Accelerated Pathway Through Keying Fundamentals

The world of video-making owes much of its magic to small leaps of innovation. One of these leaps is the use of the chroma key background, which most people know by the more colloquial term—green screen.

Chroma key, also known as green screen or blue screen, is a cool hack for seamless visual storytelling, allowing content creators to replace backgrounds with any image or video they want. This technique is widely embraced in film, television, and online content, and has opened the door to limitless creative possibilities. Aside from its ability to maximize creativity, it is also cheap to employ and convenient to set up, which has made it a staple for everyone who works with visuals.

In this simple guide, we’ll delve into the fundamentals of the chroma key effect, how it is used for video making, and how to leverage that as you perfect your visual content.

YouTube Video Background Creating realistic video scenes at your will is easy to complete with Filmora green screen removal.

Create Video Backgrounds Create Video Backgrounds Learn Green Screen

How Does Chroma Key Work?

Chroma Keying is done by singling out a specific color (usually green or blue) from the foreground, removing it, and replacing it with a different background (for example, a sunset). This process typically follows a series of steps:

• Background Selection:

A solid, single-color background, often green or blue, that contrasts well with the subject must be used. The color chosen should not be present in the subject or any props in the camera field to avoid unintentional transparency.

• Color Keying:

This requires the use of specialized visual effects software to key out the chosen color. The green or blue background is designated as transparent, making everything of that color see-through. The software distinguishes between the keyed color and the subject, creating a mask for the transparent areas.

• Foreground Filming:

This involves filming the subject against the live chroma key background. During filming, the chosen background color (green or blue) won’t appear in the final result due to its transparency. The subject is captured as if separately from the isolated background.

• Post-Processing:

In post-production processing, the editor takes the keyed-out color and replaces it with the new background of their choice. This step creates the illusion that the subject is in a different setting or environment. The transparent areas become filled with the chosen background which, if done right, results in a cohesive and visually appealing composition.

Why Green?

Theoretically, the chroma key background can be any solid color. However, the most commonly used colors are studio blue and bright green, with the latter far more common.

The choice of background color depends on the specific requirements of the production and the colors present in the scenes being filmed.

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Contrast

The less similar your chosen background color is to natural skin tones, the easier to isolate and replace in your footage. Bright green provides a strong contrast to most human skin tones and is less likely to be present in costumes or natural surroundings, making it easier to isolate subjects during the color separation.

Luminance

The color green emits light with greater intensity than blue, allowing for far more effective isolation by cameras during filming. This also means that blue screens demand increased lighting for proper exposure compared to green. This situation may be less than ideal if you lack powerful lighting or you don’t have the big bucks for them.

Digital Sensors

Many digital cameras and sensors are more sensitive to green wavelengths, resulting in cleaner and more accurate color keying during post-processing. Modern technology has also evolved to optimize for a green background, making it a more practical choice for the chroma key effect.

Wardrobe and Set Design

Bright green occurs less naturally in costumes and set designs than other colors, making green the optimal choice for reducing the likelihood of color spill and keying issues. However, if you know your scene will have lots of green, it is probably best to film with a blue screen, so there’s less risk of color spill and less post-production work.

Setting up Your Own Chroma Key Studio

Setting up your chroma key is convenient and straightforward, but there are some key factors to consider while setting up to ensure maximal performance.

Choosing the Right Background Color

The first step in the chroma key setup is selecting the right background color to be keyed out. This choice determines your effective color separation and ensures a smooth keying process during editing. Choosing a chroma-key background color that contrasts distinctly with the subject’s colors is essential for effective color separation. This prevents unintentional transparency, color spill, and ensures a polished final result.

Lighting Considerations

Lighting is an important part of the chroma-keying process. Bold, uniform, and consistent lighting on both the subject and the background makes it easy to delineate one from the other fully. This minimizes shadows and variations in color, creating a smooth and seamless keying process. Multiple diffuse lights from different angles are often used to illuminate the green screen evenly.

