Andreas Posted March 11, 2019 Share Posted March 11, 2019 I checked the material at some agencies and wonder if its difficult to create this type of footage - except some test shots I never used the video option of my Olympus M1II. I do mostly travel/landscape. Do I miss something if I - use 4k/30 fps - WB, shutter, focus all manual - use tripod, or utilize the pretty good camera stabilization - is an ND filter needed/do I need longer shutter speed (fps *2) for subjects like waterfalls, scenic view, coast seen from ferry ? - is it sufficient to use Adobe premiere elements or MAGIX plus ? Adobe has a kind of dehaze function which looks useful for landscape. Looks like most clips are just developed & cut, no sound needed. Output in H.264 seems to be common. There exists a large agency that pay 50 % to the contributor, contributor may define price himself (sounds strange, doesnt it ?? -) Might be worth to spend some time on this, sales prices are reasonable, question how good footage sells. Any useful tips welcome - Andreas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joseph Clemson Posted March 11, 2019 Share Posted March 11, 2019 Shutter speed should normally be frame rate x 2 (e.g. 30fps = 1/60). Dedicated video cameras usually have built in ND filters enable the correct shutter speed. With DSLRs you usually need to use an external ND filter to get the shutter speed sufficiently low, unless the day is cloudy. I suppose you could experiment with even slower shutter speeds to produce motion blur on a subject like a waterfall, but I'm not sure how these would fare in quality control inspection. I'm not sure why you would want to vary the shutter speed for a shot of the coast from a ferry. I use a tripod all the time. If you can, get a fluid head which enables smooth panning. I'm told there is a fashion for hand held shooting, but I've never indulged in it. At one time video agencies would reject any clips that exhibited handheld instability, but I don't know about now. I use DaVinci Resolve which is free in its 'lite' version. Even the lite version is professional, complicated and very powerful, lacking only noise reduction in the free version. I output clips in H.264 nowadays but manually set the keyframes setting to every 1 frame to maximise quality for subsequent re-editing. No sound is the normal route, unless it has been captured on a dedicated audio device such as an external mic and specifically enhances the clip - general background sound is strongly discouraged. The agency you mention sells fewer individual clips for me than the microstock market leader, but prices tends to be higher because I can set my own price. I have 1000 very ordinary clips there, very little of which is model-released stuff and a lot of soft editorial, and I sell a couple of clips per month on average. I'm sure other contributors do better than I do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted March 11, 2019 Share Posted March 11, 2019 I wish Alamy would start accepting footage again (hint, hint). I'm just a dabbler, so take what I say with a grain of salt. A variable ND comes in handy, but I find that I don't usually need one if I set ISO on "auto" (100 ISO min, 6400 max) and record at 1/50 or 1/60 sec. I always use a tripod with a pan head, manual or continuous AF, and stabilization off (when using tripod) with my Sony a6000, which doesn't deliver 4K unfortunately. I've submitted some clips to that large video website you mention, but have had no sales there. I don't really have enough clips online yet to tell whether of not they sell well. As with still images, the supply is huge. I make the occasional sale at a certain "tier 1" micro agency with my tiny collection. I plan to get out and do more dabbling if spring ever arrives in Vancouver. P.S. Looks as if Joseph beat me to it. He knows a lot more than I do... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Ashmore Posted March 11, 2019 Share Posted March 11, 2019 Yes.. I wish Alamy accepted video.. not that I've really got into it but I think they are missing a trick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted March 12, 2019 Share Posted March 12, 2019 6 hours ago, Matt Ashmore said: Yes.. I wish Alamy accepted video.. not that I've really got into it but I think they are missing a trick. Perhaps they feel that the video market is already saturated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andreas Posted March 12, 2019 Author Share Posted March 12, 2019 Thanks for all your notes, will check DaVinci. Would prefer if Alamy sells footage as well... Andreas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joseph Clemson Posted March 12, 2019 Share Posted March 12, 2019 9 hours ago, John Mitchell said: I wish Alamy would start accepting footage again (hint, hint). I'm just a dabbler, so take what I say with a grain of salt. A variable ND comes in handy, but I find that I don't usually need one if I set ISO on "auto" (100 ISO min, 6400 max) and record at 1/50 or 1/60 sec. I always use a tripod with a pan head, manual or continuous AF, and stabilization off (when using tripod) with my Sony a6000, which doesn't deliver 4K unfortunately. I've submitted some clips to that large video website you mention, but have had no sales there. I don't really have enough clips online yet to tell whether of not they sell well. As with still images, the supply is huge. I make the occasional sale at a certain "tier 1" micro agency with my tiny collection. I plan to get out and do more dabbling if spring ever arrives in Vancouver. P.S. Looks as if Joseph beat me to it. He knows a lot more than I do... John, I find that on a normal sunny day even with ISO 100 it can be hard to get 1/50th shutter speed without going to an aperture of f/16 or smaller. Shallow depth of field is often desirable in video work so the ND filter is a valuable tool. Continuous AF has not usually been recommended as the lens almost inevitably hunts for focus during shots and that may well lead to a QC fail. I don't know if the newest lens and cameras are capable of avoiding this issue on auto focus, but I would always go for a manual focus and then turn off auto-focus prior to pressing the record button. Related to this is finding ways of shifting focus in shot (eg. foreground to background). This is an attractive video technique, but hard to achieve well with DSLR as the camera almost inevitable shakes when the focus ring is turned manually. I've been using the Android tablet app 'DSLR controller' on my Canon 60D (which involves a bit of quite technical stuff and a firmware add-on on you SD card, and is not necessarily for the faint-hearted). This provides, amongst many other things, automatic control of focus shift, but it is very fiddly to use and you can spend ages setting up a shot. The app can also be very useful on a tablet computer or large screen mobile phone as it provides a larger display that the camera LED screen, making manual focussing easier. However, getting a reliable manual focus outdoors on a sunny day can be a challenge as whatever screen you use as it can be hard to see clearly. You mention 4K. I've held off upgrading to 4K so far, but it looks to be gaining some traction, though HD is still the biggest selling format. The problem with 4K is not just getting the camera with the capability, but upgrading one's computer kit and hard disk storage to handle the massive files 4K produces. At some point the bullet will have to be bitten, but I'm not sure when. