Why Don't Photographers Do More Video?
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When we look at the specs for every new camera being released, every one of them offers really incredible video capability. Yet it seems that it goes unused. Why is that?
If I knew the one answer, I’d sell it to camera makers who put lots of work into video, that I see used sparingly. Yet there is a ton of video being shot, albeit mostly on smartphones as best as I can tell. And at the risk of sounding a bit ageist, younger folks are much more inclined to make a video than those with more tenure on the planet. Is this a comfort thing, a reluctance to embrace change thing, or is it something else?
I’ve done a lot of trainings for people who are adept still photographers on how to shoot video with the gear that they already own. The majority say that it sure looks simple and that they’re going to do it. Of course there are some who say no, not ever, not me, and that’s ok for them, but then why spend money on a new camera when most all of the real innovation is in the video area? Yet, the people who say that they will, mostly don’t.
It cannot be a time thing. The folks that I speak of are talented photographers. They take their time in preparation, composition, timing, and then the entire post processing sequence. They have the time, and while some are quite skilled in all these areas, they were not always so. Shooting some video clips doesn’t take any more time than doing stills, and the post processing work can actually be just as easy.
Not every still works out to be a keeper, so it’s fair to conclude that not every video clip is going to be perfect either.
You see my quandary. An answer of I’m not interested may be kind of true, but if so, why do so many people watch television or movies? A video is just a sequence of stills. I see photographers at zoos and airshows with the camera on high speed burst and end up coming home with thousands of pictures to cull through. A video clip doesn’t need to be long, usually not more than 15 seconds. For those who like high frame counts, give yourself a gold star because that’s just like 450 stills. And the culling will be a lot less painful.
Some people are afraid that their video will be boring. Have you seen some of the tripe on Instagram and TikTok? Boring has been achieved by millions already. Nothing to be frightened of.
Let me think about a sport that I used to do and really enjoyed, which was grand slalom skiing. There’s a lot of dead time, and then there is the run which is over super quickly. When I photographed the sport, I would set up to get the best gesture of the skier coming around the gate, looking for unweighting and body position and if I was super lucky, getting they eyes visible. I shot a lot of frames and if I was on my game, I might get some decent frames. But no matter what I shot, it was an instant in time, and the total energy, the speed and the determination were lost more than found. The first time I shot video, I set up in the same place, panning the shot, but as a continuous sequence, instead of a burst of single frames. On playback the skiers enjoyed it more, although they still would get a large print if a still worked out. Not OR but AND.
I know when I was learning to ski, the instructors recorded us and we spent time watching ourselves to learn how to be better, but there was a secondary thrill in seeing yourself or your spouse make a “perfect” turn and to be able to play it back and bring that emotion right up. What was bad is that it was on tape, whose format waned or got damaged. It’s different today. I can shoot a series of clips, do some quick edits and have them live on YouTube or Vimeo in very little total time. And no tapes or machinery to worry about because it’s all digital. Just like stills.
I’m going to take the position that if you are not doing some video today, even if only as supporting cast to your stills, you are doing yourself a grave disservice. I dare you to shoot some clips. clean them up and then put them on your social media or wherever you already post your stills. What are you afraid of?
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I'm Ross Chevalier, thanks for reading, watching and listening and until next time, peace.
