Videography

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. So when the guys behind FREECAST reached out about having us check out their new affordable wireless transmission system, it was a no-brainer to give it a go.

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. The interface looks totally different than what we are used to with Photoshop, Lightroom, or even Capture One. So it’s always nice there are people such as Casey Faris producing comprehensive videos to help us out in getting started. If, like me, you can’t seem to get a perfect grading with Premiere or Final Cut Pro, this crash course on DaVinci Resolve is exactly what you need!

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.

Getting the big budget look is something a lot of us want, but most of us would prefer not to spend Hollywood levels of cash to get it. This great tutorial will show you just how to get that look without breaking the bank.

The internet is a vast and seemingly endless collection of information as we all know. If you need to learn something new, we can simply Google the question and with almost 100% certainty you will be able to find an accurate answer.

Andrew Saladino, from The Royal Ocean Film Society, makes a serious point in his telling video essay. How were so many films lost, and who are the people working to bring movies back to life?

The Fstoppers Community is home to the many talented readers of this website where we share images and video in our portfolios as well as talk shop in the Discussion Groups. The other day I was going through and watching some of the incredible videos the Community has shared in their portfolios, and here's a selection of some of my favorite travel videos that will have you craving adventure and inspire your own creations.

The somewhat flawed auto focus system on the Panasonic GH5 has claimed plenty of attention since it's release, but if there is one feature which is undoubtedly five star, it's the dual stabilization technology, and here is the proof.

Filmmaking is a tough thing; you need to be thinking on multiple levels simultaneously, and any one mistake can derail the final product. This great video will walk you through 15 such mistakes and how to recognize and avoid them.

If you're into video editing you are probably interested in visual effects to some extent. Even if you aren't, bookmark the current article as you will eventually be. Visual effects is not some software magic that works with any footage. With video you have lots of still images per second and the process of making a composite needs to be automated as much as possible. Working on a frame by frame basis is avoided as much as possible. In this video you will find 10 quick tips on the importance of having appropriate video content in order to help easily create more realistic visual effects.

Directed by Alexandre Courtes, the music video for "Go Up" performed by French-duo Cassius (featuring Cat Power and Pharrell Williams) is a simple concept of having two screens above or next to one another, but the way the shots play with each other to portray a different idea is edited together in a superb way. If creative ideas come from putting two opposing or contrasting ideas together then this is it.

Call me crazy, but one nice thing about the Midwest is seeing all the seasons, even if that sometimes happens all in one week. However, filming this beautiful montage of the evolving seasons took not a week, but two years, but the result is well worth it. Take a minute to check it out.

The video has some great points with practical tips on how to get your creative juices flowing and basically setting yourself up with some barriers to challenge yourself and making the best of the situation. Peter McKinnon goes through a list of things he does to challenge himself to keep being creative and to get out of the comfort zone and push your creative being to another level.

The long take is one of the most awesome displays of directorial prowess. This nine-minute short film shows off that prowess and adds another variable: a drone.

Filmmaking is a wonderful thing, but it's also an expensive thing. Luckily, filmmakers are resourceful people full of tricks. This great video will give you five such tricks to get great results without spending a lot of money.

Lenses in the still photography world are just one group of lenses out there, and if you haven't done much work in cinema or broadcast, then you might not have ever considered why you might want to invest in other kinds of glass. However, as more photographers are finding themselves getting into short film production, the benefits of using parfocal lenses should be considered.

A few weeks back I attended the 3rd annual New York City Drone Film Festival. I did write an article about the winners of it, but at the time could not find this video anywhere! The Dronie is essentially a selfie with a drone and in this case a video where that is being taken to the next level. I thought this was one of the more "odd" categories but was glad to see it was one of the winners. Florian Fischer is currently undefeated in this category for the NYC Drone Film Festival but will anybody be able to top his dronie at the next Film Festival?

There are a lot of GH5 review videos currently online but most of them are pretty lacking. Youtuber iPhonedo, just released the most complete review I have seen and it's definitely worth watching whether you own the camera or not.

So, you want to learn filmmaking, but you don't want to go to school for years to learn how to do it. This great tutorial will set you up to power through a month of learning both the art and craft of filmmaking, quickly improving your chops.

