Guide to YouTube’s Latest Income Strategies

YouTube monetization policy has been improved in recent times. Small creators can now find joy in learning that YouTube is making it easier for them to monetize their content. The game-changing updates on YouTube’s new monetization policy in 2023 make the platform friendly for budding content creators. Anyone who has been discouraged from starting a YouTube because of the lofty thresholds can now breathe a sigh of relief. This guide to YouTube monetization policy and requirements provides information and guidance on the latest changes creators need to be aware of.

YouTube Monetization Editor A cross-platform for making shorts using top YouTuber’s strategies!

Free Download Free Download Learn More

Part 1. Introduction to YouTube Monetization: What You Need to Know

YouTube monetization refers to earning money from the content uploaded on the platform. It is the ability to derive income from the videos you have uploaded on your YouTube channels. The YouTube policies for monetization clearly stipulate what you need to start making money on the platform.

After passing the YouTube requirement for monetization, your channel can generate revenue in several ways:

• YouTube Ads: The most common way of earning money from YouTube. After passing the eligibility criteria, YouTube displays ads on your videos. You then earn income every time a viewer watches it for a certain amount of time or clicks on it.
• Channel Memberships: Viewers to pay a monthly fee to support your channel. In exchange, they get unique perks like early access to new videos
• Merchandise Shelf: YouTubers with more than 10,000 subscribers can enable a merch shelf. It allows them to sell merchandise on videos.
• Super Chat: You can also earn money from YouTube through Super Chat and Super Stickers. They allow viewers to pay for their messages to be highlighted in the live chat. They can also pay for the animated images that appear on the screen.
• Brand Deals: YouTubers partner with brands to promote products or services. Brand deals can also include sponsorships and product placement.

Part 2. YouTube New Monetization Policies 2023: Key Updates

The YouTube monetization policies update on June 13th, 2023 provided a new opportunity for creators to earn money on the platforms. With the new updates, it is now easier for beginners to generate revenue on YouTube. The YouTube new monetization policy 2023 makes monetization more accessible to creators. It adds earlier access to the YouTube Partner Program.

YouTube New Policy for Monetization

The new eligibility criteria are more inclusive and require your channel to have:

• At least 500 subscribers
• At least 3 valid public video uploads within the last 90 days
• Either 3,000 public watch hours on long videos in the last 365 days or 3M public views on shorts videos in the last 90 days

With the new YouTube monetization policy 2023, creators enjoy the following benefits:

• Product promotion through YouTube Shopping
• Fan funding through channel memberships, super chats, super thanks, and super stickers
• Access to Creator Support

Applicability of the Old Standards

While the new YouTube monetization criteria create more opportunities for smaller creators to earn fan funding, the old standards are still applicable. The YouTube policy for monetization through ad revenue will remain the same. Channels are still required to have at least 1,000 subscribers with more than 4,000 public watch hours for long videos in the past 365 days or 10M public views for Shorts videos in the past 90 days.

That said, the 2023 new YouTube monetization requirements are a great addition to creators’ journey. Creators who have applied for early access to fun funding are not required to reapply after qualifying for full monetization.

Additional Policies and Guidelines

Apart from the new monetization rules for YouTube 2023, other policies and guidelines remain the same. Youtubers are required to adhere to the following YouTube channel monetization policies:

• Content Guidelines: Content must not violate YouTube’s Community Guideline. YouTubers are prohibited from uploading violent or harmful content.
• Copyright Guidelines: Content must not infringe on the copyright of others, including music or videos without permission.
• Monetization Policies: Content must not be designed to manipulate viewers into clicking on ads or performing other actions intended to generate revenue for the creator.

Part 3. How YouTube’s New Monetization Policy Will Impact Creators

The new monetization rules for YouTube 2023 create a unique opportunity for creators to make money. The requirements to get monetized on YouTube are now relaxed. This implies that more creators can monetize their channels. By attaining YouTube monetization eligibility quickly, small YouTubers will now be motivated to create content with more value.

