The Wanderlust Chronicles: Setting Up for Success as a Travel Vlogger

How To Become A Travel Vlogger | The Ultimate Guide of Travel Vlogging

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

Want to become a travel vlogger?

Traveling around the world is one of life’s most exciting experiences – just ask anyone who has caught the travel bug. It is no wonder that travel videos are a big hit on YouTube. Any viewer can be instantly transported to another part of the world, all from the comfort of their seat.

With all the high-quality cameras and video editing software that are much more accessible to the general public now than even a few years ago, it has never been a better time to make a travel vlog.

Below, I have prepared a comprehensive guide on how to become a travel vlogger.

Table of Contents PART 1: TRAVEL VLOGGING EQUIPMENT 1.1 Travel Vlogging Cameras How To Choose A Travel Vlogging Camera Cameras That Are Good For Travel Vlogging Lenses That Are Good For Travel Vlogging 1.2 Travel Vlogging Accessories Camera Accessories That Are Good For Travel Vlogging Smartphone Accessories That Are Good For Travel Vlogging Camera Mounted Shotgun Microphone For Travel Vlogging Other Useful Travel Vlogging Accessories PART 2: TRAVEL VIDEO IDEAS PART 3: TRAVEL VIDEO EDITING Video Editing Software Travel-Themed Video Effects Music Libraries Sound Effects PART 4: TRAVEL VLOGGING TIPS

Create Your Travel Vlog with Wondershare FilmoraX

Wondershare FilmoraX is a video editing application that offers a lot of editing features that can be used both by a beginner and professionals alike. You can easily cut, split and trim your video, and apply transitions, filters, and texts, etc. to your travel vlog. What’s more, its advanced color grading settings and audio keyframing will add a unique flavor to your travel vlog. Just get started and make your video go viral!

PART 1: TRAVEL VLOGGING EQUIPMENT

In order to make travel videos, you’re going to need camera equipment. Below, I’ve prepared a comprehensive list of cameras and accessories that would be good for travel vlogging.

Filmstock Stock Media Library ](https://filmstock.wondershare.com/creative-theme-tourism?spm=rs.filmora%5Fweb&source%5Fchannel=seo%5Farticle )

1.1 Travel Vlogging Cameras

How To Choose A Vlogging Camera

When it comes to travel vlogging, you should look for a camera that ideally has the following eleven qualities:

It has a fully articulated screen (flip screen)
It has good continual autofocus while recording video
It has good focus priority through face recognition
It has touched to focus
It has good low-light performance
It has an external mic jack and a hot/cold shoe bracket
It has optical image stabilization
It is lightweight and portable
It has a good battery life
It is durable and weather-sealed
It has hyper-lapse/timelapse/slow-motion shooting modes

For more information on why a lot of these features are ideal to have in a vlogging camera, check out my post on the Top 15 Best Cameras for Vlogging 2020 .

Cameras That Are Good For Travel Vlogging

Considering my list on what to look for in a travel vlogging camera, I’ve prepared a table below of thirteen cameras I’d recommend for travel vlogging:

Camera	Camera Type	Flip Screen	Mic Port	Price
CanonEOSM50	February2018	Mirrorless	Fully Articulated	Yes	$-
PanasonicLumixDC-GH5S	January2018	Mirrorless	Fully Articulated	Yes	$$$
GoProHero6 Black	September2017	Action Camera	No	Yes	$-
CanonEOSM100	August2017	Mirrorless	Flip-Up	No	$
CanonEOS6D Mark II	June2017	Mid-size SLR	Fully Articulated	Yes	$$
CanonEOS RebelSL2	June2017	Compact SLR	Fully Articulated	Yes	$
CanonEOS RebelT7i	February2017	Mid-size SLR	Fully Articulated	Yes	$-
CanonEOSM6	February2017	Mirrorless	Flip-Up	Yes	$
SonyCyber-Shot DSCRX 100 V	October2016	Compact	Flip-Up	No	$-
PanasonicLumix DMCG85	September2016	Mirrorless	Fully Articulated	Yes	$-
PanasonicLumix DMCLX10	September2016	Compact	Flip-Up	No	$
CanonEOS80D	February2016	Mid-size SLR	Fully Articulated	Yes	$$
CanonPowerShotG7 X Mark II	February2016	Compact	Flip-Up	No	$

Lenses That Are Good For Travel Vlogging

Every travel vlogger should have a wide-angle lens. Wide-angle lenses fit much more of a scene into your camera frame, making it ideal for capturing establishing shots. You’ll also need a wide-angle lens if you plan on holding your camera out in front of yourself with an extended arm to get selfie footage.

As a travel vlogger, you’ll also want to show some close-up shots of the various subjects in your scene. If you don’t mind walking up to these subjects, the lens I recommend for this is a standard lens.

If, however, you want to be able to shoot these close-up shots from a farther distance, you’ll need a telephoto lens.

But you probably don’t want to carry and switch so many lenses as you travel, right? A convenient solution is to get a zoom lens that covers a wide range of focal lengths. For example, travel vlogger Sam Kolder shoots with a Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 lens – that’s a wide-angle lens, standard lens, and telephoto lens all in one lens!

If most of your travel video shooting will be done handheld, you should also definitely look for a lens equipped with optical image stabilization.

Check out my Best Camera Lens for YouTube to gain a more in-depth understanding of lenses and how they work.

1.2 Travel Vlogging Accessories

Camera Accessories That Are Good For Travel Vlogging

	1. Tripod Record stabilized shots and timelapse footage with a tripod.
	2. GorillaPod SLR-Zoom with Ballhead Wrap your camera around structures that your regular tripod can’t stay on. You can also hold out your camera further away from you using the GorillaPod as a selfie stick to fit in more of your background into your selfie shot.
	3. Stabilizing Gimbal Get super-smooth shots with a stabilizing gimbal.
	4. On-Camera LED Light Is there not enough light? Add an LED light to your camera’s hot/cold shoe.
	5. Neutral Density (ND) Filters Is it too bright outside to have your aperture wide open but you still want to get that cinematic look ? You can add ND filters to your lenses so that you can do just that in very bright conditions.
	6. Camera Cleaning Kit While traveling, you can get all kinds of unwanted substances on your lens and in your camera like dust, dirt, fingerprints, raindrops, snow, and sand, to name a few. If you bring along a portable camera cleaning kit with you on your travels, you can remove those things immediately so that your shots won’t be affected.
	7. Drone When it comes to travel vlogging, wide shots that establish the scene and setting are important. Drones are great for taking these kinds of wide shots from high places that you would not be able to get to by foot.

Smartphone Accessories That Are Good For Travel Vlogging

Using your smartphone as a travel vlogging device is a great idea! Your smartphone is a light and portable piece of equipment that you likely have with you at all times. Upgrade your smartphone travel vlogging setup with any of these 9 Best Smartphone Camera Accessories For Vloggers:

RAVPower Portable Charger
Arkon Tripod Mount
Mega Tiny Anti-Gravity Case
FLII Selfie Ring Light
Rode VideoMic Me
Aukey Optic 3-in-1 Smartphone Lens Set
iOgrapher Go for Android and iPhone
Manfrotto TwistGrip System
Zhiyun Smooth-Q 3-Axis Handheld Gimbal Stabilizer for Smartphones

Read more about each one of these items in my post The 9 Best Smartphone Camera Accessories For Vloggers .

Camera Mounted Shotgun Microphones for Travel Vlogging

These four shotgun microphones can mount directly onto your camera’s hot/cold shoe:

Rode VideoMic Go
Shure VP83
Rode VideoMic Pro+
Sennheiser MKE 440

Read more about each one of them in our post about The 19 Best YouTube Microphones 2020 – Options for Music, Voiceovers, Vlogging, and more!

Other Useful Travel Vlogging Accessories

Camera backpack
Extra batteries
Memory cards
External hard drive
Power plugs and cables
USB card reader
Universal plug
D-ring clips (to prevent your equipment from slipping out of your grasp)
Smartphone SD card tray key (if you’re storing your recorded footage in your SD card)

PART 2: TRAVEL VLOGGING IDEAS

If you’re needing some travel video ideas either to get you started or to bring some fresh content into your channel, here are ten travel video ideas that you can try.

1. Travel Vlog

Travel vlogging, the kind where you film yourself just going about your day in a different part of the world, is a great way to not only document your travel moments and memories for yourself, but also a great way to share your experience with others.

Rather than being too picky with your video shots and possibly ending up with a lack of footage to work with, shoot as much as you can.

Try to capture your thoughts and feelings around the things you taste, smell, see and hear. Sharing these details can help your viewers feel more like they’re with you on your travels.

2. Tips or Tricks for Traveling

Although learning from mistakes during your travels can be a rewarding experience, most people want to avoid them and, rather, enjoy their trip as much as they possibly can. After all, travel, for most people, happens in intervals that seem too short. You can help this sizable group by offering travel tips and tricks.

Prepare a list of tips and tricks, a shot list of all the footage you’ll need to go along with those tips, and then capture all your footage. As you go through your list, you can then cut away to your associated travel shots.

3. Video Tour of a Location

Many people are curious about different parts of the world and would love to join a tour without the high cost of flights, hotels, meals, and admission tickets. Give them that experience by making a video tour.

4. Review An Attraction or Experience

A lot of travelers having a limited amount of time and money to enjoy their chosen travel destinations want to know which attractions and experiences to prioritize and which ones to skip. Help them make their decision by making a video review.

5. Timelapse Videos

All you need in addition to your camera is a tripod to get started with making timelapse videos. Your tripod stabilizes your shot as your camera captures all the changes that take place in a given location.

When your footage is sped up, your viewers can appreciate all the changes that take place that they may not have had the patience to sit through in real-time. It’s also interesting to observe the passage of time in a different way.

6. Average Daily Cost

Before going on a trip, many people try to make a budget and figure out how much money to exchange into foreign currency. Making a good budget and getting just enough foreign cash, though, requires you to know how much, on average, things cost.

Make a helpful video on the average cost of daily expenses including meals and transportation like Paolo did in the above video “Average Daily Cost in Tokyo Japan | Is it Expensive?.” His video actually helped me a lot when I was trying to come up with a budget for my recent trip to Japan.

7. Interview Locals

People don’t travel only to see popular attractions. A lot of people travel to connect with and understand people from different parts of the world.

Interviewing locals and sharing their thoughts can help to provide that kind of connection.

