If you wanna make videos, you should make videos.
And I don't want you to let your equipment, or lack thereof, hold you
back in order to record a YouTube video.
You just really need three key things.
One is a camera or recording device, two is a microphone or audio device.
And three, you're just gonna need something to hold it
up and frame your shot.
And you know what actually has two out of three of those things already?
Your phone, so let's ditch this camera, shall we?
And we've got a camera.
So if you have an iPhone or a Google Pixel or any of the newer smartphones,
you have a camera that will work.
You can see me clearly, I'm lit up.
You know, it might not be quite as cinematic or fancy as what
I was using earlier, but it definitely gets the job done.
The secret to using this camera is lighting number one.
Your light sources are gonna be very important.
So right behind my.
Is a big window, and I have it opened up to get me as much natural
light as possible to help light up my face and you know, everything.
Now, if I were recording somewhere that were really dark, or if this were
at night, I could easily just pop a ring light behind my iPhone itself.
To help light up the shot as well, so that would work.
Also, another secret here is using your back camera, which can be challenging.
I'll admit I'm a little nervous because I don't know exactly what I look like.
I can't see myself on a screen like I could if I were recording with the
front facing camera, but the back cameras are a lot higher quality, so
that's something to just consider using.
I certainly have recorded and will continue to record using my front
facing camera in those times of doubt.
Or just, you know, if I'm, you know, maybe feeling a little more
self-conscious that day and wanna check how I look or something like that.
That's totally fine.
The quality is still, I think, totally.
Okay.
But if you want that really high quality camera, flip it around.
Use your back camera.
Something that really helps also with recording on your phone is
using a mobile shutter like this.
This just connects to your phone via Bluetooth, and I'm able to just click
this button and start recording video.
Stop recording video.
If you have it on photo mode.
This is how you can take photos of yourself and things like that.
So it's just a lot easier than having to get up and press stop
start and all that good stuff.
So that.
Camera information.
Okay, next, let's talk about audio, because if you watched any of my videos
about YouTube before, including my one about how to start this year, you
know that audio is, I think, one of the most important parts of video.
People get really concerned about theirs.
Setup.
They're lighting, they're cameras, but honestly, people
will forgive bad quality video.
They will not forgive bad quality sound.
Now, I've recorded vlogs and things like that on the go, just using the
iPhone microphone, and it's fine.
But if you are really looking to produce high quality YouTube videos, I recommend
investing in an external microphone that'll get you much better quality sound.
What I'm speaking into right now is called the MV 88 plus.
By short, it's the same brand as my podcasting microphone.
. If you listen to the Freelance Friday podcast, you're used to that quality,
so they should sound pretty similar.
It's just a little bit smaller, and it's made specifically for mobile
devices, which is really cool.
It just sits on top of my camera or my iPhone in this case, and it works as a,
what we call a shotgun microphone, so it.
Kind of sticking out like a shotgun and I'm speaking directly in its general
direction, it works pretty well.
Now, of course, if I were to be really far away from this microphone,
the audio quality would start to, you know, wa a little bit.
I'll also say you have to be careful about what's going on in your environment.
So, you know, in the summertime I usually turn off my air conditioner
because it can be really noisy.
You wanna make sure it's not a super busy time of day and you're not
hearing a ton of cars drive past or you know, whatever might be going.
in your life or location that you're recording in now, if you do wanna do
some videos where you're a little bit further away or maybe you're moving,
or maybe you also just want a more budget friendly option, because this
microphone is a little bit pricey.
I think it's about $200 at the time of recording this.
I think it's well worth it.
But if you are on a budget, I really like this one actually.
I just found this one on Amazon.
It's kind of just like a random brand, and this is a little lavalier microphone.
So what you do is.
Connect it via Bluetooth to your phone, and then you just clip it
on your shirt like this, or you could just speak into it too.
You know, especially if you're doing tos, this is kind of like
a little trendy thing to do.
You can just speak right into it and it's gonna pick up your sound, your
voice that way, and it works really well.
You know, it's not quite as high quality as the M V 88 that I'm recording on,
but I do think it is a much better quality sound than the iPhone itself.
So definitely recommend investing.
At minimum.
Lastly, the last thing I'll say on sound is if you already have a microphone
that you enjoy using, like if you're a podcaster already, for example, you know
I use the Sure M V seven for my podcast.
There is actually a way to connect that to your iPhone, and I just
learned this a few months ago and my mind was completely blown.
