Videography vs. Photography

Jamie Perez • March 29, 2024

I often get asked if I can also take photos or do headshots for people as a videographer. The simple explanation: Can I PHYSICALLY do it with my camera? Yes. Am I trained or skilled at it OR do I brand myself as a professional photographer? No.

 

There’s a bit of a misconception around the video and photo world. What’s the difference between videography and photography? A lot of people think that because both fields require a nice camera and nice lenses, that the two are interchangeable. Although there are some people out there who do BOTH art forms, many do not and they often stick exclusively to one or the other. Here are some key differences in the art forms:

 

Videography:

1. Motion and Time: Videography captures a sequence of moments in a continuous stream, allowing viewers to experience the passage of time. This medium is perfect for documenting events, telling stories, and conveying dynamic narratives.

2. Emotion and Sound: Videography excels at evoking emotions through the combination of moving visuals and audio. It can transport the audience into the heart of the moment, utilizing dialogue, music, and ambient sounds to enhance the storytelling experience.

3. Storytelling: Videography shines when it comes to in-depth storytelling. It allows for character development, plot progression, and exploration of various angles and perspectives, creating a more immersive narrative.

4. Challenges: However, videography can be challenging due to its need for stable footage, smooth transitions, and post-production editing. The equipment can be bulkier and more expensive, requiring additional skills in video editing.

Photography:

1. Single Moments: Photography captures a single moment frozen in time. It excels at highlighting the beauty of a single frame, emphasizing details, emotions, and aesthetics.

2. Simplicity and Versatility: Photography is often more straightforward and accessible. With just a camera and a keen eye, photographers can capture powerful images in various conditions, making it a versatile choice for documenting the world.

3. Creativity and Composition: Photography relies heavily on composition, framing, and lighting to create visually compelling images. It allows photographers to focus on the smallest details and produce striking visuals with the right technique.

4. Limitations: On the downside, photography may not capture the full depth of a moment or story, as it only presents a single slice of time. It might require more creative interpretation by the viewer.

The similarities:

Both are forms of visual storytelling that have the power to capture the essence of moments, evoke emotions and take you to places in time you’ve never been. They also both require nice cameras to produce such results. But they are two VERY different skillsets that require hundreds of hours of work and skill to be able to do professionally.

It took me six years as a TV news reporter, filming and editing all of my own stories and seeing failures and successes play out to get to the level of storytelling I’m at today. Even after I left the TV world, shooting for a newscast is very different than shooting for businesses’ video storytelling purposes. So, even after I launched my own business, it was still a learning curve to see what skills I needed to adjust to meet the market I was providing services for.

So many people would ask me at the beginning of launching my biz if I would do photoshoots too. At first, I agreed. I needed to generate income.

I took photography training classes, practiced taking still photos, etc. It just didn’t speak to me the same way video did. I’ve asked my photographer friends how they feel about doing video and they feel the same way. It’s just a whole new beast that we don’t share the same passion for. And that’s okay! Because that’s how referrals end up being shared amongst us and it brings BOTH of us enough business to keep us passionate about the work we’re doing.

I genuinely applaud the folks out there who are skilled at doing BOTH and offer both services to their clients. It’s a great model and brings them even more business opportunities!

A person wearing headphones is playing a video game on a computer.

The Art of Video Editing - Tips to Make Your Videos Better

By Jamie Perez • September 2, 2025
When it comes to video production, a major part of the art happens during the editing process. A good editor can take bad footage and still make a decent story out of it. But a bad editor cannot take great footage and make a great story out of it. You should be able to be decent at both -- but if your footage isn't the greatest, a good edit can still save you. Here are some key elements to thoroughly consider when editing your videos to ensure the final product is as great as it can be: 1) Music selection: Music will drive the narrative and set the tone for whatever emotion you want your audience to feel. The music needs to compliment the video. In many music libraries online you can narrow down the search results by putting in filters like instruments, mood, beats per second, etc. If you have a promo video that you want people to be excited about, for example, use music that is quick paced, has a hard bass, etc. 2) A-roll: These are your interviews -- the driving sound that will literally narrate the video. The first ten seconds are super important. That's your hook. It's what captures the audience's attention. Once you start bringing the viewer into the middle of the narrative, stakes are high so it's important to choose soundbites that reveal more layers to the story to keep their attention on the story. One of the biggest challenges editors face is deciding what stays and what goes. When you have so much good sound, it's hard to decide. A bit of advice here is to step away from the project for a day and come back and watch it with fresh eyes and ears. Then decide-- what sound would move me the most if this were my first time watching it? What sound advances the story and does the best job of driving home the message? And then lastly -- how do you want your story to end? Choosing that final soundbite is important because that's the overall feeling that your audience will walk away with. If you are moved by the sounds you choose -- chances are your audience will be too. 3) B-Roll: These are your visuals. Anything that is not an interview shot that helps move the story. It's great to use the phrase "say dog, see dog" when choosing your b-roll. If the soundbite talks about walking on a beach looking at the sunset, choose footage that shows that. One of the other challenging parts during the editing process is you could have an amazing shot of something--- but if the soundbite that talks about that didn't make it into the final cut of the story, then you also have to cut that beautiful shot you were super proud of if it doesn't move the story forward. But this can always be used in a separate standalone cut to promote the video on social media. 4) Practice: All of these things take time to master. Even when you've been at it for years, it's still a continuous learning process because every story is different. Find the moments that move you and the shots that ignite some sort of emotion in you. Cut different versions until you find the right one. And have fun with it when all is said and done!
A person is holding a video camera in their hand.