Positioning/Camera

Proper subject and camera placement are necessary to ensure an even color-keying process during post-production. To prevent shadow interference, the green screen should be smooth, tense, and without wrinkles or shadows.

High-quality cameras are essential every time, especially for chroma keying. Images with better definition are easier to key, so camera quality significantly affects the outcome. Even if your camera isn’t the best, merely shooting well can ensure a clean color-keying process during editing, resulting in professional-looking visuals.

Recording Tips for Chroma Key

• Proper Lighting

Maintaining uniform and well-defined lighting during recording is essential for a successful chroma-keying process. This consistency ensures a seamless keying process during post-production.

• Keep Distance from the Green Screen

The optimal distance between the subject and the green screen minimizes color spill and allows for natural movements. Proper distance between subject and background allows for easier isolation of the background and much smoother post-editing. A recommended starting point for the issue is around 6 to 10 feet from the background.

• Subjects and Clothing

As mentioned before, the choice of costume for Selecting appropriate clothing that doesn’t match the chroma key color prevents transparency issues. Subjects also have to be positioned in such a way that there is minimal light interference and reflection. These contribute to a flawless chroma key outcome.

3 Basic Troubleshooting Strategies

• Color Spill

Sometimes, reflected light from your green background can be cast on your subject and may remain so when the background light is keyed out. This phenomenon is known as a color spill. It is usually because of uneven lighting or shooting around reflecting surfaces. Avoiding spill can differentiate between good and lousy chroma key aftereffects.

Human hair is one area where color spill can show up unsuspectingly. Due to the translucency of hair, it is common for some unintended light to seep through. This allows some background visibility, which you do not want with a chroma key. This is especially notable with lighter hair colors like blond hair.

There are ways to account for this. Many video-editing software have features such as spill suppression and screen matte adjustments that can enhance the final footage. Specialized plugins also go a long way in ensuring minimizing spill. Addressing spill correction tackles unwanted green artifacts and ensures a clean keying process.

• Poor Lighting

Suboptimal green screen lighting can lead to inconsistencies in keying and editing, undermining your product. One way to avoid this is to light the screen and subject separately. Another tip, although expensive, is using multiple diffuse light sources and trying to maintain even lighting across every square foot of your scene. Super bright or dark spots can ruin your output, so it’s worth the extra effort if you don’t want to deal with problematic post-production.

• Poorly Refined Edges

Chroma keying should leave your videos with crisp, defined, natural-looking edges. But post-production editing can make all the difference if it doesn’t come out to your taste. Softening and refining edges make a smoother transition between the foreground object and the new background. Light adjustments to edge thickness and screen matte settings can also help enhance overall visual quality and add finesse to your work.

Conclusion

Green screen photography produces excellent results, and its ease of use makes it indispensable for videographers of all levels. In this guide, we’ve discussed chroma key technology, its role in the industry, and how to apply it to your craft to elevate visual content.

Chroma key, also known as green screen or blue screen, is a cool hack for seamless visual storytelling, allowing content creators to replace backgrounds with any image or video they want. This technique is widely embraced in film, television, and online content, and has opened the door to limitless creative possibilities. Aside from its ability to maximize creativity, it is also cheap to employ and convenient to set up, which has made it a staple for everyone who works with visuals.

In this simple guide, we’ll delve into the fundamentals of the chroma key effect, how it is used for video making, and how to leverage that as you perfect your visual content.

YouTube Video Background Creating realistic video scenes at your will is easy to complete with Filmora green screen removal.

Create Video Backgrounds Create Video Backgrounds Learn Green Screen

DLNow Video Downloader

How Does Chroma Key Work?

Chroma Keying is done by singling out a specific color (usually green or blue) from the foreground, removing it, and replacing it with a different background (for example, a sunset). This process typically follows a series of steps:

• Background Selection:

A solid, single-color background, often green or blue, that contrasts well with the subject must be used. The color chosen should not be present in the subject or any props in the camera field to avoid unintentional transparency.

