What makes a business Reel look amateur is almost never the phone. Any phone from the last five years shoots better video than most cameras did a decade ago. It’s the dim room, the echo, the wobbly framing and the first three seconds of someone saying “Um, hi, so…”
All of those are fixable without buying much. Our in-house photographers work to the same basics on every shoot: get the light right, get the sound right, keep it steady, and know what you’re going to say before you hit record.
1. Light: face the window
Light does more for video quality than any setting on your phone.
- Face a window. Stand or sit so a window is in front of you, slightly to one side. Soft daylight on your face is the most flattering light there is, and it’s free.
- Never put the window behind you. You’ll be a silhouette, and the phone will struggle to expose both you and the bright background.
- Turn off overhead lights if you’re using daylight. Mixed light makes skin look odd colours.
- Outdoors, find open shade. Under a verandah or the shady side of a building, not in harsh midday sun that makes everyone squint.
- If you film often indoors, a small LED panel or ring light, placed in front and a little above you, helps on grey days.
2. Sound: get the mic close
People will forgive average video. They won’t forgive bad audio. If you’re talking to camera, sound is the single most important thing to fix.
The phone’s built-in mic is fine when it’s close to your mouth and the room is quiet. It’s poor when the phone is two metres away in a tiled room or on a windy job site.
- Buy a small wireless clip-on mic made for phones. They’re inexpensive and plug straight into the phone or connect wirelessly. It’s the best money you’ll spend on video.
- Avoid echoey rooms. Bathrooms, empty offices and showrooms with hard floors bounce sound around. A room with couches, carpet or curtains sounds much better.
- Kill background noise. Turn off the radio, the air con, the compressor. Pause the dishwasher.
- Outside, shelter from the wind. Most clip-on mics come with a small fluffy cover for this. Use it.
3. Framing: vertical, steady, eye level
Reels are vertical, so film vertical. Hold the phone upright or mount it that way.
- Use a tripod or a stable surface. A small phone tripod is cheap. Propping it against a coffee cup works in a pinch. Handheld footage is fine for walk-throughs, but hold the phone with both hands and move slowly.
- Camera at eye level. Phone below your chin is unflattering; phone above you looks like a security camera.
- Leave room at the top and bottom. Instagram puts your caption, username and buttons over the bottom of the screen, and some text across the top. Keep your face and anything important in the middle area.
- Use the back camera when you can. It’s better than the selfie camera on most phones. Use the front camera only when you need to see yourself.
- Clean the lens. Phones live in pockets and on dashboards. A smudged lens makes everything look hazy, and it’s the most common reason phone video looks soft.
4. The first two seconds
People decide almost instantly whether to keep watching. The first two seconds of a Reel have to give them a reason to stay.
Start with the point, not the introduction. Some openings that work for service businesses:
- The result first. Show the finished job, then go back to how you got there.
- The problem on screen. A cracked tile, a mouldy ceiling, a messy shelf. “This is what we walked into this morning.”
- The question. “Can you claim your car if you’re a sole trader?” in text on screen, while you start answering.
- Movement. Something happening straight away: a door opening, a pour starting, coffee hitting the cup.
Things that lose people: logos, “Hi everyone, welcome back”, slow fades from black, and anyone getting comfortable in their chair.
5. Captions on screen
Many people watch with the sound off, at least at first. On-screen captions keep them watching and help people who are hard of hearing.
- Use the auto-captions in Instagram or your editing app, then check every word. Auto-captions get names, place names and technical terms wrong surprisingly often.
- Add a text hook at the start. A short line that says what the Reel is about, visible from the first frame.
- Keep text big and short. A few words at a time, in high-contrast colours. If people can’t read it in a second, it’s too long.
- Use your brand fonts and colours where the app allows, so your Reels look like they belong together.
The written caption under the Reel matters too. Our guide to captions that sound like a person wrote them covers that part.
6. Keep it short and edit tightly
Instagram allows Reels up to three minutes, a change made in early 2025, but long isn’t better for most business content. For a local business, 15 to 45 seconds covers most ideas.
When editing, cut every pause, every “um”, and the first and last second of each clip where you’re reaching for the phone. Tight editing makes ordinary footage feel professional. Instagram’s built-in editor or a free app like CapCut is enough.
Simple formats that work for service businesses
You don’t need trends or dances. These formats work for tradies, practices, cafés and shops, and they repeat well.
The job time-lapse. Set the phone on a tripod and record a job from start to finish, then speed it up. Concreting, tiling, painting, landscaping and detailing all suit this. A concrete grinding and sealing business like Grind & Seal Concrete, one of our clients, has ideal material: dull grey slab to polished floor in 20 seconds.
The before-and-after reveal. Two clips, same angle. Film the before, then return to the exact spot for the after. Mark where you stood so the framing matches.
One question, one answer. Talk to camera for 20 to 30 seconds answering a question customers really ask. Text hook at the top, captions throughout.
The walk-through. Walk slowly through your shop, clinic, venue or a finished job, holding the phone steady at chest height. Add a voiceover or text.
The process in five shots. Five short clips, two to three seconds each, showing the steps of something you do. Making a coffee, fitting a part, wrapping an order.
Myth versus fact. “People think you need to replace the whole hot water system. Usually it’s just this part.” Show the part.
If you’re short on ideas for what to film, our list of things to post when you think you’ve got nothing works just as well for Reels.
Your kit list
You can do all of this with:
- Your phone
- A small tripod with a phone clamp
- A wireless clip-on mic
- A window
Optionally, a small LED light for indoor work. That’s the whole setup.
Before you hit record
Run through this every time:
- Lens wiped
- Facing the light, not backlit
- Mic on and close, background noise off
- Phone vertical, steady, at eye level
- Know your first line
- Do one test clip and play it back with sound
Your phone footage gets better when it sits beside strong stills, so a commercial photography shoot of your team, space and work is a good companion to all of this. And if filming is fine but editing is where it stalls, our social media management service can turn your raw clips into Reels that match the rest of your brand.