The old adage “practice makes perfect” holds true for any skill you are looking to hone, as long as you are practicing the right technique. Continuously making the same mistake or missing a step will not help you get better, especially if you don’t know you are making a mistake or skipping a step. This is why we tend to look to experts and professional for their advice, tips and feedback when working on developing a new set of skills.

And to help you hone your videography skills, we reached out to our team of professional videographers and asked them to share their top tips for up and coming videographers. Here are their top 5 tips.

1.Invest in a Tripod

One of the signs of professional videographer, is as steady video recording. Until you have been able to train your body and hands to shoot steady videos without a lot of gear, take advantage of a tripod. Just remember to move your tripod around to capture different vantage points and avoid being anchored in one spot.

2.Explore Different Angles and Perspectives

If you want to shoot like some of the best industry videographers, you should try exploring different angles, and perspectives. Recording from different spots will make a video interesting and engaging to watch. This technique will put you in the middle of all that is happening in an event. Shoot from different angles including below, above, and from close up and far back.

3.Use Widescreen Formats

The latest trend in videography is widescreen formats like the 26 by 9 ratio. Practice recording your videos using this format. This will allow you to include different aspects of the scene in a single shot. However, you should include other types of shots, like close-ups (CU) as well.

4.Avoid Frequent Zooms and Pans

Using pans and zooms frequently in your videos will make the audience bored. Avoid zooming and panning unnecessarily. Let the activities being filmed be captured most naturally, zooming in and out or panning frequently will distract the audience from the main message of the video. Allow the action being captured determine your camera movement.

5.Ensure Adequate Lighting

Experienced videographers are always aware of the level of ambient lighting and how it will affect their recording. If the lighting is low or poor, you should be ready with  additional lighting, or else you risk the video coming out vary dark. Mastering the right lighting setup and wattage will help you to get the best from every recording.

The above tips are just some techniques that will help you build up your videography skills. Take your time shooting practice videos and don’t be afraid to get creative. What works for one project, doesn’t necessarily work for another, so have a large bag of tricks you can pull from will help any project come out looking great.