windows, a stretch of pavement. Your own building may offer several of these. Checking in advance that you have a room large enough for a mock interview and an area where moving shots can be tried saves awkward improvising once the group has arrived.

Autumn adds its own conditions. Short days, low sun and early dark mean that many of your outdoor stories are shot in difficult light, so practising in dim conditions is more use now than ideal daylight exercises. Mention the hours at which your crews usually work so the session can match them rather than assume a bright afternoon.

A workshop without a target tends to finish with pleasant feelings and few changes. Before booking, settle with your colleagues what you would like to see afterwards. It might be steadier walking shots, interviews framed to a consistent house look, quicker lighting set-ups in awkward rooms, or fewer unusable clips from the first minutes of a story. Choose two or three, write them in a sentence each, and share them with whoever will lead the session.

Agree too how you will judge the result. The simplest method is to look at the same kind of footage again a few weeks later and compare it with the clips you collected at the start. Nobody needs a score sheet. Your editors already know quickly when material arrives in better shape, and a short, honest conversation among them is worth more than a formal survey.

It also helps to say what the training will not do. It will not replace a conversation about staffing, nor fix a workflow in which tips reach the camera crew far too late. If you suspect the delay lies in how stories move through the building rather than in how they are filmed, a separate review of that flow may be the better first step.

Whoever you consider, ask how much of the day is spent with a camera in hand. Slides have their place, but handheld technique is a physical skill, and the people in the room should leave having done it repeatedly, with someone watching and correcting. Ask who will run the session and what they have actually shot for news. A trainer who has worked on developing stories understands why you cannot stop to adjust everything.

Ask how the session handles different experience levels in one group, and how feedback is given on a person's own footage. Ask whether the content can be adapted to your equipment and your usual kinds of story, such as court reports, weather, council meetings or incidents. A fixed script that ignores those details is a poor sign.

Finally, ask what you will receive afterwards. Written notes on the points covered give your crews something to return to when the next awkward job comes along. Our workshops are led by Gareth, who shoots breaking stories himself, and we are glad to answer these questions by phone or through the contact page before anything is agreed.

Once the purpose, the group and the kit are clear, the practical matters are quick to resolve. Agree a date that avoids major scheduled events, a start time that suits the shift pattern, and a location. Confirm who will bring what: your cameras, our guidance, any lights that need to be moved. Ask for the arrangements in writing so that nothing is left to memory on the morning.

Check the cost against what is included, including the length of the session, the number of people, and any follow-up notes. Our prices page sets out how we charge, and an enquiry through the contact page leads to a written quotation before any commitment is made. Payment is by invoice and bank transfer, and cancellations follow our payment and refund policy.

Last, tell the rest of the newsroom. A workshop that surprises half the building tends to be treated as an interruption. When editors and producers know what the crews are learning and why, they are more likely to ask for the shots the training has made possible.