Exploring the world of video? Want to know what is the best lighting for video? Give me a few minutes of your time to explain what options you have!
If you are planning to shoot a video for a person, place or object then you need proper light to make a great video. Actually, lighting is one of the most significant elements to accomplishing professional-level videography.
Sometimes even in very bright places, lighting acts like a photographer’s best buddy but when it comes to videography, lighting goes even higher in the priority checklist. But what is the best lighting for video?
There’s a massive difference between how a human eye perceives places and objects, and the functionalities of a camera lens, which is why perfect lighting setup is a must for high-precision videography.
For sure, all this might sound a little tricky for now, but to be honest, it’s relatively easier to set it all up once you get the hang of it. From understanding the significance of lighting to the equipment required, this article will guide you to everything around the best lighting for videography.
First, let’s understand why we even need adequate lighting conditions in videography
Significance of Lighting in Videography
Lighting is a very fundamental aspect of videography. The camera lens needs a lot of light to capture high-quality videos. Perfect video results from a very particular set of colored lights, correct angles, and places-poses. The same person, object, and place can look completely different in a video due to even a slight difference in the lighting conditions. For a beginner who’s just starting their videography journey, lighting is more likely a game-changer if they get to understand everything around it.
We’ll be covering all the lighting essentials for videography in today’s article. Make sure to give it an excellent read and write notes around these points.
Types of Lights
For the record, There are initially three types of lights suitable for videography with their simultaneous importances- Back Lights, Key Lights, and Fill Lights. Consider buying all three for versatile photography, but still, for a beginner who is on budget and performs quite niche-based videography, they can choose their desired ones according to their details written below-
1. Back Lights
Backlights are positioned behind the subject to enhance the beauty of a shot and provide lighting. It is beneficial to distinguish the subject from the environment and keep them focused on the frame. They’re primarily used to give dominance to the subject. Backlights are also accountable for providing a theatrical effect in a shot and are often used outdoors for cinematic filmmaking.
2. Key Lights
Key Lights are placed in front of the subject to emphasize it’s dimensions and looks. They are the prominent lights in a videography setup and the primary source of flashes, providing overall shot increased quality and colors. They are useful in almost all types of videography.
3. Fill Lights
Fill lights are responsible for dissolving shadows of the subject caused due to backlights and Key Lights. They are positioned according to the conditions of the environment and subject. Fill lights shoot light at a lower intensity to fill in the left places in a video.
We hope you got the idea behind the three types of lights in a videography setup and why they are essential. However, if a videographer aims to capture his/her videos in a very particular manner, their positioning and intensity of shooting the light also get specific. Even though many details are worked upon while editing, there are still many things to keep in mind while handling lights in a videography setup.
To understand furthermore about the best lighting for videography, here we’ve discussed some of the main elements of the process
Main Elements of Lighting for Videography
1. Equipment
Using your equipment correctly can help you capture amazing videos right away. For instance, the three-point lighting process can be your way to go. It involves keeping backLight behind the subject, key light right in front of the subject, and Fill light either adjacent or the opposite of the key light to enhance the video’s focus and aesthetics.
Want to know more about camera equipment? Check my article about which camera YouTubers use!
2. Angles
Keeping up with the angles is just as needful in videography as it is in the lighting setup. Even a little oversight in this process can take some of the shot’s beauty away. We capture videos from an elevated angle to make the subject look more divine and vital. Filming from a lower-angle makes the subject look more intense and frightening. Such shots are usually captured for villainous roles in filmmaking.
3. Color knowledge
A videographer needs to understand color concepts such as contrasting, emotions, temperaments, etc to capture great videos. For example, orange and yellow show warmth when blue and violet are very cool colors. Various colors represent numerous moods. Such as white shows peace, red shows passion, yellow shows enthusiasm, and so on.
4. The intensity of Light
There are usually two types of light intensities Soft Light and Hard Light. Where soft light is used to show a cloudy or rainy theme in the videos with a dim yet vast source of light, hard lights are very useful to depict hot sunny days with a bright yet short source of light both are used to provide a natural feel to the videos in practices such as cinematography while capturing shows and films for respective uses.
Hopefully this article gives you some insights in the different options you have regarding lighting. If you get the question ‘What is the best lighting for video’ you can hopefully answer it. Don’t forget, it’s most of the time the lighting and the audio that make or break your video. Not the 4K video option on your camera. Have a question? Feel free to contact me!
