Videos

How to Make Your Own Cooking Videos

By • December 15, 2011 • 11 Comments

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Ever wonder how those snappy videos of Amanda & Merrill in the kitchen are made? FOOD52's fabulous videographer Elena Parker shows us her tricks for shooting and editing cooking videos quickly and painlessly, with just one camera and a cheap mic.

This post is brought to you as part of our Food & Technology Series, in partnership with Intel, a company that is all about making our lives better with technology, just as Food52 is with food.

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Comments (11)

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about 1 year ago CambCook-Lee

Elena, this is great, thanks for posting. And the comments/replies are terrific too.

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about 1 year ago Rhonda35

Thanks for sharing this great information with us, Elena. Somehow, tricks of the trade or not, I doubt I will ever be able to make videos as lovely as yours!

Helen_chef

over 1 year ago Helen Rennie

Hi Elena,

I loved your ideas on how to make cooking videos. I've been doing it for a few months and am still struggling with audio. My sony handycam doesn't allow me to plug in an external microphone and the flip camera I was using before didn't either. I solve this problem by recording everything twice (once with showing my hands and once with showing my head talking) so that the audio level doesn't change, but it is a bit of a pain. any suggestions? is buying a new camera the only option? I hope not, since I just bought a sony handycam and the quality of video seems to be a lot better than flip.

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over 1 year ago elenakathryn

HI Helen --

That seems really curious. Is this your camera:

http://store.sony.com/webapp...


It should have an external mic plug in near the headphone jack.... it would use the same size plug as headphones - a 1/8 inch input - and may very well look like a second audio-out feature. But it is actually for a mic like this one (which has the same type of jack as headphones, and not a larger input like an XLR):

http://www.amazon.com/gp...


In my humble opinion, you're absolutely right to move away from the flip, i never liked the quality -- and this one seems like a nice buy. I seriously doubt that there is no way to plug an external mic into it. I think that, perhaps, you're looking in the wrong place? If there really isn't a way, you can always record audio on a completely separate device like a zoom recorder and then sync with the camera footage.

Hope that helps -- Would be happy to help identify the mic input if you sent along pics-- Let me know if you can't find it and i'll send you my e-mail.

Elena

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over 1 year ago elenakathryn

HI Helen --

That seems really curious. Is this your camera:

http://store.sony.com/webapp...


It should have an external mic plug in near the headphone jack.... it would use the same size plug as headphones - a 1/8 inch input - and may very well look like a second audio-out feature. But it is actually for a mic like this one (which has the same type of jack as headphones, and not a larger input like an XLR):

http://www.amazon.com/gp...


In my humble opinion, you're absolutely right to move away from the flip, i never liked the quality -- and this one seems like a nice buy. I seriously doubt that there is no way to plug an external mic into it. I think that, perhaps, you're looking in the wrong place? If there really isn't a way, you can always record audio on a completely separate device like a zoom recorder and then sync with the camera footage.

Hope that helps -- Would be happy to help identify the mic input if you sent along pics-- Let me know if you can't find it and i'll send you my e-mail.

Elena

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over 1 year ago elenakathryn

HI Helen --

That seems really curious. Is this your camera:

http://store.sony.com/webapp...


It should have an external mic plug in near the headphone jack.... it would use the same size plug as headphones - a 1/8 inch input - and may very well look like a second audio-out feature. But it is actually for a mic like this one (which has the same type of jack as headphones, and not a larger input like an XLR):

http://www.amazon.com/gp...


In my humble opinion, you're absolutely right to move away from the flip, i never liked the quality -- and this one seems like a nice buy. I seriously doubt that there is no way to plug an external mic into it. I think that, perhaps, you're looking in the wrong place? If there really isn't a way, you can always record audio on a completely separate device like a zoom recorder and then sync with the camera footage.

Hope that helps -- Would be happy to help identify the mic input if you sent along pics-- Let me know if you can't find it and i'll send you my e-mail.

Elena

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over 1 year ago ATG117

Had no idea. Still wouldn't know how to use the editing software, but fascinating none the less.

Eda_takoyaki_cooking

over 1 year ago edamame2003

thanks for the tips! love all the videos. any lighting tips?

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over 1 year ago elenakathryn

HI There --

I'm actually not so great with lighting, but I do have two words for you: China Ball.
http://pearlriver.com/v2...

Nice soft light. Super cheap.

Eda_takoyaki_cooking

over 1 year ago edamame2003

so funny! i just bought some for my backyard. double duty! love it. thanks and keep those awesome videos coming!

Kitchenaid

over 1 year ago BlissfulBaker

Elena, this is awesome! I don't even shoot videos, but now I want to.