The Ultimate Guide to Brightening Up Your YouTube Content

How To Light Your YouTube Video

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

When it comes to sensitivity to light, no consumer-level camera sensor comes close in performance to the human eye. Many newbies to videography, though, don’t think about this when they use their camera indoors and discover that their recorded footage appears too dark.

If you want to use your camera indoors as many YouTubers do, you’ll need to have extra light. But the solution is not as simple as surrounding yourself with lamps that are all randomly placed.

Below, I’ll go into detail on how you can set up your lighting equipment to make your YouTube videos look good.

Table of Contents Using Light You Already Have Window LightingHome Lighting Home Studio Lighting Light Control3-Point Lighting4-Point Lighting

Part 1: Using Light You Already Have

Most beginner YouTubers light their videos with what they already have. That’s what I did to start as well. In the past, my video recording space consisted of natural sunlight coming from my window and ceiling light for times when the sunlight wasn’t strong enough.

1. Window Lighting

The best thing about window lighting is that it’s free. The worst thing about it is that it’s uncontrollable. The amount of light you get in your video can vary with all the changes in the weather.

Window lighting for me was especially difficult to work with because I live in a very rainy and cloudy city, Vancouver, Canada, where we pretty much just get three months of good sun.

Above are two freeze frames from one of Daniel’s past window-lit vlogs. Although these two frames are both from the same vlog, you can see that the image on the right looks brighter due to clearer skies at that moment. These varying amounts of light is what you will have to deal with if you choose to light your YouTube video with window lighting.

2. Home Lighting

Home lighting is another source of light that many new YouTubers use. In the past, when my window light wasn’t strong enough to light my video recording space, I would turn on the ceiling light.

Notice how the color of Daniel’s skin looks much more orange here (above) than the color of the skin in the two side-by-side window lighting examples? The side of the face also appears to look bluer. This all happened because he mixed up different color temperatures shining out of the two lights (cooler window light and warmer ceiling light).

Most home lighting is warmer in its color temperature. If you want to use your home lights without everything being orange-tinted, you’ll need to switch out your light bulbs for daytime LED light bulbs.

Ceiling lights are also typically situated in the center of a room in order to light an entire room evenly. This is not likely to be the best location for your filming video. Since the ceiling light was directly above the face in the above example, you can see harder shadows beneath his cheeks.

Part 2: Home Studio Lighting

If you rather not deal with all the window and home lighting challenges, you can set up studio lighting in your home.

1. Light Control

The first thing you’ll want to do to set up studio lighting in your home is to pick a room to film in and eliminate as much external lighting as you can. Use blinds, curtains, towels, or any thick fabric to block sunlight from shining into your room.

2. 3-Point Lighting

The most common setup for studio lighting is 3-point lighting. For this kind of lighting you’ll need three lights: a key light, a fill light, and a back light (also called a hair light).

Out of the three lights, the key light should be the brightest. When it is positioned to the left of you (as shown in the diagram above) your right side will have shadows.

To minimize the shadows on your right side, use a weaker light as a fill light. You don’t want your fill light to completely eliminate all your shadows or else your shot will look flat.

Lastly, a backlight positioned behind you can give an appealing highlight to the ends of your head and even help to separate your hair from blending into your background if both happen to be dark.

3. 4-Point Lighting

As a YouTuber, you may not only want yourself to be seen optimally with proper lighting, but you may also want your background to be seen optimally, especially if you’ve taken the time to decorate it for your audience.

What you’ll need to ensure that your background is sufficiently lit is 4-point lighting setup. The 4-point lighting setup is the same as a 3-point lighting setup, but with an additional light shining at your background.

For more information on lighting equipment, check out my Top 17 Video Lighting Equipment For YouTubers .

Touch Up YouTube Videos with Filmora

Filmora is one of the best video editing software for YouTube beginners to start the YouTube channel. So, if you find the lighting isn’t perfect after recording, you can use the Auto Color Enhancement feature in Filmora to adjust the color with one-click. Or, you can change the white balance, Light, color, and HSL manually. Filmora also features some presets and LUTs templates , which allows you to apply pre-programmed effects to video for color correction faster.

