Search Marketing Insomniac…The Blog of Adam Henige

So far we have covered the importance of audio and proper framing techniques in our HTMYVTDS series (I really need to work on that acronym), and today we’re going to tackle what is often the most difficult issue for aspiring videographers - lighting.  Many an otherwise acceptable video has been ruined by shoddy lighting, and today’s aim is to arm you with enough practical lighting knowledge to keep things looking sharp.

First thing’s first, you’re going to need to invest in some lights.  Yes, I know most of us are on a budget right now, but there’s really no way around it.  However, most of us aren’t aiming to recreate the dramatic lighting of Hollywood’s finer moments here, we just want people properly lit so they appear to have some depth to them, and no hideous shadows.

For our purposes, we’ll assume we’re shooting a stationary subject, and here we’ll try to cover two basic approaches to lighting.  First, the ideal for a one person shoot is three point lighting.  Three point lighting has three basic components, a key light, a fill light and a hair light (or back light).  The image below demonstrates this basic setup.

Your key light should be the most intense, providing the most brightly lit component of your subject’s face.  Ideally, your camera will have zebra stripes on it, which should have only the most brightly lit areas on your subjects face (oftentimes on the forehead) showing some slight zebra stripes.  If there is a significant amount of zebra stripes, you’ll need to close the iris a bit or tone down the lights, and the opposite if there are no zebra stripes.

If you’re dealing with a more rudimentary camcorder, you’ll have to use your LCD or viewfinder and just eyeball it.  Basically, you want to make sure the key light is providing a bit of “pop” to the subject’s face, but not blowing it out to a glowing white.

The fill light should do just what it says, fill in the other side of the subject’s face, at a slightly lesser intensity than the key light.  This provides some depth to the image, as video often appears flat.  Overdoing the contrast might make your subject look like a bad horror flick, so beware of that.

The hair light has one primary purpose, and that is to separate the subject from the backdrop.  Hitting the back of the head with a pretty direct and focused light will help clearly define your subject as the focus of the shot.

For a visual example of three point lighting, here’s a short video on the subject:

With one light you will not have the option of a fill or hair light, so you need to do the best you can.  Ideally, you’ll want to soften the light as much as possible, so if your lighting kit comes with a softbox, an umbrella, or some other tool that will help diffuse the light, you’ll want to use it.  You’ll have to set your light up offset to one side of the camera or the other, so by softening the light you’ll reduce the hard shadows on your subject’s face, and by experimenting with their positioning relative to the light and camera, you can still get a bit of that key/fill look to the shot.

While a hair light is out of the question here, you’ll want to worry about the shadow in a one light set up.  Nothing is worse than a large silhouetted head bobbing around behind your subject that you don’t notice until you go to edit.  Be very aware of shadows, and do your best to keep your subject a reasonable distance from any walls.  If you have a soft light, simply pulling them away from the wall behind them will often remove any problems you may have with shadows.

If you’re looking for some real bargain basement lighting, check out products by Smith Victor.  Not all of their stuff is professional quality lighting (I’ve only used their low end products personally), but they will provide you with a couple of soft lights and a light you can use as a hair light, and with a little configuring can provide a nicely lit shot.

Good deals can be found on ebay here.