From Vlogs to Virality: Jake Paul, the Online Phenomenon

Jake Paul’s YouTube Success Story - All You Need to Know

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

There is a lot to learn about YouTube success from Jake Paul. With more than 300 hours of video uploaded onto YouTube every minute by more than ten million content creators, standing out from the competition and becoming a YouTube star can seem impossible. But, Jake Paul managed to achieve that in a short amount of time.

How Old Is Jake Paul?

Twenty-three-year-old Jake Joseph Paul was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the U.S. on January 17, 1997, to realtor father Greg Paul and nurse mother, Pam Stepnick.

Logan Paul and Jake Paul

He and his older brother, Logan, grew up in Westlake, Ohio, and played a lot of football together growing up. Jake’s childhood dream was to play for the NFL. Thinking they might enjoy filming themselves playing football, their father got them a camera. With this camera, Jake and his brother began filming themselves doing skits, pranks, and scripted videos.

Jake’s favorite YouTube channel at the time was “Smosh,” featuring the comedic duo Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla. Smosh was such an inspiration to them that the two Paul brothers started their own channel, “Zoosh” (notice the similar-sounding channel name?) - their old Zoosh channel and videos are still publicly available on YouTube.

For the majority of his years in school, Jake was the class clown. As he got older, though, he focused on football and wrestling and made it into his school’s varsity wrestling team. Around this time, Jake also began to contemplate what he would do after high school. Figuring he wanted to join the U.S. Navy SEALs, Jake started training for recruitment.

But before Jake fully invested his energy into training for the U.S. Navy SEALS, his brother, Logan, convinced him to make videos with him again (by this time, Logan had already built up a large following on Vine, the short-form video hosting service).

Image resource: BBC NEWS

Together with his older brother Logan, Jake also amassed a large following and eventually began receiving paid sponsorships, at which point Jake realized that he could make a career out of video content creation.

Curious, young, and adventurous, at the age of seventeen, after discussing with his mother, Jake dropped out of high school, put aside his pursuit to join the Navy SEALs, and moved to Los Angeles without much of a plan.

Jake Paul and Disney

Not wasting a single day in L.A., Jake went straight to taking acting and improv classes, growing his social media, and networking with everyone he could meet in the entertainment industry. In 2015, Jake auditioned for Disney Channel’s comedy series “Bizaardvark” and successfully landed the role of “Dirk.” However, the Disney Channel grew more and more uncomfortable with Jake’s growing image as an outrageous teenager. After Jake made it onto the KTLA 5 news for the noise complaints around his mansion, the Disney Channel fired him from Bizaardvark.


Image resource:tubefilter.com

Team 10

In 2016, with all of his many exciting experiences, Jake put together a humorous and motivational memoir titled “You Gotta Want It.” As his own social media channels kept on growing rapidly, Jake launched “Team 10,” his own influencer management agency comprised of other teen social media influencers. In order to collaborate with one another more easily, they all moved in together to a Beverly Grove mansion that rents for $17,000 USD a month. After Jake publicized his address, the mansion attracted so many fans that neighbors filed multiple noise complaints and even contemplated filing a class-action public nuisance lawsuit against Jake.

More than a home, the mansion became a film set. The teenage tenants filmed themselves pranking one another and being as outrageous as teenagers can possibly be.

Image resource:venturebeat.com

On May 30, 2017, Jake uploaded a rap music video with Team 10 titled “It’s Everyday Bro.” While Jake is no stranger to making popular videos, the number of views this music video garnered was on another level. The stark difference between the high production quality of the video and the unimpressive lyrical content may have been the perfect combination that catapulted the video’s success.

As it always happens with all videos that go viral, many YouTubers jumped on the bandwagon and made their own reaction videos to “It’s Everyday Bro,” mostly making fun of Jake. Some big-name YouTubers, including his own brother, even went as far as producing their own “diss track” music video. This drama created even more heavy traffic around Jake, which he cleverly responded with more video content.

Despite all of these oppositions in his life, Jake continues to work hard to build his social media empire. Looking at all the many strategies he has already successfully executed from such a young age, and I have no doubts that Jake will continue to push the boundaries of social media and content creation in the years to come.

What About Social Media Success Can We Learn From Jake Paul?

