How to Vlog with iPhone

Vlogging has taken the world by storm, and there are more and more young people choosing YouTube vlogging as their main career choice. Aspirations of being a surgeon, an astronaut, or a college professor are slowly vanishing. Why dedicate your whole life to studying when you can earn more money by just sitting at home? Even becoming a famous sports athlete, or a singer, or movie star – that seems to drag a lot of work as well in the eyes of the youth.

Whether the parents agree with that choice or not, it is undeniable that YouTubing can be a very lucrative job, and as the times are changing, being a vlogger on YouTube will probably become a prestigious profession soon enough. And seeing how well some famous YouTubers are getting by, it is no wonder why.

But having high-quality YouTube content pulls a piece of high-quality equipment as well. It’s not cheap buying such stuff, and having all of that without any vlogging experience can usually turn out to be just a waste of money. So here are some tips on how to vlog with your iPhone.

What is a Vlog?

As the name suggests, a video blog, or vlog for short, is content on the Internet created in a form of video (previously taken with a camera, smartphone, or screen capture program). Vlog owners use video instead of text or sound as their primary data source, thus modernizing (and slowly replacing) its predecessor – the blog. Vlogs can sometimes be enriched with text or images, while some video blogs even contain metadata (data that describes the content of the file, such as keywords).

Video editing programs allow video bloggers to delete or add parts of a video, create effects, and add specific audio as well (background music, audio special effects, etc.). Vlogging is a great way to show your creativity, meet people with similar interests, and finally – if you take it seriously enough – make money.

What You Need for Vlogging

If you want to post your videos on YouTube, you need certain equipment. Each type of video clip requires a little different equipment, so it’s up to you to decide what you want to record and equip yourself based on that.

No matter what type of clips you record, you need an internet connection with the highest possible upload speed, it would be desirable to upload at least 1Mb/s so that you do not have to wait long, and a computer with which to edit and upload recordings.

Vlog is the least demanding category since you only need a camera. You can use any camera that can record at least in 720p resolution, but of course the higher the quality, the better. The camera should be as small as possible so that it is easy for you to take it everywhere and not miss an interesting event. It is desirable to have additional batteries and a memory card. Therefore, some compact DSLR and mirrorless cameras are your best choice!

When vlogging about the gameplays, that requires a computer with slightly better specifications, as it must be able to not only run any video game but also record it, it must have a newer generation processor and graphics, as well as a minimum of 8GB of RAM.

Whether a traditional vlog or a video game based one, you need the highest quality microphone to make your voice sound as clear as possible, so the microphone on your headphones or camera is probably not a good choice. It is advisable to have an additional hard disk, or SSD, which you will use only for recording and thus avoid possible problems that may occur when using a single hard disk, such as “chopping” the recording.

There are additional items that serve the purpose of vlogging, such as camera lenses, tripods, GoPro, and much more, and those will definitely enrich the quality of your videos. But for the beginning, just start with the basics.

Can an iPhone replace DSL cameras and other equipment for vlogging?

Yes, definitely. Although smartphones are still not as good as DSLR and mirrorless cameras, they are perhaps the next best thing when it comes to video creation. As there is a never-ending race among a few companies and their flagship smartphones, a constant improvement is desperately needed. One of the most popular smartphone features is certainly the camera, and each year we can see various improvements in this field.

Camera

Apple’s iPhone cameras have always been a thing of wonder, and all the other companies have strived to at least catch up with them. To be fair, in 2020 they did manage to catch up, with Google’s Pixel and Samsung’s Galaxy models boasting some very high-quality cameras. But that’s some other topic. The constant quality and constant improvement have led people to start using iPhones for vlogging, and guess what – the results are fantastic.

Mic

Additionally, not only has the camera been improving, but the microphone as well. Yes, the image quality is very important, but everything falls into the water if the sound is bad. As vlogging is basically an audio-visual blog, as stated earlier, the words must be comprehensible! Having an indistinct speech will give you zero followers.

Luckily, iPhones have amazing microphones capable of serving the purpose of vlogging well enough!

Software, Apps, Editing

Enriching your vlogs with various effects is always a welcomed thing, but beware of overdoing it. There are many, many useful and professional video editing software on the market, and the most famous YouTubers definitely use them all the time. Although, smartphones are quite limited with these features, and high-quality editing is still a dream.

Be that as it may, iPhones still pack some heat when it comes to camera effects, editing software, and other useful additions for your iPhone video. The standard iOS version will provide everything you need for vlogging while downloading some apps from the iStore and adding a few more guns to your arsenal is still available.

But there will be more about this topic down below. For now, let’s start by looking at how to utilize all of this.

