How to make videos look professional

No joking, even an average and affordable device can provide a very decent shooting. It is your technique that rules, not the tools themselves. And the post-production editing of course, but it’s just icing on the cake.

Let’s learn how to make a solid base.

Make a content plan

Think thoroughly, what you are going to shoot and for who. Will it be a series of tutorials on YouTube? Do you want to record a home video with your children to save your family’s history? Maybe you just want to make your Instagram Stories look better?

The audience will define the style of the recording.

Don’t forget to write a script and rehearse a little before shooting. But don’t overdo it, videos with real emotions are the best.

Choose the right background

If you shoot at home, make sure that your place looks clean and neat. You don’t really have to prepare a special background, as in studios, with green paper or other backdrops – just think what you want other people to see. There shouldn’t be many objects in the background and take away all the distracting things.

Be cautious about windows or other glass objects – they may change the lighting and reflect the camera.

The same tips are also valid for outdoors shooting: choose a nice land- or cityscape.

Set the proper lighting

It is easy to make GoPro videos look professional but the good lighting can turn even the poorest shooting into a masterpiece.

For outdoors shooting choose Golden Hour or Blue Hour – time just around the sunrise and sunset. Don’t forget to use extra reflectors if needed.

If you make your clips indoors, try to use as much natural lighting as possible, but place several extra sources as well. You can also study some classical lighting schemes.

Set your camera

No, you don’t need to buy a professional reflex cam (it will make no harm if you have one, though). But take from your device everything you can:

  • Use the back camera instead of the front one – usually the latter is much worse.
  • Spend some time sorting out the phone camera settings. Use a manual mode, if you can.
  • Use other equipment – external microphones, lenses, etc.
  • Overlay a grid – it will help you to follow the Rule of Thirds.

The last point leads us to the next tip.

Keep the composition

Don’t forget to choose video aspect ratio and orientation — vertical or horizontal — in accordance with your need, keep in mind that all social media have different specs.

As for the global composition – take a Rule of Thirds as a base, but don’t hesitate to break it if you need.

Stabilize your cam

Shaky video can never look professional. Place your cam on a stable surface, even better – buy a special stabilizer.

Edit videos to make them look more professional

However good your raw videos are, anyway you’ll have to cut or crop them, mute or combine with audio, change a colour scheme or edit in another way.

There is no need to purchase, install and set up costly licensed software — Clideo’s online editing tools will serve you no worse. Our service is free for files up to 500 MB, and you can process as many records per a day, as you need.

At the moment you can avail from 22 tools, but there are more to come. All of them work in a browser and are compatible with all operating systems and device types possible.