How to Look PRO On Camera (Even on a Budget)

First impressions really matter online, and if people don't feel that you are qualified to teach on what you're promising, they're gonna click away. In this video, I'm gonna show you how to create a clean and professional-looking setup, even if you're filming in your bedroom on a budget. These are the exact tips that I've used to upgrade my videos and instantly build trust with new viewers and clients. I have a lot of people, when they sit down, they say, "Oh, this dude's legit," just because of my setup. Now, I have a very expensive setup. I'm not gonna break down everything that I have going on here, but I will show you some of the gear that I do use to have a more professional setup. But the purpose of this video is to give you a few simple tips and tweaks that anybody can use, even if you don't have the money to invest in a huge setup like this. You could literally use your phone that you already have, cheap tripod on Amazon, and like a lapel mic or something like that. These are just a few simple tweaks to make people think this person knows what they're doing. So let's dive in. The first thing is lighting. Lighting is always number one. Lighting makes 80% of the difference, not your camera. A lot of people will spend all this money on a camera, but they don't understand lighting and the principles that go into lighting or have a good light, and therefore their expensive camera actually looks really bad. Always upgrade your lighting before you upgrade your camera. Now there's 3 types of light that we wanna think about and that are commonly taught in the filmmaking space. The first one is your key light. So that's this big light that is right here. And if I turn this off, you could see it makes a very big difference. This is the big main light that lights the subject, which is me or you. The next light is a fill light, which is over here. And if I turn it off, you'll see it just looks a lot more mysterious. It still looks good because I have the key light. And if I turn this off, like, where'd I go? But yeah, that is— that's the main thing is having a good key light. And if you at least just had that, positioned it right, you know, I could put it a little bit more head-on with me, then it's gonna look a lot more cinematic, if you will. The fill light just kind of lights the subject just a little bit more. And, you know, I turn it on, I think this looks a bit better. I could even dim that a little bit more and kind of play with it, and sometimes I tweak it. But with your key light, it's best to have it forward and then up and then to the the left or the right. And you know you have a good placement with a key light when— if I turn this off, it'll be easier to see— you should be able to see like a light triangle right here. And that's what that cinematic look is like. So if you're going to invest in a better setup, then definitely invest in a good key light first. So this video right here is a prime example of what good lighting can do. Before to— here it goes— after. That is the power of good lighting. This video is phenomenal, by the way. It teaches you a lot about lighting. It can feel a little overwhelming, but at the end of the day, you need to be clearly lit as the subject. Now, ideally, if you invest in a bigger key light, you don't want to have a direct light onto your face. If I shined a flashlight onto my face, it would be this insanely bright hard light is what it's called. So we use something called a softbox, which is one of those big boxes that go around a light and it's those giant lights that you see, but it really gives your video a much cleaner look because the light, instead of blasting me in the face, it's rolling off of my face and it's touching my face, which makes it look a lot more flattering. And it doesn't reveal all of your blemishes or anything like that when you have a good softbox. But I understand that investing in a softbox, you know, it could be that you don't have a whole lot of space for it. There's a ton of different options that you can find online to have, you know, pretty affordable ones. The one that I personally am using right now is the Godox SL60W. It's a kit, so it comes with the light and the softbox. You do have to buy a stand separate, but I just got like an Amazon Basics one, which I think was like $20 or something like that to hold the light. This is a light that will last you your entire career. And, um, it's just really solid. So I did a ton of research. This is the one I fell down on. And, um, yeah, it comes with a little light where you can turn up the brightness, you can turn it down, you can turn up the warmth or turn it down. The key warmth that you want to have is 5600 Kelvin, 5600K. Again, I'm not going to go deep into all the nitty-gritty things that you can do with lighting, but that has the most natural light. Okay, so really, really good place to start. If you're willing to invest a bit of money into a camera already, I'd rather you invest it into a really good light because it's going to serve you much better. But if you don't have the space to hold one of these big lights, or you have the money to invest in this, it's totally fine. You can still use a window with blinds. Natural sunlight is one of the best things that you can use to light yourself. You just want to make sure that you're creating a