Greetings, future YouTubers and YouTube channel owners! At the beginning of your journey, many of you may dream of an expensive Sony Alpha camera of the latest model and your own studio space. But you won’t believe that many popular vloggers regularly use their smartphones to shoot, and you don’t need to spend thousands of dollars on a professional camera to start making money on YouTube. Let’s take a step-by-step look at how to shoot high-quality videos with your smartphone.
Preparation
Before you start filming, it’s important to prepare properly. Here are some tips for beginners:
App recommendations
There are many apps for your smartphone that can improve the quality of your videos. Here are some recommended apps for iOS and Android:
For iOS:
- Filmic Pro: This app gives you more control over camera settings like exposure and white balance.
- ProCam: A professional app for managing camera settings and focus.
- FiLMiC DoubleTake: Allows you to record video using both lenses of your smartphone at the same time.
For Android:
- Open Camera: An open app for managing various camera settings.
- Cinema FV-5: An app for shooting video with manual control of settings.
- FiLMiC Pro: Access to many professional shooting settings.
These apps help you get more out of your video shooting.
Optional accessories
There are various accessories that can make shooting easier. However, not all of them are necessary. Let’s see which ones can be useful:
- Tripods and stabilizers: These accessories can help you avoid camera shake and get steady shots, especially when you’re moving.
- Additional lenses: If your smartphone supports them, they can add variety to your shots, especially if you’re a travel blogger. Although I don’t recommend getting into this topic at first, most modern smartphones have a number of built-in lenses.
- Microphones: Sound quality is important, so a microphone can be useful. What I don’t recommend saving on is a high-quality microphone that is bought for your usual format.
Filming
Tip: Before you start shooting, be sure to clean your smartphone lens and check the available space on your memory card. Camera settings
It’s important to understand the basic camera settings on your smartphone and adjust them to suit your shooting conditions:
- Exposure: Adjust it according to the lighting. Higher exposure means brighter video.
- White balance: Select the appropriate mode according to the type of lighting (sunlight, artificial light, daylight, etc.).
- Aperture: Control the depth of field by selecting the appropriate aperture to make the depth of field emphasize your intention and focus the viewer’s attention on the main subject.
Working with light
Light is a key element of a great video. Here are some tips:
- Daylight: If possible, shoot more outside during the golden hour (before sunset or in the morning at sunrise).
- Ambient lighting: For studio shots, use additional outdoor lighting as an additional light source. But do not assume that the sun will move, and the lighting in the frame may change by leaps and bounds during editing.
Composition
Let’s take a closer look at how to create a beautiful composition for your videos:
- The Golden Ratio: Divide the frame into nine parts and place the main subject on the lines of this division.
- Horizon: It’s important to keep the horizon straight to avoid crooked shots.
- General plan: Capture a general view that you can zoom in on later in the edit.
Avoid shaking!
Use a smartphone stabilizer to avoid shaking during moving scenes. Don’t make the viewer gag unless it’s a creative idea.
Post-production (editing)
After filming, it’s time to edit your video. Here are some steps to improve the quality:
Transitions
Add seamless transitions between scenes to make your video a pleasure to watch.
Sound
- Remove noise with filters to make it crisp and clear.
- Adjust the volume level so that your voice sounds equally loud throughout the video. And the music shouldn’t interfere with the information. Background music should be in the background and work at the subconscious level. The viewer shouldn’t notice it, but it shouldn’t become indecipherable noise either. Balance is our everything!
- Equalize, remove unnecessary or add level to certain frequencies of the audio tracks.
Color correction
Perform color correction to make the image more vivid and saturated. Make sure your skin color is natural.
Add a design
Decorate your motion video with designs, memes, and other effects to make it more attractive to viewers.
Conclusion
Regardless of whether you shoot with a smartphone or a professional camera, your content is the most important thing. Video quality, interest, and value of your material are of great importance for attracting viewers. Even if you’re filming with a smartphone, you can still create high-quality
