Photography to videography |
Today I have a really cool topic. I want to discuss this because it’s personal to me. My journey as a filmmaker is making the big transition from photography to videography. I’ve personally been a professional photographer. For the last five or six years shooting weddings, music, portraits, and so much more. Constantly learning and growing from my craft, branching out to new things, and wanting to gain more and more skills.
Image by StockSnap from Pixabay
This brought me to learn videography and want to become a videographer. So that I can not only take great still images but also move images. There are a lot of things I’m learning while taking this big step. In some settings that I thought I knew but are used very differently when shooting video. And I’ve had to really adjust my thinking to how I shoot video is a totally different beast than photography.
What I have learned in videography
Today I’m going to share what I wish I had known going into videography and what I’ve learned. So far I’m going to be going over some key tips about camera settings for videography.
You might already know a little bit about how to use them for photography. But might not know just exactly how they can be applied to videography. As well as some of the initial things I had to learn when I started my journey as a videographer.
So if you are a photographer. and you want to make a big leap into videography, This is the article for you. So these things I’m about to go over are really important key components to shooting video.
If you’re already a photographer like myself. You might have a basic understanding of these but it’s very likely you might have to shift the way you think about a couple of things. Because in the video sometimes, you’ll have to use the same settings differently that being mentioned. Let’s see the first thing I want to discuss.
Frame Rate For Videography
Is something that has a big impact on your videography style and cinematic look, that is your frame rate. Now we already know as photographers the higher your frame rate the more images your camera takes faster. If you want more photos taken within a given time to ensure you get a perfect shot.
I would raise my frames per second in my burst mode in videography. Your frame rate plays a huge role in capturing cinematic images. Are you wanting to slow your footage down for some slow-motion action? you’ll need the most possible frames per second to achieve this.
Otherwise, your footage will look a little choppy and may be unintentional video. The term frame rate means how many frames are in one second of your video.
So if we’re shooting something at 30 frames per second, then inside one second of footage, there will be 30 frames taken to equal one second. The industry standard frame rate is 24 frames per second.
This is the most cinematic and it is what they use in Hollywood. Today it will give you the most natural-looking motion. That is similar to what our eyes see in slow motion.
I would always recommend shooting at 60 fps so you have a total of 60 frames being taken every single second if you were to shoot at 24 fps or 30 fps. Your camera would have quite literally only half the frames to work with.
And you will noticeably see a difference in your shots once you slow them down. But remember to be careful, when setting your camera up to shoot, because there have been multiple times.
I personally forgot to change this simple setting and accidentally shot for an hour and 24 fps. When I intended to slow down my footage and ended up having to reshoot as a photographer.
This is something we’ve never had to even think about, but with video, this is one of the most important steps. To make sure you’re shooting the most cinematic images.
Shutter speed
Now the next thing is your shutter speed. I know what you’re thinking. Do you know about shutter speed?
The bigger the number, the faster your shutter opens and closes, but how does this translate to videography? Well, it’s pretty much the exact same thing except it’s all done digitally.
You’re basically affecting how long each of those 24 frames is. Is exposed to the world. but there is a rule that I wasn’t aware of coming from photography. And that is to set your shutter speed to double your frame rate.
This helps you achieve the best and most cinematic look possible.
That means if you’re shooting at 30fps. Set your shutter to 160th in photography, raising your shutter speed can be beneficial to ensure you are able to capture the motion of moving subjects.
But with video, this has a much different feel raising your shutter speed super high. Will cause your image to be choppy which might be cool for an action sequence, But not for most other shots. When shooting video don’t use your shutter speed to adjust your light.
Like we would do with photography when taking pictures.
I would raise or lower my shutter speed all the time to correct my exposure. But with video, if you set your shutter at double the frame rate and your image is still too bright.
Your shutter speed is already set. Now you’d either have to raise your f-stop a little bit or you can also use this.
ND Filter
The next important tip I’ve learned is to use an nd filter now chances are if you’re creative. Who strictly does photography? There’s a relatively high chance that you’ve never been in a specific situation where you needed to filter.
Because if your scene was too bright you could just crank up your shutter speed to achieve that perfect light with a video.
That’s not always the case. Because if you’re shooting at 60fps, you’re probably then limited to 120th of a second for your shutter. What if the image is too bright?
Sure you can close the aperture which will darken the image. But also bring your background into focus or you can always pop that filter on the end of your lens to bring down the amount of light.
That it’s able to take in, think of an nd filter as a pair of sunglasses for your camera. Most videos are shot outside under harsh light, and sources are almost always required.
Using an nd filter because the shutter speed can’t be cranked up as we would typically do with our photography. There were several times before I started using filters when I wanted to achieve a certain look. But raising my shutter speed to fix my exposure dramatically changed the feel of my image when I should have just used an nd filter to correct the exposure.
That way you are still able to double your frame rate with your shutter. And stay at a relatively low aperture to maintain a depth of field without your image being totally overexposed. If you’re wanting to get into the video world, buy an nd filter immediately.
The next thing I want to talk about is motion. As a photographer, this isn’t
something we think too much about if even at all really. Because typically in order to receive the best images out of the camera. We tend to minimize our movement. So we can get the sharpest image possible with video.
