 What's up guys it's your Val here and welcome back to the channel. If you're new here make sure you hit that subscribe button for more videos like this one and if you want to help us out make sure you like this video. As content creators we naturally really appreciate visuals and we tend to focus most of our energy on things like composition, lighting, camera movement and so on. What we often tend to overlook is sound. It's been well proven before that good sound is at least as important if not more important than good visuals and if you've ever watched a video with terrible sound you know this is true because it just makes the whole video unwatchable and you just want to stop watching it and watch something else instead. Now there are two main ways to improve the overall sound quality of your video. Number one is getting a high quality external microphone. Which type of microphone you get really depends on your needs and your budget but nowadays there are a lot of great options out there whether you're using your phone or mirrorless camera. Personally we love using gold since they have a variety of different options for a bunch of different needs but of course there are a lot of great brands out there. The second way to improve your video using sound is using sound effects. This can be as simple as adding in the occasional woosh sound effect or you could dive deeper with foley sound effects, ambient or other sound effects elements to really engage your audience in the video and create a whole other dimension. If you're interested in learning more about sound design we have an extensive sound design tutorial that we made poking you through our entire process so make sure you check it out. Next up we have lighting. Lighting is one of those things that can either make or break your video. You can make a shot look amazing with just an iPhone if you have your lighting right but on the other hand your shot could look really really bad even with the most expensive camera if your lighting is just off. Now I get it most of you probably don't have the money to buy all of these expensive lights but the good news is you can learn how to use natural light to your advantage to create beautiful images even without having all of these expensive lights. That's of course a whole topic in and of itself but just standing at the right spot or shooting at the right time of day can make a world of difference. The most important thing is to understand the basic principles. Learn what makes lights soft and flattering and then start experimenting with that and maybe buy a reflector or a few budget lights later down the road but the potential with just natural light is pretty amazing. There are many youtube videos and various courses out there online on natural lighting so if there's something you want to focus on it's that. Next up we have color grading. Technology has brought us to the point where almost any camera to date including your phone is highly capable of capturing high quality and high dynamic range video files which is great because it means we can push around the image we can shift around the colors and the tones and the image won't break that easily. But why should you even bother color grading your video? Well grading your footage gives you the opportunity to make your content stand out from the crowd, look professional and leave a bigger emotional impact on your audience. There are many ways to color grade your footage. There are iphone or ipad apps such as Moments new Grain app. There are lots which are essentially color presets that you can use in editing softwares like Premiere Pro or Final Cut and then there are more advanced color grading softwares like the Venture Resolve or Baselight. Spend some time to figure out which of these options is most suitable to you, your workflow, your style and the kind of look that you want to achieve. So these are the top 3 skills that I think you should focus on as a content creator in order to step up your video game and really make your content stand out from the rest. If this video was helpful to you and you're enjoying this kind of content make sure you hit that like button and also consider subscribing for more videos like this And for today's giveaway, 3 of you guys could win 3 artist t-shirts just like this one. All you have to do is tell us down in the comments below what's the one skill you want to focus on for your work this year in order to improve your videos. Here is the winner of our last video. Congratulations to you and until the next time stay creative.