getting into mobile video
I’ve always thought of myself as only a still photographer. Lately, with the power of the iPhone I’ve been contemplating and playing about in the world of doing some short videos. And by short, I mean super short. Snippets, really.With the capabilities of our smartphones we can capture HD video, edit it and share it on the web. Just as we had with pictures in the early days of the iPhone and related devices.Of course the iPhone has quite a few video options: Video, Slo-Mo and Time-Lapse. The last isn’t technically a video, but it results in a video. Now you can play about with these, or you can check out some other options. There’s a few video based apps I’ve been trying out.Hyperlapse is one, this is from the creators of Instagram. It’s pretty basic. And really designed for creating a result like a time-lapse. You frame up your image and tap the button to start recording. The default setting is for every 6 seconds of recording you’ll end up with 1 second in your final video. 12 = 2, 18 = 3, 24 = 6 and so on. However once you’ve finished recording you can slow it down to 1:1, 2:1, 4:1, or speed it up with 8:1, 10:1 or 12:1.From a recent flight to New York I snapped this somewhere over the rockies (I think). This was at the 6:1 setting.[embed]http://youtu.be/NtyO_4AptNs[/embed]Now if you’ve wet your whistle a bit with Hyperlapse and thought, “this is cool, but I want to do more…”. You can! You could go to the native video app in your iPhone, but you may find it doesn’t have enough manual controls available for you. So you might take a look at FiLMiC Pro.Perhaps I’m biased, but I do love these guys. I’ve used their app since 2011 and quite like it. FiLMiC Pro offers many manual settings not yet available on the iPhone by default, including the ability to change ISO, Colour Temperature, Exposure Compensation just to mention a few. You can also change recording modes to create a more cinematic look, or even frame things up for a square format, if you want to post to IG. Did I mention focus pulling?? If you have an older iPhone (like a 4s or older) you might check out FiLMiC Classic instead.
And if you just want to have some fun, check out 8mm or Super 8. These give you some fun, old film styles that are grainy, gritty and cool.If you've been thinking on getting into video, give your smart phone a shot as a way to ease into it!~ kate