How to Use Chroma Keying in Video Making

The world of video-making owes much of its magic to small leaps of innovation. One of these leaps is the use of the chroma key background, which most people know by the more colloquial term—green screen.

Chroma key, also known as green screen or blue screen, is a cool hack for seamless visual storytelling, allowing content creators to replace backgrounds with any image or video they want. This technique is widely embraced in film, television, and online content, and has opened the door to limitless creative possibilities. Aside from its ability to maximize creativity, it is also cheap to employ and convenient to set up, which has made it a staple for everyone who works with visuals.

In this simple guide, we’ll delve into the fundamentals of the chroma key effect, how it is used for video making, and how to leverage that as you perfect your visual content.

YouTube Video Background Creating realistic video scenes at your will is easy to complete with Filmora green screen removal.

Create Video Backgrounds Create Video Backgrounds Learn Green Screen

How Does Chroma Key Work?

Chroma Keying is done by singling out a specific color (usually green or blue) from the foreground, removing it, and replacing it with a different background (for example, a sunset). This process typically follows a series of steps:

• Background Selection:

A solid, single-color background, often green or blue, that contrasts well with the subject must be used. The color chosen should not be present in the subject or any props in the camera field to avoid unintentional transparency.

• Color Keying:

This requires the use of specialized visual effects software to key out the chosen color. The green or blue background is designated as transparent, making everything of that color see-through. The software distinguishes between the keyed color and the subject, creating a mask for the transparent areas.

• Foreground Filming:

This involves filming the subject against the live chroma key background. During filming, the chosen background color (green or blue) won’t appear in the final result due to its transparency. The subject is captured as if separately from the isolated background.

• Post-Processing:

In post-production processing, the editor takes the keyed-out color and replaces it with the new background of their choice. This step creates the illusion that the subject is in a different setting or environment. The transparent areas become filled with the chosen background which, if done right, results in a cohesive and visually appealing composition.

Why Green?

Theoretically, the chroma key background can be any solid color. However, the most commonly used colors are studio blue and bright green, with the latter far more common.

The choice of background color depends on the specific requirements of the production and the colors present in the scenes being filmed.

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

Free Download For macOS 10.14 or later

Contrast

The less similar your chosen background color is to natural skin tones, the easier to isolate and replace in your footage. Bright green provides a strong contrast to most human skin tones and is less likely to be present in costumes or natural surroundings, making it easier to isolate subjects during the color separation.

Luminance

The color green emits light with greater intensity than blue, allowing for far more effective isolation by cameras during filming. This also means that blue screens demand increased lighting for proper exposure compared to green. This situation may be less than ideal if you lack powerful lighting or you don’t have the big bucks for them.

Digital Sensors

Many digital cameras and sensors are more sensitive to green wavelengths, resulting in cleaner and more accurate color keying during post-processing. Modern technology has also evolved to optimize for a green background, making it a more practical choice for the chroma key effect.

Wardrobe and Set Design

Bright green occurs less naturally in costumes and set designs than other colors, making green the optimal choice for reducing the likelihood of color spill and keying issues. However, if you know your scene will have lots of green, it is probably best to film with a blue screen, so there’s less risk of color spill and less post-production work.

Setting up Your Own Chroma Key Studio

Setting up your chroma key is convenient and straightforward, but there are some key factors to consider while setting up to ensure maximal performance.

Choosing the Right Background Color

The first step in the chroma key setup is selecting the right background color to be keyed out. This choice determines your effective color separation and ensures a smooth keying process during editing. Choosing a chroma-key background color that contrasts distinctly with the subject’s colors is essential for effective color separation. This prevents unintentional transparency, color spill, and ensures a polished final result.

Lighting Considerations

Lighting is an important part of the chroma-keying process. Bold, uniform, and consistent lighting on both the subject and the background makes it easy to delineate one from the other fully. This minimizes shadows and variations in color, creating a smooth and seamless keying process. Multiple diffuse lights from different angles are often used to illuminate the green screen evenly.