Who Benefits the Most from YouTube Monetization Rules 2023

Ad revenue is the most sustainable form of monetization. Creators don’t have to ask the community to support them financially. They only create good quality content and build a large following. The new YouTube policies for monetization will mostly benefit creators who create Shorts or stream on YouTube.

Streamers usually have a higher watch time than the number of subscribers they have. So, the new policy will allow YouTubers will a low following to earn from streaming their content. Short creators will benefit from the high number of views shorts tend to generate.

New Policies Make YouTube More Competitive

The new YouTube channel monetization rules will not only benefit creators. By making it easier for creators to earn on the platform, YouTube is becoming more competitive amongst other platforms. These policies will make YouTube dominate the traditional long-form videos, as well as the emerging shirt-form content. More creators find the new policies more friendly and are more willing to put their content on the platform.

Advertisers to Benefit

The new YouTube channel monetization rules will be great for advertisers. They will no longer have to worry about their ads showing up on videos that are inappropriate or fly-by-night. The quality of channels where the ads show will be much better. This means that advertiser will have their ads placed on channels of nano- and micro-influencers. These are more likely to have a loyal following and are more likely to act on the adverts.

Creators Ability to Monetize their Channels

The new policies make it easier for more creators to monetize their channels. Since this is the goal of every creator, it will be an opportunity for more people to start committing to their YouTube career. With the new ways of making money being introduced, more YouTubers will be able to generate revenues from their channels.

It’s interesting that watch hours from shorts will not count along the standard 4,000 public watch hours. This is a plus for many creators. You will find that many creators who post shorts on their channels have more views than their long views. With the new policies, it means that they can monetize their channels based only on the short’s figures.

Part 4. Editing YouTube Videos For Monetization with Wondershare Filmora

Wondershare Filmora is a versatile video editing software that helps creators remain relevant. With specific editing features for various aspects of your video project, this software ensures that your videos will stand out on YouTube. It is also a great tool for making shorts using top YouTuber’s strategies.

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

Free Download For macOS 10.14 or later

Filmora has all the features in one place, which makes it easy and quick to edit videos. From improving the quality of your audio to enhancing your visuals, here are 5 features you need to explore:

1. Preset Templates

Filmora gives you a quick and easy start to your creative video editing journey. Select from the readily available templates or save your own video templates for future use.

2. Add Text to Video

Quickly add relevant texts to your videos. You can include captions or subtitles, choosing the font style and other formatting as desired.

3. AI Smart Cutout

The AI Smart Cutout features allow you to easily edit out any unwanted background or objects in your clips. The AI-powered features help you edit your clips faster and finish your projects quickly.

4. Adjustment Layer

The adjustment layer is a great feature on Filmora that allows you to add effects to multiple video clips at once. No need to keep going back and forth when making your edits.

5. Text to Speech

The Text to Speech (TTS) feature on Filmora allows you to convert your text files to voiceovers. A great feature to bring more elements that enrich your video experience.

Conclusion

The new YouTube monetization policy 2023 has created more opportunities for creators to make money on the platform. Creators of Shorts or those who love to stream on the platform now have an easier way to monetize their channels. To get the best out of this opportunity, we recommend using Wondershare Filmora for your video editing projects. Explore the available features, and create long- or short-form videos that will stand out on YouTube.

Free Download Free Download Learn More

Part 1. Introduction to YouTube Monetization: What You Need to Know

YouTube monetization refers to earning money from the content uploaded on the platform. It is the ability to derive income from the videos you have uploaded on your YouTube channels. The YouTube policies for monetization clearly stipulate what you need to start making money on the platform.

