Camera Settings for Recipe Videos

What should your camera settings be for shooting recipe videos? Watch the video below or keep reading to find out.

The right camera settings can help set you up for success with your recipe videos. You’re going through a lot of work to create amazing videos, and you’d hate to get into editing only to find that your footage is out of focus, overexposed, or missing entirely.

I’m going to walk you through the important settings to check before you start recording to help you save time in editing and ultimately complete your video faster.

Before you start

Lighting

Before you get into your settings, it’s important to consider your lighting. I don’t claim to be a lighting expert, but I’ve found a solution I’m pretty happy with. If you’re interested, you can see what my video lighting set up looks like.

I also shot a video in natural light recently because I just didn’t have time to set up my lights and I was pretty happy with how that went. Something to consider with natural light is that depending on the weather where you are, it might not be as bright as artificial lights and the light may change over the course of your video. This will affect your camera settings.

Battery and memory card

Before you start shooting, make sure you have your battery fully charged and you have a high storage memory card inserted. I format my card every time before I shoot, but if you choose to do this make sure that you’ve removed any images or videos that you might have on the card before doing this since it will erase whatever is on there.

Camera settings for recipe videos

Auto or manual settings

 I don’t like keeping my camera settings on auto for video with the exception of maybe focus. The reason for this is that the color and brightness of the food you’re using can change the lighting in the scene and if it confuses the sensor in your camera you can end up with some quick changes that are more difficult to fix in editing than constant settings.

Focus

As I mentioned, focus is kind of up to you. My main camera is a Canon 80D and it handles tracking autofocus really well, so I keep that on autofocus. For a side angle I use a Canon 5D Mark II, which doesn’t autofocus video, so I set it manually before I begin recording.

White balance

You’ll also want to set your white balance before you start. You can use something like a grey card to make sure you get it just right, or if you know the temperature of your lights you can set it to match that. Since I’m always trying to match natural light, I usually set mine to the shade setting.

If you don’t know how to set your white balance, it’s easy to find user manuals online for every modern camera, which should instruct you on how to use your exact camera.

Frame rate

You’ll also need to make sure you’re shooting at the proper frame rate. This is something you can probably set up once and forget about unless you’re shooting more creative videos.

 You will do fine to record at either 24 or 30 frames per second, or fps, which is sometimes rounded from a decimal, so don’t be alarmed if you don’t see those exact options in your camera. 24 fps tends to give a more cinematic look, while 30 is common for online videos.

If you plan to slow your video down into slow motion shots, you’ll want to shoot at 60 fps or higher.

Resolution

Resolution will have a huge effect on the quality of your video. Shoot in 1080p if you can, or even 4k if you’re not concerned about file size and your camera is capable. Anything lower than 1080p will have a low quality look.

ISO

ISO will affect how much grain shows up in your video. I find grain to be more acceptable in video than in photos, so I would recommend keeping it between 100-1600, leaning more towards the 100 side if you’re able. I set most of my videos around 600.

Aperture and shutter speed

Aperture and shutter speed will work together to create your exposure. Ultimately I would recommend having both as high as you can, for example an f11 and 1/500, however I’ve never been able to set them this high with my light setup.

 For aperture, try not to go below f4, and keep your shutter above 1/30 to prevent distracting motion blur. A good rule of thumb is to have your shutter number be twice as much as your aperture times 10, for example if you had it set at f/5, you would want your shutter at 1/100 for a balanced exposure.

Use your eyes

Be sure to look at your camera screen if you have one, or consider purchasing an external monitor so you can assess with your eyes if your exposure looks good or not. I find a lot of white foods tend to overexpose on video, and try to underexpose by a stop or two since I think it’s easier to brighten in editing than bring back detail in overexposed areas.

Considerations for shooting video on a phone

If you’re shooting video on your phone, you may not need to worry about these settings since the default camera doesn’t offer many options for frame rate or shutter speed. If you choose to use an app such as Adobe Rush, you’ll be given more control over your settings.

That’s it, I hope this helps you understand the settings in your camera and how they relate to video.

As always, let me know if you have any questions, and feel free to join our Facebook group if you’re interested in having a conversation or connecting with other food bloggers creating recipe videos.