Your Lighting Setup?

SubjectSarah

SubjectSarah

I Love YTtalk
Been trying to get a decent light for my next video, but it's just not happening! Been trying to light a blue screen. Have got a bunch of lights to try out different setups with, but none of them seem to be getting a satisfactory result - always weirdly yellow or too dark looking, resulting in subpar video quality. Not sure if it's the lights themselves, or the angles, or my camera or what! All I know is I've given up for this evening and will try again tomorrow!!

Do you have a particular lighting setup you use or do you use trial and error for each video (regardless of chroma key background or not)? Do you use professional studio lighting or run of the mill table lamps? Please consider sharing?

Thanks in advance for any responses, would be really interested to hear peoples setups :)
 
I have two desk lamps pointing at my screen to eliminate shadows, and two in front of me, so I'm not too shadowy. Also, he farther you are from the screen, the better off you'll be.

It's a learning experience, good luck!
(You can see the results of my technique improve if you watch my most recent videos.)
:)
 
Helllouuuu....I use two 100W lamps, Halogen, small factor. One on each side of the screen. I think for best results I should put a third from the bottom (to even out). I've been told here thatI should also use a light behind me to separate me more from the screen (i get the green bleeding effect...and you know, I like bleeding...but not green!!)

A fair distance away from the screen and just keep testing until you find the sweet spot...then: NEVER LOOSE IT!!!! :devil:
 
weirdly yellow ... sounds like you're using standard light bulbs and not correcting the white balance for tungsten lighting
too dark ... means your exposure is off and you need to either use a larger aperture, or add a stronger light source if increasing the aperture is not an option.
 
You should definitely not use standard household bulbs. They will turn you yellow for sure LOL. Don't use flourescent either, as they can turn you green haha...I would suggest using 5500k or 5600k daylight balanced, and make sure you properly white balance your camera before filming. This will help with keeping colours more true. Also, you can use a standard three-point light setup for yourself, and seperate yourself from your blue screen by at least 6 feet. Don't light your bluescreen too brightly as that can cause reflections on you and leave a blue halo around you. Make sure your subject lighting and your blue screen lighting are the same type and wattage of light so you don't have trouble keying out your blue screen later. If you aren't sure how to do a three-point light setup, check out the video lighting tutorial on my channel. It's not hard to do. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
 
I was going to post a lighting thread with this same sort of question, but now I don't have too, yay!


M424Filmcast said:
You should definitely not use standard household bulbs. They will turn you yellow for sure LOL. Don't use flourescent either, as they can turn you green haha...I would suggest using 5500k or 5600k daylight balanced, and make sure you properly white balance your camera before filming. This will help with keeping colours more true. Also, you can use a standard three-point light setup for yourself, and seperate yourself from your blue screen by at least 6 feet. Don't light your bluescreen too brightly as that can cause reflections on you and leave a blue halo around you. Make sure your subject lighting and your blue screen lighting are the same type and wattage of light so you don't have trouble keying out your blue screen later. If you aren't sure how to do a three-point light setup, check out the video lighting tutorial on my channel. It's not hard to do. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
Click to expand...


I will have to check out that tutorial, you sound like you know stuff, haha.
 
I personally have a set of cowboy studio lights I bought from amazon. I tend to just use one or two in a scene to balance out harsh light from windows. There really isn't much of a need for fancy lighting in short youtube videos but I sometimes like to use brightness, darkness, and contrast to help with the tone of a scene.
 
MotokiMaxted said:
I personally have a set of cowboy studio lights I bought from amazon. I tend to just use one or two in a scene to balance out harsh light from windows. There really isn't much of a need for fancy lighting in short youtube videos but I sometimes like to use brightness, darkness, and contrast to help with the tone of a scene.
Click to expand...
The Cowboy studio set is pretty good. You don't need expensive. However, you do want to do white balance and correct lighting during filming. Fixing all that in post with brightness, contrast, etc., is ok, but can make it hard to get colours and all that will look good in the final product. I haven't really worried about it too much for most of my YT stuff, but I've noticed it makes my stuff look crappy. For my upcoming short films and vlogs, I will be doing it all the right way. Professionalism is key if you want to really make money with YT videos IMHO.

Anyway, I've rambled long enough...bored I guess LOL
 
I light myself with 2 300s (Diffused) and light my background with 2 600s (Hard). I kill any other light coming in the room to make sure I'm not mixing temps. My camera is set to 3400K for white balance (I prefer a bit warm over then suggested 3200). However I make my vids in Black and White so its all kinda for a lost cause. haha
 
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