After passing the YouTube requirement for monetization, your channel can generate revenue in several ways:

• YouTube Ads: The most common way of earning money from YouTube. After passing the eligibility criteria, YouTube displays ads on your videos. You then earn income every time a viewer watches it for a certain amount of time or clicks on it.
• Channel Memberships: Viewers to pay a monthly fee to support your channel. In exchange, they get unique perks like early access to new videos
• Merchandise Shelf: YouTubers with more than 10,000 subscribers can enable a merch shelf. It allows them to sell merchandise on videos.
• Super Chat: You can also earn money from YouTube through Super Chat and Super Stickers. They allow viewers to pay for their messages to be highlighted in the live chat. They can also pay for the animated images that appear on the screen.
• Brand Deals: YouTubers partner with brands to promote products or services. Brand deals can also include sponsorships and product placement.

Part 2. YouTube New Monetization Policies 2023: Key Updates

The YouTube monetization policies update on June 13th, 2023 provided a new opportunity for creators to earn money on the platforms. With the new updates, it is now easier for beginners to generate revenue on YouTube. The YouTube new monetization policy 2023 makes monetization more accessible to creators. It adds earlier access to the YouTube Partner Program.

YouTube New Policy for Monetization

The new eligibility criteria are more inclusive and require your channel to have:

• At least 500 subscribers
• At least 3 valid public video uploads within the last 90 days
• Either 3,000 public watch hours on long videos in the last 365 days or 3M public views on shorts videos in the last 90 days

With the new YouTube monetization policy 2023, creators enjoy the following benefits:

• Product promotion through YouTube Shopping
• Fan funding through channel memberships, super chats, super thanks, and super stickers
• Access to Creator Support

Applicability of the Old Standards

While the new YouTube monetization criteria create more opportunities for smaller creators to earn fan funding, the old standards are still applicable. The YouTube policy for monetization through ad revenue will remain the same. Channels are still required to have at least 1,000 subscribers with more than 4,000 public watch hours for long videos in the past 365 days or 10M public views for Shorts videos in the past 90 days.

That said, the 2023 new YouTube monetization requirements are a great addition to creators’ journey. Creators who have applied for early access to fun funding are not required to reapply after qualifying for full monetization.

Additional Policies and Guidelines

Apart from the new monetization rules for YouTube 2023, other policies and guidelines remain the same. Youtubers are required to adhere to the following YouTube channel monetization policies:

• Content Guidelines: Content must not violate YouTube’s Community Guideline. YouTubers are prohibited from uploading violent or harmful content.
• Copyright Guidelines: Content must not infringe on the copyright of others, including music or videos without permission.
• Monetization Policies: Content must not be designed to manipulate viewers into clicking on ads or performing other actions intended to generate revenue for the creator.

Part 3. How YouTube’s New Monetization Policy Will Impact Creators

The new monetization rules for YouTube 2023 create a unique opportunity for creators to make money. The requirements to get monetized on YouTube are now relaxed. This implies that more creators can monetize their channels. By attaining YouTube monetization eligibility quickly, small YouTubers will now be motivated to create content with more value.

Who Benefits the Most from YouTube Monetization Rules 2023

Ad revenue is the most sustainable form of monetization. Creators don’t have to ask the community to support them financially. They only create good quality content and build a large following. The new YouTube policies for monetization will mostly benefit creators who create Shorts or stream on YouTube.

Streamers usually have a higher watch time than the number of subscribers they have. So, the new policy will allow YouTubers will a low following to earn from streaming their content. Short creators will benefit from the high number of views shorts tend to generate.

New Policies Make YouTube More Competitive

The new YouTube channel monetization rules will not only benefit creators. By making it easier for creators to earn on the platform, YouTube is becoming more competitive amongst other platforms. These policies will make YouTube dominate the traditional long-form videos, as well as the emerging shirt-form content. More creators find the new policies more friendly and are more willing to put their content on the platform.

Advertisers to Benefit

The new YouTube channel monetization rules will be great for advertisers. They will no longer have to worry about their ads showing up on videos that are inappropriate or fly-by-night. The quality of channels where the ads show will be much better. This means that advertiser will have their ads placed on channels of nano- and micro-influencers. These are more likely to have a loyal following and are more likely to act on the adverts.

