How to make AMAZING nail video tutorials

'Cause who wants a regular nail video tutorial anyways... that's so basic.

284740257072 people a day ask me this: WHAT APP DO U USE FOR UR VIDEOS?

And my answer is always:

See the Party Mix page for more related nonsense.

Well I'm usually more polite than the anger exhibited by this meme, but that's how I feel (like screaming) on the inside after the same question a billion times.

Here's me bursting 90% of people who ask me the question above's bubble: I DO NOT USE AN APP. Why? Because I film with an actual camera (like A REAL CAMERA THAT IS NOT A CELL PHONE omg no way right?!). And also because apps suck.

Now don't go all smart-ass on me now and say "well @soandsonailaccount uses an app!" cause yes, I'm aware that a lot of nail artists do film with their cell phones and edit on apps. I'm not trying to insult videos made with apps. Many of such nail artists have published great tutorials on Instagram that get reposted by very large feature accounts because at the end of the day their nail art is still amazing. Some of them have even so kindly let their followers know how they make their videos, including details on what app(s) they use.

I think part of the reason that I get so many questions about what app I use is because people notice the awesome quality of my videos - I really get those glitters sparkling, amirite? And it's not cause I have magical unicorn powers, really, the reason why most people would agree that I produce "amazing" video tutorials compared to the average one is precisely BECAUSE I DO NOT USE AN APP.

And so I present you my super comprehensive video guide on how to make AMAZING video tutorials:

Total disclaimer: I am not a professional videographer/photographer or anything of the sort, so it's possible I say something that isn't even correct in this video. I literally bought my camera and figured out how to use it and shoot videos for the first time in the past year. I work for the government in a cubicle all day staring at datasets and piles of information okay, none of this includes glamorous video shoots or hacking away in a chill editing room.

For those keeners who want to continue on in AMAZING NAIL VIDS101, here's some class notes:

1. Backgrounds: Make things visually appealing!

Paper towels are so last year. Pick a background that's going to compliment your nail art, not bore it to death!

You have choices! Here's some ideas:

• Solid-coloured foam board - pick some up from Michaels, Staples, or your local craft or business supply store for $10-$20USD/CAD. Foam board is larger, thicker and heavier duty than regular paper and bristol board
• Construction or coloured paper - from your local art/business supply store, or maybe you have some lying around your house!
• Sparkly/holographic specialty paper - you can get some up from Michaels or your local craft or speciality paper store for a couple dollars per sheet

Personally I like to use the black foam board for all my nail art video tutorials and save the sparkly awesome background for my nail photoshoots. Here's why:

• The sparkly paper can affect the lighting glare and the colour of your actual nail polish - when you're filiming a tutorial you have less control over this than when in photo-snapping mode
• Every time you sponge that gradient or drop that polish onto the sparkly background you've messed up a piece of its awesomeness (and they're not that big!) - the foam boards are massive and you can move them around onto a clean space to film the next time
• A solid black background makes the colours and/or sparkles in the actual nail art and polish POP! 
• Let's be honest, if my video backgrounds were always holo and glittery, no one would be paying attention to my nail art anymore would they?

It's up you what you choose, stay consistent or mix it up! Like a watermark, your choice of background can also become one of your trademarks!

2. Lighting: 'Cause nail art in the dark ain't nail art

One of the key elements to a great video with excellent clarity is lighting. Do you take your nail pics with camera flash or are stuck filming with that old school incandescent bulb that just happens to be in your desk lamp you've had for 8 years? TIME TO BUY A REAL BULB OKAY.

I don't have the privilege of using natural daylight for my tutorials or nail photoshoots as I live in a condo in Canada, and do my nail arts in a room with no windows. Basically a nail art prison but that sounds like the best kind of prison if you ask me (and I majored in Criminology so.... yeah). So, if you're like me and don't have access to excellent natural daylight at all hours of the night when you feel like nail arting it up at 1am (don't lie), you should pick up some reliable bulbs.

I've experimented with a few different light bulbs from my local Hardware store (Home Depot), including the higher-quality CFL ones (compact fluorescent bulbs) that go for $10-$20 for a pair or so. Long story short, even with two of them shining directly on my nail, they just weren't bright enough. NEXT.

I now use two larger CFL bulbs that I got from Henry's, my local photography store, for around $20 per bulb (pictured above). These are about double the size of the ones I tried from Home Depot, and way brighter. They are available in different colour temperatures, which means they emit different colours of light (see this colour spectrum chart). I have the 5200k 28W/120V ones that are closest to simulating natural daylight. Because CFL's are very energy efficient bulbs, they can be screwed into any regular desk lamp that can manage at least a 28W bulb (basically every lamp can handle that - the most standard desk lamps can take at least 60W bulbs). 

