Ahoj! This is Zdenka. One of the most frequently questions I get is how did you get that look
so soft? Well, yesterday I was actually using this conditioner, that's why... I am just
kidding. It's studio set up 2021. I am gonna take you on a tour in the studio. I am gonna
show you every single piece of equipment I am using and I am gonna share my thoughts
on what you should be investing in, what doesn't really make sense to invest in, what mistakes
I've made in a past in terms of Youtube studio set up. What I would have done differently.
I've been on Youtube for over 3 years now and the equipment and the studio look has
changed drastically over the years. Today mainly the audio has changed if you are listening
to it. There was lot of equipment which I purchased and I thought this is gonna work
well but only later I realized it is actually not working at all. How did I know? From reading
your comments below the videos. There were lot of complaints about the echo in the room
or the sound of the fan from the light being caught you know as I am speaking, like it
was recorded, or you didn't like some of the lights I was using or the lens wasn't too
flattering and all that. When you start on Youtube, you start with whatever you have
and that's how it is. As you grow, as you get more experienced, it is kind of expected
from you to bring the quality higher. So what I was doing, I was exchanging every piece
of equipment one by one. Whatever I didn't need, whatever didn't work for me I sold and
I re-invested the money into better stuff. So here we are in 2021, this is the studio
set up I have. Most of you know that I have a home based studio still. But we started
thinking about getting a possibly studio somewhere close by. It's not official yet but the thought
is there. We started thinking about it. There are many reasons why. Well, my equipment grew
and everybody is home. Especially now throughout the pandemic. The family is little bit tired
because whenever I am recording, they have to be quiet, they cannot move because these
walls here in Canadian homes are literally made out of paper. If you cough at the top
of the stairs, you can hear it in the basement. So this is just temporary and that's why my
background is very simple, well on top of it, I am a minimalist. I really don't like
clutter. It drives me crazy. I rather have the viewer to listen to what I am saying and
to concentrate on me, than checking out if that plant over there in the corner is still
alive or what I have there on that shelve. Another reason would be my own creative mental
state. That sounds terrible, I know. Well, I would like to kind of get the feeling of
being home once again and not working 24/7 so I would like to go out of the house, go
to the studio, work, come home knowing that I am home and I can drop everything out of
my head and enjoy being home. I want to be able to bring clients and talent to the studio
and hook up with other Youtubers and invite them over to the studio as well. There is
simply point in the business when you need to separate the private life from work life.
We are not gonna rush it. We are not gonna rush it at all but we are gonna start looking
slowly into possible locations. Let's start with the most important item and that would
be the camera. I am currently using Sony A7SIII with Tamron lens 17-28mm F/2.8. I am very
happy with the lens. For those who are wondering about my camera's settings. The ISO is 250,
I am filming at 24fps so my shutter speed is 1/50th and the aperture is F/2.8. When
I was starting out, I was just using Canon M50 with a cheap kit lens. And I can tell
you that the camera body doesn't really matter as much. What really matters is the lens.
So I would highly suggest investing into good lens with aperture at least F/2.8. You gonna
get much more pleasant look. I am quite happy when it comes to video with this camera. I
also take some photos with the Sony for Instagram as well. But majority of photography I still
do with the Canon M6 Mark ii. When I film myself in the studio like right now, sometimes
I use the Freewell Glow mist filter on the lens. It gives a slightly softer look. I am
not using it right now at this very moment. I am finding that the flip out screen on the
camera is big enough . I don't need to use the extra, external monitor even though I
have one. It is sitting on the shelf there collecting the dust. I might use it in the
other studio but right now it would be extra time for me to set this whole thing up because
I have to take it apart when I am finished. Moving on to the microphone. I am using Comica
VM20 and sometimes I am using the wireless microphone from Comica as well which would
be the Boom XD-D2. To complete the set up I love using this remote which is the part
of the Ironbee, Inkee Ironbee vlogging kit set up. You can take the remote out. Love
it. I reviewed it in the past. This is still my number 1 equipment I always have it here.
