Chapter 4
Recording and Posting Great Videos
IN THIS CHAPTER
Recording video on your smartphone or tablet
Getting your videos ready to post
Posting your video
Posting multiple videos from an iPhone or iPad
Uploading longer videos from your computer desktop
Your iPhone, iPad, and Android devices all have video cameras, and Instagram puts them to great use. In this chapter, we explain how to record, edit, and share video in the Instagram app by using a smartphone or a tablet. Sorry, Windows users: Instagram doesn’t support using your webcam to take video.
Recording Videos
Instagram gives you the flexibility to record or upload videos in posts on mobile devices that are as short as 1 second or as long as 60 seconds. If you find that 60 seconds is too limiting, use the video as a teaser (think of it as your own movie preview) to get people to click through to your website or to another video website such as YouTube.
When you’re ready to start recording a video on your iPhone, iPad, Android smartphone, or Android tablet, open the Instagram app (if it’s not open already) and then tap the plus (+) icon at the top of the home screen. Then tap Post in the drop-down menu.
The Instagram apps on the iPhone, iPad, Android smartphones, and Android tablets all work the same.
The first time you open the Camera screen, a pop-up window appears, as shown in Figure 4-1. Instagram wants to access the microphone on your smartphone so it can record videos with sound. Access the microphone by tapping OK.
You can also take a video in a post by swiping right in the feed screen. The camera screen allows you to create a video in a story by default, and you can find out more about creating and publishing stories starting in Chapter 7. You can also take a video in a reel; you find more about reels in Part 5. In the camera screen, add a video to a post by tapping Post at the bottom of the screen.
FIGURE 4-1: If you want to record silent videos, tap Don’t Allow.
The next time you open the camera screen, you won’t see this pop-up window. If you want to turn your microphone off and on in Instagram, access your smartphone’s settings, open the Instagram settings, and then turn the microphone on or off.
The camera screen has the following elements, all labeled in Figure 4-2:
- Viewer: The viewer appears in the center area of the screen.
- Switch cameras icon: Tap the icon to switch between your smartphone’s front and back cameras.
- Camera Settings: When you tap this icon, the Camera Settings screen appears so you can set camera controls as well as change settings for a story, reel, or live broadcast.
- Flash icon: Tap the flash icon to toggle the following flash modes:
- Off: This mode is the default. The lightning bolt icon has a line through it.
- On: The lightning bolt icon has no line through it.
- Auto-detect: The lightning bolt icon has an A next to it.
- Shutter button: The shutter button is what you tap to take a picture.
- Cancel button (iOS) or X (Android): Tap this button to return to your Instagram feed.
FIGURE 4-2: Now you can take a video.
When you’re ready to take a video, tap and hold the shutter button. The orange-red recording bar appears as a circle around the shutter button as you record your video (see Figure 4-3).
FIGURE 4-3: The orange-red recording bar grows as you record the video.
Once you release your finger or after you’ve recorded 60 seconds of video, the video plays continuously in the viewer within the Filter screen. You can pause playback by tapping anywhere in the viewer. When you want to play it again, tap the Play button, in the middle of the viewer, as shown in Figure 4-4.
You can toggle video sound on or off by tapping the speaker icon at the top of the page. If you’ve stopped your video, the video starts playing after you turn the video sound on or off.
FIGURE 4-4: Begin playing the video by tapping the Play button.
Improving Your Video
You can improve your video in several ways: by adding a filter, changing the cover frame, and trimming the video. In this section, you start by applying a filter to your video in the Filter screen.
Applying a filter
Below the viewer is a row of filters. (The Normal, Clarendon, and Gingham filters are shown in Figure 4-4.) The thumbnail image below each filter shows you the filter’s effect on your video.
Swipe in the row of thumbnails to view all 23 filters. (Normal is the default, so it isn’t considered a filter.) Tap a filter’s thumbnail, and the video with the applied filter plays in the viewer.
You can change the intensity of any filter by tapping the filter’s thumbnail and then moving the slider to the left or right. (The default intensity is 100.) As you move the slider, the video reflects the change. When you’ve finished selecting an intensity, tap Done.
The video continues to play (or starts to play if the video is paused) when you apply a new filter or change the intensity of a filter. If you want to return the video to its original state, tap the Normal thumbnail.
Trimming to fit
If you find your video is too long, tap Trim at the lower-right corner of the Filter screen shown in Figure 4-4. The Trim screen shown in Figure 4-5 plays the video in the viewer at the top of the screen and has the timeline with all the frames in the video underneath the viewer.
FIGURE 4-5: The timeline is in a white box at the bottom of the screen.
As the video plays, the white bar in the timeline moves from left to right to denote the video frame that’s playing. You can remove frames in the video by tapping and holding the white resizing bars on each end of the timeline and then dragging the bar to the left and right.
Frames that aren’t playing appear dimmed, but you can view them again by dragging the resizing bars to the left or right. As you move the resizing bars, the video plays so you can see how the video looks without the frames you hid.
When you’re happy with your trim and filter, tap Next in the upper-right corner of the screen.
Changing the cover frame
Instagram uses the first frame from your video to produce a cover frame, which is the frame that appears at the start of your video and in your Instagram feed. You can change the cover frame as follows:
On the New Post screen, tap Cover in the upper-left corner of the screen.
