Recording in 4K is the rage these days. However, most of us and most of our clients will not be using a TV or monitor capable of displaying 4K resolution, so why bother? Peter McKinnon explains how you can use the large video size creatively and gives some tips, like how 4K footage down-sampled to 1080p looks much better that shooting 1080p.
Reasons to Shoot 4K
- Down-sampling from 4K to 1080p has richer colors and contrasts. It basically holds more information in the shot making it much more appealing and interesting.
- You can use 4K as a second camera. You can crop in your shot to come in closer to your subject to create the impression of a second camera.
- You can pan from left to right giving the same effect as a dolly or slider rig and increase production value of your video.
Card tricks aside, although I wish I could do that with a deck too, it's a short video containing a lot of valuable information. I didn't ever compare down-sampled 4K video to regular 1080p, but will surely use proxies in future to use 4K smoothly on my machine. My advice is to take the time and explore these methods yourself with a video you are editing.