Hi guys, I am not a videographer, I shoot stills. That's what we do here, that's our knowledge base and our passion but I agreed to help a friend out and shoot a video with them for Youtube. We had fun but being a still photographer and not a videographer, a lot of stuff was new to me and my partner. Thought I would share some tips that we picked up along the way.
Tip 1 - Manual baby!
We use Canon gear and we shot the video on our Canon 6D as we heard it had some cool additions for video over some of our other gear. I have never tried doing anything other than leaving the camera on TV or AV and popping on the video and crossing my fingers. This time we did some reading, turns out always shoot video on Manual.
Tip 2 - Shutter speed
According to some folks who have a lot more knowledge that us in the video field, shutter speed is key 1/160th is good for most things you will want to shoot unless you want slowmo or super fast action stuff.
Tip 3 - Background Noise
Use the wind filter, it really does help with background noise as well as wind! We also discovered that if your video is really about sound content and not just the pretty pictures, it is worth investing in either an external mic of some sort or if you prefer you can get some gadgets that will allow you to plug in headphones and hear the "true sound" you are getting and then play with the camera's internal attenuator. (Oh look at me all professional with my videography terms now eh!)
Tip 4 - iMovie Rocks!
We here at Heart Rock Photos like anything that Rocks! And iMovie does indeed Rock the heck out of making it easier for a newbie videographer to create something that looks pretty sleek. Transitions, headlines, credits and super easy upload to Facebook, Youtube or save as a movie on your computer. One tip for you guys, drag your clip to the area where you are working then drag in a headline box and a credits box etc where you want them before you start typing your text... it took me a few goes to figure that out.
So for someone who knows all about Photography and next to nothing about Videography, we survived and had some fun along the way. It was so cool in fact that we just created a Youtube channel of our own. So be on the lookout soon for some videos from yours truly.
As always, thanks for reading.