Grasp the Art of Steadiness in Photography

DIY Tripods| How to Stabilize Your Camera without Buying a Tripod

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

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When you’re trying to grow a channel on YouTube it can feel like equipment is a barrier, but it shouldn’t be. If you can’t afford a high-end tripod, for example, there are loads of ways to get by without one.

DIY Your Video with Wondershare Filmora

Wondershare Filmora has the best video stabilization tool is your videos have a bad frame or were recorded in dim lights. If a video is shot in bad weather or unfriendly situation where you don’t have all the equipment required for a quality recording, Wondershare Filmora can help you in the background to edit your videos like a pro. And it has all the relevant tools like effects, transitions, background removal, overlays, and background music that could turn your normal video to a professional one.

Here are 3 of our favorite DIY tripods.

DIY smartphone tripod using binder clips or hair clips

You’re a solo operation and your best camera is on your phone. That’s pretty common.

If you have a DSLR then you can set it down on any stable surface while filming yourself, but your phone can’t stand up by itself. It needs something or someone to hold it. Do you just accept that and shoot everything as a selfie?

No. No, you don’t, because there are common household items that can help you out of this problem. For this DIY tripod, you need either 2 binder clips or 2 ‘claw clips’ (also called ‘hair jaws’).

Hold your phone in landscape mode (horizontally, so it’s long rather than tall) and attach clips to the bottom corners. If you are worried about scratching your screen, fold up some paper to place between your clip and your phone.

Here it is with binder clips:

And here it is with hair clips:

Now you can set your smartphone upon any stable surface, like a table or a stack of books.

Here are some more cool ideas!

DIY adjustable tripod using books and a towel

You’ve probably heard a million times that you can stabilize your camera by sitting it down on any stable surface – on your desk, on a stack of books, up in a tree, etc. This is very true!

But if you can use any stable surface, why do people buy tripods?

Because it isn’t convenient to rearrange your furniture whenever you want to make a video, and also because tripods are adjustable. You can change their height, you can use them to pan or tilt, and it’s pretty easy to move them a bit forwards or backward while you’re setting up your shot.

To get similar functions from the ‘any stable surface’ solution you can use a table, a stack of books, and a towel.

1. Set up the area where you’re going to sit while you’re filming on one end of the table.
2. Put the towel down over the approximate spot you want your camera to be.
3. Stack your books on top of the towel.
4. Put your camera on top of the books.

Now if your camera isn’t up high enough, or is too high, you can adjust it just by adding or taking away books. If you want to move it closer or farther away from you, just pull the towel forwards or backward.

DIY gripping ‘Gorillapod’ using wire and tape

Gorillapod’s are cool because you can use them like normal tripods, carry them around like selfie sticks, or attach them to things like fences and posts. Here’s how you can make something similar using wire, electrical tape or duct tape, and a 1/4 bolt.

Your wire should be fairly stiff and you’ll need three pieces the same length, which should be at least 10 inches. Old clothes hangers work well. This needs to be something strong enough to support the weight of your camera, but soft enough that it’s not impossible for you to bend.

All of your supplies plus the finished product.

Readying your legs

Step 1: Bend 2 inches at one end of each wire into a ‘U’ shape. You will probably need pliers for this.

Step 2: Pick up one of your pieces of wire and wrap one end with electrical tape. Go around 5-10 times (to prevent it from coming undone at the end) and then, without cutting your tape, start moving up and wrapping the rest of your wire. Stop before your ‘U’ section.

Repeat this with the other two wires.

Attaching your legs

Step 1: Place the ‘U’ section of a leg against your bolt. The bolt’s threading should be pointing away from the leg. Now, use your tape to attach them. Wind it around 2 or 3 times, then repeat the process with both of the other legs individually.

Step 2: After all the legs are attached, wrap some more tape around all 3 as tightly as you can.

Your camera will mount onto the bolt! You’ll be able to use this as a normal table-top tripod or use the flexible legs to grab onto different things like a Gorillapod. Read more at Instructables.

