How To Set Up A Video

12 Simple Tips for Making Your Videos Look More Professional person

Want to create a polished, professional video that impresses your audience? It's easier than you lot might think.

Achieving a professional look is more most your technique than your tools, so you don't demand to drop a fortune on expensive equipment – chances are good that yous can brand bully videos with whatsoever you lot've got right now, only by paying attending to a few key details.

Video Marketing How To: 12 Unproblematic Tips to Make Your Videos Look More Professional

Subscribe to our Video Marketing How To series to notice tips and tricks on how you lot tin make your videos better step past step.

These 12 tips will assistance you better the quality of your videos right away.

i. Use Plenty of Light.

Lighting makes a huge difference in the quality of a finished professional person video, so make information technology one of your top priorities during filming. If you don't apply enough properly-placed light, your video volition probably look non-expert, even if it's neat in every other way.

The sun is one of the best calorie-free sources for video. If you lot're filming in natural light, exercise your best to get your footage in the morning or evening, when the calorie-free is softer. Midday light coming from straight overhead can cast harsh shadows on your subjects, while morn and evening calorie-free is more flattering. If you do take to film in the middle of the day, effort to do and then on a cloudy twenty-four hour period, or find a shady area for softer calorie-free.

Practise your best to get your footage in the forenoon or evening, when the light is softer.

If you're filming indoors, you will need to be more intentional nearly the types of lights you use and where you lot place them. One affair to avoid is overhead lighting – it can cast unflattering shadows on your subjects' faces. Windows are a skilful natural lite source. You tin can also utilize a big lamp or two to cast the type of low-cal you desire.

Before you set upwards your calorie-free sources, consider the effect you want to create in your finished video. Exercise you want your subject'south confront entirely lit up ("soft" or "flat" lite), or practice you desire some shadows ("difficult" light)?

Soft and hard light for professional videos

Using lots of shadow looks dramatic, and information technology can be distracting in professional videos where drama isn't the intended result. Using little or no shadow creates a more open up and straightforward vibe, which is commonly better for business and marketing videos.

If yous desire to use flat light in your video, remainder two calorie-free sources on either side of the camera. You lot tin can place them either behind the camera or just in front of it. Here'southward one example from Wistia of how you tin achieve this setup.

Wistia setup for professional videos

Wistia'south filming setup. The two symmetrically-placed low-cal sources create a balanced effect with no shadows. Source: Wistia

If you want your bailiwick to have a chip more shadow and depth, you can endeavor using the "lighting triangle" to achieve information technology.

Lighting triangle for professional videos

Using a single light source creates more shadows in your video. Source

2. Use a Clean Background.

Be deliberate about the background you lot use for filming. Nothing looks less professional than a messy or distracting background.

I piece of cake way to get a professional person look for your video is to employ a solid-colored background. A wall, a bedsheet, or a large sheet of backdrop newspaper are all good options. Brand sure your discipline stands several feet away from the properties to avoid casting shadows on information technology.

It'due south too a good idea to shoot a video in a "professional" environs: the place where you lot really work or spend time. For case, Amy Landino, makes her professional person videos in her home office. Make sure to check out this video for both a great instance of a filming gear up and some bang-up tips on how to actually set up a home office.

Be careful not to film with a window or another cogitating surface in the background of your shot. You lot could inadvertently catch the camera in the reflection. Besides that, having a light source like a window behind your field of study tin can brand the subject area expect dark and shadowy.

3. Choose a Good Video Editing Program.

Skilful video editing software can help y'all turn your raw footage into something swell. In that location are some simpler tools similar Moving ridge.video, Camtasia or iMovie. More professional options include Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere Pro.

Here are the key features to pay attending to when choosing a video editor:

The ability to add text to video;
The ability to trim and ingather videos;
Scene transitions;
The power to modify the aspect ratio;
Adding filters and overlays;
A library of stock videos and sounds.

4. Keep Your Editing Simple.

Trying out different furnishings tin exist fun during the video editing procedure, but don't go too crazy. A simple, clean editing style generally looks near professional person.

A few things yous should be certain to do during the editing stage include:

Using noise cancelling to clean upwards whatsoever background noise.
Adjusting the lighting a little if you need to.
Cutting out awkward pauses and silences.
Adding background music and transitions.

Another editing tip: If you cut from 1 scene to another in your professional person video, brand the jump when there'south motion in both segments. This is smoother and more natural than jumping from 1 scene where nil is happening to another.

5. Prioritize Crisp, Articulate Audio.

Your audio quality is really more important than your professional person video quality. Most people are willing to lookout a video that's non shot in Hard disk drive or that's even a fiddling grainy, as long as everything else about it is proficient. But fuzzy, indistinct audio is ordinarily enough to make everyone hit the "dorsum" button within a few seconds of starting to play a video.

Because audio matters so much, a good microphone is the showtime piece of equipment yous should invest in. Get the all-time one you can afford. For $100 to $200, you tin get a microphone that performs well and will last a long time. There are also some decent options nether $100 if y'all're on a tight upkeep. Even a lav mic will do!

Capture clear audio by putting your microphone as close to the subject field as possible. Yous might want to apply a pop filter to eliminate blips and crackles on the finished recording. Be aware of whatever background noise that your microphone might be picking up, as well.

It's piece of cake to tune out things like traffic, birds, and even the noise of the wind, simply all of these sounds will be very obvious on your recording.

6. Avoid Shaky Footage.

Shaky footage volition brand any professional video look similar a home movie (and information technology can make your viewers feel seasick, to boot). It's hard to agree a camera completely steady, so effort non to hold your camera at all if you lot tin can help it. Instead, use a tripod, or set your camera on a sturdy surface.

How to make your videos look professional

Once you've got your camera prepare, endeavor not to movement it unless y'all take to. Panning around constantly detracts from the professional look of a video. Rather than moving the camera if you have to change perspective, it's meliorate to cutting from i shot to another.

If your footage turns out shaky despite your best efforts, video stabilization software can aid to set it afterwards. Some cameras also have congenital-in stabilization that you tin use while you're filming. Slowing down your footage can also assist to make shakiness less obvious.

7. Understand the Rule of Thirds.

The rule of thirds is 1 of the nigh basic principles of film composition.

Imagine that in that location's a 3-by-3 grid laid over the field you're filming. Instead of placing your field of study right in the eye of the shot, you should place your subject along one of the lines of the filigree. The points where the lines intersect are peculiarly stiff areas of focus, and so situate important elements of the video there, if you can.

Understand the rule of thirds

Visualizing a 3-past-3 grid over a shot. Source

You don't have to follow the rule of thirds all the fourth dimension, but while you're still learning, information technology'due south a good thought to adhere to it as ofttimes as possible. Equally y'all gain experience, you'll get a improve instinct for when to stick with the dominion and when to intermission it.

8. Apply Your Phone the Correct Way.

No DSLR camera? No trouble. You tin can use your telephone to capture professional video footage – the quality is just fine for nearly purposes. But there are a few things in listen if you're going to apply your phone for video creation.

Use the camera on the back of your phone. The front camera's quality is not as practiced on almost phones.
Tape in landscape mode (that is, horizontally instead of vertically). This will give yous footage that looks practiced on larger devices, not just phone screens.
If your phone has a characteristic that allows yous to overlay a filigree on your screen, use information technology. This will help yous keep your phone level and avoid tilted footage.

How to turn the grid on your iPhone

If you accept an iPhone, y'all can plow on the grid by going to Settings > Photos & Camera > Grid.

ix. Work On Your Camera Presence.

If you appear in your professional videos, the style you acquit yourself on camera has an enormous impact on how professional person your content looks. Appearing nervous, fidgety, or uncomfortable on camera will distract viewers from your message.

Fortunately, this is something you can improve with practice. If yous weren't born with slap-up camera presence, here are a few of the main things to focus on when you film yourself.

Use at-home, open up trunk language. Stand upwards straight – poor posture is immediately obvious on camera. Keep your shoulders back and your muscles relaxed. Take deep breaths. Don't cross your artillery, since this makes you look closed-off.
Grin, especially at the first of your video. Information technology makes a huge difference in how friendly you seem.
Deadening down slightly when you talk, and make an effort to verbalize clearly. Speak from your diaphragm rather than your pharynx.
If you feel jittery, endeavor using props to go on your hands occupied. Writing on a whiteboard, for example, can requite yous something to focus on as well the camera.
Practice, do, exercise. Watch footage of yourself and identify the areas where you could amend. Then make a witting attempt to work on those things.

x. Shoot from a Variety of Angles.

Cutting from one angle to another is a proficient (and simple) way to add visual interest to your professional videos. This is an especially useful technique if you lot're making a how-to video, a product demo, or another type of video that shows you lot doing something rather than just talking.

Shoot enough of B-ringlet footage for each video so you have the option of using it later if you want to.

Pro tip: when you alter perspectives, shift by at to the lowest degree 45 degrees. Smaller shifts in perspective don't really create the intended effect – they just look jarring to the viewer.

11. Program Your Videos in Advance.

Poor technique isn't the but affair that tin make a video look unprofessional. A lack of planning can also get out viewers underwhelmed with your finished product. By taking the fourth dimension to plan your video thoroughly before you beginning product, you tin ensure that the quality of your actual content is just as good as the quality of your footage.

Every time you brand a video, showtime by defining its purpose. Ask yourself what yous want to achieve or communicate by making this video. In addition, define your target audition. How will you make your video speak to these viewers in particular?

Once you've defined your video's goals, write a script and create a storyboard. Then revise them until they're as skilful every bit y'all can brand them. Don't be afraid to rearrange, rewrite, and delete sections that don't work. Rambling videos bore viewers, and then keep your videos every bit brief and tight equally possible.

Free Storyboard Templates

12. Promote Your Videos.

Creating your videos is just half the battle. The other half is getting people to watch them. If you lot desire to present yourself equally a serious and professional person video creator, y'all've got to promote your videos and grow your following.

Information technology's okay not to have a lot of views or audition interaction when you start out. Everybody has to start somewhere, and some channels naturally have more mass appeal than others, which gives them an advantage in picking up new viewers. Just as yous create and publish more than videos, your viewership should grow over time. Having lots of videos, simply almost no views, tin can make your channel seem amateurish to the viewers who do come along.

So how can you promote your videos effectively as a beginner? Here are a few strategies to start with.

Put your videos in the appropriate formats for social media. If you're using Wave.video, you can easily resize your video for any major social media platform.
Upload your videos to the channels your target audience uses. Don't waste too much energy promoting your videos on platforms that aren't popular with your audience.
Learn the basics of video SEO. Writing skilful descriptions, using keywords, and tagging your videos correctly tin help you get more views.
Publish new videos regularly. Fresh content tells viewers that your channel is active and growing. This makes them more likely to come up back.
Interact with your audience as much as possible. Respond to comments, answer questions, and thank viewers for taking the time to watch your videos.

Wrapping Up

The more professional your videos look, the more your brand will benefit from them. And, while making professional-looking videos does take some practice and know-how, information technology isn't magic or something you lot need to study for years. Yous tin can step upwardly the quality of your side by side video dramatically merely by applying the basic techniques listed in this commodity.

Over to you! Which of these tips are you lot going to try first? Practice you have any additional thoughts on how to make your videos await great? Tell u.s. in the comments beneath!