They describe themselves with terms such as cinematic photographers, photocine filmmakers or multimedia storytellers. And for the past 18 months they’ve been exploring the moviemaking possibilities of the latest generation of video-enabled digital SLR cameras, meeting up at events such as Converge in the UK, or Collision in the US to discuss the latest developments, and evangelise about the impact convergence is having on the industry. Many are adamant – video is the way forward for photographers, and anyone who fails to jump on the bandwagon will be left by the wayside.

Why now?
The medium itself is far from new, even for those who are more used to conveying meaning and emotion via the single image, and photographers have been experimenting with motion for decades. But, 18 months ago, a new camera arrived that made switching between the two much more accessible, opening up a new convergent practice to an enlightened few who have been rapidly expanding in numbers ever since. While some have been talking about the coming of convergence for years, notably Dirck Halstead (BJP, 18 October 2006), suddenly here was a camera that put filmmaking into the hands of the masses, delivering broadcast quality at a fraction of the usual cost. And now the consequences – for better and worse – are being understood more widely in the industry, as early adopters spread the word that this new democratisation of convergent still and motion capture is akin to that of the switch between film and digital, or black-and-white to colour.

In September 2008 Canon unveiled the Mark II version of its celebrated EOS 5D camera, having promised it would deliver something new beyond the call for higher resolution and better build quality. The company wasn’t kidding, although many first saw the incorporation of full HD video capture as a gimmick rather than its greatest asset. But, speaking at the launch, Mike Burnhill of Canon Europe said the video feature had been repeatedly requested by news agencies such as Reuters and Getty Images. “They wanted a camera that photographers could carry everywhere,” he said. “They can get closer to the action than would a camera crew, and most news agencies have more multimedia content these days.”

He was right. Once broadband internet connections became the norm, demand for video online soared. In the US alone, 84.8% of the population has watched video online, viewing more than 31 billion clips in November 2009. In the UK, BBC videos were seen 140 million times on the internet during the same month, ranking second behind Youtube, and in total 7.7 billion films or movie clips were viewed online. It’s no surprise that newspapers such as The Guardian have been trying to develop their online video portfolios.

“Broadcasters are our new competitors,” said Tom Happold, head of multimedia at Guardian News & Media, during a Converge event organised by The Flash Centre earlier this year. “If you don’t have videos, people don’t come to you. It’s a no-brainer. Doing video online makes us money.” As a result, The Guardian, among other titles, has been pushing its photographers to adopt video, and one of the easiest ways to do that was to get them a HD-enabled DSLR.

Head start
“I don’t think Canon realised what a big hit the 5D Mk II was going to be,” says Seamus McGarvey, a still photographer and cinematographer. But then neither did its customers and, according to Canon’s own research, few of them were calling for video prior to its launch. Today it’s increasingly difficult to find a camera that doesn’t sport video-recording features.

Photographers such as Danfung Dennis realised what was coming from the start, adding video to their repertoires as soon as the 5D Mk II came along. The former Associated Press photographer got one straight away, using it to shoot in Afghanistan. “I could already see that my traditional assignments from magazines and newspapers were drying out – almost overnight,” he tells BJP.

“Now I finally had a tool with which I could convey the aesthetics of stills into video. Previously your cameras, at least the ones you could use in the field, had a very distinct video look and feel. I also wanted to experiment with a new medium. The images I was making weren’t incredibly different. I wasn’t really pushing myself in terms of what I was trying to convey from these conflicts. It was a way of trying to connect what I was witnessing on the ground in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the public perception of these wars at home.

“You can almost predict what images will be used when there’s a news story coming out of Afghanistan. There was a kind of sanitation of the battlefield, in part by photographers and the media, but also the military, to portray something that’s really quite clean. I wanted to try showing something new by moving into films.”
For the past year, Dennis has been following US marines on mission in Afghanistan, and back home in North Carolina, using his 5D Mark II. The resulting documentary, Hell and Back Again, will be completed later this year.

Ed Jones, a photographer with Agence France Presse, started working with video even before HD-DSLRs were available. “I first worked with video at the Scotsman publications,” he says. “Using point-and-shoot cameras we gathered short video clips and basic interviews when out on assignments. We then edited the footage into minute-long clips for the website. Similarly, at AFP there was already widespread use of compact cameras by reporters and photographers to shoot news footage before the agency took on video-capable DSLRs and issued them to photographers.

“Initially, looking through the viewfinder and suddenly being able to push a button and start recording video was arguably a hindrance to my workflow,” says Jones. “That simple action brings a flood of conflicting possibilities that must be taken into consideration: how and where will this sequence of footage fit into the narrative of my other footage, and do I need to record it? Am I overlooking a cool photo by changing the way I document this scene?”

In fact, using video, as many photographers tell BJP, requires a very different mindset. “At first, I was very much shooting video as I was stills,” says Dennis. “I was still looking for the same moments, and I soon realised that I couldn’t construct anything out of that.

“You really have to realign your methods when you’re shooting video. It’s a different thinking process. You’re looking for extended moments and you have to hold such moments much longer than you do when you’re shooting stills.” That can result in a number of missed opportunities, he adds, but “video also adds many complex layers to stills – motion, audio, stories. There would be moments or situations I would completely ignore as a still photographer. Now, I’m revisiting those scenes”.

Jones encountered the same difficulties. “Deciding between the two mediums in a news environment makes for a much more intense shooting experience. Previously there was a pause, a time between re-composing an image or changing a shooting position that allowed the photographer to step back and consider the scene, or the story, and the best way to illustrate it.” But, he says, if he is on an assignment for video and stills, “those valuable moments are now compromised”.