8. What’s in My Backpack?

Packing for a trip can say a lot about who you are as a person because it involves prioritizing items based on your personal values.

For your next trip, share a little part of yourself with your audience through a video about the things you’ve packed in your bag.

9. Talk About Your Own Home City

When you’ve lived in your own home city for so long, you might forget that people all over the world may marvel at the things you take for granted because all those things just happen to be at your doorstep.

Take advantage of the expert that you already are in your own home city and make an informative video for others who are taking a trip there.

10. How To Become a Travel Vlogger

After you’ve done a lot of travel vlogging and learned so much along the way, you can make a video about how to be a travel vlogger.

In the above video, Andrew Santos teaches how to make a travel video, all while hilariously poking fun at many of the cliché trends in the travel genre.

PART 3: TRAVEL VIDEO EDITING

Video Editing Software

When it comes to editing your travel video together, there are different kinds of software you can do that with.

FREE VIDEO EDITING SOFTWARE	PAID VIDEO EDITING SOFTWARE
OpenShot Video Editor (Windows, Mac, Linux) ShotCut (Windows, Mac, Linux) Hitfilm Express (Windows, Mac) VideoPad Video Editor (Windows) Lightworks (Windows, Mac, Linux) VSDC Video Editor (Windows) Machete Video Editor Lite (Windows) Avidemux (Windows, Mac, Linux, BSD) Read more about each software in our post about The Best Free Video Editing Software for YouTube – Top 8 Reviews .	Wondershare Filmora X (Windows, Mac) - start at $49.99 for one year license and Free trial Final Cut Pro (Mac) - $299.99, Free trial Vegas Movie Studio (Windows) - $49.99

Travel-Themed Video Effects

If you use Filmora Video Editor, you can also take advantage of a variety of travel-themed video effects packs, like the one shown in the above video, filled with titles, transitions, filters, overlays, and other visual elements.

For my recent trip to Japan, I actually used Filmora Effects’ Japanese set.

At the 2:10 mark of the above video, I used an overlay of falling cherry blossom leaves. At the 3:03 mark of the same video, I used an anime-themed overlay.

At the 2:48 mark of the above video, I used a shoji door transition.

Music Libraries

Music is an important component of a lot of travel videos. Here’s where you can get them:

ROYALTY-FREE MUSIC LIBRARIES	PAID MUSIC LIBRARIES	PAID SUBSCRIPTION MUSIC LIBRARIES
Audionautix Bensound dig.ccMixter Free Music Archive Free Stock Music Incompetech Josh Woodward Moby Gratis Musopen Purple Planet Music TeknoAXE YouTube Audio Library	Premium Beat Audio Jungle	Audio Network Audio Blocks Epidemic Sound

Sound Effects

Free Sound Effect Sites

PART 4: TRAVEL VLOGGING TIPS

Vlog/Life Balance

Give yourself more time at each location if you want to have a good balance between getting the shots you need and enjoying your present moment.

Theft Prevention

Carry a backpack that doesn’t have zippers on the outside that thieves can easily get to.
If you’re shooting with a flashy smartphone, make it look less appealing to thieves with a grotesque smartphone case, like an Otterbox.
In locations with high crime, pre-plan the shots you want to capture and take your SLR camera out of your bag only to take those shots. Otherwise, keep your SLR camera concealed.
Never leave your equipment unattended in a visible area, not even in a locked car.

Pre-Production and Planning

Before shooting, make a shot list of all the footage you need.
Have all your filming equipment that needs to be calibrated all calibrated and ready to use.

Onscreen Performance

Look into your lens, not the projected image of yourself on your camera’s flip screen.
Show a lot of energy as you film yourself.
If you’re nervous about talking to the camera in public, keep your talking head clips short and gradually build your way up to longer clips. You can break up longer sentences by saying a few words from one scene, saying a few more in another, and finishing off your last words, again, in another scene. Later, in editing, you can stitch all of those clips together to make one fluid sentence.
If you’re nervous about talking to the camera in public, you can capture your talking headshots later when you find a more secluded space.

Audio Recording

Silence everything you don’t want your mic to record.
Put your mobile phone in airplane mode.
Block wind from reaching your mic with windscreens and dead cats.
Upgrade your mic.
Adjust your levels.
Get close to the sound you are wanting to record.

Check out 10 Recording Tips to Get The Best Sound From Your Microphone for more audio recording tips.

Filming

To avoid crowds, wake up early and grab your footage early while everyone else is still sleeping or getting ready.
Capture wide shots, medium shots, and close-up shots for better coverage.
Use the Sun Seeker app to set up your sunrise/sunset shots better.
If your camera can record 4K footage, record in 4K all the scenes that you want to zoom in closer later in editing without losing quality (your video project in editing has to be at 1920p x 1080p for this to work).

Stabilization

If you’re trying to get shots with movement by walking, rather than walking as you normally would walk with your knees bent for steadier shots.
If you’re shooting something in front of your handheld, lean your arm against your own body for steadier shots.
Use a stabilizing gimbal with your camera.

Timelapse/Hyperlapse

Select scenes where you can see a lot of change over time (not a still building in front of a cloudless smoggy sky).
Set longer intervals for scenes that change very slowly over time.
Pre-set your focus. Turn autofocus off.
Shoot time-lapses/hyper-lapses in manual mode to prevent the flickering that occurs with changing light conditions in automatic settings.
If your camera is set on a tripod in a fixed position, turn your optical image stabilization off.
If you aren’t holding onto your camera as it’s in the middle of making a timelapse video, at least keep your camera and tripod attached by some kind of leash mechanism.
For moving time-lapses or hyper-lapses, try to keep one point of reference in the same position within your camera frame.

Slow Motion

Shoot slow-motion videos when there is plenty of light.
For actions that are as slow as walking, slowing down your footage to 50% of the original speed looks good enough. If your video editing project is in 30 fps, shooting your video in 60 fps will give you a 50% slow-motion video. If your video editing project is in 60 fps, shooting your video in 120 fps will give you a 50% slow-motion video. Any slower is overkill for slowing down the speed of walking.
For actions that are as fast as water splashing, slowing down your footage as little as 15% of the original speed can look good. For a video editing project in 30 fps, you would need a camera that can shoot at up to 240 fps to slow your footage down this much.

Storage and Back-Up

If you’re using a phone that can store images and videos on a separate SD card, take advantage of that and record your travel footage onto your SD card. Later, you can easily get to your travel media as it will all be in one place.
If you have your laptop on you, regularly transfer your media files from your cameras to your external hard drives.
If you don’t want to bring your laptop on your trip and plan to video edit once you’re back home, use a USB memory card reader that connects with an app on your phone to transfer your files into your external hard drive.
If you have access to a reliable internet connection and you leave your laptop at your place of accommodation, have your computer upload your files onto cloud storage while you are out to travel vlogging.
Take advantage of Google Photos’ free, unlimited cloud storage for video files up to 1080p.

Video Editing

If you’re editing a video project with videos from multiple different cameras, make sure to set the correct time and date on all of them before you start filming. Later, in editing, you can import all your image and video files and sort them in the exact order that they were taken.
If your video editing software can work with proxies, transcode all your video files into proxy files for much faster editing.

Posting On YouTube

Choose a title that people will search for. Keep your target keywords at the beginning of your title. “S01E01: My Summer Backpacking Trip” is not an effective title. Instead, a title like “Going Up The Eiffel Tower… Beautiful View of Paris!” would be better.

Ready to Become a Travel Vlogger?

Here in this article, I shared travel vlogging cameras &accessories, travel video ideas& resources, and travel vlogging tips. Did you get more hints to become a travel vlogger? Stay tuned and start your own travel vlog! Leave your comments below if you have any suggestions about this travel vlogger guide.

This past year has been a challenge, so if you want to make a #travelanywhere video without traveling, you can try Wondershare Filmora X video editor.

Richard Bennett

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

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

Want to become a travel vlogger?

With all the high-quality cameras and video editing software that are much more accessible to the general public now than even a few years ago, it has never been a better time to make a travel vlog.

Below, I have prepared a comprehensive guide on how to become a travel vlogger.

Create Your Travel Vlog with Wondershare FilmoraX

PART 1: TRAVEL VLOGGING EQUIPMENT

In order to make travel videos, you’re going to need camera equipment. Below, I’ve prepared a comprehensive list of cameras and accessories that would be good for travel vlogging.

Filmstock Stock Media Library ](https://filmstock.wondershare.com/creative-theme-tourism?spm=rs.filmora%5Fweb&source%5Fchannel=seo%5Farticle )

1.1 Travel Vlogging Cameras

How To Choose A Vlogging Camera

When it comes to travel vlogging, you should look for a camera that ideally has the following eleven qualities:

It has a fully articulated screen (flip screen)
It has good continual autofocus while recording video
It has good focus priority through face recognition
It has touched to focus
It has good low-light performance
It has an external mic jack and a hot/cold shoe bracket
It has optical image stabilization
It is lightweight and portable
It has a good battery life
It is durable and weather-sealed
It has hyper-lapse/timelapse/slow-motion shooting modes

For more information on why a lot of these features are ideal to have in a vlogging camera, check out my post on the Top 15 Best Cameras for Vlogging 2020 .

Cameras That Are Good For Travel Vlogging

Considering my list on what to look for in a travel vlogging camera, I’ve prepared a table below of thirteen cameras I’d recommend for travel vlogging:

Camera	Camera Type	Flip Screen	Mic Port	Price
CanonEOSM50	February2018	Mirrorless	Fully Articulated	Yes	$-
PanasonicLumixDC-GH5S	January2018	Mirrorless	Fully Articulated	Yes	$$$
GoProHero6 Black	September2017	Action Camera	No	Yes	$-
CanonEOSM100	August2017	Mirrorless	Flip-Up	No	$
CanonEOS6D Mark II	June2017	Mid-size SLR	Fully Articulated	Yes	$$
CanonEOS RebelSL2	June2017	Compact SLR	Fully Articulated	Yes	$
CanonEOS RebelT7i	February2017	Mid-size SLR	Fully Articulated	Yes	$-
CanonEOSM6	February2017	Mirrorless	Flip-Up	Yes	$
SonyCyber-Shot DSCRX 100 V	October2016	Compact	Flip-Up	No	$-
PanasonicLumix DMCG85	September2016	Mirrorless	Fully Articulated	Yes	$-
PanasonicLumix DMCLX10	September2016	Compact	Flip-Up	No	$
CanonEOS80D	February2016	Mid-size SLR	Fully Articulated	Yes	$$
CanonPowerShotG7 X Mark II	February2016	Compact	Flip-Up	No	$

Lenses That Are Good For Travel Vlogging

If, however, you want to be able to shoot these close-up shots from a farther distance, you’ll need a telephoto lens.

