Jumping into Video, Audio got you down?

Hello readers :)

I wanted to take todays post to comment on the upcoming trend of video in microstock. You've heard this before, on my blog atleast. Believe me though when I state that I am not the only one who sees video as the wave of the future. I'd like to comment a bit about creating video when using a DSLR.

If you happen to own a DSLR capable of video, I do hope you give it a try. You would most likely own either a Canon 7D, or a Canon 5D Mark IV if it's a relatively new camera (and you shoot Canon). It may be one of the Nikon equivalents as well. In either case, A few points to note.

Audio, in general, is difficult to capture with the in camera microphone. Most of the time all you will get it a muffled static noise as wind whips over the microphone ending.
Solution? None really aside from using an external mic or an external sound recorder and later syncing the sound and image in post (neither solution is very great).

The good news tho is that most microstock agencies dont care if it has sound as most clients will most likely overlay their own audio/music/effects over the clips. My advice is to cut the audio completely either in camera or in post. Not only will you avoid the headache of external mic's and such, but you'll be able to increase your memory card capacity by a good ~18%.

I hope it helps :) and goodluck!

Video Microstock? iPad? and best sites for Video

Microstock, like many fields, has evolved. Video is now a larger component of microstock then it was even just a year ago. But is this a gimmick? A temporary evolution that will soon falter in favor of traditional photo based microstock? It's difficult to say, but I personally believe that video stock is the future of microstock.

Lets put 2 and 2 together here. Now more than ever the world is progressing towards a perpetually online state of information. Consider this... newspapers, magazines, and book sales are all on decline while the sales in paid RSS feeds, App Content, and E-books is on the rise. New platforms are being released almost daily to compliment the rise in new formats (iPad, Netbooks, E-readers, Tablet PCs, etc). Just consider the release of the newest gadget to hit the streets... The iPad.

The iPad will, through apps, take magazines and newspapers to a different level. A level where images no longer need to be static, and advertisements no longer need to be photo based. Imagine reading a magazine that you purchased through the app store... flipping the pages casually, and seeing advertisements, previously still photos, in movement as videos. That may very well be the future of "print" media.

So does this mean that you should drop your full frame and grab a camcorder? Probably not. Microstock photos will still be very useful for a number of media that cannot be virtualized, such as pamphlets, business cards, poster boards (although we all know this will eventually just be flat panel, flexible LCD screens with video... dont we now), and such. What this does mean is that those that DO have video capable cameras should consider jumping in as soon as they can.

Places to jump in:
-Shutterstock
-iStockphoto
-pond5

Places to Avoid:
-Fotolia

Reasoning: Shutterstock/iStockphoto/pond5 all allow for VERY competative pricing, where the contributor can make as much as 30$ a clip (per download). Fotolia however is still running video prices, as if they were photos... paying pennies on the dollar, with little traffic or sales to really offset the price difference. As such, I'd avoid fotolia like the plague for Video. My 2 cents, I hope they helped :) Click the links/advertisements on the side if you found anything useful so far!