MY YOUTUBE STUDIO SETUP

[Music] [Applause] what's up everybody Peter MacKinnon here welcome back to yet another video and I forgot to turn on my key light BAM you almost don't even need it with the window there and then I got my background light BAM but I'm actually about to rip all of these things down and redo them because it needs some tweaking and this video is all about that what's on the other side of this camera here and how we've made and dialed this setup for filming videos we're also going to take a look at some of the past videos that I've done old set ups review those and see if I still think they're any good and then some tips and tricks on how you can get your setup dialed as well wherever you're shooting at home or in your office that was a mouthful alright first thing we're gonna do is off off and okay this is the behind-the-scenes this is the heart of my setup this is how all my videos are filmed this is what I'm looking at what Kirk's looking at what other people are looking at so the whole thing powered by an aperture 120 d light that's the key light that's the main angle and we've got that backed up by this window light we've kind of decided sometimes to shoot either what we call light mode or dark mode and what that does is it basically gives me two looks in the same spot camera of choice here is the c500 mark two I was using the C 200 for the longest time but cinema cameras are getting updated the dynamic range is better we can shoot raw there's just a lot more capabilities and flexibilities with this camera edits way better in Premiere Pro which we love so that's the main angle supported by a small HD screen on a gorilla pod and that's what we use so I can actually see the angle and what's going on so this mic boom mic is a recommendation from marques and he said to get the Sennheiser MKH for 16 it sounds so good it's phantom powered so I don't remember to charge it turn it on plug it in any of that it's just XLR all the way up this pole right to the top rafters right back down at the c500 here but I like this setup because it's out of the way I used to have it attached to the top of the camera but then I was always limited to where the camera could be placed if I want this camera moved back moved to the side moved out of the way and my mic is fixed to it I'm limited to where I can be so this is actually an insta 360 one of those like selfie stick things and that's just clamped to a super clamp and on top of a super clamp is just a friction arm for Manfrotto with another super clamp that actually attaches to the sprinkler it's kind of cool when you start mixing matching a bunch of stuff you have lying around the studio kind of grip stuff and you makeshift something that works and then we just keep the cables tied with bongo ties and it's not far off from my face so it's like a really good distance and it's not in frame so no matter where I am we can move it left-right stays right there all right so this is our top-down cam which is the EOS R that way it matches the kind of like I can get 4k out of it I can get log out of it I can get that nice high res put Ajay want and it's attached to a ball head which is attached to a grip head to a grip arm to another grip head to a super clamp and that's then clamped to a metal post that I welded to the ceiling I did not weld it I don't know how to weld but if I said nothing people would have definitely called that out because and this is the desk so this is where I shoot this is where I edit this is where I take calls it's right in front of the window got some natural light imax stays here just off frame and again because the mic is not attached to the camera if I want to get this in frame kind of just peaking in the corner so you can see that I'm at a desk I can easily move that camera back and then none of the audio none of the top downs is affected because it's all basically detached from one thing one of my favorite parts about this whole desk setup and how I've crafted everything for this particular filming scenario is that I don't always like sitting when I'm editing on a stand stance it's dance it etc this is obviously a standing desk show it to fully we're decking out my entire office but check this out if I want to pre program in number two is my standing position but carefully note this took a lot of work right here so now this desk is considerably higher but nothing got in the way of anything else the mic doesn't need to move a small HD doesn't need to move my camera doesn't getting way of a desk the computer doesn't get in the way of the light the key light doesn't get in the way of the mic nothing moves even when the desk moves so I can just basically seamlessly work from sit to stand to film without anything having to be put away or swung around or moved to make way for something else it just works and it took a long time to get it dialed to that level but cool I'm quite happy it's there and now I'm gonna rip it all down this here is my background light now not always important when you don't have a background right now since we're still kind of new here I haven't done anything with this back wall usually have shelving with lots of things on it or artwork which is what the plan is for this wall a gaff taped it right here if I remove some of this gaff tape you'll notice that the light right here from inside the light itself shines through the grate we're like the heat escapes and a lot of people could see that on the video and they were saying to themselves or they were saying to me very loudly in the comments like whatever that said a censor spot is that dirt whatever that is it's super distracting and you were right I didn't take that heat sink all the way down and left a little bit of like a gap so he could still get out you see nothing now so that is the background light but the one thing I'm missing is a hair light and a hair light is super important to separate you from that background even more so let's deal with that hair light right now remember this background this whole setup Studio B or something I was gonna call it you probably don't because I only used it twice cuz I actually don't like it you see the problem with this room was basically the amount of depth available you see how the camera over here now when the camera was here and the mic was here it was good the flow worked sort of could have a key light right here but there's not much depth