3 Useful Tips to Make Your Photos and Videos Look More Aesthetic

Nowadays, taking an endless number of pictures and selfies with one’s smartphone or camera has become a norm. Though, have you ever wondered how you could make your videos and pictures as aesthetic as those shot by a professional video production company? There are a number of aspects that can affect the end result of a video or picture, some of which we will cover in this article.

1. Composing the Shot

When taking a photo or video, use triangles and the rule of thirds to compose your shots. Triangles are a framework for composition that’s used in classical art, and the rule of thirds essentially means that the frame is split into nine equal rectangles by two horizontal and two vertical lines intersecting each other. Ensure the positioning of your subject is at the intersection of these lines to make the video or photo more attractive.

Photo or video shoots commonly fall in one of these categories: people, scenery, or food.

When taking videos or photos of people and scenery, try to have as much sky as possible in the background, and shoot from a low position. If you can, shoot into the afterglow of the evening sky.

For food photos, try experimenting with your smartphone camera’s contrast & sharpness and exposure and change them to varying degrees. Implementing this editing technique might make your food seem more lively. However, make sure you set a limit as overdoing it may not be necessarily good.

After taking your photos or videos, remember to do some post-editing. Popular mobile apps like Snapseed are free and pretty good but if you want something more professional you could try using Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom.

If you’re feeling adventurous, you can even experiment with animation filters when shooting a video to animate real subjects and have them look like the animated videos usually produced by animation studios in Singapore.

2. Timing & Location

Have you ever come across corporate videos made by corporate video production agencies in Singapore that look amazing even when taken in the outdoors? This is usually quite hard to do as the fickle weather can change the lighting conditions.

The secret is to select a location that has good lighting and scenery. When selecting your place, determine whether a given spot is in full shade, full sun, or partial sun. For consistently good results, locate a specific place that is shaded. Alternatively, you can take your videos or pictures on a cloudy day. Try not to take pictures or videos under direct sunlight as it can be harsh on an individual’s face and light-coloured surfaces tend to cause images to look darker than reality.

When shooting indoors, position your subject near a spot that gets a lot of daylight or close to an indoor light source. When taking videos or photos at night, the same concept applies – always locate a place that has lighting to illuminate your subject

3. Equipment

Smartphones have become more technologically advanced and are used by many when taking photos or videos. However, while taking photos on a smartphone is undeniably convenient, the quality of these photos can be negatively affected by the camera’s small sensor and size. The amount of light the camera can receive is limited, thus limiting the quality of pictures produced. 

You could try investing in a DSLR camera if you’re looking to step up your game as a camera usually shoots photos at a higher resolution compared to smartphones. However, if a smartphone is the only device you have for taking videos or photos, you can still adapt and improve your photo and video shooting quality.  If you really want to improve your photo and video quality without breaking the bank, you could get a smartphone tripod and a simple ring light online at a cheap price. Having these additional add ons can provide more flexibility in terms of lighting angles.