When shooting video podcasts, light is probably your most important factor.

Digital video needs light and often times, lots of it. You can help a bad video camera look better with a well lit scene or make your high end video camera look professional by knowing some basics about lighting.

Below, you see a screenshot from an upcoming YouTube video I’m working on where I talk about the 12 minute recording limit on most Canon DLSR’s.

In this lighting setup, I’m using a large window as my “key” (main) light, a small LED light for a “fill” light and I’m illuminating the background with a simple “can” light (a cheap aluminum tin purchased at any hardware store with a household bulb placed inside).

I’m playing around with mixing color temperatures (Kelvins) as well as using an extreme angle. Experimenting is a great way to find your own “look.”

In this example, the window (left side of this image) is letting in large amounts of daylight which is rated at 5600 Kelvin (K). Complimenting that is a small LED light (right side of this image positioned at a slight angle upwards to get light underneath the bill of my hat) which is also daylight balanced at approximately the same K value.

In the background I’m using a simple tungsten bulb (coming in from camera right), typically rated at 3200K. I set the camera’s white balance for daylight so that my skin tone will be correct. As a result the background will appear slightly warmer taking on an orange tone instead of being properly balanced to display white as “true white.”

In this setup (see the diagram below), it’s OK to mix the light temperatures because the different colors are being used in different regions of the video. I have the daylight balanced video as the light illuminating my subject (me) and the tungsten light illuminating the background. This creates a certain amount of separation between subject and background and can be a creative way to create depth in your video.

To create a more traditional three-point lighting setup, I could have added a back-light to illuminate my shoulder (camera right) and the back of my hat. This would separate me even further from the background creating even more depth in my video.

Once you know the rules, by all means go out and break them. Playing around with different lighting setups, compositions, etc. will help you find a look that is uniquely your own and you’ll learn a lot about shooting quality video along the way.

There are many ways to create an .mp3 file. Some methods include creating an mp3 directly from your editing system including Audacity, Garageband and others.

My preferred method is to use the free iTunes software. This gives you a better sounding file due to the technology (Fraunhoffer (best for voice)) that iTunes is using to compress your audio into the .mp3 format.

The video below shows you how to setup your iTunes software for compressing an uncompressed file (.wav or .aiff) into the .mp3 format.

After properly setting up the iTunes software to create mp3′s, I’ll show you how to add in metadata to your file. ID3 tags are the information that helps identify your podcast episode within someone’s portable media player such as an iPod, iPad, or Android device.

This information will display each episode’s title, description and album cover art as well as any other information you choose to include.

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Your version of Skype might be doing a couple things with your audio that you don’t want it to. Here’s how to fix it.

To disable Skype’s auto gain control (AGC) for both Mac (5.6.0.143 and later) and PC versions, simply go into your Preferrences > Audio/Video and deselect the Automatic Microphone Control checkbox.

Disabling Skype’s echo cancellation mode is not as simple but also not that hard. You’ll need to find Skype’s system file on your computer and insert a simple piece of HTML code.

On a Mac browse to Library > Application Support >  Skype > shared.xml.

You’ll need to open this file in an HTML editor that can read the xml format, I recommend Komodo Edit (for Windows, Mac, Linux) as a free, open source solution.

Once you’ve opened the file in your HTML editor, scroll towards the bottom and simply insert the following code

<EC>0</EC>

This will disable Skype’s Echo Cancellation controls.

If you are running a version of Skype that doesn’t have the checkbox to disable the AGC you can also insert the following code to disable that:

<AGC>0</AGC>

Here’s what the code should look like if you have both of these lines inserted

Listen to Jason’s (the Creepercast podcast) feedback about how disabling these controls helped his podcast.

If you weren’t already aware, Skype is likely controlling your audio levels. As podcasters, we want to make sure we are in control of all our settings all of the time. This is how you can make sure Skype isn’t changing your audio quality.

Skype just released (03/06/12) a new version of it’s software for the Mac (version 5.6.0.143). In this release they placed a check-box (already found in the Windows version) for controlling Skype’s auto gain control (AGC). What AGC does is listen to the proximity of your voice to the microphone and adjust the volume as necessary so that the person on the other end can always hear you at a decent level. However, as podcasters, we don’t want anyone besides us deciding what our gain level should be and we certainly don’t want it to change during recording.

Now you can simply go into your preferences audio/video settings and uncheck the “Automatically Adjust Microphone Settings” box. Then go into your computer’s settings and set the level you want your mic to be.

When enabled, AGC will constantly adjust the level of your audio based on your relationship to the mic and whether or not you are speaking into it. During times of silence or if you move too far away from the mic, this can cause the “noise floor” to be raised higher thus producing an audible hiss. Disabling AGC will help to prevent unwanted noise.

Links mentioned in this episode
How to disable Skype’s AGC and EC with HTML code

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I’ve spent hours culling through all the video tutorials I could find to help you get a better understanding of specific audio production concepts.

