It’s a common request from clients asking for videography for their events:
We'll always ask: where is the final video footage going to be displayed? e.g. online, on social media, on a televison screen, or somewhere else?
‘The footage is going to appear predominantly online and on social media’ (or words to that effect), the client will usually tell us. They will often follow up with: “Can you do the video footage in 4K?”
Our answer to the 4K question is: if the client insists on 4K for the final delivery, we can do that. We however will always counter that insistence by telling the client that it’s not at all necessary. Here’s why.
For most clients, their actual intended use needs don’t actually require video footage to be formatted in 4K
A lot of clients who aren’t experienced in media production insist that 4K is the standard when it comes to video. Our smartphones allow us to film footage in 4K, why would a professional videographer with all that fancy camera gear have any issues doing the same?
Indeed, for years now, it's been a cornerstone of manufacturers' marketing to lead with their products 4K capabilities. Whether it be for cameras, televisions, phones, computers or tablets. It's still, however, very much a gimic.
The reality, that extra resolution takes up a significant amount of hard drive space from the get go. It can become sluggish to work with in the editing stage and it takes significant time to process large amounts of footage in 4K. Then there’s the significant amount of time it takes to upload it so the client can actually access it and use it.
Because 4K footage can take longer to edit with and process, it also brings up the final costs to the client.
That’s not to say we won’t film bits and pieces in 4K when on the job as it does allow some flexibility in the editing stage when formatting for 1080p (full HD) final delivery.
However, if a super quick turnaround is required, it’s physically impossible to do this in 4K. Not to mention it’s a lot of trouble for a ‘benefit’ that’s negligible.
‘4K video’ is really somewhat of a buzzword, because very few screens that we commonly use to play video footage on actually have the 4K resolution that’s required to allow the viewer to actually benefit from 4K video playback.
Fact is, if video footage is to appear only online - whether it’s on social media or on a website - or even if video footage is to be played on a typical television screen: it’s not necessary for that footage to be in 4K.
Let’s talk about social media. Most online platforms support HD as their maximum resolution for video uploads, and will massively compress 4K video footage to meet this standard.
(This compression is why, when it comes to photography, we format image files for web ready use, rather than delivering just the full res image files alone. We know from experience that clients like to share the images we take for them on social media and online. Formatting images in a web ready format allows clients to do just this without compromisng the image quality.)
Therefore, 1080p (full HD) will be our resolution of choice for final delivery, in terms of preserving quality if footage is to appear on any social media or online platforms.
More and more people browse the internet and watch video footage today on their smartphones and tablets. The screen resolution of most modern smartphones and tablet devices is full HD, that’s 1080p. Even if you were to play back 4K video footage on these devices, it’d still be displaying in full HD as that is the hard technical limitation of your device. The only 'benefit' of 4K here is being able to zoom in closer on the video footage as you're watching.
On laptop and desktop screens, even television screens, the latter many of which allow for playback in 4K resolution, the quality increase from full HD to 4K is in reality negligible. The vast majority of television broadcasts are also in 720p (HD) or full HD. Most of your favourite television shows and live broadcasts are, at maximum, displayed in 1080p once they hit your screens (and your eyeballs).
Where is 4K most likely to actually be beneficial? For film production, where the end product is going to be blown up and displayed on a big cinema screen. It may also be beneficial if its going to be displayed on a particularly large television screen. Pretty much all video production, for events or corporate needs, won’t fall into this category. That means, for 95% of clients use needs, video footage formatted in 4K isn’t required let alone necessary.
In reality: resolution =/= quality
It’s another common misconception that the higher the resolution, the better the quality of the video footage. This is simply not true, and another reason why '4K video' is a marketing buzzword more than anything.
Rather, it’s the gear and equipment being used to actually film, and the skill and experience of the videographer behind the camera, and the editor too, that determines how the final product ends up looking. Video footage recorded on a smartphone by an average user, in 4K, is always going to look inferior to footage recorded using professional gear and equipment in 1080p by a skilled videographer, and edited by a skilled editor.
So no, 4K doesn't automatically mean higher quality.
In conclusion...
If a client is intending to display video footage on any of the following platforms or formats:
- On social media - Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, etc.
- In an article published on an online news website or similar.
- On a personal website or the website of a business or organisation.
- Even on a dedicated service for hosting videos that allows for 4K video e.g. YouTube or Vimeo.
- Viewed predominently on a phone screen, tablet device, computer or television screen.
Then video footage formatted in 4K isn't necessary nor would we reccommend it.
We provide both top class photography and videography services throughout Melbourne and all across Victoria for clients in the corporate and not for profit sectors. Get in contact to enquire about our services.
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