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Lighting Tips

Shed a Little Light

Principles of common sense
for lighting your video

 

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Each video you produce may be different in its lighting needs, so here are a few common sense principles to follow before you commit to expensive lighting equipment.

 

The first rule to adhere to when considering lighting is…THERE ARE NO RULES!  Yes, you heard me correctly.  I said there are no rules!  In terms of common sense that is.  Perhaps you’ve read articles on lighting.  They will give you exact rules on placing each light and how to produce the best video with this configuration.  But these rules do not take into consideration that the entire area behind your desk is a picture window that on mornings between 9am and 11am the sun comes streaming through.

 

Lighting your web video doesn’t have to be problematic if you follow these simple “no rules” common sense concepts and goals. 

 

In video, your goals are:

1)    Flood the room with light.  Now today’s digital cameras are very light sensitive.  It doesn’t take much to make your image look good.  But depending on the brightness where you film, it will certainly help if you pick up some extra lighting to flood the room with, whether with some extra halogen lights that you can buy at the local hardware store or some pro lighting kits.  But I find that it’s better not to shine them directly at your main subjects.  Instead, if at all possible, direct them at something white like the ceiling or the walls.  This will flood the room with the illusion of natural sunlight which is great for your video.

2)     Keep from casting shadows.  Shadows in video are bad (unless it is your goal to cast shadows – remember there are no rules in lighting; just goals). The previous goal of flooding the room with light will keep your subjects from casting shadows.  The worst place for shadows is on peoples faces.  I assure you, they will complain to you later.  And shadows on someone’s face gives a scary foreboding feel.  Not the best look for selling your products (unless your products are geared toward the Halloween crowd).  Flooding the room from above will send light in different directions and will keep your subjects from having facial shadows as well as casting shadows on the background.  Never send light from below a subject unless you want to give them an evil shadowy look, much like campers who shine a flashlight on their face from their chin while telling scary stories.  Although who knows, maybe one day you will make a video and need this strategy.

3)     Set your camera with the proper iris setting.  Perhaps you or your camera operators feel that working the camera in an automatic mode setting is easy and gives a great picture.  That’s great, go with it…but most professional camera operators never work in an auto setting.  They control everything manually.  In the auto setting every time you move the camera it readjusts your picture.  Now this can be good or bad.  Personally I don’t trust the camera to make my decisions for me.  Your iris setting is one of the most important settings regarding how much light goes into the camera.  If you are working in the manual camera setting, check your iris and make sure there is enough light coming through.  If you have windows in your building or stained glass with constant changing light, you should be adjusting your iris setting periodically and possibly every time you change your view.

4)     Always White balance the camera.  For those unfamiliar with the concept of white balancing, basically you are setting the colors coming into the lens by telling the camera what in your setting is true white.  All pro cameras have the ability to manually white balance so that you get natural colors in your images.  To do this you find something in the room that is pure white, like a piece of paper.  You zoom in on that white item, focus, and hold down the white balance button (see the white balance icon to the right).  An image will flash in your viewfinder while the camera takes in that information and changes all the colors in the image according to what you claim to be white.  The image will stop flashing when it is done.  Now let’s say you manually white balance and still feel the picture is too cold (blueish).  You can trick the camera by white balancing on an off white item.  To get warmer (reddish) colors, white balance with a very light blue or light gray item.  To get a colder look, white balance with a light red color like beige (perhaps a manila folder).  Like I’ve said a few times, there are no rules when it comes to lighting.  The intended goal is more important than any rules can provide.  Now just like in the case of the iris, the camera will do it automatically for you, but even if you like how the picture looks while filming your video, when you swing the camera to something else everything will change in auto mode.  Again, I don’t like the camera making my decisions for me.  Try to white balance your camera manually, before shooting.

5)     If you feel the light in the room just isn’t enough, turn up the gain.  When you change the gain on a camera, you are basically changing the video signal strength.  Unlike the iris which physically opens the lens wider, changing the gain causes a change in the camera electronically, not physically.  Because you are not physically lighting your image with more lights or opening up the lens, turning up the gain will cause your picture to have a grainy look to it.  There are only two reasons why you should turn up the camera gain.  One is as a last resort and additional lighting is not available.  The other is because you like how the grainy picture looks for your video.  Remember, no rules.

