Crafting News End Credits: A Step-by-Step Guide

Nowadays, having a strong online presence is more important than ever. One of the best ways to do that is to create engaging content for your YouTube channel, and you can achieve this by adding a solid intro and outro to your videos.

To keep viewers engaged, the outros on your videos must be strong and captivating to make a positive impression and leave viewers wanting more.

In this article, we’ll discuss how to create news outro templates for your videos or get an editable or non-editable template online.

Part 1. Before Starting, Learn What Is a Good YouTube Outro?

Before we investigate where to find an appropriate News Style Outro for your video in Part 2, let’s figure out what elements a good outro should include firstly.

A good outro will typically include a call to action, such as subscribing to a channel, checking out a website, or following on social media. You can also use engaging music or make your outros visually appealing with graphics, animations, or both to keep your viewers hooked.

Furthermore, it should include a brief summary of the video, and what viewers can expect for the things to come. You can find outros templates online or make your own outstanding YouTube outros in just a few clicks.

Part 2. Recommendation: Where Can You Find News Style Outro?

Now that you’ve understood what a good YouTube outro is, you might wonder where you can find News Style outros for your videos/presentations to add a bit of flair.

Multiple platforms offer editable or non-editable news styles outros to content creators. Below we’ve recommended top websites/platforms where you can get your required templates without any issues. Some even offer non-copyright content to their users.

1. Editable News Outro Template Websites
   1. Filmstock
   2. Canva
   3. Flexclip
   4. Placeit
2. Non-Editable News Outro Template Websites
   1. Storyblock
   2. Videvo
   3. Videezy
   4. Shutterstock
   5. iStock

Editable News Outro Template Websites

An editable news outro template can provide a quick and easy way to create or customize an outro that is both professional and engaging. Here are four websites we have chosen for you to find editable news outro templates.

Filmstock

Filmstock is a platform offering free and paid editable templates for content creators. With dozens of editable templates to choose from on Filmstock , you can find the perfect news style outro for your videos in just a few clicks. First, however, you need to install Filmora on your PC to use the platform.

Filmora is a popular video editor with a built-in filmstock library offering hundreds of non-copyright editable templates for every occasion. With the software, you can find and add your news style outros to your videos with just a few clicks. The only disadvantage is that it isn’t completely free. The paid version offers two options: A standard plan that costs $9.99 per month and a Premium plan that will cost you $49.99 per month.

You can also find detailed video tutorials to facilitate your video creation through Filmora and Filmstock’s official YouTube Channels, as well as video sources set presentation on the two channels. Here is an example of News Set video on Filmora’s YouTube Channel. Go to watch it and check are there any ideal news outro!

Video of News Set in Filmora Effects Store

Canva

Canva is a user-friendly graphic design free and paid tool that is quickly becoming a popular choice for businesses of all sizes. Canva offers a range of templates for creating professional-looking designs.

With a wide range of templates to choose from, you can easily find one that fits your needs and style. Best of all, you can create your outro template in minutes without hiring a designer or spending hours learning complex design software.

The software is easy-to-use and does not require any editor to customize and use the templates. The paid version is divided into 2 tiers: Canva Pro ($54.99 per year) and Canva for team ($84. 90/year). One disadvantage of the Canva free version is that it is limited resolution options when exporting your file.

Flexclip

Flexclip is a free, powerful, and easy-to-use online video maker that helps you create beautiful and engaging content for your business. With Flexclip, you can easily create editable news style outros for your videos from scratch or choose a template and edit it according to your requirements.

You can add text, music, elements, overlays, and branding to your templates to make them more stunning and captivating.

The platform offers 3 paid plans starting at $8.99/month. The con here is that the free version is only limited to the export quality of 480p, single royalty-free stock use, and 12 projects limit.

Placeit

Placeit is an online editor giving you the ability to create and customize your video content in no time. The editor also includes a stock image library, giving you access to several customizable templates.

Placeit is easy to use and offers a variety of templates for different purposes, including outros for news stories, video blogs, and even gaming videos. The platform offers an unlimited subscription plan starting from $7.47 /month.

However, the design rendering process of the editor is slow, there is no AI tool, and you even cannot import fonts that are not available on the platform.

Non-Editable News Outro Template Websites

Some platforms offer non-editable high-resolution news outros that you can integrate into your videos using software programs like Filmora (guidance in Part 3), After Effects, etc.

Storyblock

Searching for high-quality templates for your next project?Storyblock is a website that comes with royalty-free, non-customizable news style outros.

You can use these templates to create high-quality news intros and outros for your podcast or videos. The platform offers two pricing plans for individual content creators, starting at $15 per month. While businesses can customize their plans as per their requirements.

Limitations of the Storyblock are that the footage quality is very poor in the free version, and the paid versions might be tricky to avail sometimes.

Videvo

Videvo is a great resource for anyone looking for royalty-free video templates. They have over 300,000 free and premium videos, which you can download in clips or full with 4K resolution. However, their stock library is not much vast. The platform comes with a two-tier subscription plan starting from $14.99/month or $144/year.

