Why your reels look cheap (and 7 fixes that cost nothing)

I've been filming for about ten years now: festivals, brand launches, gyms, chocolate shops, container kitchens at Silverstone. And the most common thing I hear from business owners is "our videos just look a bit... cheap".

Nine times out of ten it isn't the camera. Your phone shoots better footage than the camera I learned on. It's a handful of small habits, and every one of them is free to fix.

01Light first, camera second

If you only change one thing, change where the light comes from. Overhead office or shop lights give everyone dark eye sockets and a shiny forehead. Turn the person so they face a window instead, with the window slightly to one side. That's it. That's the trick.

02Sound is half the picture

People will forgive slightly soft footage. They won't forgive echoey, tinny audio. It's the fastest way to look amateur.

• Get the mic close. A cheap clip-on mic 20cm from someone's mouth beats an expensive one on top of the camera.
• Kill the background noise you've stopped hearing: fridges, air con, the radio in the kitchen.
• Record ten seconds of silence in the room. It makes cleaning up the edit much easier.

03Stop the shot breathing

Phones love to adjust brightness and colour mid-shot. That subtle pulsing is a big tell. On iPhone, press and hold on your subject until you see AE/AF LOCK. On Android, most camera apps have a pro mode where you can lock exposure and white balance. Do it every time.

04Move with a reason

Shaky, wandering footage looks nervous. Every move should go somewhere: a slow push towards the product, a slide past a doorway to reveal the room, a tilt from feet to face. If you don't know why the camera is moving, keep it still. A still frame with good light looks expensive. Wobble never does.

Good light and a still camera will beat a gimbal and bad light every single time.

05Shoot the in-between bits

Hands pouring coffee. A door opening. Steam. Someone laughing off-camera. These little cutaways are what make an edit feel professional, because they give you somewhere to cut to. I'd rather leave a shoot with 40 small details than 10 long takes.

06Cut earlier than feels comfortable

When you're editing your own footage, you're attached to it. Your viewer isn't. Trim the first second of every clip (that's usually you pressing record and settling) and cut out of shots before they finish. If it feels slightly too quick to you, it's probably right for someone scrolling.

07Pick one look and stick to it

Five different filters across one reel makes it look like five different businesses. Choose one simple grade, or none at all, and use it on everything. Same goes for fonts and caption styles. Consistency reads as quality.

08The quick version

Light from a window, mic close, exposure locked, move with a purpose, grab the details, cut early, one look. Do those seven things and your next reel will look like you paid someone. And if you'd rather actually pay someone, you know where I am.