#1 – Thou Shalt Have Good Production Quality
What is the First Commandment of Podcasting?
The First Commandment of Podcasting is “thou shalt have good production quality.”
Production quality referring to the quality and professionalism of the audio and visual material that makes up your podcast’s content.
It doesn’t have to be “Hollywood” quality. It doesn’t have to be as over the top as the video that accompanies this article is.
But, if you want to build awareness, grab attention, and build authority in your marketplace using a multi-media podcast, then your production quality must be good enough that your message isn’t missed.
Production quality is a key component of the unconscious trust signals your content marketing will be sending to your target buyers.
The good news is achieving a consistent high level of quality in your podcasting efforts really only requires that you nail 4 simple things that can be build into a simple and easy mini studio that you could setup anywhere.
We are going to cover what those four things are in this article.
Why Listen To Me?
When it comes to doing a building a video studio for podcasting with really tight constraints for budget and space, I have a very unique perspective.
In the spring of 2017 my wife and I sold everything we owned, bought an RV and took our life and our business on the road.
Since that time I have built a mobile studio in my RV and recorded more than 200 episodes from the back office of of that RV… and if I didn’t tell you that, you’d never know I was recording from such a small space with such tight constraints.
I regularly get complements from my guests and clients on how top-notch my studio looks.
I now run Push Button Podcasts, which is a multi-national podcasting agency from the same back bedroom/office I built in the RV.
So my studio is small… like really small. Those tight constraints mean I have to keep my studio very simple and easy to setup and use when I need it and put away when we want the space for other things.
If I can build a studio that allows me to have great production quality on the go in a tiny home and office on wheels… then chances are that you have no excuses not to abide by the first commandment of podcasting yourself in whatever studio space you have available.
Now, before we talk about how you can build a simple studio like mine, we need to cover…
Why you might want a mini studio in the first place.
There are two reasons why you should care about the production quality of your podcast if you ever hope to use this medium as a way to drive leads and sales in your business.
Reason 1 – Unconscious Trust Signals.
These are signals you send to your audience whether you mean to or not.
They come into play a lot in your business, but for podcasting we are talking about the unconscious trust signals your audio and visuals will be sending to your audience.
If your audio sounds like crap, people will imagine that your other work might also be crap.
If your visuals look shoddy, the same might be true of the services you offer.
So you want your audio and visuals to match or exceed the level of quality you deliver with your products or services.
Reason 2 – Psychological Barriers.
These are mental barriers that either hinder or encourage action in your life.
For example: if I put my water-flosser by my sink in my bathroom, then I forget to floss in the morning because I don’t religiously go to the sink.
But, if I move it 3-feet to the right and put it in my shower. I use it every day.
So how does this apply to the 1st commandment of podcasting?
Well first, you know that crappy production won’t help your business, and now you know it could even hurt it.
So you’re only going to sit down and record if it’s going to look and sound good.
That’s a phychological barrier to action.
If you sat down at your desk to record and you looked and sounded like crap, then you might be discouraged from creating the content you know you need to for your business to grow in today’s cut-throat marketplace.
But, if you sat down at your desk and you looked and sounded like a rockstar, then you might be encouraged to record more often.
If you’re like most business owners and you put in no effort, then your production quality will give you away as cheap and un-caring.
That’s what will happen when you use things like the built in web cam or mics on your laptop.
They are getting better and better all the time but they are no match for putting in just a little bit of money and effort to get a studio that makes you look and sound like a professional.
Your Studio Should Be Easy
If you had a studio that was already setup or super easy to setup when you needed it, then you are more likely to sit down and record (and do so consistently – which is Commandment #2 by the way… but we’ll talk about that in a separate video and article).
Having a high quality, simple to setup, and easy to use studio is a psychological encouragement to action.
How To Build An Effective Mini Studio With 4 Simple Items
Now, let’s talk about those 4 things that make up a great simple studio that will help you nail your production quality every time in simple, easy, cost effective way:
- Your lights.
- Your camera.
- Your microphone.
- Your backdrop.
We will talk about each of those in detail, starting with your lights.
LIGHTING
When it comes to the visual quality of your recorded or live videos, lighting is likely the most important element.
Even if you are recording on a cheap web camera or a simple smart phone, if you have great lighting in your studio you can make your image quality look like a was shot by professionals.
