Today I´m going to talk about how you can vlog without shaking your camera and get smooth footage that your viewers will LOVE!

Now, there are a few different things you can do so I´m going to try to only cover the most effective ones.

Let´s start.

1. Use Your Body Right!

Okay, you want to get the most stable footage possible but you don´t have a gimble or any sort of expensive equipment to help you with that, what do you do?

You do what you can with what you have!

So, what another great way to do just that than by using your own body, the right way.

Here are three quick and easy tips that can improve your shooting:

• You should both hands, not just one. Believe it or not, there are many people that shoot with only one hand, don´t be one of them! Make sure to grab both your body camera, as well as your lens when shooting, and take your time when moving.
• Hold your camera right! If you use your phone to record remember to use it horizontally, if not you are going to show those ugly black bars on the side of your video. On the other hand, if you use a DSLR you can grab the body of the camera and partially allow the lens to rest on your forearm. (but keep it at eye level!)
• Use your entire body. For example, extending your arms too much and getting it closer to your chest and locking your elbows in will certainly help you to get better-looking non-shaky footage.
• A proper center of gravity. Although it is similar to the last point I think it deserves a separate line. A proper center of gravity means simply standing with your knees slightly bend (if it makes sense) and your feet shoulder with apart, both things that will give you better core stability when moving.
• The 3 points of contact. I stole this one from another videographer, here´s how it works, you always try to have three points of contact when filming, both of your hands and the strap around your neck, or both of your hands and putting the camera on a solid surface, etc. The more points of contact with the camera you have the steadier your footage will be. Period.

Now, if you are going to vlog while walking then things get a bit more complicated.

Avoiding shakiness while walking and filming are pretty hard, there are not many things that you can do besides walking carefully, improving things on post-production (which is something that I´m going to talk later), or simply accesorizing well, like investing on a gimbal or a good monopod.

2. Get Creative!

You can use your enviroment, place your camera in any possible way that can make a great spot to film in, choose wisely your location, or do whatever it seems right in order to get a great video.

The goal is to get creative with it and make sure that you exhaust all possbilities.

I´ve personally rearranged furniture, used bookshelves, and even used a string to hold my camera from the fan ceiling (which I know sounds weird but it´s true!😬).

So, no matter what you do just try to keep in mind what your main goal is and get that smoothest possible video recorded.

3. Take Advantage Of Your Strap

If you have a strap that you can use with your camera then THAT is your firs step.

You can easily take advantage of your strap by using it to get more stability when you are recording.

Here´s how:

You can put the strap on your neck and make sure to take your camera with both of your hands as far as possible until it is fully stretched (without harming your neck).

That way, when you move you´ll have a bit more control and stability to get steadier footage as the tension from holding the camera with the strap like that helps with it.

Another thing you can do is use it as I usually do!

You can get your strap around your back, one end comes from your right shoulder and gets across your back (in a diagonal direction), and the other end of the strap comes from your lower left side, at the height of your stomach. Get it?

You´ll be able to grab your camera with both hand and you´ll use your back for maximum control and support of your shooting.

Plus! you can get pretty creative with it, I´ve used it to hang it from a tree branch and get cool cinematic footage of a good looking spot.

4. Learn To Smoothen On Edit

Another thing you can do is to get your footage to look much smoother on post-production.

You can easily make your videos look much better by tweaking a few things with your editing software.

Now, one thing I would advice you to do is to try to have as much clips as possible, you don´t want to end up with a crappy result just because you didn´t take another shot.

That being said, here´s how it works:

You can use your editing software function/effect to stabilize your video, for example, in both Premiere and After Effects it is the Warp Stabilizer which is in the “Effects Panel”, in DaVinci you have the stabilizer function within the “Tracker Tool”, and in Filmora there is a Stabilizer function in the Video panel.

So, as it is a common problem for most videographers, youtubers, and almost any sort of video creator, footage stabilization is a function that pretty much ANY software will have.

Therefore, if you couldn´t get that smooth effect or you just want to get rid off some sharkiness from your vlogs then consider looking into your software features and learn how to properly use this tool.

5. Shoot For The Edit

Finally, one of the last steps, if you´ve applied all of these different tips and tricks to improve your videos, and that is shoot for the edit.

But, what do I mean by that?

Simple! You can adjust your camera setting to avoid shaky videos at all.

For example, you can film at a high frame rate as it helps to smoother the footage when you then go and try to edit it on your software.

Another good example of shooting for the edit and making your job much easier when it comes to stable videos is to avoid zooming.

Whenever you zoom to get a better video or frame your subject you are going to deal with a ridiculous amount of shake sensitivity as the lens will capture every little movement you make while holding the camera, no matter how small it is.

The bottom line?

Try to film at a high frame rate whenever possible or makes sense, and avoid zooming when vlogging if you don´t want to unnecessary shakes on your videos.

EXTRA TIP! Here´s another one for you, you can also reduce shakiness by filming with a wider lens. A 10-18mm instead of the usual 18-55mm will do the work!

6. Accessorize Purposefully

Now you know that you can lower the amount of shakiness from your videos with ease if you learn how to use your software and shoot for edit, but…

…what if that´s not enough?

You can avoid making the same mistakes next time by investing in the proper gear.

Things like lens with image stabilizer properties or cameras with built-in stabilization capabilities are two of the greatest items you could get.

Another one is tripods, monopods, gimbals, and many other good options you´ll find if you know where to look.

Now, for those of you who don´t like to spend that much on gear but still want to benefit from a useful piece of equipment I found this great option:

The Monsterpod is actually a great alternative to the tripod and has AWESOME characteristics that make its use pretty wide.

So, whatever you choose to buy or use with your camera or phone you should try to be mindful about it, don´t buy an expensive tripod if you are going to shoot from the comfort of your bedroom 90% of the time, you don´t need it.

Related Questions

How do vloggers hold their camera? You can easily hold your camera in a few different ways, and that´s exactly what I talk about in this post: How To Hold Your Camera When Vlogging. So, check it out!

How to stabilize camera for vlogging? I think I´ve covered all the different factors that can affect how stable your footage and camera will be, so you might as well apply them and make sure that you have enough material to work with in case you´ve recorded shaky video clips.