Custom YouTube Video Speed Control (Desktop/Mobile)

YouTube is one of the top online learning platforms that ever existed. You could learn almost anything on YouTube just by ardently following through the videos with rapt attention, intent, and understanding. However, the degree to which you know effectively can hamper if the video you watch is too fast.

More so, you could want to save time while playing your choice YouTube video and yet wish to get all the information. You can eat your muffin and have it by speeding up or slowing down the YouTube playback speed. This article will show you how to speed up YouTube videos or slow them down.

In this article

01 How to Change YouTube’s Playback Speed on Computer

02 How to Change Video Speed with Keyboard Shortcuts on YouTube

03 How to Change YouTube’s Video Playback Speed on Mobile

04 How YouTube’s Playback Speed Controls Work?

05 How to Change a YouTube Video’s Speed Online

Part 1: How to Change YouTube’s Playback Speed on Computer

To fast-forward YouTube playback videos or slow it down on the computer, you must follow the proper steps. Changing YouTube’s playback speed on a computer is not a complex thing to do. You can achieve it if you follow the steps we will show you.

On the website, you can manually alter the YouTube video’s playback speed with your computer while watching it.

To start, at the bottom right corner of your YouTube video, click the gear wheel icon there. You’ll see a list of other settings like quality, subtitles, and playback speed.

Select playback speed, and you will see a list of speeds from 0.25x, 0.5x, 0.75x, normal, 1.25x, 1.5x, 1.75 x to 2.0x.

These are preset speeds. If they are not suitable for you, you will have to select a custom speed, but they must be in the same range of 0.25x to 2.0x.

To do this, go back to playback speed. Select custom in the top-right side of the pop-up menu**,** then adjust the speed using a slider that you will see there.

Related: How to Make a YouTube Video .

Part 2: How to Change Video Speed with Keyboard Shortcuts on YouTube

If you are watching a YouTube Video on your computer and want to adjust the playback speed, you can change the speed with keyboard shortcuts.

Here’s another way to adjust the playback speed of YouTube videos more quickly.

To fast-forward the YouTube video, press your shift button and hold down, then tap your greater than(>) symbol on your keyboard. Your YouTube playback speed will increase by 0.25 as you keep tapping.

To reduce the playback speed YouTube videos, the reverse is the case. Press and hold down the shift tab, then tap less than the (<) symbol.

Changing the playback speed using these keyboard shortcuts increases by 0.25 increments. You have to use custom if you want other values, as earlier mentioned.

The best thing about this method of changing the speed is that you can do it while watching the movie or while paused.

Part 3: How to Change YouTube’s Video Playback Speed on Mobile

If you’d like to know how to speed up YouTube videos on your Android, iPhone, or iPad, here’s it.

First, you must open your YouTube App on your device and play the video you want to watch.

Then tap the video once, and it will bring up the toolbar.

At the top right corner, select the vertically aligned three dots. This will bring out a menu for you—select playback speed.

Then you will see a list containing the preset speed provided by YouTube.

1 is the average speed. Any value below than 1 will slow down the video, while any value above it will increase it.

Once done, close the menu, and the video will resume from where it stopped.

Part 4: How YouTube’s Playback Speed Controls Work?

YouTube has an added feature known as ‘playback speed.’ This feature allows you to select a speed from 0.25x to 2x the normal speed. With this YouTube’s speed control, 1 is the normal speed, with 0.25 being one-quarter (1/4th) of the actual speed and slowing the video. In the same vein, 2x is twice the average speed, increasing the video speed.

However, in as much as YouTube speed control slows or speeds up the video, it does not change the pitch of the video. All it does is either expand or compress the video samples while still maintaining the video or audio pitch. It would still sound like the podcaster or video blogger is just talking faster or slower.

Music would still maintain the same musical key and pitch while playing faster or slower.

If you are watching a presentation or interview that seems like everyone is talking like they have all the time in the world, you can fast forward YouTube video by using the feature.