• Color Keying:

This requires the use of specialized visual effects software to key out the chosen color. The green or blue background is designated as transparent, making everything of that color see-through. The software distinguishes between the keyed color and the subject, creating a mask for the transparent areas.

• Foreground Filming:

This involves filming the subject against the live chroma key background. During filming, the chosen background color (green or blue) won’t appear in the final result due to its transparency. The subject is captured as if separately from the isolated background.

• Post-Processing:

In post-production processing, the editor takes the keyed-out color and replaces it with the new background of their choice. This step creates the illusion that the subject is in a different setting or environment. The transparent areas become filled with the chosen background which, if done right, results in a cohesive and visually appealing composition.

Why Green?

Theoretically, the chroma key background can be any solid color. However, the most commonly used colors are studio blue and bright green, with the latter far more common.

The choice of background color depends on the specific requirements of the production and the colors present in the scenes being filmed.

Free Download For Win 7 or later(64-bit)

Free Download For macOS 10.14 or later

Contrast

The less similar your chosen background color is to natural skin tones, the easier to isolate and replace in your footage. Bright green provides a strong contrast to most human skin tones and is less likely to be present in costumes or natural surroundings, making it easier to isolate subjects during the color separation.

Luminance

The color green emits light with greater intensity than blue, allowing for far more effective isolation by cameras during filming. This also means that blue screens demand increased lighting for proper exposure compared to green. This situation may be less than ideal if you lack powerful lighting or you don’t have the big bucks for them.

Digital Sensors

Many digital cameras and sensors are more sensitive to green wavelengths, resulting in cleaner and more accurate color keying during post-processing. Modern technology has also evolved to optimize for a green background, making it a more practical choice for the chroma key effect.

Wardrobe and Set Design

Bright green occurs less naturally in costumes and set designs than other colors, making green the optimal choice for reducing the likelihood of color spill and keying issues. However, if you know your scene will have lots of green, it is probably best to film with a blue screen, so there’s less risk of color spill and less post-production work.

Setting up Your Own Chroma Key Studio

Setting up your chroma key is convenient and straightforward, but there are some key factors to consider while setting up to ensure maximal performance.

Choosing the Right Background Color

The first step in the chroma key setup is selecting the right background color to be keyed out. This choice determines your effective color separation and ensures a smooth keying process during editing. Choosing a chroma-key background color that contrasts distinctly with the subject’s colors is essential for effective color separation. This prevents unintentional transparency, color spill, and ensures a polished final result.

Lighting Considerations

Lighting is an important part of the chroma-keying process. Bold, uniform, and consistent lighting on both the subject and the background makes it easy to delineate one from the other fully. This minimizes shadows and variations in color, creating a smooth and seamless keying process. Multiple diffuse lights from different angles are often used to illuminate the green screen evenly.

Positioning/Camera

Proper subject and camera placement are necessary to ensure an even color-keying process during post-production. To prevent shadow interference, the green screen should be smooth, tense, and without wrinkles or shadows.

High-quality cameras are essential every time, especially for chroma keying. Images with better definition are easier to key, so camera quality significantly affects the outcome. Even if your camera isn’t the best, merely shooting well can ensure a clean color-keying process during editing, resulting in professional-looking visuals.

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Recording Tips for Chroma Key

• Proper Lighting

Maintaining uniform and well-defined lighting during recording is essential for a successful chroma-keying process. This consistency ensures a seamless keying process during post-production.

• Keep Distance from the Green Screen

The optimal distance between the subject and the green screen minimizes color spill and allows for natural movements. Proper distance between subject and background allows for easier isolation of the background and much smoother post-editing. A recommended starting point for the issue is around 6 to 10 feet from the background.

