Hi and welcome to Episode 74 of the Photography Explained podcast.

I’m your host Rick, and in each episode, I will try to explain one photographic thing to you in plain English in less than 10 minutes (ish) without the irrelevant details. What I tell you is based on my lifetime of photographic experience. And not Google.

Before I go on if you have a question you would like me to answer just go to photographyexplainedpodcast.com/start.

And yes – I have changed the title since the last episode to something much more snappy!

Here is the answery bit

To take better videos with a phone first think about what you are going to create a video of, and what are you going to do with the video. Plan everything in advance and move slowly. Get a mic to improve the sound. Film what you need to then call it good. And learn how to edit video – easy for me to say as I haven’t got a clue!

I am using my iPhone XS as the reference point for everything here by the way.

You can listen to the episode here

Or keep on reading. Or do both. Entirely up to you!

OK – let’s look into this in a bit more detail.

1 First why and what are you taking a video of?

It might sound obvious but think about this for a second rather than just turning up somewhere and taking videos without any thought.

I like to take short 30-second videos of locations and behind-the-scenes videos. And I also record longer videos about my blogs and podcasts.

So think before you hit record.

2 – Who is the video being taken for?

What are you going to do with the video? It’s fine taking all those lovely videos but who other than you is going to watch them? What are you going to do with them?

Are they for your own records, or do you want to grow an online following? Or do you want to make money doing videos?

I take videos for my YouTube channels, websites and podcasts. I have not done any video work for clients yet.

3 – How long a video do you want to shoot?

This is important, as deciding how long you want to shoot for will help you to get what you want in a video. And if it is for other people to view make sure it is long enough to tell what you want to tell.

Decide on the length of the video but if it needs to be longer or shorter that is fine – make the content determine the duration rather than filling an amount of time or cutting it short.

4 – Make sure you have enough spare memory

There is nothing worse than running out of memory on a phone. I did once – I was doing a 30-minute sunrise video and ran out of memory after 14 minutes.

I will never be able to record that sunset again.

5 – Resolution

My iPhone records video in three resolutions, 720p, 1080p and 4K. 4K is the highest quality but think about it – do you really need 4K?

I would suggest not for many uses of videos taken on phones, and I include myself in that for personal stuff.

But for videos being published I use 4K – I want the best quality for things I am expecting others to watch.

6 – What are you going to record the video with?

As I say I use my iPhone which is fine for what I do – the quality is pretty amazing, but should I be using one of my cameras for this?

Possibly I should.

And that is why I love this podcast – it makes me think about what I do, I am learning right with you.

7 – Are you going to be in the video?

If you are will you be talking to the selfie lens on the front? If so think about what you are wearing, and the background.

I have managed to come up with some quite shocking t-shirt/ paint colour clashes so learn from my mistakes and get everything looking nice!

And in the world of working from home, I have a very important standard or two which applies equally to online meetings and recording videos.

Before any of these things, I will be showered, dressed and have cleaned my teeth! Standards must be maintained (I have only failed a couple of times)!

8 – Talk to the lens

Look at the camera lens, wherever that may be, and not at the screen that you are on. This is horrible to master, and I took some time to work out how to do this and still read the words on my iPad, which I ended up putting on another tripod behind where the lens is.

If you don’t look at the lens viewers will feel that you are not talking to them which is a big no-no.

9 – Decide on landscape or portrait

Which way up? Are you doing a video for Pinterest? Then you need portrait mode. For YouTube landscape mode.

Or whatever you want – just think of who is viewing the video and where it might be viewed.

10 – Wide angle or telephoto?

Now this is an interesting one that I have mentioned before. The default lens on my iPhone is a wide-angle lens. I believe that this is the same for all iPhones, and probably for all other phones.

The other lens is called a telephoto lens – it is more like a standard lens in camera terms.

Choose the telephoto lens if you can and your videos might just stand out.

It does of course depend on what you are filming.

11 – Do you need something to hold your phone?

