How to Make Cooking Videos in 5 Easy Steps

There is nothing more fulfilling than food. Whether it’s eating or cooking, food is something that everyone enjoys.

People love experimenting with new recipes, methods, and cooking styles. Cooking video content, such as food prep and recipe videos, always do well on the internet.

Mastering the perfect video of your cooking skills is necessary to keep viewers coming back for more. Whether you’re a vlogger with a passion for food or a skilled chef, you need to know the skill of making good videos.

A lot goes into creating appealing cooking videos— elements like shooting angles, lighting, colour, etc., must all work together flawlessly to produce a simple-to-follow, tasty final product. Now, before we move ahead to the steps for creating a cooking video, it is essential to take care of the preparation and shooting gear you’ll need.

Plan Ahead

This part of the video process is crucial for gathering all the ingredients you’ll need for your recipe and arranging how you’ll convey the recipe technique and the cooking steps to the audience.

Write down all the recipe ingredients and procedures in order so that when you’re ready to shoot, you’ll already have all the desired ingredients on hand, along with the exact amounts required for the recipes.

Equipment and Gears You’ll Need

Let’s take a look at the video equipment you’ll need to start filming your next cooking video.

• A camera with a good video capability or a high-resolution smartphone camera.
• When filming the video, a tripod is highly suggested for better stabilisation
• For your food videos, a video lighting kit is also necessary
• You’ll need a high-quality microphone or an external recorder
• For videos, a memory card with good storage and high transfer speed
• Now, if you are wondering how to edit videos, you can either hire someone or get a video editing tool to do it yourself.
• Now, let’s move on to the essential part of this article, which is the “5 easy steps to make a cooking video”.

1. Start Recording with Your Chosen Platform in Mind

The first step of making a cooking video is to choose the platform on which you will be posting the video. Long-form video content is posted on platforms like YouTube, and short-form content is posted on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook.

Once you decide on the platform, you can make the appropriate video adjustments, such as the video’s ratio, dimension, and length. Deciding on the platform beforehand will allow you to prepare the steps and a storyline for the video. Also, consider the choices and preferences of your targeted audience so the cooking video you are making reaches as many viewers as possible.

2. Shoot an Intro

The next step is to shoot an intro for your cooking video. The intro part usually includes a quick introduction of the host, the food that will be prepared, the introduction to the recipe, and the ingredients that will be required.

The intro helps the viewers to get familiar with the dish and the ingredients they will need to replicate the recipe. For a better understanding of the events, you can choose to show these introductory parts at the beginning of the video-.

• The finished product
• Things you prepared ahead of time
• Tools and cutlery needed for cooking the food
• Shots of the ingredients required
• The time required for cooking the food, including prep time

3. Shoot in Different Angles

Avoid shooting a single long video from only one angle because you want to cover the entire process. Do not get too close to the food or too far from it. Instead, try to shoot your cooking video by switching to different angles; it makes the video more dynamic and interesting. You can also choose to use more than one camera, one for the close-up shots and the other for wide stationary shots.

Experiment with different frame sizes and perspectives to liven things up (or with props and lighting). Using a mix of close-up and full-frame shots can give your audience a more engaging video. This way, you will have more options to select from during video editing to make the final video look more appealing. Also if you need good narration, voiceovers, you have good text to speech software options.

4. Take Care of the Lights and Colours

When it comes to lighting your food, you want to ensure that the important elements are seen rather than obscured by dramatic shadow. If you plan to use natural light from the windows, ensure your kitchen lights are turned off because most indoor lights have a yellow tint.

Regardless of how stylish you want your cinematic food sequence to be, you’re best off keeping it simple. Keep things basic when colouring your food photos. Before you start filming, make sure the white balance is accurate. White balance guarantees that all the colours in the footage are accurate. Also, when filming your cooking video, avoid wearing white or anything with loud designs because it will distract the audience.

5. Film the Finished Product

Always end your video by slicing or serving a meal for your viewers. Consider adding a sprinkle of fresh herbs or another colourful garnish to a monochrome (one-colour) pasta or cuisine to balance things out and pop on video. Around the end of the video, you can offer plating tips and garnishing ideas.

Take a brief shot of the final product after the food is served, and then stop the filming. Depending on your desire, you can optionally put a text overlay or a title card at the beginning or finish of your cooking video. Try to make your dish as appetising as it can be so your viewers watch and stick to more of your cooking videos. Such shots are called money shots, so do not forget to include these money shots in your cooking videos.

Conclusion

Cooking videos are loved by all, whether they are watched for entertainment or the recipe itself. Make sure the cooking video has a dynamic characteristic, so the audience finds it interesting and worth watching.

You can easily make a cooking video using the tips mentioned above. Also, give the video a personal touch, just like your recipes. This guide will help you capture the attention of hungry viewers through your mouth-watering cooking videos.