When starting out filming with my Sony DV-Tape Camcorder back in the days, like 20 years ago, I was SOOOO guilty of number 3 for sure - Just didn't know or understand how important lighting was and how much it could do - and didn't really understand it (and didn't film) until the pandemic hit the world and I had all the time in the world to watch the videos of you and your brother, as well as Peter L and Peters M's videos and all the other creators, THEN it just hit me like a wall of bricks what I had been doing wrong :)
Good tips! Just one minor thing about mistake #2: it's "your" not "you're". A rule of thumb that helps me remember is if you can replace the word with "you are" and it still makes sense, it's "you're". If it doesn't, it's"your". Keep it up!
I'm guilty of limiting my toolkit for sure... I have a 360 camera sitting in my house that I haven't even cracked open to figure out. Thanks for the reminder, Teppo!
Went low budget on body and lense lol now i want to upgrade but need to wait to have more money ! But for the music part i went Artlist with your discount couple month ago and for real I love this site ! Love from Qc
i'm the guy that went with crazy telephoto lens but i'm really happy about it because image quality is not my primary focus, i like crazy amount of compression, i hate to get close to my subjects. so i bought fuji xt3 with 18-55 kit lens + 50-230 cheap but awesome telephoto lens in 2018. however i shoud point out that even though i'm and i was a hobbyist, i was already using a dslr since 2008 (nikon d90) and i kinda knew what i like and what i want more than absolute beginner so i might not count as beginner thing and i'm also more photocentric than videocentric (like 65% photography and 35% videography) but you are absolutely right, because i use the 18-55 more than 50-230 when recording video because even though you are not much concerned about the perfect image quality, you still need more light and faster lenses when shooting a video generally. but if i had the budget for a telephoto lens that has crazy focal lenght with a fixed aperture, i'd probably buy that and use it for video more than the kit lens of course. i guess i just hate wide angle, i really don't like it lol. by the way number 3 mistake is the main one with everything photography and videography related. it's always the light. even the name photo+graphy implies that a photograph is a painting which uses the film or the sensor as the canvas, lens as the brush and photons as the paint. good photography or videography comes from the good lighting mostly.
Teppo speaking facts. Upgrading from inexpensive Neewer LED Panels to a Godox VL200 & Loafas Parabolic Softbox w/ Grid was the single largest change in the quality of my vids!
Hei ystävä, You gave some great ideas. 1 question: I want to take pictures of a friend’s working dog. It is a Big TSA TSA dog at the airport. Think I need another lense. Which should I get? (Recently upgraded to Sony Asc)
Oh how I wish someone had told me about the ND-filters way back in the day - the missing piece of the puzzle when shutter speed is locked, the iso is cranked all the way down and the aperture needs to be at a certain setting for the look you want :) - Quick question: If budget is limited, as in can't afford BOTH a really good body AND a really good lens: Is it better to start of with something like the ZV-E10 or A6400 and a really expensive lens (not an APS-C lens, but "full frame lens" that can then be used on a full frame body later on) rather than going for a better body and and a cheaper/kit lens, if you *know* that you will be upgrading the body later on? The drawbacks of the cheaper body being way worse batteries, worse features in terms of storage solutions (like dual card slots) etc. Also: Would love to see a proper BTS process video from A to Z of you doing a talking head shot and a B-Roll shot with examples of how the footage looks for each stage, just to see the process in action and see how you land at different settings, lighting for B-Roll and Talking Head before and after, and processing the shots in editing, and how they look straight after shooting, after sharpening, after grading etc - also to see how much work goes into a "small" video of just a talking head and some B-Roll :)
Great tips! I need to get better at the business part, I always charge too little as I feel like I don't have the right to charge much, but the nI always charges too little. Any tips on how to price videos for weddings, commercials, corporate, etc.? Also, would be amazing if you would make a dedicated video for this. Not sure how the market is in Finland, but I assume it is very similar to Norway in terms of pricing?
