Recent Videography Articles

Location Scouting: A Vital Step When It Comes to Creating

A few days ago I had the idea to shoot a new video. This project would involve three cars driving in a formation next to one another, which means location is key. Over the summer, I went to a spot next to a bridge to do some flying and thinking back to then, this would be an ideal spot to do this shoot. Without any planning, this idea would crumble which is why it is important to always scout these locations beforehand.

How to Setup an Easy DIY Overhead Camera Rig

Whether you shoot portraits, still life, fashion, beauty, or even video, there will be a time when you’ll need to shoot overhead for some reason. Don’t ask me why, I’m just sure that one day you will. So while I can’t help you with when and why, I can share the latest video from Peter McKinnon explaining how. Watch this tutorial to learn all about setting up a secure, compact, and efficient overhead setup.

Will the DJI Ronin-S Be the One-Handed Gimbal King, and Should I Wait for It?

At CES 2018, DJI released details of the Ronin-S, a one handed gimbal system with modular add-ons for creative filmmaking. This is already a crowded market, with Zhiyun-Tech and Moza offering some of our favorite options, but given DJI’s proven track record of building top class gimbals, should you wait for the Ronin-S before investing in a new one-handed gimbal system?

How to Color Grade Your Footage With Adobe Premiere's Lumetri Tools

Most tutorials available for free on YouTube explaining how to color grade your footage are just ways to sell LUTs, presets, or to show you how to add teal and orange to your clips. Nate from Tutvid decided to make a more comprehensive video to help you get started with Adobe Premiere Lumetri tool so you can grade any of your videos the way you want.

GoPro Introduces a New Way to Shoot Videos With Its Mobile OverCapture App

A few months ago, GoPro announced a new camera named the Fusion that would allow users to capture 360-degree videos. now, the company introduce Mobile OverCapture for the Fusion bringing a new way to shoot video to the world. Combined the two products will let you live the moment, capture the whole scene in 360 degrees, and then compose your video in postproduction.

This Is Our Favorite Lav Mic System

Recording clean audio is extremely important but can also be infuriating. Finally, after seven years, we've found a system that seems to work... most of the time.

How to Capture Compelling B-Roll Footage

I watch a lot of YouTube photography videos. Whether inspirational, educational, or somewhere in between, the videos that stand out to me all have great B-roll footage. B-roll is supplemental footage used to set mood, drive the story in a certain direction, visually demonstrate a point or concept, cover cuts between clips, and generally make a video more engaging and interesting to the viewer. This video provides excellent tips on how to capture compelling B-roll footage for your next project.

How to Make a Pro Sci-Fi Short With a Small Budget

Writer and director Ryan Connolly, over at Film Riot, wanted to challenge himself to see if he and his crew could turn out a realistic, action-packed, science fiction short film with no script, three hundred dollars, and a whole lot of help from his friends.

Incredible Footage of Soap Bubbles Freezing in Winter Weather and How to Do It Yourself

Photographers all over the world have found something absolutely incredible happens when you blow soap bubbles in the freezing winter temperatures. As these delicate bubbles freeze almost instantly, inside each one a unique universe of patterns and shapes comes to life right in front of your eyes. If you're lucky enough to be enduring the worldwide cold front we're having, give this a shot to make the brutal winter more fun and beautiful.

How to Shoot Video Handheld

Shooting with a gimbal is fantastic, it makes all of our footage incredibly smooth and vibration free. However, it’s not appropriate in every scenario and may even kill the mood of your video in some cases as Jakob Owens explained in a previous video. In a new one he posted on his YouTube channel, TheBuffNerds, he teaches now how to shoot handheld. So if you are tired of all the overly stabilized slow-mo footage found on the web nowadays and want to do something different, be sure to watch this tutorial.

How to Export a Video in Premiere Pro Even if You Are a Beginner

You recently got into video and decided to use Adobe Premiere to edit your footage. That’s fantastic. But now, with your first timeline done, you find yourself in an awkward position: what settings do you use to export your sequence in the best way possible? With photography it’s quite easy, but videography is whole different thing. There are tons of options to choose from, and that’s once you’ve gone past the tens of export formats. In this short tutorial, Justin Odisho will show you how to get a great exported file without having to learn all about codecs, bitrates, and other barbarous settings available.