As an example, check out the image below. The top image is the built in web camera on my 2013 MacBook Pro. The middle image is that same camera just with proper lighting and a backdrop. The bottom image just changes to a professional camera.
Can you see how big of a difference lighting makes even if you are using old or sub-par video equipment?
It’s astonishing.
If you were considering the 80/20 rule of getting your studio right, lighting is the 80%.
Everything else we are going to talk about will be that extra 20% that makes you look really professional.
So lighting is first area that I recommend you spend your time and money to get right when you are ready to start leveraging multi-media podcasts for your business.
So how do you do get your lighting right?
Three Things:
- Light Size, Shape & Softness,
- Light Position,
- Light Color (also known as temperature),
Light Size, Shape & Softness
First up is light size, shape, and softness.
Generally speaking, the larger the light source the better the quality of light. That’s all you really need to remember here: bigger light sources are better than smaller ones.
For shape, the more round the light the more natural the catch light in your eyes will be.
The catch light in the little white reflection in your eye made from the light source.
We are used to seeing round catch lights in people eyes from the sun.
So the more round your light source, the more natural the look on a human face.
Then there is the Softness, which refers to how harsh the shadow lines are in your image.
Harsher light will make for harder, generally less pleasing shadows.
A bare bulb or bright direct sunlight will create this type of harsh light.
Soft light will make for softer, more pleasing shadows.
A bright cloud covered sky where the sunlight is diffused through the clouds, a big picture window with light filtering curtains, or a studio light with a big umbrella or soft-box are all examples of soft lights.
Since we can’t control nature and we need a simple repeatable setup for your podcasting studio, I recommend getting the biggest soft lights you can reasonably fit in the space you have that can be left in place or setup quickly and easily so your studio isn’t cumbersome.
This will generally mean you are compromising a little on size to get convenience.
That’s okay, because the commandment isn’t: “thou shalt have holywood level production quality”, the commandment is: “thou shalt have GOOD production quality”.
So we can make some sacrifices on light quality to get light convenience and easy of use.
We’ll talk about gear recommendations in just a moment.
But next we need to talk about light position.
Light Position
Light position refers the placement of the lights in your studio in relation to the subject of the video.
In this case, you will likely always be the subject of the video.
Especially if you are doing talking head or interview style podcast episodes; which is the most common.
So we will cover one simple style of lighting that will work 95% of the time you are shooting in your studio.
That’s called 3-Point Lighting.
3-Point lighting, as the name suggests, uses three lights.
The first light is called your Key Light.
This light provides most of the light for your subject.
The second light is called the Fill Light.
This light serves to brighten up the shadows created by the key light.
The third light is called the Rim Light.
This light serves the purpose of separating your subject from their background.
Watch the brief clip below and I’ll show you how you can set this up in your studio
The video above covers how you setup a simple 3-point lighting situation that will work for the overwhelming majority of videos for your multi media podcast.
Okay, last topic on lighting before we get to the gear.
That is your light color.
Light Color
In the video world, this is called your light temperature.
There are 2 considerations for light temperature you need to be aware of.
Color Temperature
One is the actual color of the light you are using.
This is measured as a “temperature” on the Kelvin scale.
The range of light temperatures goes from about 1,500 Degrees Kelvin to about 10,000 degrees kelvin as you see in the image below.
That temperature corresponds to the color of the light or more specifically the color that your eye will perceive a pure white object in the frame.
Lower temperatures of light in the 1-3K range are what we call “warm” lights.
Candle light would be around 1,500 Kelvin.
A warm white bulb you pick up at Home Depot is usually around 3,000 Kelvin.
These temperatures tend to be more orange or yellow.
Higher temperatures in the 6K-10K range are what we call “cool” lights.
These are going to be like Flourescent lights at about 6K kelvin or that cloudy sky we talked about earlier which is around 7K kelvin.
These lights tend to be more blue.
And finally, you have lights in the 4,500- 5,500 kelvin range.
These are considered “white” lights.
Examples would be the noon day sun, a halogen bulb, or those expensive “white light” LEDs you see at Home Depot.
This this the range you want your studio lights to be because it will make the whites in your image and in your eyes look the most natural without having to learn how to work with and adjust the “white balance” in your camera gear.
