Beginner VS Pro Smartphone Gimbal Moves Master The Basics FAST

Now, just because you have a gimbal, it doesn't automatically mean that you're going to get smooth and professional looking shots. There are some classic beginner mistakes to avoid. So in this video, I'm gonna run through those mistakes, but also very importantly, I'm going to show you how to fix them so that the next time you're out on a shoot, you can take your shots from looking cheap and amateur to smooth and professional. A big thanks to Zhiyun for sponsoring this video. Now let's jump straight in and start shooting some footage. Okay, let's talk about focus and exposure because this is really important. Let's imagine for a second that you wanted to capture an establishing shot revealing your location from behind this wall. A classic beginner mistake is to hit record, slide your camera to the left and reveal your location. But what's wrong with this shot? Well, let's take a look. The shot starts from behind this wall, slides to the left, but we now get this ugly exposure and focus change halfway through our shot. This looks cheap and amateur. So to fix this, we're going to lock our focus and exposure by tapping and holding on our screen. We're going to hit record, move our camera behind this wall and capture the exact same shot again. Let's take a look. And we now have a reveal shot with a much more consistent and professional look. No more nasty focus and exposure changes. Let's look at another quick example here. Camera starts from behind this tree and slides to the right, but without locking our focus and exposure, we again get these nasty focus and exposure changes. But by locking our focus and exposure, our shot now looks much more polished and professional. Okay, depth and foreground. Okay, here he is again, look, Mr. Beginner, looking to capture a shot of this charming 16th century church. We're pushing forward and tilting up. Let's take a look at this shot. Well, it's not too bad. It could be worse, but there's just not much depth to this shot. So how can we fix this? Well, we can fix this by simply adding some foreground. If we shoot this exact same shot again, only this time a few feet to the right, using these branches as foreground, we now add much more depth to this shot. These branches help reveal our focal point. They add more movement and make this shot look much more interesting. This is shot using the standard lens, by the way. We could also capture this again using the wide angle lens. This will add even more movement to this shot. And we could, of course, cut from our wide to our tight shot to really help keep our audience engaged. Okay, let's look at another example here. We have this shot sliding to the right. Not much foreground being used here. Let's take a look. Yes, as expected. Not a great sense of movement and depth to this shot. So this time we're going to use this bush in the foreground to help give us a bit more depth. Exact same shot again, sliding to the right, only this time we're layering our shot. We've got our foreground, very important, our mid ground and background. And just look what difference this makes to our shot. The bush smoothly passing through the frame adds much more movement and more depth to this shot. Now, if you really want to level up your shots, then try starting with your camera low to the ground, pushing forward and rising up. I'm going to use this tree in the foreground to help give this shot more depth. And as you can see, when we start to combine these techniques, smooth movements, foreground depth, we massively improve the look of our shots. Now there is, however, such thing as bad foreground. Let's take this panning shot of the street, for example. Although we're using these umbrellas as foreground to add more depth to this shot, it still looks cheap and messy. So instead, let's take advantage of these flowers and this time lift our camera up to reveal our location. Just a few minor tweaks with this shot, and we now have a much more professional looking result. Lens choice will also make a huge difference with these shots, so be sure to experiment. Here is another shot using the wide angle lens sliding to the right. Still using foreground and depth, but we now see much more of the scene. Holding your gimbal. Here he is again, look, Mr. Beginner, holding his gimbal with one hand, pushing forward, not really putting any care or thought into the way he holds or walks using a gimbal. This will result in a nasty up and down movement, not a pleasant viewing experience, very distracting and really ruins this shot. So this time we're going to hold our gimbal with two hands. The more points of contact you have on the gimbal, the smoother your shots will be. We're going to soften our impact on the floor when walking to create less impact. And just making these few simple adjustments, we now have a much smoother, more professional looking shot. And that's not to say that you should always be holding your gimbal with two hands. There are definitely some shots that are easier with one, but as a general rule, shoot using two hands on your gimbal for much more control and smoother movements. Revealing your locations. Okay, this tip is all about making your shots look much more intriguing and creating anticipation. So let's imagine for a second, we wanted to capture a shot of these houses from across the street. We could push forward like this. This isn't bad, the framing is pretty good. These two trees add symmetry and depth, but there is definite room for improvement. So how can we make this shot look even better? Well, this time we could reveal our location. So instead of cutting to our shot, which doesn't really leave too much to the imagination, this time let's start with our camera pointing up, push forward and tilt down to reveal our location. This instantly adds more intrigue, movement, depth, and anticipation to this shot, allowing us to hold this shot for much longer and still hold attention. Let's see another example, only this time of this church. Here is the beginner version, simply pushing forward, not a particularly interesting shot. And to be honest, kind of boring. However, this time we're going to push forward and tilt up to reveal our focal point. Still holding our gimbal with two hands for a much smoother shot. Let's take a look. And just look at what difference this has made to this shot. The grass adds much more color and movement. We start with the camera facing down, but then tilt up to reveal our focal point, creating a much more dramatic look and feel compared to shot number one. When it comes to gimbal moves, small changes make a big difference. A simple push forward like this versus a simple push forward, but with an added tilt, will make all the difference to your shot. One will feel basic and the other much more engaging. A time and a place for both, but if you're looking to level up your shots, start revealing your locations rather than just starting with everything in frame. No more pans. Pans are the ultimate way to make your shots look cheap and amateur. Here he is again, look, Mr. Beginner, holding his gimbal with one hand, capturing a panning shot of this statue. Really not a great shot. It's too tight. There's no clear focal point. The shot just looks terrible. So this time I'm gonna cross the street and simply push forward with my focal point in the center of frame. I'm also going to tilt up the closer I get. Let's take a look. Camera pushing forward, a much more