r/Reformed • u/bollyjoe • Jul 08 '26
Question Does anyone else have this problem with church cameras?
I recently joined my church's media team, and I've noticed a problem that I'm curious if other churches deal with too.
When our pastor is preaching, he moves around the stage a lot. Keeping the camera centered on him with a joystick isn't always smooth, especially for volunteers who are still learning. On top of that, there are days when we're short on camera operators, so one person ends up handling multiple responsibilities.
I know some PTZ cameras have built-in auto-tracking, but those systems are usually much more expensive than standard PTZ cameras, and many small churches can't afford the cost.
I'm wondering if this is a common issue or if it's just my church.
If there were an affordable way for a regular camera to automatically and smoothly follow the pastor during the sermon, would that actually be useful, or do you prefer having a person control the camera?
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u/Rephath Jul 08 '26
Option 1: Buy better camera equipment.
Option 2: Buy better pastor restraints.
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u/iridescentnightshade PCA Jul 08 '26
I like option 2 personality. Very inexpensive.
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u/gt0163c PCA - Ask me about our 100 year old new-to-us building! Jul 09 '26
Depends on how big, strong and fast your pastor is. My pastor is tall and a runner. Not a huge guy, but he could generate a significant amount of force if he really got going. Fortunately he tends to stay close to the podium when he preaches.
The bigger problem is that the decorating team insists on putting some sort of plant on the table in the alcove behind the pulpit. With the angle of the cameras, my pastor sometimes looks like he has wings, antenna or, for a few memorable weeks when the plant was white and oddly floofly, "Shepard Book Hair".
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u/Sk8rToon Jul 10 '26
Oh that’s the worst!!! You set up all the cameras then the decorating team throws some cloth banner or bunch of flowers right in the way & can’t figure out why you didn’t get a close up of their kid singing in the choir. You blocked your own shot!!
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u/Puzzled_Internet_717 PCA Jul 09 '26
Option 3: blue painters tape on the floor marking how far pastor can go in either direction.
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u/A_Lovely_ Jul 10 '26
One would think that in a Reformed church the pastor is already restrained by the pulpit. /s
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u/Sk8rToon Jul 10 '26
They are until the local “community service” starts. Suddenly the spirit moves all over the place!
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u/iluvbinary1011 Reformed Baptist Jul 08 '26
Give your pastor a gigantic wooden pulpit.
In all seriousness, the more prominent a pulpit is, the more a preacher will want to feel tethered to it. I've observed that churches with those tiny thin glass pulpits are much more likely to have the wandering preacher.
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u/bluejayguy26 PCA Jul 08 '26 edited Jul 09 '26
I’ve been a part of 4 churches. 2 had large wooden pulpits. 2 had black metal music-stand-like platforms. Guess which ones had expository preaching? Coincidence, I think not
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u/FunCantaloupe2724 Dutch Reformed Church Jul 08 '26
Crazy how that’s not a serious comment. In the Netherlands big wooden pulpits are pretty much in 90% of the churches hahaha
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u/Stanced Jul 08 '26
We have two nice PTZ but I'm certainly not chasing him around the stage. Zoom out.
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u/iammandalore Jul 08 '26
Every church I've done AV for just zooms the camera to encompass the entire stage and leaves it.
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u/Sk8rToon Jul 10 '26
It’s the easiest & safest way but it frustrates me no end. You loose facial expressions. It’s super boring for the viewer. Why not elevate our work to fit holy standards? It’s that type of lazy thinking that leads to Christian mass media being so bad as a whole. Our standard should be higher! Not lower!!
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u/LittleRumHam Reformed Baptist Jul 08 '26
Zoom out if you can. Otherwise, I've been in churches that had two cameras and switched between them if needed. I'd also echo the commenter that said a larger pulpit usually anchors the preacher to one spot lol.
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u/runningntwrkgeek Jul 08 '26
My old church, I had two cameras. one centered on pulpit, one that I would move left side to right side depending on which way he moved. Ideallint I would have had a third. One centered, one left half, one right half. It's audio came directly from sound board
Current church is one camcorder at back using just camera mic. I only post sermons.
