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Stills vs Video
- Thread starter sonnycsc
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erichK
Veteran Member
larsbc
Forum Pro
I don't see how you arrive at that opinion. I've seen a lot of "vlogging" style travel videos featuring urban life and, IMO, they seem to do quite well.
Maybe I'm not being imaginative enough but I can't think of a photo technique that can't also be used with video.
I can understand that. Photos allow you to freeze an instant so you can explore it at your leisure, and you're more tempted to explore to the edges of the frame. You can do this with video, as well, but it requires more effort since the video is continually pulling you through its narrative.
I prefer shooting both. The two mediums complement each other and video also lets me include sound which can also be very strong in and of itself. For creating a comprehensive and entertaining memento of my travels and family, I think video is a necessity. For purely artistic pursuits, I'm happy to work with stills only.
BTW I make my videos available online (Vimeo) and on the digital streaming box at home. This ease of accessibility means that my family have watched my travel videos several times since they're available in the same place that many of our movies and TV shows are found. And for the videos I make of our shared vacations with friends, they are also watched multiple times because my friends can watch them over the Internet via Vimeo.
Best of all is the fact that to record amazing video, I don't need to bring along any additional gear. (Although I will admit that sometimes I'll bring along an action video camera for its extreme durability, small size, and remarkable stabilization [Sony BOSS]).
erichK
Veteran Member
Great post, hank you for the thoughtful commentary
Generally all too true. Our eyes glaze over and we watch passively rather than be provoked to ask questions or even really think.
One of my major objections to programs such Power Director is the degree to which they cater to GoPro style vieography - ultra-wide angle, 3D and increasingly 360 degree.- which, after the initial rush provided by the deluge of light and colou, quickly reduces to vapid, unselective, impersonal imagery.
No right or wrong, perhaps. But beauty or interest, or absence of same, often varying to some degree with the viewer.
But both also very quickly also prostituted themselves to exaggeration and the telling of outright lies.
Thomas Kachadurian
Veteran Member
In my observation video images will engage a larger, but less engaged audience. I'm not sure engaged is the right word, less committed, intelligent, seeking, deep, something. It's like the difference between people who go see a movie rather than reading the book. They get the story but lose the thing the author created. Movies are just easier to consume.
A still is a slice of time created by the photographer to show only the details he/she wants in the way he/she wants them. The rest is up to the viewer to supply and imagine.
Video, particularly amateur video, is a recording of an event. A historical record, less than a creation.
Making video bores me. I can spend hours get one photograph right.
Tom
A still is a slice of time created by the photographer to show only the details he/she wants in the way he/she wants them. The rest is up to the viewer to supply and imagine.
Video, particularly amateur video, is a recording of an event. A historical record, less than a creation.
Making video bores me. I can spend hours get one photograph right.
Tom
Paulmorgan
Veteran Member
I have no idea how you're using PowerDirector, but what you are saying is completely false. To me , your comments indicates someone that doesn't know how to use the program. I started using PowerDirector and AudioDirector in a serious way only two weeks ago.
I produced this from a video with no sound whatsoever and added background music, and sound recorded from other devices. It consists of one video clip and 21 separate audio clips combined/blended together.
PowerDirector works with every video capable camera I have. It's designed to work with any video camera, no more, no less than say DaVinci Resolve.
erichK
Veteran Member
erichK
Veteran Member
Then you are obviously much smarter and more talented than I. I record events, recently mostly classical solo and chamber music performances. The more complicated stuff I mention is still in production/ not yet approved for public posting by the artists and concert boards involved.Here are a couple of simple ones I feel free to post.
And a recent spur-of-the-moment clip for the local German community.
These are simple single camera grabs The ones in the pipeline are more complicated. They use a master WAV track, from a couple Schoepps mics high-mounted as a Blumlein pair feeding a Stereo Devices digital recorder. Sound tracks from the tripod mounted OM5ii (still my mainstay) and G85 and the EM1I operate actively for closeup clips are then just used to synch, though I always equip one of the two high cameras with a decent shotgun and preamp as an emergency backup.
