When shooting real estate photos, nothing will throw an image off quite like crooked verticals. What does that mean? Look at your windows, door frames, wall corners, or anything in the home that should be perfectly straight up and down. Line those straight lines up with the edge of your frame before you shoot. Typically we’ll set our camera (on a tripod) at about light switch height. From there it’s a simple adjustment of the tilt (up and down) of…
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Tip #33 – “Put your nose in the corner”
No you’re not in trouble. But you might be if you have bad-sounding audio! There’s nothing worse than watching a video and you can hardly hear what the person is saying. This usually applies to voice-over videos, not necessarily a video where we can see your face. It might be kind of difficult to squeeze a camera in a corner just to get good audio. However, a quick remedy for this is to face a corner, or even better, hang…
Tip #87 – “You’re not stupid”
We make mistakes all the time. Humans make mistakes all the time. Something we’ve been working on at Wonder Boy is not calling ourselves stupid for making a mistake. We’ve all come too far in life to be “stupid.” We’ve gone to school, raised a family, made difficult life decisions, started a business, so many things accomplished. So cut yourself a break, we’re all entitled to a few mistakes every now and then.
Tip #100 – “Know. Your. Worth.”
This was a hard lesson to learn in business. We naturally want to make our clients and potential clients happy and part of that reasoning can lead to diminished value in our work. But what do your clients value? Time? Money? If they want the best they wouldn’t have come to you. So they should expect the best. Look at your industry standards for pay and come up with a reasonable fee. Sure a non-profit will solicit you here and…
Tip #103 – “Shoot cell phone videos horizontally”
Unless you’re going for a certain look, you should always shoot videos on your cell phone in a landscape position. Meaning, turn your phone sideways! This will prevent those black bars from showing up on either side of the video. If you’re going the DIY route for your business’ content, this will make the videos that much more professional looking. If you’re using an iPhone, you can even adjust exposure (the little sun looking slider that appears when you tap…
Tip #128 – Face your light source
Nobody likes watching a video only to be blinded by a powerful light behind a dimly lit subject. If you re going the DIY route for your business content, especially if capturing content of a person, make sure they are facing a window, lamp, or other light source. This will ensure your subject is properly lit. Usually a window with blinds that are drawn will add a nice, soft light. If you feel like the light is blinding you, there…
Tip #145 – “iMovie can be your friend.”
If you’re going the DIY route for your business’ content, sometimes the heavy duty editing software just isn’t necessary. Adobe Premiere, Final Cut Pro, Davinci Resolve, all of these can be left to the professionals. But if you’re ballin on a budget, iMovie works just as well. Most of us carry an iPhone or at least someone in the office has one. Did you know that the editing software iMovie is a free app on iPhones? If you need quick…
Tip #222 – “Meet them where they’re at.”
Now before we get demolished for ending a sentence with a preposition, keep in mind this is a common saying in a lot of industries. Quick background, when working for the Catholic Church, Drew always tried to remember this mantra. If you need adult volunteers, find them at the ball games and school drop off. If you need youth attendance, visit them at lunch at school or hanging out with friends. Same can go for your business as well. What…
Tip #237 – “Two is one, one is none”
A cryptic message for sure but simply points out the necessity for backups. If you’re going the DIY route for your business’ content, there are times that you’ll run into some bumps in the road. Take for example, audio in a video. If you only have one microphone, on camera, and you’re the subject in the video, you may not notice if the battery dies on the microphone. Man, have we ever been frustrated by this. When that one source…