I've recorded a few tos that way just speaking into my podcasting
microphone, but recording on.
iPhone and the quality is just amazing.
It's just a simple little cable.
I'll link it down below and if that one doesn't work for your microphone,
just look into, you know, let's say the Blue Yeti, just Google, can the
Blue Yeti be connected to an iPhone?
And you should be able to find a good cable that will
work for it if it's able to.
Work with your iPhone, that is okay.
Lastly, let's talk about how to hold this whole thing up.
So you know, you actually have to frame your shot.
And like I mentioned, if you're using your back camera, this can
be a little bit challenging because obviously I can't see myself, so
hopefully I'm somewhat in the center.
You know, that could be a bit challenging.
So something that you can do is.
Phone a friend, right?
Have a friend or family member, or even your dog, honestly,
or like a stuffed animal.
I know that sounds weird.
When I first started YouTube, I would use like a stuffed animal kind of
thing to hold my place and frame my shot, and then I would swap myself
in for that object or other person.
So that's something that you can do, and then you're gonna wanna have
something that can hold up your phone.
Of course.
So right now what I'm using is actually a combo.
Iman Frodo Mini Tripod and my laptop and some books . So the Man Frodo
mini tripod is pretty versatile.
It's nice.
I actually like to use it for blogging cuz you can kind of hold it in monopod style.
And you can also use it with the regular cameras too.
So I use it with the camera that I.
Started this video with as well.
The downside to this is that it is very short and sometimes, you know, it can
give you that like up chin look where you kind of, you know, have multiple chins.
Like it's just not the most flattering because it's so short.
So I like to stack it with some books to give me that, um, height that I need.
In general, you should be positioning your tripod to be about eye level.
Your camera should be about eye level or maybe even a little bit higher.
That can give you a little bit of a.
Slimming effect, if that's something that you're looking for by
positioning your camera up a little higher and then tilting it down.
The reason this is important is because that's how people are used to seeing us.
You know, people aren't usually, unless you're a child looking up at
us, and so it feels very unnatural.
So eye level feels the most natural and warm and inviting,
and of course flattering as.
You don't wanna use the man fro mini tripod, which by the way, it does come
in a video kit with the MB 88 plus.
So that's probably gonna be your best value if you want
an all-in-one kind of deal.
But if you are looking for something, again that's a little bit more budget
friendly and that also has more height to it, I really like this guy.
This is, I don't know, BR brand, but I'll link it down below.
I got this on Amazon as well, and I originally.
For TOS and you know, Instagram reels and Instagram stories.
Vertical video because you can put your phone in right here, vertical.
And you're good to go, but it also twists around and you can put your
phone in here for horizontal videos for YouTube or LinkedIn or whatever as well.
And I also really like it because the stand is pretty small, so you can kind of
fit this in in a lot of different places.
It's very versatile, I think, a little bit more versatile than the
man photo mini tripod actually.
And uh, I really.
So I'll link this down below for you as well, but you definitely want
something that's going to stabilize your camera, that is going to, you
know, hold it up and look good and be steady and all that good stuff.
Okay?
And lastly, I also wanna mention editing, right?
What do you do once you have your video?
Ready?
Well, we truly live in an amazing time because when I first started
YouTube, there were not this many video editing options out there.
It was pretty much like iMovie or Windows movie maker or Final Cut.
Maybe now there are just so many.
I personally use Final Cut just cuz I've been using it for years.
But there are so many affordable options out there like iMovie.
And also one that I've been loving lately is cap cut.
The cool thing about cap cut is you can use it on your desktop, but you
can also use it on your mobile device.
So it just makes sense.
If you're already recording on your mobile device, why not just edit
on your mobile device as well and then upload it directly from there.
So there's no transferring, no SD cards, like none of that stuff
that you have to mess around with.
So it's really convenient and it really can do quite a.
So that's it.
Those are my tips for recording with your iPhone.
I hope this was helpful for you.
If you have any questions about recording with your iPhone or just
YouTube in general, feel free to leave me a comment down below.
I love talking about this stuff.
It's seriously my favorite thing to talk about, and it's just been such.
an eye-opening experience and life-changing experience.
For me being on YouTube, it's been responsible for a whole lot of my
business and it's just a lot of fun too.
I do have a course on video if you wanna dive deeper and really learn
about storytelling and strategy editing and more nerdy equipment stuff.
So I'll link that down below for you as well.
But that's all I got for now.
Hope this was helpful and I'll talk to you in my next one.
Bye.