For many novice video producers, lighting causes lots of worry and seems very complicated.  Lighting for video production CAN be complicated, but it certainly doesn't HAVE to be.

I specialize in making video as easy as possible while still maintaining a professional look.  I can sum up everything you need to know about lighting in just three bullet points:

1. Direct Light = Harsh
2. Diffused Light = Soft
3. What DIRECTION is the light coming from?

If you learn the meaning of these three concepts, I promise your lighting efforts will improve tremendously.

We'll start with the first two points.  They are related.

Light comes in two forms, direct and diffused.  Direct light is harsh and scary looking while diffused light is soft and flattering to the face.

If you remember elementary school physics, light rays always travel in a straight line.  Imagine yourself outside at night with a flashlight.    You can see the entire beam of light and it is straight.  If you want to illuminate an object, you have to shine the flashlight directly on it.   This is an example of direct light.  It travels in one direction, straight as an arrow.

Diffused light is when the straight light beams hit something reflective and then bounce off it.  They bounce in straight lines but usually there are so many straight lines bouncing around that the effect is to have light rays bouncing around every-which-way.

A standard, incandescent light bulb is painted white on the inside in order to diffuse the light.  The light beams hit the white paint and bounce.

Another prime example of direct and diffused light is to think about being outside on a cloudy day or a sunny day.  On a bright, sunny day you have direct light.  There are lots of deep shadows and the shadows have distinct edges.

On a cloudy day, the clouds diffuse the light.  If it's cloudy enough, there will not be any shadows at all.  Since the light is bouncing around every-which-way, any potential shadow is filled in by the bouncing light and eliminated.

Generally speaking, you want DIFFUSED light in video production.  Unless you are doing a monster movie, diffused light will look best.

Most of the gadgets that come in a professional light kit exist for the sole purpose of diffusing the light.  If you do not have a professional lighting kit, you can achieved a diffused effect by pointing your light toward the ceiling or wall and bouncing it.  Do not point it at the on-camera talent.  They will thank you for it.  Not only will it make them look better, but it will keep them from squinting and being dreadfully uncomfortable.

Now let's talk about the third bullet point.  What DIRECTION is the light coming from?

Is the source of light in front of your on-camera person?  Behind them?  To the side?  Behind?  What direction the light is coming from will have a huge impact on how it looks.

Generally speaking, you want the light source to be in front of, or to the side, of your on-camera talent.  You do NOT want it behind them unless you are trying to hide their identity.  Light coming from behind will create a silhouette.   Video producers usually reserve that technique for sleazebags who want to remain anonymous.

This is a mistake I see frequently.  People will stand right in front of the window thinking that the light coming from the window will add enough light to make their shot look good.  It probably would, IF the on-camera person stands so the light falls on their face and not on their back.

I produced this short video tutorial that explains these lighting concepts.  It might be easier for you to understand since I am able to show you what I'm talking about instead of just describing it.

As always, drop me a line at VideoProductionTips@gmail.com if you have questions.

Lorraine Grula

Internet Video Gal

Technorati Tags: Internet Video Gal, lighting for video production, video production, videoproductiontips@gmail.com

Watch and Learn, with this amazing Lighting Video… click here to get all of the VPT videos!

Discover some simple tricks about how to achieve quality lighting when you are producing videos by watching this free video production tutorial from video production tips.

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Lorraine Grula
Internet Video Gal

Technorati Tags: fancy equipment, Internet Video Gal, Lighting for Video, Lorraine Grula, video production

If you want to make videos to share on the Internet, it helps to learn a thing or two about photographic lighting.

Lighting is one of the key elements to making a professional looking video. Decent lighting will ensure that your audience won’t have to squint at the screen, wondering what the heck it is you’re trying to show them.

Lighting for video does not have to be hard. As a lifelong video producer who specialized in moderate and low budget productions, I figured out lots of ways to make my videos look good without having to spend hours setting up and tearing down lights.

If you’d like to know exactly how to do it yourself, watch this three minute video tutorial on lighting for video production. It covers all the basics of lighting and helps you figure out how best to use whatever lighting situation you find yourself in.

