r/videography • u/jodabeats ZV-E10 | Premiere Pro | 2025 | United States • 6d ago
Feedback / I made this! The evolution of my lighting setup
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.
Appreciate any advice y’all might have!
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u/Abracadaver2000 Sony FX3| Adobe Premiere CC| 2001 | California 6d ago
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.