You can find templates for both commercial and non-commercial use, so whatever your needs are, Videvo is likely to have a template that will work for you, i.e., news style. Some features of the platform include high-resolution download options, numerous music, sound effects, images and videos library, and a video compression option.

Videezy

Videezy is a royalty-free video site that offers free and premium video templates. The website has a variety of options to choose from, including news style outros, all of which are geared towards creating engaging content.

The templates are all ready-made and royalty-free. You can download them for use in your own projects and attach them to your video using any video editing app/software.

The pricing of the platform starts at $19/file, which might be expensive for some users. Moreover, in the free version, too many ads are displayed.

Shutterstock

Shutterstock has various affordable, royalty-free outro templates that you can use for your video/podcast. With a wide selection of styles and price points, this platform has the perfect content for your needs.

On Shutterstock, the free trial only offers 10 images, and you will be charged $0.22-$14.50/image once the trial limit is over. On the other hand, the Extended license will cost you $67.96-$99.50. The downside is that you have to purchase the content pack separately.

iStock

iStock is a premium website offering royalty-free stock photos, illustrations, and videos divided into numerous categories for easy access. The platform also offers a variety of non-editable news outro templates that you can add to your videos or podcasts.

The free trial on the platform is limited to 10 images, and after that, you will be charged $0.22-$9.90/image, while the Extended license will cost you $144-$216. The support system on the platform is slow and doesn’t respond on time.

Part 3. A Bonus Tip: How To Edit Your News Outro For Your YouTube Video?

After knowing the websites providing News Style Outro, we hope you can find an ideal outro successfully. However, how to use the material you have found, integrate it into your YouTube video, and improve the quality of it?

Like mentioned before, we highly recommend Filmora to fulfill all your editing needs and even provide royalty-free templates to use. Below are the steps to edit your news outros and make your content more appealing. Let’s start it without any hassle:

Step1 Download Filmora software from the official website and install it on your PC. Launch the software and click “New Project.”

Step2 Drag and drop your media file or import it using the “Click Here to Import Media File” option. Now, drag your file and drop it in the Timeline.

Step3 Adjust your clip in the Timeline and click the “Stock Media” option. Search for “News Outros,” select the one you like, and add it to the Timeline.

Step4 Next, adjust the template on your video, and once you are satisfied, click the “Export” option. Finally, do the necessary settings and click “Export” again or share your video directly to YouTube.

Free Download For Win 7 or later(64-bit)

Free Download For macOS 10.14 or later

Conclusion

In this article, we’ve provided a detailed guide on how to create news outro templates with simple and easy-to-follow instructions. We also discussed various platforms/editors where you can find customizable and non-customizable templates.

Hopefully, you find this guide informative and can now create strong news style outros for your videos.

Canva

Canva is a user-friendly graphic design free and paid tool that is quickly becoming a popular choice for businesses of all sizes. Canva offers a range of templates for creating professional-looking designs.

With a wide range of templates to choose from, you can easily find one that fits your needs and style. Best of all, you can create your outro template in minutes without hiring a designer or spending hours learning complex design software.

The software is easy-to-use and does not require any editor to customize and use the templates. The paid version is divided into 2 tiers: Canva Pro ($54.99 per year) and Canva for team ($84. 90/year). One disadvantage of the Canva free version is that it is limited resolution options when exporting your file.

Flexclip

Flexclip is a free, powerful, and easy-to-use online video maker that helps you create beautiful and engaging content for your business. With Flexclip, you can easily create editable news style outros for your videos from scratch or choose a template and edit it according to your requirements.

You can add text, music, elements, overlays, and branding to your templates to make them more stunning and captivating.

The platform offers 3 paid plans starting at $8.99/month. The con here is that the free version is only limited to the export quality of 480p, single royalty-free stock use, and 12 projects limit.

Placeit

Placeit is an online editor giving you the ability to create and customize your video content in no time. The editor also includes a stock image library, giving you access to several customizable templates.

Placeit is easy to use and offers a variety of templates for different purposes, including outros for news stories, video blogs, and even gaming videos. The platform offers an unlimited subscription plan starting from $7.47 /month.

However, the design rendering process of the editor is slow, there is no AI tool, and you even cannot import fonts that are not available on the platform.

Non-Editable News Outro Template Websites

Some platforms offer non-editable high-resolution news outros that you can integrate into your videos using software programs like Filmora (guidance in Part 3), After Effects, etc.

Storyblock

Searching for high-quality templates for your next project?Storyblock is a website that comes with royalty-free, non-customizable news style outros.

You can use these templates to create high-quality news intros and outros for your podcast or videos. The platform offers two pricing plans for individual content creators, starting at $15 per month. While businesses can customize their plans as per their requirements.

Limitations of the Storyblock are that the footage quality is very poor in the free version, and the paid versions might be tricky to avail sometimes.