Also, you can slow down a tutorial or the video you are watching if you feel they are too fast using this YouTube speed control.

Conclusion

YouTube speed control has made it easier to change YouTube playback speed to either speed up or slow down the video. This enables you to capture important moments or information you may miss if the video was fast. Also, you can save time and get to the information you are searching for as soon as possible by speeding the YouTube video.

02 How to Change Video Speed with Keyboard Shortcuts on YouTube

03 How to Change YouTube’s Video Playback Speed on Mobile

04 How YouTube’s Playback Speed Controls Work?

05 How to Change a YouTube Video’s Speed Online

Part 1: How to Change YouTube’s Playback Speed on Computer

To fast-forward YouTube playback videos or slow it down on the computer, you must follow the proper steps. Changing YouTube’s playback speed on a computer is not a complex thing to do. You can achieve it if you follow the steps we will show you.

On the website, you can manually alter the YouTube video’s playback speed with your computer while watching it.

To start, at the bottom right corner of your YouTube video, click the gear wheel icon there. You’ll see a list of other settings like quality, subtitles, and playback speed.

Select playback speed, and you will see a list of speeds from 0.25x, 0.5x, 0.75x, normal, 1.25x, 1.5x, 1.75 x to 2.0x.

These are preset speeds. If they are not suitable for you, you will have to select a custom speed, but they must be in the same range of 0.25x to 2.0x.

To do this, go back to playback speed. Select custom in the top-right side of the pop-up menu**,** then adjust the speed using a slider that you will see there.

Related: How to Make a YouTube Video .

Part 2: How to Change Video Speed with Keyboard Shortcuts on YouTube

If you are watching a YouTube Video on your computer and want to adjust the playback speed, you can change the speed with keyboard shortcuts.

Here’s another way to adjust the playback speed of YouTube videos more quickly.

To fast-forward the YouTube video, press your shift button and hold down, then tap your greater than(>) symbol on your keyboard. Your YouTube playback speed will increase by 0.25 as you keep tapping.

To reduce the playback speed YouTube videos, the reverse is the case. Press and hold down the shift tab, then tap less than the (<) symbol.

Changing the playback speed using these keyboard shortcuts increases by 0.25 increments. You have to use custom if you want other values, as earlier mentioned.

The best thing about this method of changing the speed is that you can do it while watching the movie or while paused.

Part 3: How to Change YouTube’s Video Playback Speed on Mobile

If you’d like to know how to speed up YouTube videos on your Android, iPhone, or iPad, here’s it.

First, you must open your YouTube App on your device and play the video you want to watch.

Then tap the video once, and it will bring up the toolbar.

At the top right corner, select the vertically aligned three dots. This will bring out a menu for you—select playback speed.

Then you will see a list containing the preset speed provided by YouTube.

1 is the average speed. Any value below than 1 will slow down the video, while any value above it will increase it.

Once done, close the menu, and the video will resume from where it stopped.

Part 4: How YouTube’s Playback Speed Controls Work?

YouTube has an added feature known as ‘playback speed.’ This feature allows you to select a speed from 0.25x to 2x the normal speed. With this YouTube’s speed control, 1 is the normal speed, with 0.25 being one-quarter (1/4th) of the actual speed and slowing the video. In the same vein, 2x is twice the average speed, increasing the video speed.

However, in as much as YouTube speed control slows or speeds up the video, it does not change the pitch of the video. All it does is either expand or compress the video samples while still maintaining the video or audio pitch. It would still sound like the podcaster or video blogger is just talking faster or slower.

Music would still maintain the same musical key and pitch while playing faster or slower.

If you are watching a presentation or interview that seems like everyone is talking like they have all the time in the world, you can fast forward YouTube video by using the feature.

Also, you can slow down a tutorial or the video you are watching if you feel they are too fast using this YouTube speed control.

Conclusion

YouTube speed control has made it easier to change YouTube playback speed to either speed up or slow down the video. This enables you to capture important moments or information you may miss if the video was fast. Also, you can save time and get to the information you are searching for as soon as possible by speeding the YouTube video.

