In college, I spent a semester as the lighting director on a student-run sketch comedy. In an attempt to recruit some people for my lighting team, I told everyone, “Without us, you’d just be sitting around in the dark!”
Hey, it actually worked for a couple of people.
Good lighting is one of the most important pieces of professional-looking video, in some ways even more than a good camera. A well-lit set can make even a cheap, terrible camera turn out some great-looking video, so before you spend a lot of money on the newest model of Brand Fancy camera, take a look at these tips to shed some light (sorry—it was just too easy) on lighting.
The first thing anyone learns about lighting is the three-point lighting set-up. This is especially useful for interviews, where there’s a static subject that gets all the attention. As implied by the name, there are three parts involved:
Key light– This is the main light, and is the brightest. This goes diagonally to one side of the subject, lighting the face. It’s generally set up above the subject, as well, and points downward.
Fill light– This light keeps the subject from looking like a kid telling ghost stories with a flashlight, by shedding a softer light on the opposite side from the key, usually from a lower angle. The fill light—as you can probably guess—fills in the harsh shadows left by the brighter key light. The fill light needs to be dimmer than the key because some amount of shadow keeps us from looking like aliens, since it’s shadows that allow us to distinguish noses from the rest of the face. While you don’t want your subject in too much shadow, looking like Vincent Price in an old horror movie, you also don’t want too much light, or else the subject will look like Voldemort. Spoiler alert: he’s not such a great guy, and I don’t think you’d want to interview him.
Back light– The last piece of your excellent lighting set-up is the back light, also called the hair light. The backlight can go on either side of the subject, but it points toward the back of the head rather than the face. This light creates depth in your shot by separating the subject from the surface behind them. This is useful when you’re shooting in front of a flat wall, where there isn’t much depth to begin with. It keeps your shot from looking two-dimensional, and keeps your subject from melting into the background.
Once you have your three lights set up, the next step is to make sure that the color temperature is just right. I’ve mentioned color temperature before, but just as a refresher, color temperature makes the difference between a sunny day and a rainy one, and between fluorescent lights and the tungsten (incandescent) light in your desk lamp. You want your lights to match the mood of the setting you have for your video, and you also want every light to be the same temperature. Next time you buy lightbulbs, take a look at the box: it’ll tell you the color temperature (measured in degrees Kelvin), and what kind of lighting atmosphere it provides.
If it’s not possible to get every light to match, that’s where gels come in. Gels are basically sheets of colored cellophane that are sometimes used artistically to create an interesting atmosphere, but are just as often used to make lights with different color temperatures to match each other. By putting a blue gel on a light with a yellower temperature, the light it sheds will be bluer. And vice versa: putting an orange gel on a light with a bluer temperature will make it look more orange. Gels are very useful when your lights aren’t all the same, and can also be used to diffuse a really bright light to make it a little bit less harsh. Just make sure you have your wooden clothespins (or C-47s, as they’re inexplicably called in the business), because those lights can get hot!
The three-point lighting system is the most fundamental skill in lighting, and using color temperature to your advantage can take your abilities to the next level. While you can make all kinds of variations for dramatic effect, just understanding the principles of how good lighting works can take an okay video and make it look great, even with a cheap camera.