HOW TO MAKE PERFECT THUMBNAIL FOR YOUR YOUTUBE VIDEOS

Summary

In this video, Chiranjeev Kapoor explains how to create the perfect YouTube thumbnail. He emphasizes the importance of thumbnails in attracting clicks and enhancing video visibility. The process involves branding, selecting appropriate fonts, using faces for better engagement, and positioning elements effectively. Kapoor provides a step-by-step tutorial using Photoshop, detailing techniques such as background selection, text styling, and adding effects. By following these tips, creators can improve their thumbnail game, making their videos more appealing and likely to be recommended by YouTube.

Takeaways

• 🎨 The importance of a well-designed thumbnail for attracting clicks on YouTube videos.
• 📸 Including faces in thumbnails can increase click-through rates due to human nature's inclination towards facial recognition.
• 🏷️ Branding is crucial for thumbnail design, establishing a consistent look across a channel's content.
• 🖌️ Choosing the right fonts and styles for thumbnails based on the type of content being presented.
• 🌈 Utilizing color and contrast effectively to make thumbnails stand out from others.
• 📐 Positioning elements in thumbnails thoughtfully to ensure they are not obscured by YouTube's UI elements.
• 🔍 The necessity of custom thumbnail creation after verifying a YouTube channel.
• 👁️ Thumbnails should convey the video's content without needing to read the title, providing an immediate understanding of what the video is about.
• 🖼️ The use of overlay photos, text, and other graphic elements to enhance the thumbnail's appeal.
• 🛠️ Tools like Photoshop are used to create custom thumbnails, with techniques such as subject selection, background removal, and text effects.
• 🔄 The process of refining a thumbnail involves adjusting elements like exposure, contrast, and sharpness to improve the visual appeal.

Q & A

What is the primary focus of the video by Chiranjeev Kapoor?

The primary focus of the video is to teach viewers how to create a perfect YouTube thumbnail.

Why are thumbnails important for YouTube videos?

Thumbnails are important because they are one of the main factors that attract clicks and views on YouTube. A good thumbnail can significantly increase a video's click-through rate.

What are the first steps in creating a custom thumbnail according to the video?

The first steps are to verify your YouTube channel, gather inspiration from other creators' thumbnails, and understand the elements that make their thumbnails effective.

What four key elements should be considered when creating a thumbnail?

The four key elements to consider are fonts, pictures (especially faces), color, and position.

How should fonts be chosen for thumbnails?

Fonts should be chosen based on the type of video. For example, gaming videos might use bold, dynamic fonts, while informative videos might use clearer, bold fonts. Consistency in font choice helps with branding.

What role do faces play in thumbnails?

Faces in thumbnails attract more clicks because humans are naturally drawn to faces. Including a face can provide a personal touch and assure viewers of the video's content quality.

Why is color and background important in a thumbnail?

Color and background help convey what the video is about and make the thumbnail stand out. High contrast and popping colors can attract more attention.

What is the significance of positioning in a thumbnail?

Positioning includes where to place the main elements like text and characters. Proper positioning ensures that important details are not obscured by YouTube's interface elements, such as video duration.

What are some tools mentioned in the video for creating thumbnails?

Some tools mentioned include Photoshop for editing, the select and subject tool for isolating subjects, and the magic eraser tool for removing unwanted backgrounds.

What is the final step in creating a thumbnail as per the tutorial?

The final step involves refining the details, such as adjusting colors, adding drop shadows, and ensuring all elements are cohesive and visually appealing.

Outlines

00:00

🎨 Crafting the Perfect Thumbnail: Ingredients and Techniques

This paragraph introduces the concept of creating an appealing YouTube thumbnail to increase click-through rates. The speaker, Chiranjeev Kapoor, humorously compares the process to cooking a dish, emphasizing the need for a 'blank canvas' and 'ingredients' such as colors, overlay photos, text, and emotive elements. The paragraph highlights the importance of branding through consistent themes and the role of thumbnails and titles in YouTube's recommendation algorithm. It also touches on the necessity of channel verification for custom thumbnail creation and encourages viewers to analyze popular thumbnails for inspiration.

05:01

🖼️ Understanding Thumbnail Branding and Composition

The second paragraph delves deeper into the specifics of thumbnail branding, using various YouTube channels as examples. It discusses the significance of consistent fonts, images, colors, and positioning to establish a recognizable style. The speaker suggests observing popular channels to understand common branding elements and emphasizes the impact of faces in thumbnails for personal connection and assurance of content. The paragraph also covers the importance of background and color choice in conveying the video's subject and ensuring that the thumbnail is informative without needing the title.

