Skimming through your Instagram feed, you expect the usual crop of selfies, cats, lunches and babies. You don’t expect are exploding refrigerators.
… Unless you follow our pal, Okay Samurai.
He uses Adobe After Effects to add special effects to his Instagram videos.
Okay Samurai (aka Dave) put together a guide so that you too can use After Effects to make a fridge explode.
It requires a few more steps than editing on the phone, but it turns out it’s simpler than you’d think!
With Dave’s step by step guidance and a free 30-day trial of AE up for grabs, now is the perfect time to pick up a new skill and spice up your Instagram feed.
Learn How to Add Special FX to Your Instagram Videos
(…) Read the rest of How to Add Special FX to Instagram Videos (920 words)
We’ve added four new clips to our series of informative videos hosted by professional photographer Ryan Phillips. In this installment, he explores how sensor size can help you decide on your next camera, the benefits of shooting video on mirrorless cameras, Fujifilm’s unique technologies, and if image stabilization really makes a difference in your photos. See videos
We don’t just write news stories and product reviews here on DPReview.com, we also create videos. As well as samples the cameras we review, we also produce ‘hands-on’ video previews and overviews of many of the current hottest products on the market. In addition to these, we’ve recently started adding a series of video tutorials designed to help you make informed decisions about which camera, lens, or type of product might be best for you. Click through to browse our growing library of videos.
[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Products & Packaging. ]
Cut. Print it. That’s a wrap. One section (or scene) at a time, these designers are turning areas of Brooklyn into fashionable products that abstract the motion and colors of a place, converting them into a physical scarf.
First they film a given neighborhood; next they stretch out and process the results; finally they print it out along the length of the scarf. So far they have five to sell but hopefully more to come.
The Brooklyn Block “are a passionate bunch with back ground in interaction, architecture and urban design” whose “goal is to create remarkably thoughtful and exploratory products.”
One could accuse them of being a bit gimmicky, but a few brief rebuttals for would-be critics: first, on the aesthetic side, the scarfs are quite attractive, and second, on the conceptual side, there is something to be said for the patterns and colors of a place, whether the memories they conjure are consciously or subconsciously recognized. Finally, “The Brooklyn Block offers products that tell stories” – if nothing else, these are neat conversation pieces for those curious about their origins.
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[ By WebUrbanist in Design & Products & Packaging. ]
Parkour isn’t quite the sensation it used to be, but there are plenty of urban athletes all over the world still exploring cities by free running, jumping, flipping and climbing. One of England’s parkour champs is James Kingston, a talented expert who films thrilling point-of-view (or POV) videos of his parkour adventures.
Just in case his incredible videos entice any amateurs to try his death-defying style, we’ll just put this cliche saying out there: if you don’t have proper training, don’t try this at home. Or anywhere else. You can get most of the same thrill by watching Kingston’s heart-stopping POV adventures.
Wearing a helmet camera, Kingston takes his viewers on thrilling rides through rooftops, neighborhoods, and beautiful locations. Although he’s been criticized for glamorizing this dangerous sport, Kingston has also received accolades from people who aren’t able to try it out on their own. He gives his viewers a way to fly through the air and perform daring tricks without ever stepping foot away from their computers.
We’ve found the secret to making your video footage downright moving! The (not so) secret, is moving your camera as you shoot.
The Mobislyder makes it easy to add dimension to your videos with pro level pans and epically smooth pulls.
This gizmo is a shrunken down version of the big ‘ol sliders used on movie sets.
It’s made of precision cut aluminum and fitted with an adjustable clamp to hold tight to any camera phone.
We’ve been having a ball with this gadget and are here to share our four fave techniques for adding professional polish to your next videographic masterpiece.
Check Out The Mobislyder
$ 95 at the Photojojo Store
Why It’s Cool
Moving your camera while you shoot gives your videos a more movie-like quality simply because that’s what the pros do when they’re making movies!
Use any (or all) of the following techniques to give your vids that Hollywood look, no matter where you’re filming.
