I’ve had my Snapchat Spectacles for a few weeks now, and I’m really impressed by the videos you can make with them.

Using these techniques, my latest Spectacles video got over 200k views. Here’s how you can get better snaps with your Specs:

Tip #1: Keep your hands in the shot

Showing your hands in the video helps remind people that the video is first person.

That’s what makes Spectacles special — you’re filming what you see with your own eyes.

Hands make a big difference. Compare no hands vs. with hands:

Do things with your hands. Eat things, open doors, ride bicycles, give people high fives.

Tip #2: Look down

It’s a surprisingly interesting angle, because you see your own body:

Tip #3: For the best lighting, go outside

Spectacles, like most cameras, don’t do well in low light. For best lighting, go outside. If you’re inside, try to shoot near a window.

Tip #4: Master the 10-second story

Spectacles force you to create 10-second snaps. No more, no less.

On Snapchat, 10 seconds is actually plenty of time — longer than the average snap. Think about how you can make every second count.

Here’s my favorite 10-second story I’ve shot on Spectacles:

https://twitter.com/karenxcheng/status/807032697767936000?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

A simple way to structure any story is to give it a beginning, middle, and end:

Beginning: Approach monkey, give banana
Middle: Monkey eats banana
End: Monkey gets chased away by bigger monkey

You can apply this structure to just about anything:

this is the one sport I know how to play, shot with @Spectacles pic.twitter.com/PerdByE9ON

— Karen X. Cheng (@karenxcheng) November 22, 2016

Beginning: Serve ping pong ball
Middle: Hit back and forth a few times
End: Miss, lose the point

It’s a quick way to make any snap more interesting.

Tip #5: Play with kids and pets

There’s something really special about a parent’s point of view picking up a toddler:

https://twitter.com/Charliekoehn10/status/804901637642944513?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Cat videos work on Spectacles too

Tip #6: Make a travel video

Bring your Specs on your next trip, and try editing together a few shorter clips.

I brought mine on a trip to Japan and made a video about my hands:

https://twitter.com/karenxcheng/status/808345093539139584?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

I used Adobe Premiere to edit that video, but for shorter videos I’ve actually found the best app to use is Instagram. They recently added a feature that lets you edit multiple video clips, and you don’t need any video editing knowledge to use it.

Also, bonus points if your TSA agent lets you wear “sunglasses” through security ?

Tip #7: Get creative

Remix Snapchat Filters

Try mixing Spectacles with Snapchat’s other filters. In this one, I’m using the reverse filter

https://twitter.com/karenxcheng/status/801168868957777920?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Go Two-Player

If you’ve got a friend with Spectacles, try recording each other at the same time:

Do a Spectacles Selfie

Record yourself in a mirror. You can get creative here — tilting your head to the side makes the whole world spin:

The full video of my Spectacles mirror dance:

https://twitter.com/karenxcheng/status/800392355501248512?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

To get a 30-second video like my dance one, you can press the button 3x in a row, which will let you take 3 consecutive 10-second snaps.

By the way, Spectacles footage looks pretty different inside Snapchat. They don’t appear as circles. Instead they show up full screen and you rotate your phone portrait or landscape while watching. Pretty cool!

This only works inside Snapchat though. It’s on my story (?snapkarenx) if you want to try it out!

About the author

Karen lives in San Francisco and runs Karen X, a creative agency that makes videos for brands and tech startups. She makes viral videos with over 50 million views, and you can see them here. This article was also published here and shared with permission.