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Sent from my iPhone: Why You Don’t Always Need a Fancy Camera

Sep 11 2012

One of the most common questions people ask about our videos is "what camera did you use?". Well, for this video, we only used an iPhone. (Notice anything about the music?)


Technology is evolving rapidly, and these days, even the simplest of video cameras is capable of capturing solid video footage. It's not just flip cams and point-and-shoot cameras. There's some incredibly powerful technology built right into your smartphone. It's not so much about buying the most expensive, cutting edge equipment as it is about focusing on other important elements of a great video, like audio, lighting, and the message that you're trying to deliver.

Okay, so we used our usual bag of tricks like the famed "Wistia backdrop" and a camera dolly. But this video was made to prove that you don't need to worry as much about the camera in particular. There are plenty of tools and tricks all along the spectrum of budgets and skill levels to make your video look good.

How did we do it? Chris broke down the process with a behind-the-scenes look into some of the tricks we used to produce the video.

Visit the Wistia Learning Center.

Find more video marketing and production resources.

Here are the tools that Chris mentioned in the video:

Are we suggesting that you put your Canon 5D or RED Epic on eBay? Definitely not! The iPhone certainly has limitations, especially in the broadcast and film world. And no one can argue with the effectiveness of interchangeable lens format cameras and how far that technology has come. But the accessibility, ease of use, and overall image quality does make the iPhone (and similar smartphones) an effective means for shooting your next web video.

Alyce (123 Posts)

Content Strategist


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This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 11th, 2012 at 3:47 pm and is filed under Making Video. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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  • Steph

    How do you edit the video once it is taken? Export?

  • jayspann

    I think I’ve been on the internet too long… out of (the less than 60 comments) I know 3 different people.

    What if Kevin Bacon had the internet?

  • http://www.facebook.com/ed.estlow Ed Estlow

    Excellent post! Just what this newbie iPhone videographer needed.

    BTW – What dolly/slider were you using at the end of the video?

  • Maggie

    I’d also love to know about a comparable Android app — any suggestions?

  • http://www.facebook.com/rvsvalve Justin Hinkofer

    Same, any comparable app for Android?

  • Alyce

    Hi @facebook-1228288008:disqus @facebook-628926072:disqus @75f4aec53fb453de60508212178eee82:disqus @facebook-703545312:disqus, most of us are iPhone users and we’ve asked around about comparable Android apps and not found an answer from anyone (only more questions). If anyone tries anything that works out well for you, we’d definitely like to hear about it!

  • http://www.facebook.com/blakehammerton Blake Alexander Hammerton

    Okay, different question than the one I asked previously:

    I just picked up a lighting kit this morning (three softboxes and stands). I’m comfortable with boom mics and all that, but the lighting is my pickle. I have a JVC Evirio SD camera and I don’t know (think) if I have the ability to lock exposure. Is there a way to get that darker halo (me in the center is lit, but things around me are darker, like in this video) in post-production? I have iMovie, but will upgrade to something else if you recommend it.

    I stumbled upon this site… who knew it would be so bloody valuable?!? I’m a fan!

  • http://www.petemay.com/ petemay

    Blake,
    I’m not really sure, couldn’t afford the time to really research the subject but I believe your camera does allow a manual override of the exposure. That’s definitely what you should do. Auto exposure (the function) is stupid. It adjusts for glints and glares and minor changes in framing. I believe it creates more problems than it solves.
    To answer your questions about adjusting for the lighting differential, no, iMovie is not capable. You need at least a 3-way color corrector, one that allows you to make adjustments to brightness in the different value areas of the screen – the highlights, the middle exposures and the shadows. You can find that ability on Final Cut Pro and Final Cut Express but, whether you can fix your problems, even in the more “professional” edit systems is going to depend on just how out of balance your exposures are!
    Let’s say your shot is exposed for the foreground, your face. If the background is really dark, you can brighten it with a 3-way color corrector but the more you have to adjust it, the worse it’s going to look! The dark areas will appear grainy and, most likely, very red. Part of the problem is in the camera. If it’s not very good in low light, there’s not much information stored in the dark areas so it doesn’t matter how much you boost the shadows, if there’s no information there, you’ll never see anything!
    So, let’s just accept that even if you’re willing to spend the money to move up to Final Cut X, you’re still not going to be able to make your footage look like it was properly lit and exposed this time. But, let me take a minute and talk about next time.
    What you’re trying to do, correcting for a deficiency in the camera shot after the shoot, that’s known in the business as “Fixing it in post.” That’s an expression feared by all editors. As a matter of fact, it’s pretty much a joke in the production industry. That’s because it’s difficult, time consuming, and in the case of a professional production, VERY, VERY expensive to “fix it in post!” It’s far better to fix it on the set. Here’s how.
    It sounds as though you’ve bought a substantial light kit. Good for you. Look up the term “three point lighting.” It’s an old but still a standard approach to lighting a subject in an interview situation. One light is your key, another is your fill and the third is your backlight. Like I said, it’s an old convention but you still see it all the time. There are way more modern and way more flattering methods but I haven’t got time to go into it here. So let me share with you the single most important thing you need to know when using your instruments to light an interview. This is a very basic principle of physics. Light falls off by the square of the distance. So, if you find yourself in the situation you’ve described, where your foreground is very bright and the background has fallen off into darkness, you need to either bring up the background light or reduce your foreground light. Reducing the output of your lights could be as easy as dimming the lights. If your lights don’t dim you can use silks or scrims or gels to reduce the output. But if you don’t have any of those grip accessories you can still take advantage of the physical principle I mentioned above and just walk your lights away from your subject! Because light falls off by the square of the distance, you don’t really have to walk them far! Use your LCD screen and try to balance your foreground and background light levels. Just walk your key and fill back enough so that you get a pleasing differential between the foreground and the background. That way, next time, you won’t have to try and fix it in post!

  • Ezra Fishman

    For those who haven’t seen it, Chris put together an awesome lighting video a couple weeks after this initial post. Check it out here — http://wistia.com/blog/your-first-lighting-kit/

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