Yes, but whole focus for DaVinci Resolve seems much more professional. The tutorials certainly seem to be, Unfortunately I've been unable to get it to work properly on my most powerful compute, a hex-core Windows PC. Just finally got a reasonably fast iMac to replace an ancient MBP, so this may be a solution.
You enjoy working with Power Director. I have found it very frustrating.
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That's all pretty simple stuff with the camera positioned in just one spot. I wouldn't rave about the sound (can't hear the player speak) or camera positioning (power isolators and whatever in the background and heads in the way), zooming too much, jerky panning, varying colour casts and focus drift. All the best gear in the world isn't going to make video any good if the basics are ignored. I think the video editor is the least of your problems.
I use Rode microphones and an external audio/sound recorder (Olympus LS-14, but higher grade models are available) that is designed for music etc and remotely controlled, it also sets the ambient background noise so that the sound is properly balanced. I'm also starting to compile video from multiple cameras.
I find PowerDirector to be a capable and functional tool. Sure, you can get better like DaVinci, which it's far more valuable for those who are doing professional video. When people suggest that PowerDirector is crap, I see that it reflects more on the user than the program, much like when people say some camera is crap, because they don't know the basics of photography.
That's my two bob's worth.
--
Thoughts, Musings, Ideas and Images from South Gippsland
https://australianimage.com.au
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samtheman2014
Veteran Member
I will second that it was the GH2 especially with all the videocentric hacks that were available for that camera that camera that dragged me down the video road
Video is indeed a whole different challenge with a lot more to think about than capturing stills but very rewarding in the long runlarsbc
Forum Pro
erichK wrote:
Erich, since your output is 1080p, you might consider using the G85 for 4K recording and render your video at 1080p. This will allow you to pan and zoom via the editing software and avoid the jerky optical zooming and refocusing you've been doing.
Michael1000
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erichK
Veteran Member
Let me explain my observations. In your first post you made out as if you were a novice that finds video difficult.
1. You don't position yourself appropriately, so audience members heads are in the way, people even move across your field of view and distracting, out of focus, objects appear at random in your shots.
2. You don't position yourself so that distracting backgrounds aren't visible.
3. Your lighting, exposure and white balance is all over the place.
4. You pan erratically, clearly not using a fluid head.
5. You zoom erratically and zooming is not something overly favoured when it comes to professional video.
6. You don't focus properly, with subjects going in and out of focus at random.
7. It appears as if some of the video is just hand holding and hoping for the best.
8. You don't record audio well, spoken words are unclear, the music seems obscured and often just flat.
9. You don't appear to use an appropriate audio recorder that would allow you to record the entire event on a separate device or, if you do, you don't use it correctly.
10. You barely make use of cuts, close ups, views from different positions/angles, you just point your camera, zoom and pan and think that's enough.
11. I don't know what you use to edit your video and audio, since you hate PowerDirector and AudioDirector so much, but it's certainly not making things any better.
14. And don't pull the age card. I'm 63 and don't use that as an excuse for any failures that I experience.
And you wonder why I'm critical?
But then you responded to my post as if you were a seasoned video professional; a 'creative' that prefers a Mac like other 'creatives'. And you quote that you use specialist 'German' audio equipment, again like a seasoned professional.
But then you show your videos, which are neither creative nor professional; displaying the most fundamental errors a novice can make. And I'll list them in detail:
1. You don't position yourself appropriately, so audience members heads are in the way, people even move across your field of view and distracting, out of focus, objects appear at random in your shots.
2. You don't position yourself so that distracting backgrounds aren't visible.
3. Your lighting, exposure and white balance is all over the place.
4. You pan erratically, clearly not using a fluid head.
5. You zoom erratically and zooming is not something overly favoured when it comes to professional video.
6. You don't focus properly, with subjects going in and out of focus at random.
7. It appears as if some of the video is just hand holding and hoping for the best.
8. You don't record audio well, spoken words are unclear, the music seems obscured and often just flat.
9. You don't appear to use an appropriate audio recorder that would allow you to record the entire event on a separate device or, if you do, you don't use it correctly.