This is totally different. Oftentimes static shots on a tripod or just angles with no movement can actually look pretty boring. If used too frequently in movies and even videos you see online.
Use a ton of movement to keep engaging shots and keep the audience entertained. No seriously what if this whole video was just my face talking pretty boring?
Right there are so many different ways to get creative with filmmaking and add movement to your camera. like simple panning tilting following and sometimes you can even use focus to show movement with stationary shots.
Most photographers except for the occasional tripod videographer use tools and stabilizers to achieve movement in their shots without getting shaky footage.
So you might think that when you jump into a video all your photography gear will work fine but in reality that isn’t the case. You’ll probably need to buy some gear to stabilize your footage and really pay attention to the movements. You’re creating with your camera.
Video Stabilization
This leads us to this next topic stability. Now there are many different ways to achieve stability in your video image. One way is in-body stabilization.
Some cameras and most intermediate to professional mirrorless cameras have in-body stabilization. That will actually help you get relatively smooth handheld footage.
Sometimes for easy shots, where I don’t need to move around much, this gets the job done. However, I don’t recommend shooting anything serious handheld. Because you’ll be extremely limited in what kind of movement you’ll be able to capture.
I would recommend trying a gimbal of some kind to balance your camera. That way you’re able to move forward backward side to side all while getting the extremely smooth footage you want.
Some gimbals can get a little expensive but if you’re wanting to dabble in video. You can find an older model for two or three hundred bucks to get you started.
Now with shooting handheld you’re pretty much stuck in one spot where you’re standing. But if you need a shot, that isn’t moving. you can always use a tripod and even then sometimes you can pan side to side while on a tripod for left and right movement also.
If you’re wanting to pan or tilt with your tripod your super-expensive photography tripod is pretty much worthless photography. Tripod is
designed to move quickly and lock down your shots.
It doesn’t care how smooth your movement is in between when looking for a video tripod. You’re wanting to look for something that says fluid head or drag system. This means that the motion in the tripod head is smooth and designed for video.
All the tripods that don’t say this are really bad. So invest in a gimbal and invest in a tripod that’s designed for video.
Next is lighting, it’s arguably one of the biggest differences between photography and videography.
This is something. I’m constantly still learning with every project. I’m a part of and it might be quite difficult for those of us starting our video careers with photography.
lighting
You mostly just use an on or off-camera flash when you need a little bit of extra light. However, sometimes you can get away with just cranking up your iso and shooting at low apertures to achieve a usable image with video.
This really isn’t the case, instead of using light sources that are triggered. Only when taking your photo, with video, do you have to adjust continuous light sources. Such as video lights and soft lights. These are constant light sources that are always on.
So that you can properly light your subject. If you need to, and also to create depth of field, so not only do you have to light them continually, but you also have to light your scene from the movement.
If you’re moving your camera around, you have to light your scene with the knowledge that your camera will be moving around and looking at different things. Lighting is a beast in itself and would take hours and hours of training to explain it now.
Picture Profile
Now if you’re anything like me. You’ve always seen the option inside your camera to adjust your picture profile. But just ignored it kind of once it only affects your jpeg image and you always color-correct your raw images in lightroom or photoshop.
With video unless you’re shooting on an extremely professional cinema camera, Such as a red or maybe black magic raw. Your camera basically stitches each frame together as jpeg images to form your video.
This means if you want to shoot in a way to achieve the most data. And has the most room to edit your colors and posts. You’ll need to shoot in
a flat picture profile to kind of emulate the idea of shooting raw photos.
Shooting in profiles like standard vivid or neutral is basically shooting in a jpeg format. Which makes it harder to edit a post, I made this mistake. so many times starting out by shooting in standard.
Because it looked bright and nice on the back of my camera only to put my clips in premiere and wish I had more room to edit. So even if you don’t fully understand it, just know that the picture profile you shoot does affect how much detail you have to edit.
So if your camera does have a log profile like a v-log or s-log, that will give you the most detail. But if not just try to shoot in a neutral profile and it will be much better.
Now last but certainly not least is your audio.
I’ve mentioned in this article, and the teachings I’ve done. But audio might be the single most important part of creating a video. This isn’t even a thought in my mind when capturing still images.
Because I typically never have to layer audio with photographs. But with the video, you have the correct sound layered with your visuals. Is almost as important, if not more important than the visuals themselves, using audio in your visual work can make your video. Go from looking like an amateur shot to a professional.
Really quick to get you started on audio. At least buy a microphone that goes on top of your camera for interviews and more professional projects. We would highly recommend getting a boom pole and getting that microphone over your subject.
If you’re just starting out at least a microphone on top of your camera will get you something sound. Design is also crucial. are you filming someone walking through leaves? add an audio clip of someone walking through leaves. What about the ocean and adds some noises from the ocean?
These are key details for photographers who don’t even think about it. Because we usually let the image tell the story with video. You need the visual and the audio to tell the same story, and in most cases a better story.
Because now you’re not only seeing something but also feeling it. Sometimes this subtle difference can make or break your visual work.
I hope this article has helped you grasp some of the key things to learn and understand. while making that big transition from photography to videography understanding these tips and applying them to your everyday shooting will drastically improve your skills as well as the quality of your work.
(Tips from Matt Huffman, a photographer)