Tips for Vlogging Successfully With an iPhone

In the following section, we’ll check out some of the top tips for vlogging with an iPhone. Let’s dive right in!

Settings

You have probably poked around the camera settings for photo and video quality from the first day you got your iPhone. Admit it, it’s interesting. And it’s good that you did. Because you can adjust everything to be suitable for your vlog recoding. Let’s see what you can do to make it look good.

Place your iPhone horizontally. Yes, it’s not the camera setting, but it is important. When recording horizontally, you will automatically set the aspect ratio of the standard YouTube video. The picture will be wider and your background more emphasized (background style is also important for vlogs).

Use the main camera. As good as your selfies look like, the front (or selfie) camera can never be as good as the rear (main) camera. Yes, having a screen serving as a mirror while vlogging is great, but that would be the one and only advantage of the selfie camera. With the main one, you will have more options and better quality.

Select the highest resolution. As the iPhone cameras can record in ultra-high quality (or 4K resolution), it would be advisable to take advantage of such a feature. Additionally, you can set the fps (frames per second), and perhaps 30fps@4K is your best option. The image quality will be great, your movement will be smooth, and the effect of professionalism will be felt.

Adjust the warmth, exposure, focus… Every room is lit differently, walls painted in different colors, faces are different… In order to get the best out of your camera, feel free to mess around a bit, and find what suits the situation the best.

Full auto when on the move. The manual settings will be fairly useless if on the move because lightning can change quite a lot. If recording while moving outside, it would be a good idea to turn on the ‘full auto mode’. The AI will recognize what are the best solutions to the current situation. Although it won’t be perfect, it will be better than the manual for sure.

Mono microphone. In the general phone settings, you can set the microphone type. The stereo mic recording is set as default, but this won’t be necessary if you talk by yourself right in front of the camera. Try the ‘mono mode’ and see the difference in sound quality.

Airplane mode. As silly as it sounds, don’t forget to use the ‘airplane mode’ while creating a vlog. Imagine having the inspiration of your life while vlogging, and someone calls you at the same moment! Use your iPhone as a camera, not as a phone.

iCloud

As a powerful camera with full-on settings produces high-quality video, having big files on your phone is inevitable. And as the storage space is quite limited – having an iCloud account is a must. Send all of your previous vlogging videos to your iCloud, or transfer them to your Mac.

Be sure to always have storage space to spare, because if you don’t, you will possibly miss the chance to record something great! And that’s one of the most important points of vlogging – unique content, isn’t it?

Effects

The iPhone devices have a plethora of effects that you can use to make your videos and photos more awesome. Don’t be shy to spend a few days in different surroundings and try them all out. Using these effects will bring a fresh and modern style to your vlog, and everyone loves that. Pay special attention to:

QuickTake

You can use QuickTake to record videos without turning off photo mode. QuickTake is available on iPhone XS, iPhone XR, and newer devices.

Hold the Shutter Button to Record a Video

When you open the Camera application, you will see the default photo mode. To take a photo, tap the shutter button. Then tap the arrow to set options such as flash, Live Photos, timer, and more.

If you want to record a QuickTake video, simply press and hold the shutter button. Release the button to stop recording. In iOS 14, you can hold one of the volume buttons to record QuickTake videos. If Use Volume Boost for continuous shooting is enabled, you can record a QuickTake video using the volume down button.

Swipe Right to Lock the Recording

To continue recording a video without holding the key, drag the shutter-release button to the right, and then release it. When video recording is locked, the shutter-release button appears on the right. Touch the shutter button to take a photo while recording a video. When you are ready to stop recording, tap the record key.

Swipe Left to Activate Continuous Shooting Mode

Drag the shutter button to the left and hold it to take photos continuously, then release to stop shooting. In iOS 14, you can take photos continuously by pressing the volume up key. Simply go to Settings> Camera and turn on Use Volume Boost for continuous shooting.

Ultra-wide

On iPhone models with an ultra-wide (0.5x) lens, the camera interface shows you what’s going on outside the frame. This can help you decide if you need to set the frame differently or switch to another camera on your iPhone to take a better photo.

When you take a selfie with the front camera or any other photo with the ultra-wide-angle camera (0.5x), Lens Correction automatically retouches the photos to make them look as natural as possible. To turn off this option, go to Settings> Camera and turn off Lens Correction.

Scene Recognition

Scene Recognition allows the camera to smartly identify the subject and apply a custom look to highlight the best elements of the scene. To turn off this feature, go to Settings> Camera and turn off Scene Recognition.

Focus and Exposure

Before taking a photo or a video, the camera automatically sets the focus and exposure, and the face recognition feature balances the exposure on many faces. In iOS 14, you can use the exposure control to fine-tune and lock the exposure for future shots.

