Crafting Cinematic Quality Through Effective Lighting Techniques

Illuminate your content creation journey with our latest episode focused on the transformative power of studio lighting! Whether your medium is video or podcasting, our comprehensive guide will elevate your production from shadows to the spotlight. We're peeling back the curtain on the simplest setups to the intricacies of professional lighting techniques, ensuring you harness the allure of natural light, master the art of backlights, and embrace the soft, diffused glow that gives your content a cinematic quality. By integrating these strategies, you're bound to witness a stunning improvement in your visual narrative.

As we navigate through the nuances of lighting, from employing everyday household items to sophisticated three-point lighting systems, you'll discover how to craft an ambiance that complements your subject matter. No more settling for mediocre visuals! We're here to guide you through each step—starting with what you have, progressing to soft boxes, and culminating in a dynamic lighting arrangement that adds depth and drama to your shots. So grab your notebook, listen in, and get ready to shine a whole new light on your creative endeavors.

Transcript

Speaker 0: 0:00

All right, welcome back to another Friday Quick Tip episode. Today I want to talk about lighting for your video, podcast and video recording needs. Now, again, this doesn't have to be something crazy over the top. You can start small and work your way up to a bigger studio setup. So I wanted to start with saying that. So I'm just going to cover the basics in lighting for your video.

Speaker 0: 0:25

In this episode, I'm going to touch on four kind of different ways to light your studio or your recording area. That can start from simple to really involved with a lot of pieces. So make sure you listen to all four of them, because no matter where you are beginner or expert these tips will either help you or validate what you've already done, or maybe you hear something that you haven't thought about and you can implement. So let's dive into it. So, to start off with lighting design, you might not have a big budget to invest in a lot of stand lights, so the big thing you're going to want to look for in where you're recording, of course, we've talked about focusing on good quality audio first. That's going to be your key and doing your best with what you have for video. If you've taken care of your audio.

Speaker 0: 1:10

The next thing is lighting, and so your area needs to. You need to think about your area setup. Where can you get some natural light to come in? So obviously that's not going to cost you anything. So if you can have a setup that is good quality audio and has some natural light coming in, that's going to be your best. Natural light is always best if you can get it. Maybe finding a window that comes in and puts a good illumination on your face that's not too bright. Maybe you have some thin shades or blinds that diffuses the light some, so it's not just washing you out. That way, it's a good natural light coming in. That could be. The only thing you need to start is just having a good illumination and then put a lamp in the background to allow for a backlight, something to separate you from your background. So that could be just a lamp you already have in your house or something very cost-effective that you found at Goodwill or something like that. So natural light is the start. It's the thing that if you don't have a budget, you want to look for using first and then diffuse it with some thin curtains or something like that, so it's not super bright washing you out. So that's where you can start with natural light.

Speaker 0: 2:17

So you just heard me mention diffusing the light of the sun coming through thin shades. So that's called soft light and that's where you want to go next. And you can purchase a light on a stand that has what we call a soft box. You see, on those squares with the white fronts that basically just diffuses the light to it's not as direct on your face. So right now, for example, we have a soft box here above as a fill light to fill the scene, and then we have another soft box right here to as a key light. So we don't have the natural light coming where we want it in this room. So we use these to fill and then have the key light to take away the shadows. But they both have the white diffusers on the front so the light isn't as harsh coming down on the subject or on me in the video. So that's what soft light is and that's what you would want to invest in.

Speaker 0: 3:11

Next is just one fill light that has a soft box on the front to diffuse that light, and then, as you move up and are able to invest more, you can do what we call the three point light. So this again is the fill light that comes and fills the majority of the shot, with the soft light diffuser on the front, and then you have the key light which comes off from an angle from the side to fill in any shadows. Light diffuser on the front and then you have the key light which comes off from an angle from the side to fill in any shadows that might fall on the face due to positionings or of that nature. And then the third is the backlight. So that again, like I mentioned earlier, the backlight just puts a little bit extra behind you and separates the subject in the video from the background. So it just gives a little bit more of that cinematic feel and again separates the subject on camera from your background.

Speaker 0: 4:03

You can also use, say, if you just had a lamp in the background and not a colored light like you see right here. If you just had a lamp in the background and it's farther back to be your backlight, it's not going to do a whole lot to separate you from the background because it's going to be so low powered. So you can do what's another thing is called motivated lighting, so you'd have that lamp and lighting has different temperature and so you can get a light that is able to match your warm light is the more yellowish. So a lamp that's warm light has a certain temperature. So a lamp's warm light has a certain temperature. So a lamp with warm light has a certain temperature. So if you bought a light that could be off, shot behind you that matches that temperature, you can turn that up so it would come across the shoulder and some of the hair to again separate you from the background and make it look like that lamp is illuminating more behind you. That's called motivated lighting. So that's another type of backlight that you could use in your setup as you're investing.

Speaker 0: 5:02

And then, of course, you can start to experiment with color. As you can see, we have a red LED backlight going right now which can be changed to any color. If you just want a generic kind of backlight with color, you can look at the oranges and the yellows. That are going to be warmer. It's going to give a more cozy feel. So if we wanted to feel more like a living room, a cozy setting, you'd want to have the lighting more in the yellow and the orange spectrum to create that warmer feel. Then if you choose blues or greens or something cooler like that, or even red. It's going to create more of a dramatic, unique scene to have in the background of your video.

Speaker 0: 5:42

So these are the four things. I wanted to hit on lighting today real quick. Remember natural light first. Then you can invest in soft light, a light with a soft box, and then you can have the three point light, three or even four-point light setup with your fill light, your key light, your back light and even some motivated lighting if you want. And the last thing, of course, is experiment with colors. Try different colors to make the feeling of the scene, get to what you want either warmer colors for cozy or cooler colors for a more dramatic, cinematic kind of look. So take these, increase what you're doing, elevate your brand with your lighting setup and we'll talk to you next time.