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Shoot with Your Webcam

Lesson 26 from: Video Production Essentials: Create, Edit and Post Online​

Philip Ebiner, Sam Shimizu-Jones, Will Carnahan

Shoot with Your Webcam

Lesson 26 from: Video Production Essentials: Create, Edit and Post Online​

Philip Ebiner, Sam Shimizu-Jones, Will Carnahan

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Lesson Info

26. Shoot with Your Webcam

Lessons

Class Trailer

Chapter 1 Introduction

1

Welcome to the Class

02:12
2

What Makes a Great Video

03:17
3

What Type of Video Should You Make

02:47

Chapter 2: Pre-production

4

Come up with a Great Video Ideas

05:05
5

Plan Your Video

03:30
6

The Pre-production Checklist

04:04

Chapter 3 Equipment - Our Suggestions for Getting Started

7

Does Equipment Matter

01:34
8

Our Recommended Cameras

06:00
9

Our Recommended Audio Equipment

04:37
10

Our Recommended Lighting Equipment

01:47
11

Our Recommended Editing Equipment

02:11
12

Our Recommended Drone Equipment

05:35
13

Quiz: Chapter 3

Chapter 4:Cinematography Basics

14

Exposing Your Shots

05:25
15

Compose Your Shots

04:25
16

Filming Yourself

01:09
17

Getting the Right Shot

03:43
18

Choose a Background

02:32
19

My Office Video Setup

02:54
20

Quiz: Chapter 4

Chapter 5: Tips for Shooting with Different Cameras

21

Exposing with DSLR and Mirrorless Cameras

06:31
22

Focus with DSLR and Mirrorless Cameras

02:35
23

Stabilize Your Shots

02:57
24

Know Your Lenses

03:18
25

Shoot with Your Smartphone

05:10
26

Shoot with Your Webcam

05:49
27

Record Great Screencast Videos

04:20
28

Tips for Better Drone Shots

04:06
29

Types of Drone Shots

01:43
30

Quiz: Chapter 5

Chapter 6: Audio Recording and Microphones

31

Choose the Right Microphone for Your Video

03:14
32

Record Better Audio in Any Environment

01:27
33

How to Use a Lavalier Microphone

02:47
34

How to Use a Shotgun Microphone

00:55
35

How to Record Audio with Your Computer

01:27
36

Quiz: Chapter 6

Chapter 7: Video Lighting

37

Why We Light

01:03
38

Use Natural Light

04:14
39

The 3-point Video Lighting Setup

07:26
40

Quiz: Chapter 7

Chapter 8: Editing Better Videos

41

Intro to Editing

02:15
42

The Post-production Process

07:50
43

Craft a Story with Editing

05:21
44

Improve Your Audio with Editing

06:34
45

Find and Add Music

05:12
46

Design Clean and Professional Titles

03:15
47

Increase Video Engagement with Calls to Action

01:29
48

Quiz: Chapter 8

Chapter 9: Get More Views - Publishing Your Video Online

49

Export the Best Quality Video for Online

02:54
50

Tips for Posting Online

05:28
51

Grow Your Youtube Channel

04:41
52

Quiz: Chapter 9

Chapter 10: Case Studies: Real-world Filmmaking

53

Case Study - Corporate Promo Videos with Ghirardelli Chocolate

08:54
54

Case Study - Event Videography with Major Lazer

08:39
55

Case Study - Documentary Films with Phil

14:24
56

Case Study - Shooting By Yourself

15:32
57

Case Study - Wedding Videography

08:37
58

Case Study - Phil's Livestream Setup

04:23

Chapter 11: Conclusion

59

Thank You

00:59

Final Quiz

60

Final Quiz

Lesson Info

Shoot with Your Webcam

in this video, I'm going to show you how to shoot better videos with your web cam. My number one tip is to add light to actually light your desk or to light your setup right now I have my paper lanterns set up behind my webcam. Two paper lanterns with watt light bulbs in it, both evenly lighting both sides of my face and for my webcam setup, that's what I want. Here's the same shot without any video lighting. The webcam tries to brighten up the pictures so that it's exposed. But in doing so it creates this weird digital noise and it just doesn't look good. This is going to look way better than if you record a video without lights or if you have just the light from your computer screen, a desk light or the light from the ceiling above. Especially with that light coming from above on the ceiling or behind your head, it's going to create weird shadows that don't look great. So light your webcam at the very least turn on your desk lamp. one other tip is to open up a blank white document i...

