Rob Adams Knows DSLR Video!
Animoto caught up with wedding photographer Rob Adams to learn some DSLR video tips and tricks.
Known for bringing Hollywood-style production to the wedding world, Rob is an award-winning cinematographer and founder of PhVusion effects.
So you’re a photographer, and you have a great DSLR camera that also happens to have this great video feature! But, you haven’t even tried to switch over to the video function mode on a job because when you do, your footage shakes uncontrollably. Well, that’s understandable. Holding one of these cameras steady with only your hands is a near impossibility, even for us veterans in the video-world.
All of the articles and blog-posts written about fusion tell you to get yourself a good solid stabilizer like a monopod or a shoulder mount, and that is good advice. The use of a stabilizer will make your video footage instantly more polished and professional looking. Personally, I recommend the Manfrotto 561BHDV. It’s an amazing piece of equipment and certainly one of my most coveted items.
Fast-forward a few weeks and maybe you’ve started to produce some relatively decent video clips. Your shots are steadier, the composition is nice and of course the colors and the clarity are spot-on. However, when you compare the finished look of your video clips to your edited photographs…something is missing. Maybe it’s the fact that photographs are much higher resolution by nature. Maybe it’s the motion, (was I shooting at too slow of a shutter speed?) Or, maybe I’m just a better photographer than I am a videographer. Well, the truth is all of that plays some sort of a role but the single most important reason is, your photos are edited. You’ve used your custom actions and expertise in Photoshop, Lightroom, or Aperture to get the look you were going for when you shot the image. But, how do you get your video to look like that too?
Enter the world of video color-grading, the art of enhancing the color, tone, contrast and saturation of your individual video clips. As our video skills progress, so must our ability to make our video clips look every bit as good our stills. Fortunately, there’s an easy way to do it. All you need is Adobe Photoshop Extended and a new plug-in called PhVusion Effects.