Positioning/Camera

Proper subject and camera placement are necessary to ensure an even color-keying process during post-production. To prevent shadow interference, the green screen should be smooth, tense, and without wrinkles or shadows.

High-quality cameras are essential every time, especially for chroma keying. Images with better definition are easier to key, so camera quality significantly affects the outcome. Even if your camera isn’t the best, merely shooting well can ensure a clean color-keying process during editing, resulting in professional-looking visuals.

Recording Tips for Chroma Key

• Proper Lighting

Maintaining uniform and well-defined lighting during recording is essential for a successful chroma-keying process. This consistency ensures a seamless keying process during post-production.

• Keep Distance from the Green Screen

The optimal distance between the subject and the green screen minimizes color spill and allows for natural movements. Proper distance between subject and background allows for easier isolation of the background and much smoother post-editing. A recommended starting point for the issue is around 6 to 10 feet from the background.

• Subjects and Clothing

As mentioned before, the choice of costume for Selecting appropriate clothing that doesn’t match the chroma key color prevents transparency issues. Subjects also have to be positioned in such a way that there is minimal light interference and reflection. These contribute to a flawless chroma key outcome.

3 Basic Troubleshooting Strategies

• Color Spill

Sometimes, reflected light from your green background can be cast on your subject and may remain so when the background light is keyed out. This phenomenon is known as a color spill. It is usually because of uneven lighting or shooting around reflecting surfaces. Avoiding spill can differentiate between good and lousy chroma key aftereffects.

Human hair is one area where color spill can show up unsuspectingly. Due to the translucency of hair, it is common for some unintended light to seep through. This allows some background visibility, which you do not want with a chroma key. This is especially notable with lighter hair colors like blond hair.

There are ways to account for this. Many video-editing software have features such as spill suppression and screen matte adjustments that can enhance the final footage. Specialized plugins also go a long way in ensuring minimizing spill. Addressing spill correction tackles unwanted green artifacts and ensures a clean keying process.

• Poor Lighting

Suboptimal green screen lighting can lead to inconsistencies in keying and editing, undermining your product. One way to avoid this is to light the screen and subject separately. Another tip, although expensive, is using multiple diffuse light sources and trying to maintain even lighting across every square foot of your scene. Super bright or dark spots can ruin your output, so it’s worth the extra effort if you don’t want to deal with problematic post-production.

• Poorly Refined Edges

Chroma keying should leave your videos with crisp, defined, natural-looking edges. But post-production editing can make all the difference if it doesn’t come out to your taste. Softening and refining edges make a smoother transition between the foreground object and the new background. Light adjustments to edge thickness and screen matte settings can also help enhance overall visual quality and add finesse to your work.

Conclusion

Green screen photography produces excellent results, and its ease of use makes it indispensable for videographers of all levels. In this guide, we’ve discussed chroma key technology, its role in the industry, and how to apply it to your craft to elevate visual content.

Chroma key, also known as green screen or blue screen, is a cool hack for seamless visual storytelling, allowing content creators to replace backgrounds with any image or video they want. This technique is widely embraced in film, television, and online content, and has opened the door to limitless creative possibilities. Aside from its ability to maximize creativity, it is also cheap to employ and convenient to set up, which has made it a staple for everyone who works with visuals.

In this simple guide, we’ll delve into the fundamentals of the chroma key effect, how it is used for video making, and how to leverage that as you perfect your visual content.

YouTube Video Background Creating realistic video scenes at your will is easy to complete with Filmora green screen removal.

Create Video Backgrounds Create Video Backgrounds Learn Green Screen

How Does Chroma Key Work?

Chroma Keying is done by singling out a specific color (usually green or blue) from the foreground, removing it, and replacing it with a different background (for example, a sunset). This process typically follows a series of steps:

• Background Selection:

A solid, single-color background, often green or blue, that contrasts well with the subject must be used. The color chosen should not be present in the subject or any props in the camera field to avoid unintentional transparency.

