By using light properly, you can set the mood of the video you’re making which will help with how your want the mood of it to feel. If you do not have the fancy expensive equipment (which is handy to have), you can use sunlight from your windows or buy a really cheap camera reflector with continuous light which will do wonders. You’d be amazed what great lightning can do for you video. The average is between 10 and 20 seconds. When recording, keep in mind that you need to make at least 5 seconds of footage and a maximum of 59 seconds. For best results, shoot in slow motion to get more stock material from one shot. Do not shoot randomly, but if you do make sure it makes some sense. Each clip should have a story or an interesting feature. Think what your clip is about before shooting.It may sound complicated when you start, but in reality basic knowledge is not that difficult.

There are tons of tutorials and guides on Youtube about technical shooting skills, such as frame rate, aperture, ISO, recording angles, editing and color correction. In order to have excellent recording equipment (at least for stock footage), you would have to spend between $3,000 and $6,000, which is still not too expensive if you feel like you will continue doing it for years.

While cameras used to require selling all your earthly possessions and sacrifice your firstborn to the devil, with cameras without lenses and accessories alone costing more than $25,000, today there is an extremely large range of cheap (but high-quality built) cameras starting at $1500.

Cameras and lenses are getting better and cheaper. You can start recording with your smartphone and invest in a gimbal that will stabilize your video as you move. Not to mention technology is on your side. it’s never too late! It’s still a great time to find an interesting niche, start recording, build your portfolio and make money doing what you love doing anyway. But now you may be wondering if it’s not too late to start recording and selling your videos. As you go about it more methodically, so will your earnings increase. For starters, you can make your entire portfolio in your spare time and therefore make money. But whatever you make will still be a nice incentive to continue doing it. When you first start uploading your clips to web services, you won’t earn much.

Stock video