6 Ways to Instantly Improve Video Quality from a Camera Phone

This post may contain affiliate links which means we may earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase (at no extra cost to you). As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Sharing is caring!

We have six of the simplest ways that you can instantly improve video quality that you get out of your camera phone. They take little to no effort and will set you up to create stunning films from the memories you are capturing.

Ready to get started? Number 1…

Hold Your Phone Properly

I’m not sure when this became “a thing”, but I have a pet peeve when it comes to video footage captured with mobile phones. If I was allowed to only teach you one thing about how to improve video quality with your phone, this would be it!

Quick question…Which way do you hold your phone when you want to shoot a quick video of your kid’s birthday party, your spouse laughing, or the beautiful snow falling outside? Based on what I have seen time and time again over the past few years, you probably answered that question with… “I hold it vertically.” (What we in the business call “portrait orientation”) Therein lies the problem.

“What’s so wrong about that?” you may be asking yourself. If you ever plan on potentially doing anything with that footage other than using it on social media (i.e. creating any kind of video) it’s NEVER a good idea to hold your phone vertically when capturing footage. And this is why…

Have you ever watched a youtube video or facebook video that has camera footage in the middle but a blacked out section on either side of it? That’s what happens when you try to use footage shot vertically in a full HD format video.

This is the easiest fix in the world. Just hold your phone horizontally (landscape orientation) and the problem is solved. Unfortunately, there’s not a great solution for the footage you’ve already taken vertically, but moving forward you can make sure you don’t make that mistake again. Get in the habit of ALWAYS holding your phone in landscape mode and your footage will automatically be leaps and bounds better.

Even if you don’t have plans on using that footage right now, it’s always good to play it safe so that if or when you decide you do want to put something together, you won’t have to deal with the black bars on the sides of your video. See, you’re already capturing better footage than before!

On to Number 2… (see what I did there?)

Don’t Forget to Wipe

You want to create video clips that are vibrant, crisp, and sharp. If your photos and videos coming from your phone look hazy, blurry, or lacking in saturation, we have a simple solution that might fix your problem.

All you need to do is this one thing…REMEMBER TO WIPE! Your images might be hazy or unclear because your lens has either fingerprints, dirt, or other crud on it. Simply take a really soft cloth or your t-shirt and give your lens a little wipe (if your phone has 2 lenses, make sure to clean each one). Check and make sure your shirt didn’t leave behind any fibers and that it’s super clean.

That’s it! It is a literal two second fix for you to improve video quality. This simple step is really important in making sure you get the best footage possible from your phone (or any camera for that matter). I have gotten in the habit of doing this so much that without even thinking about it, I’ll wipe my lens with my t-shirt every time I grab my phone to capture something. If you want to up your game, I recommend it become your habit too!

As I mentioned earlier, I typically just use my t-shirt to wipe my lens, but sometimes it doesn’t quite get the job done, especially on harder to reach areas like on my Moment Lenses. Here is a nice little tool made to get rid of dust, dirt, and smudges. I don’t personally have this, but it’s on my wish list!

And Number 3… (nothing witty here)

Extend the Lengths of Your Clips

When you are capturing moments and memories to use in films, be sure to linger a little bit longer than you normally would filming a moment. You will most likely just use a short portion of your clip for your film, but you want to be sure that you have enough time to not only keep the best part of that moment for the final film, but also time for potential transitions between clips.

Keep your clips long enough to provide time for transitions on either end, but not so long that you take up too much hard drive space or have a hard time finding the part of the clip you want to keep.

We recommend your clip length to be around 15 seconds. This will insure that you have plenty of time when adding your clips to your film for keeping the best bits and not losing them to transitions.

Numba 4…

Zoom (But Not Too Much)

Your phone most likely has 2-3 lenses. Those are there for a variety of reasons, one of which is the ability to zoom optically. While your phone is capable of digitally zooming further (the kind where you pinch and pull to zoom), but this degrades your photo and video quality.

Do not zoom in beyond 2X magnification. Take advantage of the fact that your camera has that little “2X” button to get closer to your subject or pull the background in closer. When you go beyond 2X, you’re moving into digital zoom territory which only zooms in on the pixels rather than using a lens to get you closer. 

If you want to get closer to your subject without degrading your image quality, we would recommend two options.

1. Get closer to your subject. I remember buying a camera once with a fixed lens and the salesman at the camera store told me that I would have to use the “foot zoom”. I had no idea what he was talking about. 🙂 He meant that I would have to physically get closer to my subject using my feet.

or 2. Pick up your Moment Lenses. Friends, we have been using these for years and if you take tons of photos / videos with your phone, they should be in your gear as well. These beautifully made little lenses screw into their special phone case and give you all sorts of options from wide angle to zoom lenses. You can read more about how much we love them here.

Number 5…

Lock Your Exposure/Focus

There are only a few things that bother me more than when a camera hunts for focus when I am filming; when it almost looks like your camera is breathing. OR….when you’re filming and all of the sudden your exposure goes really dark or really bright. You can avoid both of those issues.

There is a super easy way to lock both your exposure as well as your focus so your shot will be consistent. You probably already know that you can tap on your screen to focus and expose, but those can change as you move your camera around. To lock your focus and exposure, just HOLD your finger on whatever it is you want to focus and expose in your shot. Once you hold for a couple of seconds you’ll notice “AE/AF Lock” appear in yellow at the top of your screen. Don’t worry about whether it’s too dark or too bright.

Now that it’s locked, you can slide the exposure up or down by pulling the “sun” figure up or down until it’s right where you want it. That’s it. Both your focus and exposure are set and neither will change so you can get a nice consistent shot without focus hunting or your exposure drastically changing. When you’re ready to move on to another shot in a different setting or focus on something else, just tap the screen again to refocus/expose.

And finally, last but not least…

Optimal Resolution

We recommend shooting in 4K resolution at 24 fps as your “normal” settings for video. Go to your “settings”, then “camera”, and under “Record Video”, make sure that “Video Format Control” is turned on. This will allow you to easily switch to the resolution and frame rate you want by tapping on the resolution and frame rate while in camera mode until it’s where you want it set. Just make sure it says “4K – 24” at the top of your screen when you are in landscape orientation (phone is sideways).

Shooting in 4K allows you (or us if you decide to use us to edit your videos for you) to crop in further into your shots without any loss of quality if the video your clips are being used in is being exported in 1080 resolution.

If you are wanting that buttery smooth slow motion we all love, then you’ll want to set your “slow-motion” settings to 1080 resolution at 120 fps. Again, “settings”, then “camera”, under “Record Slo-mo” make sure “Video Format Control” is turned on. Then, when you are using the slow-mo setting on your camera, make sure it says HD – 120 at the top. Yes, you can go slower, but you often don’t need to and you do lose a bit of quality when you do. Keep in mind that when you do this, you won’t be able to crop in like with a 4K clip, so make sure you get exactly what you want when you film it. A 58mm moment lens will help you get closer to the action, and the 18mm ultra wide angle lens will help widen your shot!

• 

• 

I hope this was helpful. We want to make getting quality video as easy and fun as possible so that you succeed capturing memories that can be turned into films that your family will love watching together for years. As always, let us know if we need to clarify anything or chime in with any questions on any areas you are struggling with your camera so we can help. Happy filming!

• 

• 

•