Are you a working photographer? are you shooting video as well as stills? If you are then you are way ahead of me and many others. If you are not then here’s a little blog post for you to get either super excited about video or just plain scared. I currently don’t offer video to my clients but I can see a glimpse of what the future looks like and I’m completely torn about what to do about it.

I find it ironic that when I was about to start photography school I wanted to go into the film program instead of the stills program. I ended up choosing the still photography program since in my native Mexico there was very little chance of me getting any actual work in that area. I’ve been doing pretty well as a still photographer but now it seems that moving pictures might be something I’ll be offering in the future.

Now here’s my problem with that. Most people think that offering video is simple. Just point the camera and start recording. Yes you can do that but for a high end production you’ll probably need better lighting or additional lighting (owned or rented), additional gear (remember that audio is now part of the equation) and the one I think most people don’t consider is the post production. The files you’ll be working with will be way bigger which means you’ll need to have a pretty decent computer and of course editing software (which you’ll have to learn of course). Not impossible of course and for most all this will probably not be an issue but for many others it’s not just about recording video with the camera you have.

For a great eye opening read check out the following interview that Rob Haggart did with Vincent Laforet about his views on this convergence point we are all in the middle of. I think that the more informed you are the better off you’ll be when the time comes to decide if you are jumping into video.

Click here to go read the inteview

All images © Vincent Laforet. Laforet | Visuals