• Color Keying:

This requires the use of specialized visual effects software to key out the chosen color. The green or blue background is designated as transparent, making everything of that color see-through. The software distinguishes between the keyed color and the subject, creating a mask for the transparent areas.

• Foreground Filming:

This involves filming the subject against the live chroma key background. During filming, the chosen background color (green or blue) won’t appear in the final result due to its transparency. The subject is captured as if separately from the isolated background.

• Post-Processing:

In post-production processing, the editor takes the keyed-out color and replaces it with the new background of their choice. This step creates the illusion that the subject is in a different setting or environment. The transparent areas become filled with the chosen background which, if done right, results in a cohesive and visually appealing composition.

Why Green?

Theoretically, the chroma key background can be any solid color. However, the most commonly used colors are studio blue and bright green, with the latter far more common.

The choice of background color depends on the specific requirements of the production and the colors present in the scenes being filmed.

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

Free Download For macOS 10.14 or later

Contrast

The less similar your chosen background color is to natural skin tones, the easier to isolate and replace in your footage. Bright green provides a strong contrast to most human skin tones and is less likely to be present in costumes or natural surroundings, making it easier to isolate subjects during the color separation.

Luminance

The color green emits light with greater intensity than blue, allowing for far more effective isolation by cameras during filming. This also means that blue screens demand increased lighting for proper exposure compared to green. This situation may be less than ideal if you lack powerful lighting or you don’t have the big bucks for them.

Digital Sensors

Many digital cameras and sensors are more sensitive to green wavelengths, resulting in cleaner and more accurate color keying during post-processing. Modern technology has also evolved to optimize for a green background, making it a more practical choice for the chroma key effect.

Wardrobe and Set Design

Bright green occurs less naturally in costumes and set designs than other colors, making green the optimal choice for reducing the likelihood of color spill and keying issues. However, if you know your scene will have lots of green, it is probably best to film with a blue screen, so there’s less risk of color spill and less post-production work.

Setting up Your Own Chroma Key Studio

Setting up your chroma key is convenient and straightforward, but there are some key factors to consider while setting up to ensure maximal performance.

Choosing the Right Background Color

The first step in the chroma key setup is selecting the right background color to be keyed out. This choice determines your effective color separation and ensures a smooth keying process during editing. Choosing a chroma-key background color that contrasts distinctly with the subject’s colors is essential for effective color separation. This prevents unintentional transparency, color spill, and ensures a polished final result.

Lighting Considerations

Lighting is an important part of the chroma-keying process. Bold, uniform, and consistent lighting on both the subject and the background makes it easy to delineate one from the other fully. This minimizes shadows and variations in color, creating a smooth and seamless keying process. Multiple diffuse lights from different angles are often used to illuminate the green screen evenly.

Positioning/Camera

Proper subject and camera placement are necessary to ensure an even color-keying process during post-production. To prevent shadow interference, the green screen should be smooth, tense, and without wrinkles or shadows.

High-quality cameras are essential every time, especially for chroma keying. Images with better definition are easier to key, so camera quality significantly affects the outcome. Even if your camera isn’t the best, merely shooting well can ensure a clean color-keying process during editing, resulting in professional-looking visuals.

Recording Tips for Chroma Key

• Proper Lighting

Maintaining uniform and well-defined lighting during recording is essential for a successful chroma-keying process. This consistency ensures a seamless keying process during post-production.

• Keep Distance from the Green Screen

The optimal distance between the subject and the green screen minimizes color spill and allows for natural movements. Proper distance between subject and background allows for easier isolation of the background and much smoother post-editing. A recommended starting point for the issue is around 6 to 10 feet from the background.

• Subjects and Clothing

As mentioned before, the choice of costume for Selecting appropriate clothing that doesn’t match the chroma key color prevents transparency issues. Subjects also have to be positioned in such a way that there is minimal light interference and reflection. These contribute to a flawless chroma key outcome.

