Accelerated Learning for Chromakey Artistry

The world of video-making owes much of its magic to small leaps of innovation. One of these leaps is the use of the chroma key background, which most people know by the more colloquial term—green screen.

Chroma key, also known as green screen or blue screen, is a cool hack for seamless visual storytelling, allowing content creators to replace backgrounds with any image or video they want. This technique is widely embraced in film, television, and online content, and has opened the door to limitless creative possibilities. Aside from its ability to maximize creativity, it is also cheap to employ and convenient to set up, which has made it a staple for everyone who works with visuals.

In this simple guide, we’ll delve into the fundamentals of the chroma key effect, how it is used for video making, and how to leverage that as you perfect your visual content.

YouTube Video Background Creating realistic video scenes at your will is easy to complete with Filmora green screen removal.

Create Video Backgrounds Create Video Backgrounds Learn Green Screen

How Does Chroma Key Work?

Chroma Keying is done by singling out a specific color (usually green or blue) from the foreground, removing it, and replacing it with a different background (for example, a sunset). This process typically follows a series of steps:

• Background Selection:

A solid, single-color background, often green or blue, that contrasts well with the subject must be used. The color chosen should not be present in the subject or any props in the camera field to avoid unintentional transparency.

• Color Keying:

This requires the use of specialized visual effects software to key out the chosen color. The green or blue background is designated as transparent, making everything of that color see-through. The software distinguishes between the keyed color and the subject, creating a mask for the transparent areas.

• Foreground Filming:

This involves filming the subject against the live chroma key background. During filming, the chosen background color (green or blue) won’t appear in the final result due to its transparency. The subject is captured as if separately from the isolated background.

• Post-Processing:

In post-production processing, the editor takes the keyed-out color and replaces it with the new background of their choice. This step creates the illusion that the subject is in a different setting or environment. The transparent areas become filled with the chosen background which, if done right, results in a cohesive and visually appealing composition.

Why Green?

Theoretically, the chroma key background can be any solid color. However, the most commonly used colors are studio blue and bright green, with the latter far more common.

The choice of background color depends on the specific requirements of the production and the colors present in the scenes being filmed.

Free Download For Win 7 or later(64-bit)

Free Download For macOS 10.14 or later

Contrast

The less similar your chosen background color is to natural skin tones, the easier to isolate and replace in your footage. Bright green provides a strong contrast to most human skin tones and is less likely to be present in costumes or natural surroundings, making it easier to isolate subjects during the color separation.

Luminance

The color green emits light with greater intensity than blue, allowing for far more effective isolation by cameras during filming. This also means that blue screens demand increased lighting for proper exposure compared to green. This situation may be less than ideal if you lack powerful lighting or you don’t have the big bucks for them.

Digital Sensors

Many digital cameras and sensors are more sensitive to green wavelengths, resulting in cleaner and more accurate color keying during post-processing. Modern technology has also evolved to optimize for a green background, making it a more practical choice for the chroma key effect.

Wardrobe and Set Design

Bright green occurs less naturally in costumes and set designs than other colors, making green the optimal choice for reducing the likelihood of color spill and keying issues. However, if you know your scene will have lots of green, it is probably best to film with a blue screen, so there’s less risk of color spill and less post-production work.

Setting up Your Own Chroma Key Studio

Setting up your chroma key is convenient and straightforward, but there are some key factors to consider while setting up to ensure maximal performance.

Choosing the Right Background Color

The first step in the chroma key setup is selecting the right background color to be keyed out. This choice determines your effective color separation and ensures a smooth keying process during editing. Choosing a chroma-key background color that contrasts distinctly with the subject’s colors is essential for effective color separation. This prevents unintentional transparency, color spill, and ensures a polished final result.

Lighting Considerations

Lighting is an important part of the chroma-keying process. Bold, uniform, and consistent lighting on both the subject and the background makes it easy to delineate one from the other fully. This minimizes shadows and variations in color, creating a smooth and seamless keying process. Multiple diffuse lights from different angles are often used to illuminate the green screen evenly.

Positioning/Camera

Proper subject and camera placement are necessary to ensure an even color-keying process during post-production. To prevent shadow interference, the green screen should be smooth, tense, and without wrinkles or shadows.

