Ten Tips for Better Home Videos

Here are ten tips for beginners to make better home videos:

1. Know Your Equipment - Read the manual for your video camera. Practice video taping while experimenting with the various settings on the camera. There is nothing worse than trying to video the dance recital and say “hey what’s this do” then the screen goes mosaic.

2. Lights - Pay attention to the lighting at your location. Video requires plenty of light. The lower the light the higher the grain in your video. So, if you are shooting inside don’t be scared to turn on the lights. Like the first tip know your camera’s settings and limitations.

3. Limit Using the Zoom - Watching a zoom happy video makes the user fill like a yo-yo. While video recording think if you zoom too much your camera will fall apart so this will limit the yo-yo effect. The slow dramatic zoom is OK from the wide establishing shot to give scale. Most of your zooms will end up cut out during the editing process.

4. You can’t record too much - Don’t worry about recording too much. Ever noticed the minute you turn off the camera something funny happens. Record the tree leaves, the waves on the water and candid moments of your subjects just being them selves. You can use all this later for transitions.

5. Tripod - Use a tripod but don’t limit all your work to the tripod get involved with the activities happening around you. The tripod is great for the long group performances but experiment with different angles at the t-ball game.

6. Plan ahead - This is your chance to tell a story about the events you are recording. Have an idea of what is going to happen when arriving at the event. Most all wedding receptions have a first dance, bouquet toss and cake cutting, so you need to be in the best location so you don’t miss it.

7. Sound - Video has two parts the visual part and the audio part. Don’t forget about the second part of your video. Pay close attention to the background noise around you while shooting. If you are trying to record someone speaking don’t stand too close to the speaker blasting the music. During a quiet moment just point the camera at the ground so you have ambient sounds you can use during editing.

8. Compose your Shots - Look at the composition of your shot through your view finder before recording. If your subject has a tree growing from their head then move slightly to one side. Most videographers use the “Rule of Thirds” for frame composition.

9. Interviews - If you have watched and TV in the last 5 years you have seen a reality show. After something happens it’s always fun to have the person involved talking about what happened. This will make your kids feel like celebrities and you will have their feelings captured forever.

10. Enjoy yourself Bring extra batteries and have fun.

By following just a few of these ten tips you will notice an instant improvement in the quality in your home videos.