So he keeps things simple. “I start by shooting photos, and if I see one that looks like it might translate well into footage then I have a small tripod that I can very quickly set up to record a few seconds of video.” There is no panning, no zooming, and the clips are rarely more than five seconds long, he says. “This makes it easier to handle when I’m filming it, and forces me not to waste too much time on one shot, and essentially guarantees usable footage for multimedia and TV clients.”

For extended shoots, however, both the technical and creative workflows have to be drastically altered. War photographers such as Dennis and John McHugh have had to custom-build rigs to reduce camera shake and improve sound quality. The rigs, which Dennis mockingly calls “Improvised Video Devices”, often weigh more than 20kg and feature a mix of focus pullers, sound mixers, stabilisers and various remote controls. However, says McHugh, the photographer still ends up carrying less gear than a traditional cameraman. “To have less kit is important, as you have less things to carry, and don’t have to change between two devices to shoot stills and video,” he says.

On the creative side, shooting video also requires an editor’s mind. “You have to be thinking while you’re shooting what will work for the edit,” says Dennis. “It’s always good to put yourself in the role of an editor to learn how to shoot.”

Creative choice
Photojournalists may be the first, but they aren’t the only photographers to embrace video, with commercial shooters also looking at the possibilities the technology can bring to their work – and their wallets. Drew Gardner is one of them.Last year he shot an ad campaign for Suzuki and, while his brief only called for still images, the photographer insisted on shooting an accompanying movie spot. “It was a way to show the client something new,” he says, as well as to get his name out there and get noticed. Previously, the photographer would offer time-lapse movies to his clients as an added bonus. “I wasn’t getting paid for that, but it didn’t cost me anything and clients loved it.”

For the Suzuki ad, the versatility of the 5D Mark II allowed the photographer to shoot the still image in the morning and the video in the afternoon. “All in all, it was a one-day shoot.” While at first the video was only intended for limited use, it ended up on national television, and Gardner has since shot several more commercial video ads in the same manner. “I’m rediscovering my career.”

Some photographers have gone even more cinematic, shooting fictional narratives that emulate Hollywood productions. US photographer Vincent Laforet is credited for much of the 5D Mk II’s initial success after he was commissioned to use it to shoot a film, Reverie, views of which quickly clocked up millions of hits online, and he’s shot similarly high production film shorts since, using the EOS 7D and 1D Mk IV.

In the UK, Edmond Terakopian has chosen a similar path. He has shot news-oriented videos, but his main area of interest is short films. “It is a completely new creative outlet for me.” His first film, Muse, was shot on the 5D Mk II. It follows a young woman who is new to London, and is dealing with her solitude in the big city. Then earlier this year, Olympus commissioned Terakopian to produce Homage, to show off the E-P2 video capabilities.

David Levene, a photographer at The Guardian, admits that HD-DSLRs lend themselves better to creative work than straight news reporting. “You can use these cameras if you have the time to think creatively,” he says. “My videos follow people, they move around, and I find for this kind of work that the conventional video cameras suit my style of shooting more.” Levene also has an issue with sound recording with DSLRs. “I find it to be a bit of a hindrance for quick shoots.”

However, when he was sent by his newspaper to film the opening of Miroslaw Balka’s “black hole” installation at Tate Modern, he picked up his DSLR. “On an arts job, it’s the perfect tool. I was able to shoot stills and video, and since I put the video to music, I didn’t have to record sounds.”

Best of both?
Despite video’s advantages, purists believe still photography is here to stay. “Still photography will always exist because our brains are wired to ingest still images,” says award-winning American photographer Ed Kashi. “The fact that our brains are being rewired might change that equation down the evolutionary road, but for now still images continue to be powerful forms of communication and enlightenment.”

Brian Griffin shares these views. The acclaimed portrait photographer used to shoot videos, and even had his own production company shooting commercials films. But the very “throw-away” nature of video made him give it up for pure, unaltered still photography. “It’s so powerful,” he says. “And it’s very difficult to do well.”
Others argue that still photography can be complemented with video. Kashi has been doing so for years, ever since his Sandwich Generation project. “Mixing still imagery with moving imagery, audio, graphics, ambient sound, music and most importantly the voice of our subjects is exhilarating,” he tells BJP. “And it has only enhanced our abilities as visual storytellers to tell our tales in new, dynamic ways that can reach broader audiences and break the space logjam that print media has always forced our work into.”

“It would be foolish to dismiss it,” says Levene. In fact, in January The Guardian sent the photographer to Haiti because of his experience shooting video. “They were unlikely to send someone just for stills, because it was an expensive trip. They knew I could do video and that they could get something they could say was exclusive to The Guardian. If I hadn’t known how to shoot video, I wouldn’t have got that assignment.”

The emergence of HD-DSLRs is likely to amplify that phenomenon, but as Jones concludes, it could also benefit photographers fighting for recognition in a world increasingly dominated by professionally equipped amateurs. “I like to think that despite the ability of one tool to gather two mediums, their respective qualities are different enough that one will never upstage the other,” he says. “There are just too many examples of photos achieving what video can’t, and vice-versa. But I certainly feel that any once great divide that existed has been substantially reduced, and that the impact of video on photography is one likely to raise the bar – perhaps even leading to a decline in the increasingly popular phrase ‘anyone can be a photographer’.”