If most of your travel video shooting will be done handheld, you should also definitely look for a lens equipped with optical image stabilization.

Check out my Best Camera Lens for YouTube to gain a more in-depth understanding of lenses and how they work.

1.2 Travel Vlogging Accessories

Camera Accessories That Are Good For Travel Vlogging

	1. Tripod Record stabilized shots and timelapse footage with a tripod.
	2. GorillaPod SLR-Zoom with Ballhead Wrap your camera around structures that your regular tripod can’t stay on. You can also hold out your camera further away from you using the GorillaPod as a selfie stick to fit in more of your background into your selfie shot.
	3. Stabilizing Gimbal Get super-smooth shots with a stabilizing gimbal.
	4. On-Camera LED Light Is there not enough light? Add an LED light to your camera’s hot/cold shoe.
	5. Neutral Density (ND) Filters Is it too bright outside to have your aperture wide open but you still want to get that cinematic look ? You can add ND filters to your lenses so that you can do just that in very bright conditions.
	6. Camera Cleaning Kit While traveling, you can get all kinds of unwanted substances on your lens and in your camera like dust, dirt, fingerprints, raindrops, snow, and sand, to name a few. If you bring along a portable camera cleaning kit with you on your travels, you can remove those things immediately so that your shots won’t be affected.
	7. Drone When it comes to travel vlogging, wide shots that establish the scene and setting are important. Drones are great for taking these kinds of wide shots from high places that you would not be able to get to by foot.

Smartphone Accessories That Are Good For Travel Vlogging

RAVPower Portable Charger
Arkon Tripod Mount
Mega Tiny Anti-Gravity Case
FLII Selfie Ring Light
Rode VideoMic Me
Aukey Optic 3-in-1 Smartphone Lens Set
iOgrapher Go for Android and iPhone
Manfrotto TwistGrip System
Zhiyun Smooth-Q 3-Axis Handheld Gimbal Stabilizer for Smartphones

Read more about each one of these items in my post The 9 Best Smartphone Camera Accessories For Vloggers .

Camera Mounted Shotgun Microphones for Travel Vlogging

These four shotgun microphones can mount directly onto your camera’s hot/cold shoe:

Rode VideoMic Go
Shure VP83
Rode VideoMic Pro+
Sennheiser MKE 440

Read more about each one of them in our post about The 19 Best YouTube Microphones 2020 – Options for Music, Voiceovers, Vlogging, and more!

Other Useful Travel Vlogging Accessories

Camera backpack
Extra batteries
Memory cards
External hard drive
Power plugs and cables
USB card reader
Universal plug
D-ring clips (to prevent your equipment from slipping out of your grasp)
Smartphone SD card tray key (if you’re storing your recorded footage in your SD card)

PART 2: TRAVEL VLOGGING IDEAS

If you’re needing some travel video ideas either to get you started or to bring some fresh content into your channel, here are ten travel video ideas that you can try.

1. Travel Vlog

Rather than being too picky with your video shots and possibly ending up with a lack of footage to work with, shoot as much as you can.

Try to capture your thoughts and feelings around the things you taste, smell, see and hear. Sharing these details can help your viewers feel more like they’re with you on your travels.

2. Tips or Tricks for Traveling

3. Video Tour of a Location

4. Review An Attraction or Experience

5. Timelapse Videos

6. Average Daily Cost

7. Interview Locals

People don’t travel only to see popular attractions. A lot of people travel to connect with and understand people from different parts of the world.

Interviewing locals and sharing their thoughts can help to provide that kind of connection.

8. What’s in My Backpack?

Packing for a trip can say a lot about who you are as a person because it involves prioritizing items based on your personal values.

For your next trip, share a little part of yourself with your audience through a video about the things you’ve packed in your bag.

9. Talk About Your Own Home City

Take advantage of the expert that you already are in your own home city and make an informative video for others who are taking a trip there.

10. How To Become a Travel Vlogger

After you’ve done a lot of travel vlogging and learned so much along the way, you can make a video about how to be a travel vlogger.

In the above video, Andrew Santos teaches how to make a travel video, all while hilariously poking fun at many of the cliché trends in the travel genre.

PART 3: TRAVEL VIDEO EDITING

Video Editing Software

When it comes to editing your travel video together, there are different kinds of software you can do that with.

FREE VIDEO EDITING SOFTWARE	PAID VIDEO EDITING SOFTWARE
OpenShot Video Editor (Windows, Mac, Linux) ShotCut (Windows, Mac, Linux) Hitfilm Express (Windows, Mac) VideoPad Video Editor (Windows) Lightworks (Windows, Mac, Linux) VSDC Video Editor (Windows) Machete Video Editor Lite (Windows) Avidemux (Windows, Mac, Linux, BSD) Read more about each software in our post about The Best Free Video Editing Software for YouTube – Top 8 Reviews .	Wondershare Filmora X (Windows, Mac) - start at $49.99 for one year license and Free trial Final Cut Pro (Mac) - $299.99, Free trial Vegas Movie Studio (Windows) - $49.99

Travel-Themed Video Effects

For my recent trip to Japan, I actually used Filmora Effects’ Japanese set.

At the 2:10 mark of the above video, I used an overlay of falling cherry blossom leaves. At the 3:03 mark of the same video, I used an anime-themed overlay.

At the 2:48 mark of the above video, I used a shoji door transition.

Music Libraries

Music is an important component of a lot of travel videos. Here’s where you can get them:

ROYALTY-FREE MUSIC LIBRARIES	PAID MUSIC LIBRARIES	PAID SUBSCRIPTION MUSIC LIBRARIES
Audionautix Bensound dig.ccMixter Free Music Archive Free Stock Music Incompetech Josh Woodward Moby Gratis Musopen Purple Planet Music TeknoAXE YouTube Audio Library	Premium Beat Audio Jungle	Audio Network Audio Blocks Epidemic Sound

Sound Effects

Free Sound Effect Sites

PART 4: TRAVEL VLOGGING TIPS

Vlog/Life Balance

Give yourself more time at each location if you want to have a good balance between getting the shots you need and enjoying your present moment.

Theft Prevention

Carry a backpack that doesn’t have zippers on the outside that thieves can easily get to.
If you’re shooting with a flashy smartphone, make it look less appealing to thieves with a grotesque smartphone case, like an Otterbox.
In locations with high crime, pre-plan the shots you want to capture and take your SLR camera out of your bag only to take those shots. Otherwise, keep your SLR camera concealed.
Never leave your equipment unattended in a visible area, not even in a locked car.

Pre-Production and Planning

Before shooting, make a shot list of all the footage you need.
Have all your filming equipment that needs to be calibrated all calibrated and ready to use.

Onscreen Performance

Look into your lens, not the projected image of yourself on your camera’s flip screen.
Show a lot of energy as you film yourself.
If you’re nervous about talking to the camera in public, keep your talking head clips short and gradually build your way up to longer clips. You can break up longer sentences by saying a few words from one scene, saying a few more in another, and finishing off your last words, again, in another scene. Later, in editing, you can stitch all of those clips together to make one fluid sentence.
If you’re nervous about talking to the camera in public, you can capture your talking headshots later when you find a more secluded space.

Audio Recording

Silence everything you don’t want your mic to record.
Put your mobile phone in airplane mode.
Block wind from reaching your mic with windscreens and dead cats.
Upgrade your mic.
Adjust your levels.
Get close to the sound you are wanting to record.

Check out 10 Recording Tips to Get The Best Sound From Your Microphone for more audio recording tips.

Filming

To avoid crowds, wake up early and grab your footage early while everyone else is still sleeping or getting ready.
Capture wide shots, medium shots, and close-up shots for better coverage.
Use the Sun Seeker app to set up your sunrise/sunset shots better.
If your camera can record 4K footage, record in 4K all the scenes that you want to zoom in closer later in editing without losing quality (your video project in editing has to be at 1920p x 1080p for this to work).

Stabilization

If you’re trying to get shots with movement by walking, rather than walking as you normally would walk with your knees bent for steadier shots.
If you’re shooting something in front of your handheld, lean your arm against your own body for steadier shots.
Use a stabilizing gimbal with your camera.

Timelapse/Hyperlapse

Select scenes where you can see a lot of change over time (not a still building in front of a cloudless smoggy sky).
Set longer intervals for scenes that change very slowly over time.
Pre-set your focus. Turn autofocus off.
Shoot time-lapses/hyper-lapses in manual mode to prevent the flickering that occurs with changing light conditions in automatic settings.
If your camera is set on a tripod in a fixed position, turn your optical image stabilization off.
If you aren’t holding onto your camera as it’s in the middle of making a timelapse video, at least keep your camera and tripod attached by some kind of leash mechanism.
For moving time-lapses or hyper-lapses, try to keep one point of reference in the same position within your camera frame.

Slow Motion

Shoot slow-motion videos when there is plenty of light.
For actions that are as slow as walking, slowing down your footage to 50% of the original speed looks good enough. If your video editing project is in 30 fps, shooting your video in 60 fps will give you a 50% slow-motion video. If your video editing project is in 60 fps, shooting your video in 120 fps will give you a 50% slow-motion video. Any slower is overkill for slowing down the speed of walking.
For actions that are as fast as water splashing, slowing down your footage as little as 15% of the original speed can look good. For a video editing project in 30 fps, you would need a camera that can shoot at up to 240 fps to slow your footage down this much.

Storage and Back-Up

If you’re using a phone that can store images and videos on a separate SD card, take advantage of that and record your travel footage onto your SD card. Later, you can easily get to your travel media as it will all be in one place.
If you have your laptop on you, regularly transfer your media files from your cameras to your external hard drives.
If you don’t want to bring your laptop on your trip and plan to video edit once you’re back home, use a USB memory card reader that connects with an app on your phone to transfer your files into your external hard drive.
If you have access to a reliable internet connection and you leave your laptop at your place of accommodation, have your computer upload your files onto cloud storage while you are out to travel vlogging.
Take advantage of Google Photos’ free, unlimited cloud storage for video files up to 1080p.

