Animoto Video - Yay or Nay?

So I did it! I took the plunge signed up for Animoto and created a video!

Now I’ve heard people in the photography industry singing the praises of Animoto for a while. Namely the super talented Sue Bryce! And I must admit, my initial reaction was how great can it really be? I mean I use a Mac.... and iMovie is simple enough.  

I’ve also tried Photodex Proshow Web. Could this really be any better? - I said to myself.

Well, at the end of this article I’ll tell you the reasons why I think Animoto is a better tool - for my needs - and they probably aren’t for the reasons you think!

I’ll also touch on some different ways you can use video for your wedding, family or glamour photography businesses!

Why

But first let’s start off with why video is even important to your photography business!

These are some interesting and rather compelling statistics in my opinion. The article “The Science of Video Engagement” found that:

• 60% of web site visitors will watch a video if one is available before reading any text

• 88% of visitors stay longer on a site where there is a prominent video

• homepages or landing pages that have a prominent video lead to 800% more conversions

• website visitors have a higher likelihood of remembering videos compared to other forms of information

• visitors who watch videos tend to look deeper into your product/brand and later purchase from you.

So video is pretty important. But how can we use it in our photography business?

How to use video

I’ve put together a list of some fun and easy ways I’ve seen and heard of video being used - and ways you can use it too: 

• show behind the scenes at a wedding or in studio

• interview

• show your studio and office

• client testimonials

• image galleries

• surprise client with their images put to music

• showcase final images mixed with behind the scenes video/images

• family shoot: interviewing the kids mixed with final images from the shoot

• business commercial

• brand story with images and your voice-over

• showcase products e.g. wedding albums, folio boxes

• up-sell packages

That’s all great, but where can you use these videos? Uhm… just about everywhere! And the best part is you can easily re-purpose your videos. Think - homepage, blog post, Facebook, Instagram and other social media.

My Animoto experience

I wanted to surprise one of my beautiful portraiture clients with something extra thoughtful. 

My typical portraiture blog posts prior to this, I’m sad to admit, were 1-2 images from a photo shoot that I would post here and there if I found time. 

This time I wanted to say more. This time I wanted to show more. And I wanted to say more without words and without just throwing a bunch of photos up consecutively one after another.

So I logged into my Animoto account and I picked a theme that I thought would be fitting with the style of photos I wanted to showcase. 

Tip: when viewing the themes, try to look past the default placeholder images - your photo genre may give the theme a completely different vibe.

Next I uploaded my photos, added my logo, a few lines of text, picked some music from their suggested royalty free music library and voila - I published my video! (Big Smile)

Animoto, automatically timed my video to the music, transitioned between the different slides and gave me straightforward options to export/publish my video.

Since you can control the time of the video, (if you’d like), you can also make shorter complimentary videos to use on Instagram. 

Tip: Instagram cuts videos off at 15 seconds.

So in addition, I made a shorter 15 second version of the video to match the look & feel of the original video.

Then, with the touch of a button, I exported the videos to my youtube and vimeo accounts and also downloaded them to my computer.

And the very best part... my video looked ultra professional! All shiny and polished!

Why I love Animoto

iMovie and other online video programs can do the same thing right?

Yes for some features, but these are the reasons why I prefer Animoto to other software I have tried:

• it’s a super simple process

• it saves me time! I’m a photographer and I don’t have time to fiddle around with video software.

• it’s drag and drop

• it’s really fast and slick

• it’s online

• you can import photos from smugmug

• if you dislike the theme you can easily switch it without re-starting your project from scratch

• it makes exporting easy

• it exports quickly

• all of your videos are in one place

• it connects to your vimeo and youtube accounts

• it easily embeds video into your website

• you can upload both videos and still images

• you can clip your videos in animoto

• you can upload voice-overs

• it has a huge library of royalty free music (hola!)

• it has a blank template that you customize for projects that don’t fit with any of their other themes.

If you’ve been considering using video for any aspect of your photography business, I hope this article has been useful! I’d love to hear about your experiences!

Also, if you want to explore more about how to use animoto to boost your business check out Sue Bryce's super Creative Live course here!

Be sure to leave me a comment below.

P.S. Here is my video

With love and gratitude. And wishing you all the success in photography business,

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One of the biggest mistakes when designing your logo

What is one of the biggest mistakes a photographer can make when designing her logo?

Realizing it doesn’t work where she needs it most.

So you’ve designed a logo and it looks great… on your website. You envision it on your business cards, note cards and bags and it will look great there too.

Wonderful!

