Like it or not, video is the preferred means of communication for most content creators today. A quick look at Fstoppers itself proves it. Even if it’s one photographer providing information to other photographers, video is still the medium of choice.
Creating video content can be difficult for a photographer. However, the process of creating a video is markedly different from the process of creating an image. A photographer can ignore ambient sounds when they are taking pictures. However, if they are recording video, audio will be one of their main concerns. What’s worse is that raw video footage has to be edited into a finished product that is both engaging and informative. When it comes to choosing video editing software, there’s a wide range to choose from, from sophisticated professional programs like DaVinci Resolve to free amateur services like iMovie. Filmora 11 is a program that seeks to bridge the gap between professional and amateur video by providing quick and easy access to cool tools like speed boost and auto masking while also not skipping the inclusion of LUTS, audio sync, and endless text options appeal to more serious video creators.
As a photographer, you may want to create two distinctly different types of videos to promote your business. A type of video that will demonstrate your expertise in some aspect of photography. The latter will be softer and have a more casual tone and will help potential customers know who you are. This article will give some instructions on how to create each type of video and show how we can use Filmora 11 to edit these videos.
To showcase your expertise in photography, you can create a tutorial on any aspect of photography you’ve mastered. Even a subject that seems simple to you can be invaluable to an up-and-coming photographer. For the first video to go with this article, I used footage from a tutorial that I shot a few years ago but never actually edited. The subject is how to use instant cameras like Fuji Instax or Polaroid Now to create memorable family photos. It is safe to say that everyone values family photos and this is a topic that I feel will be of interest to professional photographers as well as my clients. When my clients watch this video, they see me as an expert in my field. My clients will understand that other photographers look to me for guidance and this gives them confidence in my ability to handle the photos they require. There’s nothing wrong with creating videos that are only of interest to other professional photographers. These videos can provide you with paid consultation opportunities from other photographers. However, if you want your video to have wider appeal, it’s wise to periodically create a video that everyone taking the picture can enjoy, even if they’re using a smartphone to watch. take a photo. Last year, I made a video on how to make a scavenger hunt photography game for kids and I sent that video to some of my clients.
The footage for this video about creating memorable family photos was shot on the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema 4K camera, which produces flat files by design. Filmora 11 has over 200 built-in stylizations built into the program and over a dozen LUTS, but I was able to process the files using the basic controls for contrast, saturation, color temperature and tone. There are 200 songs and instruments included in the program, so adding a song to a video doesn’t take long. I’ve added archives and GIFs just to show off the program’s capabilities. In Filmora, images and GIFs are sourced from Unsplash, Pixabay, and Giphy and can be downloaded directly into the project without leaving the application. Other effects you see in the video like comic graphics and lightning effects are similarly easy to add.
For the second type of video you can create, personal videos, it’s best to incorporate people in your family or inner circle into the video. If you’re uncomfortable sharing your family life on YouTube, you can keep the video unlisted on YouTube so that only people with the link you provided can see it. I’ve shot some great vlog-style videos with my wife and daughter, but I rarely post them publicly on YouTube. These are shared only with my family, friends and select customers. One trick you can use when talking to customers is casually directing the conversation to a topic of your choice. Imagine that the subject is Philadelphia. In that Philly conversation, you’ll say, “My family just got back from Philly, and we visited the park you mentioned. I’ll send you a video of us at the park. there on Monday.” If customers watch the video when they receive it, they will gain insight into who you are and that will help you become more memorable to them. Instead of just hiring a company or brand for their next shoot, they now have the ability to hire someone who actually has a family they met through the magic of video. They may even be aware that the work they give you will help you take care of that family. In the video below, which has never been publicly posted by me, you can see me interacting with my wife and daughter. This video personifies me in the eyes of my clients, and I know that the next time I’m with my clients, they’ll ask me how my wife and daughter are doing.
A smartphone might be all you need to create a personal video. You can shoot in portrait orientation for proper posting on Instagram Reels. For a professional photographer, it can be difficult to adapt to portrait-oriented filming. Making matters worse is the fact that many professional editing programs don’t make it easy to work with vertical video. If you don’t understand how to properly create a project in your editing software, you may find that your vertical video has been exported as a landscape video with large letterbox areas on each side of the video. This will cause the video to play very small on the smartphone. Filmora 11 provides a cropping option that can be used to create and export vertical videos. Another great option is to shoot your video in landscape orientation and use Filmora 11’s Reframe option to create vertical video. To do this, the program identifies the subject and tries to keep it in the frame vertically even if the camera has moved around during movie recording. To test this feature, I used the program to reframe a tutorial I did on the topic of balancing natural and artificial light.
If starting to make regular videos seems daunting, remember that the Instagram algorithm favors videos. If you want your efforts to build a social media following to be well spent, you’ll need to use video media to showcase your photography prowess. If you’re like me and don’t like using your smartphone to film, you can use your camera instead. Filmora 11 offers an Instant Mode that’s so easy to use that you might expect it to be standard in any professional editing tool, but it’s not. Instant mode lets you quickly import and trim clips without having to create a new project or library, and without having to decide if you want to copy a file to that library or leave it in its original location. Since you don’t create a new project in Filmora 11 to create a trimmed clip, you don’t have to delete the project when you’re done with the clip. This mode is perfect for creating Stories and other short-form video content.
In the process of using Filmora 11 the past few days, I noticed an interface for Acceleration. I’ve seen this effect used on a lot of YouTube videos, but I’ve only tried it once or twice and my results never leave me satisfied. Normally, I would just cut the clip into three parts. I will leave the first and last part at their normal speed. I will increase the speed of the middle clip. Unfortunately, the resulting clip was never the same as the ones I’ve seen on YouTube, where acceleration was used.
The Speed Ramping interface in Filmora 11 made sense to me right away. I selected the Jumper icon based on the thumbnail and expected it to make a video play at normal speed and then speed it up only to drop back to normal speed. I expected to be able to move the keyframe left or right to include more or less footage that would be affected by the ramp ramp. I also expected that if I decrease or raise the height of the keyframe, I will increase or decrease the effect of the ramp. It took me just a few seconds to create this speed ramp from a clip shot in slow motion on a 4k BMPCC. There are several preset speed ramp templates to choose from, but keyframes can be easily moved around to adjust where and how the clip changes speed.
I mentioned earlier that you can shoot some of your commercials with your smartphone and it should be noted that your smartphone has many titles, sound effects and such that you have. You can add to your videos. However, if you don’t like filming on your smartphone, you won’t enjoy editing videos on that device either. All the editing features available on your phone are in Filmora 11 and you’ll likely find that using a computer makes editing quick and easy. Once you’ve created an edited short-form video in Filmora, you can quickly add titles, sound effects, and any of the other add-ons mentioned in this article. I created a quick video to showcase some of the text options that can be easily added to a video.
Promoting your business has always involved the use of a number of different tactics and strategies. In the past, you may have sent direct mail to customers, created a monthly email series, presented at trade shows, and attended social events frequented by your customers. All of these methods are as valid today as they were 10 years ago. Video posting is just one more approach that you need to incorporate to promote your business today. Try Filmora 11 now!
