Do your smart phone videos not measure up to the beautiful videos shown in phone TV commercials? Yes, it’s possible to get movie-like images, but the reality is, it’s very difficult to pull-off. Most of the ads showing “real video shot with an I-Phone” or Samsung for that matter, are still captured by professional videographers and photographers. One quick glance at You Tube and it’s easy to spot the amateur smart phone captured videos. Those videos are almost always shaky, out of focus, and nearly impossible to hear the recorded audio.
So what can you do right now to get higher quality phone videos? Here are my top three tips:
–Use a tripod. Yes, I realize it’s not practical to carry a tripod wherever you go, but for those occasions when you know in advance you will be shooting video, it’s well worth the aggravation. You can find I-Phone and smart phone tripod adapters at Best Buy and Amazon which allow you to mount your phone to most tripods. The result will be a video which immediately appears ten times more professional than a handheld video.
–Position the phone as close as possible to the sound source. A video with poor sound or no sound at all is unwatchable. To record someone speaking, you need to get within a few feet of the subject to get decent sound from the phone mic. If you are recording a live performance, you can cheat by sitting in the vicinity of a speaker (but not directly in front of it).
–Know your phone settings. Whatever phone you are using, you should be recording 1080 HD video. The files will be bigger but the results will be much better. Additionally, for most general videos, 30 frames per second should be just fine. If you are shooting fast moving action like sports, switch your video setting to 60 frames per second. The recorded action should be much less blurry. Finally, make sure your image is in focus. On the I-Phone, you can touch the screen wherever you want the camera to set focus.
Three easy ways to get better looking phone video.