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

When it comes to sensitivity to light, no consumer-level camera sensor comes close in performance to the human eye. Many newbies to videography, though, don’t think about this when they use their camera indoors and discover that their recorded footage appears too dark.

If you want to use your camera indoors as many YouTubers do, you’ll need to have extra light. But the solution is not as simple as surrounding yourself with lamps that are all randomly placed.

Below, I’ll go into detail on how you can set up your lighting equipment to make your YouTube videos look good.

Table of Contents Using Light You Already Have Window LightingHome Lighting Home Studio Lighting Light Control3-Point Lighting4-Point Lighting

Part 1: Using Light You Already Have

Most beginner YouTubers light their videos with what they already have. That’s what I did to start as well. In the past, my video recording space consisted of natural sunlight coming from my window and ceiling light for times when the sunlight wasn’t strong enough.

1. Window Lighting

The best thing about window lighting is that it’s free. The worst thing about it is that it’s uncontrollable. The amount of light you get in your video can vary with all the changes in the weather.

Window lighting for me was especially difficult to work with because I live in a very rainy and cloudy city, Vancouver, Canada, where we pretty much just get three months of good sun.

Above are two freeze frames from one of Daniel’s past window-lit vlogs. Although these two frames are both from the same vlog, you can see that the image on the right looks brighter due to clearer skies at that moment. These varying amounts of light is what you will have to deal with if you choose to light your YouTube video with window lighting.

2. Home Lighting

Home lighting is another source of light that many new YouTubers use. In the past, when my window light wasn’t strong enough to light my video recording space, I would turn on the ceiling light.

Notice how the color of Daniel’s skin looks much more orange here (above) than the color of the skin in the two side-by-side window lighting examples? The side of the face also appears to look bluer. This all happened because he mixed up different color temperatures shining out of the two lights (cooler window light and warmer ceiling light).

Most home lighting is warmer in its color temperature. If you want to use your home lights without everything being orange-tinted, you’ll need to switch out your light bulbs for daytime LED light bulbs.

Ceiling lights are also typically situated in the center of a room in order to light an entire room evenly. This is not likely to be the best location for your filming video. Since the ceiling light was directly above the face in the above example, you can see harder shadows beneath his cheeks.

Part 2: Home Studio Lighting

If you rather not deal with all the window and home lighting challenges, you can set up studio lighting in your home.

1. Light Control

The first thing you’ll want to do to set up studio lighting in your home is to pick a room to film in and eliminate as much external lighting as you can. Use blinds, curtains, towels, or any thick fabric to block sunlight from shining into your room.

2. 3-Point Lighting

The most common setup for studio lighting is 3-point lighting. For this kind of lighting you’ll need three lights: a key light, a fill light, and a back light (also called a hair light).

Out of the three lights, the key light should be the brightest. When it is positioned to the left of you (as shown in the diagram above) your right side will have shadows.

To minimize the shadows on your right side, use a weaker light as a fill light. You don’t want your fill light to completely eliminate all your shadows or else your shot will look flat.

Lastly, a backlight positioned behind you can give an appealing highlight to the ends of your head and even help to separate your hair from blending into your background if both happen to be dark.

3. 4-Point Lighting

As a YouTuber, you may not only want yourself to be seen optimally with proper lighting, but you may also want your background to be seen optimally, especially if you’ve taken the time to decorate it for your audience.

What you’ll need to ensure that your background is sufficiently lit is 4-point lighting setup. The 4-point lighting setup is the same as a 3-point lighting setup, but with an additional light shining at your background.

For more information on lighting equipment, check out my Top 17 Video Lighting Equipment For YouTubers .

