How using Stock footage can improve your results [sponsored]

Using Stock footage can improve the look of your work - and your bottom line.

If you're a commercial or corporate video maker, it's worth considering how much time and money you could save using stock footage. You may not think you need shots of happy, smiley business people shaking hands after a deal - and you probably don't. But that's the old image of stock footage. In today's competitive world, it has much more to offer than the traditional clichés.

Today's reality with stock footage is an abundant one.You can download virtually every type of moving and still image within seconds - and modern search tools make the job incredibly easy.

If you haven't checked lately, you're about to be surprised by the sheer range of content available. It's tempting to think that stock footage concentrates on exotic locations and hero shots, but they're not always what you need to boost the look of your video. More often, you'll need clips that contain textures and more subtle images. And don't forget that you can apply your own effects and processing to stock footage to make it look exactly right for your production.



(Adobe Stock Video. Search terms: concrete, texture, wall)

Let's have a closer look at how stock footage can help.

First, it saves time and money. Quite obviously, when you need a shot of some palm trees, if you can avoid the expense of flying with your camera to a tropical island, it's cheaper. This is an easy example. But there's probably a myriad of other things you could save on if you used stock. Ever needed a shot of the sky? Maybe to use as a background? It's not easy shooting sky footage. If you live in northern Europe, the weather is best described as "fifty shades of grey". In hotter climates, it's sometimes difficult to shoot an interesting sky. Blue skies can be flat and uninspiring: it's much better to have some cheerful, fluffy clouds. But you could wait weeks for conditions like this.



(Adobe Stock video. Search terms: Blue Sky, Fluffy Clouds)

It's far better to search for "blue sky with fluffy clouds" and choose from the dozens of images offered to you. The same is true for almost any type of background: walls, concrete, metal, foliage: you'll find stock footage of all of these, all correctly exposed and easy to incorporate in your project.

And talking of backgrounds, what about green screen work? With a suitable set up, you can locate your talent anywhere in the world, using stock footage for backgrounds. The time and money you spend setting up a good green-screen studio can easily show a return on your investment when it allows you to shoot interviews and presentations with unlimited and dramatic backdrops.

Adobe Stock isn't just limited to video footage. You can now purchase Motion Graphics templates that give your productions a powerful, professional look.Clients may not pay for, but nevertheless expect, network TV-type graphics in their videos. The only way to incorporate these on a realistic budget is to use stock templates. These make it easy to fill in your client's details and can act as a style guide for the rest of the video.

Alternatively you may simply want to save some time while building some appropriate graphics for the rest of the video.

Finally, using stock footage can let you punch above your weight. Almost every video producer could do with more resources, whether it's better equipment or more personnel. In which case, why spend time on money creating footage yourself that you could easily download - and which will sprinkle credibility over your project?

Perhaps the biggest benefit of all is that this will free you to use your own talents to make memorable, successful videos.

We’ll return to this in future articles where we’ll also be looking at how to make more effective videos using Adobe Stock footage. Meanwhile, click here to learn how you can contribute videos to Adobe Stock. And don’t forget to check out Adobe Motion Templates too.