Track the Action
With a simple left to right (or right to left) push, follow your subject across a scene.
The effect is subtle and feels very natural because a smooth pan is precisely how humans take in a scene when they’re watching through their eyeballs, not a camera.
PRO-TIP: To give your viewers the feeling of scanning the scene at eye level, mount your Mobislyder to a tripod like we did for this vid.
Surprise! Master the Reveal
When your camera is on the move, you get to control what part of the scene your viewers are privy to.
Just wait till you see what’s around this corner, over this fence, behind this pole…
The possibilities are endless.
PRO-TIP: Use your slide behind an obstruction to change up the scene. When you slide back to the action, you’ll give your viewers a surprise!
Movin’ on Up (or Down)
The tide does it, pogo sitcks do it, even see-saws do it. Let’s do it. Let’s go up and down!
A vertical slide lets you smoothly scan an object that’s too tall to fit in a single frame or follow action that’s changing in elevation.
PRO-TIP: Meld together tracking the action and the art of the reveal, like we did in this video!
Zoom to Focus
Lock the focus on a specific object then pull away or move in close to throw it out of focus.
With an iPhone you can lock the focus by tap-and-holding on your subject until the focus box pulses.
Locking the focus on Android phones varies from model to model. Google your phone model and “focus lock” to find out how it’s done.
PRO-TIP: The Mobislyder lets you move your phone very smoothly, more quickly than your auto focus can handle. Leave your phone in auto focus mode to see your subject lose focus, then snap back into focus as your AF catches up.
Taking It Further
Mount a Photojojo Cell Lens onto your phone to shoot video with a fisheye, telephoto, wide angle or even macro view.
Slide your camera diagonally for a fun if somewhat wonky look. Wonky can be good!
Tie a string to your Mobislyder to slide your phone during filming, while you’re in the shot! Our pal Margo did that in this video here.
Head over to the Photojojo Shop and learn everything you’ve ever wanted to know about the Mobislyder and more!
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When it comes to movies, editing is kind of a big deal.
Without it, we wouldn’t have twist endings. (Looking at you, M. Night.) We wouldn’t have out-of-order movies to entertain our brains (Marty McFly 4ever). We wouldn’t even have beginnings, middles, and ends!
Frankly, movies would be pretty weird and probably not very good at all without editing.
Thanks to Instagram’s 4.1 update, you can now upload videos to Instagram, meaning a whole new world of video editing has opened up!
Sound, filters, transitions, sequencing — there is so much you can do to an Instagram video before uploading it. And awesomely, you can do it all on your phone.
Consider this guide an editing workshop that’ll turn your Instagram videos into cinematic artworks served 15 seconds at a time.
10 Tips for Editing Instagram Videos
You Can Now *Upload* Vids to Instagram
Instagram must’ve read our minds with the 4.1 update because we were like Man, wish we could upload #tbt vids!
Now, you totally can. You can upload any video that’s in your phone’s library, and with a quick file transfer, you can even upload videos that are sitting on your computer (we’ll show you how in the guide below!).
Being able to upload video opens up a whole new world! It means that you can get way more precise about how you shoot and edit your videos because you can use outside apps, add sound and video effects, splice together clips, and speed up or slow down your footage.
Read on to learn how to which tools and apps are the handiest, how to optimize shooting and editing within Instagram itself, and how to make a workflow for churning out really great videos!
Pre-req reading: Check out our essential guide to Instagram video if you haven’t yet. It answers all the questions you might have about Instagram video and also give you ideas to start.
How to Get Videos onto Your Phone
Shoot it on your phone.
Shooting videos on your phone is obviously the fastest way to get videos onto your phone.. But did you know there are lots of options besides shooting within the Instagram app?
Yeah! It’s actually quite refreshing to shoot video outside the Instagram app.
You’ll pick how you shoot your video based on what you want your end-result to be like. Here are a couple options and why you’d use them:
Your phone’s native camera app.
