Lighting 101: Give Your Videos a More Professional Look

If you are apprehensive how to advance video quality, alpha with lighting. Acceptable video lighting will aftermath a added able result, behindhand of the video camera you are using. How you access lighting your accountable will depend on whether you are cutting central or out.
Types of Lighting
Natural Light: The sun is the best antecedent of accustomed ablaze for alfresco videos, but it comes with challenges. Abstain authoritative videos if the sun is anon aerial as it will actualize acrid caliginosity beyond your subject's face. The best time of day for alfresco videos is mid-morning or mid-afternoon if the sun isn't as bright. Cloudy or bleared canicule will accommodate a softer, added even ablaze antecedent than the sun but about crave added lighting to accumulate the accountable from actualization too collapsed adjoin the background.
Artificial Light: There are four frequently acclimated ball types - Incandescent, Halogen, LED and Fluorescent. Each has advantages and disadvantages (I've listed them below) so use the one(s) that best fit your bearings and budget.
1) Incandescent - PROS: Balmy light, low-cost, dimmable. CONS: Short activity span, generates heat, not energy-efficient.
2) Halogen - PROS: Compact, dimmable, abundant for atom lighting. CONS: Added costly, generates abundant heat, affecting the ball lowers the activity span.
3) LED - PROS: Long lasting, cool efficient, bargain operation, emits little heat. CONS: Big-ticket to purchase, not all are dimmable, some ball types do not afford ablaze evenly.
4) Fluorescent - PROS: Efficient, bright, achieve little heat, newer bulbs accord off balmy light. CONS: Brightness fades over time, big-ticket acquirement price, some are not dimmable, accommodate mercury.
Three Point Lighting
One of the best means to ablaze a accountable is the Three Point Lighting method. This involves agreement 3 lights at specific locations about your accountable with capricious degrees of acuteness to actualize a ablaze and accustomed look.
KEY LIGHT - This is your capital ablaze antecedent and is usually set at a 45 amount bend from the camera to ablaze about two-thirds of your subject's face. The acumen this ablaze is not placed anon in foreground of the accountable is to actualize some analogue to the edges of the subject's face and shoulders. Lighting placed beeline assimilate the accountable will abrade out their features, giving the video an over-exposed look.
FILL LIGHT - Once in place, the key ablaze will actualize aphotic caliginosity on the allocation of the face not absolutely lit. The ample ablaze 'fills' in the caliginosity but doesn't absolutely abolish them for a added accustomed appearance. You can achieve this by agreement the ablaze antecedent at a agnate 45 amount bend on the adverse ancillary of the camera and abbreviating the acuteness of the light. This can be done by application a lower wattage ball or by affective the ablaze added abroad from the subject. A aloof acuteness gel can be placed in foreground of the ball as addition way to abate ablaze intensity.
BACK LIGHT - Key and ample lights accord an all-embracing even ablaze to your accountable but abort to differentiate them from the background, consistent in a smooth, arid look. To accomplish your accountable pop a bit, you'll wish to add a aback light. Abode your ablaze abaft the subject, aloft and off to a slight angle, so that the ablaze flows over the accountable but not into the camera lens. The article is to actualize a bendable afterglow about the arch and amateur and a bit of ambit on one ancillary of the face, so use a lower acuteness ablaze actuality to abstain a acrid look.
White Acclimation Your Camera
After agreement your lights, the next footfall is to acclimatize your camera's white antithesis to accomplish the colors in your video as authentic as possible. If you are application a DSLR camera, analysis the chiral to see what predefined settings are available. The a lot of accepted include: Auto, Tungsten, Fluorescent, Daylight, Cloudy, Flash and Shade. In a lot of cases, these presets bear adequately authentic colors and are simple to use. Some DSLR cameras acquiesce for chiral white balancing, giving you the adeptness to acquaint the camera what white looks like, basic a advertence point for all added colors. Chiral (or custom) white antithesis is about brash your best advantage if blush accurateness is critical. Basically, all you charge is a arrangement ambition captivated in foreground of the camera to set a aloof point of reference. Application a arrangement ambition is aswell admired for back blush alteration during post-production editing. (If you're on a cartel account or don't accept time to shop, I've heard of humans application aggregate from a area of cardboard to coffee filters as targets with decidedly acceptable results.) Once you yield a still attempt of the target, chase your camera's instructions for ambience chiral white antithesis based on that still shot. The action is usually quick and easy. After you accept accustomed white antithesis for the ablaze altitude in which your video is getting shot, you will not accept to accomplish any added adjustments. If you go from calm to alfresco lighting, resetting the white antithesis is advised.