How to use the camera to shoot short videos on Tik Tok, teach you how to take blockbuster videos with your mobile phone!

Why can others create cool special effects even though the videos are all shot with mobile phones? After spending a lot of time thinking about it, the short video you create is still mediocre? In fact, all creativity has its own routine.

Most of the top IP accounts on Douyin and Kuaishou with millions or tens of millions of fans also use mobile phones to shoot. It is convenient and easy to shoot short videos with a mobile phone.

If you just want to make a short video of a few seconds or a few minutes, a mobile phone is really enough, as long as you master the correct techniques for shooting short videos with a mobile phone. This article will elaborate on four aspects, which are:

• Essential equipment for shooting short videos on mobile phones

•Preparation before shooting with mobile phone

• Mobile phone shooting camera skills

•Short video shooting composition

1. Essential equipment for shooting short videos with mobile phones

The equipment for shooting short videos on mobile phones includes two categories: hardware equipment and software equipment. The hardware equipment mainly includes mobile phones, handheld stabilizers, mobile phone wide-angle lenses, mobile phone beauty lights, and microphones.

Recommended mobile phones include iPhone and Huawei, which have better overall shooting effects. Of course, the latest flagship models from Samsung and Xiaomi can also be used as alternatives. The specific one should be determined according to your budget and usage habits.

The latest iPhone model recommended is iPhone 11, which has a built-in wide-angle effect and a background blur function that is easy to use and can meet daily shooting needs.

In addition to iPhone, you can also choose Huawei Mate 30 Pro and Huawei P40; for example, Huawei Mate 30 Pro is the industry's first mobile phone with dual 40-megapixel dual main cameras, which can restore better details. The control of light, color contrast, surrounding noise, etc. are all excellent, and it also supports super night scene mode.

The software and equipment for shooting short videos on mobile phones are mainly some short video production apps, such as the Qingyan APP that focuses on beauty effects, Beauty Camera, vue, Yishan, etc.

2. Preparation before shooting

Why do we need to place special emphasis on preparation before shooting? Because in the process of instructing students, we found that many people just pick up their mobile phones and start shooting videos, just like what was mentioned at the beginning of the article.

The resulting photos were not satisfactory, with blurry images and dark tones.

Whether you are shooting short videos or taking photos with your mobile phone, the following 4 steps are essential:

1. Wipe the lens

Whether you are taking photos or videos, the first step is to wipe the lens.

Why?

Because when we usually play with our mobile phones, the oil on the surface of our fingers will remain on the lens. This results in a decrease in sharpness, contrast and saturation of the captured image. The most intuitive feeling is that the image is blurry and the overall visual experience is poor.

2. Adjust the phone brightness to the brightest

We all know the impact of light on photography. For example, the effects of taking photos in clear, sunny weather and on rainy days are very different. The same is true for adjusting the brightness of the phone.

Before shooting, it is recommended to adjust the brightness of the mobile phone screen to the brightest. Adjusting it to the brightest can help improve the clarity of the picture. Secondly, it can make the details of the picture more realistic and rich, so that you can see all the details of the picture clearly, just like watching a movie.

The fill light in the hardware tool for shooting short videos on mobile phones mentioned above actually plays the same role. Make the picture clearer, the details more realistic, rich and three-dimensional.

3. Lock focus and exposure

What is Focus Lock and Exposure Lock. To put it simply:

Focus lock - focus on whatever you want to be clear!

Exposure lock——Lock wherever you want normal exposure!

When shooting a short video with your mobile phone, press and hold the screen with your finger, and you will see a small yellow box appear on the screen. The function of this small square is to automatically focus and automatically measure the exposure of the scene it frames.

Locking focus means locking the focus position to highlight the subject of the photo (only when the subject is highlighted can the picture look better).

When you touch and click on different places or scenes on the screen (the position of the small box will change accordingly), you will find that the brightness and focus of the photo will also change.

For all subsequent shots, the focus-locked position will be clear.

After locking the focus, drag the yellow sun up and down to manually adjust the exposure.

Exposure refers to the intensity of light received by the camera's image sensor. Proper exposure means that both the bright and dark parts of a photo receive enough light to distinguish the details well.

On the contrary, overexposure will cause the bright parts of the photo to be overexposed, while the dark parts cannot be distinguished well due to insufficient light.

For example, in the picture above (picture source: Internet); the left picture was taken directly, the white snow was underexposed and turned into gray snow. In the right picture, the sun is raised and the snow is exposed normally.

Drag the little sun upwards with your finger, and you will find that the overall picture becomes brighter;

Drag the little sun downwards with your phone, and you will find that the whole picture becomes darker;

This little sun is the exposure compensation of the mobile phone, which is also a very important function.

If you are not sure about manually adjusting the exposure, you can also just long press the automatic exposure. Automatic exposure is suitable for shooting in scenes with relatively uniform lighting. In most cases, automatic exposure is sufficient.

4. Set the resolution and frame rate

Videos shot with a mobile phone often appear blurry or when uploaded, the video is often blurry. This is often due to problems with the phone's camera settings.

