Watch my 5 Essential moves for using the Handheld Gimbal for shooting Real Estate Videos. To watch an excerpt from my upcoming Real Estate Video Bootcamp course click the link below the video.
Watch my 5 Essential moves for using the Handheld Gimbal for shooting Real Estate Videos. To watch an excerpt from my upcoming Real Estate Video Bootcamp course click the link below the video.
Hi Grant,
Thanks for the video. These are the tips you should keep behind the pay wall. Great to see you walking like a ninja. Look forward to learn more with the gimbal.
As well as my RE video work, I use the edit tips (from FCPX editing for RE Videos) more often that I thought with other work as well. Great to see you’re still adding to the videos.
Best from Amsterdam,
Kevin
Cheers Kevin
Thank you, thank you Grant for this! It comes with perfect timing for me.
I have not had a video assignment since early January (enough still shoots however to keep food on the table thank God) and I was just getting a bit of control over my video work when it dried up about 5 months ago. Probably due to very slow real estate sales and low inventory in my area and agents watching their pennies. But with the market expanding now, I have a couple video assignments and find I have forgotten many of the prime aspects of how to shoot video (it does come back with a little practice on my own home) but worse, I am using my fairly new Sony A-6500 for video and I have lost much awareness of the user interface from 5 months ago when I was just getting the hang of it.
So I just spent the last three days watching your tutorials, resetting and testing out my 80D (it has the telephoto for close ups and all my setting were wiped out when I had to send it to Canon for repairs) and reacquainting myself with the Sony and in the process discovering many controls that I did not register or understand when starting to use it last August. Such as how to tame different auto focus choices to tie in with both slider and gimbal use so that the foregrounds would stay out of focus while the rest of the room was in focus. My house has very small rooms (cheaper to heat and cool) so infinity is not always the best manual choice. And what Photo Profiles to use on the Sony to get close to the results from my Canon with the Technicolor CineStyle I have installed and like to use. It is a perfect match for the new “wheel” color/exposure/contrast controls on FCPX.
Slider use came back to me relatively easily but gimbal (in my case the MOXA Air) seemed fine as I was shooting the tests but when I watched them on my computer, they were a disaster! So your prime moves and prime tips here are very welcome. I found it was all too easy to simply “vacuum hose down” a room which makes for clips that are too long and too much going on for one take. After watching my tests, I resolved to narrow down both moves, extent of moves and over indulgence with the “hose” effect. I recently saw a “walk through” video posted on Photography for Real Estate Blog that showed a narrated walk-through video that gave me a head ache as the photographer raced through a house, panning each room and including endless boring hall ways that added nothing to the communication. On that last point, I do feel that real estate photography and videography is not about documenting a property but communicating the “soul” of a property, what it feels like as well as what it looks like.
And thank you for pointing out to shoot stabilizer at 60 fps and then slow it down to smooth it out. I have been shooting at 60 fps but with the idea of being able to slow it down if I go too fast but not from the point of view of also smoothing out the uneven shooting.
I do have a questions though. I notice in your clips of yourself shooting (which really helps putting flesh on your words) that you hold your gimbal horizontally instead of upright. What are the situations where you shoot horizontally as opposed to vertically? I remember a property you shot with the gimbal where it looked like you held the gimbal upside down for an exterior shot as you walked along a garden path and passed through some tall grass bunches.
And that coupled with your Ninja walking is still a challenge. Finally this week end I kicked off my shoes and found I was able to be much smoother in my walking with my aging knees and aching, ancient back. So I must focus on wearing new socks rather than my comfy well used and soft athletic white’ies. After all a client and/or owner might just be in evidence. (We have our brand to remember.) So I was delighted to see you Ninja’ing along in your stocking clad feet. Validation is always valuable.
And Verticals. I could not agree more. As a still photographer, I was trained back in the 1970’s to always keep verticals vertical. We were doing a lot of “box” studio shots from cereal boxes to computer cabinets. I think in video that is far less important with slider especially if shooting a house that has nothing on the walls. I have too many of those as well as empty houses which are a nightmare to make look interesting. I try to convince my clients that video actually shows empty houses in a more interesting light since more is going on rather than just static blank walls and floors especially if you have sun to break up the floors.
But I noticed that not keeping verticals vertical definitely was a negative unless you are shooting down on a deck, patio or even bath tub or up a stair well. And I am finding that at least with the MOZA, It retains the vertical verticals very well. And with the FreeWorld monitor (and others I am sure) with a grid over lay, it makes it much easier to check. Of course, if I use the up/down toggle to pan up into an atrium or staircase, I have to turn off then on again the gimbal to get it to re-aquire a true vertical
I also tested out using my new monopod with a ball head foot “tripod legs” and a Manfrotto quick release, that I use on my cameras, tripods and slider, to go between the base of the gimbal and the top of the monopod. I have found with a solid foot on the floor placed in the middle distance of my “sway & swing”, I can emulate a more controlled slider effect with the gimbal coupling that slider reveal with the slider style pan around and at the same time move the gimbal from outside the door way to inside the room. For a bigger house, I would do this with the slider, but for myself, I plan to combine slider and gimbal coverage where the budgets give me the time to do so, but for smaller houses and lower budgets, I plan to use just the gimbal if I can also get it to simulate some or many of the slider moves.
Faux moves obviously since there will be a slight upward curve to the move since the monopod acts like an upside down pendulum, but barely noticeable. Another advantage of the monopod for old, creaking gits like myself, is that it helps take the weight of the gimbal off my back. And with the quick release, I can get rid of the impediment of the monopod when I don’t want it. It also acts like a small tripod when you want to set the gimbal aside for a break. All you have to do is tighten down the ball head at the base of the monopod. This set up also makes the crane move more stable as you can put your foot on the base as you raise the gimbal/monopod assembly. This is for us oldies who have the shakes or just bad backs.
So again thanks for this. It is helping me refine and tighten up what I will do on shoots with the gimbal. And how to delegate to myself what to shoot with the slider and what to shoot with the gimbal. Both give me ideas how to do the same with the drone.
Hi Peter – yes the gimbal like most of the video tools I find is one of continual evolution and I too definitely get rusty if I haven’t been using it much. With regards to holding the gimbal out in front of me as opposed to straight up and down, its a way of holding that I prefer. I started doing it with the DJI Osmo (they called it torchlight mode) and I found it the most stable way to hold the much smaller Osmo. So I have just continued to use it with my bigger gimbals. It also has the added benefit of keeping the camera a nice distance from my eyes which aren’t so great at focusing on it when its close! And yes I just about always out of respect for peoples properties take my shoes off when going inside and has left me thinking I must get some new socks. Its amazing how quick I put holes in the backs of my socks.
Hi Grant, nice video and great quick course, the basics are always good to look back on. I like the clarity of your videos, may I ask what camera, lens and settings you are using for most of your shots in the brighter modes, and also for the less brighter shots.
Thank you, again.
Brian
Hi Brian – All shot on my Panasonic GH5 with 8-18mm lens in the Cine-D mode, you can see my gear list here https://grantjohnston.me/camera-gear-for-shooting-real-estate-video/