from where my body is the camera to the background and what that did is it made this background look like a green screen there are so many comments and friends saying is that actually real are there cameras on this shelf yes there are but the problem this is just so flat and there's not much room in here to light it to look better now in hindsight what do you do when you don't have much space when you have a limited amount of space to make a backdrop you're gonna be luxury to get more depth how do you make this work well in this situation in hindsight what it probably should have done was to move to the corner you see if the camera floated down moved more into the corner who got this light out of the way so that I could have used the depth of the room diagonally would have given me way more room I've seen out into the hall you can see it to the hall of your bedroom into your house wherever your kitchen not use the shortest length of the room but the longest length of the room and key the lights that way that would have given me more dimension on the shelves would have made them look less like a green screen and in the end it probably would have just looked better so those are all things to keep in mind when you're picking where you want to film your videos if it's gonna be a set that's dedicated that the lights are gonna stay where they are and you can mount things or you maybe you have to set them up and take them down when you're looking for that spot keep those things in mind so I'm gonna take this light I'm gonna put it in the ceiling Goody's this friction arm here to attach the current key light as a hair light in my background manfro to make a few variations of this cool grip arm and I highly recommend getting a whole bunch of these because they always come in handy not this particular one but just grip heads and friction arms and those types of things in clamps because they always come in handy to mix and match things to basically dial in the exact solution that's gonna work for you and your setup but they do make one of these that's double like double tears are gonna hold like a much stronger light and it's what's holding up the key light right now I don't know if this one's strong enough this is what I'd probably use for like a boom mic but hoping that'll hold a 120 D let's try this I really rigged this I even put like a safety release up here in case this whole rig falls I have it secured with like a metal wire and carabiner and then I have everything Bongo tied and wired up to the outlet up in the ceiling there this is really gonna suck but it must be done oh I'm a little sketched out about it to be honest it just doesn't instill much confidence can you see the double one there well I mean it instills confidence the idea is to not have this in frame so I don't want a giant lens flare in every single video so trust percentage on this thing is probably sitting somewhere around 8% my socket socket that's the title my sockets everyone comment below my sockets plays way heavier like I would say twice as heavy trust percentage 13% oh oh my goodness tell me this is gonna work Oh psyched on that yeah see what leveled sad just by looking up all day every day [Music] okay several hours have passed since the last clip you just saw seconds ago we finally got the place dialed hair light and you can really see the difference it makes when I'm not wearing a hat it really separates me from the background you have that depth which is gonna help inherently just being so far from that back wall but now I also have this light I just make it even more obvious as an example let me throw my hat on here you wouldn't notice it but when the light goes on you can kind of see the outline of that hat way better without with without with it obviously it makes a huge difference when you're not wearing a hat because it just shines off your hair which looks so good okay and then you have your main light much better and your background light with all of these things combined push the desk forward a little bit more to give us even more depth that's what you're looking at and this is light mode if I was to close the blinds it'll make even more of a difference let's go ahead and do that wait for that window light to go away look at that it's already changing okay so now this is official dark mode with the blackout blinds closed and the key light pumped up a little bit and I have a little bit of window light coming in from the other room over here just adding a little bit of fill now you can see super dramatic looking it looks great now without the hair light look at that difference makes a huge difference this is more dramatic it looks okay it looks fine there's nothing wrong with it but you'll notice the separation added on this side with that extra hair light BAM so what do you prefer light mode dark mode I've asked you before as the set continues to evolve so do my feelings on it and that's a good thing I think it's good to try new things try new lighting setups try new angles add things here and there too just slowly slowly I used the word dial a lot because it's just perfect you just dialed it in more and more and more as you learn your space as your knowledge and curiosity grows as well letting is a scary thing but it can make all the difference now this corner is a little bit of a black hole right now but this island is being replaced with a walnut island so I think that'll warm things up and a lot of light I still got to mount the neon sign on the wall which will spill onto that wall in the island which will make it look better get some art on the wall behind and now you've got a vibe going now it's starting to look like something okay my recommendation when you are trying to find a place to film be it that it's in your house or apartment or office studio whatever before you bring all your stuff in your lights your tripods your cameras that stuff just go in the room first and visualize it try to look around look at your mounting options if there are no options that's fine light stands tripods they exist for that reason but look for like the longest part of the room maybe that's setting up in the corner so that you have the entire office behind you a lot of people like to set up on their desk and everything looks great their desk looks awesome but then the cameras behind the desk and you see nothing behind you so maybe instead set up your desk so it