High-quality cameras are essential every time, especially for chroma keying. Images with better definition are easier to key, so camera quality significantly affects the outcome. Even if your camera isn’t the best, merely shooting well can ensure a clean color-keying process during editing, resulting in professional-looking visuals.

Recording Tips for Chroma Key

• Proper Lighting

Maintaining uniform and well-defined lighting during recording is essential for a successful chroma-keying process. This consistency ensures a seamless keying process during post-production.

• Keep Distance from the Green Screen

The optimal distance between the subject and the green screen minimizes color spill and allows for natural movements. Proper distance between subject and background allows for easier isolation of the background and much smoother post-editing. A recommended starting point for the issue is around 6 to 10 feet from the background.

• Subjects and Clothing

As mentioned before, the choice of costume for Selecting appropriate clothing that doesn’t match the chroma key color prevents transparency issues. Subjects also have to be positioned in such a way that there is minimal light interference and reflection. These contribute to a flawless chroma key outcome.

3 Basic Troubleshooting Strategies

• Color Spill

Sometimes, reflected light from your green background can be cast on your subject and may remain so when the background light is keyed out. This phenomenon is known as a color spill. It is usually because of uneven lighting or shooting around reflecting surfaces. Avoiding spill can differentiate between good and lousy chroma key aftereffects.

Human hair is one area where color spill can show up unsuspectingly. Due to the translucency of hair, it is common for some unintended light to seep through. This allows some background visibility, which you do not want with a chroma key. This is especially notable with lighter hair colors like blond hair.

There are ways to account for this. Many video-editing software have features such as spill suppression and screen matte adjustments that can enhance the final footage. Specialized plugins also go a long way in ensuring minimizing spill. Addressing spill correction tackles unwanted green artifacts and ensures a clean keying process.

• Poor Lighting

Suboptimal green screen lighting can lead to inconsistencies in keying and editing, undermining your product. One way to avoid this is to light the screen and subject separately. Another tip, although expensive, is using multiple diffuse light sources and trying to maintain even lighting across every square foot of your scene. Super bright or dark spots can ruin your output, so it’s worth the extra effort if you don’t want to deal with problematic post-production.

• Poorly Refined Edges

Chroma keying should leave your videos with crisp, defined, natural-looking edges. But post-production editing can make all the difference if it doesn’t come out to your taste. Softening and refining edges make a smoother transition between the foreground object and the new background. Light adjustments to edge thickness and screen matte settings can also help enhance overall visual quality and add finesse to your work.

Conclusion

Green screen photography produces excellent results, and its ease of use makes it indispensable for videographers of all levels. In this guide, we’ve discussed chroma key technology, its role in the industry, and how to apply it to your craft to elevate visual content.

Chroma key, also known as green screen or blue screen, is a cool hack for seamless visual storytelling, allowing content creators to replace backgrounds with any image or video they want. This technique is widely embraced in film, television, and online content, and has opened the door to limitless creative possibilities. Aside from its ability to maximize creativity, it is also cheap to employ and convenient to set up, which has made it a staple for everyone who works with visuals.

In this simple guide, we’ll delve into the fundamentals of the chroma key effect, how it is used for video making, and how to leverage that as you perfect your visual content.

YouTube Video Background Creating realistic video scenes at your will is easy to complete with Filmora green screen removal.

Create Video Backgrounds Create Video Backgrounds Learn Green Screen

How Does Chroma Key Work?

Chroma Keying is done by singling out a specific color (usually green or blue) from the foreground, removing it, and replacing it with a different background (for example, a sunset). This process typically follows a series of steps:

• Background Selection:

A solid, single-color background, often green or blue, that contrasts well with the subject must be used. The color chosen should not be present in the subject or any props in the camera field to avoid unintentional transparency.

• Color Keying:

This requires the use of specialized visual effects software to key out the chosen color. The green or blue background is designated as transparent, making everything of that color see-through. The software distinguishes between the keyed color and the subject, creating a mask for the transparent areas.

• Foreground Filming:

This involves filming the subject against the live chroma key background. During filming, the chosen background color (green or blue) won’t appear in the final result due to its transparency. The subject is captured as if separately from the isolated background.

• Post-Processing:

In post-production processing, the editor takes the keyed-out color and replaces it with the new background of their choice. This step creates the illusion that the subject is in a different setting or environment. The transparent areas become filled with the chosen background which, if done right, results in a cohesive and visually appealing composition.

