Instructional Media: Best Practices for Recording from Home
Introduction
Recording from home can be a challenge, especially when you want high-quality results. This guide provides good practice guidelines to help you control both sight and sound, ensuring your recordings look and sound professional.
This Document Includes...
- Tips to control sight and sound: The environment you record in will make a big difference to the overall quality.
- Our contact information. You are not alone: Help is available. Contact Multimedia Technologies in Technology Services for questions or assistance.
Contact Information:
Controlling Sight
"Lights, Camera, Action!"
A bright workspace helps your camera capture a clear picture. The more light, the better your video quality will be.
- Light the room brightly. Turn on as many lights as you can.
- Avoid direct window light. Don’t sit right in front of open, uncovered windows; it may disrupt your camera's lighting (examples below).
- Pick a good background. Choose something you’d be comfortable showing in a photograph—clean, uncluttered, and professional.
- Avoid virtual backgrounds, as they can be a bit inconsistent in how they apply the blur or filter.
- Position the camera at eye level. If you’re on a laptop, you can prop it up on books or a box so you aren’t looking down at the camera.
Examples of Lighting
- Poor Example: Low light, sitting directly in front of a bright window, or having the camera angled from below or above.
- Better Example: A bright, evenly lit area with a neat background and the camera at eye level. Background has items, but looks clean and intentional.
Controlling Sound
“Quiet as an Interview”
Your workspace does not need to be any more or less quiet than a typical office during an interview. Here are a few do’s and don’ts:
- Do:
- Be comfortable, and sit in a place where you can speak naturally, especially if you are recording for an extended period.
- Stay connected, if you are leveraging video conferencing software. Plug in with an Ethernet cable, stay off Wifi, or at minimum stay as close to your router/modem as possible
- Be careful not to create excessive noise where possible
- Avoid:
- Running a loud fan or other noisy devices that could overpower your voice..
- Distracting pop-ups by turning off Email and Instant Messaging notifications.
- Leaving sound notifications on such as home, office, or cell phones.
- Excessive worry: Don’t stress over small bumps or minor background sounds. They often won’t be picked up loudly enough to ruin your recording.
Review: Good Practice Guidelines in Summary
- Keep the space as quiet as you would for an interview or a conference call.
- Turn on as many lights as possible and avoid wide-open windows.
- Select a clean, professional background, like something you would feel okay to have in a professional photo.
- Position your webcam at eye level so you’re not looking down on your viewers.
- Relax. These are guidelines, not rigid rules. Don’t stress over small details.
- Reach out for help if you need it. Contact Multimedia Technologies in Technology Services: