Good lights and stuff for video recording

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Switchbox

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Soooo.
My room is pretty dark, so I was wondering if anyone has any recommendations for lights I can use to make my videos look brighter? :)

Also, since I'm recording my videos with a regular video camera, should I buy an external mic that I can plug into it? If so, any recommendations?

Thanks in advance!
 
I would get a mic and plug it into an external recorder like the Zoom H1. Giant Squid Audio makes a fairly affordable lav mic with decent performance, but make sure you get the gold plated right angle connector.
 
Hey! Your videos aren't bad quality, really. Sure, an external mic and some lights would be awesome, but I wouldn't say they're critical at this moment.

A couple points about lighting: I see you're shooting with the curtains closed. Open those babies up and use the sunshine! Also remember that your brightest light source needs to come from behind the camera. It seems like you're getting a lot of light from the kitchen right now, which is either to the side of you or, even worse, behind you.

Are you tweaking the color in post at all? You can boost the overall brightness there, and level out the shadows a bit by brightening them a greater percentage than your mids and highlights. Bumping the saturation would also be a good call, IMO.

If you really need a light in that room, it can be as simple as bouncing a high watt bulb off the wall/ceiling somewhere behind the camera. You can jerry-rig this with a houselamp and something to block (a piece of cardboard) or diffuse (a kerchief or other fabric) the harsh direct light that would blow out your face.

Seriously, I think you just need to get a lamp and a good bulb to start.
 
francisleo said:
Hey! Your videos aren't bad quality, really. Sure, an external mic and some lights would be awesome, but I wouldn't say they're critical at this moment.

A couple points about lighting: I see you're shooting with the curtains closed. Open those babies up and use the sunshine! Also remember that your brightest light source needs to come from behind the camera. It seems like you're getting a lot of light from the kitchen right now, which is either to the side of you or, even worse, behind you.

Are you tweaking the color in post at all? You can boost the overall brightness there, and level out the shadows a bit by brightening them a greater percentage than your mids and highlights. Bumping the saturation would also be a good call, IMO.

If you really need a light in that room, it can be as simple as bouncing a high watt bulb off the wall/ceiling somewhere behind the camera. You can jerry-rig this with a houselamp and something to block (a piece of cardboard) or diffuse (a kerchief or other fabric) the harsh direct light that would blow out your face.

Seriously, I think you just need to get a lamp and a good bulb to start.
Click to expand...
It was already evening/dark outside when I filmed :P

I think I need to buy another floor lamp. There's no ceiling lamp in my living room, it's an old house so it doesn't really have everything I want it to have xD
But at where I work, we have these light thingies that they use to take pictures of the employees. They are squared and have some white fibre infront of the bulbs. It connects with the camera, so whenever they take a picture it also works like a flash.

Those seemed to give pretty good light, but I don't know how much those would cost xP

And no, I haven't really messed with any settings after I filmed it. I just started making videos this week, so I haven't really taken the time to learn everything I need yet.
Thanks for the replies by the way! :)
 
I use my ceiling fan and a clamp light, all with the same GE reveal bulb 1120 lumens, I just throw a white tee on both to soften the light. I don't have good mic advice, I just use the one in my camera in edit the sound in premier.

I see you don't have a ceiling light, perhaps just the clamp lights then, I think there reasonably cheap.
 
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