Tips for shooting video content on your phone

Want to know a secret?

You don’t need a fancy camera or expensive equipment to make engaging social media content. In fact, all you really need is your phone.

Of course, that doesn’t mean you can shrug, pull up your camera app, point, and make magic—there’s still a level of planning and intention you need to put behind it to get the best out of your most accessible tool.

I’ve had the pleasure of working in digital marketing, social media, video production, and traditional media for the past 15 years, so I like to think I picked up a trick or two along the way. So, welcome to the fast track: here are my favorite tips for shooting video content on your phone.

Always wipe the lens

If you do nothing else, do this. Your phone is always in your hand, your pocket, your purse, on a table; it’s getting dripped on and splattered constantly.

The pros do NOT treat their fancy cameras that way, let me tell you.

If you see me shooting content, you’ll also see me obsessively wiping my camera lens to get rid of fingerprints, dust, and anything else that ends up there. I want crisp, clear shots—not foggy, flare-y bits.

You can use a microfiber cloth or—what I usually do—the bottom of your t-shirt. Either way, get the gunk off before you hit record!

Shoot in 4K when possible

Every camera should give you the ability to shoot in HD (aka 1080p) or 4K. Honestly, I don’t know what the default is—mine goes to HD so I have to constantly switch back to 4K. (I think I did this on purpose once upon a time to save storage space on my phone.)

So, why should you shoot 4K?

It has 4x the resolution of HD—meaning you can get sharper quality and an overall better picture. But when you’re looking at your phone (and dealing with social platforms that usually degrade quality upon upload) this isn’t the best reason.

I shoot 4K because it gives me a lot more editing flexibility, even in my program of choice (AKA Capcut). I can crop and zoom in without making everything look super pixelated—you don’t lose as much detail as you would keeping everything in 1080p.

Choose your orientation based on end use

If you’re reading this, you’re probably shooting on your own for social media, and I’d encourage you to always, always default to vertical orientation (aka 9:16, aka you keep your phone upright, not sideways).

That’s because we’re always consuming our content on our phones, and generally holding them vertically. By shooting this way, you’re taking full advantage of screen real estate.

But if you’re trying to put a longer-form video together for your YouTube channel, I’d encourage shooting horizontal (aka 16:9, aka turn your phone on its side), for the same exact reason I’d encourage you to shoot vertical for social feeds.

When in doubt, check your platform’s usage analytics. Almost everything will tell you the type of device your audience uses to look at your pages (desktop, mobile, tablet). Check at least quarterly as you become a more consistent poster and adapt as necessary.

Turn on the camera grid

The camera grid can help a ton with composition—aka, how you’re framing, balancing, and otherwise setting up your shots.

There’s plenty of ways to compose shots, but one of the easiest is keeping the rule of thirds in mind, and this is exactly what the camera grid helps you do.

When you turn it on, you’ll see thin lines dividing your camera into three rows and three columns, kind of like a tic-tac-toe board.

Putting your subjects on these lines (or where they intersect) will make it easy to set up nice shots.

Better yet, if you’re doing a talking head shoot, keeping your subject’s eyes on the first horizontal line is especially helpful framing for social, especially when we have to navigate around what I call the “TikTok/Instagram junk.” You know, all the like/comment/share/caption/search/logos/whatever nonsense we’re fighting on the sides, top, and bottom of the frame.

Vary your shots—both movements and shot sizes

One of the traps beginners make when they start filming is that they’ll get the same motion or framing over and over again—usually a pan of some kind, in a wide or medium.

When you’re shooting something, always think about different ways or angles you can capture something to give it some interest.

Pan a space or get a medium shot to establish the opening.

Get closeup shots to get detail.

Walk alongside a subject to track with it.

Find a creative way to get a point of view shot (ie, what you’re seeing from your eyes).

And never be afraid to overshoot, especially as you’re learning. Because once you get things lined up to edit, you’re going to wish you had all those shots.

You won’t get this perfect at first, but the more you do it, the more you’ll realize exactly what you need to capture and you’ll get a better instinct for those shots.

If talking to camera or doing voiceover, use an external microphone

And you really don’t need to spend a ton of money on one. The microphone I use is $25 on a bad day.

If you’re going to be a distance away from the onboard mic, this will make all the difference in the quality of your content. You just want to be careful not to put it too close to your mouth, otherwise you’re going to deal with peaking audio (meaning, it blows out to the point that you can’t really fix or modulate it).

Even in a world where everyone’s watching video with their sound off, you don’t want the audio quality to get in the way when they do hit the sound.

Remember: emotion over production, always

I can’t take credit for this last one. I read it in Rachel Karten’s always-incredible Link in Bio newsletter, when she was interviewing the US Open team.

“Posted is better than perfect,” they said, but “emotion over production” was the thing that really rang true for me in terms of social content.

If you can make your audience care—if you can tell a good story—if you can keep them engaged—then that will always matter infinitely more than the type of camera you use.

And if you’re having trouble figuring out how to get there, know that I’m always happy to brainstorm.