Lighting for home video recording is essential for a professional-looking video. It helps set the mood, draw viewers’ attention, and add different video effects as you want. Three-point lighting setup is the most basic setup for video recording. You can use professional lighting equipment to achieve this setup and check it from the camera monitor to see if it works well for recording. You can also make use of natural light and home lamps to set up video lighting at home.
Introduction to lighting for home video recording
Video lighting is one of the most important aspects of making video at home since it helps you to build the mood. Poor lighting may make a serious event appear too light, or a humorous one appear more serious than intended. Directing lighting on certain objects or people encourages viewers to focus their gaze on the targeted location, ensuring that crucial elements of the film are not overlooked.
Lighting may also be used to bring color and texture to otherwise uninteresting settings and situations. It may also alter the appearance of people and objects, making them appear innocent, wicked, terrifying, happy, beautiful, or even ugly.
Three-point lighting setup: A basic way to set up light for making videos at home
How to light home video shoot? 3-point lighting setup is a the most basic setup for home video recording. It highlights the subject and separate them from the background. This setup helps illuminate the scene evenly and gives you more control over the lighting, which plays a big role in recording high-quality videos. The setup consists of front, fill, and rim lights.
Key light: It is the main source of light for home video recording so it should be the most intense fixture.
Fill light: It fills the high-contrast shadows caused by the key light. It is the secondary powerful light positioned opposite the key light.
Rim light: It highlights the subjects’ outline and separate them from the background.
How to set up lighting for video at home using a 3-point setup?
You can follow the steps below to set up lighting for home video recording.
Frame yourself and check everything in camera monitor.
You need a way to check the lighting setup and make adjustments accordingly. You can flip over the monitor around to preview the results in real time.
Set up the key light.
Position it at an angle of 30 to 60 degrees to the left or right side of the subject as you like. It is also advised to position it as close to the subject as you can without blocking the frame. Ensure that the key light is higher than others, or you will get too much backlight, which will make the subject appear dark in the video.
Set up the fill light.
It should be positioned on the opposite side of your camera from the key light. It is less powerful. If you want to create natural soft lighting for your home video recording, a 2:1 ratio, which means the key light at 50% while the fill one at 25%, is a good choice for you. Therefore, if you invest in lighting equipment, you should look for the one with the ability to adjust the brightness.
The COLBOR CL60, for example, can be the best studio light for video you need. Its brightness is adjustable from 100% to 0%. You can adjust it with the onboard buttons and controlling wheels and get aware of the exact setting from the display screen. You can also have wireless control by using the COLBOR Studio App or physical controller.
Set up the rim light.
It should be positioned behind and 45-degree above the subject, so the light falls on the shoulder. This will draw attention to the rim of their figure, giving it depth and separating them from the backdrop. Unlike the key or fill lights, it does not need to be close to your subject, so you may position it further back in your setup, just out of frame.
Experiment and make adjustments.
The three-point setup manipulates the balance of the three lights to produce the mood or the atmosphere that you want. Experiment with the brightness and position until you find an appealing combination.
Five tips for DIY lighting for video recording at home
You can get lighting for home video recording properly without studio lights. Follow the following tips to get video lighting in different scenarios.
Use natural light
This is the most powerful and simple lighting solution for your home video recording. Let the sun illuminate your face directly when getting ready to film on camera. This will give a lovely, even light that will assist to conceal flaws and bring out the colors in your eyes. If the sunlight is too harsh on your face, you may soften it with a very transparent white curtain or even a translucent white shower curtain.
DIY 3-point light for low-light rooms
It is also possible to get a traditional 3-point setup without professional video lights in hand. Keep the wide-open window at one side of your face to work as the key light. Position a daylight-color lamp on the other side as fill light to fill the harsh shadows. Use a bounce to bounce the light back to further reduce the shadows. Keep in mind that silver reflective surfaces offer a strong fill while white surfaces provide a softer fill.
Use two home lamps for night-time video recording
If you record videos at night and natural sunlight is not available, you can use two lamps to illuminate you and the scene. Position one on your left and the other on your right. If possible, place them 45 degrees to either side and make them above the eye line. These two fixtures work to eliminate the shadows on your face and illuminate you evenly.
Be careful with lights behind you
If you're getting ready for your next Zoom call, keep in mind that most webcams have autoexposure, which means that if you have a bright lamp, TV, computer screen, or window in the background, your camera will focus on that. Unless you're in the witness protection program, this will put you in the shadows. Take the time to position the light in front of you rather than behind you!
Avoid using home lamps with different color temperatures
You don’t need to use all the light sources in your house when recording videos especially when these fixtures come with different color temperatures. When using conflicting color temperatures, your camera may attempt to adapt to the changing white balances, causing the frame to seem different. This will cost you a lot of time in post-production.