3 Areas to Focus on When Creating Web Video

These days, recording a professional-looking Web video interview is becoming easier and cheaper. However, it is still easy to get things like lighting, studio set up and the background wrong. At Software Advice, we shoot a lot of Web video, and we wanted to share tips we’ve learned from trial and error along the way. Here are three key areas to focus on to help you create great Web videos.

1. Pick a Quality Webcam

While it may be tempting to stick with your computer’s built-in webcam, chances are that your webcam will shoot low quality video. Since most people out on the Web are starting to expect high definition video, it’s a good idea to go out and get a webcam that can shoot in HD.

If you don’t have a built-in webcam that can shoot in HD, we recommend checking out Logitech HD Pro Webcam C920 for Windows and Logitech HD Pro Webcam C910 for Mac. One advantage of these webcams is that they also record decent audio.

2. Get the Right Sound

There are several options available for getting a decent sound for your Web videos. The first is to use a good HD webcam (like the Logitech models recommended above) that can record audio. If you want to go with this approach, pic on that has dual microphones as it will capture the audio better.

Your second option is to pic a USB microphone (see below) that can connect to your computer to improve the sound. We like Blue Microphone’s Snowball ($68) as it offers great sound for price, or you can upgrade to their Yeti ($106) for even higher quality sound. If that’s not your style, you can always go the route of a headset or lapel mic. One thing to note, however, is that these will likely be visible in your video.

3. Lighting

Lighting is a big area of focus when trying to get your video to appear professional. If you don’t have the right lighting, colors will dull and there will be shadows in your face. Neither is desirable.

At Software Advice, we rely on two small desk lamps that cost $23 each and use copy paper diffusers to light our foreground. We also use a three-piece lighting kit to light our backdrop (see figure in step 5). One side note about lighting: dim your computer screen as much as possible to avoid getting lighting from your monitor into the shot. Below you can see examples of good lighting versus poor lighting.

There you have three areas that you can focus on to create great, professional-looking Web videos without breaking our bank. Do you have any tips you’d like to provide? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Guest post by Derek Singleton who is a CRM software analyst at Software Advice, an online resource that reports on technologies, topics and trends in B2B marketing.