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How to film yourself when nobody’s around to help

Filming myself is probably one of the more difficult things I’ve ever attempted to learn with a camera. It’s so easy when you’re filming other people when you have all of the camera’s controls at your fingertips and are able to quickly adjust. Filming yourself, though, is an entirely different set of skills. But they’re essential skills if you’re looking to start vlogging, which I have.

I’m still no expert at it, and I still have a lot to learn. But you know who is an expert at filming themselves? Peter McKinnon, that’s who. In this video, Peter provides a whole slew of advice to help you film yourself. It’s full of lots of little tips and tricks to make life just that little bit easier and get you thinking a little bit differently about how you approach it.

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New GorillaPod “octopus” lets you mount all you need for “pro smartphone videos”

GorillaPod has a new member of their family of flexible tripods. JOBY has announced GorillaPod Mobile Rig, aimed particularly at smartphone filmmakers. This rig has the same flexible design, but with an extra pair of “arms” in addition to the three legs. So, it lets you mount the additional accessories for a better smartphone video or vlog.

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6 practical shot transition effects you can create in-camera

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Transitioning from one shot to the next in a video or film has a huge psychological effect on the viewer. It can be seamless showing an instantaneous switch from one viewpoint to another. Or, it can show the passage of time. They can be relaxing or jarring. It all depends on the feeling you want the viewer to have.

With the proliferation of affordable video cameras and editing software, new transitions pop up all the time. Not all of them work for every pair of clips, but they all have their place. In this video, filmmaker Darious Britt shows us 6 easy in-camera transitions that you can use yourself. While aimed at vloggers, you can adapt these to fit many genres of video.

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Use this simple trick to instantly improve your smartphone vlogs and selfie videos

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Phones are great for recording video of yourself. The big advantage is that big LCD letting you see what you’re doing while you’re filming. But they also have that big LCD that you constantly stare at while talking instead of the camera lens. So, when you watch the video back, you always appear to be looking slightly off to the side of the viewer. Not at the viewer.

Those using DSLRs, mirrorless or even point & shoots to vlog probably won’t benefit from this one. But this tip from YouTuber and vlogger, Dave Knop (aka, Knoptop) will help to instantly solve that problem with your phone. And all you need are some some sticky labels.

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Looking for a 4K vlogging setup on a budget? Here’s a suggestion for $600-700

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If you’re looking for the best vlogging setup, the options are many. It may not be easy to bring together the ease of operation, image and sound quality, versatility and the price. But Caleb Pike from DSLR Video Shooter proposes a solution that you could embrace. The entire setup costs around $600 (more or less, depending on the retailer). It’s lightweight, useful at various conditions, and allows you to shoot from the table or from hand, with good sound quality both indoors and outdoors.

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Build your own 3D printed DIY LED ringlight for your smartphone

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The problem with mobile phones is that if you need lights, you’ve usually got two options. The first is to simply deal with the underpowered, far-too-close-to-the-lens built in LED. Unless you’re using in the front camera, in which case that’s usually not an option. The second is to lug around all the usual LED lighting gear you’d use with regular cameras. In which case, you probably might as well just use a regular camera.

The folks over at Adafruit, though, have come up with a great project to help solve this. A 3D printed smartphone case with a built in LED ringlight. Not only does it wrap the light around your lens instead of being right next to it, but it also offers a fair bit more power. That it’s controlled by an Arduino also means that you can reconfigure the lights to give some neat effects.

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Leaked photos show Canon’s M6 mirrorless is basically a smaller M5 with optional EVF

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Both photos and specs seemed to have been leaked for Canon’s upcoming M6 mirrorless camera. And there seems very little to distinguish it from the EOS M5, released only a few months ago. In fact, the only real differences seem visual. There’s a slightly different control layout on top, the popup flash has moved, and the electronic viewfinder has been removed entirely.

Looking at the specs so far, though, they appear pretty much identical. Same resolution, same processor, same video, same tilting touchscreen LCD, built in Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, etc. That is, assuming the information is accurate.

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You can double the views of your video by saying one word in the first five second

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When you create a vlog, a video tutorial or any kind of video material, a lot of factors play a role in the number of views you get. It’s not just about creating quality content and making it interesting, but you should also know human nature and some psychology to make the videos more engaging.

A recent study offers a simple psychological trick that can double the views on your videos. And it comes down to one single word. According to the study, you should say it twice in the first five seconds of the video to make people stick to it and get more engaged. And if you’d like a hint: I used it in the very first sentence of this article.

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Build your own custom vlogging rig to fit any camera setup

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Vlogging has seen a massive boom over the last couple of years. But, there still aren’t really any perfect options out there when it comes to the gear used and how to set it up. Everything seems to have a compromise. You get touch screen, but no 4K. 4K but no touch screen. Or you get both, but the AF can’t keep up. Or you get everything you want, but you can’t see the camera’s LCD and have no idea how your framing is.

There’s all kinds of different workarounds out there to make life a little easier. Some options, though, aren’t quite as versatile as others. Switching from a mounted camera to handheld (or vice versa) can be a pain. In this video from DSLR Video Shooter, Caleb Pike shows us how to build out own vlogging rig that can be easily adapted to almost any setup.

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Fuji brings 24MP and touchscreen LCD to its entry level mirrorless selfie camera

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Fujifilm has announced its new entry level mirrorless camera. An update to the popular X-A2, the new camera comes with touchscreen, a 24MP sensor, and 60fps video. It’s a respectable little update to the X-A2. The changes seem very few, but they are very nice changes. The market this line is aimed at is obvious. With an LCD that flips up 180 degrees so you can see yourself when stood in front of it, the clues are less than subtle. Selfies.

So, with that in mind, the biggest deal with the X-A3 is the touchscreen. With the camera pointed at yourself, reaching around to hit controls behind the camera isn’t exactly easy. Now, it is. Shooting selfies isn’t going to be a big deal to everybody, but that really is this camera’s selling point. If that doesn’t interest you, there’s probably much better options out there.

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