Best Practices For Remote Video Recording

With some simple tweaks, you can improve the quality of your remote video recordings. These are videography principles that apply regardless of your recording device: Zoom, Quicktime, iPhone, Android, video camera, etc. 

Lighting

You want to use as much natural light as possible. Choose rooms with a lot of ambient light from windows, but avoid direct sunlight as it can look harsh.

If there isn’t enough natural light, you’ll need to add light. Start with lighting yourself. You’ll want to be brighter than the background. If you are darker than the background (ie. in front of windows) you’ll be a silhouette. If you’re at a desk try turning up the brightness on your computer monitor. 

Still not enough light and have a little money? Buy a small light that can be positioned in front of you. Make sure to buy a light that is bi-color, meaning it has two settings for cooler (blue) and warmer (orange) color temperatures. If there’s natural light in your space, use the cooler (blue) setting. If you need to use the lights that already exist in the room, see if they look blue or orange and choose the setting to match. Just know that when you start mixing blue and orange from different light sources, it looks bad.

Clean the space

Once you set-up the camera, use it as a reference to clean everything that’s being shown in the picture. This is an important step because you often don’t need to clean much. Remove the clutter.

How to position yourself and the camera

Position yourself in close proximity to the recording device (phone or laptop) for best audio capture. 2 to 3 feet away or your arms length.

Keep the camera steady. Use a tripod or prop it on something like a shoebox. Avoid shaky leg or accidentally bumping the desk. Any movements will show and will distract the viewer from your message.

Rotate the camera to landscape or horizontal orientation before pressing record. Maintain that orientation throughout the recording.

Position yourself centered in the frame and the top of your head should be close to the top of the frame. The camera lens should be eye level, so you’re not looking up or down.

Something like this:

If referencing notes or reading from a script, position the text as close to the camera lens as possible.

Best recording settings

With technology these days, most devices can capture quality audio and video. In general, here are the recommended settings:

• Resolution: 1920x1080 (HD)

• Frame Rate: 30 fps

In order to get the best recording possible, you’ll need to tweak the default settings. I recommend Googling this for your device: “best recording settings for ____________”.

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