Videvo

Videvo is a great resource for anyone looking for royalty-free video templates. They have over 300,000 free and premium videos, which you can download in clips or full with 4K resolution. However, their stock library is not much vast. The platform comes with a two-tier subscription plan starting from $14.99/month or $144/year.

You can find templates for both commercial and non-commercial use, so whatever your needs are, Videvo is likely to have a template that will work for you, i.e., news style. Some features of the platform include high-resolution download options, numerous music, sound effects, images and videos library, and a video compression option.

Videezy

Videezy is a royalty-free video site that offers free and premium video templates. The website has a variety of options to choose from, including news style outros, all of which are geared towards creating engaging content.

The templates are all ready-made and royalty-free. You can download them for use in your own projects and attach them to your video using any video editing app/software.

The pricing of the platform starts at $19/file, which might be expensive for some users. Moreover, in the free version, too many ads are displayed.

Shutterstock

Shutterstock has various affordable, royalty-free outro templates that you can use for your video/podcast. With a wide selection of styles and price points, this platform has the perfect content for your needs.

On Shutterstock, the free trial only offers 10 images, and you will be charged $0.22-$14.50/image once the trial limit is over. On the other hand, the Extended license will cost you $67.96-$99.50. The downside is that you have to purchase the content pack separately.

iStock

iStock is a premium website offering royalty-free stock photos, illustrations, and videos divided into numerous categories for easy access. The platform also offers a variety of non-editable news outro templates that you can add to your videos or podcasts.

The free trial on the platform is limited to 10 images, and after that, you will be charged $0.22-$9.90/image, while the Extended license will cost you $144-$216. The support system on the platform is slow and doesn’t respond on time.

Part 3. A Bonus Tip: How To Edit Your News Outro For Your YouTube Video?

After knowing the websites providing News Style Outro, we hope you can find an ideal outro successfully. However, how to use the material you have found, integrate it into your YouTube video, and improve the quality of it?

Like mentioned before, we highly recommend Filmora to fulfill all your editing needs and even provide royalty-free templates to use. Below are the steps to edit your news outros and make your content more appealing. Let’s start it without any hassle:

Step1 Download Filmora software from the official website and install it on your PC. Launch the software and click “New Project.”

Step2 Drag and drop your media file or import it using the “Click Here to Import Media File” option. Now, drag your file and drop it in the Timeline.

Step3 Adjust your clip in the Timeline and click the “Stock Media” option. Search for “News Outros,” select the one you like, and add it to the Timeline.

Step4 Next, adjust the template on your video, and once you are satisfied, click the “Export” option. Finally, do the necessary settings and click “Export” again or share your video directly to YouTube.

Free Download For Win 7 or later(64-bit)

Free Download For macOS 10.14 or later

Conclusion

In this article, we’ve provided a detailed guide on how to create news outro templates with simple and easy-to-follow instructions. We also discussed various platforms/editors where you can find customizable and non-customizable templates.

Hopefully, you find this guide informative and can now create strong news style outros for your videos.

Unleash Creativity with the Right Camera Lenses

A Vlogger’s Guide To Camera Lenses

Richard Bennett

Nov 01, 2022• Proven solutions

0

The staple of any vlog is the talking headshot, a shot of the speaker talking directly to the audience. You can compose this shot with different kinds of lenses for your interchangeable lens camera.

But which kind of lens is the right lens for you as a vlogger?

In this article, I’m going to help you figure that out.

• Part 1: Three Focal Length Groups: Wide, Standard, Telephoto
• Part 2: Vlogging With Each Focal Length Group
• Part 3: Crop Factor
• Part 4: Focal Length Equivalency Table
• Part 5: Aperture
• Part 6: Vlogging With a Fast Lens
• Part 7: Optical Image Stabilization

Three Focal Length Groups: Wide, Standard, Telephoto

There are three main ranges in focal lengths that camera lenses can be categorized into wide, standard, and telephoto.

Wide-Angle Lens

Wide-angle lenses can “see more.” They allow more of your scene to fit inside your frame. Objects that are closer to the lens appear much bigger while objects that are further away appear even smaller. Perspectives are also enhanced, making close objects and people that just make it into the sides of the frame appear more stretched out. Out of all the other ranges in focal lengths, wide-angle lenses will appear the least zoomed in.

Standard Lens

With standard lenses or normal lenses, you won’t get the stretched out objects or enhanced perspectives that you get from wide-angle lenses. Instead, standard lenses are meant to see scenes as the natural human eye is meant to see them. If you shoot a scene with both a wide-angle lens and a standard lens from the same position, you’ll notice that less of the scene fits into your frame. Standard lenses will appear more zoomed-in than wide-angle lenses, but less zoomed-in than telephoto lenses.

Telephoto Lens

Out of all the other ranges in focal lengths, telephoto lenses will appear the most zoomed in. This can be beneficial for the shooter who wants to get a closer shot of a scene without having to physically be in close proximity to the scene. Objects that are further away in the background also appear larger and closer than they would appear on wide-angle or standard lenses.