02 How to Change Video Speed with Keyboard Shortcuts on YouTube

03 How to Change YouTube’s Video Playback Speed on Mobile

04 How YouTube’s Playback Speed Controls Work?

05 How to Change a YouTube Video’s Speed Online

Part 1: How to Change YouTube’s Playback Speed on Computer

To fast-forward YouTube playback videos or slow it down on the computer, you must follow the proper steps. Changing YouTube’s playback speed on a computer is not a complex thing to do. You can achieve it if you follow the steps we will show you.

On the website, you can manually alter the YouTube video’s playback speed with your computer while watching it.

To start, at the bottom right corner of your YouTube video, click the gear wheel icon there. You’ll see a list of other settings like quality, subtitles, and playback speed.

Select playback speed, and you will see a list of speeds from 0.25x, 0.5x, 0.75x, normal, 1.25x, 1.5x, 1.75 x to 2.0x.

These are preset speeds. If they are not suitable for you, you will have to select a custom speed, but they must be in the same range of 0.25x to 2.0x.

To do this, go back to playback speed. Select custom in the top-right side of the pop-up menu**,** then adjust the speed using a slider that you will see there.

Related: How to Make a YouTube Video .

Part 2: How to Change Video Speed with Keyboard Shortcuts on YouTube

If you are watching a YouTube Video on your computer and want to adjust the playback speed, you can change the speed with keyboard shortcuts.

Here’s another way to adjust the playback speed of YouTube videos more quickly.

To fast-forward the YouTube video, press your shift button and hold down, then tap your greater than(>) symbol on your keyboard. Your YouTube playback speed will increase by 0.25 as you keep tapping.

To reduce the playback speed YouTube videos, the reverse is the case. Press and hold down the shift tab, then tap less than the (<) symbol.

Changing the playback speed using these keyboard shortcuts increases by 0.25 increments. You have to use custom if you want other values, as earlier mentioned.

The best thing about this method of changing the speed is that you can do it while watching the movie or while paused.

Part 3: How to Change YouTube’s Video Playback Speed on Mobile

If you’d like to know how to speed up YouTube videos on your Android, iPhone, or iPad, here’s it.

First, you must open your YouTube App on your device and play the video you want to watch.

Then tap the video once, and it will bring up the toolbar.

At the top right corner, select the vertically aligned three dots. This will bring out a menu for you—select playback speed.

Then you will see a list containing the preset speed provided by YouTube.

1 is the average speed. Any value below than 1 will slow down the video, while any value above it will increase it.

Once done, close the menu, and the video will resume from where it stopped.

Part 4: How YouTube’s Playback Speed Controls Work?

YouTube has an added feature known as ‘playback speed.’ This feature allows you to select a speed from 0.25x to 2x the normal speed. With this YouTube’s speed control, 1 is the normal speed, with 0.25 being one-quarter (1/4th) of the actual speed and slowing the video. In the same vein, 2x is twice the average speed, increasing the video speed.

However, in as much as YouTube speed control slows or speeds up the video, it does not change the pitch of the video. All it does is either expand or compress the video samples while still maintaining the video or audio pitch. It would still sound like the podcaster or video blogger is just talking faster or slower.

Music would still maintain the same musical key and pitch while playing faster or slower.

If you are watching a presentation or interview that seems like everyone is talking like they have all the time in the world, you can fast forward YouTube video by using the feature.

Also, you can slow down a tutorial or the video you are watching if you feel they are too fast using this YouTube speed control.

Conclusion

YouTube speed control has made it easier to change YouTube playback speed to either speed up or slow down the video. This enables you to capture important moments or information you may miss if the video was fast. Also, you can save time and get to the information you are searching for as soon as possible by speeding the YouTube video.

