THE PHOTOGRAPHER'S GUIDE TO PRO VIDEO

Understand the differences between shooting stills and video, and embrace the internet’s hottest content type

For photographers who’ve spent years learning to capture the decisive moment in a single frame, videography can be an intimidating area of image capture. The rules of shooting moving images fly in the face of many of the established, and therefore well-practised, techniques of stills photography. Furthermore, the need for new and often costly equipment means additional outlay, which can be a daunting prospect when you think about all of the holidays you’ve already missed out on because you had to outfit your photography kit bag.

This can all lead to a general reluctance to explore beyond the realms of stills photography, which can limit our creative horizons – never a good thing in today’s world of rapidly evolving tastes for content. Video provides a whole new way of conveying a story, and both photography and videography have their individual strengths and weaknesses, but both speak to audiences in different ways – one is no better or worse than the other for any given shooting situation. Wedding, event and commercial clients all have an appetite for video content in 2021, and if you’re able to offer both stills and video you’re well-positioned to outcompete photographers who stick to the former.

Part of the problem photographers have with the transition to video is the perceived complexity of the technical aspects, particularly the different settings and formats. While this can be unsettling at first, with practice you’ll recognise more similarities than were initially apparent, and armed with your existing knowledge of light, colour and composition, you’ll find that you already have the expertise needed to adapt seamlessly to video shooting.

CAMERA CHOICE 1: DSLR/MIRRORLESS

FAMILIAR LAYOUT