How I Make My Tutorial Videos

I’ve had a few questions here and there about what gear I use to make videos. I actually use different gear depending on the type of video I’m making, so in this post I’ll cover the tutorial videos.

When it comes to making a decent video, you want to consider 3 main things (among others):

1. Light
2. Camera (source of the picture)
3. Microphone (source of the audio)

Light

I actually think lighting is the most important of the bunch. If you have a well composed subject, most any camera will produce a pleasing image (still or moving). You can make pro-looking footage from your cell phone.

Lighting can also be expensive, so I went the DIY route and made my own. Here are the lights I use:

DIY Light Ring

This thing puts out a ton of light, as you can imagine. It also diffuses shadows in the background as well, which is a nice touch. If you’d like to build one of your own, visit this link (I did this build almost exactly).

I usually position this light in front of me and off to the left, which puts a bit of contrast on me (the subject). It shines against a white set of closet doors, which act as a kind of reflector. This allows light to bounce back on to the right side of me and fill me out a bit, while still creating some texture.

Cheapo Can Light

We had several of these left over and laying around at church, so I’m borrowing it for my videos. I use it just like you see it – sitting on the ground shining up on the wall (behind where I sit). This creates the radial gradient effect behind my head that is in almost all my videos – at least all the ‘blue wall’ videos.

This brings up another point – pay very close attention to your background when making a video (or taking a photo).

That does it for light – that’s all I use. It’s a very simple basic setup. If you don’t have any lighting that you can use, consider building something like I did, or use the best option that exists – the sun.

Camera and lens

I use a Panasonic GH2 body:

The lens is probably more important than the actual camera, and my lens of choice is the Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 pancake lens.

If you are on a budget, this kind of camera kit might be a bit out of range. It’s important to know that I’ve been into photography and videography for years, and I’ve built this stuff up over a very long period of time, buying and selling and buying and selling… I also try to buy everything used, so I didn’t pay even close to those prices you’ll see at Amazon. Like I said earlier, if you take the time to set up your exposure with proper lighting, even your smartphone will produce a really good looking image.

The GH2 is a pretty amazing camera for video. I won’t go into a bunch of specifics, and I’ll plan on doing a review sometime soon. If you have the budget for it, I highly recommend it for video work.

The 20mm f/1.7 lens is also really, really nice. It’s a fixed lens, meaning it doesn’t zoom. That also means that it’s image quality is outstanding. The f/1.7 (aperture) part means that it opens really wide and lets in tons of light, so capturing footage in low light is easy. The other thing that an aperture of 1.7 allows is for a very shallow depth of field. This is when the subject is in focus and the background is out of focus. This little factor makes videos look very professional, assuming the other elements are well done.

Audio

I’m not a fan of most on-board microphones that are built into cameras. I much prefer recording audio with a separate device (or combination of devices). For the tutorials, I use a Zoom H1 digital recorder.

This little guy sits on top of my camera and does a really great job of capturing anything I say or play. It has a pair of stereo microphones and a line-in, but I never, ever use the line in. For the price, this is a great little recording device. I bought a camera hotshoe accessory that allows me to mount it to the hotshoe of the GH2.

Editing (Software)

Once I’ve capture the audio and video, I have to use some editing software to put them together.

Logic Pro

I bring the audio file into Apple’s Logic Pro to clean it up and get the volume level where I want it.

Final Cut Pro

Then I use Apple’s Final Cut Pro to edit and color correct the video. I also mute the audio from the camera and line up the audio from the zoom H1 with this software.

Conclusion

I’ve spent many years making videos and tweaking my current gear and workflow. I’m sure that I’ll continue to improve in the future, but for now, I’m happy with the results I’m getting for my tutorial videos.

If you’ve got any gear related questions, feel free to ask below in the comments.