The two lamps I use are stainless steel desk lamps I got from my local hardware store for about $40 each. But if you already have desk lamps lying around the house, just use those! As long as they have enough pivots in the arm to satisfy your light adjustment needs, might as well put 'em to better use than for studying, pffffft.

3. Don't be shaky, get a tripod

A tripod is a must no matter what kind of camera you're using, a DSL-R or a point-and-shoot camera. How else you gonna hold your camera up while you painting your nails, hmm?

The tripod you should have depends on what your camera set up is. Let me try and break this down for you:

• You have a point-and-shoot camera: 
• A basic mini tabletop tripod that costs under $40 should work, like this one from my local photography store (it's the one labelled crappy tripod below). Just make sure your camera has the little screw-in space for tripod attachments at the bottom! 
• You have a DSL-R with a 40mm or around that lens: 
• A basic mini tabletop tripod that costs under $40 will likely work great, and adjust close enough to the ground to make sure your nail is large enough on video. The downside to this tripod is that with a heavy DSL-R, the joints will break over time because the tripod itself is cheap and plastic (hence the crappyness). Once this happens you may not be able to fully secure all of the pivots at the angles you want to.
• You have a DSL-R with a 60mm or higher lens:
• A heavier-duty (and yes, therefore more expensive) tripod is best because now your camera AND your lens are heavier. But also because as the focal distance of your lens increases, you need to be further from the nail to film it. A larger tripod will do this for you. This may sound like a bad thing but it's actually a good thing - more room for your paintbrushes, that hard-working painting hand (less likely to knock the camera), and more room for light to enter your filming space!
• You can pick up a more professional grade tabletop or multi-purpose tripod from your local photography store like these ones by MeFoto brand for $140 and up - they offer a range of options, and most of them adjust to full-size expandable tripods which is a nice feature for taking full frame nail polish bottle shots. Just make sure they look and feel kind of heavy (this is a good thing, so it doesn't tip over), that they aren't made out of plastic, and that they have lots of adjustment gadgets so you can angle your camera at all the angles you could ever imagine.
• I have the MeFoto Travel Tripod Kit A0350 model which retails on Amazon for $150 -- it's very study and solid compact tripod whose legs fold down easily into a tabletop base (see pic below). 
• You have a DSL-R with a zoom lens (range of XXmm-YYmm): 
• Depending on what the minimum focal length is (the XXmm number), follow the rules of the ~40mm vs. 60mm or higher rules above. So, whether your lens is a 18-70mm or a 18-300mm zoom lens, then either the crappier OR more heavy duty tripod will work considering the focal length range. But if your zoom lens is a 10-24mm for example then only the shortest of tabletop tripods (i.e., the crappier one) will work. But not many people buy these kinds of lenses anyways (limited uses).
• Because you most likely have a zoom lens that covers both the 40mm and under and the 60mm and over focal range, you can go either way for the tripod in terms of height appropriateness - but I still suggest getting a heavier duty one because zoom lenses are heavier, and you don't want the cheapo tripod to tip over and break on you. The overall quality and reliability of the more hardcore tripods is worth it in the long run - look for ones like these for $140 and up.
• You have a DSL-R with a you-have-no idea-what-kind-of-lens:
• I don't know, I can't help you then. 
• Might as well start with a crappy tabletop tripod for under $40 until it cracks and breaks or it doesn't work because it does't raise high enough and then cave and buy the more expensive ones for $140 and up.

Don't worry if nothing about lenses makes sense here - read on to section 5 to learn more about macro lenses!

I bought a crappy tripod at first cause I was being cheap... but I quickly learned my lesson.

4. Your camera: The heart of the operation

So you're shopping for a camera at Best Buy and you're all like "BUT HOW MANY MEGAPIXELS DOES IT HAVE? OOH 12 IS A HIGH NUMBER I LIKE THAT." Wipe that misinformation out of your head right now. Every camera sold in the world today has enough megapixels to please every magical holo unicorn in the universe. Only 15 years ago did that number ever actually make a difference.

You know how we all drool over the swatches of the Russian and French nail bloggers (you know the ones)? We can't possibly dismiss the excellent quality of their work and ask them what cell phone they take their pics with, can we?!?! No. They do not use cell phones to take their magical shots, they hire large scale professional camera crews. K well not actually, but that's what I will continue to speculate until proven otherwise because I just cannot comprehend how they do it. HOWWW?

In any case, THE CAMERA YOU FILM WITH MATTERS. If you want that glowing holo awesomeness with a blurred outer edge effect yet some sections in perfect focus (this is controlled with the aperture function of your camera), and be able to capture polish flowing off the brush in perfect focus (controlled with the shutter speed function), then you're gonna need to graduate from cell phone videos, and possibly from point-and-shoots if you really want to evoke those drooling demons inside us all with polish porn.

