How to Shoot Travel Videos Like a Pro—Step 1: Preparation

Sometimes, there are no words to sum up what you’ve seen during your travels. You might need the help of your smartphone camera to really capture the moment.

Make sure you’re ready wherever inspiration strikes with these tips from the EF video team.

1. Charge Your Phone

Shooting video can drain your battery, so make sure you charge your phone each night, and bring an extra battery pack to last the whole day. Keep it in Airplane Mode to stretch out battery life even more.

2. Free Up Space

Do your best to empty your storage before heading abroad. Move all your photos and videos to your laptop, and delete them from your phone (along with any apps you never use). The more space you have to play around with, the less likely your phone will stop mid-capture of an epic street performance or NYE countdown.

3. Back Up Your Video

At the end of each day, upload your videos (and photos) to a laptop or cloud service like Dropbox or Google Drive. Just make sure you’re on Wi-Fi—those international data charges can add up quick. Backing up your videos lets you clear space in your phone and also creates a safety net, just in case.

4. Clean Your Lens

With all the eating, drinking and gallivanting, your lens will smudge easily. Pack a microfiber cloth to wipe your back and front camera.

5. Develop a Plan

To truly capture the feeling of your experience, set out each day with a plan of what you’ll do, and a thought for how to film it. Think of cool angles or movements to really bring the viewer into your footage. Wrapping your head around your plans will prepare you to capture the spontaneous moments that are bound to happen while you travel.