There isn't a lot of information about this Adobe App and whether this technology will be added to the desktop software yet, just that it's called Sensei and they have this video to show its potential. It uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to make your selfie or basic smartphone photo look like it was taken by someone who knew what they were doing.

If you're old enough to remember VHS tapes, you remember video quality that was abysmal by today's standards. However, even in the late 80s and early 90s, manufacturers were working to bring HD tech to consumers, and this demo reel is a surreal example of such tech.

When you're shooting video, you're typically working with sensor sizes that are smaller or comparable to the average stills camera. What happens when you shoot with a sensor 2.5 times bigger than a full-frame 35mm sensor? Check out this review to see.

We recently got B&H to send us 6 of the most popular gimbals for mirrorless cameras. We spent hours figuring out all six and tediously balancing each of them multiple times so that you wouldn't have to. Luckily, there is a clear winner.

This video describes the relevance and importance of black n white films. And all the points can be said for black and white photography. We mostly shoot in color, because we can. Our cameras give a very sharp photograph and the raw file gives us the ability to change it to make sure everything is evenly exposed. But when we think about the images that we hold dear, it's often printed photos of our parents, grandparents and family members.

Creating and viewing video content in 4k resolution has never been more accessible. But don't go shooting in 4k just because you can, it might not be necessary. The process of delivering 4k video content as a videographer or filmmaker has certain limitations and changes in workflow that are worth considering before you hit the record button.

When you think of video online, YouTube is surely on top of the list. If anything is happening virally, you'll be able to find it on YouTube, or it's embedded in your favorite site with their red and white play button to start watching. In the past, any contributors were able to receive money from videos since YouTube introduced their partner program five years ago. This opened their advertising platform to anyone and everyone to get some money when ads played before and during the video they uploaded. This changed today.

I really believe that the URSA Mini Pro is the best camera that Blackmagic Design have ever released. That doesn’t mean that it’s the perfect camera for everybody, but it’s reaching out to a much wider audience than its predecessors.

In this simple lighting tutorial, I discuss three different ways to fashion and portrait images with a single beauty dish.

In this video, directors tell us how they define what it is to make a movie. They give advice to the viewer, the next generation of filmmakers. The filmmakers in the video are all masters of composition, rhythm, and flow of their movies. This also makes them great at evoking emotions because of it. But essentially, it's all about the story and not the medium. It's the same with photography. It's very hard to make a wrong decision when buying a camera today. With any camera brand you buy, you will get great image quality with beautiful color, quick auto-focus, and superb image stabilization. But can you tell a story with your mind and then use the camera as a tool to tell that story?

Portraits - they've been the means of capturing the likeness and essence of their subjects since the inception of the camera, and even long before for the subjects of many paintings done though out the span of history. Over the years, the posing, techniques, the lighting, and even more recently, the psychology behind the photos has absolutely evolved to affect every aspect of how portraits are captured. One thing hasn't changed though as much and that's the medium. Fast forward to now, and bring into the frame, Marcelo Mandruca, a photographer from Sao Paolo, Brazil that made his subjects believe they were posing for a long exposure project, but he was in fact, recording video for 60 seconds of each of his subjects.

Everyone looking to be a photographer, or at least a good one, should understand their camera's functions and lens mechanics. This means understanding things like f-stops, depth-of-field, effects of shutter speed, ISO, fast lenses verses slow lenses, and of course, aperture. Fortunately, independent filmmaker Vincent Ledvina has created an ongoing, animated series about, "Camera Basics." As part of that series this handy little animation explains all you really need to know about aperture, in just five minutes.

The Cooperative of Photography, a photography apparel manufacturer and community-focused online mag, produced a cool new photography series where they asked creative photographers questions and the answer come only in the form of images instead of words.

For us English folk, Spain has been the go-to summer family holiday location for decades. So much so, in fact, that I'm almost repelled by how familiar it is to me. Then, this morning, I received an email from Peter Jablonowski of FilmSpektakel informing me that he and Thomas Pöcksteiner produced a time-lapse of the Spanish island Tenerife and all my preconceived notions melted away.