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted March 12, 2019 Share Posted March 12, 2019 9 hours ago, Joseph Clemson said: John, I find that on a normal sunny day even with ISO 100 it can be hard to get 1/50th shutter speed without going to an aperture of f/16 or smaller. Shallow depth of field is often desirable in video work so the ND filter is a valuable tool. Continuous AF has not usually been recommended as the lens almost inevitably hunts for focus during shots and that may well lead to a QC fail. I don't know if the newest lens and cameras are capable of avoiding this issue on auto focus, but I would always go for a manual focus and then turn off auto-focus prior to pressing the record button. Related to this is finding ways of shifting focus in shot (eg. foreground to background). This is an attractive video technique, but hard to achieve well with DSLR as the camera almost inevitable shakes when the focus ring is turned manually. I've been using the Android tablet app 'DSLR controller' on my Canon 60D (which involves a bit of quite technical stuff and a firmware add-on on you SD card, and is not necessarily for the faint-hearted). This provides, amongst many other things, automatic control of focus shift, but it is very fiddly to use and you can spend ages setting up a shot. The app can also be very useful on a tablet computer or large screen mobile phone as it provides a larger display that the camera LED screen, making manual focussing easier. However, getting a reliable manual focus outdoors on a sunny day can be a challenge as whatever screen you use as it can be hard to see clearly. You mention 4K. I've held off upgrading to 4K so far, but it looks to be gaining some traction, though HD is still the biggest selling format. The problem with 4K is not just getting the camera with the capability, but upgrading one's computer kit and hard disk storage to handle the massive files 4K produces. At some point the bullet will have to be bitten, but I'm not sure when. Thanks for the helpful info, Joseph. As mentioned, I do have a variable ND filter for bright days, which do occasionally happen in Vancouver. Manual focus is my first choice as well. In fact I have a couple of old manual focus "legacy" lenses that I sometimes use for video. I've yet to have a QC fail when using continuous AF, though. My ageing PC -- or my budget -- probably couldn't handle 4K video, so no plans to do any upgrading from HD at the moment. I also wonder how many customers are willing to pay extra for 4K as the price differential is significant. Shooting video for me is a pleasant break from doing still photography, and it's always fun to learn something new. Don't imagine that I'll be making much from it. Coming up with inspiration for clips is perhaps the toughest part. All the obvious stuff has been covered over and over again. Then again, that's not exactly breaking news these days. Have to say that I don't really understand the video clip market. There's a lot of really boring stuff out there (not that my offerings are anything special). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Ashmore Posted March 12, 2019 Share Posted March 12, 2019 35 minutes ago, John Mitchell said: Thanks for the helpful info, Joseph. As mentioned, I do have a variable ND filter for bright days, which do occasionally happen in Vancouver. Manual focus is my first choice as well. In fact I have a couple of old manual focus "legacy" lenses that I sometimes use for video. I've yet to have a QC fail when using continuous AF, though. My ageing PC -- or my budget -- probably couldn't handle 4K video, so no plans to do any upgrading from HD at the moment. I also wonder how many customers are willing to pay extra for 4K as the price differential is significant. Shooting video for me is a pleasant break from doing still photography, and it's always fun to learn something new. Don't imagine that I'll be making much from it. Coming up with inspiration for clips is perhaps the toughest part. All the obvious stuff has been covered over and over again. Then again, that's not exactly breaking news these days. Have to say that I don't really understand the video clip market. There's a lot of really boring stuff out there (not that my offerings are anything special). I guess if you are somewhere taking photographs and your camera is capable of taking video then there's no harm taking a couple of 20 second clips once you've done with your photos. I guess all you lose is a bit of time. Certainly this is how I'm starting to think. What I am also starting to play with a little is time lapse. This does take a little longer as you have to hang around for 15 - 20 minutes as your camera takes several hundred photos and then copying and processing all of the images takes time. Plus it also eats memory card space! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted March 12, 2019 Share Posted March 12, 2019 39 minutes ago, Matt Ashmore said: I guess if you are somewhere taking photographs and your camera is capable of taking video then there's no harm taking a couple of 20 second clips once you've done with your photos. I guess all you lose is a bit of time. Certainly this is how I'm starting to think. What I am also starting to play with a little is time lapse. This does take a little longer as you have to hang around for 15 - 20 minutes as your camera takes several hundred photos and then copying and processing all of the images takes time. Plus it also eats memory card space! Yes, that's about the size of it. I've got plenty of time to lose these days. Haven't tried time lapse yet. Right now I'm just trying to get some of the basics down. However, the weather here isn't being very cooperative. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inchiquin Posted March 13, 2019 Share Posted March 13, 2019 On 12/03/2019 at 08:16, Joseph Clemson said: Related to this is finding ways of shifting focus in shot (eg. foreground to background). This is an attractive video technique, but hard to achieve well with DSLR as the camera almost inevitable shakes when the focus ring is turned manually. Are there not DSLRs that can do this via touchscreen now? I had a feeling that the Canon 80D is one. Alan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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