Vlogging With Each Focal Length Group

You can get your talking head footage using lenses from any of the three focal length groups. Depending on how you plan to vlog most of the time, though, one of the three focal lengths might be more suitable for you.

When to vlog with a wide-angle lens

Wide-angle lenses are the most commonly used lenses for vlogging. Wide-angle lenses are great when you need to be close to your camera. This might be the case for you if your recording space is small or if you want to film yourself as you hold your camera up with your own hand.

Being close to your camera not only gives you the option to use your camera’s built-in microphone, but it also gives you the option to make use of camera-mounted shotgun microphones.

When to vlog with a standard lens

Standard lenses are great when you have more space to be further away from your camera. The perspectives in your shot will look more natural through a standard lens, making your talking head footage feel more corporate or professional. You’ll also be able to get blurrier backgrounds using a standard lens versus a wide-angle lens.

Being further away from your camera, however, means that you’ll have to use a separate microphone positioned closer to you.

When to vlog with a telephoto lens

As telephoto lenses are even more zoomed in, you’ll need to be even further away from your camera to fit yourself inside your camera frame. Why would any vlogger ever need to be that far away from their camera? One word… teleprompter. If you want or need to stick to a script, you’ll have to be far away enough from your camera that it doesn’t appear like your eyes are scanning left to right. You then close in the distance with a telephoto lens.

In the above video, Marcos Rocha compares different focal lengths for talking head videos. Which focal length range do you like the look of?

Crop Factor

Focal lengths in camera lenses are measured in millimeters. You can vlog yourself handheld with a 24mm lens on a camera with a full-frame sensor (the sensor is the piece of hardware inside your camera that turns the light it receives into a digital image). But if you use a 24mm lens on a camera with a smaller sensor, like an APS-C sensor or even smaller Micro 4/3 sensor, more of you will get cropped out (see below).

In order to make up for the cropping that occurs, you will need to use a wider lens on cameras with smaller sensors to get the same shot you’d get with a full-frame camera.

Focal Length Equivalency Table

This table shows you the focal lengths needed to achieve the same shot between cameras with different sensor sizes. In order to take a shot as wide as the shot I took of myself with the 24mm lens on my full-frame camera, I would need a 15mm lens on an APS-C sensor camera or a 12mm lens on a micro 4/3 camera.

Focal Length / Sensor	Full Frame	APS-C	Micro 4/3
Wide (Handheld Selfie-Safe)	16mm	10mm	8mm
Wide (Handheld Selfie-Safe)	18mm	11mm	9mm
Wide (Handheld Selfie-Safe)	24mm	15mm	12mm
Wide	35mm	22mm	18mm
Standard	50mm	31mm	25mm
Telephoto	70mm	44mm	35mm
Telephoto	100mm	63mm	50mm
Telephoto	200mm	125mm	100mm

Aperture

The next thing to consider when you’re looking for a lens is the aperture, the hole (often adjustable) within the lens that lets light in. Aperture for camera lenses is measured in f-stops (f/1.4, f/1.8, f/2.0) - the smaller the f-stop number, the larger the aperture (bigger hole letting even more light in).

Because larger aperture lenses let more light in, they need a shorter time for cameras to compose an image. This is why larger aperture lenses are also called “fast” lenses.

Fast lenses are more expensive because they cost more to produce. There’s a lot more that goes into them, including larger and higher quality glass elements.

But do you even need a fast lens?

Vlogging With a Fast Lens

Pros of Vlogging With a Fast Lens

• Better low-light performance
• Better autofocus performance
• Better “bokeh” (out-of-focus areas, like your background, having that nice blurry look that you see in a lot of movies)

Cons of Vlogging With a Fast Lens

• More expensive
• Moving subjects more likely to get out of focus when shooting with a large aperture
• Better continuous autofocus performance needed when shooting moving subjects with a large aperture

Optical Image Stabilization

Finally, you’ll have to decide whether or not you want your lens to have built-in optical image stabilization (OIS).

OIS is very beneficial to have on a lens if you’re a vlogger who films mostly handheld footage. Although this technology adds to the price of your lens as well, it can greatly help you to capture smoother footage that may otherwise be shaky. Nikon calls this technology “Vibration Reduction” (VR) for their lenses.

In the above video, you can see how much OIS can help to stabilize your footage. MicBergsma simultaneously compares the footage between two GoPro Hero5 Blacks, one with OIS on and one with OIS off.

If, however, you are shooting most of your vlogs on a tripod, you won’t need a lens with OIS.

Looking for ways to set up your talking-head shot for YouTube with any of these lenses? Check out our post on 4 Ways To Set Up Your Talking-Head Shots For YouTube .

Richard Bennett

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

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Nov 01, 2022• Proven solutions

0

The staple of any vlog is the talking headshot, a shot of the speaker talking directly to the audience. You can compose this shot with different kinds of lenses for your interchangeable lens camera.