Quick Follower Growth Through First-Mover Advantage

When a new social media service pops up, there’s so much opportunity to quickly rack up a huge number of followers simply by being one of the early content creators on that platform. This was the case for the Paul brothers on Vine. After the fall of Vine, the Paul brothers were able to migrate their Vine fans over to YouTube.

Know Your Audience

Jake has a very good understanding of who his audience is. He knows that his audience is young. By knowing the age group that the majority of his audience falls under, Jake is then able to tailor his content in a way that captures his audience’s attention most effectively. Through high-energy prank videos and daring stunts, Jake is able to supply his audience with the content that they want. As a YouTuber, you can get an idea of who your main audience is by accessing your channel’s analytics.

Commitment To Consistent Delivery of Audience-Centered Content

Jake made a serious commitment to delivering audience-centered content. Jake moved into a house full of other teenagers also committed to content creation, and they all filmed themselves doing pranks and stunts every day.

Get the ultimate guide to growing your YouTube subscribers

Do you want to be a YouTuber? If you desire to be a YouTuber yet not knowing how to edit a video, please try this robust and user-friendly video editing software Wondershare Filmora. It provides special effects, stock photo & video, sound library, etc., which will definitely enhance your productivity and helps to make money by making videos much accessible.

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

There is a lot to learn about YouTube success from Jake Paul. With more than 300 hours of video uploaded onto YouTube every minute by more than ten million content creators, standing out from the competition and becoming a YouTube star can seem impossible. But, Jake Paul managed to achieve that in a short amount of time.

How Old Is Jake Paul?

Twenty-three-year-old Jake Joseph Paul was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the U.S. on January 17, 1997, to realtor father Greg Paul and nurse mother, Pam Stepnick.

Logan Paul and Jake Paul

He and his older brother, Logan, grew up in Westlake, Ohio, and played a lot of football together growing up. Jake’s childhood dream was to play for the NFL. Thinking they might enjoy filming themselves playing football, their father got them a camera. With this camera, Jake and his brother began filming themselves doing skits, pranks, and scripted videos.

Jake’s favorite YouTube channel at the time was “Smosh,” featuring the comedic duo Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla. Smosh was such an inspiration to them that the two Paul brothers started their own channel, “Zoosh” (notice the similar-sounding channel name?) - their old Zoosh channel and videos are still publicly available on YouTube.

For the majority of his years in school, Jake was the class clown. As he got older, though, he focused on football and wrestling and made it into his school’s varsity wrestling team. Around this time, Jake also began to contemplate what he would do after high school. Figuring he wanted to join the U.S. Navy SEALs, Jake started training for recruitment.

But before Jake fully invested his energy into training for the U.S. Navy SEALS, his brother, Logan, convinced him to make videos with him again (by this time, Logan had already built up a large following on Vine, the short-form video hosting service).

Image resource: BBC NEWS

Together with his older brother Logan, Jake also amassed a large following and eventually began receiving paid sponsorships, at which point Jake realized that he could make a career out of video content creation.

Curious, young, and adventurous, at the age of seventeen, after discussing with his mother, Jake dropped out of high school, put aside his pursuit to join the Navy SEALs, and moved to Los Angeles without much of a plan.

Jake Paul and Disney

Not wasting a single day in L.A., Jake went straight to taking acting and improv classes, growing his social media, and networking with everyone he could meet in the entertainment industry. In 2015, Jake auditioned for Disney Channel’s comedy series “Bizaardvark” and successfully landed the role of “Dirk.” However, the Disney Channel grew more and more uncomfortable with Jake’s growing image as an outrageous teenager. After Jake made it onto the KTLA 5 news for the noise complaints around his mansion, the Disney Channel fired him from Bizaardvark.


Image resource:tubefilter.com

Team 10

In 2016, with all of his many exciting experiences, Jake put together a humorous and motivational memoir titled “You Gotta Want It.” As his own social media channels kept on growing rapidly, Jake launched “Team 10,” his own influencer management agency comprised of other teen social media influencers. In order to collaborate with one another more easily, they all moved in together to a Beverly Grove mansion that rents for $17,000 USD a month. After Jake publicized his address, the mansion attracted so many fans that neighbors filed multiple noise complaints and even contemplated filing a class-action public nuisance lawsuit against Jake.

More than a home, the mansion became a film set. The teenage tenants filmed themselves pranking one another and being as outrageous as teenagers can possibly be.