• Subjects and Clothing

As mentioned before, the choice of costume for Selecting appropriate clothing that doesn’t match the chroma key color prevents transparency issues. Subjects also have to be positioned in such a way that there is minimal light interference and reflection. These contribute to a flawless chroma key outcome.

3 Basic Troubleshooting Strategies

• Color Spill

Sometimes, reflected light from your green background can be cast on your subject and may remain so when the background light is keyed out. This phenomenon is known as a color spill. It is usually because of uneven lighting or shooting around reflecting surfaces. Avoiding spill can differentiate between good and lousy chroma key aftereffects.

Human hair is one area where color spill can show up unsuspectingly. Due to the translucency of hair, it is common for some unintended light to seep through. This allows some background visibility, which you do not want with a chroma key. This is especially notable with lighter hair colors like blond hair.

There are ways to account for this. Many video-editing software have features such as spill suppression and screen matte adjustments that can enhance the final footage. Specialized plugins also go a long way in ensuring minimizing spill. Addressing spill correction tackles unwanted green artifacts and ensures a clean keying process.

• Poor Lighting

Suboptimal green screen lighting can lead to inconsistencies in keying and editing, undermining your product. One way to avoid this is to light the screen and subject separately. Another tip, although expensive, is using multiple diffuse light sources and trying to maintain even lighting across every square foot of your scene. Super bright or dark spots can ruin your output, so it’s worth the extra effort if you don’t want to deal with problematic post-production.

• Poorly Refined Edges

Chroma keying should leave your videos with crisp, defined, natural-looking edges. But post-production editing can make all the difference if it doesn’t come out to your taste. Softening and refining edges make a smoother transition between the foreground object and the new background. Light adjustments to edge thickness and screen matte settings can also help enhance overall visual quality and add finesse to your work.

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Conclusion

Green screen photography produces excellent results, and its ease of use makes it indispensable for videographers of all levels. In this guide, we’ve discussed chroma key technology, its role in the industry, and how to apply it to your craft to elevate visual content.

Unique Vlogging Conversation Pieces

Daily Vlogging Ideas: What to Talk about While Vlogging?

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Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

Every genre on YouTube has its own unique challenges, but daily vlogging is probably the hardest thing you could take on. Firstly because it means you have to do all the work of shooting and editing every day and secondly because it means you need to have something to talk about every single day. Even vlogging once or twice a week is tough.

How do you know what you should talk about in your vlog ? Some people are so comfortable in front of the camera they can just turn it on and start talking about whatever’s on their mind, but they’re in the minority.

Before starting your daily vlogging, you have to figure out one important thing ahead of time.

Do you have a niche?

You should have a niche. In a genre as broad as vlogging it is important to have some kind of hook that sets you apart from other vloggers. This can be an interest that you have, an industry you work in, or even a field of study you’re involved in at school. If you’re into technology, for example, you’ll always have a wealth of subjects to vlog about because all you’ll have to do is look at the day’s tech news and make a video reporting and commenting on it.

The other reason it’s good to have a niche is that you’ll be able to use keywords related to that niche in your video titles and tags. It’s hard to make it with a vlogging channel because nobody is searching for your content unless you are covering a specific topic like the technology they want to hear about.

• What are you watching/reading?
• Snapshots of Your Day
• Whatever You Need to Get Out
• What did you learn today?

Here are 4 things to talk about in your daily vlog:

What are you watching/reading?

If you’re really into a book or tv show, or if you saw a movie recently, then those are all good things to talk about (warn people if you’re going to spoil anything!). You do recaps, reviews, or just share a few thoughts you had. If you’re worried about alienating people who don’t watch/read the same stuff as you then you can keep it more general and just react to a few things from the media you’re consuming while also talking about your day. It’ll give you an anchor to build the rest of your video around, even if it’s not all you talk about.

By commenting on what you’re watching/reading you have a better chance of capitalizing on a trending topic people are searching for. You could also find yourself an audience by becoming involved in fan communities.

