Why Video?
If you’re reading this article then the thought has probably crossed your mind that you should look into making video content. Maybe you’ve seen some amazing videos online and thought “Wow, I would love to be able to make something like that!” Maybe you’ve gotten to a good spot with your still photography skills and want to challenge yourself with something new. Or maybe you’ve had clients asking for video content and you just hate having to pass up that extra income.
Whatever the reason is, I have good news for you. If you’re already a photographer then you’ve got a huge headstart over other people just starting to learn video! You most likely already have a camera that can shoot video (like the ones below), and you already know how to use that camera. You already know half the terms and settings used in video (shutter speed, aperture, ISO, etc.) because they’re the same ones you use for photography. And you already know the fundamental principles of cinematography such as lighting, composition, and camera angles.
However I’m not going to totally candy coat it for you—a lot of photographers find learning video to be hard, and that’s because there are some major differences. But in this article I’ll try and make those differences as simple and easy to understand as possible.
Exposure
Let’s start by talking about exposure since it’s a subject you’re already familiar with. Like with photography, in video your exposure is determined by your camera’s aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. First off, the aperture (f-stop) and ISO work the same as with photography (yay!). If you need to let more light in you can open up the aperture or you can brighten your image by raising the ISO. Sounds familiar right? Now let’s start going into some differences.
Normally in photography another way to let more light in is by slowing your shutter speed. The longer you leave the shutter open the more light will come in and brighter your image will be. However in video you rarely change your shutter speed, and let me explain why. You already know from photography that when you change your shutter speed it has an effect on motion blur (see below image).
If your subject is moving fast and your shutter speed is too slow you’ll see motion blur in your photo. Normally as photographers we don’t want that motion blur (unless we’re doing creative long exposures or something), so we increase the shutter speed to get rid of it. However in video our eyes are accustomed to seeing a certain amount of motion blur. And when we don’t see that motion blur in the video something feels off and it looks strange to us. Why? Well, let’s talk about something we’re all at least a little bit familiar with—Hollywood and watching movies.
Frame Rate
In movies the camera’s frame rate is typically set to 24 frames per second (fps), meaning the camera captures 24 frames or still images every second. Without going too far into a history lesson, this came about originally from the old days of using film. And long story short, 24 fps became the industry standard (at least in the United States). So what does this mean for you? It means you can set your frame rate in your camera to 24 fps (or 23.976 fps) and you’ll be in a good spot to start filming. But what does this have to do with shutter speed? We’re getting there.
The simple rule for shutter speed is that when your frame rate is set to 24 fps (or 24p) you should set your shutter speed to double, or 1/48 (on a DSLR the closest might be 1/50). But why? Remember when we were just talking about motion blur? Very simply put, having your shutter speed at double the frame rate makes the motion blur in your footage look pleasing to your eye. Some people say it’s the closest to what your eye actually sees in real life. If you want to read up on all the technical details you can do a search for the 180-degree shutter rule and geek out to your filmmaking heart’s content.
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So let’s quickly review what we’ve learned so far. If you want to start shooting video, the easiest way is to set your frame rate to 24 fps and your shutter speed to 1/48 (or 1/50) and you’re ready to go. Easy peasy! And if you want to change your exposure, the two things you can adjust are your aperture and ISO. Nice! Okay, let’s move on.
Slow Motion
Since we’re already talking about frame rates let’s talk about slow motion. Some people think slow motion is overused, but it’s one of the easiest ways to make your footage feel more dramatic. And how do you accomplish it? Simply put, just film at a higher frame rate like 60 or 120 fps (rather than 24), then later when you bring your footage into your editing software like Adobe Premiere or Final Cut Pro you can slow it down to 24 fps. Voila, you’ve got slow motion footage!
Also, an added benefit to shooting slow motion is that your footage will be more stabilized (less shaky). See the video example below:
As you can see, once you slow down the footage it ends up looking a lot more stabilized and smooth. (If you’re curious, the first clip was filmed with a Sony a7s II at 60fps on a Glidecam for stabilization, and the second with a Canon 1DX II at 120fps with a Ronin-S for stabilization while running. We’ll talk about stabilization next.)
One thing to remember though if you’re shooting slow motion—like we talked about before, you’ll need to set your shutter speed to double the frame rate. If your frame rate is set to 60 fps then your shutter speed should be 1/120, and if your frame rate is 120 fps then your shutter should be 1/240.
Stabilization
Stabilization is a very important subject when it comes to video. You could call it a matter of personal taste, but typically video is more pleasing to view if it’s stabilized. There are exceptions of course, when you want your footage to be more gritty/energetic (think war movie like Saving Private Ryan or action-packed movie like Jason Bourne) or realistic (a reality TV show or someone vlogging). But even those examples are usually shot with some sort of stabilization to avoid microshakes/jitteryness.
