Indoor Lighting Techniques

Everybody knows the importance of light on a video project. Poor or non-good lighting set-ups can make your video look very amateur or it can just simple not sell the idea or vision to the audience. So here are some tips on what to look in your video productions when using lights.

Three point lighting: This is the most common set-up for lighting, you have your key light, which is your stronger or main light, your fill light which is set on the opposite side of your subject to cancel the shadows created with the key light, and a back light which it is very important, more if your background is black. The back light will make your subject stand out in the picture, if you don’t use a back light of some kind your subject will be flat in the picture.

To have a good lighting set up start with this: your key light and fill light should be in a 45 degree angle from your subject and your back light should be behind your subject. In most cases, the back light lines up with the key light in a diagonal line behind the subject, but if you have a light stand with a boom you can place your back light above your subject. Once the lights are set, turn on your key light, this will show you where the shadows cast on your subject. Then turn on your fill light, to eliminate your shadows, make sure that your fill light is not as bright as your key light. If you don’t have dimmers in your lights, position your fill light a little far from your first position. Once your key an fill lights are set and are giving you the light needed for the front of your subject, turn the lights off and turn the back light on to illuminate the back of your subject. Make sure you can see the edges of your subject from the subject’s front side. Once you have that light set go ahead and turn back on your key and fill lights. Now you are ready to position your camera in between the key and fill light and start making your video.

See you next time when I’ll be giving you tips on how to set-up lights for green screen.