Camera Settings to Make Your YouTube Videos Look Better

fqwfSometimes looks do matter. So today we’re gonna talk about some ways you can make your YouTube videos look better in terms of your camera gear and your settings.

1. Wider aperture 2.2+

Tip number one has to do with your actual camera settings, and one of the things I recommend you do is if you want a blurry background you need to actually be shooting at what we call wide aperture. This means you’re going to need a lens that is capable of that.

These don’t have to be expensive. Typically lenses that shoot wide are expensive if you’re getting a professional glass; but for $50, $80, $100, $200, if you’re shooting on a DSLR camera, then you can get a wide aperture lens, something that shoots with a shallow depth of field.

Some of you actually have cameras in your phone that are capable of shooting at f 2.2. So if you have an iPhone, then you might actually be able to shoot at a wide aperture and get a blurry background. You can adjust it in the camera settings of your phone.

I don’t recommend shooting at f 1.8, because sometimes it can be hard to get something in focus, and you won’t have a lot of room to play with if you move back and forth at all. So I would recommend that you shoot at f 2, f 2.8, or f 2.2 when you’re doing that. That’s gonna make your videos look great. You’re gonna have the blurry background that you want. It’ll look a little bit more professional, it’ll isolate you from the background, bring more attention in on your face, and that could look really good in your videos.

2. Low ISO

Tip number two is another camera settings tip. It is shoot at what we call low ISO. ISO is one of the settings on your DSLR camera. This actually can hep you compensate for the amount of light that you have. If you don’t have a lighting setup, you might be using a higher ISO, if you’re shooting on something like the Canon Rebel T3i, or a Nikon D3200 and you’re shooting indoors, there’s a chance you might be shooting at ISO 800 or even 1600.

What this is doing is making your videos have a little bit of noise and a little bit of grain. It may not be noticeable on a small screen, but on a big screen like a 27-inch or even on a television screen, it’s gonna be very noticeable. Especially if your background is dark or you’re wearing dark clothing, this is gonna show up.

I recommend shooting at ISO 400 or ISO 200 whenever possible. If your camera is capable of shooting video at ISO 100, that would be for the best, but that would probably be on a more expensive camera.

The odds are that the best you’ll be able to do if you have a wide aperture lens is shoot at ISO 200 or 400. So just go as low as you can.

3. Turn off continuous autofocus

Tip number three, turn off continuous autofocus. If you’ve ever watched a video, sometimes the face gets blurry or it doesn’t get back into focus; it’s because continuous autofocus is on.

One of the downsides of this is the fact that in your videos that could make the little whirling noise you hear from the lens being picked up by the microphone, and so if you don’t want that, I say turn off continuous autofocus. What this means is you’ll want to shoot with manual focus that you’ve already set up or shoot with autofocus, but have it set to single autofocus, take a selfie with your remote or with a timer, and then that’ll lock your autofocus in on your eyes or your face, it’ll be tack sharp. After that, you just have to set markers so you don’t move too far out of where the focus is set up manually, and then you’ll be okay. That’ll stop your videos from going in and out of focus, and you won’t have to deal with the noise from the lens.

So just turn off that continuous autofocus. Turn it to single server autofocus and you’ll be just fine.

4. Use a good lightning

Tip number four – use really good lighting whenever possible. The brighter you can get the lighting in your videos, the more options you’re gonna have with flexibility with the camera, and that’s gonna get you better quality. That’s gonna make a huge difference.

Investing in a high-quality lighting kit means you can get the ISO even lower and you can shoot with different apertures.

5. Shoot in HD

Tip number five – Shoot in HD, and shoot in the highest resolution absolutely possible.

If you can shoot in the highest resolution possible, then you’ll have a lot more options. Investing in 4K video cameras gives you more options, it gives you more flexibility for cropping, you can shoot loose.

I really recommend shooting in the highest resolution possible with your stuff. And if you really want your videos to look really smooth, you can shoot at 30 frames per second or 60 frames per second for an even more realistic looking footage.

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