Do you like to record your life’s best moments?
Technology has brought countless new features to smartphones that allow you to record events and incredible moments in life.
There are many brands that make smartphones on the market today and one of the best things about this device is its cameras that offer better video recording quality, and smartphone cameras keep evolving more each year!
A smartphone with a good quality camera is what you need to have at hand when you travel, when you go to events with family and friends, when you go to events with work colleagues and similar occasions to make sure you always record every important moment of your life!
To make a good video with your smartphone, you need to take into account many factors that contribute to better results. And that’s what you will learn in this post!
Let’s see how to make a video with your smartphone like a pro.
How to position your smartphone to record a video
The first thing you need to do is to position it correctly to record pro looking videos. And tip number one is: always record your videos horizontally (when you lay your phone to the left or to the right and hold it with both hands).
Videos recorded vertically have a smaller in-depth of the space being recorded (the shooting scene).
Also, vertical videos have black side bars, reducing the video area and losing details richness of your shooting scene. Use the vertical phone position when you’re taking selfies, but not when you’re making videos.
Another positive thing about recording videos horizontally is that they adapt better to the format of the computer screen when they are transferred to it, so it’s better to watch!
Use smartphone accessories to help you record videos
Use accessories to record your videos, they’re physical devices you can attach to or place on your phone to improve it.
There are many options to choose from. You can get flexible tripods, for example, they can be attached to any surface giving total stability to your phone. These tripods also work as a selfie stick if you attach them to your phone.
One more advantage is that with the phone attached to the base of the tripod you can make videos walking. Another feature of the flexible tripods is that they can be placed on flat surfaces and you can fix their rods (their “legs”) on round surfaces.
In addition to the flexible tripod, smartphones can also be attached to larger tripods used for shooting with cameras. To fix the phone, just attach the phone holder to the tripod.
Microphones are great accessories for shooting videos with smartphones too. In fact, they’re even necessary because when recording in an open environment, smartphone’s microphones usually capture all external noise. With a Lavalier Microphone this problem is solved because it captures the correct return of a person’s voice sound when speaking directly to the smartphone.
There is one more accessory that will significantly improve videos shot with your smartphone: we are talking about extra lens filters for phones that can be the solution if your phone’s footage quality is low, they are attached to your phone’s external camera and work as a great improvement!
Where to look at when recording yourself
Whenever you are recording a video in which you speak directly to the viewer, fix your eyes on the lens of your smartphone as if you are looking into the eyes of a person. That way, you will be looking directly at who is watching the video. With this technique, you will have the full attention of the viewer, so try to find where your phone’s camera is before you start recording just to make your next videos perfect!
Framing your shooting scene
When recording your videos, remove objects that will leave the shooting scene disorganized, and look for something to decorate it, like a small potted plant for example.
Also, avoid recording where the background is overwhelming (too many objects or too many strong colors).
Two more things you can do that result in videos with a pro feel is find the correct framing with the correct distribution of the elements in the shooting scene and adjust the positioning of its focal point: frame your shooting scene on the camera screen using the rule of thirds, which consists of mentally creating two imaginary vertical lines and two horizontal lines on the camera screen to view the focus object “framed” on the middle of the screen before you start shooting.
Some cameras add a rule of thirds grid to your camera screen, which makes this process easier for more perfect positioning. You can also download an app to add this grid to your phone’s camera.
When you’re recording your video, check the frame continuously. If you move while you’re shooting, do it very slowly so that the camera has time to focus on the scene during the movement.
Don’t use your phone’s zoom tool and autofocus to shoot videos
When recording videos with a smartphone, the zoom tool should not be used because when it’s activated during recording, the image will be pixelated, that is, you will completely lose the image quality. The ideal is to get closer to the object being recorded. You can see pixel by pixel in pixelated videos, they’re really blurry and have poor quality.
The automatic adjustment of the phone’s focus (a.k.a. autofocus) is good for taking photos, but for recording videos it’s interesting to block it so that the footage does not gain unwanted proportions or is out of focus, which does happen a lot if you let it on. The autofocus blocking can be done in smartphone apps that offer this feature, so search on the Internet for an autofocus blocking app for your phone’s model to see what apps you can download.
When recording videos with your phone, remember that it is carried in your pocket or handbags and that you are always with it in your hands, so your own fingerprints are left on the camera lens this can create reflections in the footage and even unwanted contrasts! So don’t forget to clean your smartphone’s lens and screen before shooting videos, and use a soft cloth to do it.
Getting the best video lighting with smartphones
Use natural lighting to your advantage when shooting videos.
When shooting an external object, a person or an event and the light is behind what you’re shooting, your phone’s focus will adjust to decrease the light emitted by the light source (the sunlight, for example). This is called “backlight” which will have a negative result for the quality of the footage because what you will see through the lens of your smartphone will be a completely darkened focus.
Therefore, the focus object of your video should be in front of the light source. This way, the light source will work like a flash for your video and it won’t appear in the shooting scene, which brings an excellent result to your video!
You can also get a LED light to record videos indoors (in a room, for example), those are great for shooting during nighttime. The most popular ones are LED Rings for smartphones.
More tips to record pro videos with your phone
To get a pro video result, hold your phone close to your body and keep your arms supported by your body.
You can also support your elbows somewhere or object for more stability. Don’t forget to enable the video stabilization setting on your phone if it’s available. Also, put your phone in airplane mode to avoid interference (you don’t want an incoming call stopping your video, right?).
Another important thing you can do is turn off background applications to avoid phone heating, which can make its battery decrease faster and interrupt your video before you’re finished.
The cherry on top: video editing apps
After you’re finished recording your videos, there is one more thing you can do: download a video editing app and boost your video even more with simple editing!
Don’t think this is hard to do! Smartphone apps are making the video editing process a lot easier today! Here are a few simple things you can do to improve even more your phone videos using a video editing app:
- Cut parts of your video that you don’t want
- Put a background music
- Add color filters to your video
- Improve its image saturation and contrasts
- Put two videos together or more
- Add special effects to your video
You’re ready to make awesome videos with your phone!
Now that you can shoot great videos with your smartphone, you know what accessories you need to improve your video productions with your phone and you also know lots of tips to make pro videos!
So put what you’ve learned into practice! You won’t regret it!
You can also share your thoughts in the comments below!