Use this to shoot multiple clips that you can then arrange in the order you’d like in Instagram. This gives you more freedom with time and set-up because you don’t have to shoot in order like you do in the Instagram app. (Also, you don’t have to fear accidentally losing your work-in-progress while working in the app!)
A filter app.
Use this to get a different look besides the filters that Instagram offers. We dig Vintagio (Android & iOS) and 8mm (iOS). Or you can even layer filters to come up with your own feel.
An advanced video editing app.
Apps like iMovie (iOS) equip you with extra tools that give you more precise editing tools and control over sound and transitions. If you find yourself using one of these often, then you might end up shooting through these apps to make it seamless.
PRO-TIP: When you upload a rectangular video (which is what most other apps shoot in), your video will be cropped in Instagram. Instagram crops to center your video, so while you’re shooting, just envision that either side of your video will be lopped off.
Transfer files from your computer to your phone easily.
Maybe you have phone videos that you long ago saved to your computer. Maybe you have vids you shot on your DSLR. Maybe you have childhood vids transferred from old VHSs.
Whatever it is, your video’s trapped on your computer, and you need to get it to your phone so you can share its amazingness with all of your Instagram followers STAT.
The file might be too big to email to yourself and bothering with cables can be cumbersome and take time.
Here’s how to do it the e-z way:
Use an iFlash Drive to transfer files. This is a spacious drive (up to 16GB) that lets you quickly transfer files between your phone and your laptop. One end connects to your phone, the other a USB.
Use an EyeFi SD card to wirelessly send vids straight from your DSLR and onto your phone. (IT DOES THAT.) You can see how it works in the vid above!
Use an app like Dropbox (Android & iOS) or Cloud to store in internet-space and download it on whatever device you want, whenever you need it. If you have a iThingies, you can also use iCloud to sync your files across computers and devices.
Make Your Video Legit with Transitions
Instead of having your video abruptly switch from scene to scene all choppy-like, you can use transitions to give your video a more cinematic, elegant flow.
Use objects as a clever transition.
One really clever way to transition scenes is to use objects as a divider between two completely different shots. Check out the vid to the right to see how cool this effect is!
How to do it? Pan your camera horizontally across your first scene and place your transitional object at the end of it. (We used bags as our objects in the sample video above. Yours can be anything — a tree, a person, a telephone pole.) When your video pans half-way through that object, cut the scene.
Now, go to a new location for your next scene, and place the same object at the start of the new panning scene. Start shooting at the halfway mark of the object where you stopped your previous scene and end the scene halfway through the next object. Repeat for however many scenes you want to sequence together. The end result will look like one seamless pan that completely changes location between objects. That’s movie magic, baby.
PRO-TIP: Measure how far your object is away from your camera, so that you can make it consistent from one scene to the next.
BONUS IDEA: Place a piece of paper over your phone lens to give yourself a black screen between scenes. You can also pull it away and allow your camera to adjust exposure and come into focus as you’re filming — this ends up looking like a dreamy fade-in. Check out our example.
Use apps to add transitions between scenes.
Apps are great because they give us access to tools that previously only pros had. Case in point, iMovie (iOS) and WeVideo (Android & iOS) give you options for placing transitions between video scenes.
You can do a simple fade in/fade out, text (think silent movies!), and all the transition types that you never really thought about but have probably seen on TV or in movies.
Pull focus a.k.a. Changing depth of field
Pulling focus is this fancy thing cinematographers do to get movie-watchers to pay attention to a particular part of the screen or to spice up a moment with visual drama.
You’ve seen this in movies when an out-of-focus shot suddenly comes into sharp focus or when something that’s in the foreground falls out of focus and the background comes into focus instead.
Pulling focus can also mean simply keeping your subject in focus as they move within your shot.
The cool thing about all of this? You can do it on your phone! Here are two ways:
Tapping to focus.
