Top Tips for Shooting Videos with a Smartphone

Smartphones have made our lives easier like never before. Take the example of video shooting which was supposed to be a professional’s job; but today, courtesy to smartphones, anyone can shoot videos. However, if you remember certain things, these videos can be even better. Here are some tips.

Landscape Orientation

Aren’t those two black vertical bands on both sides of your video irritating? They just take out the charm from a great footage. This is an amateur mistake and you can avoid it – instead of portrait orientation (which most amateurs use) use landscape orientation. Landscape orientation makes your video look overall more pleasing to look at; plus, it makes it more enjoyable when seen on a television or widescreen. Moreover, you can capture more in the video.

So, keep in mind – do not ever hold your smartphone vertically while you are shooting a video.

Learn Framing

After understanding the use of correct orientation, next what you should do is to fill the frame totally with your subject. Even you can put her/him a little off-center and that will make the image visually more interesting. Just experiment and you will find what looks great.

How to Zoom

Digital zoom is perhaps the most disgusting and unfortunately digital zooming is the feature of most smartphones. Actually it’s just a software trick and not actual zooming. Your subject appears closer but not due to plentiful pixelation. So, how to zoom actually?

To zoom in without having to lose the vivid, crisp quality you want in your videos, get closer to the subject. Generally, you will have to get as nearer as possible, particularly for tight facial shots.

Flash to be Blamed for Color Distortion?

You might have seen videos with subjects having yellow complexion and devil-like red eyes on super-dark backdrops! What is to be blamed? Of course, it’s the photographer; but it’s the flash too.

Smartphones have LED lights which because of their extreme brightness can easily distort the color temperature of images. Also, video many a times look badly lit at the end. While shooting at night, you will need to get another source of light. In such a situation, you will have to play around with the available light sources like juke box or neon signs. They can add the much required glow to some extent and also enliven your video with colors.

Reducing Backlighting Effects

Something else too should be kept in mind while considering flash and overall lighting – to keep away from backlit-settings.

You may see people with their faces with backlighting, but that’s not the case with your smartphone camera and it will give you footage having a bright halo around a dark figure with no visible features. This means that you missed what you were to capture.

This can be avoided by arranging a standard light setup. If you are recording on the fly, you can make a backlit situation better by shifting to one side. Though you can take help of some stock camera apps to lessen the backlighting effects, you on your own should try to lessen them.

Time-Lapse Photography

Time-lapse photography is a technique of cinematography with which frame rate (frequency of capturing film frames) is much less than the one used to watch the sequence. When this sequence is replayed at normal speed, time seems to move faster and thus lapse.

In simple words, time-lapse photography is manipulation of time. Thus events and objects that in normal situations would take longer can be captured and later can be viewed at a fast speed, with this technique.

An iOS-only app, Hyperlapse debuted by the Instagram team in early 2015 made time-lapse videography absolutely hassle-free; but before that doing it with smartphones was extremely difficult and tedious. Hyperlapse also features built-in stabilization. Actually this feature makes it stand out totally from the new time-lapse feature of Apple in iOS 8.

Making GIFs So Easy

GIFs are ubiquitous. Anytime you can see them on news sites, Tumblr, ads and any other website you can imagine. They are like small stop-motion film clips one can send through emails, sms messages or social networks. They are short and sweet to watch and can be easily shared, and are easy to make too. All you should have for them is a smartphone with a camera and an app. Tumblr and even Google Photos offer you gifs.

Get Accessories to Power Up Your Smartphone

We have to admit that smartphone cameras are not as powerful as the Nikon, Sony or Canon cameras, mostly as smartphone cameras and their apps don’t feature controls and other settings. So, if you want to take the videos taken by your smartphone to the next level while saving on a costly DSLR, you may consider purchasing accessories that will show the true potential of your camera. You can buy everything like tripod mount and creative lenses. For example, you can even equip your Android phone with a bike mount or accessorize your iPhone with a telephoto lens. There are literally endless possibilities.

Editing

Last but not the least, you will have to consider at least a bit of editing so as to make your video wowing. Today you can do some great editing even on your smartphone which means you won’t have to invest in some fashionable desktop software. Both Android as well as iOS devices allow everything from the standard trimming to adding titles, effects and transitions. Mobile apps can organize the process of video-editing whether it is a school project or a montage. For example, the iMovie of Apple for iPhone and iPad adds transitions and titles and also allow making trailers on the go. There are also other awesome features like split screen, picture-in-picture and even slow motion.

Other good examples are Pinnacle Studio, Magisto and Videon, and even the new Premiere Clip app of Adobe for iPhone and iPad which offers quick video editing; you just have to drag and drop photos and footage so as to trim them. It is also compliant with Premier Pro because of which you can export the outcome to the desktop software and refine it further.

These tips have been taken from MobileNewsFlash.com, a website for real-time smartphone news and reviews from the best digital media sources. It also features the best deals and up to the minute job offers for mobile app developers. Just keep the website open in your browser and you will go on getting news in real time. Stay connected with this website if you want to stay updated about smartphones.