02 How to Change Video Speed with Keyboard Shortcuts on YouTube

03 How to Change YouTube’s Video Playback Speed on Mobile

04 How YouTube’s Playback Speed Controls Work?

05 How to Change a YouTube Video’s Speed Online

Part 1: How to Change YouTube’s Playback Speed on Computer

To fast-forward YouTube playback videos or slow it down on the computer, you must follow the proper steps. Changing YouTube’s playback speed on a computer is not a complex thing to do. You can achieve it if you follow the steps we will show you.

On the website, you can manually alter the YouTube video’s playback speed with your computer while watching it.

To start, at the bottom right corner of your YouTube video, click the gear wheel icon there. You’ll see a list of other settings like quality, subtitles, and playback speed.

Select playback speed, and you will see a list of speeds from 0.25x, 0.5x, 0.75x, normal, 1.25x, 1.5x, 1.75 x to 2.0x.

These are preset speeds. If they are not suitable for you, you will have to select a custom speed, but they must be in the same range of 0.25x to 2.0x.

To do this, go back to playback speed. Select custom in the top-right side of the pop-up menu**,** then adjust the speed using a slider that you will see there.

Related: How to Make a YouTube Video .

Part 2: How to Change Video Speed with Keyboard Shortcuts on YouTube

If you are watching a YouTube Video on your computer and want to adjust the playback speed, you can change the speed with keyboard shortcuts.

Here’s another way to adjust the playback speed of YouTube videos more quickly.

To fast-forward the YouTube video, press your shift button and hold down, then tap your greater than(>) symbol on your keyboard. Your YouTube playback speed will increase by 0.25 as you keep tapping.

To reduce the playback speed YouTube videos, the reverse is the case. Press and hold down the shift tab, then tap less than the (<) symbol.

Changing the playback speed using these keyboard shortcuts increases by 0.25 increments. You have to use custom if you want other values, as earlier mentioned.

The best thing about this method of changing the speed is that you can do it while watching the movie or while paused.

Part 3: How to Change YouTube’s Video Playback Speed on Mobile

If you’d like to know how to speed up YouTube videos on your Android, iPhone, or iPad, here’s it.

First, you must open your YouTube App on your device and play the video you want to watch.

Then tap the video once, and it will bring up the toolbar.

At the top right corner, select the vertically aligned three dots. This will bring out a menu for you—select playback speed.

Then you will see a list containing the preset speed provided by YouTube.

1 is the average speed. Any value below than 1 will slow down the video, while any value above it will increase it.

Once done, close the menu, and the video will resume from where it stopped.

Part 4: How YouTube’s Playback Speed Controls Work?

YouTube has an added feature known as ‘playback speed.’ This feature allows you to select a speed from 0.25x to 2x the normal speed. With this YouTube’s speed control, 1 is the normal speed, with 0.25 being one-quarter (1/4th) of the actual speed and slowing the video. In the same vein, 2x is twice the average speed, increasing the video speed.

However, in as much as YouTube speed control slows or speeds up the video, it does not change the pitch of the video. All it does is either expand or compress the video samples while still maintaining the video or audio pitch. It would still sound like the podcaster or video blogger is just talking faster or slower.

Music would still maintain the same musical key and pitch while playing faster or slower.

If you are watching a presentation or interview that seems like everyone is talking like they have all the time in the world, you can fast forward YouTube video by using the feature.

Also, you can slow down a tutorial or the video you are watching if you feel they are too fast using this YouTube speed control.

Conclusion

YouTube speed control has made it easier to change YouTube playback speed to either speed up or slow down the video. This enables you to capture important moments or information you may miss if the video was fast. Also, you can save time and get to the information you are searching for as soon as possible by speeding the YouTube video.

Best Practices for YouTube Video Brightness and Contrast

How To Light Your YouTube Video

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

When it comes to sensitivity to light, no consumer-level camera sensor comes close in performance to the human eye. Many newbies to videography, though, don’t think about this when they use their camera indoors and discover that their recorded footage appears too dark.

If you want to use your camera indoors as many YouTubers do, you’ll need to have extra light. But the solution is not as simple as surrounding yourself with lamps that are all randomly placed.