The most important thing to note here is that you want all three of the lights in your 3-point setup to have the same color temperature.
The reason is that mixing a cool light with a warm light will get you crazy colors in your image, like green skin. Which is not flattering at all.
Color Rendering Index
The second consideration for color temperature is what is called the CRI of your light source. This is what is known as your Color Rendering Index.
Almost every light you buy will have a CRI rating on it.
Whether you pick it up off your hardware store shelf or buy it from a fancy video production outlet.
This number is scaled from 0-100, where the lower the number the worse the light performs with regard to color accuracy and the higher the number the better the light performs with regard to color accuracy.
All you need to know is that you want lights with a CRI above 92-93.
The only problem with that… is the closer you get to 100… the more expensive the light.
So keep that in mind when you are shopping.
Now, let’s get to the good part and talk about gear recommendations.
Lighting Recomendations
I’m going to keep this simple and make two recommendations.
First up is the Falcon Eyes Round LED lights.
They are big. The come is lots of sizes from 10 inches all the way up to 60 inches.
For a head and shoulders shot like this one… a 10”-20” model will work great for your key and fill lights and small 7” could work well for your rim light if you aren’t using an overhead light like I am.
These are great lights because they are slim.
They are light weight.
They can be easily hung from ceiling or desk mounts.
They are dimmable.
They are round so you get a pleasing round catch light in your eye.
The LED’s are facing inwards and reflecting through the diffusion panel at the front so they don’t blind you like many of the LED’s that are pointing straight out of the light.
And they can be battery operated or plugged in for lots of flexibility.
Plus they have a high CRI number for great color accuracy and the color temperature can be adjusted to match the other lights in your studio.
There is a lot to like about these lights and I have used on in my RV setup for years as my key light.
I’ve only recently replaced it with a smaller light that make my life a little easier in the tight space I have.
If you have the space, go for these.
The second light is the Lume Cube Panel Pros.
I recommend these for people who have space or monetary budjet constraints.
They are relatively inexpensive compared to the Falcon Eyes.
But come packed with features that will work great for a mini studio.
- They have high CRI numbers.
- They have adjustable color temperature.
- They come with a clip on Diffusion panel to make the light a little softer.
- They are are dimmable.
- They are battery operated or USB-C plugin-able for great flexibility.
- They have 1/4-20 mounts on all four sides making them a breeze to mount.
- Plus they have bluetooth connectivity to an app on your phone to make adjusting brightness and color temperature super fast and easy.
My only two complaints are that they are much smaller lights and are rectangular instead of round.
Again… generally speaking larger is better and round is the best shape for lights.
But they are so small and compact compared to the Falcon Eyes that in my tiny RV studio, these lights are now my everyday Key and Fill lights.
If you want to have my always up to date Studio Buying Guide & Studio Studio Setup Guide, then click here and fill out the short form. We’ll give you a login to be able to access those guides at anytime. This way you can keep up with my current recommendations on anything to do with the four items discussed in this article.
That’s it for lights! Let’s talk camera’s next…
CAMERA
The next bit of gear we need to talk about is your camera.
Camera’s are a huge world of technology that is always changing and expanding. So I can’t get into a ton of details about this camera or that and have this be a useful article for more than a few months.
So instead I’m going to focus on a few principles that will serve you no matter when you read this article or watch the accompanying video and no matter what cameras are on the market at this moment.
There are three things you need to be concerned with when it comes to the picture quality coming out of your camera.
One is the Sensor size. Two is the lens selection. And three is what I will call the “webcamability”.
Sensor Size
Let’s talk sensor size first.
The sensor is the chip in your digital camera that gathers light and makes your video image.
This sensor is measured in two ways. One is the physical dimensions of the sensor and two is the number of pixels (the things that actually gather light) in that space.
This is always a battle of physics.
Bigger pixels gather light better.
But more pixels give you better detail.
The bigger the pixel the fewer of them you can fit into a given space.
So a 35mm sensor with 10 megapixels will have much better light gathering capabilty than a 35mm sensor with 20 megapixels.
So by comparison the one with less pixels will be able to “see” in much darker situations and thus be more useful in more lighting situations
When it comes to detail, the 20 megapixel sensor will be twice as detailed, but will need 2 times as much light to get be able to expose the image properly than the sensor with 1/2 the number of larger pixels.