While your phone doesn’t have much of depth of field to work with, you will still notice certain parts of your shot going in and out of focus as you move your phone. This is especially true if one subject in your shot is a lot closer to your lens than everything else in the shot.
As you move or as your subject moves, pay attention to how your focus changes, and tap your screen to keep what you want in focus nice and sharp. You might *want* something to fall out of focus, so tap a different part of your screen to get them to fall out of focus.
Using a telephoto phone lens for dramatic depth of field.
Watch the video above to see just how dramatic of a focus shift you can get with a telephoto phone lens! Because it’s telephoto, you get a nice range of depth of field. It also has a focusing ring that lets you control exactly where focus falls in your shot.
Another way to do it is by using an iPhone SLR lens mount to shoot phone photos and vids with SLR lenses. You read right — you can shoot videos using your SLR lenses mounted onto your phone.
Chopping & Sequencing Clips
The editing choices you make can really make your video stand out from the rest. Remember Memento? Yeah, those guys were nominated for best film editing at the Oscars for the super clever way they edited the story out of order. Now bookmark that in your brain, and get your tapping finger ready.
Plan your video.
When it comes to editing, the best thing you can do is to plan out what you’re going to shoot before you even start. This can be as quick as taking out 30 seconds to come up with a vision for your video in your mind.
Questions to ask yourself: What are you trying to get across in your video? What will the beginning, middle, and end be? How long should each clip be, so that you can fit your entire story into your time limit? Maybe your idea’s worth spanning over more than one Instagram post — how many?
Chopping.
Maybe your clip is too long or you want to sequence a bunch of clips together, but they don’t quite start or end the way you want them to. Go to town like a lumberjack on a tree trunk: chop. it. down.
How? Instagram lets you trim down video clips. After you load a video, hit Next. Then use the slider to shorten the video to the length you want. Move the video timeline underneath the slider to indicate exactly which part of the video you want to crop down to.
Most phones’ native camera apps also already have simple editing tools that let you shorten your video clips down just how you like them. In iOS, view a video in your library, and move the slider on each end of your video clip’s timeline to where you’d like it. Then hit the “Trim” button that appears in the top right corner.
Sequencing.
Sequencing is all about the order of your clips and how you transition between them. If your video is spur of the moment, you can edit as you shoot within Instagram by viewing your video and the going back to the previous screen to delete and add scenes.
However, if you’re shooting something more complex, there’s a disadvantage to editing together clips as you go within Instagram. You can’t rearrange the order of videos you’ve already placed into your Instagram video. So if you wanted to be able to do that and get more precise with how your clips transition and the order that they play, then you’ll want to use a video editing app like iMovie or WeVideo. If you work better on the big screen, you might even edit it on your computer and then transfer the file back to your phone.
Fast & Slow Motion
Slow motion is the raddest. Everyone and their mom knows it. While there has yet to emerge one great app that gives you the kind of slow-motion effects you see coming out of a Phantom Flex camera, there’s no harm in pushing the limits of slow-motion tools that currently exist in apps.
We were able to speed up the video above using Vintagio. Because the speed up and slow down tool only lets you change the speed a little bit, we ran the video through the app twice to speed it up doubly. You can do the same thing for slowing down your video.
Keep in mind, it won’t look as smooth as other slow motion videos because your phone just doesn’t shoot video at a high enough frame per second. Again, there’s no harm in playing with what you have, so experiment!
We haven’t found a great Android app for slowing down or speeding up video, but if you know of one, let us know.
Oh yeah, and if you’re into editing video on your desktop, Twixtor is a tool that manipulates video to make it look like it was shot at a higher frame per second than it actually was. In short, it gives you a slow motion effect without having to use an expensive slow motion camera.
Adding Music, Sound Effects, and Muting
One amazing advantage to being able to upload videos to Instagram is that you can edit sound on your videos before you post them!
Depending on what app you’re using for video editing, you can control the sound in your videos in all kinds of ways.