Why Green?

Theoretically, the chroma key background can be any solid color. However, the most commonly used colors are studio blue and bright green, with the latter far more common.

The choice of background color depends on the specific requirements of the production and the colors present in the scenes being filmed.

Free Download For Win 7 or later(64-bit)

Free Download For macOS 10.14 or later

Contrast

The less similar your chosen background color is to natural skin tones, the easier to isolate and replace in your footage. Bright green provides a strong contrast to most human skin tones and is less likely to be present in costumes or natural surroundings, making it easier to isolate subjects during the color separation.

Luminance

The color green emits light with greater intensity than blue, allowing for far more effective isolation by cameras during filming. This also means that blue screens demand increased lighting for proper exposure compared to green. This situation may be less than ideal if you lack powerful lighting or you don’t have the big bucks for them.

Digital Sensors

Many digital cameras and sensors are more sensitive to green wavelengths, resulting in cleaner and more accurate color keying during post-processing. Modern technology has also evolved to optimize for a green background, making it a more practical choice for the chroma key effect.

Wardrobe and Set Design

Bright green occurs less naturally in costumes and set designs than other colors, making green the optimal choice for reducing the likelihood of color spill and keying issues. However, if you know your scene will have lots of green, it is probably best to film with a blue screen, so there’s less risk of color spill and less post-production work.

Setting up Your Own Chroma Key Studio

Setting up your chroma key is convenient and straightforward, but there are some key factors to consider while setting up to ensure maximal performance.

Choosing the Right Background Color

The first step in the chroma key setup is selecting the right background color to be keyed out. This choice determines your effective color separation and ensures a smooth keying process during editing. Choosing a chroma-key background color that contrasts distinctly with the subject’s colors is essential for effective color separation. This prevents unintentional transparency, color spill, and ensures a polished final result.

Lighting Considerations

Lighting is an important part of the chroma-keying process. Bold, uniform, and consistent lighting on both the subject and the background makes it easy to delineate one from the other fully. This minimizes shadows and variations in color, creating a smooth and seamless keying process. Multiple diffuse lights from different angles are often used to illuminate the green screen evenly.

Positioning/Camera

Proper subject and camera placement are necessary to ensure an even color-keying process during post-production. To prevent shadow interference, the green screen should be smooth, tense, and without wrinkles or shadows.

High-quality cameras are essential every time, especially for chroma keying. Images with better definition are easier to key, so camera quality significantly affects the outcome. Even if your camera isn’t the best, merely shooting well can ensure a clean color-keying process during editing, resulting in professional-looking visuals.

Recording Tips for Chroma Key

• Proper Lighting

Maintaining uniform and well-defined lighting during recording is essential for a successful chroma-keying process. This consistency ensures a seamless keying process during post-production.

• Keep Distance from the Green Screen

The optimal distance between the subject and the green screen minimizes color spill and allows for natural movements. Proper distance between subject and background allows for easier isolation of the background and much smoother post-editing. A recommended starting point for the issue is around 6 to 10 feet from the background.

• Subjects and Clothing

As mentioned before, the choice of costume for Selecting appropriate clothing that doesn’t match the chroma key color prevents transparency issues. Subjects also have to be positioned in such a way that there is minimal light interference and reflection. These contribute to a flawless chroma key outcome.

3 Basic Troubleshooting Strategies

• Color Spill

Sometimes, reflected light from your green background can be cast on your subject and may remain so when the background light is keyed out. This phenomenon is known as a color spill. It is usually because of uneven lighting or shooting around reflecting surfaces. Avoiding spill can differentiate between good and lousy chroma key aftereffects.

Human hair is one area where color spill can show up unsuspectingly. Due to the translucency of hair, it is common for some unintended light to seep through. This allows some background visibility, which you do not want with a chroma key. This is especially notable with lighter hair colors like blond hair.

There are ways to account for this. Many video-editing software have features such as spill suppression and screen matte adjustments that can enhance the final footage. Specialized plugins also go a long way in ensuring minimizing spill. Addressing spill correction tackles unwanted green artifacts and ensures a clean keying process.

• Poor Lighting

Suboptimal green screen lighting can lead to inconsistencies in keying and editing, undermining your product. One way to avoid this is to light the screen and subject separately. Another tip, although expensive, is using multiple diffuse light sources and trying to maintain even lighting across every square foot of your scene. Super bright or dark spots can ruin your output, so it’s worth the extra effort if you don’t want to deal with problematic post-production.

• Poorly Refined Edges

Chroma keying should leave your videos with crisp, defined, natural-looking edges. But post-production editing can make all the difference if it doesn’t come out to your taste. Softening and refining edges make a smoother transition between the foreground object and the new background. Light adjustments to edge thickness and screen matte settings can also help enhance overall visual quality and add finesse to your work.

Conclusion

Green screen photography produces excellent results, and its ease of use makes it indispensable for videographers of all levels. In this guide, we’ve discussed chroma key technology, its role in the industry, and how to apply it to your craft to elevate visual content.

Pacing Your Content: The Importance of Regularity in a Successful YouTube Channel

How Often Should You Upload Videos to YouTube to Get More Views

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

How often should you upload to YouTube?

Scheduling isn’t the most glamourous part of being a YouTube creator, but it is important. Having a schedule and sticking to it is one of the best ways to grow your subscriber base , keep your existing subscribers engaged , and keep yourself from drifting away from YouTube.

1. Be Specific About Your YouTube Posting Schedule
2. Make Your Upload Schedule Public
3. Remember That Posting on YouTube Takes Time
4. Bank YouTube Videos
5. Set Realistic Goals

Polish Your YouTube Videos with Filmora

As one of the most widely used video editing software in YouTube video editing, Filmora provides lots of templates and effects with an intuitive interface, which saves much time. Download the free trial version and get started now.

Creative people don’t always like the idea of scheduling. You either feel inspired or you don’t (click here to learn how to come up with video ideas ). If that means you go a month without posting and then post 3 times in one week, what’s the harm in that?

The harm is that your channel will grow more slowly, you won’t get as many views on the videos when you post them, and if you do manage to bring in new subscribers they might forget about you by the next time you’re feeling inspired. Making great content that you really care about is essential to being successful on YouTube, but it isn’t the only important thing.

Sticking to a schedule is one of Phil’s most important tips for getting subs!

Here are 5 tips on how you can make a schedule for yourself and actually stick to it. Read to the end to find out which are the best days to post to YouTube!

People who read this also read：
5 Tips To Get More Views With YouTube Video Optimization [Free Checklist] >>

1. Be Specific About Your YouTube Posting Schedule

Don’t just say you’re going to post a new video every week, decide on a specific day and time. If your subscribers expect new posts from you Thursdays at 4 pm, they will check your channel for those new posts every Thursday at 4 pm. This will make it easier for you to keep your view count close to your subscriber count.

The other benefit of being specific about your posting time is that the more specific you are, the less wiggle room you give yourself. Setting a clear deadline with yourself makes it harder to procrastinate.

2. Make Your YouTube Upload Schedule Public

Post your schedule somewhere potential subscribers can see it like in your channel banner, intro, or video descriptions. The reason schedules work as a tool for growth is that they allow your audience to build up anticipation. It will be easier for newcomers to your channel to feel that anticipation if you start setting expectations for them on their first visit.

Committing publicly to a posting schedule means making a promise to your viewers. If you break that promise, they will be disappointed. This social pressure should help to keep you posting consistently.

3. Remember That Posting on YouTube Takes Time

When you decide what day you want to post on, make sure that it’s a day where you have a lot of time to spend on things like writing your description, promoting your video, and answering comments.

It might be helpful to set a private deadline for yourself the day before your official post to upload your video and enter all of your metadata (title, description, tags). Then you can keep the video private until it’s time to post. You might also want to check out these tips on how to export and upload faster .

4. Bank YouTube Videos

It might happen that one week you’re full of ideas and energy and making videos is a breeze. It can be tempting to abandon your schedule and post more than normal, but you should resist that urge. Don’t waste all that energy – make the videos – but instead of posting them all right away, you should save them for weeks where you aren’t feeling the same enthusiasm.

5. Set Realistic Goals

Your schedule shouldn’t leave you feeling burnt out. When you’re coming up with your schedule, think realistically about how much time you have to devote to YouTube and how much time you need to spend on a video. Give yourself enough time that you can keep to your schedule without feeling rushed.

Never make your schedule based on what other YouTubers are doing. Your lives are different.

Posting once a week is a good standard schedule, but if you like to spend a lot of time editing your videos and you work full time then maybe once a week isn’t realistic for you. Maybe you should post once every two weeks.

The Best Days and Times to Post to YouTube

The best times to post are Thursdays and Fridays between 12 and 3pm (in the time zone of the majority of your subscribers – just check analytics in your Creator Studio). These are the times when there are the most viewers available to watch your videos. Monday and Tuesday are the worst days to post.

Amy’s scheduling advice: don’t bite off more than you can chew!

So, how many times do you upload per week, or per month? How often should you upload to YouTube?

Richard Bennett

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

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

How often should you upload to YouTube?

Scheduling isn’t the most glamourous part of being a YouTube creator, but it is important. Having a schedule and sticking to it is one of the best ways to grow your subscriber base , keep your existing subscribers engaged , and keep yourself from drifting away from YouTube.

1. Be Specific About Your YouTube Posting Schedule
2. Make Your Upload Schedule Public
3. Remember That Posting on YouTube Takes Time
4. Bank YouTube Videos
5. Set Realistic Goals

Polish Your YouTube Videos with Filmora

As one of the most widely used video editing software in YouTube video editing, Filmora provides lots of templates and effects with an intuitive interface, which saves much time. Download the free trial version and get started now.

Creative people don’t always like the idea of scheduling. You either feel inspired or you don’t (click here to learn how to come up with video ideas ). If that means you go a month without posting and then post 3 times in one week, what’s the harm in that?

The harm is that your channel will grow more slowly, you won’t get as many views on the videos when you post them, and if you do manage to bring in new subscribers they might forget about you by the next time you’re feeling inspired. Making great content that you really care about is essential to being successful on YouTube, but it isn’t the only important thing.

Sticking to a schedule is one of Phil’s most important tips for getting subs!

Here are 5 tips on how you can make a schedule for yourself and actually stick to it. Read to the end to find out which are the best days to post to YouTube!

People who read this also read：
5 Tips To Get More Views With YouTube Video Optimization [Free Checklist] >>

1. Be Specific About Your YouTube Posting Schedule

Don’t just say you’re going to post a new video every week, decide on a specific day and time. If your subscribers expect new posts from you Thursdays at 4 pm, they will check your channel for those new posts every Thursday at 4 pm. This will make it easier for you to keep your view count close to your subscriber count.

The other benefit of being specific about your posting time is that the more specific you are, the less wiggle room you give yourself. Setting a clear deadline with yourself makes it harder to procrastinate.

2. Make Your YouTube Upload Schedule Public

Post your schedule somewhere potential subscribers can see it like in your channel banner, intro, or video descriptions. The reason schedules work as a tool for growth is that they allow your audience to build up anticipation. It will be easier for newcomers to your channel to feel that anticipation if you start setting expectations for them on their first visit.

Committing publicly to a posting schedule means making a promise to your viewers. If you break that promise, they will be disappointed. This social pressure should help to keep you posting consistently.

3. Remember That Posting on YouTube Takes Time

When you decide what day you want to post on, make sure that it’s a day where you have a lot of time to spend on things like writing your description, promoting your video, and answering comments.

It might be helpful to set a private deadline for yourself the day before your official post to upload your video and enter all of your metadata (title, description, tags). Then you can keep the video private until it’s time to post. You might also want to check out these tips on how to export and upload faster .

4. Bank YouTube Videos

It might happen that one week you’re full of ideas and energy and making videos is a breeze. It can be tempting to abandon your schedule and post more than normal, but you should resist that urge. Don’t waste all that energy – make the videos – but instead of posting them all right away, you should save them for weeks where you aren’t feeling the same enthusiasm.

5. Set Realistic Goals

Your schedule shouldn’t leave you feeling burnt out. When you’re coming up with your schedule, think realistically about how much time you have to devote to YouTube and how much time you need to spend on a video. Give yourself enough time that you can keep to your schedule without feeling rushed.

Never make your schedule based on what other YouTubers are doing. Your lives are different.

Posting once a week is a good standard schedule, but if you like to spend a lot of time editing your videos and you work full time then maybe once a week isn’t realistic for you. Maybe you should post once every two weeks.

The Best Days and Times to Post to YouTube

The best times to post are Thursdays and Fridays between 12 and 3pm (in the time zone of the majority of your subscribers – just check analytics in your Creator Studio). These are the times when there are the most viewers available to watch your videos. Monday and Tuesday are the worst days to post.

Amy’s scheduling advice: don’t bite off more than you can chew!

So, how many times do you upload per week, or per month? How often should you upload to YouTube?

Richard Bennett

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

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

How often should you upload to YouTube?

Scheduling isn’t the most glamourous part of being a YouTube creator, but it is important. Having a schedule and sticking to it is one of the best ways to grow your subscriber base , keep your existing subscribers engaged , and keep yourself from drifting away from YouTube.

1. Be Specific About Your YouTube Posting Schedule
2. Make Your Upload Schedule Public
3. Remember That Posting on YouTube Takes Time
4. Bank YouTube Videos
5. Set Realistic Goals

Polish Your YouTube Videos with Filmora

As one of the most widely used video editing software in YouTube video editing, Filmora provides lots of templates and effects with an intuitive interface, which saves much time. Download the free trial version and get started now.

Creative people don’t always like the idea of scheduling. You either feel inspired or you don’t (click here to learn how to come up with video ideas ). If that means you go a month without posting and then post 3 times in one week, what’s the harm in that?

The harm is that your channel will grow more slowly, you won’t get as many views on the videos when you post them, and if you do manage to bring in new subscribers they might forget about you by the next time you’re feeling inspired. Making great content that you really care about is essential to being successful on YouTube, but it isn’t the only important thing.

Sticking to a schedule is one of Phil’s most important tips for getting subs!

Here are 5 tips on how you can make a schedule for yourself and actually stick to it. Read to the end to find out which are the best days to post to YouTube!

People who read this also read：
5 Tips To Get More Views With YouTube Video Optimization [Free Checklist] >>

1. Be Specific About Your YouTube Posting Schedule

Don’t just say you’re going to post a new video every week, decide on a specific day and time. If your subscribers expect new posts from you Thursdays at 4 pm, they will check your channel for those new posts every Thursday at 4 pm. This will make it easier for you to keep your view count close to your subscriber count.

The other benefit of being specific about your posting time is that the more specific you are, the less wiggle room you give yourself. Setting a clear deadline with yourself makes it harder to procrastinate.

2. Make Your YouTube Upload Schedule Public

Post your schedule somewhere potential subscribers can see it like in your channel banner, intro, or video descriptions. The reason schedules work as a tool for growth is that they allow your audience to build up anticipation. It will be easier for newcomers to your channel to feel that anticipation if you start setting expectations for them on their first visit.

Committing publicly to a posting schedule means making a promise to your viewers. If you break that promise, they will be disappointed. This social pressure should help to keep you posting consistently.

3. Remember That Posting on YouTube Takes Time

When you decide what day you want to post on, make sure that it’s a day where you have a lot of time to spend on things like writing your description, promoting your video, and answering comments.

It might be helpful to set a private deadline for yourself the day before your official post to upload your video and enter all of your metadata (title, description, tags). Then you can keep the video private until it’s time to post. You might also want to check out these tips on how to export and upload faster .

4. Bank YouTube Videos

It might happen that one week you’re full of ideas and energy and making videos is a breeze. It can be tempting to abandon your schedule and post more than normal, but you should resist that urge. Don’t waste all that energy – make the videos – but instead of posting them all right away, you should save them for weeks where you aren’t feeling the same enthusiasm.

5. Set Realistic Goals

Your schedule shouldn’t leave you feeling burnt out. When you’re coming up with your schedule, think realistically about how much time you have to devote to YouTube and how much time you need to spend on a video. Give yourself enough time that you can keep to your schedule without feeling rushed.

Never make your schedule based on what other YouTubers are doing. Your lives are different.

Posting once a week is a good standard schedule, but if you like to spend a lot of time editing your videos and you work full time then maybe once a week isn’t realistic for you. Maybe you should post once every two weeks.

The Best Days and Times to Post to YouTube

The best times to post are Thursdays and Fridays between 12 and 3pm (in the time zone of the majority of your subscribers – just check analytics in your Creator Studio). These are the times when there are the most viewers available to watch your videos. Monday and Tuesday are the worst days to post.

