For those who aren’t involved in producing YouTube content you’re most likely unaware of the difficulties involved. It’s a real challenge, but I’m NOT complaining. It’s just very frustrating because I put a lot into making these videos and want them to have the best visual and sound quality possible. It’s not something that comes easily and without the right equipment. 

As you’ve most likely noticed my video quality has varied greatly. At first I was using my iPhone and an older video camera and quickly changed to just using the phone. With the phone it’s almost impossible to get a good exposure on many shots. The visual quality of my videos was poor. As a result I “stole” some of the funds I was saving to put AC in my shop to buy a good digital camera. The camera I bought is a Canon Rebel EOS SL2. It’s really helped improve the quality of my videos but I’m still having some difficulty with focus and exposure. The more I use the new camera the better the quality of the videos I’m producing. It’s been a steep learning curve. Of course just yesterday I saw the announcement that the next modei, the SL3 camera, will be released soon. One can never stay ahead of tencnology.

I have also installed window shades. They are making a big difference when I use the windows as a backdrop for my videos. With the new camera that was still the biggest problem area. There is too much backlight from the windows, especially in the afternoon.

There is a lot more to learn but I can say that I’m becoming more pleased with the video quality. The only thing I can do now is to eventually buy some studio type lighting fixtures for the shop. That’s not going to happen anytime soon. For now I’m happy with the improvements in the video quality.

The change in the sound in the videos has changed drastically. At first I had to use the microphone in the iPhone when recording in the shop and the computer's microphone for voice overs. This obviously wasn’t adequate and I often reverted to almost shouting. The sound wasn’t much better after I bought the new camera. The solution for the shop came first. I bought an inexpensive lavalier or lapel microphone. While it’s not the best in sound quality it’s much better than the microphone in my camera. 

The biggest issue I’ve had with that microphone is it’s attached to the camera by a cord. That’s become extremely frustrating for several reasons. First of all I’m always teathered to the camera and have to remember to plug in my microphone cord to the extension microphone cord that’s attached to the camera. Attaching the other end to the camera is also something I have to remember. I can’t count the number of hours lost recording videos when one end or the other wasn’t plugged in. The cord is also a danger. It’s a tripping hazard as well as a hazzard for tipping over the tripod with the camera attached onto the concrete floor. Fortunately neither has happened yet but I have to be very careful. 

My goal is to eventually buy a cordless lavalier microphone that has better quality audio. It will allow me to keep the receiver attached to the camera and eleminate the dangers of the cord. Unfortunately these microphones of any decent quality are fairly expensive. I have a lot of other items that I need before I can buy one. 

For my office I’ve bought one of the best available USB microphones, a Blue Yeti, for voice overs. It’s been a learning experience but I’m producing much better voice overs on my videos since I started using this microphone. Evidently the Blue Yeti is one of the most popular desk microphones used on YouTube.  It’s been a game changer for me.

I’ve also been experimenting with editing software for my iMac computer. For the most part I’m using iMovie. It came with the computer and is a fairly good program. Recently I added a program called Filmora which I use for some segments where iMovie won’t do what I want. 

This week I’ve learned to use another program that came with my computer, Keynote. While this program is designed to create live presentations it has some strong features that I’ve been using to animate objects in my videos and add text. There are other things that this program will do that I need to explore.

Perhaps the biggest difficulty I have faced is storage space on my computer. The iMac comes with 1 TB of disc storage space but I’ve found that video quickly fills that up. As a result I’ve had to clean out both photo and document files of all unneeded items and duplicates. I’ve also moved many of my video clips to an external hard drive. For now I’m OK but I can quickly see the memory filling up so I’ll need to continue working to move things over to my external drive.

My goal still remains to produce the best content for woodworkers with the best visual and audio that I can produce. I greatly appreciate all of you who have viewed my videos. I’m sorry that some are more difficult to watch and listen to than I’d like.