defined focal point now. And as we get closer, the camera tilts up for a much more dramatic shot. Okay, let's take this quiet back street, for example. We could do a one-handed pan from left to right, but again, there's no clear focal point. The shot moves too quickly and we've got these ugly bins in the frame really ruining this shot. This isn't even usable. So instead, let's simply push forward. This is actually much easier to capture and will look 10 times better. Let's take a look. Okay, we now have a much clearer focal point. The shot is much smoother and we're now taking our audience on a journey down this street. A simple tweak makes all the difference a much more professional shot. Also, you don't necessarily need to be walking with these shots. So instead of a nasty looking pan like this, simply slide your camera to the left or right using only your arms and upper body. Smooth, smaller, more subtle moves like this create an equally professional looking shot compared to a messy looking pan. Gimbal features. Now, every gimbal will come with different features to help you get more creative shots. So it's really important that you make the most of them. A classic beginner mistake is to shoot using the same gimbal mode to capture the same shots over and over again. So look at what features and modes your gimbal has and take advantage of them. I'm shooting everything on the Zhiyun Smooth 5F today which has a ton of great features, but by far one of my favorites is the AI tracking. So let's say you wanted to not only capture shots of your location, but also shots of yourself walking through that location. And this is a perfect feature to do it with because using this tiny magnetic tracker that connects to the top of the gimbal like this, I can now have the gimbal track me wherever I go. It's a bit like having your own personal camera operator with you, allowing you to add much more movement to your shots when shooting solo. It also has gesture control. So instead of having to keep touching the gimbal to set up each shot, I can simply use gestures to tell it what to do. For example, the okay sign will make the gimbal lock onto me and keep me in the center of frame. Or if I make a frame gesture like this, I can now position myself in the frame wherever I like. Adding just a few of these AI tracking shots throughout your B-roll sequences can really help take them to the next level. Okay, let's talk about focal lengths because this is important. Let's capture a push forward shot down the street using the phone's standard lens. This is the equivalent to about a 24 millimeter. This is what that shot looks like. I actually think this shot looks pretty good, but there just isn't a great sense of movement. So to fix this, I'm going to capture the exact same shot again, only this time using my wide angle lens, which is equivalent to about 16 millimeters. Same as before, simply going to push forward down the street. But by simply changing the lens, we now have this shot with a much wider field of view with a greater sense of movement. This is still a good shot. I actually really like the lady walking to the left, the fact that I can see this picturesque village more clearly, but there isn't a great sense of movement. And if it's movement that you're after, which it quite often is when you're shooting using a gimbal, then your lens choice is going to make all the difference. The wider the focal length, the greater the sense of movement. Bonus tip, low and slow. Okay, this is a simple tip that makes a huge difference to your shots. Let's imagine for a second we wanted to capture a push forward shot across this grass. Let's take a look. Yeah, not great. In fact, diabolical. This is a completely unusable shot. So instead, we're going to shoot low and slow. For this, I'm going to select slow motion, shoot using my wide angle lens and get my phone nice and low to the ground. Exactly the same again, I'm simply going to push forward, but from a much lower perspective. And we now have a much more usable shot. The camera pushing through the grass, slow motion, helping smooth everything out, allowing our audience to take in all the colorful flowers and this location. Let's quickly see another example, a push forward towards this French bar, semi-usable, but definitely not great. So let's make the most of these colorful flowers in the foreground by getting low and shooting slow. Much better. Okay, boring versus creative. Boring is capturing the same shots as everyone else. Take these flowers, for example. We're going to get some pans, some tilts, making sure that we see all of the flowers, but the shot still looks choppy and messy. So let's think outside the box and be a little bit more creative. I'm going to put my camera in vortex mode and this time push forward while slowly rotating my phone around the flowers, making sure that I get my lens as close as possible. And we now have a much more creative shot, pushing forward whilst rotating past these flowers. Another creative angle is to simply point your camera up. You can get some very dramatic effects this way. So avoid the boring everyday shots like this and create something that looks much more like this. Also, this gimbal has a hyperlapse feature. Time and a place for these shots, but will definitely prevent your videos from looking dull and boring. Easier to shoot with much more creative results. Long, messy shots. Okay, come with me as a beginner as I walk down this street capturing one long, messy shot. I'm going to shoot this shop here, the shop over here. Still recording. I'm going to shoot this shop over here and maybe some more at the bottom of this street. And this shot is just too long and too messy. So instead, I'm going to shoot three shorter clips with much more intent. For example, this slider shot revealing the street from behind this wall. A closeup shot of the shop sign with a slight parallax movement. And finally, a push forward shot of this house tilting up as I get closer for a much more dramatic effect. And we now have a short sequence of clips that edit together much better, creating a much more professional look and feel. Creative transitions. Okay, this is how a beginner will transition between one shot and another. They'll capture the first shot like this at one location, pushing down the street, for example. Then they'll go to another location, capture shot number two. Then they'll take these two clips and simply cut from one shot to another. And this isn't particularly exciting or creative. So instead, we're going to shoot a much more creative transition. This time, we're going to push forward down the street, but then tilt down, getting our camera low to the ground. And we now have a shot that pushes forward, tilts down, with these cobbles now filling the frame. And for shot number two, we're going to change locations and start our second shot close to the ground. Pushing forward, cobbles filling the frame, and then going to tilt up, revealing our new location. And now when we cut these two clips together using nothing but a simple cut, we now have a much more creative transition taking us from one shot to another. So those were some beginner versus pro gimbal moves. If you'd like to learn more about mobile videography, then I have a two-hour course that covers everything to help you master the basics. I will link that below. A big thanks again to Zhiyun for sponsoring this video. That's it from me. Thanks for watching, and I will see you in the next video.