Comparing photography and audio recording
Photography
- Foreshortening & judging distance from a flat photo
- normal angle
- stereo photography
- A2D
- Sample rate (pixels per inch) and pixel bit depth
- Filtering
- Compression
- Normalization
- Editing
Audio recording
- Audio foreshortening & judging distance from a mono signal
- Audio angle of the microphone
- Stereo recordings
- A2D
- Sample rate (temporal rate) and bit depth
- Filtering, EQ
- Compression
- Normalization
- Editing
(Difference: no shutter speed in audio recording.)
Video recording
Video combines photography and audio recording, adding the extra technical factor of frame rate.
We tend to use a zoom lens, primarily a normal angle, with a fairly directional microphone in order to capture sound from the visible scene. There's also one more technical parameter which is the frame rate, not the same as the shutter speed. And they are now two forms of compression or rather three, the audio and then for the visuals the individual frame plus inter frame compression.
In shooting video, there are more dimensions to consider: besides angles of direction and lens, the camera itself is moving, unlike the usual situation in still photography or audio recording. Also the degree of zoom often changes while shooting is underway, though this effect must not be overused.
"Tracking" is the general term for any camera movement. Movement includes: panning (left and right; whip pan = fast!), tilt (angling up and down), pedestal (up and down), dollying (forward and back), trucking (left and right). Technology includes tracks, drones, even cranes. Handheld movements can introduce bumpiness. Sometimes you want this effect but normally a smooth movement is preferred. For hand-held, this can be accomplished using steadicam technology; otherwise use a good tripod or monopod.
Fancy new techniques: stereo and 360 video (also available for still photography) enable more immersive photography, approaching virtual reality.
More important than all these technical factors is the research and human element: what kind of image do you want to deliver to your viewers and why? and: how does the process of collecting those images affect your fieldowrk, in both short and long terms?
The video camera is more obtrusive than the still camera which is more obtrusive than an audio recorder and can easily disrupt sensitive participant-observation, depending on tolerance of the local visual culture. The video camera is harder to operate than other technologies, and it can distract you. Professionals require a team - multiple cameras, boom and mic, etc. which is hardly conducive to participant-observation fieldwork. The video camera can more easily get in the way of fieldwork; it's complex, distracting, and worrying; it changes the fieldwork scene and your relationship to the field (position, angle of view); it can become a personal liability when it makes you the target for thieves or perhaps police. It is often restricted. In Egypt you pay more at a tourist site if you want to use a video camera! But these days the smartphone has everywhere entered local visual culture, so using video is more feasible.