Home Videos of Baby Filming Tips

Cell phones make great video cameras on-the-go!
But knowing how to use them properly can will make all the difference.

Sometimes the best videos of baby are captured on a cell phone.  But getting that "award winning shot" should be more than just beginner's luck.  Here are a few tips that I've learned while filming my son both with pro gear and my iPhone.


1. Make sure that your subject is front lit, and at all costs, avoid being back lit.
Even though manly cellphones and consumer grade handycams allow you to tap on the screen and the lighting will adjust automatically to the point you touched, it still doesn't make up for heavily back lit shots. If you can, move your baby into a position where you can place yourself between the light source and your baby and still get the image you want.

2. Try to avoid causing shadows on your subject.
If you followed the tip above and placed yourself between the light source and your baby, you have  to be careful to avoid causing shadows on your baby.  The auto lighting feature on your camera will have a difficult time composing a consistent shot, and you may be more focused on getting your shadow off of baby while fiming, as opposed to paying attention to what your baby's doing.

3. Start and end filming with a lot of cushion on either end.
As a director, I am always conscious of when I call action and cut.  You need to do the same with your home videos.  As soon as you see baby may be doing something you want captured, start rolling.  And as long as you have the memory space on the camera, keep rolling as long as possible. Chances are, as soon as you stop recording your baby will doing something amazing, and by the time you get the camera to roll again, you'll have missed the shot. As a great director once told me,  "When you feel like you want to call cut, wait a few more seconds, something magical may happen."  That advice has yet to fail me.

4. Engage with your baby when you're filming.
You may feel like you don't want your voice on every shot of your child, but your child is going to want to hear you interacting with them when they get older and watch these videos. They are going to want to hear that cutesy voice you inevitably use when engaging them as a baby!  And you can always edit out that sound later or cover it with music.  In addition, editing home videos is one of the services I provide through videobabybooks.com.

5. Get the shot from various angles and distances.
Sometimes your initial vantage point may look great with the naked eye, but once it's on film it is difficult to understand what you're looking at. Viewers need some kind of perspective when they are looking at footage and sometimes a tiny detail will be confusing to look at out of context. Again, here is where editing can be very useful to cut together all the different shots of the same event.