How to Use Stylized Photography in Your Next Video
Photography and video production are often regarded as being part of separate realms. Somehow, people have gotten the idea that still images have no place in a video. However, high quality, stylized photography can be a great way to add depth to your next video production campaign. Though it may sound like an oversimplification, videos are really just nothing more than a collection of photos. We’ve put together a list of techniques you can use to incorporate stylized photography content in your next corporate video campaign.
Use Photo Transitions
Stylized photography can be inserted into your video to break up different scenes. Fans of How I Met Your Mother will recognize this technique to employ photo content. You make a point with one scene in your video, then insert an image before the next scene. It’s an easy way to maintain the flow in your video, but clearly, offset the two ideas. Whether they’re still frames that reinforce the message of the preceding clip, or whimsical snaps that are meant to make the viewer laugh, stylized photography is a great way to break up portions of your video.
One of the great benefits of photographic transitions in your videos is their flexibility. Unlike video content, photo content does not have a strict limit on duration. When dealing with video clips, the speed can only be increased or decreased by a slight amount. Otherwise, the video starts to become jumpy and confusing to the viewer. On the other hand, photo content can be stretched for a long time, or flashed onscreen briefly. This allows a voice-over narration, or perhaps can help you to shave off those precious seconds to make it fit in a television ad slot.
Employ Photo Montages
This technique for using stylized photography builds on the idea to use photographic transitions. Picture montages are an engaging stylistic tool. However, a montage can also feel like a bit of a cliché. This means that you need to be original in your use of stylized photography in a montage. That could mean making it funny, or perhaps playing on a theme that you developed to reinforce your message. In any case, the photo montage is often repeated in different videos because it’s interesting and because it provides a way to introduce a stylistic effect in your new video marketing content.
Insert Photos in the Background
When developing a character and a message, details are everything. If your viewers don’t understand who your character is, it is much harder to connect the audience to the character. When reinforcing the story and the message in your video, you can’t leave out any details. Stylized photography can be used as pictures hanging on the wall or in a frame on the bedside table. In many cases, photos are overlooked and are often just stock the stock images that came in the frame when it was purchased. This sacrifices a great opportunity to reinforce your message with stylized photography in the background of your scenes.
Recycle Stylized Photography for Continuity
Being the budget-conscious marketer that you are, you definitely like the idea of being able to save money and reuse content in your marketing campaigns. Stylized photography is a great example of evergreen content, provided you use it properly. What once was a transition photo can be reused as a background image, for example. This provides continuity across your marketing content. When you build on past marketing content, you can benefit from the solid foundation you built in your last video. Moreover, continuity drives engagement, as your audience feels that they know the characters and can relate to them. This is why you work so hard to use the same actor for the same product in a series of marketing videos. Fortunately, recycling stylized photography content is an easy and inexpensive way to build continuity across different videos.
It’s important to recognize that these techniques to employ stylized photography in your video content are not mutually exclusive. You should mix and match based on your message and the photo content you have at your disposal. You can find a great example of these techniques in the Regular Guy video series that we produced for DocuSign.
When editing Instagram videos check out this article to learn how you can edit your videos in the most compelling way using both video footage and stylized photography.
Have you ever thought to create a video re-using stylized photography? Comment below and let us know!
