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Watch: Five topics broken down to help you film yourself outside on location

When you start vlogging, one of the most difficult things to get used to is actually filming yourself. It’s a little ironic as it’s kind of the whole point but it presents unique challenges that you don’t usually think about when filming or photographing somebody else. Or rather, you think more about them when you’re filming somebody else but you’re on autopilot. When you’re filming yourself, you just forget they’re a thing.

It’s easy to figure out why, though. It’s an unusual workflow and those autopilot processes just don’t enter your mind. We’ve got too much on our minds without having to worry about all that stuff. But it’s stuff you need to worry about. So, here’s Jeven Dovey breaking down the five main topics you’ll want to think about when filming yourself on location.

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RED has been granted a new patent covering Compressed RAW in all video-capable devices including smartphones

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The words “RED” and “patent” are pretty familiar bedfellows. They’ve used their raw video patents to strongarm every other camera manufacturer from being able to implement raw video in their camera without RED’s approval (and a hefty fee), even if those companies have developed their own raw video technologies. Now, they’ve filed – and been granted – a new patent over compressed raw video.

The new US patent number 11,503,294, joints three other RED patents relating to compressed raw video (8,872,933, 9,479,749 and 9,787,878), but this new one seems to encompass devices other than just cinema cameras. In fact, pretty much any device that’s potentially capable of capturing compressed raw video, including smartphones and even sensor technologies they don’t own or use – like Sigma’s Foveon.

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This ultimate guide to frame rates takes you down a super geeky rabbit hole but you need to know this stuff

Taran Van Hemert, formerly a video editor at Linus Tech Tips, doesn’t post all that often on his YouTube channel. But when he does, you know it’s going to be something worth listening to. This time around, he’s talking about video frame rates. Specifically mixing video frame rates on your video editing timeline. With so many cameras out there all shooting different frame rates and nobody able to agree on the “best”, it’s become a bit of a problem.

This video is fairly short by Taran’s standards, coming in at only an hour and a half. Yes, I realise that’s not a short video by any stretch of the imagination, but when you consider that his Premiere Pro Editing tutorial is four hours and twenty minutes long, it’s not that bad at all, really.

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JPEGmini 3.5 adds more video features including resolution resizing and M4V file support

JPEGmini is a fantastic application that’s become a go-to tool for many photographers who want to put their content on the web – or those that just want to save hard drive space. Even though we’re pretty much all on broadband these days, optimising the file sizes of our websites, especially when it comes to images and video, is still a priority to keep them loading quickly. And, well, that’s where JPEGmini steps in.

It’s a popular tool, and it even works as a plugin from directly within Photoshop, Lightroom and Capture One. It also supports video. Its primary goal is to minimise the number of bytes your content uses up while keeping as much of the original quality as possible. The newest release, JPEGmini 3.5 focuses on the video features, bringing resizing, improved file support, and better performance.

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10 easy ways to make better video footage that won’t cost you anything

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I’m primarily a stills photographer, however, when DSLRs started to get decent video capabilities I started to enjoy dabbling in shooting video. I thought it would be easy, just apply the same principles as photography. I was in for a shock. Turns out, shooting and making compelling videos is a whole different ball game than shooting stills.

In this excellent video from Adorama, filmmaker Aidin Robbins shares his top 10 tips to quickly turn your films from ‘meh’ to ‘yeah’.

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Hasselblad’s new flagship camera doesn’t shoot video. Here’s why

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Hasselblad recently launched its latest 100MP flagship camera, the X2D 100c. The camera is the third medium-format mirrorless camera that the company has produced and follows the success of the 50MP X1D-50c and X1D II 50C. The X2D 100C houses a 100-megapixel back-side illuminated CMOS sensor, delivering up to 15 stops of dynamic range with a 16-bit colour depth.

However, one thing was a bit puzzling. Hasselblad has removed all the video features. In this video, Sonder Creative asks Chris Cooze from Hasselblad for the reason behind this move.

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YoloLiv’s new YoloCast cloud service lets you stream to YouTube, Facebook and Twitch simultaneously

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Live streaming has become immensely popular over the last couple of years, to the point that even though many parts of the world have opened back up, it’s still a big thing. Now that a lot of the hardware is readily available, everybody wants to be at that wedding (even if they didn’t get an invite) or wants to go to that party, listen to that talk given by their hero thousands of miles away. The big problem is finding a platform that works for everybody.

Well, YoloLiv, creator of the YoloBox series of live streaming video switchers is here with their solution. YoloCast is a cloud-based service that lets you stream 1080p video at up to 60 frames per second to multiple platforms simultaneously. Do you have viewers that argue over whether they prefer to watch on YouTube, Twitch or Facebook? Well, now you can stream to them all at once.

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Five tips to get the best video results from low budget 8-bit cameras

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We all have to start somewhere and for those who wish to learn how to shoot video, that usually means some pretty low-budget (and often old) equipment. Those newcomers are often teased on social media for not having the latest and greatest gear and made to feel bad about what they own, but don’t let those types of people get to you. You can do some great stuff with some very inexpensive equipment!

Sure, the older and low-budget gear may have some limitations that more expensive or newer gear might not, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get the shot. You just maybe have to work a little harder for it. And in this video, Nigel Barros walks us through his five gotcha mistakes that often trip up new filmmakers and how to avoid them to get the best video you can from low-budget cameras.

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The world’s first camera that could shoot MPEG-4 back in 1999 was basically a vlogging camera

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When you pick any random point in history, if you could go back and talk to the people of the day, they’d feel that they were at the very pinnacle of technology in just about every respect. The latest breakthroughs in technology were just about as good as they were ever going to get, save for some incremental updates. Well, when it comes to camera tech, we couldn’t really be any further from the truth.

In this video, Gravis (otherwise known as Cathode Ray Dude), takes us back to the very end of the 20th century (now don’t you feel old?) with some bleeding-edge tech from Sharp – The first video camera capable of shooting in what was then a pretty new format, MPEG-4. When compared to cameras of today, it’s absolutely laughable. But in its day, it filled a very real need. The ability to send short video clips across the Internet.

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Deity expands out of microphones with their new timecode generators and smart slate

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Deity Microphones has expanded its product lineup with a couple of interesting new devices. There’s the Deity TC-SL1 digital wireless smart slate and there’s the Deity TC-1 wireless timecode generator – available individually or in packs of three. Multiple TC-1 units can communicate and sync up with each other as well as with the TC-SL1 to help sync multiple different types of cameras.

Both the Deity TC-SL1 and TC-1 feature remote control via Bluetooth through the free smartphone app Sidus Audio. They put out all SMPTE formats and boast less than 1 frame of drift over a 24 hour period. As well as syncing over Bluetooth, there’s also 5-pin Lemo and 1/4″ TRS sockets on the TC-SL1 and 3.5mm TRS on the TC-1 that can take a timecode feed in from somewhere else or feed it out to your camera.

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