Video Editing

If you’re editing a video project with videos from multiple different cameras, make sure to set the correct time and date on all of them before you start filming. Later, in editing, you can import all your image and video files and sort them in the exact order that they were taken.
If your video editing software can work with proxies, transcode all your video files into proxy files for much faster editing.

Posting On YouTube

Choose a title that people will search for. Keep your target keywords at the beginning of your title. “S01E01: My Summer Backpacking Trip” is not an effective title. Instead, a title like “Going Up The Eiffel Tower… Beautiful View of Paris!” would be better.

Ready to Become a Travel Vlogger?

This past year has been a challenge, so if you want to make a #travelanywhere video without traveling, you can try Wondershare Filmora X video editor.

Richard Bennett

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

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

Want to become a travel vlogger?

With all the high-quality cameras and video editing software that are much more accessible to the general public now than even a few years ago, it has never been a better time to make a travel vlog.

Below, I have prepared a comprehensive guide on how to become a travel vlogger.

Create Your Travel Vlog with Wondershare FilmoraX

PART 1: TRAVEL VLOGGING EQUIPMENT

In order to make travel videos, you’re going to need camera equipment. Below, I’ve prepared a comprehensive list of cameras and accessories that would be good for travel vlogging.

Filmstock Stock Media Library ](https://filmstock.wondershare.com/creative-theme-tourism?spm=rs.filmora%5Fweb&source%5Fchannel=seo%5Farticle )

1.1 Travel Vlogging Cameras

How To Choose A Vlogging Camera

When it comes to travel vlogging, you should look for a camera that ideally has the following eleven qualities:

It has a fully articulated screen (flip screen)
It has good continual autofocus while recording video
It has good focus priority through face recognition
It has touched to focus
It has good low-light performance
It has an external mic jack and a hot/cold shoe bracket
It has optical image stabilization
It is lightweight and portable
It has a good battery life
It is durable and weather-sealed
It has hyper-lapse/timelapse/slow-motion shooting modes

For more information on why a lot of these features are ideal to have in a vlogging camera, check out my post on the Top 15 Best Cameras for Vlogging 2020 .

Cameras That Are Good For Travel Vlogging

Considering my list on what to look for in a travel vlogging camera, I’ve prepared a table below of thirteen cameras I’d recommend for travel vlogging:

Camera	Camera Type	Flip Screen	Mic Port	Price
CanonEOSM50	February2018	Mirrorless	Fully Articulated	Yes	$-
PanasonicLumixDC-GH5S	January2018	Mirrorless	Fully Articulated	Yes	$$$
GoProHero6 Black	September2017	Action Camera	No	Yes	$-
CanonEOSM100	August2017	Mirrorless	Flip-Up	No	$
CanonEOS6D Mark II	June2017	Mid-size SLR	Fully Articulated	Yes	$$
CanonEOS RebelSL2	June2017	Compact SLR	Fully Articulated	Yes	$
CanonEOS RebelT7i	February2017	Mid-size SLR	Fully Articulated	Yes	$-
CanonEOSM6	February2017	Mirrorless	Flip-Up	Yes	$
SonyCyber-Shot DSCRX 100 V	October2016	Compact	Flip-Up	No	$-
PanasonicLumix DMCG85	September2016	Mirrorless	Fully Articulated	Yes	$-
PanasonicLumix DMCLX10	September2016	Compact	Flip-Up	No	$
CanonEOS80D	February2016	Mid-size SLR	Fully Articulated	Yes	$$
CanonPowerShotG7 X Mark II	February2016	Compact	Flip-Up	No	$

Lenses That Are Good For Travel Vlogging

If, however, you want to be able to shoot these close-up shots from a farther distance, you’ll need a telephoto lens.

If most of your travel video shooting will be done handheld, you should also definitely look for a lens equipped with optical image stabilization.

Check out my Best Camera Lens for YouTube to gain a more in-depth understanding of lenses and how they work.

1.2 Travel Vlogging Accessories

Camera Accessories That Are Good For Travel Vlogging

	1. Tripod Record stabilized shots and timelapse footage with a tripod.
	2. GorillaPod SLR-Zoom with Ballhead Wrap your camera around structures that your regular tripod can’t stay on. You can also hold out your camera further away from you using the GorillaPod as a selfie stick to fit in more of your background into your selfie shot.
	3. Stabilizing Gimbal Get super-smooth shots with a stabilizing gimbal.
	4. On-Camera LED Light Is there not enough light? Add an LED light to your camera’s hot/cold shoe.
	5. Neutral Density (ND) Filters Is it too bright outside to have your aperture wide open but you still want to get that cinematic look ? You can add ND filters to your lenses so that you can do just that in very bright conditions.
	6. Camera Cleaning Kit While traveling, you can get all kinds of unwanted substances on your lens and in your camera like dust, dirt, fingerprints, raindrops, snow, and sand, to name a few. If you bring along a portable camera cleaning kit with you on your travels, you can remove those things immediately so that your shots won’t be affected.
	7. Drone When it comes to travel vlogging, wide shots that establish the scene and setting are important. Drones are great for taking these kinds of wide shots from high places that you would not be able to get to by foot.

Smartphone Accessories That Are Good For Travel Vlogging

RAVPower Portable Charger
Arkon Tripod Mount
Mega Tiny Anti-Gravity Case
FLII Selfie Ring Light
Rode VideoMic Me
Aukey Optic 3-in-1 Smartphone Lens Set
iOgrapher Go for Android and iPhone
Manfrotto TwistGrip System
Zhiyun Smooth-Q 3-Axis Handheld Gimbal Stabilizer for Smartphones

Read more about each one of these items in my post The 9 Best Smartphone Camera Accessories For Vloggers .

Camera Mounted Shotgun Microphones for Travel Vlogging

These four shotgun microphones can mount directly onto your camera’s hot/cold shoe:

Rode VideoMic Go
Shure VP83
Rode VideoMic Pro+
Sennheiser MKE 440

Read more about each one of them in our post about The 19 Best YouTube Microphones 2020 – Options for Music, Voiceovers, Vlogging, and more!

Other Useful Travel Vlogging Accessories

Camera backpack
Extra batteries
Memory cards
External hard drive
Power plugs and cables
USB card reader
Universal plug
D-ring clips (to prevent your equipment from slipping out of your grasp)
Smartphone SD card tray key (if you’re storing your recorded footage in your SD card)

PART 2: TRAVEL VLOGGING IDEAS

If you’re needing some travel video ideas either to get you started or to bring some fresh content into your channel, here are ten travel video ideas that you can try.

1. Travel Vlog

Rather than being too picky with your video shots and possibly ending up with a lack of footage to work with, shoot as much as you can.

Try to capture your thoughts and feelings around the things you taste, smell, see and hear. Sharing these details can help your viewers feel more like they’re with you on your travels.

2. Tips or Tricks for Traveling

3. Video Tour of a Location

4. Review An Attraction or Experience

5. Timelapse Videos

6. Average Daily Cost

7. Interview Locals

People don’t travel only to see popular attractions. A lot of people travel to connect with and understand people from different parts of the world.

Interviewing locals and sharing their thoughts can help to provide that kind of connection.

8. What’s in My Backpack?

Packing for a trip can say a lot about who you are as a person because it involves prioritizing items based on your personal values.

For your next trip, share a little part of yourself with your audience through a video about the things you’ve packed in your bag.

9. Talk About Your Own Home City

Take advantage of the expert that you already are in your own home city and make an informative video for others who are taking a trip there.

10. How To Become a Travel Vlogger

After you’ve done a lot of travel vlogging and learned so much along the way, you can make a video about how to be a travel vlogger.

In the above video, Andrew Santos teaches how to make a travel video, all while hilariously poking fun at many of the cliché trends in the travel genre.

PART 3: TRAVEL VIDEO EDITING

Video Editing Software

When it comes to editing your travel video together, there are different kinds of software you can do that with.

FREE VIDEO EDITING SOFTWARE	PAID VIDEO EDITING SOFTWARE
OpenShot Video Editor (Windows, Mac, Linux) ShotCut (Windows, Mac, Linux) Hitfilm Express (Windows, Mac) VideoPad Video Editor (Windows) Lightworks (Windows, Mac, Linux) VSDC Video Editor (Windows) Machete Video Editor Lite (Windows) Avidemux (Windows, Mac, Linux, BSD) Read more about each software in our post about The Best Free Video Editing Software for YouTube – Top 8 Reviews .	Wondershare Filmora X (Windows, Mac) - start at $49.99 for one year license and Free trial Final Cut Pro (Mac) - $299.99, Free trial Vegas Movie Studio (Windows) - $49.99

Travel-Themed Video Effects

For my recent trip to Japan, I actually used Filmora Effects’ Japanese set.

At the 2:10 mark of the above video, I used an overlay of falling cherry blossom leaves. At the 3:03 mark of the same video, I used an anime-themed overlay.

At the 2:48 mark of the above video, I used a shoji door transition.

Music Libraries

Music is an important component of a lot of travel videos. Here’s where you can get them:

ROYALTY-FREE MUSIC LIBRARIES	PAID MUSIC LIBRARIES	PAID SUBSCRIPTION MUSIC LIBRARIES
Audionautix Bensound dig.ccMixter Free Music Archive Free Stock Music Incompetech Josh Woodward Moby Gratis Musopen Purple Planet Music TeknoAXE YouTube Audio Library	Premium Beat Audio Jungle	Audio Network Audio Blocks Epidemic Sound

Sound Effects

Free Sound Effect Sites

PART 4: TRAVEL VLOGGING TIPS

Vlog/Life Balance

Give yourself more time at each location if you want to have a good balance between getting the shots you need and enjoying your present moment.

Theft Prevention

Carry a backpack that doesn’t have zippers on the outside that thieves can easily get to.
If you’re shooting with a flashy smartphone, make it look less appealing to thieves with a grotesque smartphone case, like an Otterbox.
In locations with high crime, pre-plan the shots you want to capture and take your SLR camera out of your bag only to take those shots. Otherwise, keep your SLR camera concealed.
Never leave your equipment unattended in a visible area, not even in a locked car.

Pre-Production and Planning

Before shooting, make a shot list of all the footage you need.
Have all your filming equipment that needs to be calibrated all calibrated and ready to use.

