Guest Post by Chris Des Marais on Improving your Video Look (Something I need to heed).
Why do we all have to put up with bad quality video? YouTube, although it’s provided a huge service to humanity — tongue planted slightly in cheek for that one — has conditioned us to accept bad video. Well, we shouldn’t.
As a guy who makes a living creating good video, the trend is pretty alarming. Bad video is never good video. Sure, content is king, and content will always triumph over video quality. But, if you’re providing blog viewers with great content, why not get the edge and give them something worth watching that won’t make their eyeballs bleed?
Here are a few tips:
1.) Lighting: A light source from the outside (sunlight) is different from light from any interior source. They are different temperatures to your camera. Most webcams (and even professional video cameras) can’t handle the mixing of the two different sources of light. If you’re near a window when you record, TURN OFF your interior lights. Or, close all the curtains and shades and ONLY use interior light. Mixing light on video is as equally stomach turning as mixing beer and liquor — and something that always looks amateurish.
2.) Want even better lighting results? Go to Wal-Mart, Target, or any other inexpensive retailer and buy one of those small make-up mirrors with the lights surrounding the outside – round – square – doesn’t matter. And mount it either above and behind your computer monitor or aside of your monitor. Most of these make-up mirrors have daylight balanced bulbs. Plus, most of us look better with more light on our face.
3.) Move your camera: Just because the original web cams were mounted on top of monitors doesn’t mean you should keep it that way. Put it just below eye level — maybe even to the right or left so that you have a slightly less than straight-on view of your face.
4.) Up, up, up: Finally, if you have a system where your camera is permanently mounted high and central on your monitor, raise your desk chair up to the highest it can go, or stand up if you have to. Most of your video blogs should be 60 seconds or less, so if you can’t stand up for 60 seconds to record your thoughts, maybe its time to push away from the computer and get some exercise. Mental or otherwise.
Happy vlogging!
Chris DesMarais is Senior Producer at Mike Vasilinda Productions in Tallahassee, Florida, a company producing HD televison and video for corporate and retail clients nationwide. Have more questions about video for Chris? Contact him on twitter.
Our observation in the printing business is that people stopped caring about quality so much at precisely the point they undertook their own creative work. They seem blind to flaws in their own stuff they would criticize from someone else.
I guess it’s like your kids…no parent will ever perceive their offspring as homely. It’s too bad because I agree wholeheartedly with your post…quality enhancements make a huge difference and often don’t cost anything extra.
Thanks for your post
thanks for stopping in hugh. really appreciate it. and i’m sure chris does too. we shouldn’t have to deal with sub-par when a much better alternative takes such little effort. i’m glad you got something out of this. i sure as heck did. have a good evening.
Great and very helpful for someone outside of the industry without any idea about these things and what a difference that they make, thanks for sharing!
thanks for coming on and commenting. glad to help and offer advice. if you have any other questions, feel free to leave another comment here. we’ll get back to you with answers. have a great day.