10. You barely make use of cuts, close ups, views from different positions/angles, you just point your camera, zoom and pan and think that's enough.
11. I don't know what you use to edit your video and audio, since you hate PowerDirector and AudioDirector so much, but it's certainly not making things any better.
14. And don't pull the age card. I'm 63 and don't use that as an excuse for any failures that I experience.
And you wonder why I'm critical?
SirSeth
Veteran Member
No direct link, except we can just appreciate both without crowning one as being more real or valid than the other.
Whether stills or video, the artistic vision of the artist and her ability to communicate that vision makes the product more or less meaningful IMO. I agree to some extent with McLuhan that the "medium is the message." Think about how a light bulb "creates" conditions for activities not before possible in the dark. (Of course dark sometimes creates some pretty great conditions as well). Where I diverge with McLuhan is that the I don't completely believe the light bulb has an essence of it's own that is doing this, and I think McLuhan leans that way--I'll leave that to the animists.
Think about going to a movie and then seeing a slide show of the same story. Even if the slide show were narrated by Morgan Freeman, it would be really different artistically, stylistically, and the entertainment value would be anticipated and perceived by the audience very differently. Does one need to be better than the other?
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone
Seth
Whether stills or video, the artistic vision of the artist and her ability to communicate that vision makes the product more or less meaningful IMO. I agree to some extent with McLuhan that the "medium is the message." Think about how a light bulb "creates" conditions for activities not before possible in the dark. (Of course dark sometimes creates some pretty great conditions as well). Where I diverge with McLuhan is that the I don't completely believe the light bulb has an essence of it's own that is doing this, and I think McLuhan leans that way--I'll leave that to the animists.
Think about going to a movie and then seeing a slide show of the same story. Even if the slide show were narrated by Morgan Freeman, it would be really different artistically, stylistically, and the entertainment value would be anticipated and perceived by the audience very differently. Does one need to be better than the other?
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone
Seth
erichK
Veteran Member
As I have -repeatedly- made clear- almost none of the things you would have me do were possible for these videos.
The Festival of Chamber Music is held on Quadra Island. the Schoepps mics, which are indeed German, the big 8 foot ComLock stand on which they are usually mounted as a "Blumlein pair" (named after Alan Dower Blumlein (1903 –1942), an English electronic engineer) to feed Sound Design digital recorder, which is American, were not available for any of these clips. They were still in Saskatoon.
The central issue is why shoot video. My three clips are examples of how it can be used to record and communicate unique events. I choose not to spend my time adding canned music to yet another travelog. We all have our preferences.
You were promoting Video Director. I was warning other of the problems that I have had with it.
No further comment.
The Festival of Chamber Music is held on Quadra Island. the Schoepps mics, which are indeed German, the big 8 foot ComLock stand on which they are usually mounted as a "Blumlein pair" (named after Alan Dower Blumlein (1903 –1942), an English electronic engineer) to feed Sound Design digital recorder, which is American, were not available for any of these clips. They were still in Saskatoon.
The central issue is why shoot video. My three clips are examples of how it can be used to record and communicate unique events. I choose not to spend my time adding canned music to yet another travelog. We all have our preferences.
You were promoting Video Director. I was warning other of the problems that I have had with it.
No further comment.
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Michael1000
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If someone is posts examples in order to validate what one's argument, the examples should actually validate what they are saying. Making excuses about why the examples are no good is not the way of a professional or even an accomplished amateur.
I don't do concerts and this discussion wasn't about concerts. It was about video editing. I provided examples of what the video editor in question is capable of doing, contrary to our concert expert's opinion. But if I did do concerts, I'd do a much better job than those examples.
At least when I shoot something completely off the cuff, it's actually audible and not obscured:
And do you feel better now that you've waded into this debate and beaten your chest to prove your moral superiority?
--
Thoughts, Musings, Ideas and Images from South Gippsland
https://australianimage.com.au
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