Why Don't My Videos Pop?!?

Why Don't My Videos Pop?!?  So you took my advice and started shooting at 4K or 1080P, but you feel like your videos still don't pop.  Why?

1) What fps are you shooting at?  FPS?  FPS is frames per second.  The higher the fps the better the quality.  The highest fps before getting into slow motion that you always want to shoot at is 60 fps.

2) Camera.  Are you using a webcam or are you using an actual camera that can shoot at 60 fps and always stay at 60 fps?  An actual camera will always be better vs a webcam.  The downside to this is that a high-quality camera will run you about $600 or more to do this.

3) Lighting.  Lighting is very important when it comes to making videos pop or in general cause you don't want them to appear dark.  ALL models should be using a lighting system already.  A great lighting system will run you about $50 or more.  When using a lighting system especially with videos you want to first be in a room where it is completely dark and you cannot see anything.  When the lighting is set up that becomes the only light source.

4) Post production.  This one is hard to explain, but there are plenty of YouTube bloggers that will talk about this and how to do it.  Personally, I use Adobe Premiere Pro CC and have used that in both my personal life and my MFC life.  You have to sign up for a year subscription and it will run you about $30 a month.

All these things combined should bring your videos to the next level.

Video Size

I see models not knowing the actual difference between 4K, FULL HD, and Semi-HD.

Cinema 4K = 4096 x 2160 (this may vary) = 4.27 times bigger than FULL HD

4K = 3840 x 2160 = 4 times bigger than FULL HD = 9 times bigger than Semi - HD

FULL HD (1080p) = 1920 x 1080 = 2.25 times bigger than Semi HD

Semi-HD = 1280 x 720

More pixels allow for more detail.  So when making videos you should keep in mind that videos should be produced at minimum FULL HD.  Why?  If you go to BestBuy or other electronic stores 4K TVs are becoming the norm.  Therefore the quality that one produces should be FULL HD at minimum since 4K is already 4 times bigger than FULL HD.

Recording 4K on Mac

If you read my past Blogs I have talked about recording videos using an iPhone.  Since then Logitech has come out with the Brio.

The Logitech Brio is a 4K webcam!!!  But if you have a Mac, how do you record 4K videos?

There are 2 important parts to this.  The very first thing is making sure you record the video correctly, but then also editing and producing those videos so you don't lose the quality.

Here it is...

Recording

1. Open Quicktime Player.

2.  File > New Movie Recording

3.  Next to the record button is a v if you click that you can make sure the microphone and the webcam that you want are selected.

4.  Then record.


Important Note: Make sure before you record that you have the right lighting.  The better the lighting the better the quality of the video should appear.  If you don't use the right lighting the video will look somewhat pixelated (what we call noise).


Post-Production:  Personally, I use Premiere Pro for all my post-production.  If you want to edit 4K video you need to make sure that your computer can handle doing it, but also that whatever software you use it should allow you to do 4K production.  Things to look at while doing post-production are color quality, sharpness, and other similar things you would check in photos.

Important Note: 4K video file sizes will be MUCH larger.  A video about 10 minutes done with color correction, etc etc in FULL HD can be 1.5GB where the same video in 4K can be 15GB.  Also be prepared to let your computer sit for a few hours to do the post-production export.