Below, I’ll go into detail on how you can set up your lighting equipment to make your YouTube videos look good.

Table of Contents Using Light You Already Have Window LightingHome Lighting Home Studio Lighting Light Control3-Point Lighting4-Point Lighting

Part 1: Using Light You Already Have

Most beginner YouTubers light their videos with what they already have. That’s what I did to start as well. In the past, my video recording space consisted of natural sunlight coming from my window and ceiling light for times when the sunlight wasn’t strong enough.

1. Window Lighting

The best thing about window lighting is that it’s free. The worst thing about it is that it’s uncontrollable. The amount of light you get in your video can vary with all the changes in the weather.

Window lighting for me was especially difficult to work with because I live in a very rainy and cloudy city, Vancouver, Canada, where we pretty much just get three months of good sun.

Above are two freeze frames from one of Daniel’s past window-lit vlogs. Although these two frames are both from the same vlog, you can see that the image on the right looks brighter due to clearer skies at that moment. These varying amounts of light is what you will have to deal with if you choose to light your YouTube video with window lighting.

2. Home Lighting

Home lighting is another source of light that many new YouTubers use. In the past, when my window light wasn’t strong enough to light my video recording space, I would turn on the ceiling light.

Notice how the color of Daniel’s skin looks much more orange here (above) than the color of the skin in the two side-by-side window lighting examples? The side of the face also appears to look bluer. This all happened because he mixed up different color temperatures shining out of the two lights (cooler window light and warmer ceiling light).

Most home lighting is warmer in its color temperature. If you want to use your home lights without everything being orange-tinted, you’ll need to switch out your light bulbs for daytime LED light bulbs.

Ceiling lights are also typically situated in the center of a room in order to light an entire room evenly. This is not likely to be the best location for your filming video. Since the ceiling light was directly above the face in the above example, you can see harder shadows beneath his cheeks.

Part 2: Home Studio Lighting

If you rather not deal with all the window and home lighting challenges, you can set up studio lighting in your home.

1. Light Control

The first thing you’ll want to do to set up studio lighting in your home is to pick a room to film in and eliminate as much external lighting as you can. Use blinds, curtains, towels, or any thick fabric to block sunlight from shining into your room.

2. 3-Point Lighting

The most common setup for studio lighting is 3-point lighting. For this kind of lighting you’ll need three lights: a key light, a fill light, and a back light (also called a hair light).

Out of the three lights, the key light should be the brightest. When it is positioned to the left of you (as shown in the diagram above) your right side will have shadows.

To minimize the shadows on your right side, use a weaker light as a fill light. You don’t want your fill light to completely eliminate all your shadows or else your shot will look flat.

Lastly, a backlight positioned behind you can give an appealing highlight to the ends of your head and even help to separate your hair from blending into your background if both happen to be dark.

3. 4-Point Lighting

As a YouTuber, you may not only want yourself to be seen optimally with proper lighting, but you may also want your background to be seen optimally, especially if you’ve taken the time to decorate it for your audience.

What you’ll need to ensure that your background is sufficiently lit is 4-point lighting setup. The 4-point lighting setup is the same as a 3-point lighting setup, but with an additional light shining at your background.

For more information on lighting equipment, check out my Top 17 Video Lighting Equipment For YouTubers .

Touch Up YouTube Videos with Filmora

Filmora is one of the best video editing software for YouTube beginners to start the YouTube channel. So, if you find the lighting isn’t perfect after recording, you can use the Auto Color Enhancement feature in Filmora to adjust the color with one-click. Or, you can change the white balance, Light, color, and HSL manually. Filmora also features some presets and LUTs templates , which allows you to apply pre-programmed effects to video for color correction faster.

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

When it comes to sensitivity to light, no consumer-level camera sensor comes close in performance to the human eye. Many newbies to videography, though, don’t think about this when they use their camera indoors and discover that their recorded footage appears too dark.