I think it's understanding what value you bring to a company. If you are confident in what you can provide, and are able to provide a solution to a problem, a company is more than willing to invest in your services.
@@TeppoHaapoja A lot of companies aren't *really* willing to invest what it might actually cost, this is especially true for smaller businesses that don't really have marketing budgets but still want *quality* - and as a beginner or intermediate videographer these are the clients one usually end up trying to get business from. What I find work a lot of times is that talking to the potential client and showing what goes into a job, detailing the steps for a project into smaller chunks that each have a small price tag, but together form a cohesive budget, is the best way of getting them to understand why things cost money and get them onboard. Also, the pricing needs to have some optionals that they can delete or add to the scope, showing them that expanding the scope *will* increase the cost due to more hours spent, even if it's "just" an extra video edit for social media in a different format than the main video. Another good way of getting them onboard is to show how the footage can be used several times in the future to make simpler edits for sales they might do with different text, recutting to focus on a single product, "saving" them money in the future - and this is a great way to get repeat business over time :)
@@AndreSjoberg For sure, breaking down the costs to help them understand the process is very smart! Also giving them the opportunity to choose what they need in a package helps them feel like their in control.
A very familiar problem scenario :) A "quick" way of doing this is as follows: 1. Figure out how much money you need in a month to cover living and business expenses, and include *everything* that you *have* to spend on (do *not* include beer or hobbies or anything that isn't *strictly necessary*, just things that HAVE to be paid): how much you pay on a loan on your house, or rent for an apartment, power, car costs, food for the family, office expenses (if you have an office) etc etc. Lets say it amounts to 50.000,- NOK in total 2. Multiply that by 2 - that gives you a number of 100.000 NOK pr. month 3. Divide that by the amount by the number of hours you work every month (a normal work week of 40 hours = 160) so 100.000 divided by 160 is 625 NOK. 4. Multiply that number by 2 and you get 1250,- - and that is your hourly rate. This is based on the fact that most people aren't able to bill *every* hour every day they work, but you should aim for billing every other hour, or every other day. This also means that if you are filming a whole day (8 hours) your hourly day rate is 8 * 1250 = 10.000 pr. day (8 hours of work) + any overtime if doing location shooting (like weddings for a whole day end evening) 5. If the job requires gear (which it usually does) then add hourly rates for that in your budget as well (look at the prices of companies who rent out gear, like scandinavian photo, and set your rates at the same level or a little lower if necessary). This is to cover wear and tear on your gear and futureproof investment in new gear when necessary. Also include transportation costs like gas/car rental/etc. This will give you a very detailed budget, which *can* be simplified before showing to a client, but if they go "noo wayy this costs that much" then you can walk them through the details if necessary. If you want to make *more* money, and *know* that the quality of your work is good, you can increase the multiplier in step 2. This approach gives you several advantages and possibilites for adjusting stuff along the way: - If your prices are too high, ie nobody wants to pay you the amount you arrive at for a project, you then have to decrease your spending in step 1. to get a lower total in your budgets. If that is not possible you either have to find better paying clients (if your work is good enough) or get better at making videos either faster or with better quality, or get more billable work and do less non-billable administrative work. - If you see that you don't get those 50% billable hours in a month you either have to increase your hourly rate to cover your personal and business expenses and personal income after expenses are paid (if your work is good enough to bill more pr. hour it's possible to do that) or work more on getting more projects to fill those billable hours you need pr. month. Either way you will be able to adjust several aspects of your business to fine tune it to what the market is willing to pay. - If you want more "personal income" as in money on your account after all expenses are paid and taxes and stuff you can increase the multiplier in step 2. When it comes to figuring out how much to charge the customers start out with a slightly larger budget than you need to cover everything and think they will accept and talk to them - if they say "Yes" you know you could have charged more, and should do so next time, if they start going into negotiations you can do so, cutting on deliverables, but never going below what you *have* to make pr. hour for the work you do (unless you REALLY need some money) - but if that becomes the pattern, always selling cheaper than you need to survice, then the business is not viable and changes have to be made.
