"Dissecting YouTube's Activities Post-Uploading Videos for 2024"
Dissecting YouTube’s Activities Post-Uploading Videos
How Does YouTube Work After a Video Is Uploaded
Richard Bennett
Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions
You use YouTube to watch videos, post your own content, and build up a following. That is how YouTube works for you. This article is about how YouTube works technically. There are a lot of steps which occur between you clicking ‘upload’ and a viewer clicking ‘play’. Understanding this process can be useful to YouTubers because it can help shed light on where problems may be occurring when you have issues uploading or watching videos. Generally when there is a problem it is on your end and there are multiple simple things you can do to fix it.
This article will explain what goes on behind the scenes when you upload a video, where that video really goes, and what happens when somebody clicks play.
How Does YouTube Work
1. What Happens When You Upload?
When you upload a video your computer or device packages it into IP packets. Packets are fragments of information containing both data from your video and the address you are sending it to, in this case YouTube. The packets are encoded into radio signals which are sent through a wifi or cellular network. Your video travels through switches and routers on the internet until they reach YouTube’s servers. Your video is then reassembled and stored.
If uploading takes a long time for you it probably has nothing to do with YouTube; there is a lot that needs to happen for your video to even get there. How long the upload process takes depends on a number of factors including how many devices share your internet connection, how strong your wifi signal is, and the age of your router. If your uploads are taking too long consider compressing your videos before you upload them. You can also try uploading from your college campus or public libraries as institutions like these tend to have fast internet speeds.
2. Where is Your Video Stored?
As it is owned by Google YouTube uses Google’s ‘Bigtable’, a compressed data storage system which allows it to store the 500+ hours of video uploaded to its servers every minute. Bigtable is software, though, not hardware. YouTube and Google both have massive amounts of data and it needs to be physically housed somewhere.
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Google has Modular Data Centers all over the world where it keeps its servers. These centers could cost as much as $600 million dollars each and consume huge amounts of electricity. There are six of them in the United States, three in Europe, two in Asia, and one is South America.
3. What Happens When Someone Watches Your Video?
When a viewer clicks on your video their computer sends an encoded request through the internet to YouTube’s servers. After YouTube receives the play request it chooses which format to play the video in based on the viewer’s browser. Your video is again turned into packets, which are again sent as radio signals over the internet to your viewer. Your viewer’s computer or device reforms the packets into your video and their browser plays it.
If videos take a long time to load for you then there are a few things you can do to speed them up. First, consider changing the channel of your wifi router. Most people stay on the channel their router was set to when they first got it and so there is a good chance you and your neighbors are all on the same channel. This causes your networks to interfere with each other. You can also delete the temporary files on your computer. Besides helping you stream video faster this will free up storage space. Another thing you can do is make sure there are as few devices connected to your network as possible while you are watching videos. Besides mobile phones and laptops you may have appliances, like coffee machines and refrigerators, which are wifi enabled. Disconnect them temporarily and it will help your videos to load faster.
Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett
Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions
You use YouTube to watch videos, post your own content, and build up a following. That is how YouTube works for you. This article is about how YouTube works technically. There are a lot of steps which occur between you clicking ‘upload’ and a viewer clicking ‘play’. Understanding this process can be useful to YouTubers because it can help shed light on where problems may be occurring when you have issues uploading or watching videos. Generally when there is a problem it is on your end and there are multiple simple things you can do to fix it.
This article will explain what goes on behind the scenes when you upload a video, where that video really goes, and what happens when somebody clicks play.
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1. What Happens When You Upload?
When you upload a video your computer or device packages it into IP packets. Packets are fragments of information containing both data from your video and the address you are sending it to, in this case YouTube. The packets are encoded into radio signals which are sent through a wifi or cellular network. Your video travels through switches and routers on the internet until they reach YouTube’s servers. Your video is then reassembled and stored.
If uploading takes a long time for you it probably has nothing to do with YouTube; there is a lot that needs to happen for your video to even get there. How long the upload process takes depends on a number of factors including how many devices share your internet connection, how strong your wifi signal is, and the age of your router. If your uploads are taking too long consider compressing your videos before you upload them. You can also try uploading from your college campus or public libraries as institutions like these tend to have fast internet speeds.