If you want to use your camera indoors as many YouTubers do, you’ll need to have extra light. But the solution is not as simple as surrounding yourself with lamps that are all randomly placed.

Below, I’ll go into detail on how you can set up your lighting equipment to make your YouTube videos look good.

Table of Contents Using Light You Already Have Window LightingHome Lighting Home Studio Lighting Light Control3-Point Lighting4-Point Lighting

Part 1: Using Light You Already Have

Most beginner YouTubers light their videos with what they already have. That’s what I did to start as well. In the past, my video recording space consisted of natural sunlight coming from my window and ceiling light for times when the sunlight wasn’t strong enough.

1. Window Lighting

The best thing about window lighting is that it’s free. The worst thing about it is that it’s uncontrollable. The amount of light you get in your video can vary with all the changes in the weather.

Window lighting for me was especially difficult to work with because I live in a very rainy and cloudy city, Vancouver, Canada, where we pretty much just get three months of good sun.

Above are two freeze frames from one of Daniel’s past window-lit vlogs. Although these two frames are both from the same vlog, you can see that the image on the right looks brighter due to clearer skies at that moment. These varying amounts of light is what you will have to deal with if you choose to light your YouTube video with window lighting.

2. Home Lighting

Home lighting is another source of light that many new YouTubers use. In the past, when my window light wasn’t strong enough to light my video recording space, I would turn on the ceiling light.

Notice how the color of Daniel’s skin looks much more orange here (above) than the color of the skin in the two side-by-side window lighting examples? The side of the face also appears to look bluer. This all happened because he mixed up different color temperatures shining out of the two lights (cooler window light and warmer ceiling light).

Most home lighting is warmer in its color temperature. If you want to use your home lights without everything being orange-tinted, you’ll need to switch out your light bulbs for daytime LED light bulbs.

Ceiling lights are also typically situated in the center of a room in order to light an entire room evenly. This is not likely to be the best location for your filming video. Since the ceiling light was directly above the face in the above example, you can see harder shadows beneath his cheeks.

Part 2: Home Studio Lighting

If you rather not deal with all the window and home lighting challenges, you can set up studio lighting in your home.

1. Light Control

The first thing you’ll want to do to set up studio lighting in your home is to pick a room to film in and eliminate as much external lighting as you can. Use blinds, curtains, towels, or any thick fabric to block sunlight from shining into your room.

2. 3-Point Lighting

The most common setup for studio lighting is 3-point lighting. For this kind of lighting you’ll need three lights: a key light, a fill light, and a back light (also called a hair light).

Out of the three lights, the key light should be the brightest. When it is positioned to the left of you (as shown in the diagram above) your right side will have shadows.

To minimize the shadows on your right side, use a weaker light as a fill light. You don’t want your fill light to completely eliminate all your shadows or else your shot will look flat.

Lastly, a backlight positioned behind you can give an appealing highlight to the ends of your head and even help to separate your hair from blending into your background if both happen to be dark.

3. 4-Point Lighting

As a YouTuber, you may not only want yourself to be seen optimally with proper lighting, but you may also want your background to be seen optimally, especially if you’ve taken the time to decorate it for your audience.

What you’ll need to ensure that your background is sufficiently lit is 4-point lighting setup. The 4-point lighting setup is the same as a 3-point lighting setup, but with an additional light shining at your background.

For more information on lighting equipment, check out my Top 17 Video Lighting Equipment For YouTubers .

Touch Up YouTube Videos with Filmora

Filmora is one of the best video editing software for YouTube beginners to start the YouTube channel. So, if you find the lighting isn’t perfect after recording, you can use the Auto Color Enhancement feature in Filmora to adjust the color with one-click. Or, you can change the white balance, Light, color, and HSL manually. Filmora also features some presets and LUTs templates , which allows you to apply pre-programmed effects to video for color correction faster.

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

When it comes to sensitivity to light, no consumer-level camera sensor comes close in performance to the human eye. Many newbies to videography, though, don’t think about this when they use their camera indoors and discover that their recorded footage appears too dark.