Onscreen Performance

Look into your lens, not the projected image of yourself on your camera’s flip screen.
Show a lot of energy as you film yourself.
If you’re nervous about talking to the camera in public, keep your talking head clips short and gradually build your way up to longer clips. You can break up longer sentences by saying a few words from one scene, saying a few more in another, and finishing off your last words, again, in another scene. Later, in editing, you can stitch all of those clips together to make one fluid sentence.
If you’re nervous about talking to the camera in public, you can capture your talking headshots later when you find a more secluded space.

Audio Recording

Silence everything you don’t want your mic to record.
Put your mobile phone in airplane mode.
Block wind from reaching your mic with windscreens and dead cats.
Upgrade your mic.
Adjust your levels.
Get close to the sound you are wanting to record.

Check out 10 Recording Tips to Get The Best Sound From Your Microphone for more audio recording tips.

Filming

To avoid crowds, wake up early and grab your footage early while everyone else is still sleeping or getting ready.
Capture wide shots, medium shots, and close-up shots for better coverage.
Use the Sun Seeker app to set up your sunrise/sunset shots better.
If your camera can record 4K footage, record in 4K all the scenes that you want to zoom in closer later in editing without losing quality (your video project in editing has to be at 1920p x 1080p for this to work).

Stabilization

If you’re trying to get shots with movement by walking, rather than walking as you normally would walk with your knees bent for steadier shots.
If you’re shooting something in front of your handheld, lean your arm against your own body for steadier shots.
Use a stabilizing gimbal with your camera.

Timelapse/Hyperlapse

Select scenes where you can see a lot of change over time (not a still building in front of a cloudless smoggy sky).
Set longer intervals for scenes that change very slowly over time.
Pre-set your focus. Turn autofocus off.
Shoot time-lapses/hyper-lapses in manual mode to prevent the flickering that occurs with changing light conditions in automatic settings.
If your camera is set on a tripod in a fixed position, turn your optical image stabilization off.
If you aren’t holding onto your camera as it’s in the middle of making a timelapse video, at least keep your camera and tripod attached by some kind of leash mechanism.
For moving time-lapses or hyper-lapses, try to keep one point of reference in the same position within your camera frame.

Slow Motion

Shoot slow-motion videos when there is plenty of light.
For actions that are as slow as walking, slowing down your footage to 50% of the original speed looks good enough. If your video editing project is in 30 fps, shooting your video in 60 fps will give you a 50% slow-motion video. If your video editing project is in 60 fps, shooting your video in 120 fps will give you a 50% slow-motion video. Any slower is overkill for slowing down the speed of walking.
For actions that are as fast as water splashing, slowing down your footage as little as 15% of the original speed can look good. For a video editing project in 30 fps, you would need a camera that can shoot at up to 240 fps to slow your footage down this much.

Storage and Back-Up

If you’re using a phone that can store images and videos on a separate SD card, take advantage of that and record your travel footage onto your SD card. Later, you can easily get to your travel media as it will all be in one place.
If you have your laptop on you, regularly transfer your media files from your cameras to your external hard drives.
If you don’t want to bring your laptop on your trip and plan to video edit once you’re back home, use a USB memory card reader that connects with an app on your phone to transfer your files into your external hard drive.
If you have access to a reliable internet connection and you leave your laptop at your place of accommodation, have your computer upload your files onto cloud storage while you are out to travel vlogging.
Take advantage of Google Photos’ free, unlimited cloud storage for video files up to 1080p.

Video Editing

If you’re editing a video project with videos from multiple different cameras, make sure to set the correct time and date on all of them before you start filming. Later, in editing, you can import all your image and video files and sort them in the exact order that they were taken.
If your video editing software can work with proxies, transcode all your video files into proxy files for much faster editing.

Posting On YouTube

Choose a title that people will search for. Keep your target keywords at the beginning of your title. “S01E01: My Summer Backpacking Trip” is not an effective title. Instead, a title like “Going Up The Eiffel Tower… Beautiful View of Paris!” would be better.

Ready to Become a Travel Vlogger?

This past year has been a challenge, so if you want to make a #travelanywhere video without traveling, you can try Wondershare Filmora X video editor.

Richard Bennett

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

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

Want to become a travel vlogger?

With all the high-quality cameras and video editing software that are much more accessible to the general public now than even a few years ago, it has never been a better time to make a travel vlog.

Below, I have prepared a comprehensive guide on how to become a travel vlogger.

Create Your Travel Vlog with Wondershare FilmoraX

PART 1: TRAVEL VLOGGING EQUIPMENT

In order to make travel videos, you’re going to need camera equipment. Below, I’ve prepared a comprehensive list of cameras and accessories that would be good for travel vlogging.

Filmstock Stock Media Library ](https://filmstock.wondershare.com/creative-theme-tourism?spm=rs.filmora%5Fweb&source%5Fchannel=seo%5Farticle )

1.1 Travel Vlogging Cameras

How To Choose A Vlogging Camera

When it comes to travel vlogging, you should look for a camera that ideally has the following eleven qualities:

It has a fully articulated screen (flip screen)
It has good continual autofocus while recording video
It has good focus priority through face recognition
It has touched to focus
It has good low-light performance
It has an external mic jack and a hot/cold shoe bracket
It has optical image stabilization
It is lightweight and portable
It has a good battery life
It is durable and weather-sealed
It has hyper-lapse/timelapse/slow-motion shooting modes

For more information on why a lot of these features are ideal to have in a vlogging camera, check out my post on the Top 15 Best Cameras for Vlogging 2020 .

Cameras That Are Good For Travel Vlogging

Considering my list on what to look for in a travel vlogging camera, I’ve prepared a table below of thirteen cameras I’d recommend for travel vlogging:

Camera	Camera Type	Flip Screen	Mic Port	Price
CanonEOSM50	February2018	Mirrorless	Fully Articulated	Yes	$-
PanasonicLumixDC-GH5S	January2018	Mirrorless	Fully Articulated	Yes	$$$
GoProHero6 Black	September2017	Action Camera	No	Yes	$-
CanonEOSM100	August2017	Mirrorless	Flip-Up	No	$
CanonEOS6D Mark II	June2017	Mid-size SLR	Fully Articulated	Yes	$$
CanonEOS RebelSL2	June2017	Compact SLR	Fully Articulated	Yes	$
CanonEOS RebelT7i	February2017	Mid-size SLR	Fully Articulated	Yes	$-
CanonEOSM6	February2017	Mirrorless	Flip-Up	Yes	$
SonyCyber-Shot DSCRX 100 V	October2016	Compact	Flip-Up	No	$-
PanasonicLumix DMCG85	September2016	Mirrorless	Fully Articulated	Yes	$-
PanasonicLumix DMCLX10	September2016	Compact	Flip-Up	No	$
CanonEOS80D	February2016	Mid-size SLR	Fully Articulated	Yes	$$
CanonPowerShotG7 X Mark II	February2016	Compact	Flip-Up	No	$

Lenses That Are Good For Travel Vlogging

If, however, you want to be able to shoot these close-up shots from a farther distance, you’ll need a telephoto lens.

If most of your travel video shooting will be done handheld, you should also definitely look for a lens equipped with optical image stabilization.

Check out my Best Camera Lens for YouTube to gain a more in-depth understanding of lenses and how they work.

1.2 Travel Vlogging Accessories

Camera Accessories That Are Good For Travel Vlogging

	1. Tripod Record stabilized shots and timelapse footage with a tripod.
	2. GorillaPod SLR-Zoom with Ballhead Wrap your camera around structures that your regular tripod can’t stay on. You can also hold out your camera further away from you using the GorillaPod as a selfie stick to fit in more of your background into your selfie shot.
	3. Stabilizing Gimbal Get super-smooth shots with a stabilizing gimbal.
	4. On-Camera LED Light Is there not enough light? Add an LED light to your camera’s hot/cold shoe.
	5. Neutral Density (ND) Filters Is it too bright outside to have your aperture wide open but you still want to get that cinematic look ? You can add ND filters to your lenses so that you can do just that in very bright conditions.
	6. Camera Cleaning Kit While traveling, you can get all kinds of unwanted substances on your lens and in your camera like dust, dirt, fingerprints, raindrops, snow, and sand, to name a few. If you bring along a portable camera cleaning kit with you on your travels, you can remove those things immediately so that your shots won’t be affected.
	7. Drone When it comes to travel vlogging, wide shots that establish the scene and setting are important. Drones are great for taking these kinds of wide shots from high places that you would not be able to get to by foot.

Smartphone Accessories That Are Good For Travel Vlogging

RAVPower Portable Charger
Arkon Tripod Mount
Mega Tiny Anti-Gravity Case
FLII Selfie Ring Light
Rode VideoMic Me
Aukey Optic 3-in-1 Smartphone Lens Set
iOgrapher Go for Android and iPhone
Manfrotto TwistGrip System
Zhiyun Smooth-Q 3-Axis Handheld Gimbal Stabilizer for Smartphones

Read more about each one of these items in my post The 9 Best Smartphone Camera Accessories For Vloggers .

Camera Mounted Shotgun Microphones for Travel Vlogging

These four shotgun microphones can mount directly onto your camera’s hot/cold shoe:

Rode VideoMic Go
Shure VP83
Rode VideoMic Pro+
Sennheiser MKE 440

Read more about each one of them in our post about The 19 Best YouTube Microphones 2020 – Options for Music, Voiceovers, Vlogging, and more!

Other Useful Travel Vlogging Accessories

Camera backpack
Extra batteries
Memory cards
External hard drive
Power plugs and cables
USB card reader
Universal plug
D-ring clips (to prevent your equipment from slipping out of your grasp)
Smartphone SD card tray key (if you’re storing your recorded footage in your SD card)

PART 2: TRAVEL VLOGGING IDEAS

If you’re needing some travel video ideas either to get you started or to bring some fresh content into your channel, here are ten travel video ideas that you can try.

1. Travel Vlog

Rather than being too picky with your video shots and possibly ending up with a lack of footage to work with, shoot as much as you can.

Try to capture your thoughts and feelings around the things you taste, smell, see and hear. Sharing these details can help your viewers feel more like they’re with you on your travels.

2. Tips or Tricks for Traveling

3. Video Tour of a Location

4. Review An Attraction or Experience

5. Timelapse Videos

6. Average Daily Cost

7. Interview Locals

People don’t travel only to see popular attractions. A lot of people travel to connect with and understand people from different parts of the world.

Interviewing locals and sharing their thoughts can help to provide that kind of connection.

8. What’s in My Backpack?

Packing for a trip can say a lot about who you are as a person because it involves prioritizing items based on your personal values.