The videos on this page all deal with the concept of compression and help you understand how to go about using this effect in your audio editing. Underneath each video, I’ve described what, for me, was the primary takeaway from each video (i.e. what made me post it here).

William gives a great breakdown of the basics, explaining compression controls very clearly. His demo is on a drum track but you get a chance to really hear what he’s talking about.

Brief, fun history of compressors. As well, I like how he puts technical terms terms into plain english. The parts where he covers musical instruments is still very useful for podcasters. You are still able to learn the basic concepts of what to start listening for, how compression effects the sound of your recordings.

A well done screencast that gives you a great look at the actual controls of a software compressor. All software has different compressor plugins but this gives you some insights into the basics which you’ll have control of regardless of your software. This one includes a good look at how EQ plays into your edit as well.

This one gives you a good look at some of the compression options in Adobe Audition, a software tool that many podcasters use.

Another look at Adobe Audition but this time a slightly older version, 3.0. All of this also applies to the most recent versions of Audition.

This one attempts to get you closer to the “radio voice” that so many podcasters think they want.

When you insert a link to a hosted audio file into Facebook’s link section above the status box, Facebook will automatically create an audio player.

Below this audio player is a couple areas of information about any particular audio file you link to. They don’t make it obvious that you can actually edit the information that is contained in these fields (title, artist, album) but it’s an easy process once you know how.

Once your file is linked, you see that the fields display “unknown artist” and “unknown album.”

Simply place your mouse over each section and the field to be edited will be highlighted. Click and place whatever text you like into this section. It’s that simple. This also applies for the title of the file seen in bold lettering.

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If your RSS feed stops updating and you are using Feedburner, it’s likely that your feed size has become too large. Feedburner stops updating feeds when the size of your original feed is larger than 512 KB.

This video shows you how to check the size of your Feedburner feed so that you can avoid having your feed interrupted. Once your feed size goes back to being less than 512 KB’s, Feedburner will continue to update and deliver your RSS feed to your subscribers.

You can also reduce the amount of items in your feed to help prevent feed interruptions.

Check your feed’s size at Web-sniffer.net.

Here’s a way to see if you have received any iTunes reviews and/or ratings for your podcast in different countries.

There are 123 different countries with an iTunes store. And although you can’t purchase from countries you don’t reside in, you can see your ratings and reviews for each podcast you have in the iTunes store. And it’s simple.

If you use WordPress to create your podcasting RSS feed then you may have noticed that only ten or less of your most recent episodes are showing up in podcatchers such as iTunes. There’s a simple fix.

Simply adjust the default syndication setting (10) in the Reading section of your WordPress settings.

Click here to see a screencast tutorial of me walking you through the process. This works for both free sites on WordPress.com and your own installation of WordPress.

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If you are having an issue with iTunes, or any other podcatcher, only showing your most recent ten (10) or less episodes and you are using WordPress to feed your podcast, this is the fix for you.

Even if you are also using feedburner, changing this simple setting will allow more episodes to appear in your RSS feed and thus on iTunes, Zune, Miro, etc.

This fix works for both WordPress.com and people who have their own installation of WordPress on their own server.

Best viewed in full screen mode. Press play then select 720p HD version in the bottom right of the video player and then view full screen.

In this tutorial I show you how to create a podcast ready RSS feed using either wordpress.com or your own installation of wordpress. I combine the power of wordpress and its ability to create as many feeds as you want, along with Feedburner to make a valid RSS feed for your podcast.

Using WordPress and Feedburner to feed your podcast allows you a lot of control over what is in your feed and how your feed will appear on podcast directories such as itunes, Zune, Miro and anywhere else you submit your podcast.

Gary from MacMost.com shows us how to use two or more USB microphones to record audio using a single Macintosh and Garageband.

HOW TO INSTALL & USE THE AUDIO PLAYER PLUGIN FOR WORDPRESS

This tutorial will show you how to install an audio player on your wordpress site. This is for people who have their own installation of wordpress on their own server/web host and want to place audio files into their wordpress sites. (Best Viewed in Full Screen Mode)

HOW TO EMBED AUDIO ON YOUR WORDPRESS.COM SITE

Learn how to put an audio/mp3 file (i.e. your podcast episode) on your wordpress.com site. (This tutorial was captured in full HD and is best watched using the full screen option by clicking the little tv icon in the bottom right side of this player).

HOW TO GET STARTED USING ITUNES

Learn how to get started using iTunes to subscribe to podcasts. If you’ve never used iTunes, this video will help you learn the basics. Itunes is great place to find podcasts on any and all topics including this show, The Podcasters Studio.

Learn how to use multiple audio sources with Ustream. Usually in order to record more than one audio source (ie your mic) you would need an expensive mixer. Learn how to use a cheap piece of software to include sources such as music and sound fx into your live stream bypassing the need for a mixer and upgrading the production value of your show.
Special thanks to @sneakerpeet for creating this screencast. Visit sneakerpeet.com for more valuable content!