@@AndreSjoberg Thank you very much for the in-depth explanation, it makes a lot of sense and great tips. I will definitely try to apply that for my small enkeltmannsforetak. I still have a problem just getting the clients too, any tips for that? I don't live in a big city and almost every company I reach out to, say no- even before hearing me out on what I can offer, not sure why? Maybe they don't have budgets now for marketing and videos, or if it is the way I present myself that makes them doubt me? Also if a client is not willing to pay the hourly rate, would you just drop them and rather wait and find someone that is willing to, even if you need money, or do you do it a lot cheaper than is reasonable? I tend to go with the last option now as I still have not landed a big client yet.
What about when you shoot videos where you need to see clearly what's goin on without the blur? Like drum lessons in my case. What settings would be best? I've shot 50 fps / 1/100 but is that the best though?
my guy killing it!
My brooo! Miss you, come to Finland
WHICH MISTAKE WERE YOU GUILT OF?!?
Grab 2 MONTHS FREE with Artlist using my link here - bit.ly/3AeRtQo 🎶
When starting out filming with my Sony DV-Tape Camcorder back in the days, like 20 years ago, I was SOOOO guilty of number 3 for sure - Just didn't know or understand how important lighting was and how much it could do - and didn't really understand it (and didn't film) until the pandemic hit the world and I had all the time in the world to watch the videos of you and your brother, as well as Peter L and Peters M's videos and all the other creators, THEN it just hit me like a wall of bricks what I had been doing wrong :)
@@AndreSjoberg Yeah sometimes the revelation just hits outa nowhere!
Good tips! Just one minor thing about mistake #2: it's "your" not "you're". A rule of thumb that helps me remember is if you can replace the word with "you are" and it still makes sense, it's "you're". If it doesn't, it's"your".
Keep it up!
Thanks amigo! Always get those mixed up
Great tips man. The pictures look great hanging in the office!
Thanks Wayne!
thanks Teppo!!
Your welcome!
Putting Mac Studio on windowsill under open window while raining.
Wait! On second watch...
You got me.
😂😂😂
I'm guilty of limiting my toolkit for sure... I have a 360 camera sitting in my house that I haven't even cracked open to figure out. Thanks for the reminder, Teppo!
Went low budget on body and lense lol now i want to upgrade but need to wait to have more money ! But for the music part i went Artlist with your discount couple month ago and for real I love this site !
Love from Qc
Thats awesome, glad to hear artlist is working well
i'm the guy that went with crazy telephoto lens but i'm really happy about it because image quality is not my primary focus, i like crazy amount of compression, i hate to get close to my subjects. so i bought fuji xt3 with 18-55 kit lens + 50-230 cheap but awesome telephoto lens in 2018. however i shoud point out that even though i'm and i was a hobbyist, i was already using a dslr since 2008 (nikon d90) and i kinda knew what i like and what i want more than absolute beginner so i might not count as beginner thing and i'm also more photocentric than videocentric (like 65% photography and 35% videography) but you are absolutely right, because i use the 18-55 more than 50-230 when recording video because even though you are not much concerned about the perfect image quality, you still need more light and faster lenses when shooting a video generally. but if i had the budget for a telephoto lens that has crazy focal lenght with a fixed aperture, i'd probably buy that and use it for video more than the kit lens of course. i guess i just hate wide angle, i really don't like it lol. by the way number 3 mistake is the main one with everything photography and videography related. it's always the light. even the name photo+graphy implies that a photograph is a painting which uses the film or the sensor as the canvas, lens as the brush and photons as the paint. good photography or videography comes from the good lighting mostly.
So true!
Thanks, Teppo!
Your welcome Sam!
Teppo speaking facts. Upgrading from inexpensive Neewer LED Panels to a Godox VL200 & Loafas Parabolic Softbox w/ Grid was the single largest change in the quality of my vids!
Thats awesome Randy!
Thank you for sharing 😊❤
i have a rf 35mm 1.8 and rf 100-400 as my first lense for my R7. and planning to get that rf 24-105 f4 for all around good or bad weather lense.