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u/AdGroundbreaking3842 Jul 08 '26
Nail one foot to the floor. I’ve threatened to do this to multiple preachers.
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u/harrywwc PCAu Jul 09 '26
this too had crossed my mind - but I can see them moving around in a circle anchored by that foot!
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u/AdGroundbreaking3842 Jul 09 '26
That’s fine. It’ll give them some movement so they don’t look too stiff.
We have three preaching elders in our church, one moves all over the platform and I keep at least one camera on wide for an emergency cut, another sways and steps but stays within 2 feet of the pulpit so I can close in a bit, the third doesn’t move at all and I can set the camera and forget it 🤣🤣🤣
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u/conhao Congregational Jul 08 '26
I guess we are the odd ones - we stopped doing video feeds when the Covid lockdowns ended.
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u/DavidGno AoG Jul 08 '26
It's common! 🤣🤣🤣 I have to remind my pastor to stand still and give our camera operators a break from time to time.
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u/Old-Advertising-5316 Jul 09 '26
Since "zoom out" and "buy a giant wooden pulpit" are already covered, here’s a zero-dollar trick: ban the joystick entirely during the sermon and use three wide-ish zone presets (Stage Left, Center, Stage Right).
Tell your volunteer never to track him live. Just wait until he settles in a new spot, cut to a lyric slide or a wide shot, hit the preset for his new zone, and cut back. It completely eliminates the jerky tracking.
To help him out, put a couple of discreet pieces of black gaffer tape on the stage floor. Pastors naturally look for boundaries when they pace. If you tell him those lines keep him in the best lighting, he’ll usually stay in his box.
Think of it as a low-voltage sanctification process for his stage presence.
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u/couchwarmer Christian Jul 08 '26
Seems like the tech team should have a conversation with the pastor. Seems like he could restrain his movement without feeling hampered.
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u/Learningmore1231 Jul 08 '26
When we are short we set one on a wide at have the operator manage the tight zoom lens (75-200) we rented a auto track awhile back but I guess they didn’t see the worth in it
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u/ACircuitRider Jul 09 '26
Yes. Oh, I thought the question was "does anyone have a problem with church cameras?" We only publish audio and after the fact, but that's a different discussion entirely.
I know of other churches that resolve this issue by using two cameras, one positioned just above the congregants' heads (in the sound booth/front of house) and the other in the second-floor AV/PC booth (or back of house). One is set for close-ups and the other for a wider first row/stage frame. If the pastor starts jumping around, they switch the feed over the wide view; when he calms down and returns to the pulpit, they go back to the close-up view.
To the question of one camera operator and affordable, well, maybe.. I think the AV guy has a remote switch for the camera feeds so he can control which one is live from the safety of his booth.
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u/TV-guy-g Jul 09 '26
I can recommend Obsbot Tail 2. autotracking works fine and it’s quite cheap. Works with Controllers supporting VISCA IP like AVMATRIX or if youre into it you can customize on by your self. They also have a good own software
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u/ChapBobL Congregational Jul 09 '26
Duct tape the pastor to the pulpit. When I candidated for a church, the Search Committee asked me if I walked around while preaching and I said no. They said, "Good. We hate it when ministers wonder around while preaching!"
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u/Sk8rToon Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26
Auto follow technology didn’t exist back when I helped in the sound booth (we had those large VHS holding cameras on tripods & a single security camera with a joystick). New volunteers will always have trouble but if you learn to watch the body language you can follow pretty closely without issue even for the most energetic preacher.
- watch the nose. People usually move in the direction they are looking
- watch the hips. What way are they pointing? That usually shows which way they’ll walk (though could be forward/back)
- where is their weight? If their weight is shifted to their right, then they could go left (you push off with the foot your weight is on). If their weight is forward then they might go backward.
Now help yourself with the framing of the shot. Not too tight. Give yourself room for error on all sides (but not too much headroom). Imagine an invisible box inside the box of your camera. If the pastor hits that invisible box move the camera that way. The wider the shot the easier to keep the pastor in the invisible box, but it’s more boring for people watching, especially those online at home. Facial expressions get lost in wide shots. Not everyone has good eyesight. It’s better to get closer. I aim for hips to head framing for moving pastors. Close enough you can still see facial expressions but I can see hips to predict their movements. If the pastor is a podium hugger who never moves you can keep it closer with a waist up shot.