3 Basic Troubleshooting Strategies

• Color Spill

Sometimes, reflected light from your green background can be cast on your subject and may remain so when the background light is keyed out. This phenomenon is known as a color spill. It is usually because of uneven lighting or shooting around reflecting surfaces. Avoiding spill can differentiate between good and lousy chroma key aftereffects.

Human hair is one area where color spill can show up unsuspectingly. Due to the translucency of hair, it is common for some unintended light to seep through. This allows some background visibility, which you do not want with a chroma key. This is especially notable with lighter hair colors like blond hair.

There are ways to account for this. Many video-editing software have features such as spill suppression and screen matte adjustments that can enhance the final footage. Specialized plugins also go a long way in ensuring minimizing spill. Addressing spill correction tackles unwanted green artifacts and ensures a clean keying process.

• Poor Lighting

Suboptimal green screen lighting can lead to inconsistencies in keying and editing, undermining your product. One way to avoid this is to light the screen and subject separately. Another tip, although expensive, is using multiple diffuse light sources and trying to maintain even lighting across every square foot of your scene. Super bright or dark spots can ruin your output, so it’s worth the extra effort if you don’t want to deal with problematic post-production.

• Poorly Refined Edges

Chroma keying should leave your videos with crisp, defined, natural-looking edges. But post-production editing can make all the difference if it doesn’t come out to your taste. Softening and refining edges make a smoother transition between the foreground object and the new background. Light adjustments to edge thickness and screen matte settings can also help enhance overall visual quality and add finesse to your work.

Conclusion

Green screen photography produces excellent results, and its ease of use makes it indispensable for videographers of all levels. In this guide, we’ve discussed chroma key technology, its role in the industry, and how to apply it to your craft to elevate visual content.

Winning YouTube Affiliate Deals: FameBit’s Guide to Earnings

How to Find YouTube Sponsorships by Using FameBit

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

FameBit is one of the leading influencer marketing platforms.

Creators use FameBit to earn money by creating branded content. Businesses use FameBit to find the perfect video creators – or ‘digital influencers’ – to help with their marketing campaigns.

Until your channel is huge it is difficult to make a significant amount of money through ad revenue on YouTube. Creating branded content is one way in which YouTubers with small or mid-sized channels can generate income.

Finding sponsorships and negotiating with brands can be tricky. So can integrating products and brand messages in your videos without making your audience feel like you have ‘sold out’. This guide will help.

You must have at least 5,000 subscribers to join FameBit.

How Much Money Can You Make

How much money you can make on FameBit will depend on the deals you can negotiate with brands, and those deals will depend on how many subscribers you have and how many views you usually receive .

When calculating your fee, FameBit suggests thinking of it in terms of ‘cost per view’ (CPV). Most creators on FameBit charge between $0.05 and $0.10 per view. If you charge $0.05 per view and you get an average of 10,000 views per video then you would charge a brand $500 for your services.

How much you should charge per view depends on your genre and the nature of your audience. If you often mention products you like in videos and your subscribers have come to trust your recommendations, then it makes sense for you to charge more per view than a creator whose audience will be less receptive to product placement.

For example, if you do makeup tutorials then viewers will be used to hearing about your favorites. This makes your 10 000 views more valuable than 10 000 views on a ranting vlog channel whose subscribers are not tuning in to hear about products.

How to Make Money With FameBit

Finding Sponsorships

Brands post details about their upcoming campaigns, and the types of creators they are interested in working with, on FameBit.

While you are browsing through the available campaigns, think of the types of brands you would be excited to work with as well as which ones make sense for your channel.

If you host a lifestyle vlog about staying healthy, for example, and there is an opportunity to work with a brand that sells a type of healthy snack then it is your responsibility to look into the company and the product before you sign on to work with them. Is the snack healthy, and do you enjoy it?

Ideally, you will want to find brands that share your values and which are selling products you feel good about recommending to your subscribers.

Once you find a few campaigns you are interested in creating videos for, it’s time to write your proposals and negotiate with your potential sponsors.

Negotiating with Sponsors

When you want to be part of a campaign a brand has posted, you send them a proposal.

