Articles from Mike Briggs

Ask any Panasonic GH5 owner of the shortcomings of this remarkable camera, and they’ll almost certainly have the Auto-Focus limitations in the top three.

Brands big and small, new and established, are heavily investing in Instagram influencers to market their products. This has opened up a relatively new market for the working videographer, and here are my top seven tips to the production of Instagram-friendly video ads. 

Before sending wedding galleries to clients, I like to add a black and white alternative of every photo. Clients love this! So, here’s a quick time-saving trick to create black and white duplicates of an entire folder or collection of images in Lightroom CC.  

Do you ever feel like you are swimming upstream, trying to keep all of the facets of your busy schedule together as a freelance photographer?

Atomos have been industry leaders in the external monitor and recorder market for several years, providing cinematic workflow solutions for video professionals.

Adobe’s latest update to Adobe Premiere CC has made it more accessible than ever for beginners to start editing video, but if your processing power is limited, playback lag can make the editing process frustrating.

Portable LEDs are now more powerful than ever with some manufacturers claiming they can replace strobes for most outdoor flash work. We took the Rotolight AEOS into the field on a sports fashion shoot to see if these claims are valid. Off the back of the success from the NEO 2, Rotolight introduced the AEOS to their line-up of premium LED lights.

The last five years has seen huge advances in the consumer videography market, and it’s all getting smaller. It's so much so that one can now carry a versatile, fully equipped, professional videography setup inside baggage small enough to carry onto a flight. Here’s how. 

Rumors circulated this week of a fix that significantly improves the biggest issue with Panasonic GH5 and GH5S, namely its auto-focus system when shooting video. Has YodaYeo really stumbled across a fix that GH5 owners have been longing for? 

Frantic sporting action set on an urban backdrop? Check. Inventive, slick production while not taking itself too seriously? Check. Superstar cameos? Check. You’ve guessed it, it’s the latest Nike commercial. But is “Nothing Beats a Londoner” their best ever? 

Edelkrone has established a glowing reputation as builders of thoughtful, premium camera stability and slider products. The latest addition to this line was an upgrade to their motorized, all-in-one slider, the SliderONE PRO. Here is our in-depth review after spending six weeks with this professional, app-controlled video accessory.  

The art and business of photography has had no trouble in inspiring millennials into finding a path to success within the field. Twenty-somethings have embraced the use of new technologies in their workflow, marketing, and creativity, but there is one lesson on reaching your goals that has not changed since the dawn of commercial photography. 

When I’m on location shooting photography or video, each shoot requires a different set of equipment than the last. While it’s easy (and tempting) to sling your bags and cases back into storage at the end of the day, it’s important to put some steps in place to ensure all of your equipment is accounted for and well maintained for future use. Here is Jay P.

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? 

Netflix’s new eight-part documentary “Shot in the Dark” casts focus on three rival Los Angeles-based video journalists as they chase down the “story of the night,” all with the aim to sell their footage to the news outlets for the morning news.

Generations of musicians have expressed their sorrow and grief through their chosen medium, yet seeking inspiration in these dark places is somewhat niche in amateur photography. I caught up with emerging British talent Michelle Mackie to understand how she expresses these sullen tones in her conceptual photography. 

Picking the right music for your next video project can elevate your final cut or destroy it. The soundtrack is the beating heart of any video project, and you can direct your viewer toward an emotion or message based on your selection. Here are some tips to choosing the right music. 

In the last few years, filmmakers all over the world have been expressing their creativity by shooting short and feature-length movies using their phones, showing that you should never be afraid to tell a story if you don’t own a $50,000 camera. Here are five great ones, shot on five different generations of iPhone, including one shot entirely on the new iPhone X. 

Last Tuesday, Adobe hosted an event in London, which was headlined by a keynote speech from Nick Knight OBE, the world-renowned fashion photography visionary.

One month ago, in a freak soccer accident, I was flipped on my head and snapped my collar bone. Besides the excruciating pain, my mind immediately ran through the calendar of jobs I had lined up as a freelance photographer and videographer in the coming weeks that I knew I’d have to navigate with one arm. Panic quickly set in. 

Panasonic have just announced the Panasonic Lumix G9, a high-end Micro Four Thirds camera that is photography focused. Similar in size and spec to the video feature rich GH5, Panasonic describe the G9 as their ultimate stills offering. 

The first episode of "Blue Planet II" was aired in the U.K. this week to critical acclaim, showcasing some of the most remarkable camerawork ever seen on the seas, and even giving us a behind-the-scenes look at the huge efforts undergone in capturing this international TV event. 

The ultimate lifehack tool or an unnecessary distraction? Love them or loath them, the Apple Watch is here to stay. But does it have any real use case for a photographer? Well, here are five of them! 

"Fight Club" and "Se7en" Director David Fincher's distinct camera work has polarized film critics throughout his career. But with the release of "Mindhunter" on Netflix, this video delves into the nuts and bolts of Fincher’s style, and what this means to the audience. 

With a multitude of template-based services offered, website building has never been easier. But wedding photography websites demand specific functionality that need to be considered in the design process. Here is a guide on setting up your first, or rebranded, website for a modern wedding photography business. 

External monitors are vital pieces of kit in any videographer's bag, but what about using that big screen you carry around with you already? Here is how you turn your iPhone into an external monitor on the Panasonic GH5. 

A freelance lifestyle is a goal that many aspire towards in photography and videography. It’s a goal I achieved this time exactly one year ago. After a brief honeymoon period, I quickly learned some important lessons that I’d like to share with those who look to be making the leap across the great divide. 

While Taylor Swift’s gorgeous looking revenge-fest music video to “Look What You Made Me Do” continues to break streaming records across the Internet, I’d like to shine a light on some of the lesser-known music videos that have stood out over the last few months that don’t demand the eye watering budget of a Swifty vid. 

Panasonic just published the full release notes of the promised free firmware update for the GH5. Upon release earlier in the year, early adopters of the camera have been blown away with its performance, yet have come across some several teething issues that have been fed back to Panasonic.

Picture the scene: you’re at a party and end up chatting to a stranger. In amongst the friendly chitchat, your ears prick up as you realize this could be a potential photography client. But you don’t want to pull out the full sales pitch, you’re at a party after all. This is where having a premium business card can go to work for you. 

In part two of our Micro Four-Thirds lens guide, we focus on some of the best telephoto lens options. The 2x crop factor of this format offers photographers and videographers some seriously impressive reach which is compact and affordable compared to full-frame alternatives. 

The Micro Four-Thirds format was a pioneer of the mirrorless revolution. Initially adopted by Olympus and Panasonic in 2008, there is now a huge lens choice of zooms and primes across focal lengths from 7.5mm to 400mm. This is a guide to the best lens choices across a range of budgets for both photography and video. 

Dancing on treadmills, zero-gravity choreography, laser-beamed toast, and extreme dominoes — this is a list of some of the wonderful and wacky ideas OK Go have turned into music videos. Every one is wonderfully executed, but how do they devise and develop such elaborate and complicated ideas during their creative process? 

Finding the perfect soundtrack for a video project or short film can be a laborious and painful process for budget filmmakers, yet it’s a task that requires plenty of care and attention. Websites like Audio Jungle make it affordable to license music, yet the huge library means finding the ideal track difficult.

The box-set revolution of the last fifteen years has pressed huge demands of screenwriters to flesh out narratives into 10-20 hours of television. Over the last few years, there has been a go-to technique that has helped writers add meat to the bones of complex narratives, whilst filling up the content needed to air modern TV shows.