For your next trip, share a little part of yourself with your audience through a video about the things you’ve packed in your bag.

9. Talk About Your Own Home City

Take advantage of the expert that you already are in your own home city and make an informative video for others who are taking a trip there.

10. How To Become a Travel Vlogger

After you’ve done a lot of travel vlogging and learned so much along the way, you can make a video about how to be a travel vlogger.

In the above video, Andrew Santos teaches how to make a travel video, all while hilariously poking fun at many of the cliché trends in the travel genre.

PART 3: TRAVEL VIDEO EDITING

Video Editing Software

When it comes to editing your travel video together, there are different kinds of software you can do that with.

FREE VIDEO EDITING SOFTWARE	PAID VIDEO EDITING SOFTWARE
OpenShot Video Editor (Windows, Mac, Linux) ShotCut (Windows, Mac, Linux) Hitfilm Express (Windows, Mac) VideoPad Video Editor (Windows) Lightworks (Windows, Mac, Linux) VSDC Video Editor (Windows) Machete Video Editor Lite (Windows) Avidemux (Windows, Mac, Linux, BSD) Read more about each software in our post about The Best Free Video Editing Software for YouTube – Top 8 Reviews .	Wondershare Filmora X (Windows, Mac) - start at $49.99 for one year license and Free trial Final Cut Pro (Mac) - $299.99, Free trial Vegas Movie Studio (Windows) - $49.99

Travel-Themed Video Effects

For my recent trip to Japan, I actually used Filmora Effects’ Japanese set.

At the 2:10 mark of the above video, I used an overlay of falling cherry blossom leaves. At the 3:03 mark of the same video, I used an anime-themed overlay.

At the 2:48 mark of the above video, I used a shoji door transition.

Music Libraries

Music is an important component of a lot of travel videos. Here’s where you can get them:

ROYALTY-FREE MUSIC LIBRARIES	PAID MUSIC LIBRARIES	PAID SUBSCRIPTION MUSIC LIBRARIES
Audionautix Bensound dig.ccMixter Free Music Archive Free Stock Music Incompetech Josh Woodward Moby Gratis Musopen Purple Planet Music TeknoAXE YouTube Audio Library	Premium Beat Audio Jungle	Audio Network Audio Blocks Epidemic Sound

Sound Effects

Free Sound Effect Sites

PART 4: TRAVEL VLOGGING TIPS

Vlog/Life Balance

Give yourself more time at each location if you want to have a good balance between getting the shots you need and enjoying your present moment.

Theft Prevention

Carry a backpack that doesn’t have zippers on the outside that thieves can easily get to.
If you’re shooting with a flashy smartphone, make it look less appealing to thieves with a grotesque smartphone case, like an Otterbox.
In locations with high crime, pre-plan the shots you want to capture and take your SLR camera out of your bag only to take those shots. Otherwise, keep your SLR camera concealed.
Never leave your equipment unattended in a visible area, not even in a locked car.

Pre-Production and Planning

Before shooting, make a shot list of all the footage you need.
Have all your filming equipment that needs to be calibrated all calibrated and ready to use.

Onscreen Performance

Look into your lens, not the projected image of yourself on your camera’s flip screen.
Show a lot of energy as you film yourself.
If you’re nervous about talking to the camera in public, keep your talking head clips short and gradually build your way up to longer clips. You can break up longer sentences by saying a few words from one scene, saying a few more in another, and finishing off your last words, again, in another scene. Later, in editing, you can stitch all of those clips together to make one fluid sentence.
If you’re nervous about talking to the camera in public, you can capture your talking headshots later when you find a more secluded space.

Audio Recording

Silence everything you don’t want your mic to record.
Put your mobile phone in airplane mode.
Block wind from reaching your mic with windscreens and dead cats.
Upgrade your mic.
Adjust your levels.
Get close to the sound you are wanting to record.

Check out 10 Recording Tips to Get The Best Sound From Your Microphone for more audio recording tips.

Filming

To avoid crowds, wake up early and grab your footage early while everyone else is still sleeping or getting ready.
Capture wide shots, medium shots, and close-up shots for better coverage.
Use the Sun Seeker app to set up your sunrise/sunset shots better.
If your camera can record 4K footage, record in 4K all the scenes that you want to zoom in closer later in editing without losing quality (your video project in editing has to be at 1920p x 1080p for this to work).

Stabilization

If you’re trying to get shots with movement by walking, rather than walking as you normally would walk with your knees bent for steadier shots.
If you’re shooting something in front of your handheld, lean your arm against your own body for steadier shots.
Use a stabilizing gimbal with your camera.

Timelapse/Hyperlapse

Select scenes where you can see a lot of change over time (not a still building in front of a cloudless smoggy sky).
Set longer intervals for scenes that change very slowly over time.
Pre-set your focus. Turn autofocus off.
Shoot time-lapses/hyper-lapses in manual mode to prevent the flickering that occurs with changing light conditions in automatic settings.
If your camera is set on a tripod in a fixed position, turn your optical image stabilization off.
If you aren’t holding onto your camera as it’s in the middle of making a timelapse video, at least keep your camera and tripod attached by some kind of leash mechanism.
For moving time-lapses or hyper-lapses, try to keep one point of reference in the same position within your camera frame.

Slow Motion

Shoot slow-motion videos when there is plenty of light.
For actions that are as slow as walking, slowing down your footage to 50% of the original speed looks good enough. If your video editing project is in 30 fps, shooting your video in 60 fps will give you a 50% slow-motion video. If your video editing project is in 60 fps, shooting your video in 120 fps will give you a 50% slow-motion video. Any slower is overkill for slowing down the speed of walking.
For actions that are as fast as water splashing, slowing down your footage as little as 15% of the original speed can look good. For a video editing project in 30 fps, you would need a camera that can shoot at up to 240 fps to slow your footage down this much.

Storage and Back-Up

If you’re using a phone that can store images and videos on a separate SD card, take advantage of that and record your travel footage onto your SD card. Later, you can easily get to your travel media as it will all be in one place.
If you have your laptop on you, regularly transfer your media files from your cameras to your external hard drives.
If you don’t want to bring your laptop on your trip and plan to video edit once you’re back home, use a USB memory card reader that connects with an app on your phone to transfer your files into your external hard drive.
If you have access to a reliable internet connection and you leave your laptop at your place of accommodation, have your computer upload your files onto cloud storage while you are out to travel vlogging.
Take advantage of Google Photos’ free, unlimited cloud storage for video files up to 1080p.

Video Editing

If you’re editing a video project with videos from multiple different cameras, make sure to set the correct time and date on all of them before you start filming. Later, in editing, you can import all your image and video files and sort them in the exact order that they were taken.
If your video editing software can work with proxies, transcode all your video files into proxy files for much faster editing.

Posting On YouTube

Choose a title that people will search for. Keep your target keywords at the beginning of your title. “S01E01: My Summer Backpacking Trip” is not an effective title. Instead, a title like “Going Up The Eiffel Tower… Beautiful View of Paris!” would be better.

Ready to Become a Travel Vlogger?

This past year has been a challenge, so if you want to make a #travelanywhere video without traveling, you can try Wondershare Filmora X video editor.

Richard Bennett

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

Follow @Richard Bennett

Unlocking the Secrets to High Clickthrough Rates in Thumbnails

The Ultimate Guide to YouTube Thumbnails that Get Views

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

Search for any topic on YouTube and you’ll find thousands of videos. How do you decide which of them to watch? Thumbnails play a major role in what viewers decide to click on. They’re often more important than video titles.

Viewers click on thumbnails that both standout and feel relevant to their search. Your task when it comes to creating YouTube thumbnails is to make something that does both of those things while also maintaining your personal style.

How to Make a YouTube Thumbnail
How to Upload a YouTube Thumbnail
YouTube Thumbnail Makers
How to Make Thumbnails that Get Clicks (Without Clickbait!)
Animated YouTube Thumbnails

Part 1: How to Make a YouTube Thumbnail

In order to create a custom video thumbnail, you’ll need a program to put it together in. You can use an image editing program like Photoshop if you have one, but if you don’t you can check out these free thumbnail makers.

Here are some examples of popular thumbnail styles.

1. The Classic Thumbnail (Photo or Screenshot)

A photo that shows what happens in your video – whether that means the finished ‘look’ from your makeup tutorial or you posing in front of the landmark you shot your travel vlog in front of – is a great way to let viewers know what to expect. While curiosity can be a big motive behind clicking on a video thumbnail (or anything online), when people have searched for a specific topic they want to be convinced that your video has what they’re looking for.

#1. Choose Your Photo

To start off, either choose a still frame from your video or take a photograph while you’re still set up from your video. A separate photograph is usually a better idea because your video editor might not be able to export a high-quality snapshot, and also because you’re able to choose your facial expression.

Aim to make this shot a close-up or medium close-up and make sure you’re either in the center of the screen or off to one side, as per the ‘rule of thirds’. Many cameras allow you to bring an optional grid up onto your viewfinder. This will divide your screen into three equal segments both vertically and horizontally. Try to make sure your eyes line up with the top line, and if you’re going to be off to one side then make sure you’re on one of the vertical lines. This will ensure your image is visually appealing.

If you want to add text later, it’s a good idea to be off to one side.

Including your face is important for most types of YouTube videos. People are attracted to eye contact and are more likely to click on thumbnails that feature a face. Gamers might choose to use a picture of a video game character instead and it will have the same effect.

Some situations where it isn’t essential to include your face include tech reviews, where viewers will be more interested in seeing the product, and cooking videos where people are looking to be tempted by a yummy food pic.

#2. Add Text and/or Images

This part isn’t essential – in some cases, a photo is enough – but a lot of the thumbnails for the videos ranked highest in YouTube’s search results include either a couple of words of text, a simple graphic (i.e. an emoji), or both.

In some cases you might use text to make it clear what type of video you’ve made, i.e. ‘review’ or ‘tutorial’. It’s best to keep any text you use brief, but you could get a bit more descriptive and write something like ‘fall makeup tutorial’. Three words is probably the most you can get away with. Remember that your text will be shrunk down with the rest of your image; you need to make it big enough to read easily once it’s shrunk, and that means you don’t have a ton of room for text.

You should also avoid fonts that are harder to read. Fonts with a lot of curves can be harder to read, and you want to make sure you choose a color that stands out from your background. Yellow might work against black, but it probably won’t work against the beige wall of your sunny bedroom. Sans serif fonts tend to be best.