Be creative and detailed in the proposals you write. The best brands will value you for our ideas and creativity, and this will give you an edge over creators who put less effort into their pitches. You also want to be detailed because you do not want to risk having a disagreement with the brand based on them misunderstanding what you were going to do.

Sometimes brands will have very specific things they want you to do or say in the video you make for them. It is your job to find ways of doing and saying these things that still feel natural within the context of your videos. On YouTube, even when you are representing a brand, you need to be authentically you.

If you feel like the things a brand wants from you will make your video come across as a tacky commercial and offend your loyal subscribers, and you cannot see a creative way around this, bring it up before you agree to work with them. Explain what you think should happen instead. If they are not willing to compromise, do not agree to work with them. Find a more reasonable brand to partner with.

If you offend your subscribers and they stop watching you then your channel will become less valuable to other potential sponsors. In the long run, there is no upside to agreeing to do a video that makes no sense for your channel.

Remember that even brands that like your ideas and get excited about your proposals will not be able to work with you if you do not meet their requirements in terms of subscribers and average views. There are a lot of campaigns on FameBit which are open to small or mid-sized channels, but there will always be minimum requirements. It makes no sense for a brand to pay you to make a video nobody will see, even if it is an amazing video. Sad, but true.

How to Avoid Alienating Your Audience

Some of your subscribers will resent any branded content you create and there is no way around that. These subscribers will be in the minority – most people understand that accepting sponsorship from brands helps their favorite YouTubers continue making great videos – but it is unavoidable that there will be a few.

Most of your subscribers will not be bothered by the idea of you partnering with a brand, so long as you go about it in the right way.

Firstly; be honest about your sponsorship. Do not pretend to be giving an objective opinion on a product when the company who makes it is paying you. Your viewers will know and they will be offended.

Secondly; incorporate the brand’s message or product into your videos in ways that feel natural. Do not stray too far from your usual video style. Ultimately every video you make, even branded content, is for your viewers. Make the kind of video they expect from you and mention the product or service you have agreed to in a place where it makes sense/is on topic.

You want the branding in your videos to be subtle, but you never want to hide that it is there.

So long as you are honest and the more commercial elements of your video are not distracting, the vast majority of your subscribers – the ones you have built a real relationship with – will not mind.

Custom Videos with Awesome 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

0

FameBit is one of the leading influencer marketing platforms.

Creators use FameBit to earn money by creating branded content. Businesses use FameBit to find the perfect video creators – or ‘digital influencers’ – to help with their marketing campaigns.

Until your channel is huge it is difficult to make a significant amount of money through ad revenue on YouTube. Creating branded content is one way in which YouTubers with small or mid-sized channels can generate income.

Finding sponsorships and negotiating with brands can be tricky. So can integrating products and brand messages in your videos without making your audience feel like you have ‘sold out’. This guide will help.

You must have at least 5,000 subscribers to join FameBit.

How Much Money Can You Make

How much money you can make on FameBit will depend on the deals you can negotiate with brands, and those deals will depend on how many subscribers you have and how many views you usually receive .

When calculating your fee, FameBit suggests thinking of it in terms of ‘cost per view’ (CPV). Most creators on FameBit charge between $0.05 and $0.10 per view. If you charge $0.05 per view and you get an average of 10,000 views per video then you would charge a brand $500 for your services.

How much you should charge per view depends on your genre and the nature of your audience. If you often mention products you like in videos and your subscribers have come to trust your recommendations, then it makes sense for you to charge more per view than a creator whose audience will be less receptive to product placement.

For example, if you do makeup tutorials then viewers will be used to hearing about your favorites. This makes your 10 000 views more valuable than 10 000 views on a ranting vlog channel whose subscribers are not tuning in to hear about products.

How to Make Money With FameBit

Finding Sponsorships

Brands post details about their upcoming campaigns, and the types of creators they are interested in working with, on FameBit.

While you are browsing through the available campaigns, think of the types of brands you would be excited to work with as well as which ones make sense for your channel.