Don’t buy an expensive video production course, my free video tutorials will get you on your way to making professional quality videos without all the hassle!

Enjoy the video and thanks for being a subscriber.

Lorraine Grula
Internet Video Gal

Technorati Tags: internet video, Internet Video Gal, Lighting, Lorraine Grula

By Lorraine Grula
Internet Video Gal

Auto exposure is convenient feature on a video camera that can be both good and bad. If you‘re not sure how auto exposure works, it can be hard to make your video look good.

Auto exposure averages everything within the frame and sets the exposure based on this average.

If the shot is evenly lit, this is A-OK.

However, if one section of your shot is either extremely dark or extremely light, using an average exposure can throw everything off and both extremes look bad.

These two pictures were taken within seconds of each other in the exact same lighting conditions. The shot on the left is dark, but not quite dark enough to be a quality silhouette. The view seen outside the window is terribly overexposed. Contrast that with the shot on the right. The lighting is much more even so the exposure looks much better. The small portion of the window you can see does not overwhelm the picture.

Since the bright window area is limited, the auto exposure knew NOT to expose for it. See what a difference it makes?

Here is a third shot taken seconds later, with the window cropped out completely. Most of the picture area is evenly lit so the exposure is virtually perfect and the room looks extremely bright. The small area of extreme brightness, (the side of the chest facing the window), is small enough for the auto exposure to ignore it. Who cares if that’s overexposed? It’s not very large or important.

Auto exposure works well in this instance.

MAKE A CHOICE
If you have manual override, expose your shot for whichever section is the most important. If it’s just a corner of your shot that’s too bright and you’re really trying to get a good picture of the building, let the sky be overexposed. However if the sky is what you’re going for, turn the exposure down and let the building appear dark.

If you do not have manual override, then crop out the part that’s too bright or too dark. The remaining section of your shot will then be reread and a new average will take effect. This new average will be more accurate for what’s remaining in your shot, just like the two examples above.

The bottom line is, for an auto exposure to work well, your shot must be evenly lit. Overly bright areas and overly dark areas should be avoided and the easiest way to do that is crop (cut) them out.

By Lorraine Grula
Internet Video Gal

Unless you spend quite a bit of money on a video camera, you will no doubt have one with auto focus.  Most people want auto focus because it sounds easy.  Sometimes auto focus does indeed make your life as a videographer easier.   But the truth is, auto focus can also be a royal pain in the butt.  If you don’t know how it works, auto focus can ruin your video.   Have you ever experienced the joy of an auto focus camera that can’t decide, so it wildly switches focus every half second?   

An auto focus camera guesses at what you want in focus based on parameters such as how far away subjects are from the lens and where subjects are placed inside the frame.  Camera engineers study customer habits and they know people usually want whatever is in the middle of the screen to be what’s in focus.  So they program the camera to automatically focus on the center image, six to ten feet away. 

Of course, sometimes we humans like to be creative and that befuddles camera designers and their magical lenses.

Overriding the automatic focus on a small camera is usually more trouble than it’s worth.  (Press button 4, turn dial x, engage function P, stand on your tippy-toes, hold your breath and squint…) 

Auto focus lenses work best when you have them on the widest possible setting.  In other words, zoomed all the way out.  The picture will ALWAYS be in focus with the lens zoomed all the way out because a wide-angle lens inherently has an extremely wide depth-of-field and there’s nothing for the lens to think about.    

(Depth-of-field refers to how much of a picture, measured linearly, is in focus.  Say for example, everything from five feet to ten feet in front of the camera is in focus. Anything closer than five feet and further than ten feet is out of focus.  That five foot in-focus range is your depth-of-field.  )
 
The depth-of-field in this baby picture is very shallow.  Notice how the blanket behind and in front of her are both out of focus.  This selective focus makes the baby predominant in the shot. 

How much depth-of-field a picture has depends largely on two things:
• How “long” the lens is that you’re using 
• How much light you have available 

A “long” lens refers to a telephoto lens, or one that can see a long distance off and still get a close-up.   This is what you have when you are zoomed in. 

The term “wide-angle” lens is the exact opposite and refers to a lens that gets a wide shot even when the camera is close to the subject.  This would be equivalent to a zoomed-out setting. 