Now multiply this out to every different smartphone camera, web camera, point and shoot, drone camera, and interchangeable lens camera on the marker and you can see why picking the right camera can be very difficult.
So as a 1st rule of thumb…. Get the biggest sensor you can afford with the largest pixels you can get.
The higher density pixel sensors tend to be better for photography and the larger pixel sensors tend to be better for video… which is what we are after.
Another win for the larger sensor is that the bokeh or background blur you will get for any given lens paired with it will be much better.
Better background blur equals a more professional appearance.
So a webcam will have a tiny sensor, a smartphone will be a tad larger, then your point and shoot cameras will be the next size up, then you will have your ASP-C sized sensors, and then the largest will be what is known as a Full Frame sensor camera or a 35mm sensor.
Sensor sized do get bigger than the above, but then we are talking about cinema or commercial work which is outside the scope of this article.
So, if budget allows get a full frame sensor camera from a big manufacturer like Canon, Nikon or Sony.
Sony being my personal prefernce.
This is the best combination of Sensor size and pixel density for both detail capturing and light gathering ability.
If budget or size is a concern (a bigger sensor means a bigger camera).
Get an ASP-C size sensor from one of the same manufacturers.
Again Sony is my preference.
My current camera (the one that shot the videos attached to this article) is the Sony a6500 with 24 Megapixel ASP-C sized sensor.
You can see that with good lighting, this combination makes a great video image.
Lens Selection
Okay, the second section is the lens selection.
This will be very dependent on the camera you are using and your studio setup.
If you are using a webcam, a phone, or a point-and-shoot camera than you will use the lens that comes with the camera.
If your point and shoot lens has a “zoom”, use the zoom setting equivalent to what we talk about below.
If you are on a phone with multiple lens options, you will generally want to be using the one that is geared for “portrait” style photos as it will be the closest what we talk about below.
If you are using an “interchangeable lens” camera then the rest of this section will help you select the right lens for our purposes.
In an ideal world a 50mm lens paired with a full frame sensor is the closest you can get to a camera’s image looking the same as your eyeball sees the world.
If you go wider with the lens then you get more bowed picture as the lens squeezes more of the world into the same sized rectangle.
This has the effect of making your nose bigger in the frame than it is in real life.
If you go more zoomed in with the lens then you get more compression in the image as the lens expands less of the world to fill up the same size rectangle.
Human faces look best in what is called the 50-85mm equivalent on a 35mm sensor.
The other thing to note about lens selection is that the distance required from the subject to get similar framing for the image changes dramatically as you move from short or wide lens (10mm-24mm) up to normal lens (24-50mm) to telephoto lenses (70mm+)
For the type of podcasting we are doing, we want a horizontal image with a head and shoulders style framing like you see in the video attached to this article.
To acheive that framing your lens selection will determine how far the camera is from your face.
A 24mm lens will be much closer to your face than a 50mm lens. An 85mm lens will need to be even further from your face than the 50mm.
The longer the lens you use in your studio, the more pleasing and professional looking the image will get.
This is another battle of physics.
You want the longest lens you can fit into your studio to achieve the framing you want.
If I had the room in my studio, I’d use an 85mm lens, but I’d need to have about 4 feet more space to move my camera back to use that kind of lens setup.
Your sensor size also impacts how your lens “crops” your image.
All lenses are measured by their “equivalent” focal length as if the lens were paired with a sensor that was 35mm in size (which is the size that film use to be and where this measuring system came from).
So your iPhone or Android phone’s lens are paired with really small sensors, but the marketing martial will lens the lenses in their 35mm equivalent size.
In the interchangeable lens world, they just tell you the measurement of the lens and it’s up to you to know how it will interact with the size sensor you choose to pair it with.
I use an ASP-C sized sensor in my Sony A6500 this sensor is 60% the size of a 35mm sensor.
So when it creates a 1.6x crop on 35mm lenses attached to in.
Since you will always see lenses measured in their 35mm equivalent measurement, I have to do a little math to know what they will look like.
Since I’m using an ASP-C sized sensor, my favorite lens to use for video is my Sigma 30mm f/1.4 lens, which with a 1.6x crop factor makes it equivalent to a 48mm lens.