Hei ystävä, You gave some great ideas. 1 question: I want to take pictures of a friend’s working dog. It is a Big TSA TSA dog at the airport. Think I need another lense. Which should I get? (Recently upgraded to Sony Asc)
I thought it was very interesting how you’re talking about artlist and then a commercial pops up for artlist
HA timing went well :)
I have the A7siii I shoot in door gym and at times by the beach where it’s sunny. This will always be 24fps? And 50 shutter speed?
Oh how I wish someone had told me about the ND-filters way back in the day - the missing piece of the puzzle when shutter speed is locked, the iso is cranked all the way down and the aperture needs to be at a certain setting for the look you want :) - Quick question: If budget is limited, as in can't afford BOTH a really good body AND a really good lens: Is it better to start of with something like the ZV-E10 or A6400 and a really expensive lens (not an APS-C lens, but "full frame lens" that can then be used on a full frame body later on) rather than going for a better body and and a cheaper/kit lens, if you *know* that you will be upgrading the body later on? The drawbacks of the cheaper body being way worse batteries, worse features in terms of storage solutions (like dual card slots) etc.
Also: Would love to see a proper BTS process video from A to Z of you doing a talking head shot and a B-Roll shot with examples of how the footage looks for each stage, just to see the process in action and see how you land at different settings, lighting for B-Roll and Talking Head before and after, and processing the shots in editing, and how they look straight after shooting, after sharpening, after grading etc - also to see how much work goes into a "small" video of just a talking head and some B-Roll :)
Yeah I think a lens is going to get you better image and its a long term investment. And thanks for the video suggestions!
@@TeppoHaapoja Thanks :) Confirming my suspicions, but sooo want the A7S3 for the low light quality and other features ;)
I bought the Sony A7iii and want to start using it for video work, but all the picture profile stuff has me super confused lol.
Great tips! I need to get better at the business part, I always charge too little as I feel like I don't have the right to charge much, but the nI always charges too little. Any tips on how to price videos for weddings, commercials, corporate, etc.? Also, would be amazing if you would make a dedicated video for this. Not sure how the market is in Finland, but I assume it is very similar to Norway in terms of pricing?
I think it's understanding what value you bring to a company. If you are confident in what you can provide, and are able to provide a solution to a problem, a company is more than willing to invest in your services.
@@TeppoHaapoja A lot of companies aren't *really* willing to invest what it might actually cost, this is especially true for smaller businesses that don't really have marketing budgets but still want *quality* - and as a beginner or intermediate videographer these are the clients one usually end up trying to get business from.
What I find work a lot of times is that talking to the potential client and showing what goes into a job, detailing the steps for a project into smaller chunks that each have a small price tag, but together form a cohesive budget, is the best way of getting them to understand why things cost money and get them onboard. Also, the pricing needs to have some optionals that they can delete or add to the scope, showing them that expanding the scope *will* increase the cost due to more hours spent, even if it's "just" an extra video edit for social media in a different format than the main video. Another good way of getting them onboard is to show how the footage can be used several times in the future to make simpler edits for sales they might do with different text, recutting to focus on a single product, "saving" them money in the future - and this is a great way to get repeat business over time :)
@@AndreSjoberg For sure, breaking down the costs to help them understand the process is very smart!
Also giving them the opportunity to choose what they need in a package helps them feel like their in control.
A very familiar problem scenario :) A "quick" way of doing this is as follows:
1. Figure out how much money you need in a month to cover living and business expenses, and include *everything* that you *have* to spend on (do *not* include beer or hobbies or anything that isn't *strictly necessary*, just things that HAVE to be paid): how much you pay on a loan on your house, or rent for an apartment, power, car costs, food for the family, office expenses (if you have an office) etc etc. Lets say it amounts to 50.000,- NOK in total
2. Multiply that by 2 - that gives you a number of 100.000 NOK pr. month
3. Divide that by the amount by the number of hours you work every month (a normal work week of 40 hours = 160) so 100.000 divided by 160 is 625 NOK.