Simply touch the arrow and adjust the exposure level. The exposure is locked until the next time you open the Camera application.

Editing Apps

Adjusting your camera settings and using filters and effects is one thing, but the raw material simply cannot be used as a vlog these days. Additional editing is still needed, and although video editing is a rather time-consuming procedure, it has become much simpler thanks to convenient video editors for the iPhone. You can use the following.

iMovie

The application was submitted by Apple itself. It is one of the most functional installation tools that allows you to achieve amazing results.

Features of this solution include the ability to adjust the transition between files, change the playback speed, apply filters, add music, use built-in themes for quick and beautiful decoration of clips, convenient tools for trimming and deleting fragments, and much more.

VivaVideo

Extremely interesting video editor for iPhone, endowed with a wide range of possibilities for implementing almost any idea. VivaVideo allows you to shorten the video, rotate, apply themes, overlay music, change playback speed, add text, apply interesting effects, adjust transitions, overlay videos, and much more.

The app is available for free download, but with some restrictions: for example, no more than five videos will be available for editing, a watermark will be introduced when saving videos, and access to some features is simply limited. The price of the paid version of VivaVideo varies depending on the number of options.

Splice

According to the developers, their decision brings the installation of video on the iPhone literally to a new level. Splice boasts a quality music library with licensed songs, an intuitive interface with Russian language support, and a fairly wide range of features.

Speaking of processing options, it offers tools for cropping, changing playback speed, applying text, editing sound, and applying color filters. When working with sound, you can use your own compositions and built-in applications, and even start recording voice. This tool is completely free and there is no in-app purchase.

RePlay

A simple free video editor for fast video processing. If the video editors, which we have already talked about, are very suitable for hard work, here, thanks to the basic tools, minimal time will be spent on editing.

RePlay provides the ability to work on video recording, playback speed, allows you to mute the sound, and instantly save videos to iPhone or post on social networks. You’d be surprised, but that’s all!

Magisto

Creating a colorful, do-it-yourself video is extremely easy if you use Magisto. This tool allows you to create a video almost automatically. To do this, you need to meet several conditions: select the video and photos that will be included in the video, decide on the design theme, choose one of the proposed compositions and start the editing process.

More specifically, Magisto is a type of social service that aims to publish videos. Therefore, to view the clip mounted by the application, you will need to publish it. What’s more, the service is shareware: by going to the “Professional” version, you get access to all the editing components for even more interesting results.

Action Movie

Want to make your own blockbuster? Now it is enough to install Action Movie on iPhone! A unique editing application allows you to combine two videos: one will be shot on a smartphone camera, and the other will be shown in an action movie.

Action Movie has a large gallery of overlay effects, but most are available for a fee. The application has a simple interface with support for the Russian language. When you first start, a short course will be shown that will allow you to start working right away.

Advanced Tools

As could be seen from the text above, the iPhone smartphone boasts a fantastic vlogging camera with high-quality iPhone video capabilities and many additional camera app software. This alone will be quite sufficient to make some very good videos. But, if you want to take the quality level even further, you can upgrade your iPhone with some additional tools.

Mic

Although the built-in microphone is quite good, a professional recording microphone can be added as well, in order to get the maximum out of the audio quality. As vlogging is mainly you speaking, the sound is of utmost importance. In case you consider vlogging as a profession, this addition is a must. There are many compact smartphone microphones on the market that can both look good, and do the job perfectly.

Gimbal

A gimbal is sort of a selfie-stick, but way more advanced. Professional vloggers and filmmakers use them all the time with their DSLR cameras when making video content. Lots of smartphone gimbals are available on the market, and these can be very useful, especially outdoors.

Tripod

Similar to the gimbal, but much more static. Gimbal must be held in hand, while tripods are placed on the ground and serve as stands. Their three legs are quite flexible and can be placed anywhere. These are perfect for stable images both indoors and outdoors.

Lenses

It was mentioned how great iPhone’s camera is, but they are still not as good as the professional tools. Believe it or not, there are iPhone camera lenses that can be bought and added to the camera. With improved image quality, some of these bring special effects as well. Not the most important thing to have, but if you’re good with money, why not?

Remote Control

Even though iPhones have voice control, it can be difficult to use it while doing a vlog. Remote control will come in handy here, and you can control your camera from the distance.

A Final Word From Run Gun Shoot

Hopefully, you have learned how to vlog with iPhone after reading these tips. Take your iPhone, try this stuff out, practice a bit using these apps and features, pay attention to the light, background, sound, and all the things that are important in the video, and – make your perfect vlogs with iPhone!