Well it’s a thought, isn’t it? I recorded the sunrise by arranging my phone on rocks I found – it worked fine but was a bit of a faff. Listen on.

12 – Or even a gimbal?

I have a gimbal for my phone. It allows me to produce cinematic-quality videos. I have tried it a couple of times and need to do much more of this – walking through lovely places, that kind of thing.

13 – Or a tripod/ other stand

I use a tripod, either a full tripod or a mini one – it just depends on where I am recording myself waffling into my phone.

14 – Clean the lens

Have a cloth and clean the lens. This can make a difference. Just do it. Don’t argue with me ha….

15 – Definitely get a microphone

If you are talking into your phone then a microphone will definitely help. You can get great microphones these days for not that much money that plug straight into your phone. You can get mics that clip onto your shirt or directional ones that point at you.

Improving the audio on your videos will make things massively better for your viewers, and set you a level up from everyone else who is not doing this.

And if you are outside put something on the mic to deaden the wind noise. One of those fluffy things.

16 – Move slowly and smoothly

The number one thing I hate in videos is when they move too fast and are jerky – if I see this I will turn that video off. Move slowly and smoothly and things will work so much better. You don’t need a gimbal, just think about it and be deliberate.

17 – Get filming

Just get out there and do it. No excuses – just do it.

The talky bit

Video is one of those things that can appear daunting. If you feel like this then the best thing to do is just give it a go. You won’t get anywhere until you try after all will you?

Just go for it – if your videos are rubbish delete them, but please try again.

The number 1 way to improve our photography is to practise, and that includes video just like anything else, so give it a go.

You never know – you might actually enjoy it.

I struggled to talk to my phone when I started, but now I am completely comfortable doing this. This is because I have practised lots and lots of times.

Trust me, it does get easier.

Learn to edit videos. This is another thing that I need to learn. I can edit photos, so I should be able to edit videos surely?

Why are they called videos? I was just thinking that. – this is a hangover from a long old time ago, the days of the good old video recorder.

Surely there must be a better name for this millennium?

My one-line summary

To take better videos with a phone decide what you want to video, plan everything in advance and move slowly. Get a mic to improve the sound. Film what you need to then call it good.

Next episode

Episode 75 – Mobile Phone Camera Features Explained – 11 Things You Need To Know

Going weekly

I am now producing weekly episodes. When I started the plan was to do one episode a week, but to get some momentum I decided to do two episodes a week to get myself into double figures. I managed to keep up with this until episode 73!

Mission accomplished, but now I want to focus more on the quality of the episodes I create and also give myself time to do other cool stuff related to the podcast which I will tell you about in future episodes.

Shout out

A new section – and the first shout-out is to Aleksander in Norway, who left this comment on my YouTube channel would you believe? “Hello, Rick! 👋 been listing to your podcast all day at work! Some good tips for a starter like me. Composition is King 🤴 Have a nice day!” Thanks, Aleksander, great to hear from you.

I’m done

Thanks for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast. To find out more about my podcast and do stuff to help me check out Photographyexplainedpodcast.com/start.

Brought to you by

This episode was brought to you by a happy me, excited to be able to do new things now that I have finally gone weekly.

I’ve been Rick McEvoy, thanks again very much for listening to me and for giving me 10 (ish) minutes of your valuable time, and I will see you on the next episode.

Cheers from me Rick

OK – that was the podcast episode.

Want to know more?

Head over to the Start page on the Photography Explained Podcast website to find out more.

And here is the list of episodes published to date – you can listen to any episode straight from this page which is nice.

Let me know if there is a photography thing that you want me to explain and I will add it to my list. Just head over to the This is my list of things to explain page of this website to see what is on there already.

Let me send you stuff

I send out a weekly email to my subscribers. It is my take on one photography thing, plus what I have been writing and talking about. Just fill in the box and you can get my weekly photographic musings straight to your inbox. Which is nice.

And finally a little bit about me

Finally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.

Thank you

Thanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).

Cheers from me Rick