4. Multiply that number by 2 and you get 1250,- - and that is your hourly rate.
This is based on the fact that most people aren't able to bill *every* hour every day they work, but you should aim for billing every other hour, or every other day. This also means that if you are filming a whole day (8 hours) your hourly day rate is 8 * 1250 = 10.000 pr. day (8 hours of work) + any overtime if doing location shooting (like weddings for a whole day end evening)
5. If the job requires gear (which it usually does) then add hourly rates for that in your budget as well (look at the prices of companies who rent out gear, like scandinavian photo, and set your rates at the same level or a little lower if necessary). This is to cover wear and tear on your gear and futureproof investment in new gear when necessary. Also include transportation costs like gas/car rental/etc. This will give you a very detailed budget, which *can* be simplified before showing to a client, but if they go "noo wayy this costs that much" then you can walk them through the details if necessary.
If you want to make *more* money, and *know* that the quality of your work is good, you can increase the multiplier in step 2.
This approach gives you several advantages and possibilites for adjusting stuff along the way:
- If your prices are too high, ie nobody wants to pay you the amount you arrive at for a project, you then have to decrease your spending in step 1. to get a lower total in your budgets. If that is not possible you either have to find better paying clients (if your work is good enough) or get better at making videos either faster or with better quality, or get more billable work and do less non-billable administrative work.
- If you see that you don't get those 50% billable hours in a month you either have to increase your hourly rate to cover your personal and business expenses and personal income after expenses are paid (if your work is good enough to bill more pr. hour it's possible to do that) or work more on getting more projects to fill those billable hours you need pr. month. Either way you will be able to adjust several aspects of your business to fine tune it to what the market is willing to pay.
- If you want more "personal income" as in money on your account after all expenses are paid and taxes and stuff you can increase the multiplier in step 2.
When it comes to figuring out how much to charge the customers start out with a slightly larger budget than you need to cover everything and think they will accept and talk to them - if they say "Yes" you know you could have charged more, and should do so next time, if they start going into negotiations you can do so, cutting on deliverables, but never going below what you *have* to make pr. hour for the work you do (unless you REALLY need some money) - but if that becomes the pattern, always selling cheaper than you need to survice, then the business is not viable and changes have to be made.
@@AndreSjoberg Thank you very much for the in-depth explanation, it makes a lot of sense and great tips. I will definitely try to apply that for my small enkeltmannsforetak. I still have a problem just getting the clients too, any tips for that? I don't live in a big city and almost every company I reach out to, say no- even before hearing me out on what I can offer, not sure why? Maybe they don't have budgets now for marketing and videos, or if it is the way I present myself that makes them doubt me?
Also if a client is not willing to pay the hourly rate, would you just drop them and rather wait and find someone that is willing to, even if you need money, or do you do it a lot cheaper than is reasonable? I tend to go with the last option now as I still have not landed a big client yet.
fire intro with the audio, b-roll, pretty good! Although I see you did go outside to get the b-roll of the raindrops. I'll forgive you :)
Thanks bro!
Cool video, awesome tips man. Thanks for sharing this video with us. 🎥
PD. Jesus Loves You! 🔥👍🏼
I shoot on my Sony FX3 at a base iso of 800 using slog 3. Am I using the wrong base iso considering the A7S3 is pretty much the same camera?
Yes for FX3 its 800. I use S-Cinetone which is base ISO of 640
@@TeppoHaapoja didn’t know you can use SLog and S Cinetone combined
Great tips. Where were you 10 years ago 🤪
😂😂😂
Hello brother can you give me native iso a Canon 6D Mark II
What about when you shoot videos where you need to see clearly what's goin on without the blur? Like drum lessons in my case. What settings would be best? I've shot 50 fps / 1/100 but is that the best though?
Thats a niche specific thing, so maybe then Id still film 24fps but just increase shutter speed.
@@TeppoHaapoja Thanks!! 😊