Image resource:venturebeat.com

On May 30, 2017, Jake uploaded a rap music video with Team 10 titled “It’s Everyday Bro.” While Jake is no stranger to making popular videos, the number of views this music video garnered was on another level. The stark difference between the high production quality of the video and the unimpressive lyrical content may have been the perfect combination that catapulted the video’s success.

As it always happens with all videos that go viral, many YouTubers jumped on the bandwagon and made their own reaction videos to “It’s Everyday Bro,” mostly making fun of Jake. Some big-name YouTubers, including his own brother, even went as far as producing their own “diss track” music video. This drama created even more heavy traffic around Jake, which he cleverly responded with more video content.

Despite all of these oppositions in his life, Jake continues to work hard to build his social media empire. Looking at all the many strategies he has already successfully executed from such a young age, and I have no doubts that Jake will continue to push the boundaries of social media and content creation in the years to come.

What About Social Media Success Can We Learn From Jake Paul?

Quick Follower Growth Through First-Mover Advantage

When a new social media service pops up, there’s so much opportunity to quickly rack up a huge number of followers simply by being one of the early content creators on that platform. This was the case for the Paul brothers on Vine. After the fall of Vine, the Paul brothers were able to migrate their Vine fans over to YouTube.

Know Your Audience

Jake has a very good understanding of who his audience is. He knows that his audience is young. By knowing the age group that the majority of his audience falls under, Jake is then able to tailor his content in a way that captures his audience’s attention most effectively. Through high-energy prank videos and daring stunts, Jake is able to supply his audience with the content that they want. As a YouTuber, you can get an idea of who your main audience is by accessing your channel’s analytics.

Commitment To Consistent Delivery of Audience-Centered Content

Jake made a serious commitment to delivering audience-centered content. Jake moved into a house full of other teenagers also committed to content creation, and they all filmed themselves doing pranks and stunts every day.

Get the ultimate guide to growing your YouTube subscribers

Do you want to be a YouTuber? If you desire to be a YouTuber yet not knowing how to edit a video, please try this robust and user-friendly video editing software Wondershare Filmora. It provides special effects, stock photo & video, sound library, etc., which will definitely enhance your productivity and helps to make money by making videos much accessible.

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

There is a lot to learn about YouTube success from Jake Paul. With more than 300 hours of video uploaded onto YouTube every minute by more than ten million content creators, standing out from the competition and becoming a YouTube star can seem impossible. But, Jake Paul managed to achieve that in a short amount of time.

How Old Is Jake Paul?

Twenty-three-year-old Jake Joseph Paul was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the U.S. on January 17, 1997, to realtor father Greg Paul and nurse mother, Pam Stepnick.

Logan Paul and Jake Paul

He and his older brother, Logan, grew up in Westlake, Ohio, and played a lot of football together growing up. Jake’s childhood dream was to play for the NFL. Thinking they might enjoy filming themselves playing football, their father got them a camera. With this camera, Jake and his brother began filming themselves doing skits, pranks, and scripted videos.

Jake’s favorite YouTube channel at the time was “Smosh,” featuring the comedic duo Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla. Smosh was such an inspiration to them that the two Paul brothers started their own channel, “Zoosh” (notice the similar-sounding channel name?) - their old Zoosh channel and videos are still publicly available on YouTube.

For the majority of his years in school, Jake was the class clown. As he got older, though, he focused on football and wrestling and made it into his school’s varsity wrestling team. Around this time, Jake also began to contemplate what he would do after high school. Figuring he wanted to join the U.S. Navy SEALs, Jake started training for recruitment.

But before Jake fully invested his energy into training for the U.S. Navy SEALS, his brother, Logan, convinced him to make videos with him again (by this time, Logan had already built up a large following on Vine, the short-form video hosting service).

Image resource: BBC NEWS

Together with his older brother Logan, Jake also amassed a large following and eventually began receiving paid sponsorships, at which point Jake realized that he could make a career out of video content creation.

Curious, young, and adventurous, at the age of seventeen, after discussing with his mother, Jake dropped out of high school, put aside his pursuit to join the Navy SEALs, and moved to Los Angeles without much of a plan.