little bit of diffusion, which is what that softbox does. It kind of spreads the light and gives you that softer look. I'd recommend using white blinds just because it'll look the best. But this video is a prime example of this girl. She uses, uh, lighting just naturally. You can see behind her she has the window coming through and she's just sitting in her bedroom, but she's well lit. It looks nice. And, um, also like the camera angle, which we'll get into in just a second. But yeah, you can see her setup is super simple. She doesn't have a big key light. And in the back you can see that her camera is set up and looking right at her with a shotgun mic, which I had one that was like $25, super cheap, really easy to get started. And she has a little light behind her and that is the accent light. So the third kind of light that you can have is that accent lighting. It's just something behind you just to add a little bit of character and depth to your scene instead of just you. So yeah, lighting makes a world of a difference and it's worth investing in a light before you invest in a camera because even a really good light with a cheap camera or just your iPhone camera can go a very, very long way. My next tip is to declutter your frame. This is pretty simple. And again, anybody can do this. You just want to make sure that your background looks clean. So get rid of any kind of mess you have. Hide any sort of distractions like poorly placed blinds are a really common one, or just something that looks kind of off and it doesn't look uniform behind you. It doesn't look clean. So a prime example of that in my own space that kind of bothers me sometimes, and I just have to move this. But if you look behind, you can see my, my little bookshelf back there. If I'm off to the side, which sometimes I can be, you can see like the bookshelf a little bit compared to when I'm perfectly covering it, which I should be right now. That is a prime example of something that even in my own shot can be a little distracting. It's like it kind of pulls you away from the subject, which is me. Compared to if I had just have my two lights and my head is in the middle of them. So you only want to show things in your background that are going to add to your credibility. Just having lights and a simple setup is great. I have my little horse doll or dalla häst from Sweden, and that's just a bit of character, you know, just have something in the background for me. But I could have just stuck with the lights, but I already had the shelf already placed up back there, so I decided to keep it. But if you have any sort of awards related to what you're teaching or to the work that you do, hang them up in the background, make sure they're visible. If you're a YouTube coach or you've built YouTube channels and you're teaching people how to do that, you should probably have your silver play button behind you. Or if you're a sales expert teaching people about sales, have stuff related to sales, have awards that you've won behind you so that people can see, oh, this person has like actual awards for being in sales. We should create a vibe with our scene that matches you, your personality, and also what you teach on. So this is a prime example. This is a friend of mine and he is a chiropractor. But if you look at his shot, he has literal pictures of the human body behind him. He's sitting on his chiropractic table, so his scene is perfectly set. And while he's teaching you about this stuff, it's proof that he's a chiropractor. Even like his outfit that he's in, a chiropractic outfit. And he has a very simple camera here and he's just sitting down. He could work on his lighting, but already it looks professional and you start to think, dang, this guy knows what he's talking about. He must. So here's another great example. This is Alpha M, teaches guys about, you know, fitness and style and that kind of stuff. His background is super simple. So even if you don't have these awards or anything, you can still have a very professional looking background with just a blank wall. This is his gray. It's very on brand for him. And he has a light that just points over at the wall, but it looks clean and he is well lit. It's not distracting you. He is the main person in the subject here. Which is— that's what we're going for. You are the person who's teaching, so you don't want things that are distracting, just enhancing what you're teaching. Another great example is this guy Magnus Lidbeck, or the Magnus Method. Really cool channel. But in here he's talking about— he has a very legitimate setup, but he's talking about snacks that you can make. So if you're a fitness coach or something like that and you make a video, like, notice how it's very clean. He doesn't have stuff just like cluttered up in the background or anything. He's in his kitchen. But it still looks clean and organized and it sets the stage for a nice clean shot. And this is a great video where he goes over how to create simple snacks and stuff like that. He has a different camera angles, but you could honestly just leave this one shot and make a great YouTube video if this is your topic that you're teaching. My next pro tip is to use symmetry and depth. So symmetry and depth are incredibly important. That's how we create that really professional looking setup. The wall behind me is probably about 8 