Note: make sure the bolt is a fit for your camera before you get too far into this process.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Vimeo vs YouTube vs Dailymotion: Which Platform Is the One?

Vimeo vs YouTube vs Dailymotion: Which Video Platform is Right for You?

Ollie Mattison

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

If you are an upcoming entrepreneur who is looking forward to an effective video marketing strategy then you have to come to a decision regarding the portal you want to use for your marketing. As you should know by now YouTube , Dailymotion and Vimeo are the 3 major players in the field of video marketing. In this article, we are going to give you a comparative analysis of all these video sharing platforms so that you can select the one most suited to your needs.

• Part 1: Detailed Comparison of Vimeo, YouTube, and DailyMotion
• Part 2: Tips for Editing Videos on YouTube, DailyMotion, and Vimeo

Compare Vimeo, YouTube, and DailyMotion in 4 Aspects

1. Content

Before deciding which video platform to choose, you need to find out about the content in which each of them specializes.

Youtube: If your content is more related to entertainment then YouTube is the platform to go for.

Vimeo: Vimeo is a closed community specializing in videos by artists from various genres and is considered to be a more creative platform than YouTube.

Dailymotion: Dailymotion has a fair share of both but it resembles the YouTube trend.

2. Audience Size and Membership

Youtube: YouTube’s audience is large, with over 1 billion users that watch hundreds of millions of hours of content – each day! Vimeo has a much smaller for their audience, its 170 million viewers, about 42 million are in the United States.

Vimeo: Vimeo comes with 4 membership options – the Basic which is available for free and the paid Plus, ($59.95/ year) Pro ($199.00 a year), and Business membership ($599.00 a year). The storage level and support for each membership option vary. The free membership is limited to just 500 MB/week. YouTube and Dailymotion on the other hand are totally free, and Youtube gives unlimited hosting. However YouTube Red is a $9.99 subscription service that will allow you to watch ad-free videos and download them for watching offline.

_Read this Vimeo introduction >>> _

Dailymotion: DailyMotion is the world’s second-largest video-sharing website behind YouTube, statistics claimed by both companies show that YouTube has a significant advantage over DailyMotion in terms of unique site visits, totaling one billion visits per month compared with DailyMotion’s 112 million visits per month.

_Know more about Dailymotion >>> _

3. Limitation of Videos

Youtube: One of the best parts about this platform is that it doesn’t come with any upload limit.

Dailymotion: Regular users can upload 60 minutes videos of 2 GB limit and the quality of upload is limited to 1280 720p.

Vimeo: With a Basic plan, you can upload 500MB/week, with a Plus plan you can upload 5GB/week and with Pro plan you will be able to upload unlimited videos with a per-file limit of 25 GB.

4. User Experience

To begin with, both Vimeo and YouTube had a very similar kind of user interface. This has gradually evolved over the years and these days the user interface of Vimeo is more attractive than YouTube. Vimeo would give the user fewer adverts, offer easy navigation and of course, allow them to watch the videos on a large video player. Though these days YouTube is also offering a ‘theatre mode’ for the full-screen view along with a skip adoption, yet the quality of its user experience is still isn’t at par with Vimeo. YouTube is still trying its best to satisfy its one billion/month users but still, Vimeo is the winner when it comes to unparalleled user experience.

Tips for Editing Videos on YouTube, DailyMotion, and Vimeo

Before uploading your video on any one of these above-mentioned platforms the first thing you have to do is get your videos edited. The Wondershare Filmora is a comprehensive video editor that is ideal for use by beginners. With this software, you will be able to nicely edit a video even if you have no prior knowledge about video editing. This easy to use video editing software is loaded with lots of useful features which can be effectively used by the casual and novice editors. This software is packed with all you need to create good quality videos for your audience on YouTube, Vimeo, or DailyMotion. All you need to do is import the video clips and choose a piece of pre-programmed music and theme for your video. The software would then analyze your video clips and automatically create a video for you.

Ollie Mattison

Ollie Mattison is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Ollie Mattison