Every good cameraman wants professional video quality. Video camera quality is essential to creating successful videos. In fact, 62% of viewers build a negative perception of brands that produce poor-quality videos. No matter your level of expertise with video camera effects, these tips can help improve your video quality for YouTube.
1. Sharpen your focus.
Obviously, your video camera must have precise focus to achieve the best video quality. To make the most out of your video camera for YouTube, first set your camera to manual focus.
Zoom in as far as possible on your subject, adjust to the sharpest focus, then zoom back out. If you are filming a person, complete these steps by zooming into one of their eyes. Don’t forget to refocus whenever you change the shot or camera position.
2. Increase shutter speed.
There are pros and cons to different shutter speeds. When it comes to video quality assessment, the higher the shutter speed, the better. With videos, shutter speed impacts the amount of motion blur in your video frames.
A more precise, detailed video will require a higher shutter speed. Technically, videos are only hundreds of images (frames) stuck together. So, to get better video quality, you’ll want better image quality.
3. Adjust white balance.
The right white balance can make your video more vibrant and uniform. Setting your video camera to automated white balance might sound convenient, but you can do better.
Manual white balance allows for precise and professional video quality, specific to each shot. All you need to adjust white balance is a white object or plane. Perform white balance every time your lighting scene changes.
4. Invest in additional equipment.
When learning how to sharpen video quality, purchasing or renting certain video camera accessories will maximize quality. We have already talked about lighting equipment and lenses, but other potential video camera equipment may be necessary.
For instance, a tripod or video camera stabilizer will obviously reduce shakiness in a video. This will make it easier for the camera to process the shots and provide high-quality footage.
5. Upgrade your video camera lens.
Although a good video camera comes with adequate lenses, upgrading your lenses can prove to be a rewarding investment. Poor-quality kit lenses can have an adverse effect on the pro quality of your videos.
Do some research to find specific lenses that will ensure HD video quality for your type of camera. If you cannot afford expensive lenses, you may want to rent a video camera lens to shoot your video projects.
6. Reduce digital noise.
The more you have going on in your picture, the harder it will be to create the right focus and maximize your quality. In other words, the more “digital noise” your shot has, the grainier your video may be.
Reduce digital noise by making an effort to focus correctly on your subject. Additionally, adjusting settings like video camera exposure, ISO, and aperture will help reduce digital noise.
7. Open up storage.
Opening up more storage on your video camera doesn’t directly improve video quality. However, having an HD video camera with enough internal storage is conducive to producing high-quality videos.
The higher your resolution, the more storage space it occupies. Prepare to take high-quality videos by purchasing plenty of memory cards to store your video files.
8. Avoid digital zoom.
If you are working with a digital video camera, minimize the use of digital enhancement techniques. Instead, use the unique features that come with your camera. As the name suggests, digital zoom only crops and expands the video.
On the other hand, optical zoom actually alters the camera’s lenses to act as an authentic video camera magnifier. To dodge this altogether, simply minimize zooming in your videos.
9. Assess lighting.
Lighting is important to make any video look good. Videos shot with inadequate lighting produce unsightly results. Play around with different lighting setups during video production, including natural lighting.
Natural lighting offers superb video quality, in some cases, it can be even better than pro studio lighting. You can tell if the lighting is right for the shot by recording test videos, playing them back, and adjusting the lights as necessary.
10. Minimize gain settings.
A good quality video camera will have adjustable gain settings. Gain is used to add light to a shot, but we’ve already discussed the necessity of implementing your own lighting fixtures.
As shown in the picture above, more gain clearly exhibits a grainier quality. Although many video cameras offer gain settings reaching up to 18db of gain, the most you should ever use is 9db.
11. Use video quality enhancing software.
Yes, when it comes down to it, some video editing can be helpful. If you have little experience in the field of video editing, you can always hire professionals to take care of the project.
Valoso offers a variety of freelance video editors and videographers to help you shoot the best videos for your business. To find out more and receive a free quote, click on the banner below.
