Thanks for checking this segment out. In this chapter we'll talk about the basics of lighting for professional result. There's a lot more to lighting than just getting a proper exposure. We'll talk about color temperatures, how to light an interview indoors, how to light outdoors and how to light for green screen. Again, well intermediate students may find the segment useful. This series is geared towards the beginning student of videography.

We will touch on some content We've already gone over previous segments and go into more detail and how to make your video look like a million bucks with the minimal amount of gear but a ton of knowledge on how to make it look great. color temperature, first we need to revisit color temperature. color temperature is different from heat temperature, whereas heat temperature is measured in degrees centigrade or Fahrenheit. color temperatures measured in degrees Kelvin. different sources of light have different degrees Kelvin in different characteristics. For example, outdoor light is bluish and it's about 5500 degrees Kelvin.

Tungsten light which you'll find in a lot of lighting fixtures is 3200 degrees Kelvin is oranges. Why is this important? Because if your cameras balanced at 3200 degrees and you shoot outdoors, everything will look orange. inversely, if your camera is set at 5500 degrees and you shoot indoors, Your footage will look blue. So there are two lessons here. White balanced under the light that is illuminating your shot.

And if at all possible do not mix your sources of light. Here's the good news. You can make outdoor light orange any can make indoor light blue. Let me say first just for the record that you can use HDMI lights, which are bounds for daylight to illuminate outdoor seeing. The problem is the cost of buying HDMI lights is astronomical. For most of us, it's not an option.

You could rent HDMI lights, but it's still a pretty big deal at an extra cost. Here's a better option for the videographer on a limited budget. You can and should buy a portable collapsible reflector. This will help you get more daylight on your subject outdoors. You can also use a reflector indoors to help fill a lighting setup with tungsten or halogen Lights, you need to invest in gels need to buy some blue gel called CTV, which stands for color temperature blue. It's an orange gel, known as CTO, which as you may guess, is color temperature orange.

While you're at it, buy some diffusion gel. These will soften the light on your subject for a more pleasing look. If you're shooting indoors, and have outdoor light coming in, you have two options. You can light your subject with 3200 degree tungsten lights, and cover your windows with CTO gel to balance for the tungsten lights. Or you can let the daylight stream in is covering your tungsten lights with blue gel to bounce the whole scene to 5500 degrees blue light. While I said don't mix color temperatures once you get comfortable with lighting, you can experiment with mixing lighting.

For example, you can light through 200 degrees with tungsten light and let daylight come in as a backlight or sidelight for Erie Look, if that's the kind of thing you're going for outdoor lighting let's first talk about outdoor lighting as it's not as involved as indoor lighting. The main thing Outdoors is to supplement the natural daylight and fill in shadows. As mentioned in part two, you want to position your subject so that the sun is illuminating his or her face is not backlighting your subject. If the sun is behind your subject, you're subject to the massively backlit with the result being they will be a dark silhouette. Or if exposed for their face the background will blow out and not be able to be saved ugly video and unusable with your handy portable reflector. Have someone stand on the opposite side of your subject, the sunlight is coming from that person Hold the reflector braced against the body to stabilize it and reflect sunlight to fill in shadows on their subjects face.

Keep in mind that most people can't handle reflected sunlight into their eyes. So you'll need to experiment with positioning. I've shot many interviews without an assistant, right needed to shoot, monitor audio and hold a reflector at the same time. It's difficult but it's possible. You need to get your framing in the camera, lock the pan and tilt on the tripod, and brace the reflector against the tripod in front of you. Sometimes it's easier to move your subject into the shade, you get a much more even looking picture.

Your subject is not squinting, and everybody's happy. This is not always possible though, because there may be no suitably shaded background. You may be tempted to put your subject under a tree. This is rarely a good solution as light coming through leaves and branches is spotty. The resulting video is worse than your subject out a midday sun. Another possibility is if you've purchased a five in one portable reflector, you can unzip the reflective portion and use the diffusion material.

You will need An assistant to hold this over your subject and expose for the subjects face. The background will over expose, but not so much as to be unusable. It's a difficult choreography, but it's doable with experience. indoor lighting, lighting indoors is easier to control. This is where the experienced videographer can really get creative. videography like any art form is part technological and part creative.

In our profession, the most important part of the equation is light. In your control of light is the videographers paint, shooting fast paced news or special events. You will be limited to just your on camera light. Make sure you use The onboard dimmer to keep the amount of light to only what is necessary to get a pleasing look. If you're shooting a close up right next to your subject, don't go full blast on your light. You'll either overexposed your subject or underexposed the background.

Either way, your subject will look washed out and unprofessional. If you're shooting in a more controlled environment, there are three ways to light a scene. The first is using solely the ambient light. When digital video first hit the scene. One of the misnomers was that you no longer needed to light for video. Yeah, right.

Somehow magically, the digital video camera would make all your footage look spectacular. As an editor I've had many videographers content come to me who seem to still think this is the case. They will shoot an interview but not like their subject. Don't be one of those people. The end result looks bad No matter how much color correcting you do in post. The second way is somewhat better.

But still not optimal. This category are the videographers who don't understand the role of light in their art. Their goal is to make sure their video levels are 100%. These folks will mount a light behind the camera and watch the subject with light. They will leave whatever ambient light on in the room and supplement or overpower their subject with a lighting fixture. It's visually passable and technically okay, as long as you've taken care to match the light sources for color temperature, but it's uninteresting to look at, there's no depth and then there's no shadow there's no dimension.

In its worst form, it gives a subject that deer caught in the headlights look. Let's look at how to use a reflector indoors. If we move that one light to the side as a key light, we can move a reflector to the other side of the town's face to bounce the key light and act as a fill light. The best way to light is to first Think about what kind of mood you're trying to convey. lighting in interview with a homicide detective would be totally different than lighting a lingerie model lying on a bed. After you've established the look that you're going for, set up whatever lights you plan on using and put them in the general area you think they should go.

The next part is very important. Turn off the rooms regular lights, use only your lights to illuminate the scene. And this way, you will have total control over the look. You won't have to worry about overhead room lights spilling onto your subject, you'll be able to accentuate background elements, you'll be able to create any mood you wish. Before we move on. Let's talk about ways to control lighting.

You don't need $100,000 worth of lights or the newest and fluorescent or LED lights to effectively lightest see. All you need are some basic lights and some basic ways to control your lights. Caution before you turn on any lights, look at the ceiling. If any of your lights are near any overhead sprinklers move them. Nothing can ruin a shoot worse than a hot light setting off the fire sprinklers, ruining your gear, ruining the room and causing an evacuation in the entire building. Let's look at some basic necessities of how to control lighting.

Barn doors. These are metal doors on the top, bottom and sides of a lighting fixture. They are adjustable and are used to control where your light is on the subject. You can move them all the way in to create a sliver of light or open them to flood your subject to the light or anything in between. You can also use them to test gels the front of your light for various effects. Just make sure you leave enough open space around them for air to circulate to keep your light from overheating.

A word of caution use heavy duty leather gloves or pliers. Adjust your barn doors to keep your fingers from getting burned. flags. If you had the budget, you could rent or buy fabric flags on frames and mount them on C stance. If you don't have the money, you can use flat and cardboard. Black foil leaving your reflector experiment with the effects you can get by moving your flags closer and farther away from the light source.

But don't get too close to your lights. You will need stands to solidly mount the flags snoots these are cylindrical fixtures that you attach to the front of your light. They are used in place of barn doors to focus a circular beam of light on your subject or an area of interest in your frame. gel. It's a good idea to invest in some different gels to keep in your kit. gel usually comes in large sheets or on rolls, you can cut pieces to fit, you can buy it online or wherever production type lighting is sold.

It's formulated specifically for use with hot studio lighting. So don't try to save a few dollars by using something that's not specifically intended for video production. gels used for various purposes to match color temperature. As mentioned, you need to match the color temperature of all the light sources in the scene. There's a lot of daylight coming in to your room and you're using quartz halogen or tungsten lamps, you will need to color balance your lamps to the daylight. This case you would cut pieces of your blue gel to attach to your barn doors to cover the light.

Or you can go the other way around. blue gel and a light cuts the brightness of the lamp considerably. So if I'm lighting a room where there is a window letting daylight in, I'll take my role of orange CTO gel uncover the window. This turns the light coming through the window. From 5500 degrees to 30 degrees diffusion. Very rarely will I use a light without some sort of diffusion in front of it.

Unless you're using a softbox, soft fluorescent lights or LED lights. Lighting is pretty harsh and can create distinct shadows. That's fine if you want your subject to look a little harder moodier. But generally it's a little too much for most subjects. The old days people use baking paper. Now there are many different types of diffusion materials made specifically for the film and video world ranging from a light frost to heavy diffusion and diffusion with neutral density.

Colored gel gel comes in just about any color you want. I keep a few different colors on hand for different moods. Yellow or straw gel can brighten the background. Red gel can add a lot to a boring background. So how do we attach Gil if you're on a set and you hear One of the geezers asked for C 47. Don't despair.

All he wants is a closed pin. Closed pins are pretty much the universal method of attaching gels to barn doors. But because wouldn't close pins can sometimes burn too close to a lamp. I prefer using the metal spring clips you buy at an office supply store. Just remember not to use your bare fingers if you're removing one from a hot light, wear gloves or use a pair of pliers. dimmers.

One thing I've been using for years that you don't see often are dimmers. These aren't the type of dimmers that you buy at a big box store. These are made for higher wattage applications. The lights in my kit all maxed out at 600 watts. So that's what these dimmers are rated at. These are indispensable to me as you can quickly dial in a brightness for all the lights on your setup.

I'm sure I may get some grief from pros who may be watching this video about dimmers affecting color temperature. It is true that the low right in my halogen lights, the lower the color temperature will be. However only once I get the look I want is when I wipe balance. So far after 30 years I've never had a poorly lit scene or any problems with colors on any of the videos I have shot mounting solutions. Look into different ways of mounting your lights. Of course you will want collapsible stands for all of your lights.

I also have a reasonably priced stand with an arm that extends so I can sneak a backlight in over my subjects head. There are also mounting solutions to put a light on a floor. Use the arm to brace it against the floor. for stability You can also nail this to a piece of plywood or You can nail it to a wall for different angles. This is a scissors type adapter that you can attach to a drop down ceiling. What you do is you place this part over one of the cross pieces and you tighten it here so it's nice and tight.

And then you can hang your light from the bottom. This adapters handy for attaching a light to a light stand, a C stand, or any piece of pipe. There you go. This is a super handy alligator clip and clip this Teddy thing with a ledge like a bookcase like that, like a corner of a table like I'm doing right now. We're just about anywhere flaxseed oil. This is an inexpensive and indispensable item to add to the kit.

It comes with a roll which you can cut off pieces as you need them. You can use this foil to create flags, extend barn doors or even create patterns to break up your light to create mood on your background or interesting lighting on your talent.