Using continuous lighting for video is a necessity since it offers constant illumination for an extended period of time. It comes in different types, including incandescent, LED, fluorescent, and tungsten. Read on to know more information.
- How many watts do you need for video lighting and what do watts, lumen, and lux mean?
- What COLBOR LED continuous lighting can you use for video production?
- How to build a continuous lighting kit for video at home?
How many watts for continuous lighting in video are better?
It depends. It depends on the amount of light your video requires, the efficiency, and several other factors. And you should understand the differences between watts, lumens, and lux to help you decide what kind of video continuous light is needed.
"Watts" are units of measurement for the amount of power consumed by a device. If your 'device' is incandescent type, its efficiency is low, thus you'll require more electricity, more 'watts'. When you utilize more efficient LEDs, you get significantly more lighting per watt.
Lumens are a measurement of visible light. Because LEDs are so much more efficient in terms of energy consumption to light output, using watts as a measurement for both tungsten and LED proved inconclusive and challenging. The brightness of a 1K tungsten will not be the same as that of a 1K LED. As a result, measuring the actual output, or lumens, emitted by light has become common. Checking the lumens rating will assist you conduct some fast calculations to figure out how much light output you're putting out.
Lux are units of illumination. One lux is one lumen of light dispersed equally across one square meter of area. In other words, lux is a measure of light across a certain region. As a result, lux is affected by distance since light spreads larger as it travels, resulting in a drop in intensity as one goes away from the source. The more surface area a light illuminates, the more diffused it is, and the less bright it is, and therefore the lux figure decreases.
Get continuous LED lighting for video at different watts and lumens at COLBOR
There are different power outputs of continuous lighting for video at COLBOR, ranging from 5W to 330W. For example, the COLBOR CL220 LED constant light for photography has constant 220W output at every color temperature. It also features a CRI of 96+, a tungsten SSI of 85, and a TM-30 index of Rf94 and Rg102+ at 3200K. All these specs indicate that the CL220 is able to reproduce the accurate color of everything in your videos. When the Quiet Mode activates, it is able to balance between high output and low cooling noise of 28dB. This will not add any background noises to videos and distracts the viewers.
Table of CL220 lumen
This table shows the illumination of CL220 at different color temperatures and distances when equipped with a standard reflector. And you can check the user manual to get more figures.
|
Color temperature |
1m (lux) |
3m (lux) |
5m (lux) |
|
2700K |
83,000 |
7,780 |
3,040 |
|
3200K |
88,600 |
8,320 |
3,210 |
|
4300K |
98,200 |
9,150 |
3,500 |
|
5600K |
105,000 |
9,820 |
3,710 |
|
6500K |
108,000 |
10,200 |
3,880 |
For more lighting options, you can check the products from COLBOR CL lineup, go through their features, and check illumination values in user manual.
How to DIY continuous lighting for video at home?
You can set up continuous lighting for video without professional stdio lights. Follow the tips below to get proper lighting at home.
- Use desk lamps and hardware lighting as continuous lighting for video. A hardware clamp light or ring light can be used as a key light, a desk lamp or goose-neck lamp as a fill, and a tall floor lamp as a rim light for a low-cost setup. These household and hardware store lights are affordable. They're all significantly less expensive than a specialized, high-accuracy, high-powered studio light.
- Begin with neutral setup. Begin with neutral lighting and work your way up or down. Determine the desired effect, then experiment with color temperatures, output and brightness (particularly if your lights are adjustable).
- Make use the monitor. It is helpful to check how the lighting appears and make real-time adjustment. When illuminating yourself, you can turn the video camera's monitor around to face you. Then start moving the lights around, moving the camera around, experimenting with the lens, and so on. And viewing the monitor in real-time to see how they influence you in order to discover the best setting.
- Put the key light near your camera. The brightest light source should be nearest to your smartphone, camera, or webcam. If you can get it literally close to the camera, out of frame, it will give you the widest and softest light possible.
- Use natural light. If you have a lot of windows and natural light in your room, arrange yourself such that the light is in front of you basically at a 45-degree angle.
- LEDs are the way to go. This kind of continuous lighting for video provides you with a wide variety of light. They're fairly color-accurate and don't get too hot.
- Make use of softbox lighting. If your primary light is too harsh on the subject's face, use a softbox to soften it. You may either use a reflector or a piece of white cardboard or styrofoam to bounce it.
- Match the color temperature. For uniformity, the illumination sources should have nearly the same kelvin value.