Basically what I do, sometimes I need to do several takes and when I know that the take
was right, I just stop recording. When I am ready I just hit recording again. Actually
I stopped the Insta 360 right now. I don't use teleprompter. I don't like it because
you can always tell that somebody is using it. You can see it in the eyes. The movement
is there and it's also not so personal. I feel like there is this disconnection there.
The best is to read the paragraph you wrote, memorize it and then you can say it in your
own words and you can put that feeling into it. You can feel it's more personal. Next
up are lights. The main head light was giving me the most headache over the years. It is
one of the most important items to have. A very good main light. I am using this giant
light from Aputure 120Dii with the light dome ii and grid. It creates this very soft light
and the grid on it makes it directional so it's not effecting the background. I am lit
up but the background is not. The light is positioned in front of me little bit on the
side and I positioned it as close to me as possible so it's very soft. Now the strength
is about at 57% right now. I can tell you, it's not a cheap light. It's high end very
quality light. It's got build in fan but it's absolutely silent. It turns on once in a while
and it runs only for short period of time and you can barely hear it. Like you have
to really listen to it to be, to hear the fan. When I was starting out, I was just using
a ring light. That was working. There was no fan, it was silent as well but it was not
giving me nice look. It was just litting up the whole room. So then I replaced it with
the cheaper budget soft box light. Unfortunately that didn't work at all as well. I liked the
light but there was a build in fan which was quite noisy and I was reading in the comments
that people were pointing it out, that they can hear the noise of the fan, so then this
came along and it solved all my issues for good. Again, I could be hugging this light
from the morning till the evening. Let's talk about the back light. I have 3 small RGB lights
behind me. Basically what you want to do, you want to pick the color you want and I
am using just a lower settings. I am gonna display it on the screen because I don't wanna
make it too colorful. I don't wanna make it too bright. So you just want a little bit
touch of light in a background. All those back lights I reviewed in a past, never had
any issues with them. I can highly recommend them, they work really well. And now what
I want to talk about is the sound. What's new in today's video, because you might hear
little bit difference in a sound. It's that I got sound blankets. Now, originally I was
getting a quote for sound panels to be installed but the quote was crazy expensive. It was
$1,000. So this is way less. This is about 40% of the price and I bought 2 big sound
blankets with 2 cheap stands on Amazon. I am gonna link all of it below and the difference
is just huge. This room has large echo. Like it's just, you cannot work here. It's very
echo. It doesn't sound very good. So this is the sound I get here if don't have any
sound blankets and the TV is on and all these sounds are. It's sound beautiful right? And
I had to bring all cushions before from the sofa and throw blankets around just to get
rid off the echo. But now, today, as I am using these sound blankets, I cannot believe
the sound. My husband was here earlier with me and we were kind of talking together and
I was like wow. I never heard sound like this here in the basement. He is like yeah, I never
heard you actually listening to my sound for that long. What a guy! The great thing about
it is that one side is black and the other one is white. And so you can turn them around.
They can actually help you with the light because if you put black, it's gonna absorb
the light. If you put white it's gonna reflect back so yeah. I am super happy about this
investment. Very thrilled again. It's like, it is the first time I am using it and it's
just, it sounds very different. Plus I also like that I am kind of blocked off and I don't
have to see the rest of the basement and it feels like I can more concentrate, I can be
really in a moment. Yeah, I really like it. I highly recommend, if you have a problem
with echo and you want better sound, these large sound blankets it is. And the rest of
equipment just depends on what I am doing. Sometimes I need a second camera so I use
the Canon M6 Mark ii with the Viltrox 23mm F/1.4 or right now, I have here this Insta
360 action camera just sitting on a table. That's why I am getting the extra shots to
show you off this whole set up. There is actually one bonus items I have here which I can show
you and that would be this cardboard I put in the window to block off the light. The
box is from the adult scooter I have and I wrote on it do not take because you know,
the kids they love to steal all the card boxes to make their crafts and no. That one is one
of the most important ones. They cannot take that one. I always need it for the window.
There you have it. So that's the studio set up 2021. Hit the thumbs up if you enjoyed
today's video and subscribe to future videos. If you have any questions, comments, leave
them below and I'll see you my friends in the next video. Cau... Ahoj...