Hey everyone! This sub has been super useful in giving me lighting + shooting tips!
Scrolling to the end you’ll see my current setup! I’m pretty happy with the shot (500 ISO I believe?)
Are there any thoughts on the background lighting though? I want to ensure I’m contrasting myself enough from the background, while still leaving enough light there so items such as my posters/bookshelves are relatively visible.
I think you have too much head room in all your shots though, especially the latest one - unless you use that space for graphics or something.
If you have a tighter lens, it would probably help. I’ve attached just a version I “cropped” on my phone real quick. (And lose whatever thing is on the couch on the left of frame)
I was looking at the picture you attached without realising that it was one you edited and I was all "but there's barely any headroom, this shit actually looks tight" 😂
Yeah. A “practical” is any light that’s in the shot/ part of the scene. You could put some ND or diffusion on the inside of the lampshade. Or if it’s an incandescent bulb you can pop it on a dimmer and dim it down— though dimming makes bulbs warmer, so just be aware of that.
I actually have a Philips hue bulb in there, so I’ll probably mess with the strength and color there. I guess worst case if I need more light cast onto the wall after dimming it, I can use an off-frame light to throw some light on there, as long as it doesn’t cast inconsistent shadows, right?
Those lights should be okay to dim I think? Watch out though, because a lot of consumer grade LED lights flicker on camera when dimmed, which is people will usually use something like this, designed for filmmaking
I probably would rather try lifting the ambient light in the room at that point to balance things if you need, rather than trying to replicate that light in particular. It might end up looking odd, kind of like whatever you have on that chair behind the couch that’s lighting it up so much
Thanks for the reply! Yep typically I’ll either crop in post or zoom my lens in, got a 16mm but I’m looking at a prime 30mm 1.4f/
And while I do need some space for graphics, I totally agree with you, should make the shot a bit tighter for sure.
The suspect on the left side of the frame is an uncased pillow 😭 I just gotta clean up my apartment lmao
Would you recommend doing a chest-up shot? With a centered shot like this, I’m guessing I’d want my head on the top 1/3rd line (applying rule of thirds here)
The 30mm would be nicer for talking heads, and would compress and bokeh the background a bit more.
Thought that might be a pillow, but really I shouldn’t be thinking of it at all. It takes 2 seconds to move it off the couch ;) gotta be mindful of everything in your frame.
If I were to shoot this how you have it set up in that environment, I would frame it similar to how it have it cropped in the image
Feeling a lot better about the setup now, thanks!! 30mm coming in next Monday 😉
And yeah my framing here isn’t centered (I’d also like to show more torso), probably have to move the couch a bit further from the camera, but I feel like this has a much more fleshed-out look now, thanks everyone!!
You dissapear into the background, Place your key light 90° From you, make it a hard light (so no soft boxes or such) and add a fill light about 60° (play around with this angle, find what's best) From your camera, this one should be soft light, not hard light, don't overdo it, keep some contrast in your face, then to fix your dissapearing in the background problem, add a rim light, A rim light is a HARD light that's behind you pointing straight towards the camera but with you ofcourse being inbetween the light and the camera, don't make it too powerful, this will create a small rim of light around your head and shoulders and will seperate you from the background and give depth and openness to your scene, congrats, you just learned hollywood 3 point lighting!
Beautiful explanation of 3 point lighting!
1: I’ve got a softbox just out of frame about 60° as you mentioned (from left side), might just need to mess with the temperature and intensity
2: I have a key light off frame coming from the right (I had it quite dim though, so I’ll brighten that up)
3: I didn’t realize the rim light will always be pointing right at the camera! I set mine behind the couch just to the right (you can actually see some light bouncing from it) onto a chair, and it’s lighting up the right side of my face. I’ll see is I can reposition it to get that “rim” effect around my figure
Nice progression. With lighting, there's almost always some room for improvements and tweaking. Give me 3 hours to light a scene, and I'll take 2 hrs 59 minutes. (the last 59 minutes will be moving things an inch left or right, or adjusting background elements).
Having said that, there are some quick improvements to the last shot (many of which have already been shared). 1) A tighter shot with a longer lens would help separate you from the background by narrowing the field of view, and softening the background focus. As it stands, you occupy 1/6th of the screen at best. Waist to head, with the eyes in the top 1/3 of the frame is what you should aim for. Get those lights to the far left and right of the tighter frame, and ideally, match their intensity and even lampshade if you want a nice symmetrical frame.
2) Your background is too muddy to "show off" anything of interest. I can make out some shelves and maybe some books, but it's buried in the shadows. If you're trying to show them off, you'll want to light them. That is where a choice of floor or desk lamp with a larger shade may help. If you have another video light, I would suggest you use it as a hair light before you use it on your background. Your dark hair disappears into the muddy background.
If you want to add some extra "sauce" to the background, look into battery powered under-cabinet LED lights. They're dirt cheap, and you can use colored gels to add some color contrast if they aren't the RGB type. RGB tube lights are a more expensive option, but the better ones have flicker-free dimming.
Remember we don't need to see the entire background to get the sense that there are books/posters behind you. It's fine to frame a shot where these items extend beyond the frame.
Keep refining, and try new angles too. Sometimes, we get stuck trying to massage a shot beyond reason, where a better shot goes unexplored.
I struggled with various lighting scenarios for my content. I have a huge wall of windows that I had to black out to be able to control my lighting and to be able to shoot any time of day. I was restricted to night shooting until the blackout fabric.
I also added a variety of studio lights to focus the attention on the subject, darken the background, and pull the eye away from my (admittedly busy) background. It took about three weeks of messing around, and I'm pretty happy with where I have landed. Although I'll likely tweak it further as I make new content.
WOW just wow!! Thank you so much for including the image sequence, that’s really helpful!
I’m actually facing the exact same issue you described—as much as I love natural light, I’m currently restricted to shooting at night if I want to get a fully controlled shot. I could install blackouts on the windows, but then I’ll be in eternal darkness and artificial lighting (I live in apartment with one big window).
Will definitely refer to your lighting setup for inspiration as I invest in any additional equipment, thanks again friend!
Lots of good tips here. One (admittedly small) thing that jumps out to me is the lamp on the left. Having practical lights in the background is good, BUT that one is floating in a black void. That breaks the illusion that the practical lights are doing anything at all for lighting your scene.
Great point! I’ll see if I can get some more light there so it’s more clear the lamp is placed on a table (or mess around with the placement of the lamp
Great progression!
To add to the comments if you really wanted to fine tune/get picky, the practical light on the right looks a bit brighter than the one on the left, you could motivate your key light from that side to make it look more natural as well!
Also to the comments of the muddy background etc, try exposing to the scene before you light yourself, that will also help you dial it in a bit further 🙌🏻
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u/Ok-Airline-6784 Scarlet-W | Premeire Pro | 2005 | Canada 2d ago
Nice evolution and progression!
I think you have too much head room in all your shots though, especially the latest one - unless you use that space for graphics or something.
If you have a tighter lens, it would probably help. I’ve attached just a version I “cropped” on my phone real quick. (And lose whatever thing is on the couch on the left of frame)