The default cover frame appears in the viewer and also below the viewer in a white focus box. The other frames appear next to the focus box and are dimmed, as shown in Figure 4-6.
Tap and hold down on the frame in the focus box, and then drag the frame within the row.
As you drag, the focus box moves to another frame in your video, and you see this new cover frame in the viewer.
- When you find a cover frame you like, release your finger.
- Tap Done.
The cover frame will appear in your Instagram feed, so be sure that the frame you select isn’t blurry.
FIGURE 4-6: Frames that aren’t selected appear dimmed.
Adding details
In the screen that displays your video (refer to Figure 4-4), tap Next. The New Post screen appears, as shown in Figure 4-7.
On this screen, you can add a caption, include a location where the video was recorded, add a fundraiser for a cause you support, share the video on other social media networks, and turn commenting on and off. The process for adding all this good stuff is described in Chapter 3.
FIGURE 4-7: Your cover appears as a thumbnail in the upper-left corner.
Posting your video
When you’re ready to post your video, tap Share at the bottom of the New Post screen on iOS devices, or the check mark in the upper-right corner on Android devices (refer to Figure 4-7). After a few seconds, your video appears on the Instagram home screen, as shown in Figure 4-8.
The video starts playing as soon as you view it and will play continuously every time you view the post. The video plays without sound, but you can turn on the sound by tapping the speaker icon in the lower-right corner of the video.
FIGURE 4-8: The video plays on the home screen.
Uploading a Stored Video
It’s easy to upload a video that you’ve already recorded and stored on your iPhone, iPad, or Android smartphone or tablet. Simply follow these steps:
- Tap the plus (+) icon at the top of the Instagram feed screen.
- Tap Post in the drop-down menu.
Select the video you want to upload by tapping its thumbnail image in the Recents section, as shown in Figure 4-9.
The video plays continuously in the viewer. Stop playback by tapping anywhere in the viewer.
Instagram automatically crops your video to the size of the viewer, but you can resize the video to its original size by tapping the resize icon (labeled in Figure 4-9).(Optional) Apply a filter, change the cover frame, and trim your video.
These tasks are described in the “Improving Your Video” section, earlier in this chapter.
- Tap Next.
(Optional) Add a caption and a location, specify other social networks where you want to share your video, and turn commenting on or off.
These tasks are the same for photos and videos. For details, see the section on enriching photos in Chapter 3.
FIGURE 4-9: The selected video thumbnail image is faded so you know it’s the video playing in the viewer.
Uploading Multiple Videos from an iPhone or iPad
If you’ve already taken videos with your iPhone or iPad and saved them to your Camera Roll, you can upload them to a single Instagram video and share it with your followers. Sorry, Android users; this feature isn’t available on Android smartphones yet.
Follow these steps to upload multiple clips into one Instagram video:
- Tap the plus (+) icon on the Instagram feed screen.
- Tap Post in the drop-down menu.
- Select the first video you want to upload by tapping its thumbnail image in the New Post screen.
- Tap a second video you want to upload.
Tap Next.
The Filter screen appears, and the viewer plays the first video. The second video appears to the right of the first video (see Figure 4-10). The video that’s playing plays first in the video followed by the second video.
- In the viewer, tap the video you want to edit.
Tap Trim, at the bottom of the screen.
The Trim screen appears, and your selected video plays in the viewer.
Trim the first video.
These tasks are described in the “Improving Your Video” section earlier in the chapter, with the exception that the resize bars in the timeline are black instead of white.
Tap Done.
The Filter screen appears.
Repeat Steps 5 through 9 for the second video.
As you add each clip, Instagram assigns it a number indicating its order in the video.
If you add a clip that puts your video over the 60-second limit, Instagram automatically trims the last clip so that your entire video lasts for exactly 60 seconds.Tap Next.
The New Post screen appears.
(Optional) Type a caption, add a location, share your video on other social networks, and turn commenting on or off.
For more information, read the section on enriching photos in Chapter 3. All the information there applies not only to photos but also to videos.
FIGURE 4-10: Tap anywhere in the first video to pause playback.
When you upload a video with multiple clips, you can’t change the orientation of the clips to landscape or portrait. Each clip appears in its original orientation, so keep that in mind when you want to create a video with multiple clips.
Uploading Longer Videos via Desktop Web Browsers
Instagram allows you to upload videos of up to ten minutes in length via the Instagram website on a desktop web browser.
Follow these steps to upload videos on the Instagram website:
- Log into Instagram.com with your Instagram account.
- Click on the plus (+) icon in the upper-right corner of the screen.
- Drag and drop your video file into the upload screen.
- If you want to change the orientation of the video from the default square ratio, click the double arrow icon in the lower-left corner of the viewer and select the ratio to upload.
- Click Next in the upper-right corner of the screen.
- (Optional) Choose your cover image frame, trim the video, and manage the sound for the video.
- Click Next in the upper-right corner of the screen.
- In the editing screen, write your caption, add your location, and tag others as previously described in this chapter.
- Click Share in the upper-right corner to post your video to Instagram.
You can’t edit or add filters to videos when you upload via the Instagram website.