I use a Nikon D5300 which is a relatively new model (~$800 for the body):

• It's known for it's user-friendliness, great value for your money, and as an overall excellent camera for those starting out with a DSL-R (see cnet's review here)
• I specifically bought this camera because I already had one Nikon lens, and also because this model has WiFi, which I use to hook up to my iPad with the Nikon Wireless Utility app (see here for Android version) and then line up swatch shots (super handy!)
• It has video mode, as pretty much 99% of new DSL-R's these days do

When I want to shoot videos with my camera, I turn on the "manual video mode" setting in the "shooting menu" so that I can control all the bells and whistle functions of the camera in between shots. I would guess other DSL-R have a similar setting option, as well as settings on what kind of file video the camera is going to take. In other words, setting about the movie quality, frame size and frame rate. 

I know many nail bloggers who shoot with different variations of Canon cameras, and to be honest you probably couldn't even tell the difference between any of the big brands in DSL-R's because they all take great pictures and videos if you know how to use them.

This is my baby! Nikon D5300 body

If a DSL-R scares you cause of all of the buttons, fear not! Google is this really neat invention that has literally taught me everything I know about using my DSL-R. I started taking my photos and videos in auto mode (you literally don't have to do anything, not even focus), and then slowly moved to aperture-priority ("A") mode, and now I have graduated to full manual mode ("M") as this is where we get the most control possible over how we want our photos or videos to look.

I'm not going to give a lesson in a lesson and blab on about how to actually use your DSL-R here, but my best advice would be to learn by trial and error. If you are stuck and don't understand why your pictures are so dark, just ask Google! He/she/it (?) has always been there for me in times of need.

And finally if you're all like "A DSL-R IS HOW MUCH MONEY?!!?" ($500-$1000) after you realize you also need to buy a lens (+ $200-$600), then there's always a point and shoot. I used to use a Canon Powershot S110 ($200-$350 depending on the sale) and it was pretty good for a point-and-shoot (only used it for pics - e.g., here, here and here - didn't try it for videos). Macro pics just didn't do it for me though, despite there being a "macro mode". 

5. Lenses: The thing you actually have to attach to the camera

Probably more important than what brand of DSL-R you have or choose to buy is what kind of lens you buy with it. Most DSL-R kits come with the body of the camera and a "zoom lens" (e.g., it says "18-55mm" or "18-85mm" on it, or so on). Zoom lenses are generally the best multi-purpose lens because they do exactly what they're called: They zoom into things that are far away but also take nice pics of closer things. However they are not the *best* for specifically macro photography. For macro photography, which is essentially what nail photography is by default, you really want an actual macro lens. The pictures and focus will be much clearer and those pesky little glitters that blur on your iPhone will come out super crisp and clear with a macro lens on a DSL-R.

I use the Nikkor 85mm f/3.5 ED VR lens

What you need to know about macro lenses:

• Macro lenses are also known as fixed focal point lenses, meaning that they have one set distance at which they focus best (they don't zoom in and out).
• The lower the XXmm number, the closer you have to be from the nail to focus. 
• For people taking pics of insects for example, the higher the number the better so they can be far away from the little buggies, not scare them, and get a great macro shot. I've seen insect photographers actually drool over 300mm lenses. 
• For nail photography or videos it wouldn't make much sense to be metres away from our nails though, would it? Unless you have super stretch Armstrong arms. 
• This doesn't necessarily mean that you want the lowest XXmm number either. With a 40mm lens your nails have to be a a few inches or less away from the lens depending on what kind of shot you're taking (full hand or one macro nail), which means that it is easy to knock the lens with your opposite hand when nail-arting for a tutorial. 
• I often struggled using a paintbrush because I had to make sure I didn't knock it into my lens. The other downside of a 40mm lens is that having to be closer to the nail means you're going to let less light in by nature of camera shadows, hand shadows, and so on. 

That being said a Nikkor 40mm macro lens is still a great starter lens for a Nikon DSL-R (and one of the cheapest at $280), as would be a 40mm or close-to-40mm lens on another camera body. It's what I used for many months (e.g., see my tutorials embedded here, here and here).

Eventually I got annoyed with having to be so close to the lens during filming and upgraded to an 85mm lens. My nails can now be as much as a couple feet away from the lens and I can freely paint and do whatever and not worry about knocking the camera or blocking the light. With a greater focal distance also comes greater lens power: This particular 85mm Nikkor AF-S (auto-focus silent), f/3.5 (ratio of the lens's focal length to the diameter of the entrance pupil... or in English, how nicely your pics/video will blur the background), ED (extra-low dispersion glass in the lens, serves as an auto-colour corrector), VR (vibration reduction) lens is more in the mid-range of lenses in terms of quality of photos/videos as well as price, ranging between $530 - $580.

6. Editing: 'Cause the video ain't gonna make itself

And now we come full circle to the "WHAT APP?" question: NO GODDAMN APP.

