In the past few years, we have seen tons of churches start livestreaming their services in order to give their congregation as many opportunities as possible to connect with the church. Here are three super simple things you can do to improve the way your livestream looks:
Get the Right Angles
The first thing I want to talk about is framing your camera shots correctly. If you’re unfamiliar with the rule of thirds, here’s a quick explanation. Plop a tic-tac-toe board down on a photo. You have just divided your image into horizontal and vertical thirds. The rule of thirds says that to create the most visually pleasing image, the important stuff should approximately align with the four lines, and the MOST important thing in your image (the focal point) should line up with one of the four intersecting points in the middle. Follow that simple rule and everything looks better.
See how the intersecting lines make four points in the middle of the image? That’s the outline of the “Rule of Thirds”.
Now that you know the rule, I’m going to suggest that you don’t follow it or only follow a third of it. I know, I know, that’s kinda confusing. But, since we are discussing a livestream where the speaker is looking straight into the camera, shifting left or right to one of the vertical lines is pretty unnecessary. You can do it, and most people won’t mind, it just doesn’t gain you much. So you can pretty much ignore the intersection points and the vertical lines. The part that is still relevant for video presentations is the horizontal lines. As the most important visual in any livestream, the speaker’s eyes should line up with the upper horizontal line. Following that rule will fill the frame more appropriately with your subject and help the rest of the scene to fall into place.
Use Head Room Appropriately
My second tip for improving the way your livestream looks is by understanding the importance of “head room”. Head room is the amount of space that is between the top of the subject’s head and the top of the frame. If you are using the rule of thirds and placing the character’s eyes in the top third of the frame, then you should find that you are leaving a conventional amount of head room in the shot.
Pick the Right Colors
My last videography pro-tip is to find the best colors for your livestream. If you are going to stream with a DSLR camera for your livestreams, it’s better to go for the daylight color temperature in the settings.
If you prefer more natural light, you should aim to make your lighting around 5600k, your skin will look natural and there won’t be any yellow or blue tones in the picture. This will definitely take your livestream to the next level!