That’s about as close to the 50mm ideal we are looking for I can get with the camera I have.
This combo makes me look amazing, but because my space is so constrained, I don’t get to use it often.
I have to move further away from my camera to get the head and shoulders framing, which puts me too close to my backdrop.
So, this is where your studio comes in for compromises.
In an idea world, you use a 50-55mm lens on APS-C or a 75-85MM lens of Full frame and you have the space for it and the space to put your backdrop a few feet behind that.
But we don’t live in an ideal world.
So if you have to compromise for size or space… do it.
My compromise is using a 10-18mm zoom lens that is set to 18mm, which is very wide and does distort me a little and look a less flattering than the 30mm lens does.
But it gets me the framing I want while still preserving some of that professional looking bokeh or background blur.
The background blur is conrrolled by three things. One is your sensor size. Bigger equals better background blur. Two is your aperture size. Bigger aperture equals better background blur. These are measured as a fraction, so a smaller number is a bigger aperture. F2.0 is a bigger aperture than F4.0. So smaller number is better. Get the biggest aperture you can get for your lens and camera combo. And third is your subject distance from the background. All other things being the same, the further the subject is from the background the more blur the background will have and the better and more professional the subject and background separation will be.Side note on Bokeh or Background Blur
In an ideal world you have a 55-85mm lens, with lots of space between the camera and the subject and a lot of space between the subject and the background.
But as you can see with the video above which was shot in my tiny space, where none of those things are true, you can still get really good results.
It’s a good thing we are only shooting for good quality and not Holywood quality.
WebCamAbility
Okay, the last thing is “webcamability”. This just means that you need to be able to connect the camera to your computer to be able to use it as a webcam with apps like Zoom or Zencastr.
Most camera manufacturers since the start of the pandemic have released software updates that allow their cameras to be used via USB as a webcam.
The only problem is that not many of these cameras have the processor capable of handling the streaming very well over the USB connections. They just aren’t fast enough. So they will stutter or lag.
The better option by far is to use the native HDMI output of the camera and use a capture card that turns the HDMI feed into a webcam.
Most ASP-C sized cameras or larger will have an HDMI feed.
Just check that you can set it to have a “clean” output.
Meaning the camera won’t send all of the camera data over on top of the image. Things like shutter speed, iso, and aperture data that you usually see on the back of the camera overlaid on top of the image you are shooting.
You want the feed out the HDMI to be just the image. All of the Sony cameras have a setting for this (I’m not familiar with the other mufacturers enough to know if they do or not).
Then you just pick up an Egalto CamLink 4K. Plug it in via HDMI and you are off to the races with a fantastic camera in place of a small crappy webcam.
I can’t really make recommendations on your camera though, because so much is dependent on your space. But if you want a great middle of the road cost wise that will get you amazing picture quality and be very forgiving with light and will work with all but the tightest of spaces, then get a Sony A6xxx series camera. These all come with an ASP-C sized sensor. Then pair it with a Sigma 30mm F1/4 lens. This is a great inexpensive combo that can have you looking like a rockstar.
If you want to have my always up to date Studio Buying Guide & Studio Studio Setup Guide, then click here and fill out the short form. We’ll give you a login to be able to access those guides at anytime. This way you can keep up with my current recommendations on anything to do with the four items discussed in this article.
BACKDROP
Let’s talk about how the background affects your image quality.
Your studio backgrounds can be as varied as you camera options.
You can go with full on custom studios that are purpose built for your show that cost a lot and look fantastic.
Or you can go with nothing at all and just make sure the space behind you looks clean and beautiful.
Or if you have a lot of space, you can get a really long telephoto lens that will blur our literally everything buy your face and then it doesn’t matter what is in your background.
Or anywhere in between.
What I’ve found is that having a simple cloth backdrop is the easiest option that works the best for most situations.
It’s not as fancy as you can get. But it’s quick, cheap, and easy. And can still look really good.
So this is the option we will discuss below.
You have a only a few considerations for this type backdrop.
Simple & Clean Texture
Get one that has a simple clean texture.
I like brick, wood, or something like the flag you see in the video that accompanies this article.
Don’t go for anything more busy than that or it can detract from you main subject, unless you can get one that matches the theme of your show.