If you host a lifestyle vlog about staying healthy, for example, and there is an opportunity to work with a brand that sells a type of healthy snack then it is your responsibility to look into the company and the product before you sign on to work with them. Is the snack healthy, and do you enjoy it?

Ideally, you will want to find brands that share your values and which are selling products you feel good about recommending to your subscribers.

Once you find a few campaigns you are interested in creating videos for, it’s time to write your proposals and negotiate with your potential sponsors.

Negotiating with Sponsors

When you want to be part of a campaign a brand has posted, you send them a proposal.

Be creative and detailed in the proposals you write. The best brands will value you for our ideas and creativity, and this will give you an edge over creators who put less effort into their pitches. You also want to be detailed because you do not want to risk having a disagreement with the brand based on them misunderstanding what you were going to do.

Sometimes brands will have very specific things they want you to do or say in the video you make for them. It is your job to find ways of doing and saying these things that still feel natural within the context of your videos. On YouTube, even when you are representing a brand, you need to be authentically you.

If you feel like the things a brand wants from you will make your video come across as a tacky commercial and offend your loyal subscribers, and you cannot see a creative way around this, bring it up before you agree to work with them. Explain what you think should happen instead. If they are not willing to compromise, do not agree to work with them. Find a more reasonable brand to partner with.

If you offend your subscribers and they stop watching you then your channel will become less valuable to other potential sponsors. In the long run, there is no upside to agreeing to do a video that makes no sense for your channel.

Remember that even brands that like your ideas and get excited about your proposals will not be able to work with you if you do not meet their requirements in terms of subscribers and average views. There are a lot of campaigns on FameBit which are open to small or mid-sized channels, but there will always be minimum requirements. It makes no sense for a brand to pay you to make a video nobody will see, even if it is an amazing video. Sad, but true.

How to Avoid Alienating Your Audience

Some of your subscribers will resent any branded content you create and there is no way around that. These subscribers will be in the minority – most people understand that accepting sponsorship from brands helps their favorite YouTubers continue making great videos – but it is unavoidable that there will be a few.

Most of your subscribers will not be bothered by the idea of you partnering with a brand, so long as you go about it in the right way.

Firstly; be honest about your sponsorship. Do not pretend to be giving an objective opinion on a product when the company who makes it is paying you. Your viewers will know and they will be offended.

Secondly; incorporate the brand’s message or product into your videos in ways that feel natural. Do not stray too far from your usual video style. Ultimately every video you make, even branded content, is for your viewers. Make the kind of video they expect from you and mention the product or service you have agreed to in a place where it makes sense/is on topic.

You want the branding in your videos to be subtle, but you never want to hide that it is there.

So long as you are honest and the more commercial elements of your video are not distracting, the vast majority of your subscribers – the ones you have built a real relationship with – will not mind.

Custom Videos with Awesome 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

0

FameBit is one of the leading influencer marketing platforms.

Creators use FameBit to earn money by creating branded content. Businesses use FameBit to find the perfect video creators – or ‘digital influencers’ – to help with their marketing campaigns.

Until your channel is huge it is difficult to make a significant amount of money through ad revenue on YouTube. Creating branded content is one way in which YouTubers with small or mid-sized channels can generate income.

Finding sponsorships and negotiating with brands can be tricky. So can integrating products and brand messages in your videos without making your audience feel like you have ‘sold out’. This guide will help.

You must have at least 5,000 subscribers to join FameBit.

How Much Money Can You Make

How much money you can make on FameBit will depend on the deals you can negotiate with brands, and those deals will depend on how many subscribers you have and how many views you usually receive .

When calculating your fee, FameBit suggests thinking of it in terms of ‘cost per view’ (CPV). Most creators on FameBit charge between $0.05 and $0.10 per view. If you charge $0.05 per view and you get an average of 10,000 views per video then you would charge a brand $500 for your services.