2. Where is Your Video Stored?
As it is owned by Google YouTube uses Google’s ‘Bigtable’, a compressed data storage system which allows it to store the 500+ hours of video uploaded to its servers every minute. Bigtable is software, though, not hardware. YouTube and Google both have massive amounts of data and it needs to be physically housed somewhere.
Google has Modular Data Centers all over the world where it keeps its servers. These centers could cost as much as $600 million dollars each and consume huge amounts of electricity. There are six of them in the United States, three in Europe, two in Asia, and one is South America.
3. What Happens When Someone Watches Your Video?
When a viewer clicks on your video their computer sends an encoded request through the internet to YouTube’s servers. After YouTube receives the play request it chooses which format to play the video in based on the viewer’s browser. Your video is again turned into packets, which are again sent as radio signals over the internet to your viewer. Your viewer’s computer or device reforms the packets into your video and their browser plays it.
If videos take a long time to load for you then there are a few things you can do to speed them up. First, consider changing the channel of your wifi router. Most people stay on the channel their router was set to when they first got it and so there is a good chance you and your neighbors are all on the same channel. This causes your networks to interfere with each other. You can also delete the temporary files on your computer. Besides helping you stream video faster this will free up storage space. Another thing you can do is make sure there are as few devices connected to your network as possible while you are watching videos. Besides mobile phones and laptops you may have appliances, like coffee machines and refrigerators, which are wifi enabled. Disconnect them temporarily and it will help your videos to load faster.
Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett
Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions
You use YouTube to watch videos, post your own content, and build up a following. That is how YouTube works for you. This article is about how YouTube works technically. There are a lot of steps which occur between you clicking ‘upload’ and a viewer clicking ‘play’. Understanding this process can be useful to YouTubers because it can help shed light on where problems may be occurring when you have issues uploading or watching videos. Generally when there is a problem it is on your end and there are multiple simple things you can do to fix it.
This article will explain what goes on behind the scenes when you upload a video, where that video really goes, and what happens when somebody clicks play.
How Does YouTube Work
1. What Happens When You Upload?
When you upload a video your computer or device packages it into IP packets. Packets are fragments of information containing both data from your video and the address you are sending it to, in this case YouTube. The packets are encoded into radio signals which are sent through a wifi or cellular network. Your video travels through switches and routers on the internet until they reach YouTube’s servers. Your video is then reassembled and stored.
If uploading takes a long time for you it probably has nothing to do with YouTube; there is a lot that needs to happen for your video to even get there. How long the upload process takes depends on a number of factors including how many devices share your internet connection, how strong your wifi signal is, and the age of your router. If your uploads are taking too long consider compressing your videos before you upload them. You can also try uploading from your college campus or public libraries as institutions like these tend to have fast internet speeds.
2. Where is Your Video Stored?
As it is owned by Google YouTube uses Google’s ‘Bigtable’, a compressed data storage system which allows it to store the 500+ hours of video uploaded to its servers every minute. Bigtable is software, though, not hardware. YouTube and Google both have massive amounts of data and it needs to be physically housed somewhere.
The Tube Sites Submitter is a fast and efficient tool for anyone who needs to upload videos quickly, easily and automatically to hundreds of tube sites in mere minutes .
Google has Modular Data Centers all over the world where it keeps its servers. These centers could cost as much as $600 million dollars each and consume huge amounts of electricity. There are six of them in the United States, three in Europe, two in Asia, and one is South America.
3. What Happens When Someone Watches Your Video?
When a viewer clicks on your video their computer sends an encoded request through the internet to YouTube’s servers. After YouTube receives the play request it chooses which format to play the video in based on the viewer’s browser. Your video is again turned into packets, which are again sent as radio signals over the internet to your viewer. Your viewer’s computer or device reforms the packets into your video and their browser plays it.
