Before you press record
Eight things decide how well the skier can be tracked.
- At least 1080p at 60 fps. That's the minimum: full HD, 60 frames per second.
- 4K at 60 fps if your phone has it. Recommended. More pixels on the skier means knees, ankles and hands are placed more precisely.
- The skier as big as fits. Whole body in frame, skis included, from the first gate to the last, and no smaller than it has to be.
- Zoom with the lens buttons, not your fingers. More on this below.
- Stand still, turn to follow. Turning to follow the skier is fine. Walking isn't.
- Good light. In flat light or late in the day the phone slows its shutter and legs blur.
- One run per clip. Between 10 and 60 seconds.
- Send the original. WhatsApp and iMessage compress the video and tracking suffers.
Where to stand
Risegate works from a flat image, so it only sees movement across the picture. Timing works from either view; the technique readings each view gives are coming soon.
Set the phone to 60 fps
On an iPhone: Settings, then Camera, then Record Video. Pick 4K at 60 fps, or 1080p at 60 fps if space is tight. On Android, the resolution and frame rate are in the camera app's video settings.
Keep 60 fps above everything else. 1080p at 60 fps beats 4K at 30 fps: gates are placed to the frame, and at 30 fps each frame is twice as long.
Zoom with the lens buttons
Above the record button your phone shows a row of numbers, such as 0.5×, 1×, 2×, 3× or 5×. Each of those buttons gives a full-quality picture, because the phone switches to a different lens or to its sharpest crop of the sensor.
Pinching the screen to anything in between, like 2.4× or 7×, is digital zoom. It only enlarges the pixels the phone already has, so the skier looks bigger but carries no more detail.
- Pick the button before the run. Choose the biggest one that still fits the whole skier at the nearest gate.
- Tap, don't pinch. Tap the number itself instead of sliding between them.
- Don't switch lenses mid-run. The picture jumps when the phone changes lens. If you must zoom, a small pinch is safest in 4K, where there are pixels to spare.
- Check 60 fps on that lens. Some phones only film 60 fps on some lenses. If yours doesn't on the zoom lens, drop to 1080p or to the next button down, and keep 60 fps.
While you film
Hold the phone with both hands, elbows against your body, or rest it on a pole or a fence. Start recording before the skier leaves the start and stop after the last gate. Turn your whole upper body to follow them, smoothly, keeping them near the middle of the picture.
Get the file across
AirDrop, a cable or the Files app keep the video as it was filmed. Messaging apps like WhatsApp, iMessage and Instagram shrink it first, and the skier gets harder to track.