From Photographer to Videographer - Adding to Your Skill Set

Intro by Skip Cohen
 
A couple of weeks ago I shared a post in Luminary Corner by Giulio Sciorio. Giulio talked about one of the ways he's using 4K video - street photography and capturing images he wouldn't have been able to get. It was a great post, and Charlie Sill of Blueberry Productions commented on Twitter.  

He agreed with Giulio's point.  If you know my reputation, I love the social side of social media. I went to Charlie and Federico Vasquez's  website, Blueberry Productions. There was a combination of still imaging services with video, essentially a full-service imaging business. I picked up the phone and called Charlie, and asked if he wanted to do a guest post on the importance of video today, and here we are.

Here's the point - it's so important for photographers to be diverse today. Technology is constantly changing, and video is playing a role in products you can create for your clients, as well in your own video introducing potential clients to your services.

Suzette Allen has written a lot about hybrid technology, mixing still images with short video clips for client holiday cards, for example. And, in the Photodex Annex there are two new Building Your Business spotlight profiles on Sal Cincotta and William Innes, which both include samples of their Proshow Web videos.

If you're a photographer who's traditionally been shooting still images, you have a unique opportunity to bring video into your skill set. Or, if you don't want to, then develop a relationship with somebody who understands video and work to build a stronger more diverse presentation of services to your client base.

A big thanks to Charlie for coming through after just a phone call. It's a great guest post and right on point with an aspect of the business every photographer should be looking at. 

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From video production to fine art closeups to products to food and portrait work, Blueberry makes it a point to do their best to meet their client's needs.

Charlie Sill

by Charlie Sill

In this rapidly changing landscape of media, advertising, creativity and imagination, we are always looking to the next best thing. The next best thing sometimes involves learning a new skills set. Scary? Only if you dwell in that head space. 

As artists we are naturally curious about how we can be better at our chosen craft, photography. As Hollywood went from silent films to talkies the comfort shifted and the artist adapted, some faster and more willingly than others. Your skills, as photographer, can be used to create a more engaging experience for your clients through video. Really, video can do this? Yes. Your business will also rank better in the SEO chain by using video!
          
It is amazing to learn that within the world of search engine optimization those web sites with video rank higher than those without. How much more? The latest numbers suggest, as indicated by Michael Hoban of Blur Group…

“ Videos are generally more engaging for users. A study by Statistic Brain found that the average viewing time of an internet video is 2.7 minutes. Considering that this study also found that 17% of all non-video pageviews last less than 4 seconds, the argument that video content is more engaging seems to have substantial foundations.”

Video can be used in many ways too. In its most simple form, the slide show is like video in that it moves, changes and there is an anticipation of what is coming next. On a more complex level, video can tell a story using sound, as we did here with a local Atlanta architecture firm.

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Houser Walker Architecture, an introduction from Bluberry Productions,LLC on Vimeo.

Yes, learning video is challenging but can benefit you and your business and who does not want that? Some ideas for where to begin...we use a prosumer video program from Corel called Pinnacle Studio which has a not-so-steep learning curve. For more advanced users there are other programs like Adobe Premier which is a cloud based element. If you prefer the Mac side of life they have Final Cut. Take some time to learn this skill and you will open up to a whole new sense of the aesthetic art we call video! As we found, the more you learn...the more you want to learn. Enjoy the journey.