But which kind of lens is the right lens for you as a vlogger?

In this article, I’m going to help you figure that out.

• Part 1: Three Focal Length Groups: Wide, Standard, Telephoto
• Part 2: Vlogging With Each Focal Length Group
• Part 3: Crop Factor
• Part 4: Focal Length Equivalency Table
• Part 5: Aperture
• Part 6: Vlogging With a Fast Lens
• Part 7: Optical Image Stabilization

Three Focal Length Groups: Wide, Standard, Telephoto

There are three main ranges in focal lengths that camera lenses can be categorized into wide, standard, and telephoto.

Wide-Angle Lens

Wide-angle lenses can “see more.” They allow more of your scene to fit inside your frame. Objects that are closer to the lens appear much bigger while objects that are further away appear even smaller. Perspectives are also enhanced, making close objects and people that just make it into the sides of the frame appear more stretched out. Out of all the other ranges in focal lengths, wide-angle lenses will appear the least zoomed in.

Standard Lens

With standard lenses or normal lenses, you won’t get the stretched out objects or enhanced perspectives that you get from wide-angle lenses. Instead, standard lenses are meant to see scenes as the natural human eye is meant to see them. If you shoot a scene with both a wide-angle lens and a standard lens from the same position, you’ll notice that less of the scene fits into your frame. Standard lenses will appear more zoomed-in than wide-angle lenses, but less zoomed-in than telephoto lenses.

Telephoto Lens

Out of all the other ranges in focal lengths, telephoto lenses will appear the most zoomed in. This can be beneficial for the shooter who wants to get a closer shot of a scene without having to physically be in close proximity to the scene. Objects that are further away in the background also appear larger and closer than they would appear on wide-angle or standard lenses.

Vlogging With Each Focal Length Group

You can get your talking head footage using lenses from any of the three focal length groups. Depending on how you plan to vlog most of the time, though, one of the three focal lengths might be more suitable for you.

When to vlog with a wide-angle lens

Wide-angle lenses are the most commonly used lenses for vlogging. Wide-angle lenses are great when you need to be close to your camera. This might be the case for you if your recording space is small or if you want to film yourself as you hold your camera up with your own hand.

Being close to your camera not only gives you the option to use your camera’s built-in microphone, but it also gives you the option to make use of camera-mounted shotgun microphones.

When to vlog with a standard lens

Standard lenses are great when you have more space to be further away from your camera. The perspectives in your shot will look more natural through a standard lens, making your talking head footage feel more corporate or professional. You’ll also be able to get blurrier backgrounds using a standard lens versus a wide-angle lens.

Being further away from your camera, however, means that you’ll have to use a separate microphone positioned closer to you.

When to vlog with a telephoto lens

As telephoto lenses are even more zoomed in, you’ll need to be even further away from your camera to fit yourself inside your camera frame. Why would any vlogger ever need to be that far away from their camera? One word… teleprompter. If you want or need to stick to a script, you’ll have to be far away enough from your camera that it doesn’t appear like your eyes are scanning left to right. You then close in the distance with a telephoto lens.

In the above video, Marcos Rocha compares different focal lengths for talking head videos. Which focal length range do you like the look of?

Crop Factor

Focal lengths in camera lenses are measured in millimeters. You can vlog yourself handheld with a 24mm lens on a camera with a full-frame sensor (the sensor is the piece of hardware inside your camera that turns the light it receives into a digital image). But if you use a 24mm lens on a camera with a smaller sensor, like an APS-C sensor or even smaller Micro 4/3 sensor, more of you will get cropped out (see below).

In order to make up for the cropping that occurs, you will need to use a wider lens on cameras with smaller sensors to get the same shot you’d get with a full-frame camera.

Focal Length Equivalency Table

This table shows you the focal lengths needed to achieve the same shot between cameras with different sensor sizes. In order to take a shot as wide as the shot I took of myself with the 24mm lens on my full-frame camera, I would need a 15mm lens on an APS-C sensor camera or a 12mm lens on a micro 4/3 camera.

Focal Length / Sensor	Full Frame	APS-C	Micro 4/3
Wide (Handheld Selfie-Safe)	16mm	10mm	8mm
Wide (Handheld Selfie-Safe)	18mm	11mm	9mm
Wide (Handheld Selfie-Safe)	24mm	15mm	12mm
Wide	35mm	22mm	18mm
Standard	50mm	31mm	25mm
Telephoto	70mm	44mm	35mm
Telephoto	100mm	63mm	50mm
Telephoto	200mm	125mm	100mm

Aperture

The next thing to consider when you’re looking for a lens is the aperture, the hole (often adjustable) within the lens that lets light in. Aperture for camera lenses is measured in f-stops (f/1.4, f/1.8, f/2.0) - the smaller the f-stop number, the larger the aperture (bigger hole letting even more light in).

