Improving my WFH video tutorial setup for better audio and video quality

My first videos in my new work-from-home basement office were a bit rushed, so I didn’t have much time to work out all of the details before recording the research sessions for my students. While the content was okay, I wasn’t happy with the quality of the audio and video. I watched a few YouTube videos and some Lynda training, and have adapted some ideas to improve my video tutorial setup.

Chad is talking on camera to his webcam while shooting a video

The picture above shows my latest setup when making videos at home.

Before making the changes

Here’s what the video looked like before I made the changes outlined above.

  • Webcam sitting on top of monitor, making adjustments of the camera angle a little limiting
  • Background is a mess, though reflects reality of my life at that moment. (I have to day the guitars on the wall do make me look cooler, I think?)
  • Blinds are open and overhead lights are on, but the webcam was on “Full Auto”. As a result, I am a bit blue in the video
  • Audio recorded with a headset — not necessarily bad, especially if you’re going for the “air traffic controller” look. However, the audio was “tinny” sounding
  • Nice flannel shirt

After

  • Webcam at eye level and a bit closer to the subject. (supposedly this creates more trust with the audience)
  • Less cluttered background — No Legos on the floor, open bathroom doors, or sons playing Xbox photobombing me
  • Background picture, lamp and plant are not distracting, but still provide something to provide some depth to the video image
  • Blinds open to the left, overhead light on, two lamps behind me. This makes the video less pixelated.
  • Webcam settings (exposure, white balance, saturation, etc.) were tweaked manually (more on this in another post)
  • I still need to work on the white balance. While I’m not as blue as the “Before” shot, I am a bit too warm in this shot.
  • I’m not doing any color correction (yet) as I just edit in Screencast-o-matic, so I need to get the white balance as close as possible when I record
  • I also feel like I need a key light for off to the right and behind the camera to help balance the light from the window
  • Different day, same flannel shirt
  • Same shiny head, too

Video resources that helped

Here’s a selection of the videos that gave me ideas for improvements.

Lynda.com Training

YouTube

A change in my video recording process

screenshot of Logitech Webcam Interface
The Logitech Webcam Software

A while back I posted about how I was occasionally finding lip sync lag (ala “Kung Fu Theater” when I recorded my on-camera video introductions and conclusions using Screencast-o-matic.  No matter what I did, I would still experience some lag when recording my face, and my lips and words did not quite match up in the final video.  They appeared to be out of sync by a couple of frames.  I’ve since changed my process and have now removed the lag entirely.

I now use the Logitech Webcam Software to record my introductions.  I use my webcam to record my video, but still use the Blue Yeti to record my voice, as the Logitech software allows you to choose a microphone source separate from the webcam. This keeps the audio levels consistent between the Logitech software and Screencast-o-matic records, so I don’t have to do much fiddling with audio in my movie editor.

Since I am editing my videos in Windows MovieMaker (yes, it still works!), the additional step in recording in Logitech doesn’t really take any additional time.  After I record the Screencast-o-matic demonstration, I download the video file to my computer, and the file, along with the Logitech video file, into MovieMaker to edit.

Testing audio and video quality (and lag) with Screencast-o-matic, a Blue Yeti microphone, and Logitech C920 Webcam

I made this short video to test the audio and video quality of the Blue Yeti microphone and the Logitech C920 webcam using Screencast-o-matic. Sometimes if you use the audio from another mic like the Blue Yeti, but record your video another source, such as I do with the Logitech C920 Webcam, there can be some voice-to-video lag. When the lag is present, the lips of the speaker will be out of sync with the audio and it can look like a badly dubbed 1970’s Kung-Fu Theater film.

In the video below, I tested using just audio from the webcam, and then audio from the Blue Yeti mic, to see if there was any lag. I had just restarted my computer, so the internal memory and page file was pretty empty, and I had all other apps closed except for Screencast-o-matic. I did not detect any lag in the video from either audio source. The sound quality is also noticeably better using the audio from the Blue Yeti microphone. It appears that if you find lag, restarting your computer and closing all extra applications will help with producing better quality, and in-sync, audio and video.

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