Touch Up YouTube Videos with Filmora

Filmora is one of the best video editing software for YouTube beginners to start the YouTube channel. So, if you find the lighting isn’t perfect after recording, you can use the Auto Color Enhancement feature in Filmora to adjust the color with one-click. Or, you can change the white balance, Light, color, and HSL manually. Filmora also features some presets and LUTs templates , which allows you to apply pre-programmed effects to video for color correction faster.

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

When it comes to sensitivity to light, no consumer-level camera sensor comes close in performance to the human eye. Many newbies to videography, though, don’t think about this when they use their camera indoors and discover that their recorded footage appears too dark.

If you want to use your camera indoors as many YouTubers do, you’ll need to have extra light. But the solution is not as simple as surrounding yourself with lamps that are all randomly placed.

Below, I’ll go into detail on how you can set up your lighting equipment to make your YouTube videos look good.

Table of Contents Using Light You Already Have Window LightingHome Lighting Home Studio Lighting Light Control3-Point Lighting4-Point Lighting

Part 1: Using Light You Already Have

Most beginner YouTubers light their videos with what they already have. That’s what I did to start as well. In the past, my video recording space consisted of natural sunlight coming from my window and ceiling light for times when the sunlight wasn’t strong enough.

1. Window Lighting

The best thing about window lighting is that it’s free. The worst thing about it is that it’s uncontrollable. The amount of light you get in your video can vary with all the changes in the weather.

Window lighting for me was especially difficult to work with because I live in a very rainy and cloudy city, Vancouver, Canada, where we pretty much just get three months of good sun.

Above are two freeze frames from one of Daniel’s past window-lit vlogs. Although these two frames are both from the same vlog, you can see that the image on the right looks brighter due to clearer skies at that moment. These varying amounts of light is what you will have to deal with if you choose to light your YouTube video with window lighting.

2. Home Lighting

Home lighting is another source of light that many new YouTubers use. In the past, when my window light wasn’t strong enough to light my video recording space, I would turn on the ceiling light.

Notice how the color of Daniel’s skin looks much more orange here (above) than the color of the skin in the two side-by-side window lighting examples? The side of the face also appears to look bluer. This all happened because he mixed up different color temperatures shining out of the two lights (cooler window light and warmer ceiling light).

Most home lighting is warmer in its color temperature. If you want to use your home lights without everything being orange-tinted, you’ll need to switch out your light bulbs for daytime LED light bulbs.

Ceiling lights are also typically situated in the center of a room in order to light an entire room evenly. This is not likely to be the best location for your filming video. Since the ceiling light was directly above the face in the above example, you can see harder shadows beneath his cheeks.

Part 2: Home Studio Lighting

If you rather not deal with all the window and home lighting challenges, you can set up studio lighting in your home.

1. Light Control

The first thing you’ll want to do to set up studio lighting in your home is to pick a room to film in and eliminate as much external lighting as you can. Use blinds, curtains, towels, or any thick fabric to block sunlight from shining into your room.

2. 3-Point Lighting

The most common setup for studio lighting is 3-point lighting. For this kind of lighting you’ll need three lights: a key light, a fill light, and a back light (also called a hair light).

Out of the three lights, the key light should be the brightest. When it is positioned to the left of you (as shown in the diagram above) your right side will have shadows.

To minimize the shadows on your right side, use a weaker light as a fill light. You don’t want your fill light to completely eliminate all your shadows or else your shot will look flat.

Lastly, a backlight positioned behind you can give an appealing highlight to the ends of your head and even help to separate your hair from blending into your background if both happen to be dark.

3. 4-Point Lighting

As a YouTuber, you may not only want yourself to be seen optimally with proper lighting, but you may also want your background to be seen optimally, especially if you’ve taken the time to decorate it for your audience.

What you’ll need to ensure that your background is sufficiently lit is 4-point lighting setup. The 4-point lighting setup is the same as a 3-point lighting setup, but with an additional light shining at your background.

For more information on lighting equipment, check out my Top 17 Video Lighting Equipment For YouTubers .

