- We're gonna run through
how you can shoot professional-looking videos
just using your webcam
including a ton of simple tips
that will easily improve your webcam quality
when you're recording on both Mac and PC right now.
(electronic music)
Hey it's Justin Brown here from Primal Video
where we help you
amplify your business and brand with video.
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make sure you click that subscribe button.
And all the links to everything we mention in this video
you can find linked in the description box below.
So let's jump into it.
Webcams are an awesome low-cost super flexible camera option
but they're not just great for live streaming,
with the right process and a few simple tips,
you can easily shoot high quality videos
just using your webcam.
So that's what we're covering in this video.
So let's jump in.
To begin though,
it's a good idea to have a bit of an understanding
on some of the limitations that most webcams have out there.
And then we're gonna look at how you can overcome them
for best results.
So typically webcams in general are pretty bad in low-light.
They've got poor audio.
They've got poor autofocus.
They've got poor colors.
And a lot of them can have flickering or a strobing image
depending on the lights that you're using in your scene.
Lots of them are also way too sensitive
with the exposure or the brightness
and the color adjustments.
So they can be constantly changing
and adjusting throughout your video recording
or throughout your livestream.
So now we're gonna look at
how you can fix these things
to get the best results out of your webcams.
So to tackle the first one then
with webcams not being awesome in low-light conditions.
The answer really is to add more light to yourself
or to your scene or to both.
So if it means opening up the curtains
to get more light in through the window,
if it means adding more lights to light up yourself
or to light up the background.
You really wanna have as much light as possible.
Typically what happens with webcams
when they are in low-light conditions
is they'll either drop the frame rate
giving you a sort of motion blur or pixelated image.
It can also make the image more blurry
and not have as much clarity in it
or it's gonna go the other way
and try to brighten it up
and give you a really grainy or noisy image.
So you really wanna get your lighting on point here
but it really isn't that hard.
The priority should be on lighting yourself
or whoever is gonna be on camera
or whatever the focus of the video is,
light that or them first.
And then use whatever other lights you've got left over
or available to light the background.
Now if you want a full lighting tutorial,
our lighting recommendations,
I'll put a link up in the card now.
But yes, focus on lighting the priority of your video,
yourself first and then the background second.
So we'll tackle the next one then
which is the audio.
Yes, webcams have really bad microphones built-in.
So the recommendation is not to use one
and to use an external microphone or a separate microphone.
The one that I like and the one that I use
is the Rode NT-USB.
But there's others out there too
from brands like Apogee,
like Audio Technica and Blue.
Any one of these are gonna give you far better audio
than what you would get
from just using the built-in webcam microphone.
So to fix all the remaining issues for best results
you wanna be using software to control the camera
and to lock all your settings down.
Now depending on which webcam you've got
and whether you're on Mac or PC,
using the supplied software that came with your camera
can vary a lot.
But typically Logitech provides a pretty good
amount of control for your camera
if you've actually installed the software
which surprisingly a lot of people will plug in their webcam
and never get around to installing the software.
It's actually something
that I would strongly recommend you do.
Also, typically on the PC side,
the software does generally have more control
or more options than on Mac.
But if you are on Mac
don't worry because you can get
third-party camera control software like Webcam Settings
which is an amazing tool that doesn't cost much.
But it'll give you full control
and in some cases a lot more control
than what you'll find on the PC side.
So once you've got your lights and your audio set up,
then you wanna tweak and refine your settings
for your webcam inside the software
that either came with the webcam
or the aftermarket software to control your webcam,
to dial everything in.
Now the first setting that you wanna adjust
is the anti-flicker or the flicker region
or frequency for the region that you're filming in.
So if you're in America that's 60 Hertz or NTSC.
If you're in Australia or the UK
then that's PAL or 50 Hertz.
So that's gonna help you eliminate
any flickering or strobing from any lights in your scene.
Next up, if you've got the ability
to turn on or off backlight control,
for best results I would suggest to turn it off.
But some people may not have this option
depending on the software or the webcam they're using.
Next you wanna adjust
and lock down your brightness or exposure.
And depending on the software that you've got
this might be called exposure.
It might be called gain.
It might be called brightness.
You might have a combination of the three of them.
But the idea here is that you're setting this manually
and not leaving this on automatic.
So that if you move or something moves in your shot
that your computer and your software
isn't going to make your shot brighter or darker
to constantly adjust and compensate for any movement.
Now there really is no right or wrong with this.
You're really dialing in these settings
to get the look that you're after.
This is a creative process.
This is a creative tool as well.
So you can use the settings
to dial in the shot that you like.
But make sure that they're on manual
so they're not going to adjust.
The next setting you wanna disable from auto
is your white balance or your color temperature.
Now this is typically a slider
and when you slide the thing one way
it's gonna go more blue
and go the other way it's gonna go more yellow or orange.
Again this is personal preference
but in most cases you're probably gonna find
that it's almost around the midpoint.
Once you've locked down your white balance
then we can look at the color vibrancy or the saturation.
So we can either add more colors or amplify the colors
or you can take some out,
depending on how much is in there.
And the last major setting
that you wanna be locking down is the focus.
Again kicking it out of auto,
using the slider to adjust it on you
or on the focus of the video.
So this way if anything changes,
if you lean forward, lean back just for a short second,
it's not going to go out of focus and stay out of focus
and ruin your recording.
So now that you've got all of those settings dialed in,
in most cases it's gonna save those settings
so that next time you might reboot your computer,
it's going to pull back up those same settings for you.
But that might not always be the case.
If it's supported,
you might also wanna save different profiles
so you could have a profile
with all of your settings set for filming during the day.
And one set for filming at nighttime
where the brightness or the exposure
might change a little bit.
So at this point you've got everything set up
to have good audio and a great looking video feed
coming in through your webcam.
Now from here the only last place
that you could have quality loss
is depending on the software that you're using
to either livestream or to save your videos
directly to your computer.
Now without going into all the different
live streaming software,
all the different recording software that you could use
to save or broadcast your webcam,
as a general rule you wanna make sure
that you are broadcasting or recording
in the highest quality possible for you,
for your computer or for live streaming,
it's gonna be based on your internet speed as well.
So wherever possible,
have these set to the best quality for the best results.
So that's how you can set everything up
to create professional-looking videos
just using your webcam.
Now linked onscreen is a video
covering off on an eight step checklist for filming
before you hit record.
Make sure you check that one out and I'll see you soon.