10:04

🛠️ Photoshop Tutorial: Creating a Gaming Thumbnail

The final paragraph provides a step-by-step Photoshop tutorial for creating a gaming thumbnail, using Minecraft as an example. It starts with setting the canvas size and selecting a subject from a photo. The tutorial covers background selection, character extraction, and removal of unwanted background colors. It proceeds with tips on text placement to avoid YouTube's time stamp, and the use of effects like strokes, outer glow, and drop shadow to enhance text visibility. The speaker also shares advanced techniques such as color adjustment, blurring, and layer effects to create a cohesive and eye-catching thumbnail, concluding with the final touches to achieve a polished gaming thumbnail.

Keywords

💡Thumbnail

A thumbnail is a small, clickable image that represents a video. It is crucial for attracting viewers' attention and encouraging clicks. In the script, the host emphasizes the importance of creating an effective thumbnail to increase the video's click-through rate.

💡Branding

Branding in the context of YouTube thumbnails refers to maintaining a consistent style and theme across all video thumbnails to create a recognizable identity. The script discusses how different channels use specific colors, fonts, and layouts to make their thumbnails easily identifiable.

💡Font

Fonts are the style and appearance of text used in thumbnails. Choosing the right font can help convey the video's theme and attract viewers. The script suggests selecting one or two fonts that align with the video's content and using them consistently for branding.

💡Face

Including a face in a thumbnail can increase its click-through rate because humans are naturally drawn to facial expressions. The script mentions that adding faces can make thumbnails more engaging and relatable, thereby attracting more clicks.

💡Background

The background in a thumbnail provides context for the video and helps highlight the main elements. The script advises using backgrounds that are relevant to the video's content and enhancing them with effects like blurring to make other elements stand out.

💡Color

Color is used in thumbnails to catch viewers' eyes and convey emotions. The script highlights the importance of using bright, contrasting colors to make thumbnails pop and stand out on YouTube's homepage.

💡Positioning

Positioning refers to the arrangement of elements within a thumbnail. Proper positioning ensures that the important parts of the thumbnail are not obscured and that the viewer can quickly understand the video's content. The script emphasizes placing text and characters in a way that they are not hidden by YouTube's time display.

💡Contrast

Contrast involves using different colors and brightness levels to make elements stand out from each other. The script advises increasing contrast to ensure that thumbnails are visually appealing and easily noticeable.

💡Overlay

Overlay refers to adding elements like arrows, circles, and text over the thumbnail's main image to draw attention to specific details. The script describes using overlays to enhance the visual appeal and direct viewers' eyes to important parts of the thumbnail.

💡Verification

Verification in the context of YouTube refers to the process of confirming a YouTube channel's identity through a phone number. This step is necessary to enable features like custom thumbnails. The script briefly mentions verifying the channel as a prerequisite for creating custom thumbnails.

Highlights

The importance of thumbnails for click-through rates on YouTube videos.

A step-by-step guide on creating a perfect thumbnail for YouTube.

The necessity of a blank canvas and the use of colors, overlay photos, and text for thumbnail creation.

Inclusion of Red Arrows and Circles to draw attention in thumbnails.

The role of title and thumbnail in YouTube's recommendation algorithm.

How to verify a YouTube channel for custom thumbnail creation.

The concept of branding in thumbnail design and its significance.

Analysis of various YouTube channels to understand common branding elements.

Choosing the right fonts for thumbnails based on video content type.

The impact of using faces in thumbnails for increased viewer engagement.

Strategies for background and color choice to convey the video's content.

The significance of thumbnail positioning for effective branding.

A tutorial on creating a gaming thumbnail using Photoshop.

Techniques for selecting and masking subjects in thumbnail images.

Methods for removing white backgrounds from PNG images.

Tips for adjusting image quality and applying blur effects to thumbnails.

How to use color adjustments to match the background and text in a thumbnail.

Adding text effects like strokes, outer glow, and drop shadows to enhance thumbnail visibility.

Techniques for sharpening faces and adjusting lighting to improve thumbnail quality.

Final touches and adjustments to complete the gaming thumbnail design.

Transcripts

If you come across these videos in your YouTube Recommendation,

Which of these will you click on?

Of Course, on this one.

And one of these.

So what is in these two thumbnails that they are getting more clicks?

Why are these perfect thumbnails?

So, welcome to Chiranjeev Kapoor kitchen.

Today we'll tell you that how to make a perfect thumbnail.

So for a perfect thumbnail you will need a lot of ingredients,

That we will make today on a blank canvas.

So foremost take a blank canvas you have to put colors in it.

And after colors when all this is done, then you

Have to put overlay photos and text for background.

And fry them all well.

And then you can put in Red Arrows and Circles.

Fry it well, then you have to put emotion drama and a little salt in it.

Garam Masala....