Because larger aperture lenses let more light in, they need a shorter time for cameras to compose an image. This is why larger aperture lenses are also called “fast” lenses.

Fast lenses are more expensive because they cost more to produce. There’s a lot more that goes into them, including larger and higher quality glass elements.

But do you even need a fast lens?

Vlogging With a Fast Lens

Pros of Vlogging With a Fast Lens

• Better low-light performance
• Better autofocus performance
• Better “bokeh” (out-of-focus areas, like your background, having that nice blurry look that you see in a lot of movies)

Cons of Vlogging With a Fast Lens

• More expensive
• Moving subjects more likely to get out of focus when shooting with a large aperture
• Better continuous autofocus performance needed when shooting moving subjects with a large aperture

Optical Image Stabilization

Finally, you’ll have to decide whether or not you want your lens to have built-in optical image stabilization (OIS).

OIS is very beneficial to have on a lens if you’re a vlogger who films mostly handheld footage. Although this technology adds to the price of your lens as well, it can greatly help you to capture smoother footage that may otherwise be shaky. Nikon calls this technology “Vibration Reduction” (VR) for their lenses.

In the above video, you can see how much OIS can help to stabilize your footage. MicBergsma simultaneously compares the footage between two GoPro Hero5 Blacks, one with OIS on and one with OIS off.

If, however, you are shooting most of your vlogs on a tripod, you won’t need a lens with OIS.

Looking for ways to set up your talking-head shot for YouTube with any of these lenses? Check out our post on 4 Ways To Set Up Your Talking-Head Shots For YouTube .

Richard Bennett

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

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Nov 01, 2022• Proven solutions

0

The staple of any vlog is the talking headshot, a shot of the speaker talking directly to the audience. You can compose this shot with different kinds of lenses for your interchangeable lens camera.

But which kind of lens is the right lens for you as a vlogger?

In this article, I’m going to help you figure that out.

• Part 1: Three Focal Length Groups: Wide, Standard, Telephoto
• Part 2: Vlogging With Each Focal Length Group
• Part 3: Crop Factor
• Part 4: Focal Length Equivalency Table
• Part 5: Aperture
• Part 6: Vlogging With a Fast Lens
• Part 7: Optical Image Stabilization

Three Focal Length Groups: Wide, Standard, Telephoto

There are three main ranges in focal lengths that camera lenses can be categorized into wide, standard, and telephoto.

Wide-Angle Lens

Wide-angle lenses can “see more.” They allow more of your scene to fit inside your frame. Objects that are closer to the lens appear much bigger while objects that are further away appear even smaller. Perspectives are also enhanced, making close objects and people that just make it into the sides of the frame appear more stretched out. Out of all the other ranges in focal lengths, wide-angle lenses will appear the least zoomed in.

Standard Lens

With standard lenses or normal lenses, you won’t get the stretched out objects or enhanced perspectives that you get from wide-angle lenses. Instead, standard lenses are meant to see scenes as the natural human eye is meant to see them. If you shoot a scene with both a wide-angle lens and a standard lens from the same position, you’ll notice that less of the scene fits into your frame. Standard lenses will appear more zoomed-in than wide-angle lenses, but less zoomed-in than telephoto lenses.

Telephoto Lens

Out of all the other ranges in focal lengths, telephoto lenses will appear the most zoomed in. This can be beneficial for the shooter who wants to get a closer shot of a scene without having to physically be in close proximity to the scene. Objects that are further away in the background also appear larger and closer than they would appear on wide-angle or standard lenses.

Vlogging With Each Focal Length Group

You can get your talking head footage using lenses from any of the three focal length groups. Depending on how you plan to vlog most of the time, though, one of the three focal lengths might be more suitable for you.

When to vlog with a wide-angle lens

Wide-angle lenses are the most commonly used lenses for vlogging. Wide-angle lenses are great when you need to be close to your camera. This might be the case for you if your recording space is small or if you want to film yourself as you hold your camera up with your own hand.

Being close to your camera not only gives you the option to use your camera’s built-in microphone, but it also gives you the option to make use of camera-mounted shotgun microphones.

When to vlog with a standard lens

Standard lenses are great when you have more space to be further away from your camera. The perspectives in your shot will look more natural through a standard lens, making your talking head footage feel more corporate or professional. You’ll also be able to get blurrier backgrounds using a standard lens versus a wide-angle lens.

Being further away from your camera, however, means that you’ll have to use a separate microphone positioned closer to you.

When to vlog with a telephoto lens

As telephoto lenses are even more zoomed in, you’ll need to be even further away from your camera to fit yourself inside your camera frame. Why would any vlogger ever need to be that far away from their camera? One word… teleprompter. If you want or need to stick to a script, you’ll have to be far away enough from your camera that it doesn’t appear like your eyes are scanning left to right. You then close in the distance with a telephoto lens.

In the above video, Marcos Rocha compares different focal lengths for talking head videos. Which focal length range do you like the look of?

