How to Look Great on Video

we're going to learn what to do to make ourselves look great on video starting right now [Music] as a professor a student an employer or an employee we all need to learn the important skill of making a great video and looking great on video as well now this isn't about being beautiful although i think we're all beautiful in our own special way this is about being as professional as possible as looking as professional as possible in order to make the best impactful the best experience possible with the video itself so we're going to cover three three really important aspects of making a great video the first one is going to be audio we'll discuss different things associated with with capturing the best audio as well as lighting the importance of lighting to make the best visual as well as framing so in there it's going to involve several different aspects and we'll throw in some some bonus material dealing with framing in order to really capture the best essence of making ourselves look professional looking great within our video so the first part is dealing with audio now to have the very best audio possible there are several different things that you can do to begin with you really need to think about the environment that you're recording in so this means to have all the kids put away or the pets put away other people so that they're not distracting you and they're not making noise that would come off within the video additionally other things that can cause noises are a refrigerator air conditioning a tv a cell phone so make sure those things are off or at least in another room so that you can concentrate on just the audio that you're trying to capture other things such as noises from outside can be reduced by closing that window so that you know cars driving by or car horns or just people walking by or playing outside doesn't come off into your video your presentation so we want to minimize all those distractions another important way to really capture the best type of audio is by using an external microphone now there's some very expensive external microphones as well as some simple external microphones that you can get simply getting a simple lapel mic like the one i'm wearing either a usb or audio in type of microphone will greatly enhance the overall quality of the audio listen to this audio comparing what it i sound like now using an actual external microphone a simple lapel mic or this is what it is without an external mic what it sounds like without a microphone definitely a huge difference there the other important aspect is dealing with lighting lighting is very powerful in that it really changes the way that we look so i always recommend that you have at least two light sources on you in order to gain that most professional way as far as how you appear on the video so you can have two lamps or you can have one lamp and a window a window is very powerful in that it can give you good good sunlight that comes in and really makes it sort of fill in all the different parts to to make you look as good as possible so there's different ways to do this when you have a nice window that you can sit by so here's my situation here's what i look like so here's my setup i simply have one lamp set up right here there's my camera which is going to be my laptop and then here's the window so the window casts light that way and then this lamp cast light that way so here this works well in that i have one window that's right here where i'm getting in some good light as well as i have a lamp over here so i'm getting light that way so now i'm getting some good distribution of light on both sides of my face as well as filling in the top and the bottom here so you can really see my face and you can see you know all the different mannerisms that i'm doing when i'm talking and expressing myself to you so you definitely want to maximize that but if you are going to use the window the lighting source you always want to have that be in front of you never behind you because if you do if you put it behind you then you only look like this so here i am with uh the window behind me notice the difference as far as the lighting is concerned right you don't want to be just a silhouette that you definitely don't want that because then you're just a silhouette and it's hard for your audience because remember you're always thinking about what is your audience seeing it'll be that much harder for your audience to really see your your facial expressions and all those so you want to make sure that you have good lighting both on one side and on the other side to really get that capture that best image possible to make you look as professional as possible as well so for the final aspect here of making the great video and making yourself look great on video is the whole aspect of framing so framing is actually quite a simple thing but i'm going to put a lot of different components on it so that we get the most amount of bang for our buck so to begin with framing is simply how you're framing the videos so you see in this video i have a little bit of space here and a little bit of space here so a little bit of headroom and then a little bit below here so i'm actually filming from a little bit above the chest up the reason for that is so that if i do have to talk with my hands then you can see my hands but generally it's just focused on me so you know you see a lot of my face my facial expressions this is a good solid expression good solid way that we're framing up the the picture here now notice the difference that comes up when i have my face and the framing in different ways so sometimes i see framing like this where it's really low so you see how it's basically just kind of a floating head this doesn't come across well because again it's not framed quite right and it seems more amateurish so you want to avoid this another one that you want to avoid is this this often happens when somebody's using two screens because they have sort of their camera set up on this screen and then they're looking at this screen this you want to avoid because it's very distant it comes across as very distant you know i'm not looking at you i'm not in the same frame orientation so you generally want to avoid this one as well so for this next one here i decided to record it with my uh with just a simple cell phone here in that i've seen this happen a lot of times is that people are trying to do their video let's say through a zoom session and they have their cell phone and they simply put their cell phone on a table right the problem with this is the angle the framing that occurs with this is very harsh in that we're simply looking up your nose and that doesn't look uh that doesn't look great so what we want to do instead with all of these is again change the framing like we said so that it's up up just like this and here so you see how this correlates much better with that now i'm at eye level i'm looking directly at you so the way that we can accomplish this is by setting up either our cell phone our camera our our you know in my case i'm using mainly my laptop video camera so that i'm right at eye level so you might have to stack some books or put some things underneath your actual laptop so that it's up to eye level as far as where the camera is at now on my laptop it's a little bit different in that the the actual webcam is at the bottom of the screen many times it's at the top of the of the screen so then you have to adjust for that because again we want it to be basically at high level so that we come across that much better we're looking directly at the camera that's the other big thing that comes with framing as well it's not just about having the proper headroom it's also about how you are coming across right and one of the big things is dealing with understanding that the visuals is part of the communication right it's not just verbal communication it's also the non-verbal communication so that includes all the visuals so that includes things like eye contact you really want to make sure that you have good eye contact with the camera it's kind of a funny thing in that you know it's not eye contact with someone else's eyes because this is a virtual environment right we're recording we're online so you have to have eye contact with the camera now there's different ways to do of doing this for mine i have a tiny little light so that's actually what i'm looking at it's right by the camera but what you might want to do is put either maybe some you know a little picture there a little photo of someone or some squiggly eyes right there right at the camera so that you can concentrate and look at the camera because it has such a powerful effect in the way that you come across you come across as much more professional by having that eye contact notice the difference feel the sort of the psychological emotional difference that goes along when i don't look at the camera so instead what i'm doing is i'm actually looking at the screen so i'm looking at the screen and i'm talking i'm i'm giving you information but it comes across completely different doesn't it because there's this additional distance that occurs i'm no longer looking at you instead i'm looking sort of past you beyond you i'm not i'm not as intimately connected with you why because we don't have that eye contact anymore but notice how everything changes and it's back to being much more connected because i'm looking at the camera now i'm connected with you and this also increases the confidence level and the trustworthiness of the individual talking because i'm looking at you that eye contact so that makes a big difference so you definitely want to take that into account eye contact along with that is another powerful thing deals continuing on with the visuals make sure that you are aware and thinking about what it is that you're wearing because you're sending a signal whether you want to or not you're sending a signal now of course i'm trying to look as professional as possible that's why i am wearing a suit right and i'm wearing a tie so that's sending a signal of professionality at least on some level right the key thing there is understand your audience and understand the message that you're trying to give and make sure that you're dressed appropriately because know that you're always sending a signal with every every single visual that you're you're expressing right along with that is also the background now in my case i have a very simple plain background because i just want all the focus to be on me and the message that i'm giving but definitely be cognizant of your background make sure it's not messy because that's sending a signal make sure there isn't anything that's distracting back there make sure it's sending the signal that you want to send so that's the key part of this is making sure that you're sending the signals you're sending the visuals you're sending the message that you want to send because it all ties together and it's all part of making that great video and also making yourself look great on video okay so we covered several different things make sure that you understand when you want to make a great video when you want to come across great you need to make sure that you have that great audio you want to make sure that you have the great lighting having at least two sources of good lighting and you also want to make sure that you properly frame things up remember you want to make it nice and stable if you have a tripod that's great if not just use those books and then also think about all the other visuals because it's not just about what you're saying it's also about the visuals that are coming across because that's sending a message too now the final bonus item that i wanted to be sure to to cover is if you want to make yourself more approachable if you want to make yourself more connected is the smile okay don't forget to smile i know it's harder for some people than others but that really makes a big impact is simply to smile and when you smile you want to make sure that it's authentic it's the only way to do that is by feeling it within your heart i know that sounds a little uh huggy right a little uh emotional but that's what it is have this feeling within you i appreciate you as the audience i appreciate you watching this video so it comes across as easy for me to smile and to be thankful for you um by you know giving me your time to listen and hopefully learn something from this video so thank you very much for your time and remember learning is for life

Channel: Sovorel

Views: 131

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: video, self improvement, look great

Id: dkkdAsS6wCk

Length: 12min 34sec (754 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 28 2021