And after that, your thumbnail is ready.

Salty porridge.

So whenever YouTube's homepage recommends you any new creator-

-There are two reasons behind it,

First it's title and second it's thumbnail.

We will talk about it later, but today's topic is-

-www.google.com

-www.youtube.com

How to make a thumbnail?

And if you have searched this and you have come here, then this is the right place.

So the first thing is that YouTube will recommend the same video

Or bring it to the homepage, which will get the most clicks.

Will get more clicks when its thumbnail is good.

So this is a cycle that you have to make it on your channel.

With which you can make your video a star by lifting it off the ground.

So to create your custom thumbnail first you have to verify your YouTube channel.

You don't know that!

Go to YouTube's Settings Enter a Phone Number and Verify.

Wasn't it supposed to be told from the beginning? Ok, ok, I get it.

Now pick up the thumbnails of all the creators

You see and see what they all have in common.

Then you will understand where to start.

But if you have clicked on this video, then I will help you.

So the very first point is where do you have to start.

So to create the perfect thumbnail First, you have to do your branding.

Brandy? That Papa gives us to drink, due to which the cough goes away in winter.

Hey, that's not brandy dude branding, I'll tell you what branding is.

So foremost, let's take some channels on which I myself have made thumbnails.

And also take the rest of the YouTubers and see the branding in all of them.

So like here we have thumbnails of some YouTube channels.

So in all this we see what branding is.

So, foremost you must be seeing Lakshay Chaudhary's channel, here,

Here are all thumbnails of similar themes.

Mainly, here is a photo of Lakshay with his reaction.

And with him are the characters that are talked about in the video.

Sometimes we try to make a simple thumbnail with the same background as well,

So that the thumbnail doesn't differ too much like it was the one.

Similarly, you will also get to see on Samrat Bhai's channel.

Here the background is of the thing that is talked about in the video.

And there is a text related to the video.

Now on here we sometimes put face expression and sometimes not.

But with the background and text, we try to tell what happened in the video.

Thugesh also has thumbnails like this.

Here with Thugesh are all the characters who have memes on them in the videos,

Or their clips are used.

Fukra Insaan also has similar thumbnails.

By looking at the thumbnail itself, it is known what is going to happen in the video.

Fukra & Thugesh's thumbnails are just like colors popping, lots of text, lots of stuff

But branding is not how many things you can use, just like Genius Channel.

Here it is a music channel and look at their theme,

It will be the same color inside the same font box.

And here are the photos of singers are used because

In their videos all these singers are there.

And you can tell for sure by looking at these thumbnails,

That these are the thumbnails of their channel.

Now how would you create branding like these?

Now for this you have to pay attention to 4 points - fonts, pictures, color, position.

So foremost, fonts-

You have to choose the font according to the kind of video you make.

Like if you make gaming videos then you can use fonts like this.

If you make informative videos then you can use bold fonts like this.

So you have to choose 1,2 fonts for your channel & always make thumbnails from that.

So whenever people see your thumbnails again and again…

Hey brother, this is a sure thumbnail of Lakshay.

Brother, now you are too overacting;(

Now after font you can do many styles in it too.

Like you can stroke it, or you can do it in the box or you can use drop shadow on it.

Anything That Makes It Unique For Your Channel.

This type of font is used on gaming channels, on vlogging we can use this font.

And on reaction channel you can use this type of font.

Now from reaction channel I remembered our second point which is face.

I believe that if you put faces on thumbnails, then it gets more clicks.

We are human and our eyes have got used to seeing faces.

I'm not saying anything for introverts.

By inserting face in the thumbnail, the viewer gets the assurance that,

I will get to see some information here.

Second point, if you use your face, then your branding is done.

Branding will happen because your face is there.

But if the video is on another person, like a biography of a person,

Then you can put his face in it too.

Due to which I am sure that you will get to see more clicks.

One's face is mainly used in gaming videos, informative or biography.

Because viewers knows that after clicking on this video,

I am going to get information about someone.

Or there is a person in this video about whom I know.

And after the text and the face, it is the turn of the background and color.

Because with its help you have to tell what is in this video.

As we know from the background of gaming videos whether

It is going to be a video of GTA or of Minecraft.

From the thumbnails of Fukra insaan, we get to

Know what we will get to see in this video.

And there is another person, from its thumbnails, you will know,

that here you will get to see cringe only.

And you have to keep the colors of the thumbnails a little pop, keep the contrast.

So that your thumbnail stands out from others.

And yes the most important thing is without reading the title, looking at the

Overall thumbnail, it should be known what is going to happen in the video.

And our last point is positioning which is important for branding.

And most of the people don't care about it while making thumbnails.