feet away from me, I would say. So that creates that depth and I can have that bit of a blurry background. But having two things on the side of you that create symmetry is one of the easiest ways to look more professional in your shot. You can use lamps, you can use plants, you can use one lamp and then one plant, or if you have a bookshelf or two bookshelves behind you, like whatever it is, just create some form of symmetry. So let me give you a couple of examples here to show you how powerful symmetry is, even with a simple setup. If we go over to Mario Tomic, does a great example of this. He has his lamp in the background. It's not distracting, but it's kind of lit, so it looks pretty cinematic. He also has a very good camera and very good lighting as well. But even if you had a decent light with a decent camera, having the symmetry alone can make you look a lot more professional. So another prime example is Meadow DeVore. She is in the center of the shot and she uses the lights to have this warm look behind her, but it also creates that symmetry. Super simple. And she's just shooting this inside of her living room, I'm assuming. And then there's Graham. So Graham has two bookshelves and he has his YouTube award, his books that he's written, you know, his Kajabi award. All these things are adding to his credibility and he's creating that symmetry and that depth with a blurry background and the two bookshelves with his head in the middle. Symmetry is one of the easiest things that anybody can do with their setup. To look more professional. So the next simple thing that you can do is just understand the rule of thirds. Now you don't have to have this grid always set up on your phone or camera or anything, but this just gives you a simple representation of what the rule of thirds actually is. Very commonly taught in any kind of film. It's one of the first principles that you learn when you're filming things. But if you just keep this grid in mind when you are filming, you will be more successful in making things look very professional. So typically, if with a talking head style or head-on video, we have these two lines. You want your eyes to be on the line or even slightly above. It would be really awkward if I was filming my video and I was right here and I had a bunch of space above my head, as you can see. So we want to have a little bit of space above your head because it would also look weird if I was cut off, you know. But keeping your eyes on that line is going to give you that very good look. You can also, you know, if you're filming off to the side, You could be over here, something like this, and in the top corner of either side. That depends on your setup. I would keep it really simple and just look head-on to the camera and just understand that, you know, even if we turn this off, if I go to my camera settings, I will turn this off. Boom. And this is what you would see. So you still want to imagine that you have that line or those— that grid on the shot. So that you can always think, okay, I'm in the top third of the shot, and that's where you want your eyes to be. And my last tip is your camera height and your angle. We don't want to have our camera too low. Like, imagine if you were on your laptop and you just had it on your desk and it was pointing up at you. You would see your double chin. It would not look good, and it just, uh, it wouldn't be as flattering from that bottom-up angle compared to when you have your camera looking directly at you like I have mine. Mine's actually a little bit higher and slightly pointed downwards, and that's what gives it a much more flattering look while still keeping me in that rule of thirds. So if you're using your phone, I'd highly recommend that you pick up a simple tripod for, you know, $20 or so off Amazon. Or if you only have a webcam on your laptop, then make sure that you're putting books or something underneath. You can even get a little laptop stand to raise up the laptop so that your angle is looking directly at you or slightly turned down. So I know that that can feel like a lot, but to recap everything. Invest in a good light or just have some blinds with natural sunlight, and you want to create that diffusion so it's not a direct blasting light like a flashlight on your face. Make sure that you declutter your frame, have everything be nice and clean behind you, and make sure that your frame is actually adding to your credibility and not distracting people away from you and your credibility. Remember to use symmetry and depth. Symmetry is one of the easiest things that you can do, and the further your camera is away from The background, the blurrier it will get. Obviously, we can go way deeper into that, but this is just some simple things that you can do. Symmetry being one of the biggest. Remember to use the rule of thirds to make sure you're centered in your shot and that your eyes are above that top third, uh, line on the frame. And lastly, your camera height and angle. You want your camera to be pointing directly at you or slightly down to give you the most flattering and professional look. If you have any questions or need more help with this, leave a comment below. You're welcome to email me as well, and I'd be happy to look over your setup and give you a couple pointers to make it look even more professional. I'll see you in the next one.