Amy’s scheduling advice: don’t bite off more than you can chew!

So, how many times do you upload per week, or per month? How often should you upload to YouTube?

Richard Bennett

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

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

How often should you upload to YouTube?

Scheduling isn’t the most glamourous part of being a YouTube creator, but it is important. Having a schedule and sticking to it is one of the best ways to grow your subscriber base , keep your existing subscribers engaged , and keep yourself from drifting away from YouTube.

1. Be Specific About Your YouTube Posting Schedule
2. Make Your Upload Schedule Public
3. Remember That Posting on YouTube Takes Time
4. Bank YouTube Videos
5. Set Realistic Goals

Polish Your YouTube Videos with Filmora

As one of the most widely used video editing software in YouTube video editing, Filmora provides lots of templates and effects with an intuitive interface, which saves much time. Download the free trial version and get started now.

Creative people don’t always like the idea of scheduling. You either feel inspired or you don’t (click here to learn how to come up with video ideas ). If that means you go a month without posting and then post 3 times in one week, what’s the harm in that?

The harm is that your channel will grow more slowly, you won’t get as many views on the videos when you post them, and if you do manage to bring in new subscribers they might forget about you by the next time you’re feeling inspired. Making great content that you really care about is essential to being successful on YouTube, but it isn’t the only important thing.

Sticking to a schedule is one of Phil’s most important tips for getting subs!

Here are 5 tips on how you can make a schedule for yourself and actually stick to it. Read to the end to find out which are the best days to post to YouTube!

People who read this also read：
5 Tips To Get More Views With YouTube Video Optimization [Free Checklist] >>

1. Be Specific About Your YouTube Posting Schedule

Don’t just say you’re going to post a new video every week, decide on a specific day and time. If your subscribers expect new posts from you Thursdays at 4 pm, they will check your channel for those new posts every Thursday at 4 pm. This will make it easier for you to keep your view count close to your subscriber count.

The other benefit of being specific about your posting time is that the more specific you are, the less wiggle room you give yourself. Setting a clear deadline with yourself makes it harder to procrastinate.

2. Make Your YouTube Upload Schedule Public

Post your schedule somewhere potential subscribers can see it like in your channel banner, intro, or video descriptions. The reason schedules work as a tool for growth is that they allow your audience to build up anticipation. It will be easier for newcomers to your channel to feel that anticipation if you start setting expectations for them on their first visit.

Committing publicly to a posting schedule means making a promise to your viewers. If you break that promise, they will be disappointed. This social pressure should help to keep you posting consistently.

3. Remember That Posting on YouTube Takes Time

When you decide what day you want to post on, make sure that it’s a day where you have a lot of time to spend on things like writing your description, promoting your video, and answering comments.

It might be helpful to set a private deadline for yourself the day before your official post to upload your video and enter all of your metadata (title, description, tags). Then you can keep the video private until it’s time to post. You might also want to check out these tips on how to export and upload faster .

4. Bank YouTube Videos

It might happen that one week you’re full of ideas and energy and making videos is a breeze. It can be tempting to abandon your schedule and post more than normal, but you should resist that urge. Don’t waste all that energy – make the videos – but instead of posting them all right away, you should save them for weeks where you aren’t feeling the same enthusiasm.

5. Set Realistic Goals

Your schedule shouldn’t leave you feeling burnt out. When you’re coming up with your schedule, think realistically about how much time you have to devote to YouTube and how much time you need to spend on a video. Give yourself enough time that you can keep to your schedule without feeling rushed.

Never make your schedule based on what other YouTubers are doing. Your lives are different.

Posting once a week is a good standard schedule, but if you like to spend a lot of time editing your videos and you work full time then maybe once a week isn’t realistic for you. Maybe you should post once every two weeks.

The Best Days and Times to Post to YouTube

The best times to post are Thursdays and Fridays between 12 and 3pm (in the time zone of the majority of your subscribers – just check analytics in your Creator Studio). These are the times when there are the most viewers available to watch your videos. Monday and Tuesday are the worst days to post.

Amy’s scheduling advice: don’t bite off more than you can chew!

So, how many times do you upload per week, or per month? How often should you upload to YouTube?

Richard Bennett

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

Follow @Richard Bennett

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