Here are some ideas:
Mute or lower the sound in your video
Record narration or sound effects to lay over your video
Import music from your phone’s library
If you’re wondering which apps do what, here’s a quick rundown. iMovie and Vintagio give you the ability to control volume on your video. The iMovie app in particular lets you lay over a narration or any recording that you make, as well as import music and sound effects.
Meanwhile, WeVideo doesn’t let you edit sound within the phone app, but the app syncs your video to the desktop app, which gives you sound editing options. Vintagio comes with pre-selected music that you can play over your video, too.
Filters, in Apps and By Hand
Instagram video comes with a set of squeaky new filters, but what if you’re looking for something different?
Outside apps.
8mm and Vintagio do a good job of covering specific film looks based on time period. For example, if you want a black and white ‘20s silent film look vs. a warm 70s vibe.
If those aren’t enough iMovie and WeVideo have filters, too. And if you’re into experimentation, overlap filters across apps to make your own awesome filter! You can even name it after your favorite celebrity cat.
Filters by hand.
DIY the dang thing. We’re talking hold up anything that looks like it could potentially Shooting a horror vid? Hold up some red glass over your lens.
Want to make it lo-fi? Grab some plastic to give your video dreamy vignetting.
Want to give your video a warm tint Coen brothers style? Use your sunglasses to wash your video in color. If you’re into these ideas, check out our roundup of 10 DIY Filters on the Cheap.
Dreamy lens flares.
We’ve played around with how to create intentional lens flares. Here are two fun and easy ways to do it:
1) Lens whacking is a videography technique that’s similar to free-lensing. You remove the lens from your DSLR and slightly move it away from the camera body. The purpose here is to let light hit the camera sensor to create moving light leaks, which we can attest are very pretty and –heck we’ll say it– dreamy. If you shoot on a DSLR, here’s a guide with samples.
Since phone’s don’t quite work this same way, you can still create the illusion of light leaks by having your subject backlit and letting your phone’s auto-exposure shift with the movement of your camera or your subject. This can create rays of light in your video that can look quite lovely.
2) Sprinkling water either directly on your lens or onto a clear sheet in front of your lens. Try something like a pane of glass, mylar or anything clear. Here’s our full guide on playing with water for lens effects.
360-Degree Time-lapses
Time-lapses are cool, but have you ever seen a panning time-lapse? It’s dually impressive! It’s one of those effects that stops you in your tracks because you wonder, How’d they do that?
If you’re not sure what a panning time-lapse is, it’s when your camera pans across a landscape and simultaneously shoots a time-lapse.
Two popular ways to make a panning time-lapse is by using a slider that moves your camera horizontally or by using a rotating mount that turns your camera 360-degrees.
We were able to make the 360-degree time-lapse above with a simple rotating mount called the Camalapse. You can use this mount with any camera that has a tripod thread, but we mounted our phone by pairing it with the Glif (a tripod mount for iPhones).
Just grab a time-lapse app, like Lapse-It (Android & iOS), set up how long you want to shoot your time-lapse for, twist the Camalapse (twists similar to a kitchen timer), and let ‘er go. In the end, you’ll get a rad video that all your buddies will be asking you about.
PRO-TIP: Because time-lapses are usually slow-paced, we sped ours up by running it through Vintagio’s speed-up tool two times.
STOP-MOTION & Editing Photos into Video
If you’re using the internet right now, there’s a good chance you’ve seen a stop-motion or two. Stop-motions, when well done, have the power to blow people’s minds, and that’s a good thing!
Stop-Motion Tips.
We have so many tips in our Ultimate Guide to Stop-Motion, but here are the essentials. Of utmost importance, keep your camera still. Put it on a tripod or set it somewhere where it absolutely won’t move.
Aim for consistent lighting. If this is going to take a while, shoot in a place where your light isn’t moving (i.e. the sun traveling across the sky), unless o’ course that’s what you want.
If you’re shooting and editing within Instagram, tap lightly and quickly to record, so you don’t accidentally make each clip too long. For smooth movement, each clip should be as brief as you can shoot it.
