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5 Tips to Make Better Videos with your Phone

• Visual Content
• 06 August,2021

If you really don’t want to see a camera crew, you can always have your phone to make videos. We are going to give you five on how to make better videos. 

Optimize the settings for better videos

Before we start explaining the settings, it is important to always use the camera on the back of your phone, the quality is much better than the front camera.

One of the best ways to optimize the quality of your video is to dive into your phone camera settings. The better you understand and can apply all these settings, the better your images will look. Frames per second (FPS) refers to the number of frames you film per second. Even though videos seem like a smooth slideshow, they are a bunch of photos, which when play it creates the illusion of movement. There are different types of FPS settings that you can use. In your camera setting, you can choose to film in 24 FPS, for example, with which you can also run at 4K or super high resolution. But if you prefer a cool slow-motion, you could opt for 120 FPS with a resolution of 1080P. 

In addition, we have another miracle maker called Gridlines. Many digital cameras have this option. These grids, which will not be seen in your video, are a visual way to make your better videos and more aesthetically pleasing. 

Are you filming an interview? Then sit on one side of the shot, the empty space you then have on the other side is the direction you are looking.

Make your own tripod

A tripod is nice to have and is definitely recommended, but if you don’t have one, try to put the camera at eye level. This makes a nicer angle than from below. Use books, boxes, pillows to bring your camera to the right height. It is of course always better to purchase a tripod, and that doesn’t have to cost the highest price. 

The perfect lightning for better videos

The exposure refers to how bright the light is in your shot. Shots with too much light are overexposed, and shots that are too dark are called underexposed. In all cameras, not just your phone, the exposure is controlled by the shutter and ISO. The camera can be adjusted according to how exposed or underexposed your shot it. 

You can set the exposure settings to automatic, but you can also adjust them. First, frame your shot and then tap the chosen subject on your screen, this can be a person or an object. You will see that if you tap on the subject, a sun will appear. Here you can adjust the exposure. Tap the sun and move the slider up or down. 

The view out of a window is nice, but without lighting you probably only see white. Rather use this light to focus on your face, this ensures nice natural lighting and also a good basis for later adjustments. Try to ensure that this light remains constant, the sun in your face is of course nice, but if there are always clouds, it takes the continuity out of your video. .so film in broad daylight or even gray day. 

Get the most out of your microphone

First of all, it is important to know where the microphone is on your phone. You can usually find it at the bottom of your phone, where you talk, and near the cameras. Then make sure that your fingers or phone case is not blocking it.

A general rule is to keep your microphone as close to the person as possible. If you have 2 phones available, you could hold the second phone above the person’s head to pick up the best sound. stick it to a broomstick to create your own tree, or hold it (make sure it’s out of the picture).

Another trick with a second phone: stick the microphone attached to your cord, or one of your wireless EarPods, into the collar of the speaker. Start a memo recorder along with the movie recording. Give a blow to the image (yes, that’s what they are for) so that this sound recording can be seamlessly superimposed on the image during editing.

Make sure that there are not many background noises. You will not always have time to adjust to the environment, but try to make it work as much as possible. If it doesn’t work then try a voiceover in a soundproof environmen, this will make sure you have better videos.

Finally, before you start recording, put your phone on airplane mode. Of course, you want to prevent your ringtone or the vibration of notification from interrupting you while you are recording.

Keep it short

We all know them, the endlessly long vlogs that can be found all over the internet these days. People are simply programmed to talk with ease, great for a party or when you’re having coffee with your distant cousin, but not if you want to convey or make something clear. People have a short attention span and you have to respond to that, if you don’t catch them in the first 8 seconds (yes really!) of your video, they are more likely to click away.

In addition, it has been proven that videos that are between 30 seconds and 1 minute long are the most liked and shared. So you immediately get more engagement with better videos than if you put a half-hour vlog online.