Author Topic: Newbie to video... (Read 5592 times)

charged · « **on:** December 16, 2018, 17:42 »

I've been selling stock 'photos' for a long time, over a decade. I just recently bought the DJI Osmo pocket and thought maybe I'll dabble in seeing if I can sell some stock footage. Especially since I travel to far away places some what frequently.

I know almost nothing shooting video or editing video. What are some term I should use to search on Google or Youtube that would help me understand how to both shoot and edit video clips? Also if you have any lessons learned the hard way, and would like to share to help me not make the same mistakes, I would appreciate it.

Also a couple of questions that come to mind.
1) What happens with logos in videos? Say I was in a big city? With a photo, I'd just retouch it out.
2) The DJI OSMO Pocket has a mechanical gimbal, which works great when I'm snowboarding, but when I'm just walking around in an urban area or even on a mountain trail, I see consistent slight bumps up and down as a I walk. I find that a bit irritating. Is this the best I can expect, especially since I've seen so many glowing reviews of the Pocket on youtube from vloggers.

Sean Locke Photography · « **Reply #1 on:** December 16, 2018, 17:44 »

1. Depending on the size of the logo onscreen, you retouch the video with appropriate software, like After Effects.

mindstorm · « **Reply #2 on:** December 16, 2018, 22:58 »

Quote from: charged on December 16, 2018, 17:42

2) The DJI OSMO Pocket has a mechanical gimbal, which works great when I'm snowboarding, but when I'm just walking around in an urban area or even on a mountain trail, I see consistent slight bumps up and down as a I walk.

All the non-professional gimbals (ie, anything under about $20,000 or so) have that issue. Do a YouTube search on using the Crane2 (the one I have) or any of the other brands (whose names slip me right now). There are several that show you how you have to walk to avoid that problem.

Essentially, you bend your knees and do a "ninja walk" to get the smoothest video without the vertical bumping.

Harvepino · « **Reply #3 on:** December 17, 2018, 04:50 »

You could try Warp Stabilizer in Adobe Premiere. Stabilization in FCPX seems to have improved as well. Or try external plugins like Lock and Load X.
Street footage with logos and people - I usually simply submit as editorial.
Processing footage from Osmo isn't actually much more difficult than photo editing if you have a decent computer and the right software tools - Premiere or FCP ideally. Import, cut, color grade, export, upload.
Some knowledge of Excel is helpful when doing keywording and uploading CSVs, but if you don't upload hundreds of clips, you can fill in details manually when submitting. There are only two agencies worth uploading to, so not as much uploading as with images.

increasingdifficulty · « **Reply #4 on:** December 17, 2018, 06:02 »

Quote from: charged on December 16, 2018, 17:42

I know almost nothing shooting video or editing video. What are some term I should use to search on Google or Youtube that would help me understand how to both shoot and edit video clips? Also if you have any lessons learned the hard way, and would like to share to help me not make the same mistakes, I would appreciate it.

Well, normally you would have to learn a bit about shutter speeds, ND filters, camera movement etc., but since this is an action camera with a fixed aperture, there's not much you can do. When filming with "real" cameras, the shutter speed would be more or less fixed, and you would change the exposure with ND filters and the aperture.

As far as editing goes, common search terms would be:

• Color correction
• Color grading
• Noise reduction
• Stabilization
• Delivery frame rate vs. capture frame rate
• Speeding up video with appropriate motion blur (something very suitable for the Osmo)
• Slowing down video and adding fake frames.

And much more. But that's a start.

Adobe After Effects, DaVinci Resolve or Final Cut Pro X (with Motion) would probably be the most common software choices.

Quote from: charged on December 16, 2018, 17:42

Also a couple of questions that come to mind.
1) What happens with logos in videos? Say I was in a big city? With a photo, I'd just retouch it out.

Well, as Harvepino pointed out, sell as editorial, or do what you would do with a photo, only frame by frame. If it's a static shot - easy! If it's a moving shot - time consuming, but could be quite easy with the right tools (After Effects). Adobe After Effects is basically Photoshop for video. Instead of just blurring a single photo, you have to move the blur area (tracking mask) over hundreds of frames.

