Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
For a few years now, we’ve been hearing “4K’s overkill. You can’t tell the difference over 1080p!”. Lately, we’ve been hearing the same about 8K over both 4K and 1080p. But can you really tell the difference between 8K and 1080p?
That’s the topic Matti Haapoja explores in this video, which begins with a sequence shot using a mix of 1080p and 8K footage shot on the Canon EOS R5 – without labels on anything. Can you see the difference between them?
B-roll can add value and interest to your videos and make them more dynamic. And sometimes, you’ll need to soot your B-roll content as a one-man-band, being both the subject and the person behind the camera. In this video, Matti Haapoja gives you eight great tips for nailing the shots even when you do everything on your own.
If you’re just starting out as a filmmaker and looking into buying gear, it may seem overwhelming. So much to buy, so many options – and it can all be pretty expensive. But Matti Haapoja’s latest video is here to make the decisions easier and help you get your first kit. He suggests the first 10 items new filmmakers need to buy and gives you a couple of examples of the affordable, yet high-quality gear.
Quitting a steady job in order to become a freelancer is a huge decision to make. And it’s not easy to make it. If you’re still thinking whether to take this big leap, Matti Haapoja has some fantastic and useful guidelines to help you figure it out.
Matti shares a checklist that he used to figure out when the right time was for him to go freelance. He also shares some of the perks of being a freelancer, but also a few signs that you’re not ready to do it yet. All this could be helpful to all of you who are still trying to make the big decision, so let’s dive in.
If you decided against Tony’s advice and want to go ahead and get a drone anyway, then be warned that flying them isn’t always as easy as flashy commercials may have you believe. You want to shoot decent footage and you also want to not kill them. Both of those things require some care. In this video, Matti Haapoja offers 5 tips to “get good” with your drone.
You’ll often hear that it’s important to find your unique style if you want to be a successful photographer or filmmaker. But Matti Haapoja argues that being completely unique is impossible. In spite of it, he believes you can still develop your own style and be a successful creative. Sounds odd, doesn’t it? Well, it actually makes sense, and Matti discusses some of the things you need to be aware of if you want to create a recognizable photography or filming style.
Planning videos might seem quite obvious, especially for bigger productions. You need to sort your location, your script, how many people you are going to be in it and what gear you’ll use. You’ll also usually block out your shots and have your talent rehearse.
But what about when it’s not a big scripted production? What if it’s a vlog? How do you plan one of those when you’ve no idea what’s going to happen? In this video, Matti Haapoja explores this topic and talks about how he plans out his vlogs to try to create some order amongst the chaos.
Colour grading seems to be the buzz term for video these days. It didn’t really exist until O Brother, Where Art Thou? but it quickly became standard practice. Colour grading helps to set the mood and feel of your footage, as well as make it more pleasing. When you’re using multiple cameras, colour correction and colour grading is almost a must just to help them all look like they belong to the same project.
But how do you do it? In this video, Matti Haapoja goes through his colour grading workflow in Premiere Pro. He explains why you need to do it, and how, with some great timesaving tips, as well as the reasoning behind his choices, along the way.
There are so many options for exposure tools available to us these days. Gone are the days of having to guestimate with the Sunny 16 and similar rules. Now we can know with almost absolute certainty that we’ll get the shot we want before we’ve even hit the shutter or started recording video. This video from Matti at TravelFeels shows us several ways that our cameras and other devices can help us get perfect exposure every time.
Gimbals are probably the single coolest development in filmmaking tech in the last few years. Catering to everything from phones & action cameras to big DSLR & dedicated video camera rigs. They’ve become extremely popular, but they do take a little getting used to. There are ways to get the best out of them and results that you’re really happy with.
I have three gimbals myself. My most recent is the Zhiyun Crane 2 (review coming soon) which I’m planning to use for a shoot this weekend. So, this video from Matti over at TravelFeels comes at just the right time to serve as a reminder. In it, Matti goes over five great tips and techniques to help you get the most out of your gimbal.
You can find out more about John on his website and follow his adventures on YouTube.
His videos have over a hundred million views, have been extensively published by news outlets, and has even received recognition from a few film festivals, such as International Ocean Festival
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