Crop Factor

Focal lengths in camera lenses are measured in millimeters. You can vlog yourself handheld with a 24mm lens on a camera with a full-frame sensor (the sensor is the piece of hardware inside your camera that turns the light it receives into a digital image). But if you use a 24mm lens on a camera with a smaller sensor, like an APS-C sensor or even smaller Micro 4/3 sensor, more of you will get cropped out (see below).

In order to make up for the cropping that occurs, you will need to use a wider lens on cameras with smaller sensors to get the same shot you’d get with a full-frame camera.

Focal Length Equivalency Table

This table shows you the focal lengths needed to achieve the same shot between cameras with different sensor sizes. In order to take a shot as wide as the shot I took of myself with the 24mm lens on my full-frame camera, I would need a 15mm lens on an APS-C sensor camera or a 12mm lens on a micro 4/3 camera.

Focal Length / Sensor	Full Frame	APS-C	Micro 4/3
Wide (Handheld Selfie-Safe)	16mm	10mm	8mm
Wide (Handheld Selfie-Safe)	18mm	11mm	9mm
Wide (Handheld Selfie-Safe)	24mm	15mm	12mm
Wide	35mm	22mm	18mm
Standard	50mm	31mm	25mm
Telephoto	70mm	44mm	35mm
Telephoto	100mm	63mm	50mm
Telephoto	200mm	125mm	100mm

Aperture

The next thing to consider when you’re looking for a lens is the aperture, the hole (often adjustable) within the lens that lets light in. Aperture for camera lenses is measured in f-stops (f/1.4, f/1.8, f/2.0) - the smaller the f-stop number, the larger the aperture (bigger hole letting even more light in).

Because larger aperture lenses let more light in, they need a shorter time for cameras to compose an image. This is why larger aperture lenses are also called “fast” lenses.

Fast lenses are more expensive because they cost more to produce. There’s a lot more that goes into them, including larger and higher quality glass elements.

But do you even need a fast lens?

Vlogging With a Fast Lens

Pros of Vlogging With a Fast Lens

• Better low-light performance
• Better autofocus performance
• Better “bokeh” (out-of-focus areas, like your background, having that nice blurry look that you see in a lot of movies)

Cons of Vlogging With a Fast Lens

• More expensive
• Moving subjects more likely to get out of focus when shooting with a large aperture
• Better continuous autofocus performance needed when shooting moving subjects with a large aperture

Optical Image Stabilization

Finally, you’ll have to decide whether or not you want your lens to have built-in optical image stabilization (OIS).

OIS is very beneficial to have on a lens if you’re a vlogger who films mostly handheld footage. Although this technology adds to the price of your lens as well, it can greatly help you to capture smoother footage that may otherwise be shaky. Nikon calls this technology “Vibration Reduction” (VR) for their lenses.

In the above video, you can see how much OIS can help to stabilize your footage. MicBergsma simultaneously compares the footage between two GoPro Hero5 Blacks, one with OIS on and one with OIS off.

If, however, you are shooting most of your vlogs on a tripod, you won’t need a lens with OIS.

Looking for ways to set up your talking-head shot for YouTube with any of these lenses? Check out our post on 4 Ways To Set Up Your Talking-Head Shots For YouTube .

Richard Bennett

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

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Nov 01, 2022• Proven solutions

0

The staple of any vlog is the talking headshot, a shot of the speaker talking directly to the audience. You can compose this shot with different kinds of lenses for your interchangeable lens camera.

But which kind of lens is the right lens for you as a vlogger?

In this article, I’m going to help you figure that out.

• Part 1: Three Focal Length Groups: Wide, Standard, Telephoto
• Part 2: Vlogging With Each Focal Length Group
• Part 3: Crop Factor
• Part 4: Focal Length Equivalency Table
• Part 5: Aperture
• Part 6: Vlogging With a Fast Lens
• Part 7: Optical Image Stabilization

Three Focal Length Groups: Wide, Standard, Telephoto

There are three main ranges in focal lengths that camera lenses can be categorized into wide, standard, and telephoto.

Wide-Angle Lens

Wide-angle lenses can “see more.” They allow more of your scene to fit inside your frame. Objects that are closer to the lens appear much bigger while objects that are further away appear even smaller. Perspectives are also enhanced, making close objects and people that just make it into the sides of the frame appear more stretched out. Out of all the other ranges in focal lengths, wide-angle lenses will appear the least zoomed in.

Standard Lens

With standard lenses or normal lenses, you won’t get the stretched out objects or enhanced perspectives that you get from wide-angle lenses. Instead, standard lenses are meant to see scenes as the natural human eye is meant to see them. If you shoot a scene with both a wide-angle lens and a standard lens from the same position, you’ll notice that less of the scene fits into your frame. Standard lenses will appear more zoomed-in than wide-angle lenses, but less zoomed-in than telephoto lenses.

