How I Make IGtv Style Videos

At the beginning of this year I started to make IGtv style videos. I started doing it on a whim, you may even remember my very first post about wanting to start them because I liked watching other peoples videos. Well, it turns out everyone else loves watching those videos as well. So, I rolled with it, and kept on creating them. I now make them 1-2 times a week and the videos and associated blog posts have become my most popular content. You could probably tell by the way they’ve taken over my blog.

I absolutely love hearing from my readers and each video prompts messages. Common questions I receive are, what do I use to edit them, what camera do I use, where is the clothing rack is from, and how do I get that bright lighting? So, today – I’m writing a post that has been a long time coming, giving you a behind the scenes look at what goes into my IGtv videos.

Camera

The question I’m asked the most is what kind of camera am I using. At the end of last year, I purchased a camera I saved and swooned over for years. It was an investment, and is pricey, but for the photography loving side of me – it is totally worth it.

I use a Canon 6D Mark II body with a Canon EF 35mm F/1.4L II lens. I researched this camera and lens combination for a good year before making the purchase. When making my videos I use a tripod and the canon app that connects to my phone for a self-timer.

Camera Tips

I’m making this its own section so if you’re not interested in the camera itself, just scroll on past.

The lens and body combination I bought makes for beautiful, crisp pictures and video. The lens also has the ability to take pictures at low apertures meaning great pictures, even in low lighting. I’m not techy at all, but I gathered in my research that this lens length was similar to that of a smartphone so it would give me full body photos, with a pretty bokeh in the background and keeping the entire body in focus. I also found that many professional photographers choose this lens most often.

Before purchasing this camera, I used a Canon Rebel and a Canon 80D, both of which are great cameras, but are crop frame. You can buy a nice lens for these cameras, and they will take good pictures, but it will not capture as much in the frame as it would on a full frame camera like the 6D. In a sense it zooms in on the subject, which is something I struggled with when taking full body outfit pictures. You needed to be farther away from the subject to get everything in the picture and it made for a softer focus. I paired a Sigma 35mm art lens with my Canon 80D and I thought the pictures were beautiful for a more affordable lens and camera combination. If you look back through my blog posts in 2019 I used the Canon80D and Sigma 35mm combination.

Shop My Camera

Lighting

I film my videos in the corner of my bedroom, my husband just loves the clothing rack that has taken up residence in that corner. We have a full set of windows on one side, and another window on the other side of the corner, so there is a lot of natural light. You can see it fully in my IG story, I will save it to a highlight!

Clothing Rack

I found the clothing rack on Amazon, where all the good stuff is found. I knew I wanted one with gold pipping and paired it with gold and taupe velvet hangers. The rack isn’t the cheapest around, but it’s good quality.

Shop My Clothing Rack

Editing

Since I use my camera, I could easily add the video to my phone from the canon camera connect app, however, I choose to edit my videos on my computer in Adobe Premier Pro. I’ve used Photoshop and Lightroom for years so it felt the most comfortable to me to use. If you would like a more detailed tutorial on editing videos in Premier Pro let me know, I’ll make another post for that!

Time

I could make an entire video in under an hour, but adding in the editing of photos and writing an associated blog post, my IGtv posts take me about 3 hours to create.

If you have any more questions, please feel free to reach out to me, I’m happy to help! Until we’re able to venture out again, I’m sure most of my content will be coming from this sunny little corner in my bedroom.

-Brooke