Snapshots of Your Day

Casey Neistat is the master of this. He is always ready with a camera on hand so that, when something interesting happens, he can capture it and build his daily vlog around it.

Carrying a camera around like Casey may or may not suit your lifestyle, but you can still pick out one story from your day to tell. It doesn’t have to be a major event, and you shouldn’t worry that it won’t be interesting to other people. It’s your personality they’re tuning in for, so even if you’re just talking about a funny thing your cat did it will keep your audience interested because a) it’s you talking about it and b) it gives them a bit of insight into your life.

Whatever You Need to Get Out

Flula is frequently puzzled by English expressions, like ‘Party Pooper’, and needs to get his confusion off his chest at odd hours of the day.

Ranting about people you know can get messy when people from your offline life see it, so maybe avoid that. However, if you’re angry about something in general – or really happy about something – then whatever it is you’re feeling strongly about is probably the thing you should be vlogging about.

It does not matter what it is that is making you have this strong reaction (unless, again, it’s an actual person who might see your video and cause problems for you). If you’re mad about a real injustice in the world then that’s a great thing to talk about – you might even raise some awareness for the issue – but you can also rant about your favorite flavor of yogurt being cut and that’ll be engaging to viewers too.

Alternatively: you could do a vlog about how happy you are to have gotten engaged or a vlog about how happy you are that it was sunny today, and your enthusiasm will carry your audience through either video with you.

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What did you learn today?

Fun fact: The original lyrics Paul McCartney imagined for ‘Yesterday’ were ‘Scrambled eggs, oh my baby how I love your legs’.

You learn something new every day, right? Why not share that factoid with your viewers. Here a few facts to get you started:

Whales evolved from a land-based animal called a pakicetus.

The hagfish hunt by swimming into the mouth of a larger fish and eating it from the inside.

Crows live in family units, visit their aging parents, and have funerals for dead crows.

The puya chilensis is a plant that ‘eats’ sheep (sheep get stuck to it, starve, and end up as fertilizer).

Sea monkeys can survive in space.

EVERYTHING

You could also just flick the camera on and tell the full story of your day like you’d do in a traditional daily blog. What did you have for breakfast, how was school/work, did you talk to any friends, how was the weather – anything and everything. Generally, these videos can run a bit long and don’t have a lot of snappy editing. They’re faster to make, which is good if you’re doing them every day, but the unpolished nature of them won’t appeal to everyone. It will be exactly what appeals to some people, though.

Customize Your Vlog Stories with Powerful Video Editor

We’ve got a new eBook out!

It’s got strategies that have worked for other YouTubers, boiled down to simple action steps.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

Every genre on YouTube has its own unique challenges, but daily vlogging is probably the hardest thing you could take on. Firstly because it means you have to do all the work of shooting and editing every day and secondly because it means you need to have something to talk about every single day. Even vlogging once or twice a week is tough.

How do you know what you should talk about in your vlog ? Some people are so comfortable in front of the camera they can just turn it on and start talking about whatever’s on their mind, but they’re in the minority.

Before starting your daily vlogging, you have to figure out one important thing ahead of time.

Do you have a niche?

You should have a niche. In a genre as broad as vlogging it is important to have some kind of hook that sets you apart from other vloggers. This can be an interest that you have, an industry you work in, or even a field of study you’re involved in at school. If you’re into technology, for example, you’ll always have a wealth of subjects to vlog about because all you’ll have to do is look at the day’s tech news and make a video reporting and commenting on it.

The other reason it’s good to have a niche is that you’ll be able to use keywords related to that niche in your video titles and tags. It’s hard to make it with a vlogging channel because nobody is searching for your content unless you are covering a specific topic like the technology they want to hear about.

• What are you watching/reading?
• Snapshots of Your Day
• Whatever You Need to Get Out
• What did you learn today?

Here are 4 things to talk about in your daily vlog:

What are you watching/reading?