If you want to use your camera indoors as many YouTubers do, you’ll need to have extra light. But the solution is not as simple as surrounding yourself with lamps that are all randomly placed.

Below, I’ll go into detail on how you can set up your lighting equipment to make your YouTube videos look good.

Table of Contents Using Light You Already Have Window LightingHome Lighting Home Studio Lighting Light Control3-Point Lighting4-Point Lighting

Part 1: Using Light You Already Have

Most beginner YouTubers light their videos with what they already have. That’s what I did to start as well. In the past, my video recording space consisted of natural sunlight coming from my window and ceiling light for times when the sunlight wasn’t strong enough.

1. Window Lighting

The best thing about window lighting is that it’s free. The worst thing about it is that it’s uncontrollable. The amount of light you get in your video can vary with all the changes in the weather.

Window lighting for me was especially difficult to work with because I live in a very rainy and cloudy city, Vancouver, Canada, where we pretty much just get three months of good sun.

Above are two freeze frames from one of Daniel’s past window-lit vlogs. Although these two frames are both from the same vlog, you can see that the image on the right looks brighter due to clearer skies at that moment. These varying amounts of light is what you will have to deal with if you choose to light your YouTube video with window lighting.

2. Home Lighting

Home lighting is another source of light that many new YouTubers use. In the past, when my window light wasn’t strong enough to light my video recording space, I would turn on the ceiling light.

Notice how the color of Daniel’s skin looks much more orange here (above) than the color of the skin in the two side-by-side window lighting examples? The side of the face also appears to look bluer. This all happened because he mixed up different color temperatures shining out of the two lights (cooler window light and warmer ceiling light).

Most home lighting is warmer in its color temperature. If you want to use your home lights without everything being orange-tinted, you’ll need to switch out your light bulbs for daytime LED light bulbs.

Ceiling lights are also typically situated in the center of a room in order to light an entire room evenly. This is not likely to be the best location for your filming video. Since the ceiling light was directly above the face in the above example, you can see harder shadows beneath his cheeks.

Part 2: Home Studio Lighting

If you rather not deal with all the window and home lighting challenges, you can set up studio lighting in your home.

1. Light Control

The first thing you’ll want to do to set up studio lighting in your home is to pick a room to film in and eliminate as much external lighting as you can. Use blinds, curtains, towels, or any thick fabric to block sunlight from shining into your room.

2. 3-Point Lighting

The most common setup for studio lighting is 3-point lighting. For this kind of lighting you’ll need three lights: a key light, a fill light, and a back light (also called a hair light).

Out of the three lights, the key light should be the brightest. When it is positioned to the left of you (as shown in the diagram above) your right side will have shadows.

To minimize the shadows on your right side, use a weaker light as a fill light. You don’t want your fill light to completely eliminate all your shadows or else your shot will look flat.

Lastly, a backlight positioned behind you can give an appealing highlight to the ends of your head and even help to separate your hair from blending into your background if both happen to be dark.

3. 4-Point Lighting

As a YouTuber, you may not only want yourself to be seen optimally with proper lighting, but you may also want your background to be seen optimally, especially if you’ve taken the time to decorate it for your audience.

What you’ll need to ensure that your background is sufficiently lit is 4-point lighting setup. The 4-point lighting setup is the same as a 3-point lighting setup, but with an additional light shining at your background.

For more information on lighting equipment, check out my Top 17 Video Lighting Equipment For YouTubers .

Touch Up YouTube Videos with Filmora

Filmora is one of the best video editing software for YouTube beginners to start the YouTube channel. So, if you find the lighting isn’t perfect after recording, you can use the Auto Color Enhancement feature in Filmora to adjust the color with one-click. Or, you can change the white balance, Light, color, and HSL manually. Filmora also features some presets and LUTs templates , which allows you to apply pre-programmed effects to video for color correction faster.

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

When it comes to sensitivity to light, no consumer-level camera sensor comes close in performance to the human eye. Many newbies to videography, though, don’t think about this when they use their camera indoors and discover that their recorded footage appears too dark.