Backdrop Size
The second thing is the size. You want the backdrop to be as far away from you as you can get it while still filling the frame completely with your chosen camera/lens combo.
So when you are shopping make sure you take that into account.
The ones I recommend come in many sizes.
Just get one that fit your space.
I measured my length and height for where I wanted to mount it and hung a sheet folded into that space to make sure my lens wouldn’t be seeing the edges of it.
Then ordered a backdrop to fit that size.
The backdrops I recommend are Kate backdrops on Amazon.
They come in nice textures and many different sizes so you can get one that fits your space (if it’s over sized, you can cut it down to fit – just don’t get one that’s too small).
And they are cloth so they are easy to take down, fold up, and even throw in the washer if they get dirty.
Okay, that’s it on backdrops. Pretty simple. Last up is microphones.
MICROPHONES
This is probably one of the easiest sections to get right… but also one that most ignore.
Your audio quality is the 80/20 of your production quality.
Get the audio right, it almost doesn’t matter if everything else is a little off.
So, don’t skimp on your mic.
Mic Selection
You have two options here.
Option number one, use the microphone input on your camera and plug in a decent camera mic into it.
The Egalto CamLink 4K will recognize that mic and pass it to your computer for recording.
I’m a huge fan of using a lavaliere mic in this way.
I use the GiantSquid Lavalier mic from Amazon.
It’s amazing little piece of kit and sound really really good.
This is the mic that I’m using in all of the shots where I’m at my desk in the video above.
Option number two is to pick up a USB powered mic for setting on your desk.
My two favorites are the Blue YETI or the Apogee Hype Mic.
The Blue Yeti because it’s everywhere and is very simple. Just plug it in and start recording better quality sound.
My biggest problem with it is the size. It’s huge and doesn’t fit in my tiny studio.
The Apogee Hype Mic is significantly smaller for the same or better sound quality, though it’s also a little more expensive).
No matter which mic setup you choose to go with make sure the mic is as close to your mouth as you can get without actually being in front of your mouth.
With the USB mic a little pop filter to help with the “plosives” that come with P sounds is a useful addition.
Room Noise
Your other consideration is your room noise. If you can, make sure the fans, ac, washer/dryer, and other such things are off if you can when you are recording. This will make your sound much better.
If you are in a room with hard floors and nothing on the walls, then getting some sound dampening foam to mount on the walls can be really helpful addition.
But when you can’t control life and I swear the RV Parks where we stay specifically wait until I’m recording to mow the grass outside our RV. Like every freaking time… then you can add a little software to help.
Check out Krisp.ai which is a software live noise removal system that will help your recording software be able to just hear your voice and not the noisy children, the inconsiderate lawn mowers, or the ac noise. Definitely worth the $4/year.
And that’s it!
Get Your Mini Studio Up And Running!
Those are the four things you need to get right in your studio so that you always have good production quality: your Lights, Your Camera, Your backdrop, and your microphone.
It’s pretty simple, but if you setup something easy to use, that looks great, then you will be inspired to sit down and regularly record content.
In the content marketing world that consistency paried with the great looking visuals and high quality audio is what will set you apart from your competition and generate the awareness, attention, and authority that will ultimately drive more leads and sales into your business.
So take the time to get this step right. If you need more help in this area, please click the link in the description below.
I’ve setup an entire Mini Studio Purchase & Setup guide that walks you through everything we talked about in this article and the accompanying video and help you get it setup in your office.
We are even offering one-on-one studio consults where we will hop on a video call with you and help you get your lighting and camera gear setup right in your space so your videos look as professional as the rest of your business.
All the details are in the links above.
Finally, if you want to join me in the next part of this series where we talk more about making consistently recording content super easy, then make sure you hit that subscribe to our channel on YouTube and click the notification bell so you are notified when it comes out.
That video/article will be called The 10 Commandments of Podcasting #2: Thou Shalt Be Consistent and I will be teaching a very quick and simple method for getting your entire 1st years worth of content planned out in just a couple hours… plus showing of a new tool we are building that will help you get this done even faster. So you don’t want to miss that.
Also, if you learned something new in this video/article, please do someone you know a favor and share this with them. That helps me know I’m on the right track creating this content and is a great way of saying thank you if you found this useful.
See you in the next part of this series!