Touch Up YouTube Videos with Filmora

Filmora is one of the best video editing software for YouTube beginners to start the YouTube channel. So, if you find the lighting isn’t perfect after recording, you can use the Auto Color Enhancement feature in Filmora to adjust the color with one-click. Or, you can change the white balance, Light, color, and HSL manually. Filmora also features some presets and LUTs templates , which allows you to apply pre-programmed effects to video for color correction faster.

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

When it comes to sensitivity to light, no consumer-level camera sensor comes close in performance to the human eye. Many newbies to videography, though, don’t think about this when they use their camera indoors and discover that their recorded footage appears too dark.

If you want to use your camera indoors as many YouTubers do, you’ll need to have extra light. But the solution is not as simple as surrounding yourself with lamps that are all randomly placed.

Below, I’ll go into detail on how you can set up your lighting equipment to make your YouTube videos look good.

Table of Contents Using Light You Already Have Window LightingHome Lighting Home Studio Lighting Light Control3-Point Lighting4-Point Lighting

Part 1: Using Light You Already Have

Most beginner YouTubers light their videos with what they already have. That’s what I did to start as well. In the past, my video recording space consisted of natural sunlight coming from my window and ceiling light for times when the sunlight wasn’t strong enough.

1. Window Lighting

The best thing about window lighting is that it’s free. The worst thing about it is that it’s uncontrollable. The amount of light you get in your video can vary with all the changes in the weather.

Window lighting for me was especially difficult to work with because I live in a very rainy and cloudy city, Vancouver, Canada, where we pretty much just get three months of good sun.

Above are two freeze frames from one of Daniel’s past window-lit vlogs. Although these two frames are both from the same vlog, you can see that the image on the right looks brighter due to clearer skies at that moment. These varying amounts of light is what you will have to deal with if you choose to light your YouTube video with window lighting.

2. Home Lighting

Home lighting is another source of light that many new YouTubers use. In the past, when my window light wasn’t strong enough to light my video recording space, I would turn on the ceiling light.

Notice how the color of Daniel’s skin looks much more orange here (above) than the color of the skin in the two side-by-side window lighting examples? The side of the face also appears to look bluer. This all happened because he mixed up different color temperatures shining out of the two lights (cooler window light and warmer ceiling light).

Most home lighting is warmer in its color temperature. If you want to use your home lights without everything being orange-tinted, you’ll need to switch out your light bulbs for daytime LED light bulbs.

Ceiling lights are also typically situated in the center of a room in order to light an entire room evenly. This is not likely to be the best location for your filming video. Since the ceiling light was directly above the face in the above example, you can see harder shadows beneath his cheeks.

Part 2: Home Studio Lighting

If you rather not deal with all the window and home lighting challenges, you can set up studio lighting in your home.

1. Light Control

The first thing you’ll want to do to set up studio lighting in your home is to pick a room to film in and eliminate as much external lighting as you can. Use blinds, curtains, towels, or any thick fabric to block sunlight from shining into your room.

2. 3-Point Lighting

The most common setup for studio lighting is 3-point lighting. For this kind of lighting you’ll need three lights: a key light, a fill light, and a back light (also called a hair light).

Out of the three lights, the key light should be the brightest. When it is positioned to the left of you (as shown in the diagram above) your right side will have shadows.

To minimize the shadows on your right side, use a weaker light as a fill light. You don’t want your fill light to completely eliminate all your shadows or else your shot will look flat.

Lastly, a backlight positioned behind you can give an appealing highlight to the ends of your head and even help to separate your hair from blending into your background if both happen to be dark.

3. 4-Point Lighting

As a YouTuber, you may not only want yourself to be seen optimally with proper lighting, but you may also want your background to be seen optimally, especially if you’ve taken the time to decorate it for your audience.

What you’ll need to ensure that your background is sufficiently lit is 4-point lighting setup. The 4-point lighting setup is the same as a 3-point lighting setup, but with an additional light shining at your background.

For more information on lighting equipment, check out my Top 17 Video Lighting Equipment For YouTubers .