To get more precise, you can shoot individual photos for each frame in your phone’s native camera app, and then import the photos to create a video in iMovie or WeVideo. This’ll let you throw out any mess-up shots or figure out if you need to reshoot a particular part of the stop-motion.
PRO-TIP: A camera phone remote can make shooting tiny clips easier and also prevent you from accidentally moving your phone while tapping.
The Quickie Slideshow — Your Life in Instagram Flashed Before Your Eyes.
You might’ve heard about Pummelvision. It was a web app that took all of your Facebook or Flickr photos and turned them into a lightning-fast slideshow. It was like watching your life flash before your eyes! We cried, not kidding.
Everlapse is a similar idea, but it takes your most popular Instagram photos and turns them into a short reel that you can share on Instagram. We’re getting verklempt just thinking about all the memories.
Instagrammers with Vid Skillzzz
Hopefully at this point, you’ve abandoned this article and are outside shooting and maybe will not read these words until hours from now (which we’re fine with because OMG you should be out shooting!).
And if not, your brain’s about to be so full of ideas they’ll start to leak out your ears/eyeballs/face. Why will that happen? Because gathered up a list of amazing Instagram videographers for your personal inspiration.
@megancignoli — A photographer/director with a jelly-worthy talent for stop-motion. Girl’s got creativity *and* patience.
@nazfilms — A cinematographer who makes incredible experimental Instagram videos completely shot and edited on his iPhone. Watch with sound. Also, watch for his just started #flickstagramseries.
@bythebrush — A painter who needs to get into movie-making stat. Especially good for inspiration on transitions between scenes, as well as music use.
@pinot — An illustrator & animator whose animations makes us question reality.
@teresa_franco — A nurse who can wield a macro phone lens like a pro. Check out her amazing insect videos.
@mariamsitchinava — An editorial photographer who turns her stills into gorgeous filmic vignettes.
@cole_rise — While this photographer/pilot doesn’t have a lot of videos up right now, he’s one to watch.
@rokuthecat — Just because.
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“Well that’s weird,” you thought. “My Instagram photos are moving.”
What you thought might be the coolest side effect of downing too much coffee turned out to be Instagram’s latest major app update — Instagram video!
Just when you were totally kicking butt on Vine, Instagram video showed up with its 15 filters, extra long video length and the fact that you get to share your videos with all your friends on Instagram.
Now is the time to put your cinematographic moves into high gear, which is why we’re here to bestow on you, dear readers, a heap of Instagram video pro-tips.
Learn how to edit your shots, get better sound, and make your friends say “ooooh” at the creative ways you’ll be playing with video, all in the confines of 15 seconds.
Now you can sip your coffee with ease ’cause all you need is a tap to focus.
Photojojo’s Guide to Instagram Video
p.s. We’re hiring for an amazing opening at Photojojo. We’re looking to re-invent what/how/where we publish online, and we’re seeking one amazing somebody to lead the charge. Learn more and apply for our Editorial & Community Lead.
p.p.s. Tell friends!
Basics You Need to Know
What is it? It’s the Instagram you know and love, only now you can shoot and share videos, too. Videos show up in your stream the same as photos, and they load as you go. You can shoot videos that are three seconds minimum, 15 seconds max, and the format is square.
How is this different from Vine? Four main things make Instagram video stand apart. 1) Filters, 15 to be exact. 2) The ability to go back and delete or add scenes after you’ve shot some of your video. 3) Longer videos. Vine caps videos at six seconds. 4) No looping.
Featured in video: The Macro Lens Band.
How do you shoot a video? Tap the camera button to go into photo shooting mode. You’ll see an icon of a video camera on the bottom right. Tap it, and you’re now in video shooting mode. To shoot video, hold the big video button down. For as long as you’re holding it, it’ll shoot video! This means you can shoot one long stream or shoot a series of clips to make a mini movie.
