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Lighting advice


FHDcrew
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Yes I agree depth is great!  I’m hoping the neg fill will help me in areas where I don’t have that much depth, or the most pleasing background in the room doesn’t necessarily have the most depth (so using a fast lens to compensate)

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Another tip: if you can find a spot with space, it gives you some flexible filming options. 

Here's a bunch of shots from a very unsophisticated talking head video I made last year.  Shot it in 3 hours.  We only had 1 location for 9 people.  Had to make the setting change visually from interview to interview to interview just to break things up.

Did some adjustments to the back ground light and camera angle between sit-downs.  Quick and easy.  The two lights being used on the interview subject never really changed.  A small softbox front key and a backlight was it, ambient through window blinds was my fill.  Just shuffled the variables and tried to get different looks. 

Ultimately, it doesn't take a lot to do a lot.  And, as said, I always, always, always start with killing the room lights.  See what you get, then continue.

Finally, here's my biggest dumb tip of all if you want to shoot something faster than you actually should:  Rotate 360 and try to find the light that allows the subject to be a few stops above the background.  Aim to achieve that visual separation.  Hold out the back of your fist at arms length, squint really hard, and get a sense if that's happening. 

For instance, if you're holding your fist in front of a window, it's going to be a silhouette, rotate yourself 180 and your fist is most likely going to be the opposite, right?  Rotate another 30 degrees and you might actually start to see some interesting 'light-moulding' starting to happen.

Anyway, it's pretty easy to start seeing light in your work spaces once you know what you're looking for.  It doesn't have to be some esoteric maths formula (even though it can be).  Just a smidgen of wisdom and practice can get you through.

 

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An interesting thing I have played with is moving the key light so it is visibly in frame, nearly touching the subject at times. Then I shoot a clean plate with the light out of frame, and use it to mask out the light. Gives softer light for free. Any tips on how to improve this technique?  Usually if the light is super close, the mask needs to be feathered a lot. But the feathering then bleeds on the subject.  The mask never perfectly matched as is. 

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1 hour ago, FHDcrew said:

Any tips on how to improve this technique?

Three things come to mind:

1. Buy a bigger softbox to soften the light more without needing to move it in frame

2. Use a weighted horizontal boom to mount the light above the frame, with the vertical stand positioned just out of frame

3. Position the interviewee on the rule of thirds line with the light on the same side, but out of frame.

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5 hours ago, FHDcrew said:

See YouTube tutorials never seem to cover this stuff. I mean yeah some do, but most YouTube tutorials just point an aputure light dome at a 45 degree angle and it magically looks great. They never seem to talk about all of these subtleties that I’m beginning to see a glimpse of. 

An absolutely KILLER source of info on this is the YT channel WanderingDP: https://www.youtube.com/c/wanderingdp/videos

His whole channel is full of video after video where he breaks down commercials (and the odd music video) talking about the composition, lighting, and using the space.  He is a working pro and is breaking down the work of some of the biggest names in the business (who often do commercials for cash between big features but are uncredited as they don't want to be associated with "lowly" advertising work).

I suggest binge-watching his channel.  He's got this thing called "The framework" which is his set of rules for getting great images.  I'm not sure if it's written down anywhere, but over watching a number of these videos it's a pretty repeatable pattern that involves many things already mentioned in this thread:

  • get lots of space between the subject and background
  • light all your practicals (making sure they are high CRI - take bulbs with you or portable LED lights you can put inside a lighting fixture)
  • shoot into the corner of the room for leading lines
  • Rembrandt lighting
  • Haze
  • Use natural lighting with sheers
  • Augment natural light from outside with motivated spotlights
  • etc

He also talks a lot about how to work efficiently, for example how to light an entire room so that you have a range of compositions that all require zero or only minor lighting tweaks (first principle is to light for the wide, then you can tweak as you shoot tighter - if you go the other way you'll always be zooming out and seeing your lighting come into frame).

Once you've watched enough of his videos you'll be able to see the steps and follow them really easily.  Of course, there's more to being a great DP than this, but watch a few dozen of his videos over a week or two and you'll leapfrog over the vast majority of the DPs around who haven't studied this stuff.

Plus he's quite funny and very easy to watch.

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4 hours ago, FHDcrew said:

Wow what an amazing channel. I just watched one of his videos, the “sun sandwich” one. Was so good!  He just explains it all in a way I rarely see on YouTube!

Also another good channel is meet the gaffer. 

Yeah, I cannot recommend WanderingDP enough.  Ironically, I think that this is probably what a camera YT channel should be, the problem is that everyone else is so pathetic in comparison that we see the majority and just think it's normal.

The Meet The Gaffer is great too: https://www.youtube.com/c/LukeSeerveld/videos

Personally I find these tutorials have limited use as I don't shoot controlled situations and don't use lighting (available lighting only for me) but the WanderingDP channel talks enough about composition that it's worth learning so that when I'm shooting I can know what to aim for and if the opportunity arises I can use some of those principles.

Perhaps the biggest lesson here is that pros know so much more than "YouTube - only creators" that they're mostly not worth your time to watch.

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4 hours ago, kye said:

Perhaps the biggest lesson here is that pros know so much more than "YouTube - only creators" that they're mostly not worth your time to watch.

Yes!!  And on the other end of the spectrum you have videos like this. Literally withholding information on color grading. An ad in disguise, they make it seem like you can just buy the lut and not have to learn much. 
https://youtu.be/huMGyDnq0bk&t=446

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Update time. I have the 5 in 1 reflector, using that as negative fill, combined with some tweaks to my key light angle results in pleasing contrast and depth in the face. So I’m very pleased!  I’m still doing the technique of moving the already large key light visibly into the frame, then masking it out in post. I noticed a discernible discernible difference in softness between using this workflow, and having the key light just out of frame. 

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On 7/4/2022 at 2:20 PM, hyalinejim said:

I meant the position of the person, not the mic. Like center of the room versus closer to a wall.

In terms of audio, further to @IronFilms comment about getting the mic closer, is the arrangement of any sound treatments or room elements that absorb sound (such as soft-furnishings, curtains, etc).  The closer that a wall is to the talent the more you'll get that wall reflecting sound back to the mic, but throw an acoustic blanket up on a couple of c-stands and you should be fine - most YT studios will have acoustic blankets hung up just out of shot to minimise room response and reflections.

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