4 Tips to Capture Compelling Video B-Roll

By Jamie Perez • August 5, 2025
Learn how to direct b-roll with authenticity. These 4 tips help you capture real emotion on camera without staging or losing the human connection.
A person is holding a microphone in their hand.

How To Ask Better Interview Questions Behind The Camera

By Jamie Perez • June 27, 2025
Mastering the art of storytelling takes years of practice. You can buy all the top-tier equipment in the world and still struggle with telling a good story. Because while the nice cameras can make a good visual, no amount of equipment in the world can produce a good soundbite. Only the person behind the camera can do that. If you are someone who has been creating videos or sharing stories and wonder why your videos just don't hit you in the feels the way you want them to, it's time to do some self-reflection and ask yourself how good the interview questions were that you came up with. Because your interviewee is a direct reflection of the interviewer . We see so many people pay thousands of dollars for incredibly cinematic video... but the message just isn't there. It fell flat and now you've just spent all this money for a video that ultimately won't work the way you wanted it to. If you are running an organization and are about to sit down for a video interview, I would want to know that the person behind the camera was a good interviewer and knew how to calm my nerves, knew how to ask the right questions to make me really think about my WHY, and could pull emotion out of me that I'm not used to sharing. We've put together several tips about how to approach an interview, from the way you enter the room, to the questions you ask when the lights and camera are rolling: If the tone of your story is raw, emotional and authentic, enter the room this way. Have conversations with your interviewees as you're setting up your gear to talk about soft, heartwarming topics. Maybe even share something vulnerable about yourself so break down that wall we tend to put up around others. Show them that it's okay to not always put your best self forward. That we are all human and life happens. This helps them not only feel comfortable with you before the camera starts recording, but allows them to open up during the actual interview. If you enter the room with a serious demeanor or frazzled because you're running late, you're bringing that energy onto the set and your interview will be reflective of that. Ask better questions if you want better answers. For example: If you ask someone if they like the sunset-- that's a yes or no answer you're going to get. But if you ask them," Tell me through the use of colors what you love about the sunset and paint a picture so I can imagine what you're seeing -- that is a prompt that encourages them to share a memory, an emotion, a sensory experience that invites a much richer soundbite. Stay away from yes or no questions. Those will not help you the editing process. Talk from the heart, not from a script. If you're sticking to a pre-planned script -- that's all you're going to get. But if you go into an interview and just have an authentic conversation driven by curiosity and natural chatter, you're more likely to get sound that you didn't even anticipate. Let the curiosity of the moment drive the conversation instead of bringing a piece of paper that has a list of questions to get through. Be curious and go off script if you MUST have one. When you are genuinely curious about someone's life and you approach it in a caring way, they want to share their story. They want to feel seen, they want to feel heard and not judged. No one likes to keep things inside. And keeping things inside is not good for us. We need connection, we need people and we need people who care. Embrace silence. This is such an important skill to master. Most of the time when we are talking to someone, we interject with "Yea" "Uh huh" "Absolutely" and so on. When you are recording an interview on camera, it's important for the interviewer to stay completely silent after they've asked their question. It's hard to edit out your interjections so you want to make sure your voice cannot be heard during their answer. A simple head nod to address that you're listening will suffice. And after your interviewee has finished their sentence, don't start talking immediately. Give it a few seconds of silence. We do this for two reasons: it helps during the editing process to have some padding to work with in case we need to dissolve or add a transition between clips, and it opens up an opportunity for the interviewee to say more... and oftentimes, that "more" can turn into a really powerful soundbite that you weren't expecting to get simply because they wanted to fill that silence. These aren't just good tips to use during interviews -- these are good tips to help you have a more rich and meaningful connection with others in real life!
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