  

Light kits – Our recommendation for purchasing pro lighting is the soft box.  Pictured below is the SBL-2436 ECONOMY SOFTBOX LIGHT by Smith-Victor.


The softbox light brightens up your subjects “softly” with no shadows.  You can get 2 of these with stands and 1000 total watts for less than $300.  You can get one for a bit over $150.  Not bad for a pro light!  Check our section on Lighting for Specific recommendations.

 

Okay, I know I said no rules, but let’s say you are in a completely controlled environment.  No windows anywhere and if you turned off the lights, the room would be black.  This would be perfect for a studio or broadcast shoot, and in this case, the rules for 3-point lighting would apply.  3-point lighting is a basic standard lighting technique using “key”, “fill” and “back” lights

 

1)     Key Light – This is the primary light used for illumination of a scene or subject.  The key light is usually placed head on or at a slight angle to your main subject.

2)     Fill Light – The goal of the fill light is to soften the shadows created by the key light.  The fill light is usually placed at an angle to the right or left of the subject.

3)     Back Light – This light is placed to the rear of the subject.  Since video images are two dimensional, its goal is to separate the subject from its background and give the illusion of a three dimensional image.

Please keep in mind that all these lights should be adjusted to be slightly higher than the heads of the subjects being filmed, unless your goal is the scary look previously discussed.

 

Some words to the wise about lighting while shooting on location.  Always take lights with you.  Even if you think you won’t need it.  I can’t tell you how many times I went to a shoot thinking the room lighting would be enough and wished I had brought my light kit.  Sometimes you plan to shoot outside and due to inclement whether, the shoot is moved inside.  Like I mentioned previously, most pro camcorders with their exceptional light sensitivity will have the ability to do amazing things by simply changing the settings.  But there’s nothing like having control over the lighting in the room for a great video image.

 

As for shooting outdoors, there’s nothing like sunshine for great lighting, but keep in mind a few things.  If you’re shooting impromptu interviews (man or woman on the street) your audience will be very forgiving of bad lighting.  But if you are filming a host outdoors, schedule them at a time when the sun is coming up or going down.  This will produce the best skin color with no shadows.  The worst time to film outdoors is when the sun is at it’s highest point.  Your subject’s face will be one big shadow. 

Baseball caps will produce the same negative shadowed face effect on your subject.  Cloudy days are good as the light of a strong sun is diffused and produces the same effect as flooding the room previously discussed.  If the sun is at high noon or constantly peeping in and out of a partly cloudy sky, find some shade to shoot under, and open the iris a bit.  You will find your camera will produce some great video in the shade during the light of day.

 

Use of Gels – Gels are a cellophane looking sheet that is colored and transparent for the purpose of changing the light in the room or on a subject.  Gels can have a great subconscious emotional effect on your viewer.  Let’s face it…most of the population is affected by color on a daily basis without even realizing it.  Using certain colored gels in your video could have an emotional effect on the viewer and lead them to buy.

 

Basically you take a gel and attach it to your light over the front.  You can use tape or a clothes line clamp.  Most pro lights have built in clamps to hold gels on. 

In this first picture you can see that we covered the light with a blue gel to give the feel of moonlight shining in, while the spy looks around the halls with a flashlight.

In the second picture, we had a red gel on the subject and the walls accompanied with high energy music, to give a feel of high intensity like a fire or an emergency, or that something is about to happen.

    

The chances are you won’t need gels for your web videos but it’s good to know about them and how to use them should the need arise.  See our section on Lighting for a dealer who can provide you with gels.

 

Finally a word about lighting for independent films.  Again we go back to the “no rule” rule.  Every scene in your film should be scripted with the type of lighting goals you need.  Sometimes shadows are good.  Shadows are foreboding and give the viewer the feel that something is not quite right.  The more shadows, the more of an evil or scary feel will be added to your film.  The over flooding of light can give the presence of God in your scene.  Or that your subject is “God-like”. White balancing with a blue look can give the feeling of coldness or depression, while acquiring a reddish hue will give the addition of warmth and happiness.  Too much red means something bad is about to (or is) happening.  Turning up the gain in certain scenes which will give a grainy look, will make people feel that the room is darker than the images they are watching appear to be.  Remember, no rules.  Keep adjusting the lights until the image in your viewfinder is just what you want.

 

With these basic “no rules” rules, you can become a master of lighting your videos.  Just always remember for every lighting rule, it was meant to be broken!

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