Incorporating Graphics Into Your Video

High Quality Video With Your Phone

In Blogging, Video by Siobhan Findlay

Before I tell you anything about shooting high quality video with your phone, first look at how much storage you have left. Shooting videos takes up a lot of room! If you don’t have the space, do yourself a favor and make some.

Now that that’s settled, let’s go over a few tips and tricks to creating a high quality video with your phone!

Lighting

Because you don’t have control over aperture on a phone, how you set up your lighting is important. Take advantage of natural lighting as much as you can. You can even still use lighting kits when you are shooting with a smartphone; set up your key light, fill light, and any other lighting you need to properly light your setting.

Exposure Lock

This is a function that will automatically focus and expose your shot. There are instances when this is beneficial but, when you are shooting video for high quality end products, this can disrupt the viewer experience and just look odd.

Steady Footage

Just like any other form of video, you do not want shaky footage! To combat this, you can hold the phone with both hands and hold your elbows against your body for more support.

If you are willing to make a purchase to help you out with this, there are products out there in the way of smartphone video stabilizers. These come in different forms, but generally your phone just slides right in and you hold the handle to support it. There are even apps that you can download, made specially for stabilization!

Lens Attachments

Lens attachments to enhance your video are always an option, and allow for more variety in certain types of shots. Some different lens attachments for smartphones include wide angle, fisheye, and telephoto.

Audio

The most ideal choice in terms of audio is to buy an external microphone. To use any portable microphone, you will first have to pair it to an adapter in order to send the audio to your phone.

Another option is simply using another phone or tablet for audio; you can set that device near your subject and shoot your video from farther away, very similar to how you would set up a microphone on any other shoot. Some experienced smartphone filmmakers even hang the other device above the person who is talking to get better audio!

If neither of these choices are options for you, you can always just move closer to the subject. Moving closer will help you get clearer (not perfect, but better than nothing) audio. As always, making sure you are in a quiet environment is extremely beneficial!

Keeping the Lens Clean

Our smartphones go with us everywhere. They get a lot of nasty stuff on them that sometimes should not get on a lens. To make sure you get the best quality shot possible, clean your phone’s lens before you start shooting. This way, you won’t get fuzzy footage!

Editing

Some people who create videos with their smartphones prefer to use an editing program on their computer, while some prefer to use editing apps on their phone. Either of these methods are good options but, if you are more inclined to edit right on your phone, a couple food apps for this are the iMovie app and the Vimeo app.

Now, are you ready to go shoot a great, high quality video, right on your phone?

Check out more information on video making and other topics at https://michigancreate.wpengine.com/blog.

– Siobhan Findlay