Touch Up YouTube Videos with Filmora

Filmora is one of the best video editing software for YouTube beginners to start the YouTube channel. So, if you find the lighting isn’t perfect after recording, you can use the Auto Color Enhancement feature in Filmora to adjust the color with one-click. Or, you can change the white balance, Light, color, and HSL manually. Filmora also features some presets and LUTs templates , which allows you to apply pre-programmed effects to video for color correction faster.

Richard Bennett

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

Follow @Richard Bennett

Optimal YT Video Cover Images

What’s the Best YouTube Thumbnail Size?

Richard Bennett

Dec 30, 2022• Proven solutions

0

Making better YouTube thumbnails will help you get more views, and knowing the best YouTube thumbnail size is part of that. There are millions of videos on YouTube, so if you want the audience to click on yours, then you need to make a great first impression.

1. What’s the ideal YouTube thumbnail Size and Dimension?
2. Tips for Perfect Thumbnails
3. Making Better Thumbnails for YouTube

1. What’s the ideal YouTube thumbnail Size and Dimension?

An essential thing that every YouTube video developer needs to know is about the selection of the right side of the thumbnail for any video. As per the guidelines circulated by Google itself, the most appropriate size for the thumbnail image is 1280x720 pixels, where the recommended minimal pixel width is 640 pixels. Generally, the 16:9 ratio is considered as an ideal choice for Most of YouTube previews and players.

Here is one interesting thing that you need to know; the thumbnail of videos appears smaller during searches, but it naturally grows to the full size of a video during suggestions. Now the fact is that upscaling of images often loses the quality of content, whereas it is much easier to downscale larger images into smaller ones. Hence, the best idea is to use large size images so that this search and suggestion based scaling needs can be well accomplished.

You May Also Like:
Top 12 Best Free YouTube Thumbnail Makers >>
How to Download YouTube Thumbnail in 3 Ways [Online/Win/Mac] >>

2. Tips for Perfect Thumbnails

So, if you are ready to add thumbnails to your videos, then it is time to learn a few essential tips to do this task with improved impact. You need to ignore the blurry details and boost the eye-catching ones. Here are a few essential tips for developing the best videos with an impressive selection of thumbnail images:

YouTube’s Default Thumbnails

When you upload your video on YouTube, the platform itself gives you suggestions about thumbnails, and they are directly picked up from your own video. Although the idea is good and original, these thumbnails use to be of low quality with blur details. Hope! You don’t want to lose your audience with this bad selection.

Custom Thumbnails

This is probably the best choice for your customized videos, and the interesting thing is that here you can control everything manually with lots of useful effects.

First of all, you need to open your video on YouTube and then scrub a useful still from your video that you wish to use as a thumbnail.

Now, you need to take a screenshot of this particular instance of your video file. The best part is that most of the operating systems allow users to enjoy several shortcuts to complete this task. For example:

Mac users need to press Command+Shift+4 and then simply highlight the area that you want to include in your screenshot with the help of a frame. The system will automatically save your selected area to your desktop in the form of an image.

Window users are advised to access Windows Key with Print Screen option to get their desired screenshot.

Once you are ready with your video specific still image, then simply get it uploaded on YouTube using the edit video page.

3. Making Better Thumbnails for YouTube

The best part is to access some photo editing software tool to edit your image the way you like. You can use an advanced tool like Photoshop or a free online tool like Canva.

• Focus on Size:

It is always advised to create thumbnail images with standard video file size; the most commonly used standard size range is 1980x1080 or 1280x720. Images having a size smaller than this range may often appear blurry.

• Add Text:

The best idea is to use text-based editing for your thumbnail images and preferably add the title of your video to this image. It will naturally attract more viewers.

• Borders matter:

Professionals recommend adding borders around thumbnail images but do not try to make it too thick rather, try to make it noticeable with fine details.

• Background editing:

Most of the expert video thumbnail developers prefer to change the impact of thumbnail background by simply replacing the background color with solid colors. It will definitely attract more viewers and will bring major attention to the major subject.