Jake Paul and Disney

Not wasting a single day in L.A., Jake went straight to taking acting and improv classes, growing his social media, and networking with everyone he could meet in the entertainment industry. In 2015, Jake auditioned for Disney Channel’s comedy series “Bizaardvark” and successfully landed the role of “Dirk.” However, the Disney Channel grew more and more uncomfortable with Jake’s growing image as an outrageous teenager. After Jake made it onto the KTLA 5 news for the noise complaints around his mansion, the Disney Channel fired him from Bizaardvark.


Image resource:tubefilter.com

Team 10

In 2016, with all of his many exciting experiences, Jake put together a humorous and motivational memoir titled “You Gotta Want It.” As his own social media channels kept on growing rapidly, Jake launched “Team 10,” his own influencer management agency comprised of other teen social media influencers. In order to collaborate with one another more easily, they all moved in together to a Beverly Grove mansion that rents for $17,000 USD a month. After Jake publicized his address, the mansion attracted so many fans that neighbors filed multiple noise complaints and even contemplated filing a class-action public nuisance lawsuit against Jake.

More than a home, the mansion became a film set. The teenage tenants filmed themselves pranking one another and being as outrageous as teenagers can possibly be.

Image resource:venturebeat.com

On May 30, 2017, Jake uploaded a rap music video with Team 10 titled “It’s Everyday Bro.” While Jake is no stranger to making popular videos, the number of views this music video garnered was on another level. The stark difference between the high production quality of the video and the unimpressive lyrical content may have been the perfect combination that catapulted the video’s success.

As it always happens with all videos that go viral, many YouTubers jumped on the bandwagon and made their own reaction videos to “It’s Everyday Bro,” mostly making fun of Jake. Some big-name YouTubers, including his own brother, even went as far as producing their own “diss track” music video. This drama created even more heavy traffic around Jake, which he cleverly responded with more video content.

Despite all of these oppositions in his life, Jake continues to work hard to build his social media empire. Looking at all the many strategies he has already successfully executed from such a young age, and I have no doubts that Jake will continue to push the boundaries of social media and content creation in the years to come.

What About Social Media Success Can We Learn From Jake Paul?

Quick Follower Growth Through First-Mover Advantage

When a new social media service pops up, there’s so much opportunity to quickly rack up a huge number of followers simply by being one of the early content creators on that platform. This was the case for the Paul brothers on Vine. After the fall of Vine, the Paul brothers were able to migrate their Vine fans over to YouTube.

Know Your Audience

Jake has a very good understanding of who his audience is. He knows that his audience is young. By knowing the age group that the majority of his audience falls under, Jake is then able to tailor his content in a way that captures his audience’s attention most effectively. Through high-energy prank videos and daring stunts, Jake is able to supply his audience with the content that they want. As a YouTuber, you can get an idea of who your main audience is by accessing your channel’s analytics.

Commitment To Consistent Delivery of Audience-Centered Content

Jake made a serious commitment to delivering audience-centered content. Jake moved into a house full of other teenagers also committed to content creation, and they all filmed themselves doing pranks and stunts every day.

Get the ultimate guide to growing your YouTube subscribers

Do you want to be a YouTuber? If you desire to be a YouTuber yet not knowing how to edit a video, please try this robust and user-friendly video editing software Wondershare Filmora. It provides special effects, stock photo & video, sound library, etc., which will definitely enhance your productivity and helps to make money by making videos much accessible.

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

There is a lot to learn about YouTube success from Jake Paul. With more than 300 hours of video uploaded onto YouTube every minute by more than ten million content creators, standing out from the competition and becoming a YouTube star can seem impossible. But, Jake Paul managed to achieve that in a short amount of time.

How Old Is Jake Paul?

Twenty-three-year-old Jake Joseph Paul was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the U.S. on January 17, 1997, to realtor father Greg Paul and nurse mother, Pam Stepnick.

Logan Paul and Jake Paul

He and his older brother, Logan, grew up in Westlake, Ohio, and played a lot of football together growing up. Jake’s childhood dream was to play for the NFL. Thinking they might enjoy filming themselves playing football, their father got them a camera. With this camera, Jake and his brother began filming themselves doing skits, pranks, and scripted videos.

Jake’s favorite YouTube channel at the time was “Smosh,” featuring the comedic duo Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla. Smosh was such an inspiration to them that the two Paul brothers started their own channel, “Zoosh” (notice the similar-sounding channel name?) - their old Zoosh channel and videos are still publicly available on YouTube.