How much you should charge per view depends on your genre and the nature of your audience. If you often mention products you like in videos and your subscribers have come to trust your recommendations, then it makes sense for you to charge more per view than a creator whose audience will be less receptive to product placement.

For example, if you do makeup tutorials then viewers will be used to hearing about your favorites. This makes your 10 000 views more valuable than 10 000 views on a ranting vlog channel whose subscribers are not tuning in to hear about products.

How to Make Money With FameBit

Finding Sponsorships

Brands post details about their upcoming campaigns, and the types of creators they are interested in working with, on FameBit.

While you are browsing through the available campaigns, think of the types of brands you would be excited to work with as well as which ones make sense for your channel.

If you host a lifestyle vlog about staying healthy, for example, and there is an opportunity to work with a brand that sells a type of healthy snack then it is your responsibility to look into the company and the product before you sign on to work with them. Is the snack healthy, and do you enjoy it?

Ideally, you will want to find brands that share your values and which are selling products you feel good about recommending to your subscribers.

Once you find a few campaigns you are interested in creating videos for, it’s time to write your proposals and negotiate with your potential sponsors.

Negotiating with Sponsors

When you want to be part of a campaign a brand has posted, you send them a proposal.

Be creative and detailed in the proposals you write. The best brands will value you for our ideas and creativity, and this will give you an edge over creators who put less effort into their pitches. You also want to be detailed because you do not want to risk having a disagreement with the brand based on them misunderstanding what you were going to do.

Sometimes brands will have very specific things they want you to do or say in the video you make for them. It is your job to find ways of doing and saying these things that still feel natural within the context of your videos. On YouTube, even when you are representing a brand, you need to be authentically you.

If you feel like the things a brand wants from you will make your video come across as a tacky commercial and offend your loyal subscribers, and you cannot see a creative way around this, bring it up before you agree to work with them. Explain what you think should happen instead. If they are not willing to compromise, do not agree to work with them. Find a more reasonable brand to partner with.

If you offend your subscribers and they stop watching you then your channel will become less valuable to other potential sponsors. In the long run, there is no upside to agreeing to do a video that makes no sense for your channel.

Remember that even brands that like your ideas and get excited about your proposals will not be able to work with you if you do not meet their requirements in terms of subscribers and average views. There are a lot of campaigns on FameBit which are open to small or mid-sized channels, but there will always be minimum requirements. It makes no sense for a brand to pay you to make a video nobody will see, even if it is an amazing video. Sad, but true.

How to Avoid Alienating Your Audience

Some of your subscribers will resent any branded content you create and there is no way around that. These subscribers will be in the minority – most people understand that accepting sponsorship from brands helps their favorite YouTubers continue making great videos – but it is unavoidable that there will be a few.

Most of your subscribers will not be bothered by the idea of you partnering with a brand, so long as you go about it in the right way.

Firstly; be honest about your sponsorship. Do not pretend to be giving an objective opinion on a product when the company who makes it is paying you. Your viewers will know and they will be offended.

Secondly; incorporate the brand’s message or product into your videos in ways that feel natural. Do not stray too far from your usual video style. Ultimately every video you make, even branded content, is for your viewers. Make the kind of video they expect from you and mention the product or service you have agreed to in a place where it makes sense/is on topic.

You want the branding in your videos to be subtle, but you never want to hide that it is there.

So long as you are honest and the more commercial elements of your video are not distracting, the vast majority of your subscribers – the ones you have built a real relationship with – will not mind.

Custom Videos with Awesome 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

0

FameBit is one of the leading influencer marketing platforms.

Creators use FameBit to earn money by creating branded content. Businesses use FameBit to find the perfect video creators – or ‘digital influencers’ – to help with their marketing campaigns.

Until your channel is huge it is difficult to make a significant amount of money through ad revenue on YouTube. Creating branded content is one way in which YouTubers with small or mid-sized channels can generate income.

Finding sponsorships and negotiating with brands can be tricky. So can integrating products and brand messages in your videos without making your audience feel like you have ‘sold out’. This guide will help.