If you want to use your camera indoors as many YouTubers do, you’ll need to have extra light. But the solution is not as simple as surrounding yourself with lamps that are all randomly placed.

Below, I’ll go into detail on how you can set up your lighting equipment to make your YouTube videos look good.

Table of Contents Using Light You Already Have Window LightingHome Lighting Home Studio Lighting Light Control3-Point Lighting4-Point Lighting

Part 1: Using Light You Already Have

Most beginner YouTubers light their videos with what they already have. That’s what I did to start as well. In the past, my video recording space consisted of natural sunlight coming from my window and ceiling light for times when the sunlight wasn’t strong enough.

1. Window Lighting

The best thing about window lighting is that it’s free. The worst thing about it is that it’s uncontrollable. The amount of light you get in your video can vary with all the changes in the weather.

Window lighting for me was especially difficult to work with because I live in a very rainy and cloudy city, Vancouver, Canada, where we pretty much just get three months of good sun.

Above are two freeze frames from one of Daniel’s past window-lit vlogs. Although these two frames are both from the same vlog, you can see that the image on the right looks brighter due to clearer skies at that moment. These varying amounts of light is what you will have to deal with if you choose to light your YouTube video with window lighting.

2. Home Lighting

Home lighting is another source of light that many new YouTubers use. In the past, when my window light wasn’t strong enough to light my video recording space, I would turn on the ceiling light.

Notice how the color of Daniel’s skin looks much more orange here (above) than the color of the skin in the two side-by-side window lighting examples? The side of the face also appears to look bluer. This all happened because he mixed up different color temperatures shining out of the two lights (cooler window light and warmer ceiling light).

Most home lighting is warmer in its color temperature. If you want to use your home lights without everything being orange-tinted, you’ll need to switch out your light bulbs for daytime LED light bulbs.

Ceiling lights are also typically situated in the center of a room in order to light an entire room evenly. This is not likely to be the best location for your filming video. Since the ceiling light was directly above the face in the above example, you can see harder shadows beneath his cheeks.

Part 2: Home Studio Lighting

If you rather not deal with all the window and home lighting challenges, you can set up studio lighting in your home.

1. Light Control

The first thing you’ll want to do to set up studio lighting in your home is to pick a room to film in and eliminate as much external lighting as you can. Use blinds, curtains, towels, or any thick fabric to block sunlight from shining into your room.

2. 3-Point Lighting

The most common setup for studio lighting is 3-point lighting. For this kind of lighting you’ll need three lights: a key light, a fill light, and a back light (also called a hair light).

Out of the three lights, the key light should be the brightest. When it is positioned to the left of you (as shown in the diagram above) your right side will have shadows.

To minimize the shadows on your right side, use a weaker light as a fill light. You don’t want your fill light to completely eliminate all your shadows or else your shot will look flat.

Lastly, a backlight positioned behind you can give an appealing highlight to the ends of your head and even help to separate your hair from blending into your background if both happen to be dark.

3. 4-Point Lighting

As a YouTuber, you may not only want yourself to be seen optimally with proper lighting, but you may also want your background to be seen optimally, especially if you’ve taken the time to decorate it for your audience.

What you’ll need to ensure that your background is sufficiently lit is 4-point lighting setup. The 4-point lighting setup is the same as a 3-point lighting setup, but with an additional light shining at your background.

For more information on lighting equipment, check out my Top 17 Video Lighting Equipment For YouTubers .

Touch Up YouTube Videos with Filmora

Filmora is one of the best video editing software for YouTube beginners to start the YouTube channel. So, if you find the lighting isn’t perfect after recording, you can use the Auto Color Enhancement feature in Filmora to adjust the color with one-click. Or, you can change the white balance, Light, color, and HSL manually. Filmora also features some presets and LUTs templates , which allows you to apply pre-programmed effects to video for color correction faster.

Richard Bennett

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

Follow @Richard Bennett

Also read: