Ahoj, This is Zdenka.
360 cameras have no limits when it comes to creativity.
In this tutorial, let's cover everything from best night filming settings,
better sound, fake drone shots,
export settings, creating VR and YouTube
360 videos, all the way to editing techniques and much more.
Let me show you how you can avoid these problems based on my own experience.
If you just got your insta360 camera and you are learning
how to use it, or if you're thinking about getting
one and you're looking around collecting as much information as
possible, you might find this video packed with tips and tricks quite useful.
In fact, I have many tutorials like these on this channel,
so consider subscribing if you're not already.
The first one is the basis of all.
Let's talk about stitch position.
The camera I'm holding in my hands is Insta360 X3.
How is 360 video created?
There are two lenses each covering 180 degrees footage which is then
stitched together in a post creating this
360 footage. Between those two cameras,
right here is a stitch line.
Sometimes you might see a little
digital movement in
the footage or a little imperfection. That is a stitch line.
Sometimes it might be more visible, sometimes less.
Sometimes you are not going to notice anything.
It all depends on the texture, how busy is the background
and what lighting conditions
you are filming at.
What you need to keep in mind is that whatever
your main object is,
whatever is the main view you're
filming, you have to make
sure that the camera is facing the object, not the stitch line.
Here if I'm filming myself, I have the camera, one of the cameras looking at me.
If I'm going to turn it sideways is the stitch line,
the face might be distorted.
Always keep in mind to check the position of the cameras while you're filming.
If you ever end up with footage looking this way, don't panic.
The camera is not broken.
Nothing happened to your lens.
It's because of the settings. Either you are still learning to use your camera
and you accidentally changed something you were not supposed to
or you forgot to turn off
isolated exposure control.
When isolated exposure is enabled, this
feature can automatically
adjust the exposure of the two lenses separately
when there are large variations
between the lenses.
As you can clearly see it here. The sun was very strong,
so the lenses were adjusting exposures separately.
Don't forget to turn it off as this can ruin lots of great footage.
Let's talk about filming
during the day.
All Insta360 cameras do a great job
filming in automatic mode during the day.
Check out this great stabilization
in this shot. The camera was attached to a saddleback by a suction cup.
The saddleback was shaking really hard, yet the footage was smooth.
Stabilization is not an issue here.
Let's talk about the light.
If you are going
to be filming on a bright sunny day
or if you will
be filming on a sunny day in the winter with snow on the ground,
you will find
that the footage will be overexposed at times if you leave it on default
settings.
What I suggest is bringing the exposure to -0.5. This will tone
down the overblown highlights.
You will get the data
in areas where no data would be recorded if you had overblown highlights.
This will look much better and you will have way easier
time editing the clips.
There is one more thing you need to keep in mind if you are
filming on a bright sunny day and
that is seeing the camera and invisible
selfie stick in the shadows.
If you will be exporting the footage as 360
VR video or 360 video for YouTube,
you cannot do much about it.
However, if you will be creating flat video, you will be reframing the video.
You can certainly frame the shots to avoid this view.
Besides checking which direction your cameras are pointing,
to avoid having stitch line in the focal points of the shots,
as I mentioned earlier, you should also think about where the light is coming from.
Check where you see the shadow.
If you don't like the shot, choose a different
position or movement direction.
Keep in mind that it will not be possible during filming certain action shots
such as skiing, because the only direction
you can really take is to go downhill.
Let's talk about filming at night.
If you are going to be
filming in automatic
mode, you are going to get this footage.
Because there is such a difference between the dark and bright areas,
it's going to be very overexposed and you might even see some
grain in the footage as well.
To get this footage, which looks way nicer, you need to
shoot in manual mode.
Once you switch to manual mode, you are going to be able
to control shutter speed and ISO.
Let's say that I'm filming at
30 frames per second.
I'm going to bring the shutter speed way up between 100 to 200.
I'm going to select 1/160th
as this will also get rid of lights to be spilled as I'm moving through
and then I just adjust ISO accordingly
to keep blacks black and highlights
not overblown.
ISO 400, 500 or even higher
depending on how dark it is.
For night filming you might also want to adjust white
balance. White balance 4000 for night,
or if you have more yellow lights
in a city and want a warmer look, you can push it to 5000.
And here again is the footage in automatic mode and manual mode.
What a big difference.
If you own insta360 X3 and want to learn
everything about camera settings, I've created in-depth tutorial
where I'm going through every single mode. I'll link it below for those interested.
The most important accessory for the Insta360
cameras is the invisible selfie stick.
It's a little bit over a meter long.
It gets erased in a shots.
It's also the accessory to use, if you will be creating
any of these cool shot lab effects in the Insta360 app.
I just noticed they added a new one.
Let's try this.
The electric search.
This short selfie stick is cool, but I personally prefer
this six meters long invisible selfie stick.
There are many reasons why I love this combo.
You can use it for locations which are a bit tricky to film.
For example, filming ice on the lake.
There is no way you would get there without being physically in the ice
cold water or filming this little stream besides the road.
You can get some really interesting close up shots.
If you want to combine insta360 footage with
footage from your smartphone or other camera,
once you open the clips in Insta360 software,
select the natural view. There will be no distortion.
It will blend in quite nicely.
Another quite obvious use would be faking a drone shot.
It is great if you don't own a drone or if you're filming in no fly zones.
There are many places which prohibit drones.
You can get really interesting views from above.
Yes, people will stare and smile when you pull out such a long selfie
stick in a public, but they will appreciate this more
than someone flying a drone over their head.
You can be very creative when you are framing these shots.
In this shot, for example, the shots started in natural view.
And as the camera got high, the view was changed
in Insta360 software to default view, which is much wider.
This gives a slight illusion that the camera went up
even higher.
These tools allow you to create flat videos, but also 360 videos
which you can watch on your VR console or on your smartphone.
Just move around and explore the entire place.
And the same thing goes if you're going to be watching
the video on desktop or laptop.
Use your mouse to move around.
Export settings can be quite tricky for beginners, so let's quickly run through them.
If you need something quick on the go, you will edit in the Insta360 app
on the smartphone.
This app will allow you to export flat video in 1080p
and here you can set bitrate to maximum
125 megabits per second.
360 video will have default settings if you will be sharing it
to Insta360 gallery. If you will be saving it
to other social media or your gallery, you can save it in a 4K
and push the bitrates up to 125 megabits per second.
If you want to get the best quality, you will edit in the Insta360 software
on your desktop or laptop. Until you're ready to do the final export,
always keep your files in the highest resolution
and bitrate possible to ensure maximum quality.
When I export files to be further edited in premiere Pro,
I export in 4K resolution.
I push the bitrate all the way to max and select ProRes 422.
I also saved this setting as a preset. For posting to social media
this is what Insta360 posted on their website.
Export settings vary
depending on the platform and other factors.
However, there is a rough guide that we use when posting reframed flat
videos to Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Facebook.
Let's talk about VR 360 videos a little bit more.
How do you edit and publish such content?
If you use something like Adobe Premiere Pro to edit your videos, you can
import all 360 clips to this software where you can do
further editing, such as adding transitions and titles.
Once you import 360 clips to your timeline,
open sequence settings, scroll
all the way down to VR properties.
Here you should see these settings,
this projection and this layout.
Once you go to effects, type in VR and now you can see all video
effects and transitions you can use for your 360 videos.
You will edit the same way as normal flat videos.
You can cut and trim, you name it.
The only advice I'm going to give you is keep the clips long.
People will be exploring the place, moving around,
so you want to give them enough time
before you move onto another scene.
Also, if you are aiming at
VR headset audience, don't move your camera too much.
Have it on a tripod.
I had my son quickly removing the VR headset saying, you are moving the camera,
I can't watch this.
I'm going to get seasick. Once you are ready to export, hit
file, export, media,
and here all you have to do is go to presets and select VR
monoscopic match source.
The last word
I'm not even going to attempt to pronounce. The tongue twister.
Once you upload it to YouTube, it will be automatically recognized
as there is metadata
telling YouTube that this is a 360 video.
Then you can watch a video on a computer, smartphone or VR console.
Insta360 X3 is a tiny camera with
very small microphones.
If you want to have a crisp audio like this one,
you will need to add external microphone.
Right now I'm recording myself
with Insta360 X3 and you can hear the audio is very good.
For those who are wondering,
I'm using recently released Comica Vimo C.
There are a few options there.
I'm going to lay my whole set up in the video description below.
The audio adapter is not visible.
The same goes for the clamp, however
yes, you can see the wire and the receiver in my case.
If you will be filming a 360 video, I would completely avoid this
by creating a very scenic video showing off the best spots with music
and audio being recorded in the studio later on and add it to the video in the post.
Give it the thumbs up if you liked this video
and don't forget to subscribe for more.
If you are looking for additional tips when it comes to using 360
cameras, I've got more on this channel.
Leave a comment below and
I'll see you in the next video. Cau.... Ahoj...