Telephoto Lens

Out of all the other ranges in focal lengths, telephoto lenses will appear the most zoomed in. This can be beneficial for the shooter who wants to get a closer shot of a scene without having to physically be in close proximity to the scene. Objects that are further away in the background also appear larger and closer than they would appear on wide-angle or standard lenses.

Vlogging With Each Focal Length Group

You can get your talking head footage using lenses from any of the three focal length groups. Depending on how you plan to vlog most of the time, though, one of the three focal lengths might be more suitable for you.

When to vlog with a wide-angle lens

Wide-angle lenses are the most commonly used lenses for vlogging. Wide-angle lenses are great when you need to be close to your camera. This might be the case for you if your recording space is small or if you want to film yourself as you hold your camera up with your own hand.

Being close to your camera not only gives you the option to use your camera’s built-in microphone, but it also gives you the option to make use of camera-mounted shotgun microphones.

When to vlog with a standard lens

Standard lenses are great when you have more space to be further away from your camera. The perspectives in your shot will look more natural through a standard lens, making your talking head footage feel more corporate or professional. You’ll also be able to get blurrier backgrounds using a standard lens versus a wide-angle lens.

Being further away from your camera, however, means that you’ll have to use a separate microphone positioned closer to you.

When to vlog with a telephoto lens

As telephoto lenses are even more zoomed in, you’ll need to be even further away from your camera to fit yourself inside your camera frame. Why would any vlogger ever need to be that far away from their camera? One word… teleprompter. If you want or need to stick to a script, you’ll have to be far away enough from your camera that it doesn’t appear like your eyes are scanning left to right. You then close in the distance with a telephoto lens.

In the above video, Marcos Rocha compares different focal lengths for talking head videos. Which focal length range do you like the look of?

Crop Factor

Focal lengths in camera lenses are measured in millimeters. You can vlog yourself handheld with a 24mm lens on a camera with a full-frame sensor (the sensor is the piece of hardware inside your camera that turns the light it receives into a digital image). But if you use a 24mm lens on a camera with a smaller sensor, like an APS-C sensor or even smaller Micro 4/3 sensor, more of you will get cropped out (see below).

In order to make up for the cropping that occurs, you will need to use a wider lens on cameras with smaller sensors to get the same shot you’d get with a full-frame camera.

Focal Length Equivalency Table

This table shows you the focal lengths needed to achieve the same shot between cameras with different sensor sizes. In order to take a shot as wide as the shot I took of myself with the 24mm lens on my full-frame camera, I would need a 15mm lens on an APS-C sensor camera or a 12mm lens on a micro 4/3 camera.

Focal Length / Sensor	Full Frame	APS-C	Micro 4/3
Wide (Handheld Selfie-Safe)	16mm	10mm	8mm
Wide (Handheld Selfie-Safe)	18mm	11mm	9mm
Wide (Handheld Selfie-Safe)	24mm	15mm	12mm
Wide	35mm	22mm	18mm
Standard	50mm	31mm	25mm
Telephoto	70mm	44mm	35mm
Telephoto	100mm	63mm	50mm
Telephoto	200mm	125mm	100mm

Aperture

The next thing to consider when you’re looking for a lens is the aperture, the hole (often adjustable) within the lens that lets light in. Aperture for camera lenses is measured in f-stops (f/1.4, f/1.8, f/2.0) - the smaller the f-stop number, the larger the aperture (bigger hole letting even more light in).

Because larger aperture lenses let more light in, they need a shorter time for cameras to compose an image. This is why larger aperture lenses are also called “fast” lenses.

Fast lenses are more expensive because they cost more to produce. There’s a lot more that goes into them, including larger and higher quality glass elements.

But do you even need a fast lens?

Vlogging With a Fast Lens

Pros of Vlogging With a Fast Lens

• Better low-light performance
• Better autofocus performance
• Better “bokeh” (out-of-focus areas, like your background, having that nice blurry look that you see in a lot of movies)

Cons of Vlogging With a Fast Lens

• More expensive
• Moving subjects more likely to get out of focus when shooting with a large aperture
• Better continuous autofocus performance needed when shooting moving subjects with a large aperture

Optical Image Stabilization

Finally, you’ll have to decide whether or not you want your lens to have built-in optical image stabilization (OIS).

OIS is very beneficial to have on a lens if you’re a vlogger who films mostly handheld footage. Although this technology adds to the price of your lens as well, it can greatly help you to capture smoother footage that may otherwise be shaky. Nikon calls this technology “Vibration Reduction” (VR) for their lenses.

In the above video, you can see how much OIS can help to stabilize your footage. MicBergsma simultaneously compares the footage between two GoPro Hero5 Blacks, one with OIS on and one with OIS off.

If, however, you are shooting most of your vlogs on a tripod, you won’t need a lens with OIS.

Looking for ways to set up your talking-head shot for YouTube with any of these lenses? Check out our post on 4 Ways To Set Up Your Talking-Head Shots For YouTube .

Richard Bennett

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

Follow @Richard Bennett

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