Three Must-Have Equipment You Need to Create a Cooking Video

What Do You Need to Create a Cooking Video?

Must-Have Equipment No.1 - Camera

We start off with the most important equipment for your cooking video - a camera! Cameras help capture every part of your cooking video, from putting in ingredients to tossing a wok full of food. Depending on your budget, you can go as amateur as a phone camera, or higher end with a professional mirrorless camera.

Typically, these professional cameras capture light and colour of the food better than a phone camera, which makes them a better choice for your cooking video. Phone cameras also often auto-adjust when lighting conditions are bad, which results in misinterpretation of the colour of the food, which may not best represent the dish in your cooking video. 

For a cooking video, great lighting would be essential for capturing equally great visuals, especially for professional brands. Hence, you can start your cooking video journey by investing in affordable mirrorless cameras like the Nikon Z30 or the Sony ZV-E10.

Tip #1: When filming cooking videos, use a variety of shots like close-ups, medium and overhead shots to make your food look appealing and the cooking video interesting!

Must-Have Equipment No. 2 - Lights

Speaking of lights, a basic light setup for a cooking video includes a key light, diffuser, and reflector. Using a soft key light to light the food from the side or back rather than towards the camera, helps illuminate the details in the food for the cooking video which is much more appealing to the viewer!

The reflector will be placed on the opposite side of the subject and bounces light from the light source onto the food. This creates a gradual light fall off on the subject, makes it softer and enhances the visual effect of the food on your video.

Typically, for a cooking video you would want a soft light to complement your food. This is because soft light emphasises the texture and form of the food in your cooking video. Soft light creates soft edges and shadows while hard light creates harsh shadows, which unless you have a specific style for your video, it will be hard to make it look good for cooking videos. 

Tip #2: Minto Studios has various sizes of soft boxes that are used to soften the light while shooting a cooking video! 

Must-Have Equipment No. 3 - Microphones

Last but not least, we have microphones! Using microphones depends if you need to pick up sound for your cooking video. They are typically used by chefs who want to speak as they cook or to pick up sound for ASMR cooking videos. 

If you would like to use a microphone for your cooking video, it is better to have a clip on mic than a far mic like a boom. This is because far mics will pick up way more ambient noise (like the sizzling in a pan) rather than the voice of the chef in the cooking video!

Tip #3: If you are not recording sound directly into the camera, make sure that you always clap to sync the video and audio. This is to make your life easier during the editing process for the cooking video.

We have come to the end of this article. We hope that with these three essential equipment and tips from us, you are ready to start creating your cooking videos! 

A Kitchen Studio Can Provide You With These Three Must-Have Equipment