Part of what makes a nail video amazing is how it all comes together. I can't really tell you how to edit your video stylistically, that's up to you girl. But I can tell you the best readily available software to use to control things like speed, watermarks, music and video export quality.

Unfortunately I only have actual meaningful editing advice for Mac computer users. iMovie (FREE!) is a standard program that comes built-in to any Apple computer. It's super intuitive and easy to learn, and if you still can't figure it out, Google is a couple keystrokes away. I demonstrated the basics of how I use iMovie in the video above, but here's iMovie's most key features:

• Easily splice, crop, and trim video clips
• Speed up or slow down video
• Add watermark at bottom and other text
• Transitions
• Exposure (light) and colour-corrector enhancements
• Mute camera audio and add music 
• Multi-task with multiple video projects at once
• Easy video import/export functions

There is no iMovie for Windows PC. However, there are many software programs out there for PC that aim to mimic iMovie's basic awesome features - read this dude's write up on a few options for alternatives for iMovie for Windows.

I have iMovie 10.0.5 - your iMovie might look a bit different if you have an older or a newer version.

Why is using an actual computer software program better than using an app? Well first of all, assuming you've listened to anything I said in the video, you know that you should be filming with an actual camera (not a phone), and all cameras use memory cards, which fit right into a computer, WOW!! Secondly, apps are very limited in what kind of control they give you. They may advertise themselves as easy to use, but there's always a catch to something that's "too easy" - it probably doesn't do everything you want it to do. You might be stuck with a fugly-looking watermark, an oddly cropped video, and more than likely decreased video quality. Using an actual computer program designed specifically for editing videos will give you far more control and thus produce a much more *amazing* video tutorial.

7. Exporting and uploading to social media: Your video will be more amazing if people actually see it

A common question I get aside from "WHAT APP?" is "how do you get your videos so high quality on Instagram?" since for most people uploading it to IG cuts the quality. The truth is, I really have no idea why this is happening to you since I've never had that problem, but if I had to guess it'd be because your original video file you're trying to share wasn't made or exported in HD (high definition), or it was otherwise compressed in quality at the export stage. This likely applies to other computer editing software too, but specifically for iMovie:

• Export your final edited video as HD 720P (1280 x 720) if you're making a 15sec clip for Instagram. 
• Doing so will ensure the video will be under 25MB, which is a common cap for most email provider attachments (i.e. now you can email it to yourself, yay!)
• Don't export it as any lower than 720P or else you will lose the HD function (assuming your camera can film in HD), and your vid will look crappier on IG.

Doing all the steps above has never decreased my video quality. One thing I forgot to mention in the video that hopefully you realized by now is that when you're actually filming your nail arts, make sure the nail you want in your video is CENTERED in the middle of the screen. That way you won't have to mess with the cropping and re-orientation of the video when you're editing it, since as we all know IG crops the video to a 1:1 (square) size ratio.

8. So you got amazing nail videos: Use them to grow your following (on Instagram)!

In addition to the very annoying "WHAT APP?" question I get on a daily basis, I get 10 times more questions about giving someone a shout out (s4s) or f4f or l4l or wtf4wtf, and of course, "how do I get more followerZ???" Well, the short answer is hard work and dedication. The key answer, from my experience, is amazing nail video tutorials.

How can amazing nail videos get you followers on Instagram? Because nail video feature accounts are one of the largest platforms for sharing others' work, and when your video gets featured on an account with a million and up followers, a shit ton of people are going to see it and probably follow you as a result.

How to get featured? Use feature hashtags! I'm not going to provide them all here because I really want you to watch my video (sneaky me). In my video above I list several key feature hashtags that are the official hashtags for several nail feature accounts with upwards of 1 million followers. They scroll though them and pick whatever they feel like featuring. I will mention however that you should also use the #simplynotlogical tag for my new video feature and nail humour account @simplynotlogical, I want to see your amazing new videos too :)

Just because you made a nail video doesn't mean these accounts are going to feature you. Remember, they too want to please their audience, so they look for videos they like and/or think the general population would like. They also don't always post recent videos, so be patient if they don't repost your first few videos. Keep using the key hashtags on all your nail videos, keep improving the amazingness factor of your videos using tips from this novel and a half, and you will likely be featured eventually. And most of all, do not direct message them or spam their posts asking to be featured. If you do that they will probably never feature you 'cause you're just annoying.

This shouldn't be your first question but... we all wanna know don't we?

....anddddd I haven't typed this much in one sitting since I was writing my thesis. I hope you've found some insight into my process helpful, but I realize that with more answers comes more questions. If there's something I haven't answered about how to make amazing video tutorials, please do comment below and I can answer you directly and/or edit it into the post!

Happy amazing video-making!!! Now get to work ;)