If you’re really into a book or tv show, or if you saw a movie recently, then those are all good things to talk about (warn people if you’re going to spoil anything!). You do recaps, reviews, or just share a few thoughts you had. If you’re worried about alienating people who don’t watch/read the same stuff as you then you can keep it more general and just react to a few things from the media you’re consuming while also talking about your day. It’ll give you an anchor to build the rest of your video around, even if it’s not all you talk about.

By commenting on what you’re watching/reading you have a better chance of capitalizing on a trending topic people are searching for. You could also find yourself an audience by becoming involved in fan communities.

Snapshots of Your Day

Casey Neistat is the master of this. He is always ready with a camera on hand so that, when something interesting happens, he can capture it and build his daily vlog around it.

Carrying a camera around like Casey may or may not suit your lifestyle, but you can still pick out one story from your day to tell. It doesn’t have to be a major event, and you shouldn’t worry that it won’t be interesting to other people. It’s your personality they’re tuning in for, so even if you’re just talking about a funny thing your cat did it will keep your audience interested because a) it’s you talking about it and b) it gives them a bit of insight into your life.

Whatever You Need to Get Out

Flula is frequently puzzled by English expressions, like ‘Party Pooper’, and needs to get his confusion off his chest at odd hours of the day.

Ranting about people you know can get messy when people from your offline life see it, so maybe avoid that. However, if you’re angry about something in general – or really happy about something – then whatever it is you’re feeling strongly about is probably the thing you should be vlogging about.

It does not matter what it is that is making you have this strong reaction (unless, again, it’s an actual person who might see your video and cause problems for you). If you’re mad about a real injustice in the world then that’s a great thing to talk about – you might even raise some awareness for the issue – but you can also rant about your favorite flavor of yogurt being cut and that’ll be engaging to viewers too.

Alternatively: you could do a vlog about how happy you are to have gotten engaged or a vlog about how happy you are that it was sunny today, and your enthusiasm will carry your audience through either video with you.

What did you learn today?

Fun fact: The original lyrics Paul McCartney imagined for ‘Yesterday’ were ‘Scrambled eggs, oh my baby how I love your legs’.

You learn something new every day, right? Why not share that factoid with your viewers. Here a few facts to get you started:

Whales evolved from a land-based animal called a pakicetus.

The hagfish hunt by swimming into the mouth of a larger fish and eating it from the inside.

Crows live in family units, visit their aging parents, and have funerals for dead crows.

The puya chilensis is a plant that ‘eats’ sheep (sheep get stuck to it, starve, and end up as fertilizer).

Sea monkeys can survive in space.

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EVERYTHING

You could also just flick the camera on and tell the full story of your day like you’d do in a traditional daily blog. What did you have for breakfast, how was school/work, did you talk to any friends, how was the weather – anything and everything. Generally, these videos can run a bit long and don’t have a lot of snappy editing. They’re faster to make, which is good if you’re doing them every day, but the unpolished nature of them won’t appeal to everyone. It will be exactly what appeals to some people, though.

Customize Your Vlog Stories with Powerful Video Editor

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We’ve got a new eBook out!

It’s got strategies that have worked for other YouTubers, boiled down to simple action steps.

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Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

Every genre on YouTube has its own unique challenges, but daily vlogging is probably the hardest thing you could take on. Firstly because it means you have to do all the work of shooting and editing every day and secondly because it means you need to have something to talk about every single day. Even vlogging once or twice a week is tough.

How do you know what you should talk about in your vlog ? Some people are so comfortable in front of the camera they can just turn it on and start talking about whatever’s on their mind, but they’re in the minority.

Before starting your daily vlogging, you have to figure out one important thing ahead of time.

Do you have a niche?

You should have a niche. In a genre as broad as vlogging it is important to have some kind of hook that sets you apart from other vloggers. This can be an interest that you have, an industry you work in, or even a field of study you’re involved in at school. If you’re into technology, for example, you’ll always have a wealth of subjects to vlog about because all you’ll have to do is look at the day’s tech news and make a video reporting and commenting on it.