• Test it before uploading:

Before uploading your customized thumbnail to your YouTube channel, prefer to check its final view. Zoom in to check the appearance of the thumbnail image on the larger screen, and it should also look fine when sized down.

Now that you know the best YouTube thumbnail size and how to design better thumbnails, do you think you’ll revisit the thumbnails of your existing YouTube videos?

If you want to find a video editing solution that empowers your imagination and creativity yet takes less effort, 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

Dec 30, 2022• Proven solutions

0

Making better YouTube thumbnails will help you get more views, and knowing the best YouTube thumbnail size is part of that. There are millions of videos on YouTube, so if you want the audience to click on yours, then you need to make a great first impression.

1. What’s the ideal YouTube thumbnail Size and Dimension?
2. Tips for Perfect Thumbnails
3. Making Better Thumbnails for YouTube

1. What’s the ideal YouTube thumbnail Size and Dimension?

An essential thing that every YouTube video developer needs to know is about the selection of the right side of the thumbnail for any video. As per the guidelines circulated by Google itself, the most appropriate size for the thumbnail image is 1280x720 pixels, where the recommended minimal pixel width is 640 pixels. Generally, the 16:9 ratio is considered as an ideal choice for Most of YouTube previews and players.

Here is one interesting thing that you need to know; the thumbnail of videos appears smaller during searches, but it naturally grows to the full size of a video during suggestions. Now the fact is that upscaling of images often loses the quality of content, whereas it is much easier to downscale larger images into smaller ones. Hence, the best idea is to use large size images so that this search and suggestion based scaling needs can be well accomplished.

You May Also Like:
Top 12 Best Free YouTube Thumbnail Makers >>
How to Download YouTube Thumbnail in 3 Ways [Online/Win/Mac] >>

2. Tips for Perfect Thumbnails

So, if you are ready to add thumbnails to your videos, then it is time to learn a few essential tips to do this task with improved impact. You need to ignore the blurry details and boost the eye-catching ones. Here are a few essential tips for developing the best videos with an impressive selection of thumbnail images:

YouTube’s Default Thumbnails

When you upload your video on YouTube, the platform itself gives you suggestions about thumbnails, and they are directly picked up from your own video. Although the idea is good and original, these thumbnails use to be of low quality with blur details. Hope! You don’t want to lose your audience with this bad selection.

Custom Thumbnails

This is probably the best choice for your customized videos, and the interesting thing is that here you can control everything manually with lots of useful effects.

First of all, you need to open your video on YouTube and then scrub a useful still from your video that you wish to use as a thumbnail.

Now, you need to take a screenshot of this particular instance of your video file. The best part is that most of the operating systems allow users to enjoy several shortcuts to complete this task. For example:

Mac users need to press Command+Shift+4 and then simply highlight the area that you want to include in your screenshot with the help of a frame. The system will automatically save your selected area to your desktop in the form of an image.

Window users are advised to access Windows Key with Print Screen option to get their desired screenshot.

Once you are ready with your video specific still image, then simply get it uploaded on YouTube using the edit video page.

3. Making Better Thumbnails for YouTube

The best part is to access some photo editing software tool to edit your image the way you like. You can use an advanced tool like Photoshop or a free online tool like Canva.

• Focus on Size:

It is always advised to create thumbnail images with standard video file size; the most commonly used standard size range is 1980x1080 or 1280x720. Images having a size smaller than this range may often appear blurry.

• Add Text:

The best idea is to use text-based editing for your thumbnail images and preferably add the title of your video to this image. It will naturally attract more viewers.

• Borders matter:

Professionals recommend adding borders around thumbnail images but do not try to make it too thick rather, try to make it noticeable with fine details.

• Background editing:

Most of the expert video thumbnail developers prefer to change the impact of thumbnail background by simply replacing the background color with solid colors. It will definitely attract more viewers and will bring major attention to the major subject.