For the majority of his years in school, Jake was the class clown. As he got older, though, he focused on football and wrestling and made it into his school’s varsity wrestling team. Around this time, Jake also began to contemplate what he would do after high school. Figuring he wanted to join the U.S. Navy SEALs, Jake started training for recruitment.

But before Jake fully invested his energy into training for the U.S. Navy SEALS, his brother, Logan, convinced him to make videos with him again (by this time, Logan had already built up a large following on Vine, the short-form video hosting service).

Image resource: BBC NEWS

Together with his older brother Logan, Jake also amassed a large following and eventually began receiving paid sponsorships, at which point Jake realized that he could make a career out of video content creation.

Curious, young, and adventurous, at the age of seventeen, after discussing with his mother, Jake dropped out of high school, put aside his pursuit to join the Navy SEALs, and moved to Los Angeles without much of a plan.

Jake Paul and Disney

Not wasting a single day in L.A., Jake went straight to taking acting and improv classes, growing his social media, and networking with everyone he could meet in the entertainment industry. In 2015, Jake auditioned for Disney Channel’s comedy series “Bizaardvark” and successfully landed the role of “Dirk.” However, the Disney Channel grew more and more uncomfortable with Jake’s growing image as an outrageous teenager. After Jake made it onto the KTLA 5 news for the noise complaints around his mansion, the Disney Channel fired him from Bizaardvark.


Image resource:tubefilter.com

Team 10

In 2016, with all of his many exciting experiences, Jake put together a humorous and motivational memoir titled “You Gotta Want It.” As his own social media channels kept on growing rapidly, Jake launched “Team 10,” his own influencer management agency comprised of other teen social media influencers. In order to collaborate with one another more easily, they all moved in together to a Beverly Grove mansion that rents for $17,000 USD a month. After Jake publicized his address, the mansion attracted so many fans that neighbors filed multiple noise complaints and even contemplated filing a class-action public nuisance lawsuit against Jake.

More than a home, the mansion became a film set. The teenage tenants filmed themselves pranking one another and being as outrageous as teenagers can possibly be.

Image resource:venturebeat.com

On May 30, 2017, Jake uploaded a rap music video with Team 10 titled “It’s Everyday Bro.” While Jake is no stranger to making popular videos, the number of views this music video garnered was on another level. The stark difference between the high production quality of the video and the unimpressive lyrical content may have been the perfect combination that catapulted the video’s success.

As it always happens with all videos that go viral, many YouTubers jumped on the bandwagon and made their own reaction videos to “It’s Everyday Bro,” mostly making fun of Jake. Some big-name YouTubers, including his own brother, even went as far as producing their own “diss track” music video. This drama created even more heavy traffic around Jake, which he cleverly responded with more video content.

Despite all of these oppositions in his life, Jake continues to work hard to build his social media empire. Looking at all the many strategies he has already successfully executed from such a young age, and I have no doubts that Jake will continue to push the boundaries of social media and content creation in the years to come.

What About Social Media Success Can We Learn From Jake Paul?

Quick Follower Growth Through First-Mover Advantage

When a new social media service pops up, there’s so much opportunity to quickly rack up a huge number of followers simply by being one of the early content creators on that platform. This was the case for the Paul brothers on Vine. After the fall of Vine, the Paul brothers were able to migrate their Vine fans over to YouTube.

Know Your Audience

Jake has a very good understanding of who his audience is. He knows that his audience is young. By knowing the age group that the majority of his audience falls under, Jake is then able to tailor his content in a way that captures his audience’s attention most effectively. Through high-energy prank videos and daring stunts, Jake is able to supply his audience with the content that they want. As a YouTuber, you can get an idea of who your main audience is by accessing your channel’s analytics.

Commitment To Consistent Delivery of Audience-Centered Content

Jake made a serious commitment to delivering audience-centered content. Jake moved into a house full of other teenagers also committed to content creation, and they all filmed themselves doing pranks and stunts every day.

Get the ultimate guide to growing your YouTube subscribers

Do you want to be a YouTuber? If you desire to be a YouTuber yet not knowing how to edit a video, please try this robust and user-friendly video editing software Wondershare Filmora. It provides special effects, stock photo & video, sound library, etc., which will definitely enhance your productivity and helps to make money by making videos much accessible.

Richard Bennett

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

Follow @Richard Bennett

Unleashing Creativity: Essential Lenses for YouTube Vloggers

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

Also read: