Learn the importance of proper framing. I actually was just watching some guy on another channel do an OBS tutorial, and the entire top half of the frame was his room. *facepalm* Idealy, you should only have a few rows of pixels between the top of the head and the top of the frame. Also don't frame the bottom of someone at the crotch area, or on the clevage of women. If you have camera operators or remote cameras, don't zoom INTO a back ground singer - you can zoom out, but never in - only zoom in on the lead vocalists. If you do audience shots, make sure the people (everyone in the shot) are engaged. Don't take the shot if a child is acting up, someone is chewing gum, someone looks bored, if people are doing a bit too much pda, etc. Learn how to set the brightness and contrast levels on your cameras. Color correcting and white balancing is big as well. Make sure your cameras are level - especially on a wide shot Try to archive your streams. If I am tuning in on a live stream, chances are I am not there right when the service starts - I am probably starting 10 or 15 or even 20 minutes later, and so I will want to go back and start the stream from the beginning. It is so annoying to be halfway through the sermon, and the stream cuts off because the service is over. If the platform you are using does not allow for archiving or for people to scroll back to earlier in the service, you need to consider changing platforms. If you have the capability to do HD, but a limited internet speed, upload sermons / special events / music later in HD. It is usually not a good idea to send your house audio mix to your stream. Ideally, you would have a seperate audio board and someone in another room controlling the audio for broadcast. Watch other people's streams. Look at Hillsong, Gateway, Lakewood, Cross Church, Bethel, First Baptist Dallas, and take note of what you like and don't like. No, your production may never be as big budget, but you can get ideas about framing, camera placement, tricks to do with cameras, announcement videos, etc. Look at how they are cutting sermons, using lower thirds, lighting, graphics, IMAG (Image Magnification), etc Don't do everything on the same PC. Pick up an Elgato StreamDeck. Grab a second or third display and use the windowed mode in OBS, and full screen it to another monitor. May be OBS's best feature Go back and watch your recording after the service, and critique your own work. Sit with someone else while they are watching it as well, and pick up on their feedback and body language
gravis778 I’m late but thanks for the tips. These are actually really helpful. I would love to have a different mix for my audio using Ableton Live, but I unfortunately can’t because I don’t have a way to get the audio from our FOH board to Ableton. I would like to use Dante or NDI (not really meant for this purpose. But anyways, thanks for the awesome tips.
Yes I'll make a video on that one later today but in OBS, you do a screen capture of the second display running your presentation software or PowerPoint. Set that as a new scene and boom you got it!
@@AJaytheCEO Hmmm, that would work. And if you got a solid back ground, you could chroma key it. What I am thinking, and for lack of a better way to do it, is if I got time to make a Power Point, I probably have time to make some image slides. Grab a lower third graphic, add a layer for your text, you can use the Show Grid option in Photoshop to help make sure everything is lined up, and save several files, and just use the image slideshow option in OBS. The bad thing is that you could not change camera angles, unless you had all your cameras in one scene and just turned the visibility on and off. But for scripture, you may want to use a wider shot anyways and stick to it while they are reading scripture. What I would love to be able to do is have a static lower third graphic, then have something like a "text slide" where I can just throw the text straight into OBS.
Great tips. I did see something though that I thought I would comment on that would make the stream more visually pleasing. There is a lot of empty space in the auditorium. This looks horrible on video, and when I see churches look like that, I normally turn off the stream. What I have seen many churches do (and I get that this many make many people mad at first, but they will get used to it after a couple of weeks) is to just put a drape over the back few rows of seats / pews, and as you fill up the auditorium, you open up a row. Then just crop / zoom out the empty space. I would much rather see what looks like a smaller building that is full than a larger building that is empty. My church does this for their broadcasts (in fact, we even have electric shades the same color as the walls that we lower to close off the balcony if we are not expecting that many people for that service). Thanks for making these videos. A friend and I are doing a Christian talk show (started off as a podcast, but realized we got significantly higher audience when we put it on TH-cam), and have been working on upping the look, so your videos are some of several that I have been watching to get ideas.
I said the same thing to my pastor about asking people to move to the center rows but he actually said that very same statement on the live stream. #facepalm moment. It's things like this that most people don't think are important that are received completely different outside of the church. How many basketball or football games would you go to if only 3 people were in the stadium? The crowd conveys the message that this is not very good. But if you, like you said, removed that visual distraction, everyone would be focused on the message. We tend to look for what is wrong more than what is right so the smallest thing is enough to turn this off or ignore the stream of any given ministry.
In my Church I’m the “director” of sorts so I have to tell my camera ops where to point the camera so the framing is right. If the shot already looks okay then I obviously won’t tell them where to go. It is stressful and fun at the same time, especially during parts of the service where the band plays.
What are some tips you would suggest to those just starting to live stream their services?
Learn the importance of proper framing. I actually was just watching some guy on another channel do an OBS tutorial, and the entire top half of the frame was his room. *facepalm* Idealy, you should only have a few rows of pixels between the top of the head and the top of the frame. Also don't frame the bottom of someone at the crotch area, or on the clevage of women.