Another tactic used in successful thumbnails is to add small graphics, like emojis or small images (i.e. pumpkins for a Halloween video), which are related to your video’s content. As with text, you don’t want to overload your thumbnail with images, but they’re a great way to add something eye-catching that’s a bit different from competing thumbnails.

2. The Emotional Laser (Background + Face Reacting)

One increasingly popular style of YouTube thumbnail is what we’re going to call the ‘Emotional Laser’. It’s bright (like, blindingly bright), it communicates a clear feeling, and it creates high expectations for how exciting the video’s content is going to be.

The three main elements of the Emotional Laser thumbnail are a background (usually bright), your face on the right wearing an over-pronounced expression, and either the thing your expression is in reaction to (i.e. food, a product, the topic of your video in text) or reinforcement of your emotion (i.e an emoji or question marks) on the left.

#1. Ham It Up (Take Your Reaction Photo)

Take a high-quality photograph of yourself conveying strong emotion. Generally, you want to look extremely excited, disgusted, angry, or shocked depending on the theme of the video.

If there’s an object you want to include in your thumbnail, like a product you’ll be talking about, then it’s a good idea to hold it for this photo. Hold it to one side of your head, turn towards it slightly (but not so much that the camera can only see the side of your face) and put on the expression that’s supposed to be a reaction to the object.

It can be a good idea to take this photo in front of a solid color so you can remove the background easily with chroma key.

#2. Choose Your Background

Your background might be scenery, a solid color, or even the room you filmed the video in. Light or bright colors are popular. Make sure there’s nothing that will distract from your expression. If your background is a room, or anything else where there could be things like pictures hanging, you may want to add a blur effect in the next step.

#3. Put It Together

In your thumbnail maker or a program like Photoshop, you’ll need to put your photo and your background together. This will work differently depending on what program you use. If your program has a chroma key tool and your reaction photo was taken against a solid color then you can make that solid color transparent.

What if I don’t have a separate background? If you don’t have a background you want to use, but you still want your reaction to stand out the same way it would if you did, then you can use your photo editor’s blur tool to turn the normal background of your photo into something you can pop-out from.

#4. Add Extras (Text, Emojis, etc.)

If instead of an object you plan to fill the other side of your thumbnail with text, question marks, emojis, or some other graphic element then now is the time to add it.

Part 2: How to Upload a YouTube Thumbnail

When you upload a new video to YouTube, you will see a Custom thumbnail option under Video thumbnails after your upload is complete.

If you want to add a custom thumbnail to a video that’s already up, that’s easy too.

Go to your Video Manager in the Creator Studio.
Find the video you want to change the thumbnail for and click Edit next to it.
Click Custom thumbnail on the right of the preview screen.
Upload your thumbnail and click Save changes.

Remember when you’re uploading custom thumbnails that you need to use a .JPG, .GIF, .BMP, or .PNG image with an aspect ratio of 16:9 and that your file size has to be under 2MB.

YouTube recommends that thumbnail images have a resolution of 1280x720px, and you cannot upload an image with a width of less than 640 pixels.

Make sure that all of your thumbnails adhere to YouTube’s Community guidelines. Anything sexually suggestive, violent, or otherwise graphic could result in your video being age-restricted.

Part 3: YouTube Thumbnail Makers

You don’t have to go out and buy a photo editor like Photoshop to make custom video thumbnails (although it’s a good thing to use if you already have it). Here are two free online programs you can use instead:

Canva is an intuitive option with templates for Thumbnails, Channel Art, and other social media graphics. There are stock photos and graphics provided, but not all of them are free (paid options cost $1 each). Canva’s templates do tend to include paid resources, so you may want to use them mostly for their layouts or as inspiration and replace everything they provide with your own images.

Generally, using Canva is as easy as dragging and dropping things where you want them. You’ll be able to set the dimensions for your project so the image you export is a perfect size. Adding text and changing the size, font, or color is easy too.

Adobe Spark also has templates for channel art, and it’s also very easy to use. The first time you use it helpful notes will pop up to guide you through the process. Using templates is especially simple because you just click on the elements in the pre-made thumbnail and replace them with your own photos/text.

You can make changes to the colors in your Spark thumbnail easily by selecting a new color scheme or filter. You can even toggle through layouts easily. When you choose a new layout, Spark will rearrange all the pieces of your current thumbnail to align with the new layout so you can quickly see what it looks like instead of having to rebuild.

Click to check more YouTube thumbnail makers

Part 4: How to Make Thumbnails That Get Clicks (Without Clickbait!)

Here are the top 10 best practices for creating effective YouTube thumbnails:

#1. Show What Your Video Is About

Being mysterious and clickbaity can get you views, if you’re already big. For small YouTubers, it pays off to be clear about your video’s topic. You want people to click who want to watch the actual content of your video. Even if you manage to get some clicks by being mysterious, you’ll probably end up with low viewer retention because people are clicking away when they realize your video isn’t what they were looking for. That will make YouTube’s algorithm rank your video lower, and then even fewer people will find it.

If your video is a product review, show the product in the thumbnail and maybe even write ‘review’ on it. If your video is a makeup tutorial, show your face with the finished makeup and maybe even include pictures of the products you used. People want to know what they’re clicking on before they click.

#2. Use a Consistent Layout

As you grow, you’ll want people to be able to see one of your thumbnails and instantly know it’s yours. Building a recognizable brand is about consistency. Try to stick with one basic layout for all of your videos. You can still customize every individual thumbnail by using different facial expressions and different graphics, but try to use similar backgrounds, fonts, and general layouts (i.e. you to the right of the thumbnails, text to the left) over and over.

#3. Use Your Face

Why should people want to watch your videos? If the answer is ‘because I can teach them to create delicious food’ or ‘because they want to learn about the latest iPhone’ then your thumbnail should include that food or that iPhone.

If part of the reason people want to watch your videos is you – your personality and your sense of humor – then you should be in your thumbnail.

Viewers who are on YouTube because they like seeing a creator’s personality like to feel the presence of that personality in the video thumbnail, and eye contact naturally draws attention and clicks.

#4. Add Small Graphics

Adding small graphics, like emojis or hearts, to your thumbnail can help you stand out in a couple different ways. First, if they’re being compared to thumbnails that are just screenshots from the video, your thumbnails will look a lot more polished. Second, they’ll add a splash of color which can draw eyes to your video in a search where other thumbnails are not using those same colors.

#5. Your Text Should Be Huge

Your thumbnail will end up being a fraction of the size it is while you’re creating it in your thumbnail maker, and that means that any text you use will end up being shrunk down. You could probably type a six-word sentence in a size 18 font and have it look fine while you’re making your thumbnail, but after you upload it there’s no way people will be able to read it at a glance.

Aim for a huge font size, and 3 words or less (so your thumbnail doesn’t end up looking crowded).

#6. Check Out The Competition

Type your video’s title or topic into the search engine on YouTube and look at the thumbnails for the videos that come up. These are your competition. You want to make a thumbnail that is similar enough to what comes up that viewers know it’s on the same topic, but different enough that it stands out.

Generally, if most of the thumbnails have the same layout, you’ll want to mimic that layout. Where you can break from the crowd is in the colors, fonts, and graphics you use.

Part 5: Animated YouTube Thumbnails

Whether or not you upload a custom thumbnail to YouTube, YouTube’s A.I will choose what it thinks are the 3 juiciest seconds of your video (you cannot choose for yourself) and play them as a GIF-like animation when people mouseover your video thumbnails.

As of now, this only works in the Google Chrome desktop browser. Videos have to be at least 30 seconds long to get moving thumbnails.

Alright, now that you know everything about YouTube thumbnails, go make one! Tell us in the comments what you’re going to do to make your video thumbnails stand out.

Touch Up YouTube Videos with Effects & Elements in Filmora

As one of the most widely used video editing software in YouTube video editing, Filmora provides lots of templates and effects with an intuitive interface. Download the free trial version and get started now.

Richard Bennett

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

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

How to Make a YouTube Thumbnail
How to Upload a YouTube Thumbnail
YouTube Thumbnail Makers
How to Make Thumbnails that Get Clicks (Without Clickbait!)
Animated YouTube Thumbnails

Part 1: How to Make a YouTube Thumbnail

Here are some examples of popular thumbnail styles.

1. The Classic Thumbnail (Photo or Screenshot)

#1. Choose Your Photo

If you want to add text later, it’s a good idea to be off to one side.

#2. Add Text and/or Images

2. The Emotional Laser (Background + Face Reacting)

#1. Ham It Up (Take Your Reaction Photo)

Take a high-quality photograph of yourself conveying strong emotion. Generally, you want to look extremely excited, disgusted, angry, or shocked depending on the theme of the video.

It can be a good idea to take this photo in front of a solid color so you can remove the background easily with chroma key.

#2. Choose Your Background

#3. Put It Together

#4. Add Extras (Text, Emojis, etc.)

If instead of an object you plan to fill the other side of your thumbnail with text, question marks, emojis, or some other graphic element then now is the time to add it.

Part 2: How to Upload a YouTube Thumbnail

When you upload a new video to YouTube, you will see a Custom thumbnail option under Video thumbnails after your upload is complete.

If you want to add a custom thumbnail to a video that’s already up, that’s easy too.

Go to your Video Manager in the Creator Studio.
Find the video you want to change the thumbnail for and click Edit next to it.
Click Custom thumbnail on the right of the preview screen.
Upload your thumbnail and click Save changes.

Remember when you’re uploading custom thumbnails that you need to use a .JPG, .GIF, .BMP, or .PNG image with an aspect ratio of 16:9 and that your file size has to be under 2MB.

YouTube recommends that thumbnail images have a resolution of 1280x720px, and you cannot upload an image with a width of less than 640 pixels.

Make sure that all of your thumbnails adhere to YouTube’s Community guidelines. Anything sexually suggestive, violent, or otherwise graphic could result in your video being age-restricted.

Part 3: YouTube Thumbnail Makers

Click to check more YouTube thumbnail makers

Part 4: How to Make Thumbnails That Get Clicks (Without Clickbait!)

Here are the top 10 best practices for creating effective YouTube thumbnails:

#1. Show What Your Video Is About

#2. Use a Consistent Layout

#3. Use Your Face

If part of the reason people want to watch your videos is you – your personality and your sense of humor – then you should be in your thumbnail.

