I'm at a loss... how to fix this HORRIFIC lighting problem??

[Tropical365]

I was all excited to receive my soft box lights I bought on Amazon: ovitec StudioPRO - 2x 20" x 28" Softbox Lighting Kit w/ 2000 W Total Output - [Classic][Includes Stands, Softboxes, Socket Heads, 10x 45W Bulbs]

I setup just a single soft box for now and my skin looks HORRIFIC when I make videos with it!!! When I say horrific I mean it looks TERRIBLE and I am not exaggerating. I have VERY nice even toned skin too (so there are NO issues there that's for sure because my skin looks GREAT! I don't even wear any makeup)... yet this soft box is making me feel like I am in an airport restroom with "evil lighting" (you know how some restrooms in public places have the worst lighting which makes you look like crap and creates serious wrinkles on your face you didn't even know exists and this soft box is making my skin look SUPER BLOTCHY and slightly yellow as if my skin has grime all over it in darkish colored patches... it's so gross looking!!!). This softbox is also making lots of veins under both my eyes show like crazy and my undereyes are super dark too compared to the rest of my skin... it's soooo weird. I literally look PHYSICALLY ILL under this softbox it's so harsh and in a very unflattering way.

I'm really bummed out and I'm not sure how to fix this. I've seen people use just a single soft box before... must I use 2 of them on each side of my face? So far I'm extremely disappointed with this softbox even after experimenting with it. I'm using the AUTO setting on my camera... is this the problem?

Something is seriously wrong with my (Sony DSC W500 camera)... because this cannot be the soft box. What the heck???

 

[Dutchie Abroad]

Relax dude n.n" You're freaking out too much.

Just having good equipment means you're just half way there. Learning how to use it is just as important. Try different distances, bouncing the light of the wall instead of pointing it at you, putting baking paper over it to dim it. Just google 'how to use a softbox' or 'how to use softbox lighting' and see if you're using your equipment wrong, before chucking everything out because you think it's broken.

Also learn a bit more about your camera, tweaking the ISO of White balance can bring you a long way.

 

[Brandon]

There are many variables that can effect this. How far away is the soft box to your face? Where in proximity is the light source to the camera? What angle? I need more information to be able to help you properly.

 

[Tropical365]

Thanks for your responses... you should have seen the look on my face when I transferred the test video I shot onto my computer... I literally look physically ill from the awry camera settings or whatnot... seeing myself look like that freaked me out! LOL

.... I'm going to assemble the second soft box and have one on each side of my face and see if that helps. I had the soft box placed right in front of my face and I tried it at several distances (about 2 feet then 5 feet then 10 feet etc). Even though the soft box was directly in front of my face I had shadows all over my face. I then put the soft box off to one side and then of course I had a huge shadow on my side of face but my skin... OMG... it's so blotchy... my skin dooesn't look like that in real life! Even the skin all over my chest is blotchy...

I know NOTHING about camera settings which is why I always use the AUTO setting but it seems my camera's AUTO setting is no good for lighting like this? Do any youtubers out there use AUTO setting?? Thanks for your help!

PS: I tested the soft box at night in pitch dark and then this morning when there is some natural lighting in the room (not enough natural light to rely on it alone though and majority of time I cannot film in front of window)... sorry for my loooong posts.[DOUBLEPOST=1509717331,1509715440][/DOUBLEPOST]If you checkout this video on youtube called LIGHTING For YouTube Videos | Diva Ring Light, Box Lights & Background Lights and look at her BEFORE/AFTER... the lighting she is using makes a HUGE difference. She makes it look so easy... she must be using different camera settings rather than AUTO setting?

 

[FRANKIEandEMILY]

lighting for us took some trial and error. my solution - watch tutorials on youtube + trial and error + color grade your videos when editing.

 

[Tropical365]

lighting for us took some trial and error. my solution - watch tutorials on youtube + trial and error + color grade your videos when editing.

Thanks... but if you saw what it did to my skin this isn't something I could fix with video editing (it made my skin look AWFUL and showed every single imperfections (lots of veins under my eyes and it also does something odd to the skin under my eyes)... even the tiniest imperfections that I cannot even see in real life it magnified it and turned into into darkish blotches all over the place even on my chest). I think I need to figure out what camera settings other youtubers are using... do most youtubers use AUTO setting on their camera when recording videos?

... my cameras AUTO setting is fine in natural lighting but not with this artificial light. If I take a mirror and look at myself in front of this soft box it's VERY unflattering light and makes me look very old... VERY harsh and cold very unflattering to human skin... yet when I look at myself in my bathroom lighting it's very flattering and so is natural light if I'm facing it directy. I'm not impressed with this harsh fluorescent light. I don't know but this is not looking good.

 

[Crown]

Moved to the recording / editing / production / software / hardware forum (although this didn't really need a new thread.)

 

[WebSam]

I'd watch some videos or do some googling around white balance. Bascially there are different colour temperatures measured in units of Kelvin. Daylight is nice and warm, other lights can be cold and harsh.

I know it's a big deal on some short film sets I've been on to make sure the camera is shooting with the right settings, especially when under adrtificial light, I think changing the camera setting to match the temperature of the lights might help you with better results.

 

[Tropical365]

I'd watch some videos or do some googling around white balance. Bascially there are different colour temperatures measured in units of Kelvin. Daylight is nice and warm, other lights can be cold and harsh.

I know it's a big deal on some short film sets I've been on to make sure the camera is shooting with the right settings, especially when under adrtificial light, I think changing the camera setting to match the temperature of the lights might help you with better results.

Thanks, I'm about to give that a shot after I eat something... so I should try to adjust the kelvin and white balance...
I'm watching youtube now but none of the videos I've found so far tell me what actual settings they are using on their camera or if they are using AUTO setting. Check out this youtuber's video... she has gorgeous very flattering lighting. She's using 2 soft boxes (they are only 700 watts and then a ring light)... the lighting is soooooo nice!! You can find her video by typing the following into youtube: BEING A YOUTUBER Q&A + FILMING & LIGHTING SETUP
(I wish this youtuber would have shown me what her lighting looks like with only the soft boxes and then with only the ring light and what other lights she has in that room and of course camera settings etc).

I really suck at this LOL... I honestly thought I was home free now that I bought 2 soft boxes I figured I would simply plug one in and be good to go because I'd have very flattering light... nope! Not even close!! I was planning on using only one soft box per room... clueless rookie!

 

[WebSam]

Also something that you might want to consider, what lens are you using? That video you mentioned she is using a sigma 24mm, which is quite a wide lens which gives her a great shallow depth of field (blurry background) and it's has an apature of 1.4 which means the lens opens up really wide allowing lots of light to hit the sensor, meaning she could shoot in worse lighting and it would still look pretty good. But you would expect that for an $800+ lens