Lighting is one of the most important elements in creating your videos, but unfortunately, few creators spend enough time on the topic. You don’t need to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars to get high-quality videos; you just need a few basic lighting techniques that you can use with your smartphone. To help you out, here are four tips to help you improve the lighting in your videos.
Light the Subject Properly
Let’s start with one of the most basic but important tips of any video. You want to ensure the subject and scene are well lit. This draws the viewer’s attention and also adds mood to the shot, ensuring you have enough visibility to see what’s happening.
But how do you light the subject properly? You can either use natural light or set up a lighting rig to put the right amount of light on your subject. After the frame has been set, you want to take a test shot to look at how it looks on camera.
Avoid Overhead Lighting
Have you ever noticed the harsh shadows that fall when the sun is directly overhead? They’re created by overhead lighting and can make anyone seem unflattering. Most rooms are fitted with ceiling lights, which are usually the wrong choice for videographers who are new to creating videos. This is because overhead lighting often results in a similar-looking colour tone to the scene and shadows on the face of your subject. Instead of using overhead lighting, you should use adjustable lamps, LED lights, or ring lights that can be placed in front of your subject to help eliminate shadows.
Accentuate Shadows
While you want a picture that is not overexposed, shadows can add depth to your work and make it look more cinematic. To get this, you should set up some lights on one side while facing the subject, while you are facing the other side and the camera is in front.
This lighting setup is used frequently in filmmaking. If you know what to look for, you may be able to spot classic films accentuating shadows to add depth to the film’s visuals. In these films, the camera is placed at an angle to capture both the shadows and the light.
Use Soft Lighting
When it comes to lighting, harsh lighting definitely has its place in filmmaking, whether to create dramatic effects or simply to add drama. With that being said, sometimes soft lighting is better for your videos. If you’re just starting out, it’s a lot easier and often a lot more flattering to use soft and diffused lighting.
Soft lighting is evenly spread out and produces soft highlights and shadows, which helps to create a more even and less moody look. The perfect example of soft lighting is outside on a cloudy day; there is no direct sunlight. You can achieve this look indoors by using diffusers or softboxes to spread the light from your studio lighting.
Conclusion
We hope this article proves to be useful when it comes to helping you improve the lighting in your videos. As you can see, there are a slew of different ways to approach how you light your videos. Be sure to keep everything you’ve learned here in mind the next time you shoot a video so you can produce the best video possible.
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