K_girl
Contributor
I've been spending some time figuring out how to put together a decent quality video for YouTube. The link below is my recent trip to Cozumel and Akumal. Be sure to click on the "watch in high quality" link below the video.
YouTube - Scuba Diving Cozumel, Akumal - Cenotes - 2009
Much of the video consists of still shots, shot on a Canon G6, most of them in raw format (video was also shot on the same camera). Ikelite housing and one Ikelite DS-125 strobe. Stills were edited in Adobe Photoshop Elements. I used Pinnacle Studio to put the video together. They have an easy interface to create movement on the still shots. I then burned the video to a DVD image - VIDEO_TS folder on my computer. Then copied and renamed the resulting large VOB file to MPG. Since I have an older version of Pinnacle Studio, I did not have the ability to save the file in mp4 format (which is probably the best format for YouTube). I used Adobe Premier Elements to save to the iPhone high quality format - which is the mp4 format. This was the file I uploaded to YouTube. I also saved this file on my Blackberry Storm and the quality is really impressive.
Music - if you use known artists for your video, you will have a copyright problem. YouTube does some sort of automated analysis of the music to determine if you have copyrighted music on your video. I had used music where there was no DRM, and YouTube still recognized the song. That technology has been around for a while, so it is not really a surprise. Suggest you use little known artists who would love to have the exposure. The "swap audio" feature for You Tube (where you use music that YouTube provides) really sucks and you can only use one song. The music selection is horrible, and the music still had not been applied to my video after waiting overnight. I think the video has to manually edited by someone at YouTube to add the music because you will never have the exact right amount of time for the video. I noticed on one YouTube video, the owner did a voice-over. This may be one possible way around the music copyright.
Keep the time for your video below 10 minutes.
Most of the time I prefer to show someone my videos on DVD, but for those far away friends and aquaintances, this can be a good way to go. I really like the movement you can put into the stills, along with titling and music - into a complete production, really helps to provide interest.
If anyone has other techniques for uploading to YouTube, would love to hear it.
To make your DVD from the VIDEO_TS folder, simply burn the entire folder to the blank DVD. For example, if your DVD drive is the E: drive, the resulting directory would be: E:\VIDEO_TS (took me a long time to figure that one out).
YouTube - Scuba Diving Cozumel, Akumal - Cenotes - 2009
Much of the video consists of still shots, shot on a Canon G6, most of them in raw format (video was also shot on the same camera). Ikelite housing and one Ikelite DS-125 strobe. Stills were edited in Adobe Photoshop Elements. I used Pinnacle Studio to put the video together. They have an easy interface to create movement on the still shots. I then burned the video to a DVD image - VIDEO_TS folder on my computer. Then copied and renamed the resulting large VOB file to MPG. Since I have an older version of Pinnacle Studio, I did not have the ability to save the file in mp4 format (which is probably the best format for YouTube). I used Adobe Premier Elements to save to the iPhone high quality format - which is the mp4 format. This was the file I uploaded to YouTube. I also saved this file on my Blackberry Storm and the quality is really impressive.
Music - if you use known artists for your video, you will have a copyright problem. YouTube does some sort of automated analysis of the music to determine if you have copyrighted music on your video. I had used music where there was no DRM, and YouTube still recognized the song. That technology has been around for a while, so it is not really a surprise. Suggest you use little known artists who would love to have the exposure. The "swap audio" feature for You Tube (where you use music that YouTube provides) really sucks and you can only use one song. The music selection is horrible, and the music still had not been applied to my video after waiting overnight. I think the video has to manually edited by someone at YouTube to add the music because you will never have the exact right amount of time for the video. I noticed on one YouTube video, the owner did a voice-over. This may be one possible way around the music copyright.
Keep the time for your video below 10 minutes.
Most of the time I prefer to show someone my videos on DVD, but for those far away friends and aquaintances, this can be a good way to go. I really like the movement you can put into the stills, along with titling and music - into a complete production, really helps to provide interest.
If anyone has other techniques for uploading to YouTube, would love to hear it.
To make your DVD from the VIDEO_TS folder, simply burn the entire folder to the blank DVD. For example, if your DVD drive is the E: drive, the resulting directory would be: E:\VIDEO_TS (took me a long time to figure that one out).