Tripods are great for “locked off” or static shots that aren’t moving. Another simple way to stabilize your footage (at least a little bit) is to use your camera strap. With your camera strap around your neck you pull the camera away from your body making the strap taut and keeping some of those microshakes out of your footage. This technique is even better when used in combination with shooting slow motion (especially 120 fps).
I’m sure you’re also familiar with internal stabilization, which could be built into your lens or your camera. Cameras are getting much better at internal stabilization these days (just look at hypersmooth on the GoPro Hero 7), but typically you’d still want to use some sort of a stabilizer. And usually for someone just getting into video that means using a gimbal.
Gimbals are constantly evolving and getting better. When I got started in video the standard gimbal was the Glidecam, which is a manual gimbal (no motor). But now it’s much more practical to get a motorized gimbal such as the Ronin-S or a Zhiyun Crane.
Once you balance your gimbal the motor steadies your camera, taking out all of the shakes and wobbles. You still need a bit of practice to get really smooth shots (especially with more advanced camera moves), but the gimbal does most of the hard work for you. There are a lot of different camera moves you can do once you have a gimbal, the most typical being pans, tilts, and dolly moves (tracking / side-to-side, push in, pull out, follow, etc.). The best thing to do though is to just get practice and experiment with your gimbal. You’ll start getting better in no time and learn the kinds of moves that fit your style.
Focus
As a photographer you know how important it is to get tack sharp focus on your subject. Focusing on your subject’s arm rather than their eyes could mean the difference between a beautiful, usable photo and one that gets thrown away. It’s not much different in video…however you do have a little bit of wiggle room. Since most videos are viewed at small resolutions (especially compared to large megapixel photographs) and since you usually always have some motion blur in your footage anyway, your focus doesn’t always have to be spot on all the time. But we’ll go over a few ways that can help you grab focus as much as possible.
One good way to make sure your subject is in focus is to set focus before you start filming/moving. For example, let’s say you want to follow someone that’s walking. First have them stand still at about the distance you’ll be following them. Then set your focus on the back of their head or their back by either manually turning your focus ring until they’re in focus or by half-pressing your shutter to autofocus on them. Then once they start walking you try and stay that same distance from them the whole time. Depending on your aperture setting and depth of field you may be able to move a little closer or farther from them without them becoming blurry.
That brings me to my next tip. If you really want to make sure your subject is in focus, especially if you’re moving around a lot with the camera, just close down your aperture more. It will be a lot easier to keep your subject in focus at f/10 than it will at f/1.4. However when you do this you lose some of that beautiful bokeh / blurry background. So there’s definitely a tradeoff, and you have to decide which is more important for your style and what you’re filming.
This last tip is definitely the easiest way to focus, especially if you’re not used to manually focusing. And that’s by setting your camera to continuous autofocus. Luckily these days a lot of cameras are getting better continuous autofocus for video, meaning that your camera will automatically try and keep focus for you. Typically the default target area is the middle of the frame, so your camera will try and keep whatever is in the middle area of the frame in focus. You can change the target area in your settings, or some newer cameras let you touch your LCD screen to change the target area to wherever you touch. Some cameras also have face or eye detect so that the camera will track your subject’s face and keep focus on it as you or your subject moves around.
Newer cameras, especially from Sony and Canon (Canon 1DX II, EOS-R, Sony A7III, A7R III, a6500, etc.) will have good continuous autofocus, whereas cameras from a few years back will not have as good. But it’s fairly easy to search for your camera along with “continuous autofocus video” on youtube to find reviews and more info.
Audio
Okay, one last important thing to go over, which is audio. When creating videos audio is one of the most important parts of telling your story. For example, imagine if either of the videos above in this article (the reel or the slow motion comparison) didn’t have music. They would be much less engaging and have much less impact on the viewer. And music is just the beginning. Capturing audio while you’re filming is so important. You may need to capture audio if someone is talking for an interview or vlog, or you may want to capture surrounding ambient noises to help your viewer feel more a part of the scene.
Here are some easy ways to capture audio. The first (but not most ideal) would be to just use your camera’s built-in microphone. This could maybe work for a little bit when you’re just starting out, but you’ll soon find that the quality of the on-board microphone is not very good. Once that happens you’ll want to purchase an on-camera microphone to plug into your camera (some examples are the Rode Videomicro and the Videomic Pro Plus) that gets better quality and more directional audio than the built-in camera mic.
And if you get into doing interviews or more narrative work you’ll want to get some sort of external microphone such as a recorder or boom mic. An external recorder like the Zoom H1n paired with a cheap lavalier microphone is a good place to start. Or you can just purchase a lav mic for your phone and get a recording app, which is even cheaper.
Summary
While this article is just scratching the surface of video production, it should at least give you the essential knowledge you need to film your first video. Just remember that creating videos takes time, effort and practice. Start by filming a simple video to build some confidence, then keep doing it to get better and better. Pretty soon you’ll have a new creative outlet in addition to your photography, as well as a new service to offer your clients!
If you want to go deeper into video, be sure to join the Find Amazing Newsletter where I send emails about video production, the business of videography/photography, and more!