The other reason it’s good to have a niche is that you’ll be able to use keywords related to that niche in your video titles and tags. It’s hard to make it with a vlogging channel because nobody is searching for your content unless you are covering a specific topic like the technology they want to hear about.

• What are you watching/reading?
• Snapshots of Your Day
• Whatever You Need to Get Out
• What did you learn today?

Here are 4 things to talk about in your daily vlog:

What are you watching/reading?

If you’re really into a book or tv show, or if you saw a movie recently, then those are all good things to talk about (warn people if you’re going to spoil anything!). You do recaps, reviews, or just share a few thoughts you had. If you’re worried about alienating people who don’t watch/read the same stuff as you then you can keep it more general and just react to a few things from the media you’re consuming while also talking about your day. It’ll give you an anchor to build the rest of your video around, even if it’s not all you talk about.

By commenting on what you’re watching/reading you have a better chance of capitalizing on a trending topic people are searching for. You could also find yourself an audience by becoming involved in fan communities.

Snapshots of Your Day

Casey Neistat is the master of this. He is always ready with a camera on hand so that, when something interesting happens, he can capture it and build his daily vlog around it.

Carrying a camera around like Casey may or may not suit your lifestyle, but you can still pick out one story from your day to tell. It doesn’t have to be a major event, and you shouldn’t worry that it won’t be interesting to other people. It’s your personality they’re tuning in for, so even if you’re just talking about a funny thing your cat did it will keep your audience interested because a) it’s you talking about it and b) it gives them a bit of insight into your life.

Whatever You Need to Get Out

Flula is frequently puzzled by English expressions, like ‘Party Pooper’, and needs to get his confusion off his chest at odd hours of the day.

Ranting about people you know can get messy when people from your offline life see it, so maybe avoid that. However, if you’re angry about something in general – or really happy about something – then whatever it is you’re feeling strongly about is probably the thing you should be vlogging about.

It does not matter what it is that is making you have this strong reaction (unless, again, it’s an actual person who might see your video and cause problems for you). If you’re mad about a real injustice in the world then that’s a great thing to talk about – you might even raise some awareness for the issue – but you can also rant about your favorite flavor of yogurt being cut and that’ll be engaging to viewers too.

Alternatively: you could do a vlog about how happy you are to have gotten engaged or a vlog about how happy you are that it was sunny today, and your enthusiasm will carry your audience through either video with you.

What did you learn today?

Fun fact: The original lyrics Paul McCartney imagined for ‘Yesterday’ were ‘Scrambled eggs, oh my baby how I love your legs’.

You learn something new every day, right? Why not share that factoid with your viewers. Here a few facts to get you started:

Whales evolved from a land-based animal called a pakicetus.

The hagfish hunt by swimming into the mouth of a larger fish and eating it from the inside.

Crows live in family units, visit their aging parents, and have funerals for dead crows.

The puya chilensis is a plant that ‘eats’ sheep (sheep get stuck to it, starve, and end up as fertilizer).

Sea monkeys can survive in space.

EVERYTHING

You could also just flick the camera on and tell the full story of your day like you’d do in a traditional daily blog. What did you have for breakfast, how was school/work, did you talk to any friends, how was the weather – anything and everything. Generally, these videos can run a bit long and don’t have a lot of snappy editing. They’re faster to make, which is good if you’re doing them every day, but the unpolished nature of them won’t appeal to everyone. It will be exactly what appeals to some people, though.

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Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

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Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

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Every genre on YouTube has its own unique challenges, but daily vlogging is probably the hardest thing you could take on. Firstly because it means you have to do all the work of shooting and editing every day and secondly because it means you need to have something to talk about every single day. Even vlogging once or twice a week is tough.

How do you know what you should talk about in your vlog ? Some people are so comfortable in front of the camera they can just turn it on and start talking about whatever’s on their mind, but they’re in the minority.

