A essential, however typically missed, difficulty for aspiring videographers is lighting. Correct illumination is likely one of the most vital points of any visible manufacturing, however it doesn’t should be difficult or pricey. Add some lighting strategies to your repertoire with these straightforward ideas.
First, a fast lesson on lighting. The usual studio gentle setup is called three-point lighting. The three varieties of lights are the important thing gentle, the fill gentle, and the backlight. The important thing gentle is the principle gentle, which illuminates your topic’s face from barely off heart. The fill gentle is a second, weaker gentle that “fills” within the shadows on the opposite aspect of the topic’s face. The backlight is positioned behind and barely above the topic, out of body, and offers a way of depth by primarily outlining the topic with comfortable gentle.
Now, a three-point lighting setup is nice, however not obligatory at each shoot. The creator, who spends a copious period of time within the discipline capturing video packages for a sure HC Media newsmagazine program, not often makes use of a three-point lighting setup within the discipline on account of time, house, and manpower limitations. For discipline shoots, think about using a camera-top gentle, bounce card, or moveable stand gentle.
The camera-mounted gentle is a straightforward, however important go-to. This LED gentle panel mounts proper into the digicam’s scorching shoe and runs on a chargeable battery. The sunshine’s brightness may be dialed up or down as obligatory, and optionally available yellow and white diffusers snap proper onto the sunshine to melt and/or change the colour temperature. This camera-top gentle is handy for the run-and-gun videographer. As the sunshine is secured to the highest of the digicam, the shot is immediately lit wherever you level your lens. It’s a nice possibility for many who simply wish to shortly illuminate a topic for an interview or close-up shot.
One other straightforward and cheap lighting instrument is a bounce card. A bounce card is solely a big white card used to bounce gentle from a main gentle supply onto your topic, making a comfortable, natural-looking mirrored gentle. Bounce playing cards are particularly helpful when capturing outside. Face a bounce card in the direction of your topic to bounce daylight again onto the topic, mitigating harsh shadows. Create completely different lighting results by altering the angle or placement of your bounce card(s). Bounce playing cards may be so simple as a bit of white poster board, or you should purchase cheap bounce playing cards in colours resembling gold or silver for different seems. A bounce card will also be substituted for a fill gentle in a pinch.
Lastly, a conveyable stand gentle works in all conditions while you want a bit extra gentle, resembling for an indoor shoot. HC Media has three standLED lights with adjustable brightness and colour temperatures. These run on both A/C energy or batteries and the stand top is adjustable, so they’re versatile and invaluable for a lot of location shoots. These new LED lights additionally include a plastic diffuser and may be dimmed, so they don’t require a comfortable field, in contrast to the outdated ARRI incandescent stand lights. They’re additionally helpful for run-and-gun shoots, though extra cumbersome than the camera-mounted gentle.
One final phrase on pure lighting – for an out of doors shoot, lighting may be extra of a difficulty than you could assume. Whereas subtle or hazy daylight is likely one of the greatest gentle sources in existence, a noon out of doors shoot in full daylight will create harsh shadows in your topic’s face. For minimal shadowing, select to shoot on a cloudy day or later within the day when the solar is low within the sky. If a noon shoot is important, a bounce card could also be all you want, otherwise you would possibly select to make use of a camera-top or stand gentle to eradicate shadows.
Questioning the place are you able to get entry to those lighting choices? HC Media has a camera-top gentle, bounce playing cards and moveable stand lights obtainable for members to borrow. So the following time you try tools right here at HC Media, attempt certainly one of these easy choices and up your lighting sport! – Lindsay Paris