The Most Mesmerizing Paragliding Video You've Ever Seen

When trying to get creative, we often get discouraged thinking everything has been done, and no matter how hard we try, our work is going to be inspired or a remote copy of someone else’s idea. However, there are still some exceptionally brilliant minds that find ways to innovate and make the impossible possible. Valentin Delluc, a French speed rider, and Dino Raffault managed to create a unique video that will make your eyes light up even if you don’t know what speed riding is.

The Art of Creating Captivating Travel Films

If you're into travel photography and video you've heard of Sam Kolder. You can find tutorial videos about how to get his transitions and how to shoot to make your videos flow like his does. This video breaks it all down and gives an overview of what gear he uses and how he shoots in a certain way to be sure to get the transition from one shot to the next down so he can edit it in the style he's known for.

A Beginner's Guide to Why You Should Be Shooting Video in Log

If you're just starting out shooting video, you may have heard of log profiles. This great video will give you a practical breakdown of why you should consider shooting with them and what to do if your camera doesn't have them.

Do Yourself a Favor and Stop Using Your Gimbal So Much

Since we’ve propelled so far forward, so fast in gimbal technology, it seems that shooting on a gimbal is almost a necessity for most videographers or filmmakers these days — but it shouldn’t be that way. The convenience that’s provided by most gimbals can’t be understated and I would be 100 percent wrong if I implied that they’re not useful tools. They are absolutely powerful tools that we’re lucky to have, and in such small packages. But because of that convenience and functionality, we’ve lost the importance of the decision making process when lining up a shot.

Drone Herds Sheep in Beautiful New Zealand

Some of you may have woke up early on Christmas morning to rush to the tree and unwrap your shiny new drone. Unfortunately, the unusually cold conditions in parts of the US meant that many of you were grounded. So while you were there holding your new toy in your hands, staring wistfully at the crisp air outside, you may have had to justify the large price tag to yourself or to your partner/parents.

Pure Ingenuity Leads to Affordable 8x10 Large Format Video Capture

I'm no cinematographer. I mean I dabble, like a lot of still shooters do, but I wouldn't put myself under the category of video expert by any means. That being said, I do know what I like and what I think looks good. What I've always really liked is the depth and feel of large format in still photography and, now finally, in video. You don't need to spend a $100,000-plus to do it either. See for yourself how Zev Hoover from Massachusetts accomplished it.

In a Year of Political Turmoil and Change, What Do Our Documentaries Say About Us?

On virtually every front, 2017 was a year of change, turmoil, and upheaval. A year comprised of moments that affected our every day lives in ways that societal and political movements haven’t in recent years past. The tension that has defined this year has found itself mirrored in the art that we create, and in more obvious ways in the documentary subjects captured by filmmakers across the globe.

Is the Sony a7R III All That It Is Hyped Up to Be?

As a Nikon shooter myself, the stats on the Sony a7R III have my head turning. After watching Sony grow over the past few years and seeing how good their cameras are, I think it is safe to say that this new camera will not disappoint. Being that I mainly shoot photography, the “R” definitely calls my name and I think one of the biggest factors is the fact that this body can also shoot some pretty good video. These videos really have me thinking about what my next step could be when shopping for gear.

Brandon Li Reviews the Moza AirCross Gimbal

Brandon Li reviews a pre-released demo version of the Moza AirCross Gimbal by walking through the city of Hong Kong. He goes through the paces of covering the technical aspects, but what I am most interested in, and what he's best at, is showcasing his style of shooting and his way of moving through the city and getting the shots he's known for.

How to Create Cinematic Footage With Your iPhone or Android Device

Filming with a DSLR is always an option, unless you want to capture some behind-the-scenes videos of your shoot or if you are on the go. Then, filming with your smartphone is probably the most straightforward alternative if you don’t want to lug around a camera just for that. The options available are actually more advanced than you may think, at least that is if you rely on Filmic Pro. The people at Moment Lenses created a video to help you out and get started with all the different settings Filmic Pro has to offer.

iPhone X Travel Test: The True Capability of a Phone on a Roadtrip

The iPhone seems to have become much more than a phone in the past few years. It is highly recognized for its sleek, simple design and its camera. During the past year alone, I have found myself using the iPhone's camera more and more for so many different things. In this video, four guys take the iPhone X and test out a bunch of different Moment products on it as they set out on a little venture to the Pacific Northwest.

