Audio Assist:
Boom Pole Tips, Tricks
And Techniques
By Daniel Brockett
Where To Mount Your Microphone
Where do you think is a good place to
set up your microphone?
Audio and sound beginners typically
mount a microphone on top of their
new camera, but it’s probably one of the
worst places you can place it. There are
many reasons why, but an important
one is that when you mount it there,
the microphone is often too far from the
subject to pick up a clean, clear sound.
Another problem is signal-to-noise
ratio, often written as “S/N ratio” or
just “S/N.” It refers to the amount
of signal—or desired sound—versus
the amount of noise—or undesirable
sound that’s picked up. The closer the
microphone is to the subject, the more
signal, and less noise, it will pick up.
So, when you mount a microphone
on top of a camera, with today’s typi-
cally longer zoom ranges, the look of
the shot is often most flattering when
the camera is located farther from
the subject, requiring the operator to
zoom in on the subject or use a longer
telephoto lens. This allows the longer
focal-length lenses to compress the
foreground, mid-ground and back-
ground, producing a softening of the
background and giving a dreamy,
poetic look and feel to the shot.
But here’s the problem: If you’re
moving your camera farther away
from your subject and the micro-
phone is tagging along on top of
your camera for the ride, you’ve just
added in a lot of noise to the record-
ing while reducing the signal the
microphone can pick up since you
have increased the distance of the
microphone from the subject.
However, I’m not saying having a
microphone mounted on a camera
is totally useless. It’s not. On-camera
mics can be handy for recording
scratch tracks that can be
matched up with better-
quality recordings in post.
Also, on-camera mics are
fine for recording ambient
or environmental sound.
Just don’t rely on a camera-
mounted mic to record tal-
ent very effectively.The Importance Of A
Microphone Boom Pole
Almost anyone who has
ever watched behind-the-
scenes footage of a television
show or a Hollywood movie
being filmed has seen a profes-
sional boom operator at work.
They’re the ones you’ll often
see holding a long boom pole
over their heads and position-
ing the microphone as close to
the talent as they can get.
Now, in my eyes, these pros
are extremely talented. In fact,
seeing a skilled boom operator
maneuver a mic is like watch-
ing a skilled camera opera-
tor work handheld. Both jobs
involve many subtleties, whichAn Audio Technica AT875R shotgun microphone
with a Rycote Softie mounted on a Canon C200 to
capture ambient and scratch audio.Some cameras offer a rubber-mounted microphone
holder to reduce camera-handling noise for the mic.60 | Digital Photo Pro digitalphotopro.com