Tips for filming with your phone or tablet

These days the only thing you need to produce good videos is a very good smartphone or tablet. But even then, you should have certain quality standards and make sure the video as as good as it gets. Here are some tips that will help you.

The camera

Have a tablet or phone with a very good camera. You don’t want the video to look pixly afterwards.

The background

Make sure you have a clean background. This does not have to be awhite background but make sure it is not a messy one. And make sure nothing sticks out of your head like a picture behind you where just the corner is sticking out of your head when looking at you.

The clothes

Makes sure you are wearing appropriate clothes. Stripes and small squares are usually not so good as they are irritating the camera and the image will flicker. Also if you are wearing a shoulderless top for example make sure people can actually see more than just your face and shoulders as it will look like you are naked otherwise.

The jewelry

The more jewelry you were, the more likely it is that they will make sounds which can disturb the audio and distract the listener. Make sure you are wearing not noisy jewelry.

The light

Make sure you have a good light and only one light source. Your face should be lit equally and there should be now shades covering part of your face.

The sound

A microphone – even an inexpensive one – will make a huge quality difference to the sound of your video. Always use one when you can.

The stabiliser

Make sure you are stabilising your phone or tablet with either a selfie stick when you are out and about or a tripod when you can.

The eyes

A lot of times people look onto the screen rather than the camera of the phone or tablet itself. Make sure you are looking straight into the camera so that the listener feels you are looking at them

The test

Make sure you are checking and testing each video that you take before taking off the setting and stop filming.  Maybe the sound didn’t work, maybe you forgot to press play, maybe the crop of the image wasn’t good enough.