I've been focussing on my video transitions lately. I've noticed the big guys like Peter Mckinnon and Casey Neistat use transitions to create interest and make the videos a pleasure to watch. Now I already shoot for the edit, but I've never really focused on what else I can do to give my videos more punch, until this video.
Beautiful images are crucial to create an attractive video, but the soundtrack is just as important if not more. Put crappy sound over your breathtaking pictures, and people will probably not even watch more than a few seconds before stopping the film. When creating content for YouTube, finding good music or sound effects can be quite a challenge.
This year’s Travel Photographer Society (TPS) competition culminated in a beautiful exhibition of interesting and unique work from travel photographers all over the world in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Surrounding the exhibition, TPS also held a series of talks by prominent travel photographers.
If you're constantly seeking inspiration from the same places, it can be hard to move forward creatively.
In reality, this shouldn't even be a comparison. We all know what the outcome is going to be, yet we still love to see the results. That or we secretly hope that the phone in our pocket can really keep up with a Hollywood workhorse that is used to film some of the most popular movies and television shows that are being released.
For a western film you may need authentic props. Maybe you need a cool location. Maybe you need an Arri Alexa with anamorphic lenses. Maybe you need a ton of lighting. Maybe you need an expensive software to edit the project. Well, some of these are not that essential.
Just over a week ago, Matthew Allard from News Shooter reported that several Premiere Pro 2017.1 users were having media files suddenly disappear, with some having their footage deleted completely. Adobe scrambled, and it looks like they have resolved the problem.
"If I want to shoot great video in the future with my 4K, video enabled DSLR, what should I buy first?" This is a question a get a lot of the time from photographer friends. Given they already own a tripod, my first answer is always to start with a cage. Here is why.
I like biking, I even like mountain biking, but there is no part of me that wants to take a bicycle full-speed down this track in Mandelieu, France in broad daylight, let alone at nighttime, and I guess that's why I'll never be featured in one of Red Bull's brilliant extreme sports videos.
One of the worst gut wrenching feelings any content producer can face is opening up a memory card only to find that a file is corrupt or missing altogether. Recently we sold most of our Nikon gear and switched over to the new Panasonic GH5 cameras because of their better video features, superior image stabilization, and overall smaller size.
It's an ancient art-form, and it's something you need to know to get your location photography set ready for action. Have you ever needed to put up a scrim while being able to tighten it after the knot's been made? This video is for the photography and film industry
There was a time when smooth, stable footage was the stuff of Hollywood, while us lowly plebeians dabbled with our shaky VHS home movies. But now, I can order laundry detergent delivered to my door by pressing a button on my washing machine and those magical devices in our pockets shoot in 4K.
Back in March of this year, ESA Astronaut Thomas Pesquet and NASA Astronaut Shane Kimbrough went for a spacewalk outside the International Space Station. Pesquet recorded the walk, and the footage is truly astounding.
In this short documentary video from TIME, Dutch creative Erik Kessels explains his interest in amateur photography, including where it started and what he sees in it.
Have you ever been so immersed in your shoot, directing, getting the model to do what you intended and more, and forgetting about time and matter and anything other than what you are doing right now? If not, this video will tell you more about flow and give you some indication of how you can achieve it.
Filming weddings is a real challenge. This helpful video shadows a wedding videographer throughout the day and shows off some great techniques and tips you can incorporate into your own shooting as he talks you through his process.
As photographers and videographers, we can get really caught up in our tech. After all, gear is fun. But gear is the means, not the end. This great video serves a reminder to always return to the pursuit of better storytelling.
The YouTube channel Rideable Entertainment may just have created the most impressive DIY camera slider I have ever seen. It's made partially of wood but not in a cheap way. It has more of a Steam Punk look to it with some effort put into the finishing.
Just when you think you've seen it all, Skittles comes out with a new ad like this. Skittles has always done some weird commercials but this one is definitely on the top of the list, especially with mothers day right around the corner. I personally do not see how this is a way to advertise Skittles, but hey... who am I to talk? At least the audio is nice and crisp!
One thing to remember in life is that there is always someone cooler than you. Today, it's this guy. He decided his '96 Suzuki needed a little boost to be sold, and I don't think anyone could have done a better job. Even I want to buy that little car now.
Drones are being used in so many creative ways these days that I can’t even keep up with all of the beautiful and exciting footage being shared daily. Some things do catch my attention more than others, however. Like drones being used as precision weapons to take out bikers, instead of filming said incredible footage.
Those who have never been on a glacier may not realize how big a crevasse can be and how dangerous falling into one is. Last December, Jamie Mullner while skiing in Zermatt discovered it all within a few seconds when he tripped and ended up at the bottom of a crevasse. He wasn’t injured, but happened to have his GoPro on and documented the accident.
Machine learning is an incredibly powerful thing. Damien Henry, a technical program manager at Google, took advantage of this, feeding a machine learning algorithm a single image and asking it to generate an hour-long video of approximately 100,000 frames by predicting the next frame based on the previous one. The result is gorgeous to watch.
A widescreen aspect? A certain kind of lighting? Maybe shallow depth of field? What do you think makes for a cinematic look?
In this episode of #BehindtheGlass, Albert Ayzenberg sits down with Cinematographer David Klein on the set of "Homeland" to discuss preparation, video gear, and what it's like to join in on an Emmy Award-winning show already in full swing. There's a lot of great insight here on what goes on behind the scenes of filming for television.