Creators Ability to Monetize their Channels

The new policies make it easier for more creators to monetize their channels. Since this is the goal of every creator, it will be an opportunity for more people to start committing to their YouTube career. With the new ways of making money being introduced, more YouTubers will be able to generate revenues from their channels.

It’s interesting that watch hours from shorts will not count along the standard 4,000 public watch hours. This is a plus for many creators. You will find that many creators who post shorts on their channels have more views than their long views. With the new policies, it means that they can monetize their channels based only on the short’s figures.

Part 4. Editing YouTube Videos For Monetization with Wondershare Filmora

Wondershare Filmora is a versatile video editing software that helps creators remain relevant. With specific editing features for various aspects of your video project, this software ensures that your videos will stand out on YouTube. It is also a great tool for making shorts using top YouTuber’s strategies.

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

Free Download For macOS 10.14 or later

Filmora has all the features in one place, which makes it easy and quick to edit videos. From improving the quality of your audio to enhancing your visuals, here are 5 features you need to explore:

1. Preset Templates

Filmora gives you a quick and easy start to your creative video editing journey. Select from the readily available templates or save your own video templates for future use.

2. Add Text to Video

Quickly add relevant texts to your videos. You can include captions or subtitles, choosing the font style and other formatting as desired.

3. AI Smart Cutout

The AI Smart Cutout features allow you to easily edit out any unwanted background or objects in your clips. The AI-powered features help you edit your clips faster and finish your projects quickly.

4. Adjustment Layer

The adjustment layer is a great feature on Filmora that allows you to add effects to multiple video clips at once. No need to keep going back and forth when making your edits.

5. Text to Speech

The Text to Speech (TTS) feature on Filmora allows you to convert your text files to voiceovers. A great feature to bring more elements that enrich your video experience.

Conclusion

The new YouTube monetization policy 2023 has created more opportunities for creators to make money on the platform. Creators of Shorts or those who love to stream on the platform now have an easier way to monetize their channels. To get the best out of this opportunity, we recommend using Wondershare Filmora for your video editing projects. Explore the available features, and create long- or short-form videos that will stand out on YouTube.

Shedding Light: Techniques for Improving YouTube Video Quality

How To Light Your YouTube Video

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

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

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

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

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

Part 1: Using Light You Already Have

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

1. Window Lighting

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

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

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

2. Home Lighting

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

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

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

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

Part 2: Home Studio Lighting

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

1. Light Control

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

2. 3-Point Lighting

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

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

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

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

3. 4-Point Lighting

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

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

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

Touch Up YouTube Videos with Filmora

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

Richard Bennett

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

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

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

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

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

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

Part 1: Using Light You Already Have

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

1. Window Lighting

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

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

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

2. Home Lighting

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

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

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

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

Part 2: Home Studio Lighting

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

1. Light Control

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

2. 3-Point Lighting

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

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

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

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

3. 4-Point Lighting

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

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

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

Touch Up YouTube Videos with Filmora

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

Richard Bennett

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

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

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

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

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

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

Part 1: Using Light You Already Have

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

1. Window Lighting

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

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

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

2. Home Lighting

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

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

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

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

Part 2: Home Studio Lighting

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

1. Light Control

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

2. 3-Point Lighting

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

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

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

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

3. 4-Point Lighting

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

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

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

Touch Up YouTube Videos with Filmora

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

Richard Bennett

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

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

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

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

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

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

Part 1: Using Light You Already Have

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

1. Window Lighting

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

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

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

2. Home Lighting

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

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

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

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

Part 2: Home Studio Lighting

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

1. Light Control

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

2. 3-Point Lighting

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

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

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

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

3. 4-Point Lighting

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

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

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

Touch Up YouTube Videos with Filmora

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

Richard Bennett

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

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