#4. Add Small Graphics

#5. Your Text Should Be Huge

Aim for a huge font size, and 3 words or less (so your thumbnail doesn’t end up looking crowded).

#6. Check Out The Competition

Generally, if most of the thumbnails have the same layout, you’ll want to mimic that layout. Where you can break from the crowd is in the colors, fonts, and graphics you use.

Part 5: Animated YouTube Thumbnails

As of now, this only works in the Google Chrome desktop browser. Videos have to be at least 30 seconds long to get moving thumbnails.

Alright, now that you know everything about YouTube thumbnails, go make one! Tell us in the comments what you’re going to do to make your video thumbnails stand out.

Touch Up YouTube Videos with Effects & Elements in Filmora

Richard Bennett

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

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

How to Make a YouTube Thumbnail
How to Upload a YouTube Thumbnail
YouTube Thumbnail Makers
How to Make Thumbnails that Get Clicks (Without Clickbait!)
Animated YouTube Thumbnails

Part 1: How to Make a YouTube Thumbnail

Here are some examples of popular thumbnail styles.

1. The Classic Thumbnail (Photo or Screenshot)

#1. Choose Your Photo

If you want to add text later, it’s a good idea to be off to one side.

#2. Add Text and/or Images

2. The Emotional Laser (Background + Face Reacting)

#1. Ham It Up (Take Your Reaction Photo)

Take a high-quality photograph of yourself conveying strong emotion. Generally, you want to look extremely excited, disgusted, angry, or shocked depending on the theme of the video.

It can be a good idea to take this photo in front of a solid color so you can remove the background easily with chroma key.

#2. Choose Your Background

#3. Put It Together

#4. Add Extras (Text, Emojis, etc.)

If instead of an object you plan to fill the other side of your thumbnail with text, question marks, emojis, or some other graphic element then now is the time to add it.

Part 2: How to Upload a YouTube Thumbnail

When you upload a new video to YouTube, you will see a Custom thumbnail option under Video thumbnails after your upload is complete.

If you want to add a custom thumbnail to a video that’s already up, that’s easy too.

Go to your Video Manager in the Creator Studio.
Find the video you want to change the thumbnail for and click Edit next to it.
Click Custom thumbnail on the right of the preview screen.
Upload your thumbnail and click Save changes.

Remember when you’re uploading custom thumbnails that you need to use a .JPG, .GIF, .BMP, or .PNG image with an aspect ratio of 16:9 and that your file size has to be under 2MB.

YouTube recommends that thumbnail images have a resolution of 1280x720px, and you cannot upload an image with a width of less than 640 pixels.

Make sure that all of your thumbnails adhere to YouTube’s Community guidelines. Anything sexually suggestive, violent, or otherwise graphic could result in your video being age-restricted.

Part 3: YouTube Thumbnail Makers

Click to check more YouTube thumbnail makers

Part 4: How to Make Thumbnails That Get Clicks (Without Clickbait!)

Here are the top 10 best practices for creating effective YouTube thumbnails:

#1. Show What Your Video Is About

#2. Use a Consistent Layout

#3. Use Your Face

If part of the reason people want to watch your videos is you – your personality and your sense of humor – then you should be in your thumbnail.

#4. Add Small Graphics

#5. Your Text Should Be Huge

Aim for a huge font size, and 3 words or less (so your thumbnail doesn’t end up looking crowded).

#6. Check Out The Competition

Generally, if most of the thumbnails have the same layout, you’ll want to mimic that layout. Where you can break from the crowd is in the colors, fonts, and graphics you use.

Part 5: Animated YouTube Thumbnails

As of now, this only works in the Google Chrome desktop browser. Videos have to be at least 30 seconds long to get moving thumbnails.

Alright, now that you know everything about YouTube thumbnails, go make one! Tell us in the comments what you’re going to do to make your video thumbnails stand out.

Touch Up YouTube Videos with Effects & Elements in Filmora

Richard Bennett

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

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

How to Make a YouTube Thumbnail
How to Upload a YouTube Thumbnail
YouTube Thumbnail Makers
How to Make Thumbnails that Get Clicks (Without Clickbait!)
Animated YouTube Thumbnails

Part 1: How to Make a YouTube Thumbnail

Here are some examples of popular thumbnail styles.

1. The Classic Thumbnail (Photo or Screenshot)

#1. Choose Your Photo

If you want to add text later, it’s a good idea to be off to one side.

#2. Add Text and/or Images

2. The Emotional Laser (Background + Face Reacting)

#1. Ham It Up (Take Your Reaction Photo)

Take a high-quality photograph of yourself conveying strong emotion. Generally, you want to look extremely excited, disgusted, angry, or shocked depending on the theme of the video.

It can be a good idea to take this photo in front of a solid color so you can remove the background easily with chroma key.

#2. Choose Your Background

#3. Put It Together

#4. Add Extras (Text, Emojis, etc.)

If instead of an object you plan to fill the other side of your thumbnail with text, question marks, emojis, or some other graphic element then now is the time to add it.

Part 2: How to Upload a YouTube Thumbnail

When you upload a new video to YouTube, you will see a Custom thumbnail option under Video thumbnails after your upload is complete.

If you want to add a custom thumbnail to a video that’s already up, that’s easy too.

Go to your Video Manager in the Creator Studio.
Find the video you want to change the thumbnail for and click Edit next to it.
Click Custom thumbnail on the right of the preview screen.
Upload your thumbnail and click Save changes.

Remember when you’re uploading custom thumbnails that you need to use a .JPG, .GIF, .BMP, or .PNG image with an aspect ratio of 16:9 and that your file size has to be under 2MB.

YouTube recommends that thumbnail images have a resolution of 1280x720px, and you cannot upload an image with a width of less than 640 pixels.

Make sure that all of your thumbnails adhere to YouTube’s Community guidelines. Anything sexually suggestive, violent, or otherwise graphic could result in your video being age-restricted.

Part 3: YouTube Thumbnail Makers

Click to check more YouTube thumbnail makers

Part 4: How to Make Thumbnails That Get Clicks (Without Clickbait!)

Here are the top 10 best practices for creating effective YouTube thumbnails:

#1. Show What Your Video Is About

#2. Use a Consistent Layout

#3. Use Your Face

If part of the reason people want to watch your videos is you – your personality and your sense of humor – then you should be in your thumbnail.

#4. Add Small Graphics

#5. Your Text Should Be Huge

Aim for a huge font size, and 3 words or less (so your thumbnail doesn’t end up looking crowded).

#6. Check Out The Competition

Generally, if most of the thumbnails have the same layout, you’ll want to mimic that layout. Where you can break from the crowd is in the colors, fonts, and graphics you use.

Part 5: Animated YouTube Thumbnails

As of now, this only works in the Google Chrome desktop browser. Videos have to be at least 30 seconds long to get moving thumbnails.

Alright, now that you know everything about YouTube thumbnails, go make one! Tell us in the comments what you’re going to do to make your video thumbnails stand out.

Touch Up YouTube Videos with Effects & Elements in Filmora

Richard Bennett

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

Follow @Richard Bennett

Youtube Clips

"The Wanderlust Chronicles Setting Up for Success as a Travel Vlogger"

The Wanderlust Chronicles: Setting Up for Success as a Travel Vlogger

How To Become A Travel Vlogger | The Ultimate Guide of Travel Vlogging

Richard Bennett

Create Your Travel Vlog with Wondershare FilmoraX

PART 1: TRAVEL VLOGGING EQUIPMENT

1.1 Travel Vlogging Cameras

How To Choose A Vlogging Camera

Cameras That Are Good For Travel Vlogging

1.2 Travel Vlogging Accessories

Other Useful Travel Vlogging Accessories

PART 2: TRAVEL VLOGGING IDEAS

PART 3: TRAVEL VIDEO EDITING

Video Editing Software

Travel-Themed Video Effects

Music Libraries

Sound Effects

PART 4: TRAVEL VLOGGING TIPS

Ready to Become a Travel Vlogger?

Richard Bennett

Create Your Travel Vlog with Wondershare FilmoraX

PART 1: TRAVEL VLOGGING EQUIPMENT

1.1 Travel Vlogging Cameras

How To Choose A Vlogging Camera

Cameras That Are Good For Travel Vlogging

1.2 Travel Vlogging Accessories

Other Useful Travel Vlogging Accessories

PART 2: TRAVEL VLOGGING IDEAS

PART 3: TRAVEL VIDEO EDITING

Video Editing Software

Travel-Themed Video Effects

Music Libraries

Sound Effects

PART 4: TRAVEL VLOGGING TIPS

Ready to Become a Travel Vlogger?

Richard Bennett

Create Your Travel Vlog with Wondershare FilmoraX

PART 1: TRAVEL VLOGGING EQUIPMENT

1.1 Travel Vlogging Cameras

How To Choose A Vlogging Camera

Cameras That Are Good For Travel Vlogging

1.2 Travel Vlogging Accessories

Other Useful Travel Vlogging Accessories

PART 2: TRAVEL VLOGGING IDEAS

PART 3: TRAVEL VIDEO EDITING

Video Editing Software

Travel-Themed Video Effects

Music Libraries

Sound Effects

PART 4: TRAVEL VLOGGING TIPS

Ready to Become a Travel Vlogger?

Richard Bennett

Create Your Travel Vlog with Wondershare FilmoraX

PART 1: TRAVEL VLOGGING EQUIPMENT

1.1 Travel Vlogging Cameras

How To Choose A Vlogging Camera

Cameras That Are Good For Travel Vlogging

1.2 Travel Vlogging Accessories

Other Useful Travel Vlogging Accessories

PART 2: TRAVEL VLOGGING IDEAS

PART 3: TRAVEL VIDEO EDITING

Video Editing Software

Travel-Themed Video Effects

Music Libraries

Sound Effects

PART 4: TRAVEL VLOGGING TIPS

Ready to Become a Travel Vlogger?

Unlocking the Secrets to High Clickthrough Rates in Thumbnails

The Ultimate Guide to YouTube Thumbnails that Get Views

Richard Bennett

Part 1: How to Make a YouTube Thumbnail

1. The Classic Thumbnail (Photo or Screenshot)

#1. Choose Your Photo

#2. Add Text and/or Images

2. The Emotional Laser (Background + Face Reacting)

#1. Ham It Up (Take Your Reaction Photo)

#2. Choose Your Background

#3. Put It Together

#4. Add Extras (Text, Emojis, etc.)