But now, as you are sitting down ready to blog a recent photo shoot, you contemplate, "should I add my logo as a watermark to my photos?"

You test it out… YIKES!

It looks distracting and actually takes away from the beauty of the image.

You decide to leave your image naked… watermark free.

Your rationale? "Well thieves will remove watermarks from images anyway - so why bother."

Here are few reasons why you should bother

Watermarking your images with your logo is free advertising. And who doesn’t have time for free advertising and marketing? Holla!

(Now before I go any further, I should mention that I too did not consider all of these items initially… it's been a live and learn experience. And one of my logos still suffers from this problem. But more on that and possible workarounds later in this article).

Consider the following:

• Stealing: not everyone who will use your image(s) is trying to steal it or claim it as their own. For example, a very successful photographer friend of mine found one of her images displayed on a website accompanied by a short paragraph listing the site's favourite photographers. She was one of their favourites. They used an image from her website that was not watermarked. In a mad scramble, my photog friend contacted the site’s owner and sent her a watermarked version of the image. Capitalizing on the free exposure! (*Although people should always ask before using your work, the reality is they don’t always do this).

• Branding: Why do people purchase bags covered with the brand’s logo? - think Louis Vuitton. I had the pleasure of hanging out with Christa Meola and handful of other talented photographers last summer. Christa did us the honour of taking our photos. As she was telling us about when she would get us our photos, one lady asked if she could have hers with the Meola logo on it. Why? Because it means something to her. Just as the LV logo means something to the woman carrying the monogramed Louis Vuitton purse. Make your logo mean something! 
  (See Christa's awesome logo on my Pinterest board below). 

Christa Meola and I in NYC last summer. I had the best time with this amazing talented lady.

• Searches by Google Images: these days clients are searching for photographers on google images. Naturally, when shopping for a photographer you want to see their photos right? Make it easy for them! For example, if a client does an image search and a few photos in the results appeal to her -- help her see that those photos are all by the same photographer (you) because they all share the same logo. This will instantly help narrow down her search... to you!

• Pinterest: ahhh gotta love Pinterest. Style boards, wedding, boards, headshot boards, boudoir boards, glamour boards. If one of your images ends up here, you want people to be able to find you. "But Pinterest will link back to my website - right?" Not all the time. For example, if someone pins your image via Google images, it will not link back to your site. And with no logo on your image, there is probably no tracing it back to you. (Unless of course, you are a well known photographer with a very distinctive style, such as, Sue Bryce, Craig Lamere or Annie Liebovitz).

• Painters:  I thought I’d throw this in… traditionally artists have put their signatures on their work. Think paintings and prints.

 

But I already have a logo and it doesn’t look good on my photos

Trust me you are not alone.

I have two brands 1. Delmore Photography and 2. Couture Portrait. I wrestle with this problem with my Delmore Photography brand. The logo has a symbol with text below it. It’s too chunky to put on any image... without ruining it. Don’t get me wrong, I like it on its own… just not on my photos. To make things worse, this is the brand I use mainly for weddings… and the thought of putting that logo on every image in a long wedding blog post makes me cringe.

I did better, with my second and newer logo for Couture Portrait. I’d throw that logo on anything ;-) And will be updating my redesigned website soon. 

WORKAROUNDS

These are some workarounds if you already have a logo but it’s too distracting to put on your images. Use these tips alone or in combination. And be creative there is no right and wrong.

1. URL: add your URL in a visually appealing and non-distracting way on your photos

2. Creative URL: do something creative with your url - see ribbon example on my Pinterest board below.

3. Font: Have a specific font in your logo? Use that font and write your URL on your photos.

4. Distinctive: Is there a distinctive aspect of your logo that you could use, that would instantly identify it as part of your brand?

5. Photoshop layer opacities: Set Photoshop's layer opacity to "multiply" to help blend the logo into the image.

Need visuals of these workarounds in action?

Here is my Pinterest board with examples of worksarounds  -- and examples of well designed logos that look great on photos:

My Pinterest board with examples of well designed logos that look great on photos and real world workaround options.

Final Note:

Although filenames and meta data can help link an image back to you, the general public may not know how to look for these things. Or it may simply be too time consuming.

Also disabling the right click option on your website will not always prevent the Pinterest "Pin it" button from pinning your images.

Keep everything simple, easy and straightforward for a path of least resistance.

Let social media spread the word about your images - so be sure to have your name on them!

Leave a comment below, I'd love to start a conversation on the topic!

With love and gratitude. And wishing you all the success in photography business,

CONTINUE TO:

- The Store (for some awesome goodies 10% OFF this week only)
- Favourite free font and branding resources
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