Before starting your daily vlogging, you have to figure out one important thing ahead of time.

Do you have a niche?

You should have a niche. In a genre as broad as vlogging it is important to have some kind of hook that sets you apart from other vloggers. This can be an interest that you have, an industry you work in, or even a field of study you’re involved in at school. If you’re into technology, for example, you’ll always have a wealth of subjects to vlog about because all you’ll have to do is look at the day’s tech news and make a video reporting and commenting on it.

The other reason it’s good to have a niche is that you’ll be able to use keywords related to that niche in your video titles and tags. It’s hard to make it with a vlogging channel because nobody is searching for your content unless you are covering a specific topic like the technology they want to hear about.

• What are you watching/reading?
• Snapshots of Your Day
• Whatever You Need to Get Out
• What did you learn today?

Here are 4 things to talk about in your daily vlog:

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What are you watching/reading?

If you’re really into a book or tv show, or if you saw a movie recently, then those are all good things to talk about (warn people if you’re going to spoil anything!). You do recaps, reviews, or just share a few thoughts you had. If you’re worried about alienating people who don’t watch/read the same stuff as you then you can keep it more general and just react to a few things from the media you’re consuming while also talking about your day. It’ll give you an anchor to build the rest of your video around, even if it’s not all you talk about.

By commenting on what you’re watching/reading you have a better chance of capitalizing on a trending topic people are searching for. You could also find yourself an audience by becoming involved in fan communities.

Snapshots of Your Day

Casey Neistat is the master of this. He is always ready with a camera on hand so that, when something interesting happens, he can capture it and build his daily vlog around it.

Carrying a camera around like Casey may or may not suit your lifestyle, but you can still pick out one story from your day to tell. It doesn’t have to be a major event, and you shouldn’t worry that it won’t be interesting to other people. It’s your personality they’re tuning in for, so even if you’re just talking about a funny thing your cat did it will keep your audience interested because a) it’s you talking about it and b) it gives them a bit of insight into your life.

Whatever You Need to Get Out

Flula is frequently puzzled by English expressions, like ‘Party Pooper’, and needs to get his confusion off his chest at odd hours of the day.

Ranting about people you know can get messy when people from your offline life see it, so maybe avoid that. However, if you’re angry about something in general – or really happy about something – then whatever it is you’re feeling strongly about is probably the thing you should be vlogging about.

It does not matter what it is that is making you have this strong reaction (unless, again, it’s an actual person who might see your video and cause problems for you). If you’re mad about a real injustice in the world then that’s a great thing to talk about – you might even raise some awareness for the issue – but you can also rant about your favorite flavor of yogurt being cut and that’ll be engaging to viewers too.

Alternatively: you could do a vlog about how happy you are to have gotten engaged or a vlog about how happy you are that it was sunny today, and your enthusiasm will carry your audience through either video with you.

What did you learn today?

Fun fact: The original lyrics Paul McCartney imagined for ‘Yesterday’ were ‘Scrambled eggs, oh my baby how I love your legs’.

You learn something new every day, right? Why not share that factoid with your viewers. Here a few facts to get you started:

Whales evolved from a land-based animal called a pakicetus.

The hagfish hunt by swimming into the mouth of a larger fish and eating it from the inside.

Crows live in family units, visit their aging parents, and have funerals for dead crows.

The puya chilensis is a plant that ‘eats’ sheep (sheep get stuck to it, starve, and end up as fertilizer).

Sea monkeys can survive in space.

EVERYTHING

You could also just flick the camera on and tell the full story of your day like you’d do in a traditional daily blog. What did you have for breakfast, how was school/work, did you talk to any friends, how was the weather – anything and everything. Generally, these videos can run a bit long and don’t have a lot of snappy editing. They’re faster to make, which is good if you’re doing them every day, but the unpolished nature of them won’t appeal to everyone. It will be exactly what appeals to some people, though.

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Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett