Videography

Mind Your Lighting

It should come as no surprise that lighting plays a crucial role in any video. If you’ve ever held a camera in your hand, you’re undoubtedly aware of just how significant an impact it has on your videos’ overall quality. So before you start filming, you should ensure that you have adequate lighting.

That means you should look at your lighting sources and their intensity and make the most of them. For instance, if you’re working with natural light, you will have less control over it than artificial lighting. However, natural sunlight is likely the best type of lighting in videography, so our tip would be to use it whenever you can. Unfortunately, the lack of control over natural lighting is its most significant downside.

If you have to shoot a video outside of a cloudy or rainy day, you will have a tough time. This kind of unpredictability is why most filmmakers opt for artificial lighting instead. This type of lighting entails various lamps that you can angle and adjust according to your needs and goals. An excellent example of that would be using overhead lights to emphasize particular items or features in your shot, which is an excellent cinematographic method to enhance your video’s storytelling. Also, artificial lights allow you to play with various effects, contributing to your video’s atmosphere.

2. Don’t Rely on Autofocus

While autofocus may seem like a godsend to many, the situation is reversed with seasoned videographers. That is because the feature may ruin your recording at times when it’s unsure what subject to focus on in complicated shots. That is why taking the matter into your own hands is a must if you want to hone your videography skills.

Oh, and did we mention that manually focusing while recording can allow you to add some unique special effects to your recordings? That’s right — you can get your storytelling to a whole new level by utilizing techniques like rack focus.

3. Choose Your Backdrop Carefully

Another vital part of every video is its backdrop. Depending on your budget and the type of content you decide to record, you will have several decent options. Either way, the rule of thumb you should stick to is to remove all clutter from your backdrop and ensure it’s as simple as possible.

If you are out and about and recording and interview or a documentary outside, you should strive toward filming it in front of a simple wall. The similar applies to filming indoors — having a plain white wall or a sheet behind your video’s subject is ideal. Doing so will focus the viewers’ attention to your video’s subject as there will be no distractions in the shot.

If you want to take your video quality to the next level, though, you could invest in a green screen. With one, you could use the chroma key technology to add wild and exciting backdrops to your videos in the post-editing process. With a green screen, your possibilities become almost limitless. This option might not be particularly beginner-friendly, though, and it can be quite pricey. So we wouldn’t recommend going for this until you get your videography skills to at least an intermediate level.