Whether it's a style or a genre, film noir has that signature high contrast look we've seen in many old black and white films. Modern filmmakers also adopted that style of lighting and post-processing in their drama and thriller movies. In this video you'll go behind the scenes of how to achieve that film noir look in camera.
I saw the first minute of this video on Instagram and walked away from it thinking to myself, wow. The flying in this video was very good, the choice of lenses stood out, and it was filmed in some rather tough lighting conditions. I went back to the video on Instagram, found out who made it, and watched the full thing on Vimeo.
Drone footage is everywhere nowadays and it probably makes you want to buy one! However, not everyone can justify the price of a good unit. So how about a device that costs less than $60 and can take advantage of your GoPro? Looking at Nicolas Vuignier’s latest creation it seems to be quite fun and it could even replace a drone in some applications even though it’s not as practical.
As you probably know, Fstoppers has recently switched over our video system from Nikon D750s to Panasonic GH5s. The GH5 is absolutely perfect for our style of shooting and I really don't have much to complain about... Except the lenses. Why do they cost so much?
If you're a professional photographer you need to be seriously looking at the medium of video as a skill that should be in your repertoire. Making the change isn't as hard or scary as you may think.
I am a fan of good music. We all are. What I like even more is when a music video is directed to the music I like in a creative way that leaves me questioning how it was done, and how I can use the same tricks in my editing if at all possible.
In case you haven't heard prior to this article of this series, a few years ago, Pennzoil started a brilliant marketing plan to release a series of videos showcasing a car being driven to its absolute limits in a seemingly real-world environment (for the most part), and they are pedal-to-the-metal hardcore action movies from beginning to end.
Anyone that has dabbled in the world of color grading knows it's a complicated art and science that can require a certain level of dedication and obsession to really get that perfect look to your videos and work.
Simple differences in the quality of light on a face can have a significant impact on how a person is perceived. I'm always a sucker for seeing how those different looks are achieved, and the team from The Lighting Channel has put together a video that demonstrates 10 different lighting looks on a face, along with the moods they create.
Over the past couple of weeks I have been given the opportunity to try out one of the widest Micro 4/3 lenses out there, the Venus LAOWA 7.5mm f/2.0. After testing it for some time, I'd like to share some of my thoughts on how it performed and what I liked and didn't like about it.
Since the birth of digital cameras, there has been less need to print your photos. Many of the newer photographers have never printed or even sent their photos to be printed at a lab. Why should you if your audience is all online?
Your phone takes the best pictures, right? That’s why you bought it.
Not so fast, says tech vlogger Marques Brownlee in a YouTube video, where he pits the top five smartphone cameras on the market in a blind test against one another to see which one comes out on top.
The first time I landed in a foreign country at night was when I went to Costa Rica in 2009. I remember being wide awake for the last hour of the flight and looking out the window at the yellow spider webs of city lights as I descended over Central America.
Avid’s Media Composer is, despite all odds, the industry standard for video editing. So if it’s good enough for Star Wars, it’s good enough for you. Luckily, users will now be able to get a dumbed down version for free this year.
The Swiss flash manufacturer, Elinchrom, and the innovative video light maker, Light & Motion, announced today that they are joining forces to bring new game-changing products to the market. The news comes in right after Elinchrom made the Skyport Protocol open to other brands.
DJI continues to push the video production industry forward with the drones and camera accessories it has been introducing into the market over the last few years. Just announced at NAB 2017 is a brand new version of their popular gimbal stabilizer, the Ronin 2.
Shooting suspended objects in your images can be done a few different ways, from the use of Photoshop to the simple and effective use of wire or fishing line. My first instinct would be to grab clear fishing line.
Surprisingly small changes to the position of your camera can actually make your images much more successful. Ed over at Photos In Color decided to set himself the challenge of trying to make the perfect headshot in studio conditions.
It’s hard to say how one might react if it were their pricey DJI Inspire drone that was taken out of the sky by an adrenaline-fueled youngster on a hunt for fame and glory. If you’re the team of MadMedia, you simply rock on and include the footage in your latest action-packed video.
One of the most fundamental skills a photographer can have is the ability to separate their subject from the background. It goes beyond just physical distance, however. Good background separation requires control of light, and this great tutorial will show you exactly how to achieve that with a variety of different looks.
One of the disadvantages of GoPro and DSLR video setups is your inability to use them in a broadcast setting. GoPro attempted to address this with their HEROCast system to the tune of $7,500, which is out of the reach of most average consumers.
Although you may not be ready to admit it, the iPhone is a professional video camera for many shooters. We use ours with a handheld gimbal at almost every shoot to get super steady moving shots. Feiyu Tech recently sent us their SPG Plus two-handed gimbal, and I tested it out.
When getting into video, filming may not be the biggest issue. Post-production plays a significant role and can be quite overwhelming. There is tons of software out there, and it’s difficult to know which is best for what. Learning how to use these programs is even worse when you are a photographer.
Filmmakers will be pleased to hear that Canon will now be offering the option to upgrade the 5D Mark IV to include Canon Log starting in July. In addition, a new model will be available with the feature pre-installed beginning at the same time.
There are so many options when choosing a camera body, and for most the price tag plays a huge factor. Understanding what your plans are for shooting and what the capabilities of each body can do will help to determine if that hefty price tag if worth saving up for.