Clarifying the Difference between Professional and Amateur Video

These days the DIY craze is seeing an all-time high. It isn’t hard to see. With the Internet allowing ready access to knowledge on each and every single topic under the sun, people have started to feel that they will just open up a website which caters to their interest, go through for a few minutes and then they will become experts on that topic, infallible to no one.

One such field which has seen this kind of behavior a lot is that of the videographer/photographer. People have smartphones which have good quality cameras and websites like Instagram to share the photos and videos, and this makes them feel like they possess skills equivalent to that of the professionals who have been taking photos and videos since years.

However, there is a very clear difference between the video that is shot by the professional and that which the average person might. Even if they take a photo or video of the same event, you will easily notice the difference. This is because of the following factors:

• The professionals know about the importance of pre-and-post production. Unless the video you are taking is going to be taken in the cinéma vérité style or the photo is a candid one, the professionals tend to use an extensive list of methods which serve to enhance the beauty of the video/photo, and this is something which you will notice. Amateurs are just satisfied with taking the photo or video and are not concerned with enhancing it in any way whatsoever.

• There will also be a huge difference in the quality as the professionals use only the top-range equipment, as opposed to the amateurs who use whatever equipment they have access to. When you see a video which has been taken in 4k quality and compare it with that of a smartphone camera you will notice the difference right away! In addition to the cameras themselves, there is also a lot of other equipment which the professionals use that the amateurs do not. From wireless lavalier microphones to rigs such as steadicams and crane jibs, all of these different equipments help to make the video just that much more attractive and beautiful.

•  Probably the biggest area where you will see a difference between the video of a professional and an amateur is in the editing of the video itself. In all likelihood the video that you will see of an amateur will be one long video of a certain event and this will not be very exciting to watch. There won’t be any special music attached to the video as well. However, the video made by the professionals will look absolutely different as you will find, and that too in a number of different ways. The video will jump between many angles, yet seem coherent. There will be music in the background which enhances the emotional impact of the moment, etc.