Five tips for taking better video with your smartphone

Mobile phones are so great these days — the use and functionality of them are far superior to in the past. Recording video with your smartphone is accessible to everyone, but these five handy hints may help make your videos even better.

Keep it steady

Smartphones are light and small. We often shoot handheld, but it is easy to unintentionally add camera shake. Use both hands to keep it steady, or try a small tripod or gimbal.

Light and exposure

Smartphones often give you washed out and grainy images in poor light, due to the low dynamic range. To combat this, either aim for well-lit areas or invest in small portable light — there are some fabulous LED lights available these days.

Many cameras also have touch focus and exposure settings, so be sure to use these to your advantage.

Orientation

Granted for Instagram you normally need vertical (or portrait) orientation, but everything else you really should think about horizontal (or landscape) orientation — especially for YouTube and various other social media applications. And if you want to view video on the big screen … it certainly looks better horizontal.

Composition

The closer you can get to your subject (within reason) the better. This will give you more detail and a shallower depth of field, giving a more cinematic feel to your video.

Do NOT use the camera’s digital zoom, unless you have to, as it noticeably degrades the image quality. Instead, get closer or look at the third-party lenses now available.

Audio

The microphone on many phones is more for talking into than recording, and often picks up ambient noise from the background. Look at getting a plug-in mic for much better audio quality.