I’m setting up my new website with my host, Art Store Fronts, and wanted to show it off with a Facebook ad. So, I thought why not create a video? They say video sells. It’s certainly eye catching. I’m a videographer as well as a photographer, so I created a video slide show. Slide shows are quick and easy. Most of the time. They’re also a nice vehicle for presenting photos.
I began my journey into videography with slide shows. Apple Keynote, and PowerPoint, work well for newbies. I started with Keynote. Like PowerPoint, it’s pretty straightforward. Insert your photos into your slides, add music, create a loop, and voila! You have a video. From there you can upload it to YouTube or Vimeo. As I became more experienced I started playing with iMovie. Like Keynote, iMovie also comes with Macs. It’s a decent video editor. It covers all the basics, and, with a little practice, I soon got a feel for it. Then once again, as I became more experienced, I learned how to use Apple’s professional editing software, Final Cut Pro. I now use Final Cut Pro exclusively. For those who don’t have Mac’s, I’m told Adobe Premier works well, and it comes with Creative Suite.
I wanted to keep the video short, so I limited it to only ten images. That was the hardest part. From there I spent the day tweaking this and that and adding the music. And, as I’m sure everyone knows by now, 99.999% of the music you hear is copyrighted. Thankfully, Final Cut Pro comes with a vast array of music tracks, but for this video I went with something I found on Pond5. Pond5 is a videographer’s best friend. It’s my go to place for music tracks.
Video is a nice way to promote any business, not just photography. I’ve used to promote my books, and I create fun travel videos as well.
Gayle Martin
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