• Test it before uploading:

Before uploading your customized thumbnail to your YouTube channel, prefer to check its final view. Zoom in to check the appearance of the thumbnail image on the larger screen, and it should also look fine when sized down.

Now that you know the best YouTube thumbnail size and how to design better thumbnails, do you think you’ll revisit the thumbnails of your existing YouTube videos?

If you want to find a video editing solution that empowers your imagination and creativity yet takes less effort, 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

Dec 30, 2022• Proven solutions

0

Making better YouTube thumbnails will help you get more views, and knowing the best YouTube thumbnail size is part of that. There are millions of videos on YouTube, so if you want the audience to click on yours, then you need to make a great first impression.

1. What’s the ideal YouTube thumbnail Size and Dimension?
2. Tips for Perfect Thumbnails
3. Making Better Thumbnails for YouTube

1. What’s the ideal YouTube thumbnail Size and Dimension?

An essential thing that every YouTube video developer needs to know is about the selection of the right side of the thumbnail for any video. As per the guidelines circulated by Google itself, the most appropriate size for the thumbnail image is 1280x720 pixels, where the recommended minimal pixel width is 640 pixels. Generally, the 16:9 ratio is considered as an ideal choice for Most of YouTube previews and players.

Here is one interesting thing that you need to know; the thumbnail of videos appears smaller during searches, but it naturally grows to the full size of a video during suggestions. Now the fact is that upscaling of images often loses the quality of content, whereas it is much easier to downscale larger images into smaller ones. Hence, the best idea is to use large size images so that this search and suggestion based scaling needs can be well accomplished.

You May Also Like:
Top 12 Best Free YouTube Thumbnail Makers >>
How to Download YouTube Thumbnail in 3 Ways [Online/Win/Mac] >>

2. Tips for Perfect Thumbnails

So, if you are ready to add thumbnails to your videos, then it is time to learn a few essential tips to do this task with improved impact. You need to ignore the blurry details and boost the eye-catching ones. Here are a few essential tips for developing the best videos with an impressive selection of thumbnail images:

YouTube’s Default Thumbnails

When you upload your video on YouTube, the platform itself gives you suggestions about thumbnails, and they are directly picked up from your own video. Although the idea is good and original, these thumbnails use to be of low quality with blur details. Hope! You don’t want to lose your audience with this bad selection.

Custom Thumbnails

This is probably the best choice for your customized videos, and the interesting thing is that here you can control everything manually with lots of useful effects.

First of all, you need to open your video on YouTube and then scrub a useful still from your video that you wish to use as a thumbnail.

Now, you need to take a screenshot of this particular instance of your video file. The best part is that most of the operating systems allow users to enjoy several shortcuts to complete this task. For example:

Mac users need to press Command+Shift+4 and then simply highlight the area that you want to include in your screenshot with the help of a frame. The system will automatically save your selected area to your desktop in the form of an image.

Window users are advised to access Windows Key with Print Screen option to get their desired screenshot.

Once you are ready with your video specific still image, then simply get it uploaded on YouTube using the edit video page.

3. Making Better Thumbnails for YouTube

The best part is to access some photo editing software tool to edit your image the way you like. You can use an advanced tool like Photoshop or a free online tool like Canva.

• Focus on Size:

It is always advised to create thumbnail images with standard video file size; the most commonly used standard size range is 1980x1080 or 1280x720. Images having a size smaller than this range may often appear blurry.

• Add Text:

The best idea is to use text-based editing for your thumbnail images and preferably add the title of your video to this image. It will naturally attract more viewers.

• Borders matter:

Professionals recommend adding borders around thumbnail images but do not try to make it too thick rather, try to make it noticeable with fine details.

• Background editing:

Most of the expert video thumbnail developers prefer to change the impact of thumbnail background by simply replacing the background color with solid colors. It will definitely attract more viewers and will bring major attention to the major subject.

• Test it before uploading:

Before uploading your customized thumbnail to your YouTube channel, prefer to check its final view. Zoom in to check the appearance of the thumbnail image on the larger screen, and it should also look fine when sized down.