looks great then put the camera behind you so you're shooting this way so you can see your cool setup it all depends on what's available to you so figure that out first find the longest part of the room so you have the most depth now this is also preference some people may be absolutely fine with background being super close because that's all you can do even if it looks like my camera wall looks like a green screen it still looks good it didn't look bad I just prefer seeing more in the background that's always been my preference now to dive into that a little more let's take a look at some of my past setups that I've had since the beginning of this YouTube channel here is the infamous bedroom this is set number one this was 2017-2018 even parts of 2019 actually it's just flip-flopped all over but you'll notice in this bedroom I chose this particular angle because I could open that closet door and then get extra depth that's why I chose that angle now there were other angles where I was just sitting on the couch there was angled where I was beside the desk facing the other way you'll noticed very early on I was actually shooting right up against the wall there was no background as in the corner of the room and my camera was facing me and the iMac which was taking up most of the screen and it was just me and no depth I spun that whole thing around to shoot the way that everyone got used to that was the main setup for a long time then we move over to the office I had with Maddy let's take a look at that background I flip-flopped all over that set the main set being the bookcase in the background but you'll notice I didn't use that as often because I liked shooting with the entire office behind me here's a couple shots of the dope squad sign behind wooden wall behind me you can see the light set up over the podcast table all those types of things those were my favorite angles to shoot from if I was gonna have something really really close behind I would make it dramatic and I would vignette the heck out of it so it just felt really Moody and I would use that wooden wall that was another popular angle that I used all the time now the one thing I didn't like about that as much was how close it was behind me but it didn't matter as much because there was no detail on it there wasn't shelving with a bunch of things or cameras or stuff to look at it was it was just texture so it kind of just got lost you can flip back to the office when I left that and went back home all this place was being renovated that set looked great again I had to rip apart the entire room to make it work and then put it back after and just wasn't practical the set-up time to get that shot which albeit looked good was like 45 minutes to an hour and then 45 minutes to an hour to get it back to a useable office and that just wasn't something I was willing to do every single day so if the was not worth the squeeze in that particular instance even when we came to this office you'll notice one of the first angles we were shooting this way with the owl in the background and it just it wasn't working and then we started shooting this way when I was talking about how to get better audio in a place that has lots of echo and then even still we moved over and decided that this with the depth going back into that far office Plus this whole lounge area was the best bet to just plant the desk make our roots mount the lights and commit to the main angle and that's the last point is you got to commit there's got to be a point where you pick what's best and you just send it you work with what you have and you make it as best as you possibly can and efficient as you possibly can so that you enjoy the process of making videos you enjoy the process of using your studio using your setup and it's easy for you so it's fun for the moment you hit record to the moment you hit publish that's what matters the most that's it guys I hope you enjoyed the run-through of my main angle the readjustment the importance of adding a hair light separation from the background depth all of those things there was a lot of information packed into this video and I thought when I woke up this morning I wanted to get these things done I figured filming them would maybe bring some of you guys some value because I personally love watching these types of the Jerell dun dun has tons of good videos on this where he goes super into depth about all the different I mean his setup is ridiculous the wireless triggers to things to sensors and cables and buttons and it's it's nuts but it's really cool to see how different people think and how different people set up their Studios he's got a great series on that you guys should check out another person I've enjoyed watching their studio setups his parkour wall back and you learn a lot from these things you learn a lot from these creators setting up and going through issues and figuring them out to help you to inspire you do the same thing so I hope you got something out of it at minimum watching me struggle to hang things in the rafters and playing with this remote it's just so much fun there we go that's it for me guys hit the like button if you like this video smash it oh if that's something that you're into 2020 style subscribe if you aren't already and and I will see you in the next video peace oh let's go would you say anything if I just did the video this way I just sat down was like what's up everybody Peter MacKinnon here welcome back to yet another video and I just kept going would you stop me you just let me do it you wouldn't even ask you wouldn't say hey just wanted to know are you sure you wanted to go with that style I've never seen it just wanted to be sure you Ford sponsor me look how much white hair there is dude look at all that white hair hey Pete why is your hair why have you not cut it well I'm growing it back see you in the next video

Channel: Peter McKinnon

Views: 990,180

Keywords: Peter McKinnon, Peter McKinnon photography, Peter McKinnon Tutorials, Photography, Cinematography, Learn Cameras, Learn Photography, Learn Video, Video tutorials, Camera basics, YouTube Set Up, Studio Set up, Office Tour, Peter mcKinnon HQm, Peter McKinnon Office Tour, YouTube Setup 2020, How I make videos 2020, My 2020 YouTube Set up, Peter McKinnon how I make videos

Id: n8R3HtazP9M

Length: 18min 56sec (1136 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 16 2020