Quote from: charged on December 16, 2018, 17:42

2) The DJI OSMO Pocket has a mechanical gimbal, which works great when I'm snowboarding, but when I'm just walking around in an urban area or even on a mountain trail, I see consistent slight bumps up and down as a I walk. I find that a bit irritating. Is this the best I can expect, especially since I've seen so many glowing reviews of the Pocket on youtube from vloggers.

Just like mindstorm pointed out, this is what you get if you walk normally with a 3-axis gimbal. You need a 5-axis gimbal to smooth out up and down movements.

Fixes: walk like a strange ninja with back problems, or use anything that rolls or glides.

bestravelvideo · « **Reply #5 on:** December 17, 2018, 07:22 »

I managed to find some original (not You Tube) files from this little camera to download and evaluate, thanks to a kind reviewer.
At the daylight videos I watched (do not know if they were shot in auto - I guess - or in high ISO) there appears to be visible noise in the shadows at 100 % inspection even under a bright sun. Probably in auto the camera tries to avoid clipped highlights and underexposes darker areas.
Do you see that as a user? If yes and cou can't denoise them, maybe a fast way would be to "sacrifice" 4K and export for stock as HD. Then they appear ok.
I also think that you can buy an official ND filter for this camera, so this could help in doing daylight time-lapses, using the camera's panning feature, which still looks better than fake zoom in post production we might do when we have higher resolution stills.

DallasP · « **Reply #6 on:** December 17, 2018, 15:08 »

Quote from: increasingdifficulty on December 17, 2018, 06:02

Adobe After Effects, DaVinci Resolve or Final Cut Pro X (with Motion) would probably be the most common software choices.

They still make Final Cut? lol.

Adobe Premiere and After Effects should do all you need Charged. If you've already got the suite then they're right there ready to use. Good luck! I can't even get a video accepted.

charged · « **Reply #7 on:** December 17, 2018, 15:26 »

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate the time you took to give me some amazing thoughtful and helpful advice

increasingdifficulty · « **Reply #8 on:** December 17, 2018, 15:51 »

Quote from: DallasP on December 17, 2018, 15:08

They still make Final Cut? lol.

Yes, what's lol about it?

For timeline editing that doesn't require After Effects type manipulation, it's great. A couple times faster than Premiere and probably 10-20 times faster than After Effects. The difference is quite enormous.

For single clips to be uploaded as stock I use After Effects because it gives you maximum control. But man is it slow...

Rage · « **Reply #9 on:** January 08, 2019, 21:42 »

Quote from: increasingdifficulty on December 17, 2018, 15:51

Quote from: DallasP on December 17, 2018, 15:08
They still make Final Cut? lol.

Yes, what's lol about it?

For timeline editing that doesn't require After Effects type manipulation, it's great. A couple times faster than Premiere and probably 10-20 times faster than After Effects. The difference is quite enormous.

For single clips to be uploaded as stock I use After Effects because it gives you maximum control. But man is it slow...

I've heard this a lot, AE being much slower than premiere. Seems like its time to give premier a shot for my stabilize, grade, export workflow

marthamarks · « **Reply #10 on:** January 09, 2019, 11:40 »

Quote from: increasingdifficulty on December 17, 2018, 15:51

Quote from: DallasP on December 17, 2018, 15:08
They still make Final Cut? lol.

Yes, what's lol about it?

For timeline editing that doesn't require After Effects type manipulation, it's great. A couple times faster than Premiere and probably 10-20 times faster than After Effects. The difference is quite enormous.

For single clips to be uploaded as stock I use After Effects because it gives you maximum control. But man is it slow...

I started shooting video in 2017 and bought Apple's FCPX because it was a one-time purchase, as opposed to forever "renting" it from Adobe (as I do with other programs I use).

The learning curve was steep, as it always is with complex new software, but I'm very comfortable with FCP now and really do like it. I shoot nature subjects so don't have to mess with stuff like logos.

But I was glad to see I'm not the only one here who uses FCP. No "lol" about it!