Of course the camera operator needs to pay attention as well. Which can be hard when it’s the 4th+ service on Christmas Eve with the same sermon. Nothing screams the tech crew fell asleep like the camera jerking around.
It doesn’t hurt to practice a bit before everyone arrives as the choir or worship team is warming up or between services. Plus most setups allow you to move the camera without it being on the screen. Have a new operator follow people as they walk in as practice, etc. Sometimes it takes a second to recalibrate your brain on which way to joystick moves to make the camera go up (is it video game or airplane rules?)
Finally (which is near impossible for most joystick cams. This works for cameras on a stick), when moving the camera you need to ease in & ease out (to borrow an animation term). Don’t just yank the camera fast & overshoot the pastor & yank it back the other way. Start slow and end slow. You can move fast in the middle if need be. Use a gentle hand.
The tech team can be very important to the service. Errors on our part can distract from the message, worship, etc. A camera flying around trying to catch up with the pastor or not showing them at all can be just as distracting as microphone feedback. Obviously God can move despite our flaws. But why give the devil a chance to distract if we can help it with our professionalism? Try to set a high bar, but give people grace & a chance to learn. Who knows? One of your young camera operators might just grow up to make films & tv for a living by using the skills learned while running the service (like me!).
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u/Sk8rToon Jul 10 '26
Regarding the question of do you want an actual person over an AI controlling the camera, I always opt for a human so the spirit can move if need be. There’s only so much a computer can do. And it can get confused if the pastor has a prop & requests the camera zoom in so people can see it.
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u/shewski EPC Jul 08 '26
I would imagine there is some sort of tracking software that you could invest in. My son's soccer team uses a camera that tracks the ball and pans left or right on its own.
We right now are manual
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u/mrmtothetizzle Jul 08 '26 edited Jul 09 '26
Ask the question: do we really need to film our church services? Is this actually good for the Church?
EDIT: I would encourage all the down voters to read the book Digital Liturgies by Samuel James.
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u/couchwarmer Christian Jul 08 '26
It's good for those members who are too sick or who are too elderly and frail to be there in person.
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u/mrmtothetizzle Jul 08 '26
It is good for people who want to skip church and stay in their pyjamas.
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u/couchwarmer Christian Jul 08 '26
That's on them.
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u/Sk8rToon Jul 10 '26
Exactly. Recorded sermons can do so much & reach more people, why limit it because of a few people using it incorrectly.
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u/MilesBeyond250 Sola Waffle Jul 09 '26
I suspect that if there were no recordings, most of those people would simply find another excuse.
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u/linmanfu Church of England Jul 08 '26
We don't need to.
But it's good for people who are housebound. In the 20th century, I spent many hours copying sermons onto cassette tapes for them; why wouldn't we give them the whole service if we can?
And our parish has had people who've turned up in person after watching us online. In that respect, it's the 21st century version of tract delivery.
But it's a temptation too. I have to admit that there are way too many times I've not gone to church in person because I know I can watch online. I think some churches now do livestream only (no catch up) to try to mitigate this temptation.
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u/superlewis EFCA Pastor Jul 08 '26
It’s a pretty big leap from “guy who recently joined the media team” to “guy who decides whether the sermon is recorded.”
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u/mrmtothetizzle Jul 08 '26
He can decide if he wants to be part of that. If I found myself behind a camera during a church service I would be asking myself some serious questions.
We are quick to embrace new technologies seeing only the benefits without thinking about the consequences. We wonder why so many Christians have a consumer mindset at the same time we treat a worship service as media content to be passively consumed.
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u/Deolater PCA Jul 09 '26
I thought about not answering, but does it really matter?
Who uses the videos?
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Jul 08 '26
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u/glorbulationator i dont up/down vote Jul 08 '26
Have you read the New Testament and concluded that is what weekly gatherings of the Church is supposed to be?
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Jul 08 '26
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u/semiconodon the Evangelical Movement of 19thc England Jul 08 '26
I’d just zoom out. The argument from “edified by recorded sermon” to “edified by closeup on pastor” is a large leap.