n Microsoft word or even google docs zoom it in so it's filling up most of your screen and then make sure that you turn up the brightness of your monitor. This can add additional light that will help light your video. Lastly, if you don't have any lights, you can always turn your camera or your desk around or place it in front of a window so that during the day you have nice natural light coming in through their place a curtain or a sheet over that window to make it even softer. Obviously this isn't going to work at night though. One tip is to manually adjust your webcam settings. A lot of people just let it do auto gain for exposure and auto white balance but you can actually dive into the webcam settings. In most applications with the logitech C 9 20 it comes with a little application that allows you to adjust things like focus and exposure and white balance. I downloaded this separate application from the itunes store called webcam settings that allows me to do all sorts of other things like exposure time which is basically shutter speed. All of these things adjust the brightness or the contrast. You can also adjust the saturation if I just want to be black and white or super colorful. The sharpness, increasing the sharpness of my video or the white balance you can see here if I want to make it more cool or more warm. Sometimes the automatic white balance of my camera doesn't work properly, especially with different types of light bulbs and the light coming from outside. So here I can automatically adjust everything to make sure it looks amazing. The next thing is to properly compose your video so you want to make sure that your eye level with the camera or have the camera just a little bit above eye level that's going to make it look more natural. I see so many people recording videos with the camera below eye level. It just looks bad. Make sure you put it eye level. Another thing I see people doing by mistake is giving too much headroom, that's the room or the space above my head to the top of the frame, even though the camera is eye level right now, it just looks awkward. Another one is cutting off the top of your head, it's distracting to the audience and it just doesn't look good. Try to have it so that your eyes are in the top third of your video frame, break down your video frame into thirds. And if you have two imaginary lines, put your eyes on that second line, place yourself in the center of your shot. If you are the main focus. If you're talking directly to camera and you want people to focus on, you put yourself in the center of your screen, you also want to make sure that you're close enough to your webcam. If you're too far, the quality isn't going to be, it's great. And if you're too close, it can just look kind of awkward. So place yourself a foot foot and a half away from your webcam because this is the prime focal length, the prime spot for your webcam to focus on you. So that's the sharpest and the crisp ist. It will be for most of this video. You haven't seen the microphone that I'm using, which is the heil pr 40 studio mic. It's on this boom arm that's attached to my desk and I can move it around. It does pick up decent audio when it's out of frame when it's a little bit lower. But it is better when it's close up like this and there are some times when I want to get the best audio possible and so having it in frame is okay. I just try to make sure that it's not covering my face or distracting for the audience. And my tip number three is to design your background. Whether you want to have a background like this showing off your personality. Of course it looks a little bit different than my regular shot when I'm using my DSLR or a professional cinema camera. It's not as blurry in the background, which I like. But for my webcam setting, I still like to have my photos, my typewriter, maybe a guitar to show off my personality, especially for my Youtube videos, which is really about my own brand. Here's another background option that I have in my office on another wall. I just have a blank gray wall. And this is great. If I do want a cleaner setup, please please please clean up your background. I've seen so many videos. Professional videos, online courses, videos that people are trying to sell something where they're sitting in their room at their desk and they've got their unmade bed with clothes on the floor behind them. Just clean up, even if you're not going to show off your personality or design it clean up. So these are my top tips for recording with your webcam. Thanks for watching, and we'll see you in the next video.

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seyi ope
 

i love the way they teach the course. its very understandable

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