Can you upload old videos? No, actually! We kinda like it that way, though. That way, you know everyone’s videos were shot right at that moment, and it also gives you a fun challenge.
What’s this thumbnail business? When you go to upload, you’ll see the option to pick a thumbnail. This is the image that will show up on your stream. Take time to pick the best frame! This’ll make it more likely that your followers will take out the time to watch it.
What’s that camera icon with parentheses around it? That’s the shake reduction icon, and you’ll only see it if you’re using an iPhone 4S or 5. After you’ve shot some video and hit next, it pops up. Watch your video with it on and off (just tap it to turn it on and off). You’ll notice if the video is shaky, it’ll lessen it.
Pro-Tips to Make Your Vids Stand Out
Edit as you go.
One of the coolest things that sets Instagram video apart from Vine is that you can view your video (with filters on it even!) and then go back and delete or add shots. See the video to the right for how to delete a shot from your video.
The stage to do this is before you’ve uploaded the video and when you’re ready to add filters. To delete a shot, go back to video shooting mode, tap the “x” button on the bottom left. It’ll highlight the last shot in red. Tap the button again to confirm that you want to delete that shot. Now you can keep adding new shots or leave it as is!
PSA: Stabilization crops your video.
Here’s something to keep in mind. That neato stabilization feature we talked about above crops your video frame. That means your video will look a little zoomed in. View it with stabilization and without (by tapping the stabilization icon) and decide if you want to go with it or not.
Adjust exposure as you shoot.
To adjust how light or dark your video is, tap around your screen when you’re in shooting mode. You’ll notice if you tap a dark spot, the entire image will brighten, and if you tap a light spot, the entire image will get darker. Since exposure and focus go hand-in-hand, this also means the spot you’re tapping will be the part of your video that’s in focus.
Lighting = Better vids.
When you don’t have enough light, you’ll notice your video will end up looking pret-ty grainy. The more well-lit your video is, the sharper, more contrasty and vibrant it’ll look! (You want that.) To get more light, simply go near a window, use something to bounce light like a wall or a reflector, or nab yourself an external light made for phones (like the Pocket Spotlight or Kick seen in the vid on the right).
Prevent those weird video pulsations.
When playing back one of your videos, you’ll notice sometimes it’ll pulsate seemingly out of nowhere. Totally odd. But it’s not that odd when you think about it. Your camera’s focus and exposure are trying to keep up with the changes happening in your frame.
Maybe something super close suddenly shows up in the video or something super bright pops up. Your camera might take a second to adjust and thus pulsates. It can also be caused by your phone shaking. To prevent it, keep your phone steady with a hand-held stabilizer or a tripod. (Check out the stabilizer in the vid below.)
Think about sound.
If you’re talking over your video, one way to get better sound is to use your headphones since it has a built-in mic. Smart, eh? If you don’t want any sound at all, turn off anything in the background, close windows, or tell the people near you to stay quiet for the next 15 seconds (pretty plz!). You can even leave a note in your caption simply instructing to listen with or without sound.
Upload a video later in time.
You can’t technically upload an old video, but you can shoot a video and keep it on Instagram to upload at a later time. Do this by –
1) Shooting the video.
2) Turning on Airplane Mode in your phone’s settings.
3) Going back into Instagram and trying to upload the video. Since you’re not connected to the internet, your upload will fail. It’ll stay in your Instagram stream as a failed upload with a button next to it to retry the upload.
4) Upload it anytime after that by tapping the retry button. Keep in mind, the video might disappear if you turn off your phone or “x” the app.
Save your videos to your phone.
Your video will save to your phone every time you upload one to your stream. To make sure your phone does this, go into your Instagram settings and turn the “Save Original Photos” to “On.”
Pause and play.
Say you’re in the middle of watching a super enthralling Instagram video, but you have to step away for a second. You can pause the video by tapping it. You can also replay a video by tapping it after it’s ended, so that adorb-as-heck vid of your baby niece can last 45 seconds instead of just 15!
