you can make pretty good course videos filming on your webcam or iPhone or even filming an automatic
mode on your DSLR but if you've been wanting to take your video quality to the next level
it's time to turn that dial to M manual mode how does it work what is an ISO what does f-stop it's
really hard to put those consonants together I'm gonna answer those questions and help you find
the best camera settings for filming your online course let's get into it hello creators I'm Ben Toalson
from Podia where we empower creators like you to make a living doing what you love working
with automatic mode on your camera can be a great way to start out with a DSLR and still
make quality videos but if you've been wanting to unlock the full potential of your camera's
features and have a better understanding of how cameras work in general you've come to the right
place I'm gonna walk you through how each of the major features work and give you some ideas about
what settings might be best for your course videos I'm going to take these settings in
the order you'll want to set them in order to get the best look before you set up your camera
you'll want to set up your lighting if you set up your camera before your lights you'll have a
lot of extra adjustments to make once you turn the lights on if you haven't watched our video
on lighting you can check it out here the first setting we're going to talk about is frames per
second frames per second or fps determines how many individual frames are shown each
second the higher the number the smoother the motion looks you might have seen people talking
about turning off motion smoothing on their TVs that's because some modern TV screens play videos
back at 60 or even 120 frames per second which looks really strange if you're watching a movie
because most movies are shown in 24 FPS which is usually described as cinematic most course
videos are shot in either 24 or 30 frames per second 24 frames per second is more cinematic
and immersive this is a great setting especially if your course content is visually geared examples
of course is this setting works well for our video or photography instruction drawing or painting or
exercise and dance courses 30 frames per second is a bit smoother and it's the default playback
for broadcast television this setting is great if your course material is more in directional and
authoritative courses this setting works well for it could include cooking instructions courses on
outlining or journaling or courses about business development the next setting we're going to talk
about is shutter speed shutter speed is the length of time the shutter opens to expose a
frame to what's coming through the lens the longer the shutter stays open the more light is allowed
in and the blurrier the motion is the less time it stays open the less light is allowed in and
the sharper the motion is a basic rule of thumb is you want the shutter speed to be about double your
frame rate this means if you're shooting in 24 frames per second which is one twenty-fourth of a
second you want your shutter speed to be about one fiftieth of a second and at 30 frames per second
you want your frame rate to be one sixtieth this creates the most natural motion and unless you're
shooting an intense action scene for your course it should be just perfect f-stop is the next stop
on our camera settings journey f-stop has to do with the amount of light that's allowed through
a small ring in your lens called the iris or aperture this setting affects how bright your
image is and also the depth of the focus field the higher the f-stop the less light and the
more InFocus the foreground and background will be together the lower the f-stop the more light
and the blurrier your foreground or background will be depending on where your lens is focused
depending on how well lit your studio is you might use a lower f-stop to maximize the amount of light
coming into your camera a lower f-stop can be good if you want to have your background elements out
of focus behind you to keep more of the focus on you and your presentation if your background
has elements that are important to your course material like specific equipment or tools it might
be good to raise the f-stop so they are also in focus the next setting is ISO ISO also influences
the amount of light coming into your camera you might realize by now that there's more than one
way to make your shot brighter or darker which is why I've taken you through these settings in
this order in a moment I'll talk a little bit more about the relationship between these settings and
how they influence light if your ISO is higher you're allowing more light into your shot but
you're also allowing more grain or noise into your shot like this if your ISO is lower there's less
light and also less noise generally you want to make your ISO as low as possible to avoid
unwanted noise in your shot you can accomplish this by adjusting other settings on your camera
or by adding more physical light to your space these three settings shutter speed f-stop and ISO
all influence the amount of light coming into your shot but also influence different aspects of your
shot shutter speed can make the motion blurrier or sharper f-stop can make your depth of focus
shallower or deeper and ISO can make your shot cleaner or noisier in most cases you'll always
want to keep your shutter speed at double your frame rate f-stop can be adjusted depending on
how focused you want specific elements in your shot but will maximize the amount of light at
its lowest setting because of the way f-stop and shutter speed influence the look of your shot
you'll typically want to set those first and then adjust your ISO for light now that we've
figured out our light we are going to focus on a setting that has to do with the color tone of
your shot this setting is called white balance Y balance is basically the hue of the white in your
shot it affects the temperature which ranges from cool blue colors and warm yellow colors
to tint which ranges from greens to Red's your first goal when setting white balance is to get
a natural-looking skin tone your second goal when setting white balance is to get a natural-looking
white anywhere there's white in your shot the color of the physical lights you're using can
also affect the white balance if you have a warmer light like you'd see with the sunrise or sunset or
lamp light your shot might look more yellow if you have cooler light like midday Sun or incandescent
bulbs your shot might look more bluish in many cases either the automatic white balance setting
or one of the presets will make the color in your shot look correct if you do need to adjust
the white balance manually just remember to get the skin tones right first and white tones right
second the very last setting we're going to talk about is resolution should you shoot in 4k or 1080
one of the ways you can approach answering this question is to think about how your students will
consume your video content 1080 looks nice and crisp on most mobile devices but when you watch
1080 footage on larger desktop screens it might be easier to see imperfections in the shot if
you have a powerful enough computer and can edit 4k footage I recommend shooting in 4k you can use
this footage in one of two ways you can edit in a 1080 resolution frame and scale down your 4k image
so that you can pop into the image and create alternative shots for different cuts alternatively
you can edit in a 4k space still pop in a little bit for alternative shots but get that nice crisp
4k resolution as of this recording YouTube's compression on 4k seems to produce a sharper
1080 version than uploading 1080 by itself all of that said 4k footage does take a lot of computing
power to edit and render and can add extra steps to the editing process so you'll have to determine
what's best for you based on the quality you're going for and the way your students might consume
your course content I want to encourage you to practice using your camera in manual mode
and playing around with the settings it's really interesting to see how your image changes based
on how you adjust the ISO and adjust the f-stop take it outside of your normal studio setting and
see how those settings work in different lighting environments before you know it you'll be a pro
and your course videos will look amazing I want to hear from you what kind of camera are you using to
film your course tell me in the comments below if you found this video useful and you want more
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can be the first to know when we post new content thank you for watching and I'll see you next time