You must have at least 5,000 subscribers to join FameBit.

How Much Money Can You Make

How much money you can make on FameBit will depend on the deals you can negotiate with brands, and those deals will depend on how many subscribers you have and how many views you usually receive .

When calculating your fee, FameBit suggests thinking of it in terms of ‘cost per view’ (CPV). Most creators on FameBit charge between $0.05 and $0.10 per view. If you charge $0.05 per view and you get an average of 10,000 views per video then you would charge a brand $500 for your services.

How much you should charge per view depends on your genre and the nature of your audience. If you often mention products you like in videos and your subscribers have come to trust your recommendations, then it makes sense for you to charge more per view than a creator whose audience will be less receptive to product placement.

For example, if you do makeup tutorials then viewers will be used to hearing about your favorites. This makes your 10 000 views more valuable than 10 000 views on a ranting vlog channel whose subscribers are not tuning in to hear about products.

How to Make Money With FameBit

Finding Sponsorships

Brands post details about their upcoming campaigns, and the types of creators they are interested in working with, on FameBit.

While you are browsing through the available campaigns, think of the types of brands you would be excited to work with as well as which ones make sense for your channel.

If you host a lifestyle vlog about staying healthy, for example, and there is an opportunity to work with a brand that sells a type of healthy snack then it is your responsibility to look into the company and the product before you sign on to work with them. Is the snack healthy, and do you enjoy it?

Ideally, you will want to find brands that share your values and which are selling products you feel good about recommending to your subscribers.

Once you find a few campaigns you are interested in creating videos for, it’s time to write your proposals and negotiate with your potential sponsors.

Negotiating with Sponsors

When you want to be part of a campaign a brand has posted, you send them a proposal.

Be creative and detailed in the proposals you write. The best brands will value you for our ideas and creativity, and this will give you an edge over creators who put less effort into their pitches. You also want to be detailed because you do not want to risk having a disagreement with the brand based on them misunderstanding what you were going to do.

Sometimes brands will have very specific things they want you to do or say in the video you make for them. It is your job to find ways of doing and saying these things that still feel natural within the context of your videos. On YouTube, even when you are representing a brand, you need to be authentically you.

If you feel like the things a brand wants from you will make your video come across as a tacky commercial and offend your loyal subscribers, and you cannot see a creative way around this, bring it up before you agree to work with them. Explain what you think should happen instead. If they are not willing to compromise, do not agree to work with them. Find a more reasonable brand to partner with.

If you offend your subscribers and they stop watching you then your channel will become less valuable to other potential sponsors. In the long run, there is no upside to agreeing to do a video that makes no sense for your channel.

Remember that even brands that like your ideas and get excited about your proposals will not be able to work with you if you do not meet their requirements in terms of subscribers and average views. There are a lot of campaigns on FameBit which are open to small or mid-sized channels, but there will always be minimum requirements. It makes no sense for a brand to pay you to make a video nobody will see, even if it is an amazing video. Sad, but true.

How to Avoid Alienating Your Audience

Some of your subscribers will resent any branded content you create and there is no way around that. These subscribers will be in the minority – most people understand that accepting sponsorship from brands helps their favorite YouTubers continue making great videos – but it is unavoidable that there will be a few.

Most of your subscribers will not be bothered by the idea of you partnering with a brand, so long as you go about it in the right way.

Firstly; be honest about your sponsorship. Do not pretend to be giving an objective opinion on a product when the company who makes it is paying you. Your viewers will know and they will be offended.

Secondly; incorporate the brand’s message or product into your videos in ways that feel natural. Do not stray too far from your usual video style. Ultimately every video you make, even branded content, is for your viewers. Make the kind of video they expect from you and mention the product or service you have agreed to in a place where it makes sense/is on topic.

You want the branding in your videos to be subtle, but you never want to hide that it is there.

So long as you are honest and the more commercial elements of your video are not distracting, the vast majority of your subscribers – the ones you have built a real relationship with – will not mind.

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Richard Bennett

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

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