If you have camera operators or remote cameras, don't zoom INTO a back ground singer - you can zoom out, but never in - only zoom in on the lead vocalists.
If you do audience shots, make sure the people (everyone in the shot) are engaged. Don't take the shot if a child is acting up, someone is chewing gum, someone looks bored, if people are doing a bit too much pda, etc.
Learn how to set the brightness and contrast levels on your cameras. Color correcting and white balancing is big as well.
Make sure your cameras are level - especially on a wide shot
Try to archive your streams. If I am tuning in on a live stream, chances are I am not there right when the service starts - I am probably starting 10 or 15 or even 20 minutes later, and so I will want to go back and start the stream from the beginning. It is so annoying to be halfway through the sermon, and the stream cuts off because the service is over. If the platform you are using does not allow for archiving or for people to scroll back to earlier in the service, you need to consider changing platforms.
If you have the capability to do HD, but a limited internet speed, upload sermons / special events / music later in HD.
It is usually not a good idea to send your house audio mix to your stream. Ideally, you would have a seperate audio board and someone in another room controlling the audio for broadcast.
Watch other people's streams. Look at Hillsong, Gateway, Lakewood, Cross Church, Bethel, First Baptist Dallas, and take note of what you like and don't like. No, your production may never be as big budget, but you can get ideas about framing, camera placement, tricks to do with cameras, announcement videos, etc. Look at how they are cutting sermons, using lower thirds, lighting, graphics, IMAG (Image Magnification), etc
Don't do everything on the same PC.
Pick up an Elgato StreamDeck.
Grab a second or third display and use the windowed mode in OBS, and full screen it to another monitor. May be OBS's best feature
Go back and watch your recording after the service, and critique your own work. Sit with someone else while they are watching it as well, and pick up on their feedback and body language
gravis778 I’m late but thanks for the tips. These are actually really helpful. I would love to have a different mix for my audio using Ableton Live, but I unfortunately can’t because I don’t have a way to get the audio from our FOH board to Ableton. I would like to use Dante or NDI (not really meant for this purpose. But anyways, thanks for the awesome tips.
Very good common sense suggestions. Thanks.
Glad it was helpful!
re watching this to see if i missed anything! i did! can you explain about a single camera and multiple shots? thanks again!
Great Content? Do you have any suggestions on how to get a bible and song lyrics on livestream using obs?
Yes I'll make a video on that one later today but in OBS, you do a screen capture of the second display running your presentation software or PowerPoint. Set that as a new scene and boom you got it!
Okay. Thank you I’ll try it!
@@AJaytheCEO Hmmm, that would work. And if you got a solid back ground, you could chroma key it.
What I am thinking, and for lack of a better way to do it, is if I got time to make a Power Point, I probably have time to make some image slides. Grab a lower third graphic, add a layer for your text, you can use the Show Grid option in Photoshop to help make sure everything is lined up, and save several files, and just use the image slideshow option in OBS. The bad thing is that you could not change camera angles, unless you had all your cameras in one scene and just turned the visibility on and off. But for scripture, you may want to use a wider shot anyways and stick to it while they are reading scripture.
What I would love to be able to do is have a static lower third graphic, then have something like a "text slide" where I can just throw the text straight into OBS.
@@gravis778 that's how my brother in law's church does there lower thirds. I'll put a link to their latest stream
th-cam.com/video/cISdMs1YMwc/w-d-xo.html
Great tips. I did see something though that I thought I would comment on that would make the stream more visually pleasing. There is a lot of empty space in the auditorium. This looks horrible on video, and when I see churches look like that, I normally turn off the stream. What I have seen many churches do (and I get that this many make many people mad at first, but they will get used to it after a couple of weeks) is to just put a drape over the back few rows of seats / pews, and as you fill up the auditorium, you open up a row. Then just crop / zoom out the empty space. I would much rather see what looks like a smaller building that is full than a larger building that is empty. My church does this for their broadcasts (in fact, we even have electric shades the same color as the walls that we lower to close off the balcony if we are not expecting that many people for that service).
Thanks for making these videos. A friend and I are doing a Christian talk show (started off as a podcast, but realized we got significantly higher audience when we put it on TH-cam), and have been working on upping the look, so your videos are some of several that I have been watching to get ideas.
I said the same thing to my pastor about asking people to move to the center rows but he actually said that very same statement on the live stream. #facepalm moment. It's things like this that most people don't think are important that are received completely different outside of the church. How many basketball or football games would you go to if only 3 people were in the stadium? The crowd conveys the message that this is not very good. But if you, like you said, removed that visual distraction, everyone would be focused on the message. We tend to look for what is wrong more than what is right so the smallest thing is enough to turn this off or ignore the stream of any given ministry.
In my Church I’m the “director” of sorts so I have to tell my camera ops where to point the camera so the framing is right. If the shot already looks okay then I obviously won’t tell them where to go. It is stressful and fun at the same time, especially during parts of the service where the band plays.
Why am I controller stop linking to my cameras
I don't know. What type of controller and cameras are you using?