My lighting setup

[ThatsCohmedy]

Hey all, I'd love to get some advice on my lighting setup. It's pretty much non-existent right now actually as I'm using mostly natural light.

I bought one of those little LED battery powered guys as I'd heard good things. It came with a little stand, but it's a bit blinding if I put it right in front of my face. I suppose if I had a ladder or something I could put it on that, but otherwise I'm not really sure where it should go.

I've read that the idea light has a direct light, a fill light and a backlight. I'm interested in what folks with little to no equipment/money do to achieve such a setup. Thanks for the help!

 

[TylorSkory]

We just use the $59.99 cowboy lighting kit from Amazon. It's basically two umbrella lights on a stand (there's a third small light it comes with but we rarely use it). Typically we just set up one or two lights to film and it makes a huge difference. I sometimes wish they were brighter (but that's just the bulbs we are using). It was a great purchase though. And although they aren't perfect, it made a world of difference when we got them (and you really can't beat the price).

 

[Lin]

Save up about $50 to $60 and get a lighting set from Amazon. It helps a lot when you can't film during the day or when the weather flips out on you.

I have the umbrella one. After I bought the umbrella one, I started seeing a lot of people with the non-umbrella one. I think it is called soft box. I think it has something to do with shadow. Hopefully someone with more photography background will be able to give you some help on it.

My umbrella set comes with 3 light stands and 2 umbrella. I ended up using only the 2 umbrella ones. But it doesn't hurt to have a backup. My only complain is that the light isn't as bright as I'd like them to be. But so far so good.

With the umbrella set, it is very portable. I don't know about the soft box ones. Another thing you can look into is to see if your camera has some settings for adjusting the lighting. My camera has different setting like "Cloudy", "Halogen", "Auto" and stuff like that. They make a big difference for me. I still can't get the setting that I'd like to have, but happy with whatever I get so far :]

~ Edit ~
Just realize that I missed your last line. If you have no budget, then try to see if your camera has "Halogen" mode. You will see your shadow but it adjusts the color so your video will come out better. I tried with my available lamps prior to my purchase, but didn't work out too well :/ so best bet is save up for a set.

 

[ThatsCohmedy]

Thanks for the tips Tylor and Lin. I wish I'd gone with the cowboy kit to begin with. I probably spent about that on the LED light in the first place. I don't know if my camera has halogen mode, but I might be able to scrape together the $60 for the cowboy kit. Thanks again!

 

[yardblesspro]

Which LED model are you using? Post a link if possible.

 

[ThatsCohmedy]

Which LED model are you using? Post a link if possible.

I can't post a link, but it's the Chromo Inc. 160 LED CI-160 Dimmable Ultra High Power Panel Digital Camera / Camcorder Video Light, LED Light. Bought it off Amazon.

 

[yardblesspro]

Try putting some type of diffusion on top of it so it doesn't blind you. It can be a thin white fabric, paper or plastic. This will diffuse it a bit and help with the blinding problem.

You could also simply put it near you but point it to the ceiling or the upper corner of the room where you shoot. This hil help to increase the ambient lighting in a natural way.

 

[ThatsCohmedy]

Cool, thanks. It does come with a diffuser, but that didn't really help all that much. I'll try your suggestions though.

 

[M424Filmcast]

You can check out a basic lighting tutorial I posted several months back on my YT channel. Might help you out as far as setup.

 

[ThatsCohmedy]

You can check out a basic lighting tutorial I posted several months back on my YT channel. Might help you out as far as setup.

Thanks, I'll check it out!