Photographers only need this extra gear to start YouTubing
If you primarily shoot still photography, you’re in a great position to start a YouTube channel because you have most of the gear you need already.
Most cameras can capture video at 1080p, and either 24 or 30 frames a second. 4K recording and faster frame rates are nice but absolutely nonessential. In reality, the phone in your pocket will do a great job recording YouTube videos too. Common video wisdom is that the audio matters much more than visual quality anyway.
Which ever lens you have attached to your camera right now will probably do quite nicely.
Chances are you’ve already got a tripod and some light stands. I bet you have a shoot through umbrella in your closet somewhere too.
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What might you be missing?
The first thing I had to pick up to start my YouTube channel was a good external audio recorder. With a good recorder, you can capture much better sound than the internal microphone of your camera. Especially if you’re going to be so far away from it. I chose a Zoom H1 (cheap and cheerful) and later added a Zoom F1 to the collection because it had a belt clip.
Because I do a lot of talking head videos, I chose a lavalier mic to plug into the recorder. A lav mic will get more of your voice and less of the ambience of the room, which is exactly what I wanted. A wired one like the Rode Go is fine because it goes directly into the recorder in my pocket.
If you want a bit more of an ambient mix of what’s happening in the room or perhaps you have a couple of people talking and you want a really simple set up, a hot shoe attached mic like this rode video micro might be just what you’re after.
Lighting can be as complicated or as simple as you want to make it. Natural light from the window is free but you are at the mercy of cloud coverage and the time of day. The lights I use for my still photography are all strobes because I like having high powered lights to stop motion. So I had to pick up a good continuous light source that I use only for YouTube. I chose a litemons la200 bi because you can adjust the color balance and it had a Bowens mount that matches a lot of the reflectors I already have.
An audio recorder and a continuous light source might be all that you need.
An optional extra would be a Teleprompter that you can mount to the front of your camera and use a smart phone or tablet app to display a script in front of you as you present. It’s not for everyone because a lot of people will prefer to speak from memory, but that’s some thing that I really struggled with and a Teleprompter helped. It might be worth experimenting with regardless because you can get a serviceable Teleprompter for around $200 like this Newer X14 I purchased off Amazon.
A teleprompter may cover up your camera’s flip out screen, adding the need for an external HDMI monitor. You might want one of these anyway because they give you a larger display that you can mount closer to you than the camera.
And you are away! YouTube has been a way for me to organize and share my ideas with the world. I hope the process helps you with your goals too.
