Guidelines for Transmitting Video Content for Inclusion in the Hike Video:
For the last several years we have made videos each week documenting our hikes. These videos comprise photos and video clips taken by numerous hikers exhibiting their personal visualizations of the majestic scenery, social comradery, and flora and fauna.
Every effort is made to include everyone’s input. The only times a contribution is omitted is if some shots from different photographers were essentially identical, or if only low-resolution images were received (see later comments related to image quality).
Although each person’s diverse input is valued, a couple of thoughts should be considered.
Format: Our videos are hosted by YouTube which uses a landscape format, as does all broadcast and streaming TV and movie media. We do not use portrait video format favored by TicTok. You may notice that some of the OTP video content has been shot in portrait format (both photo and video), and as a result approximately two thirds of the screen is black which obviously does not display any of your artistic creativity. Shooting both photos and videos in landscape mode will fill the screen of the viewer. Unless the subject requires portrait format, please try to use landscape format for all your shots.
Video: When shooting video, it is recommended to either hold the camera/smartphone still and let the motion play out in front of you, or slowly pan/move the camera in one direction. Quickly moving the camera back and forth, in multiple directions does not result in a good video clip. Also the length of a video clip should be limited to, at most, 5 to 10 seconds. Longer video clips lasting a minute may be cut and/or sped up.
Post-processing Content: When transmitting photos or video clips to the video producer, always send the original size file. Do not re-size, re-save or edit in any way, the original file. Doing so will change the resolution and meta date/time in the image file and make it difficult for the video producer to place the image in the correct chronological location in the final video. This can be very annoying. Also avoid moving the files to a desktop/laptop prior to sending, as this could also lose original date/time metadata.
Transmitting Content: The simplest and least problem-prone method to transmit photos/videos is via text directly from your smartphone. Text messaging has a larger file size capability than email, that is usually limited to 20 MB. If you do email, you will usually be limited to 3 or 4 photos, and you will need to send multiple emails. Many email apps including Apple Mail and MS Outlook will ask you what file size option you wish. Always choose the “original size” to avoid inadvertently sending low resolutions images..
Sending by Dropbox is also a potential method. Some folks have used this method successfully, others have not. We have also had problems receiving content from Android phones and via Google Drive.
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