Now that you know the best YouTube thumbnail size and how to design better thumbnails, do you think you’ll revisit the thumbnails of your existing YouTube videos?

If you want to find a video editing solution that empowers your imagination and creativity yet takes less effort, 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

Dec 30, 2022• Proven solutions

0

Making better YouTube thumbnails will help you get more views, and knowing the best YouTube thumbnail size is part of that. There are millions of videos on YouTube, so if you want the audience to click on yours, then you need to make a great first impression.

1. What’s the ideal YouTube thumbnail Size and Dimension?
2. Tips for Perfect Thumbnails
3. Making Better Thumbnails for YouTube

1. What’s the ideal YouTube thumbnail Size and Dimension?

An essential thing that every YouTube video developer needs to know is about the selection of the right side of the thumbnail for any video. As per the guidelines circulated by Google itself, the most appropriate size for the thumbnail image is 1280x720 pixels, where the recommended minimal pixel width is 640 pixels. Generally, the 16:9 ratio is considered as an ideal choice for Most of YouTube previews and players.

Here is one interesting thing that you need to know; the thumbnail of videos appears smaller during searches, but it naturally grows to the full size of a video during suggestions. Now the fact is that upscaling of images often loses the quality of content, whereas it is much easier to downscale larger images into smaller ones. Hence, the best idea is to use large size images so that this search and suggestion based scaling needs can be well accomplished.

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2. Tips for Perfect Thumbnails

So, if you are ready to add thumbnails to your videos, then it is time to learn a few essential tips to do this task with improved impact. You need to ignore the blurry details and boost the eye-catching ones. Here are a few essential tips for developing the best videos with an impressive selection of thumbnail images:

YouTube’s Default Thumbnails

When you upload your video on YouTube, the platform itself gives you suggestions about thumbnails, and they are directly picked up from your own video. Although the idea is good and original, these thumbnails use to be of low quality with blur details. Hope! You don’t want to lose your audience with this bad selection.

Custom Thumbnails

This is probably the best choice for your customized videos, and the interesting thing is that here you can control everything manually with lots of useful effects.

First of all, you need to open your video on YouTube and then scrub a useful still from your video that you wish to use as a thumbnail.

Now, you need to take a screenshot of this particular instance of your video file. The best part is that most of the operating systems allow users to enjoy several shortcuts to complete this task. For example:

Mac users need to press Command+Shift+4 and then simply highlight the area that you want to include in your screenshot with the help of a frame. The system will automatically save your selected area to your desktop in the form of an image.

Window users are advised to access Windows Key with Print Screen option to get their desired screenshot.

Once you are ready with your video specific still image, then simply get it uploaded on YouTube using the edit video page.

3. Making Better Thumbnails for YouTube

The best part is to access some photo editing software tool to edit your image the way you like. You can use an advanced tool like Photoshop or a free online tool like Canva.

• Focus on Size:

It is always advised to create thumbnail images with standard video file size; the most commonly used standard size range is 1980x1080 or 1280x720. Images having a size smaller than this range may often appear blurry.

• Add Text:

The best idea is to use text-based editing for your thumbnail images and preferably add the title of your video to this image. It will naturally attract more viewers.

• Borders matter:

Professionals recommend adding borders around thumbnail images but do not try to make it too thick rather, try to make it noticeable with fine details.

• Background editing:

Most of the expert video thumbnail developers prefer to change the impact of thumbnail background by simply replacing the background color with solid colors. It will definitely attract more viewers and will bring major attention to the major subject.

• Test it before uploading:

Before uploading your customized thumbnail to your YouTube channel, prefer to check its final view. Zoom in to check the appearance of the thumbnail image on the larger screen, and it should also look fine when sized down.

Now that you know the best YouTube thumbnail size and how to design better thumbnails, do you think you’ll revisit the thumbnails of your existing YouTube videos?

If you want to find a video editing solution that empowers your imagination and creativity yet takes less effort, 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

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