Have you just splurged on a new digital camera or a smartphone that has a great video camera built-in? While you may be too excited and can’t wait to take advantage of your new camera to record videos that look great – there are a few tips that you should try to use if you really want your videos to look good:
- Keep the video camera steady throughout the recording
No matter how good your camera may be, if you want the videos that it record to look impressive you need to keep it steady. That may not be easy at first, but you can start by holding your camera in both hands and locking your elbows near your side.
If necessary you can explore other techniques to hold a camera steady – or you could grab hold of a tripod to give yourself an alternative.
- Find the right light to record the subject
Videos require the light to be ‘just right’, and ideally you will want to record the subject in soft light that illuminates the scene evenly. A good place to start is by recording in sunlight that is coming through a large open window but not directly at the subject.
If the lighting is poor or too intense it can cause the video to look grainy, washed out, or result in a lot of hard shadows. Some of that can be rectified in post-production with a good video maker and editor, such as Movavi Video Suite for example.
- Use the rule of thirds to frame the subject
Admittedly there are lots of different framing and composition techniques, but one of the easiest that has the biggest impact is the rule of thirds. If you enable the ‘grid’ feature in your video camera you will see a 3×3 grid overlay, and you can then position the subject and other elements based on its lines and intersection points.
Essentially this will place the subject slightly off-center and help space out the other elements as well – resulting in a video that looks more appealing.
- Avoid using the digital zoom on your camera
If there’s one feature on your camera that you don’t want to use – it’s the digital zoom. Simply put the digital zoom will ‘enlarge’ the image that is displayed, which will cause it to lose definition and make details more difficult to make out.
Rather than using the digital zoom you should make it a point to actually move closer if you want a close-up of the subject.
If you make it a point to use these tips, you should be able to record videos that look far more impressive using your smartphone or digital camera. While in isolation each of these tips will benefit your videos, it is best if you use them together and continue to experiment and try new things. In time that is the real key to being able to record videos that look unique and stand out.
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