Upping my YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram Videos

22 May Upping my YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram Videos

I have been taking a LOT of webinars and online classes lately while in COVID-19 lockdown. Has it been challenging to get through them with having to homeschool two special needs kids, YES! However, seeing mommy do “homework” and watch classes is helping to get the kiddos to do theirs.

Audio Upgrades

One of the tips I learned in a class was to put your microphone on a boom stand so it gets better audio. I currently us the the Rode Video Mic.

Microphone Stand

After some research, I decided to pick up the Hola! Music tripod. It is $36 and it has a wide range of adjustments. It also is very compact which is great for me because my makeup studio is really small.

Shure MV88 iPhone Microphone

I have also decided to start using a mic on my iPhone because I film on it quite a bit. I really enjoy doing live videos because it means no editing- YAY! The one that was recommend in several of the classes was the Shure MV88 iPhone mic.

I decided to get the Shure MV88 because the company is well known and several blogs had recommend it as well. The coronavirus lockdown has me filming a lot on my front steps because it is the quietest place in my house right now. I will let you know how it works out. If you have this mic, let me know in the comments below.

Video Upgrades

I currently film on a Canon T6i DSLR camera, I have a 4 different lenses I use for it for photography and video. I have had a few challenges with it going in and out of focus during filming, or hunting for what to focus on. It is annoying and I’m always embarrassed when it does that in the video. Before the lockdown, being in the beauty industry- perfection was the expectation, but the COVID-19 lockdown has taught us all to be more forgiving of things not being 100% perfect, perfect all the time. Thankfully for me, being a one person creator and solo entrepreneur, it lowers the pressure a little bit.

Right now, I’m not going to do anymore upgrades to a new DSLR because there are rumors that Canon is coming out with this amazing new EOS R5 and/or R6 sometime this year. Anytime a new model/s come out the price drops on the current models and I love to maximize my budget.

Pivo Pod

Therefore, I’m focusing on making my iPhone XR the best it can be! The first thing I bought and am currently waiting for it to arrive is the Pivo Pod. I saw Pivo a year or so on kickstarter, but I decided to buy a gimbal instead. When it comes to tech, I’m not a first gen buyer. I like them to work the kinks out first before I give them my money.

Fast forward to now, I haven’t used my gimbal that much because it involves taking my iPhone case off, nearly impossible, and SMOVE, the company I bought it from, has never put out really good tutorials for the non-pro like myself. #fail

Since I’m a one woman show and as much as my 8 year old thinks he is a YouTuber and can run a camera, I still needed a way to film me moving around that doesn’t involve fingers, the camera being dropped, or frantic movements. Like magic, aka creepy algorithms, PIVO arrived in my Facebook feed. I was like wow, I remember that product. I watched some of their videos, read through their comments, and how they responded to them, if their responses are all the same or phrased weird the company is bogus a fly by night and a do not buy. I decided to give it a shot and used PayPal credit to buy it. If they flake out, PayPal will take care of me. As soon as I get it, I’ll let you know what I think of it.

iPhone Lenses

The last upgrade I’m going to make at this time is getting some upgraded lenses for my iPhone. I have several sets of lenses for my iPhone but they were the $20 or less ones on Amazon or they came with something I bought.

A company called Moment was brought up as an amazing maker of iPhone lenses. When you go to their website it is a bit overwhelming because it is like shopping for lenses for a DLSR. I still have to do more research on which ones I want to get. I signed up for their email list, hopefully, they will have a good sale or package deal soon. To learn more about Moment click the photo below.

That is all for now.

Bryttannee