Newbie Questions

[pedz]

Hi,

I may be in the wrong place.  Please forgive me if I am.

I've been a still photographer for countless years.  Since 2002 I've followed (for the most part) the trend of Canon with their 1D line starting with their last film camera, the 1V HS, and now I'm using the 1D X MkII.  I updated from the 1DX to the MkII because of the video focusing features.  For me, the 1DX video was just no fun to use and I'm hoping the dual pixel focusing will make it more fun.  In between I bought a Sony a7r II but I just never used it enough to be comfortable with it (plus I had all Canon glass at the start).  I now use it for street photography using a Leica manual focus lens.

I think, more than likely, what I need is to just get out and start taking pictures and videos and learn as I go.  But video is a whole other world and I feel lost.  I can't even follow the jargon: "it feels thin" for example.

The problem in my mind is this: when shooting still digital images, you just shoot raw and 99% of the mistakes you could make in the field don't matter.  e.g. white balance is just a meta tag in the raw image.  The same with "Picture Style".  But videos on these cameras is not "raw" and so things like white balance and picture style get baked in -- at least to some degree.  It appears that MJPEG is motion jpeg and I know that if I try and tweak a jpeg too much, I run into all sorts of problems.  I assume tweaking videos I am going to run into the same type of issues.

The other big hit against me probably is I'm not a big video fan.  I'm not a movie buff and don't own a t.v.  Very often I find discussions where points are being made on two images.  While I can tell the difference between them, I have no strong opinion as to which one I prefer while the commenters obviously do.

Aside from "get off my grass son, you bother me", can the users in this forum offer me advice on how to learn; perhaps a book or two to buy; forums to follow; training exercises; etc?

Thank you for your time,

Perry

[DevonChris]

If you're not a big video fan, not a movie buff and don't own a t.v. why not just stick with stills?

[OliKMIA]

Hey. Can you clarify your question, so far I understand you want to get into videography, you have more than enough good gears at your disposal (A7RII, 1Dx2 !!!). Now it's just time to practice.

My main question is what is your goal ? Want to make money ? Just do it for fun ? In which area ? Video is like photo, some do sports, studio, portrait, landscape ,etc. Depending of your style you'll have to deal with different skills. So what do you want to do ?

For the rest, video on these camera is like shooting JPEG. 8 bits files are not very forgiving and you must get the WB and Expo right as much as you can during the shoot.

I would say, start with google, this is how I learned most of the stuff. Enter key words and you'll find numerous website and youtube channel, then you'll spot the one you like. Every time you see a word or concept you don't understand, do a lot of research about it.

As with photo, you'll have to got out an shot. Pratice a lot, fail and try again. This is how I did and I still fail a lot (but I'm very stubborn).

Last, a HUGE part of video is editing. Post-work on a photo is important but when it comes to video, editing is 80% if not more of the job and I often spend way more time in front of my computer than out shooting during a project.

[pedz]

For now, this is just for fun, exploration, education, curiosity.  With still photography all my subjects are natural light but the topics are pretty diverse from landscapes and nature to musicians and soccer kids.  Last weekend I was at the local stake park.

In reply to Devon, I will keep shooting stills but I am currently very curious about video.  Some things seem to beg for video rather than stills.

I do Google around a lot to learn but thought it might be wise to start with some basics.

I appreciate your help.  Thank you.