Embed your videos into a website.
Just a couple days ago, Instagram introduced embedding, which lets you put an Instagram video into a webpage. Go to your Instagram page on the web, which would be “instagram.com/[your screenname here]“. Click on the video you want to embed, then click on the arrow icon to the right of it. The embed code will pop up, and you just copy and paste it into your blog or Tumblr post. NEAT!
Creative Ways to Play with IG Video
Get cool FX with phone lenses.
So you know how you can switch out lenses on your DSLR to get different effects? You can do the same on your phone with phone lenses.
A macro lens will give you a crazy super close-up view of whatever you point it at to get all the tiny detail you wouldn’t normally be able to see. A fisheye lens gives you that 180-degree view that you’ve seen in some of your favorite skate or music videos. A telephoto lens will give you a zoomed in view! We used these three phone lenses in the video to the right!
Tell a story by making transitions.
What’s rad with Instagram video is that you can get pretty savvy about editing together various scenes. You can make your video less choppy and weave a story by creating visual transitions. One way is to cover the lens, so that all you see is black. When you take the cover away, the image will slowly come into view (try it!). Another way to transition is to blur the scene with something like plastic or a glass bottle. Or pan from one end of the room to the next, where your main subject is. Get creative!
Take your video places!
Like *amazing* places. You can shoot underwater or in the snow with waterproof cases or strap your phone to your bike with a bike phone mount. (BTW! The underwater vid to the right was shot with this waterproof case.)
Use a hashtag to link a series of videos.
Let’s say you get really serious about your movie-making and want to tell a longer story with your videos. Or maybe you came up with a sweet theme that you want to keep shooting around. You can link your series of videos together by coming up with a unique hashtag. That way your friends can follow along with your mini series!
Make a stop-motion.
Stop-motions might seem like a really challenging project to take on, but you can totally do it! You just need a tripod or a place to keep your phone still, a few props, and a good idea. Here’s how to shoot a stop-motion: shoot a second of video, move your prop, then shoot another second of video, and so on, until you have a few seconds of movement. That’s it!
Get crazy smooth panning. (Like in the movies!)
Remember how the cameras dramatically panned across Gatsby’s estate? You can get dramatic panning fx, too! Maybe not at a Gatsby scale, but a slow smooth pan across a scene can make for some rad shots that look right out of a movie. We used a camera table dolly for our pan in the vid to the right!
Make a moving photo.
If you’ve ever seen cinemagraphs, you’ll know what we mean by moving photos. The idea behind a moving photo is to pick a scene that is has only one or two moving parts in it. When you shoot your video, you won’t move the frame. The frame stays the same, while a small part of the image moves.The Instagram blog also had an official moving photo hashtag for a weekend — check out some rad vids.
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Canon’s new 70D features a ground-breaking ‘Dual Pixel CMOS AF’ sensor which splits every single pixel into two photodiodes for on-chip phase detection autofocus, promising greatly improved AF performance in live view and movie mode. Canon has created a sample video, called ‘Handmade’, shot with the 70D, which showcases the new AF technology, alongside another short video feature going behind the scenes. Click through to watch the videos.
First he presented a photo-edited version (carefully stitched from dozens of photos) to show what the view would look like without the building he on top of which he took it. Still, impressive as that was, photographer Gerald Donovan‘s raw shot is all the more dizzying despite leaving the obstructions in the frame.
In the unedited version, the last bits of tower and few people right below give you a sense of the distance from Earth at which the shot was taken – 2,722 feet at the top of the Burj Khalifa.
It is in fact so tall you can see a sunset twice in the same day, per the video above. You can watch the sun set once from the ground, then take the elevator up, and witness it for a second time minutes later. Amazing. The second film above shows a 24 hour sequence of this incredible structure from below.
And if static images of the Burj in Dubai are not sufficient to get your heart racing, try watching the last video above showing the last piece being installed at the top of One World Trade Center in New York City (image and video via the Port Authority of NJ & NY).
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