Generally speaking, before shooting, in order to ensure the clarity of short videos shot with mobile phones, it is recommended that you set the resolution and frame rate to 1080p (resolution) and 60fps (frame rate).

This resolution is high enough to watch on a mobile phone, and it won’t take up as much memory as 4K. The frame rate of 60fps will be smoother, and there will be more room for speed adjustment during post-editing.

IOS system: Open Settings - Camera - Format - Select the best compatibility.

Open the camera - record video - select 1080p (resolution), 60fps (frame rate), and select 1080p, 120fps to record slow-motion video.

Android system: Open the camera, select Record > Settings, and adjust the video quality to 1080p, 60fps.

3. Camera techniques for shooting short videos with mobile phones

Camera movement is also called moving shot.

As the name suggests, it is to capture dynamic scenes through sports photography to make the video dynamic and lively. And if you use the camera well, it can also inject atmosphere and emotion into your video.

According to the form of lens movement, motion shots can be divided into: push, move, follow, shake, pull, swing, shake, and rotate.

1. Push shot Push shot is a commonly used shooting technique. It is mainly completed by moving the camera forward or zooming, gradually approaching the subject to be expressed, making people feel that they are approaching the object to be observed step by step, and watching something up close. It can show the change of the same object from far to near, and can also show the change from one object to another.

2. Move the lens

A moving shot is also called mobile shooting. It is to fix the camera on a moving object and move it in all directions to shoot a stationary object, making the stationary object appear to be in motion. The captured images are gradually presented during filming to create a visual experience of inspection or display.

3. Follow the camera

A follow shot is also called a tracking shot. During the shooting process, you find a point of interest and then follow the target to shoot. For example, in a hotel, the first shot is just the big scene in the entire hotel, and then follow a waiter from one position and shoot him walking between the tables.

The position of the object that a following shot wants to express generally remains unchanged in the picture, but it changes as it passes through the picture, just like one person following another person through the streets and alleys, the surrounding things are changing, but the following style itself does not change.

4. Pan the camera

Panning is also called shaking shooting. When shooting, the camera does not move, but only shakes the lens to make movements left and right, up and down, moving or rotating. This makes people feel that they are gradually looking from one part of the object to another. For example, a person stands still and turns his neck to look at things. What we often say about looking around is actually the same principle.

5. Rotating the lens

A rotating shot refers to a picture in which the subject appears to be rotating. The lens is rotated along the optical axis or at an angle close to the optical axis of the lens. The camera quickly rotates more than 360 degrees to shoot. This shooting technique often expresses the feeling of dizziness of the characters and is a commonly used shooting technique in film and television shooting. 6. Pull the lens

A pull shot is the opposite of a push shot. It is mainly accomplished by moving the camera backward or zooming, gradually moving away from the main object to be expressed, making people feel that they are moving away from the object to be observed step by step, and creating the overall effect of watching something from a distance.

It can show the change of the same object from near to far, and also the change from one object to another. The application of this lens is mainly to highlight the object to be photographed and the overall effect, and to grasp the overall situation. For example, in common film and television shows, the shot from the interior of a canyon to the entire exterior is a pull shot.

7. Shaking shot: Shaking shot is to shake the lens quickly and move to another scene very quickly, thereby switching the picture to another content, and the process in between produces a blurred effect. This kind of shooting can express a sudden transition of content.

8. Shaky Camera

The application of shaking shots is less common than the previous methods. It is mainly used in specific environments to make the picture produce a shaking effect up and down, left and right, or front and back. It is mainly used to express the shaking effects of trance, dizziness, and riding in a car or boat, such as earthquake scenes.

In addition to the basic camera movements, you should also understand the scene size when shooting short videos with your phone:

The shot types include panoramic shot, long shot, medium shot, close shot and close-up.

Vision: Be able to explain the overall environment clearly and tell users where they are. Taking photographing people as an example, the long shot is to capture the entire person and the environment in the picture, which is often used to show the time, environment, scale and atmosphere of an event.

Medium shot: refers to the part from the knees to the top of the head of the subject, which not only allows the audience to see the character's expression, but also helps to show the character's body movements.

Close-up: that is, shooting the area from the chest to the head of the person, showing the person's subtle movements, facial expressions, and conveying the person's inner world.

Close-up: a subtle shot, such as a person's hand moving slightly, eyes blinking, etc. It is to shoot details such as the person's eyes, nose, mouth, fingers, toes, etc., which is suitable for expressing details that need to be highlighted.

4. Composition techniques for short videos shot with mobile phones

When shooting short videos with a mobile phone, in addition to being proficient in using various camera techniques, composition is also a very important part of shooting and displaying. Camera movement + composition + scene size together determine the viewing experience and layering of the video.

What is composition?

The concept of composition is relatively abstract. To put it simply, before we take a photo or a picture, we must think clearly about what the subject is, and then use appropriate composition to make the subject stand out or make the picture harmonious.

There are many ways to compose an image, including but not limited to the rule of thirds, symmetry, crosses, horizontal lines, curves, triangles, etc.