Positioning can include everything like where to place your character,

Middle, Left or right?

I have the right.

What size to keep, where to keep the text and all this.

Now let's do one thing, collect all these information and take it to our tutorial.

So as we have come to our tutorial part and I am making a gaming thumbnail.

But the tools I'll use are all that are used in all thumbnails.

So you can use these tools to create any kind of thumbnails.

So first let's open Photoshop and me always take it for this size (2160*144p).

Now we have got a blank canvas, in this we have

To first think about what we are going to do.

Which is that the face must be in the thumbnail.

Now we have inserted one of our photos, out of which we will select the subject.

So for this you have to go, select and subject.

Now it will auto select itself, but where it will not,

You will have to select there by yourself.

And you double-click on it to smooth it out a bit,

Select & Mask and from here increase the smoothness a bit and OK.

Hide the lower layer after doing CTRL+j and you will have your image as a selection.

So as I'm about to make a gaming thumbnail I'll use the same background.

Like, let's make it a Minecraft thumbnail.

So I can find any Minecraft background by searching online.

Will take a couple of characters out of it on the side and then let's see...

I've taken out some characters' background of Minecraft that we'll use here.

So just till now we have imported our back ground and have imported our characters.

After that sometimes when we download PNG, then the background is white.

So the easiest step to remove it is to go to the eraser tool,

right click and select the magic eraser tool.

And one click white disappeared…

I have to show his pet.

I feel it's right on this side, so flip it.

To flip you have to go to edit here you will transform and flip it horizontal.

Rotate it like this.

Now we have a dark background and a dark character, so now we will darken it too.

You will also have to darken yourself, that too I will tell you in a while.

Now like we have low quality image in the background then we will blur it.

To blur, you have to select background go to filters, blur…

And if you do this, it will be too much.

All you have to do is to make your background blur and visible too.

I think around 8 would be fine.

Now, if you don't like the blue color of the background, then you can change that too.

So for this you have to go to this circle icon.

And here will be the hue and saturation.

Click on it and now you can color the background anyway.

I can make it grey too, if you reduce the saturation, it will turn grey.

After that, we'll put the text here.

So for now I'll put it the gameplay.

After this, we have also put the text, then our text will come here.

The text should never be placed on this side,

Otherwise, it will be hidden due to the time it shows on YouTube.

So keep the text a little bigger here.

You can place your character here & if this area is hidden, then there is no problem.

Now the first step will be yours that after arranging everything, doing their positioning.

As the text is here, your character is here, your background

Your background is here, the rest of your characters have arrived.

Then work on all of them one by one.

Like background, text, then your face, then your characters.

So if you work like this, it will be easy and a flow will also remain.

So as we have already blurred the background,

Now I will try to make the text looks a little better.

After that, you can do a lot of things in your text effect like you can add strokes.

After that, if you want to give outer glow, then you can give that too.

Or you can put a drop shadow on your text to

Make it stand out from the background a bit.

And if you don't want to soften the drop shadow, then reduce its size completely…

-and increase the direction.

So this way you can also separate your text.

Now you have to pay attention to the colors also

Because your background is blue then blue text is not going to work at all.

After that we will go to Filter to make the face a little sharper and nicer,

And going into the camera raw filter, we will change the few things.

Such as a little exposure,

You have to increase the contrast Exposure has increased a bit.

Shadows so that it clear well, you can increase the highlight a little.

You have to increase the texture, decrease the clarity.

Then have to go to the details, sharpening has to be increased

And the noise has to be increased too.

Now it's a little brighter.

We'll go to the levels to make it is bigger and press this button,

Then whatever effect you have applied to it will only work on the layer below it.

As I am lowering the level, then it will work on my layer.

After that, I'll tell you a secret trick today…

Use the Brush Tool to draw a new layer over your image.

Because our background is dark, then we have to take a bit color of the same kind.

Like, I take a lot of dark blue over here.

Now I have to do this lightly on this transparent layer like this.

I know that it has spoiled a bit but after that, you go to this blending option…

And this has to be done on the overlay, now look

now look at the difference between the new and old.

You can reduce the opacity a little from here if you are feeling more opacity then.

And similarly take a new layer on the background.

Here we see green color.

So why have I made this, because Green light is falling on our character.

By putting this side, it looks like green light is coming from behind the character.

Now when green light is coming on our character, then

Then we have to put this side green light on our face also.

For that, go back over their take another new layer and start doing it from here.

In addition to overlay you can sometimes use soft light.

And now you can put drop shadow on your character, do it in this direction.

[Music]

I'm removing strokes from 'Gameplay' because I don't like it.

I'm removing the outer glow too.

And it looks so good to me so I'll put outer glow on it white.

And our gaming thumbnail is ready :)