#13 - Adding videos - Leslie Saeta Fine Art

Adding Videos to Your Site

Videos are a great way to show off your art. Plus they are more interesting than pictures and will draw more attention and create interaction with your visitors on your website, blog, Facebook page and newsletters. You can create videos that show off your art, explain how you paint, show painting demonstrations, show off a new collection of paintings, promote an upcoming art show and more. The possibilities are endless.

But nice video cameras are expensive and the process to download video from your camera and the editing programs can be a bit intimidating.

Today we are going to talk about creating videos from still photos. I have a lot of painting demos that consist of still photos. But if you asked anyone who had viewed them they probably would claim they that all of my demos are made from live videos. I have a YouTube channel which is a free website on YouTube that hosts all of my art videos. Take a look at it here. Most of the videos are from still photos but some are from video captured on my video camera.

I use imovie for a lot of my videos. The program is too complicated for me to try to explain here how to use it. If you have an Apple computer then sign up for a few of the free classes about imovie at your local apple store and you will learn very quickly.

Here is one of my videos.

There are a number of mobile movie editing sites that you can use to create videos from still photos taken with your mobile phone. The first step you have to implement right now is to start taking photos. I always have my iphone with me and I am always thinking about what kind of movie I can make and what kind of photos I may eventually need. If you are out painting plein air, take a few photos of the scene you want to paint, take photos of your set up, take photos every ten minutes of your canvas. Take a final photo of your canvas positioned next to the scene you painted. That's all you need ... and you now have enough camera footage to create a movie of your plein air painting day.

Even if you aren't ready to start making videos, take the photographs. Get in to the habit of taking them every time you paint.

A number of mobile apps let you create professional-looking images, animations, and video using only your mobile device. The ones I suggest you look in to are Adobe Spark Video, Ripl, OSnap and Flipagram. Follow the links and see which ones you might want to try.

Once you have your video then you can upload the video to your website. Watch the video below to see how to add videos to your site.

In any video it is important to use royalty free music. Most recordings by musicians are copyrighted and you aren't allowed to use copyrighted music in your videos. If you do and you upload it to YouTube or facebook it will be flagged and taken off the internet. This happens automatically and quick, so don't even try. Instead, google "royalty free music" and see how easy it is to use great music without getting in trouble! The website I use for royalty free music is here. You can pay a very small fee or give credit to this artist and you are free to use any of his music.