From Photographer to Videographer: Using Adobe's Motion Graphics Templates

We’ve noticed the trend. Video is becoming the way most people communicate online these days. How can you as photographer use video as a tool to influence the personal brand you are constantly building, and how can you expand your product offering to clients? There are various types of videos you can focus on to produce, and the aim should be to make videos that you would like to make for a client. Therefore, it needs to be professional, and something clients might actually use as their marketing and advertising materials.

Canon's Rumored 6K Cinema Camera: Is Canon the Right Brand for Cinema?

There aren’t many brands that have been so thoroughly lambasted over the past few years as Canon, and for good reason. Despite their reputation as a manufacturer of durable, functional camera tools, they are notoriously tight fisted with their technology. But what has looked like antiquated engineering is starting to look more like a calculated long-term strategy to play the field as it lays. With rumors emerging about a new 6K cinema camera to rival Sony’s Venice, Canon looks like it might be ready to play a new game.

Fstoppers Reviews the DBPOWER 620C, a 4K Action Camera for $70

I remember when GoPro first came out with their action cameras and owned that corner of the market for a while. Fast forward a few years, the action cameras have been reduced in size while being able to capture higher resolution photos and videos. Also, several other companies joined the action camera market with their own versions many sharing similar designs that of the GoPro action camera.

Lindsay Adler wields a lightsaber

For as long as I can remember, there has been a tension between photographers and videographers at events. Why, why I say, can't we all just get along? Watch as an angry mob of photographers go to war against a small group of brave videographers in an epic battle for the ages. The grossly outnumbered videographers face off against the likes of Sal Cincotta, Lindsay Adler, Chuck Arlund, and more during a workshop in Tucson, Arizona.

At Least 'Justice League' Had the Visuals Right

This is not a movie review. While I'm definitely ready to offer some opinions on the film, I'm not here to review the movie. You can find plenty of reviews already out there and there certainly won't be any spoilers found here. Rather, this is an appreciation article for one aspect of the "Justice League" movie (and other DC superhero/Zack Snyder films) that is done very well. Visually, "Justice League" looks pretty damn cool. It looks and feels dark and moody, like the pages of a comic have been brought to life. For everything that they don't get right, the visual mood of the DC superhero movies are stellar.

The New Edelkrone SliderONE PRO: The App-Controlled Slider for Run and Gun Shooters

Edelkrone has a knack for creating technology that captures the imagination in ways that other brands don’t. With the release of the original Edelkrone SliderONE, we saw that ingenuity manifest itself in what looks like the future of video camera support. That same ingenuity has guided the development of the new SliderONE PRO.

How To Edit 360-Degree Video In Adobe Premiere Pro

Adobe has called the new additional Effects menu category "Immersive Video." They've made it easier to apply transitions and to add text or logos that look natural to the viewer. I'm a regular screen viewing type of person, and I can't imagine buying some head gear so I can walk around in a virtual space, but in an industry that moves as fast as the video and photography industry, I think we should know what the latest developments are and how the software we use enable us to edit great videos. Clients are going to start asking for 360-degree videos, and you will either be able to do it or not. This video shows what you'll be able to do in Premiere Pro when editing "Immersive Videos."

Fstoppers Reviews the Aukey AC-LC2, an Action Camera Cheaper Than $70

Since GoPro released their first action cameras, many other brands have tried to take on this market and offer alternatives. One of them is called Aukey, and they designed the AC-LC2 to be a very affordable yet still capable action piece of equipment. It can shoot in 4K at 25 fps, can produce time-lapses, and even has a Wi-Fi connection. I’ve had one for a little while and wanted to share with you why having one in your bag might be fantastic, but also why it may probably not replace a higher-end action camera.

How to Build a Proper Invoice Template for Your Photography Business

When you’re running your own photography or videography business we all know that going out and shooting is only a small portion of the job. You have to make the connections to get the job. You have to go through the process of meeting with the client and assessing the needs to get the desired finished product. Then you have to find out the client’s budget and figure out how to accommodate them while charging properly for the shoot. After all that is said and done, and the project is finally coming to fruition the final thing left to do is send out the invoice for the job.

Filmmaker Matt Mangham's 'Analog' Series Is Back With Episode 4

Filmmaker Matt Mangham has been working on an ongoing series entitled “Analog: Stories of Film Photography,” and I’m very excited to share episode four with the Fstoppers community. In this episode, Mangham explores creativity through the eyes of San Diego native, Matthew Lawless.