If videos take a long time to load for you then there are a few things you can do to speed them up. First, consider changing the channel of your wifi router. Most people stay on the channel their router was set to when they first got it and so there is a good chance you and your neighbors are all on the same channel. This causes your networks to interfere with each other. You can also delete the temporary files on your computer. Besides helping you stream video faster this will free up storage space. Another thing you can do is make sure there are as few devices connected to your network as possible while you are watching videos. Besides mobile phones and laptops you may have appliances, like coffee machines and refrigerators, which are wifi enabled. Disconnect them temporarily and it will help your videos to load faster.
Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett
Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions
You use YouTube to watch videos, post your own content, and build up a following. That is how YouTube works for you. This article is about how YouTube works technically. There are a lot of steps which occur between you clicking ‘upload’ and a viewer clicking ‘play’. Understanding this process can be useful to YouTubers because it can help shed light on where problems may be occurring when you have issues uploading or watching videos. Generally when there is a problem it is on your end and there are multiple simple things you can do to fix it.
This article will explain what goes on behind the scenes when you upload a video, where that video really goes, and what happens when somebody clicks play.
How Does YouTube Work
1. What Happens When You Upload?
When you upload a video your computer or device packages it into IP packets. Packets are fragments of information containing both data from your video and the address you are sending it to, in this case YouTube. The packets are encoded into radio signals which are sent through a wifi or cellular network. Your video travels through switches and routers on the internet until they reach YouTube’s servers. Your video is then reassembled and stored.
If uploading takes a long time for you it probably has nothing to do with YouTube; there is a lot that needs to happen for your video to even get there. How long the upload process takes depends on a number of factors including how many devices share your internet connection, how strong your wifi signal is, and the age of your router. If your uploads are taking too long consider compressing your videos before you upload them. You can also try uploading from your college campus or public libraries as institutions like these tend to have fast internet speeds.
2. Where is Your Video Stored?
As it is owned by Google YouTube uses Google’s ‘Bigtable’, a compressed data storage system which allows it to store the 500+ hours of video uploaded to its servers every minute. Bigtable is software, though, not hardware. YouTube and Google both have massive amounts of data and it needs to be physically housed somewhere.
Google has Modular Data Centers all over the world where it keeps its servers. These centers could cost as much as $600 million dollars each and consume huge amounts of electricity. There are six of them in the United States, three in Europe, two in Asia, and one is South America.
3. What Happens When Someone Watches Your Video?
When a viewer clicks on your video their computer sends an encoded request through the internet to YouTube’s servers. After YouTube receives the play request it chooses which format to play the video in based on the viewer’s browser. Your video is again turned into packets, which are again sent as radio signals over the internet to your viewer. Your viewer’s computer or device reforms the packets into your video and their browser plays it.
If videos take a long time to load for you then there are a few things you can do to speed them up. First, consider changing the channel of your wifi router. Most people stay on the channel their router was set to when they first got it and so there is a good chance you and your neighbors are all on the same channel. This causes your networks to interfere with each other. You can also delete the temporary files on your computer. Besides helping you stream video faster this will free up storage space. Another thing you can do is make sure there are as few devices connected to your network as possible while you are watching videos. Besides mobile phones and laptops you may have appliances, like coffee machines and refrigerators, which are wifi enabled. Disconnect them temporarily and it will help your videos to load faster.
Richard Bennett
Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.
Follow @Richard Bennett
Expert Tips on Camera Lens Selection For Professional Vloggers
A Vlogger’s Guide To Camera Lenses
Richard Bennett
Nov 01, 2022• Proven solutions
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
vMix Basic HD - Software based live production. vMix Basic HD includes 4 inputs, 3 cameras, streaming, recording, playlist.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.
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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).
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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.
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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
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
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
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?
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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 |
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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
- Title: Dissecting YouTube's Activities Post-Uploading Videos for 2024
- Author: Steven
- Created at : 2024-07-22 20:47:56
- Updated at : 2024-07-23 20:47:56
- Link: https://youtube-clips.techidaily.com/dissecting-youtubes-activities-post-uploading-videos-for-2024/
- License: This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.