A zoom lens, which is what virtually all video cameras have, zooms in and out, changing from a from wide angle to telephoto.   As it changes from wide to telephoto, its characteristics change too. 

On the telephoto setting (zoomed all the way in) your zoom lens will have a shallow depth of field.  It’ll be hard to keep anything in focus.   Add the fact that the auto focus gets confused and you have the forever-fun experience of watching your auto zoom go bonkers. 
 
A wide-angle lens, or one zoomed all the way out, has a deep depth-of-field.  In fact, an extremely wide-angle lens has infinite depth-of-field; so it’s impossible to take an out-of-focus picture with an extreme wide-angle lens.  

What does this mean in practical terms?  Well, first, you can ignore salespeople when they brag about how much zoom a camera has.  You really won’t zoom in as much as you will zoom out. 

If you want a close-up of something, walk up to it with the camera, do NOT just zoom in on it while you stand a far distance away.   It’s a lot easier to get a good close-up if you stand extremely close to something and zoom all the way out.   Your focus will be better and the shot will be steadier.  (We’ll talk more about camera shake in the chapter on handholding steady without a tripod.)  

Instead of bragging about zoom capacity, camera salespeople should educate customers about how good the macro focus feature is. 

Most video cameras today, even the very inexpensive, are capable of focusing on a subject with the lens extremely close.  This is a feature called macro focus.   Macro focus works best when you place the camera within an inch or two of something and zoom all the way out. 

Try this on your fingertip or maybe a postage stamp.  Pick a bright spot in the room, zoom all the way out and stick your free hand directly in front of the lens.  Experiment within a range of one to three inches.  You should be able to get an extreme close-up of your fingerprint that fills the screen.   That’s truly amazing. 

As a lifelong photography enthusiast, the quality macro provided by modern video cameras make me drool with amazement.   In fact, this is the single biggest criteria I use when evaluating inexpensive camcorders.  You can easily test macro in the store with the fingertip example. 

Macro does not work when the lens is zoomed in.  It’s a wide-angle feature only.  On most inexpensive cameras, it will automatically kick in when the camera is extremely close to something.    

Using your wide-angle setting and relying on the macro feature for close-ups will improve the quality of your video tremendously. 

LIGHTING AFFECTS FOCUS
Another factor that might make it difficult for you to focus well is if you’re in a very low-light situation.   Not having much light makes any lens have a more shallow depth-of-field.  That’s a basic law of physics and photography. 

With a shallow depth of field, auto focus lenses tend to perform poorly.  To alleviate the situation, the only thing you can really do is add more light.  Any lens will have a greater depth-of-field if there is abundant light.

By Lorraine Grula - Internet Video Gal

If there simply isn’t enough available light and you do add a light source, make sure to diffuse it. At its simplest, this means you need to bounce it, or point the light toward the wall or ceiling in order to reduce shadows.

LIGHTING 101:
Light comes in two basic categories:
· Diffused
· Direct

Direct light is what you have on a sunny day.

Diffused light is what you get on a cloudy day. The clouds act as a diffusion filter.

Think back to elementary school science. Light rays do not bend. If you point a flashlight, the light won’t bend around the corner of the building, you’d have to move the flashlight to see the side of the building.

Direct light (sunny day) creates deep, harsh shadows that have distinct edges.

Diffused light, (cloudy day) can be very bright but completely shadow less.

Generally speaking, diffused light is best for simple video production.

Below are two examples of direct and diffused lighting.

Amber the kitty looks dramatic in relatively harsh, direct light supplied by a standard 40 watt bulb.

This butterfly shot has virtually no shadows. It was taken on a fully overcast day.

The easiest way to transform a direct light into a diffused one is by bouncing it off the ceiling or wall. Do this by simply placing the light near the wall (or ceiling) and pointing it toward the wall, not your subject. The light bounces off the wall and is diffused nicely. (Don’t get it too close though, I once burned a guy’s wallpaper cuz a 500 watt tungsten lamp get purdy hot. Oops.)

Bouncing a light is the quick, cheap, no hassle way to do it. However, if you want to spend money and achieve better effects, professional photographic lighting uses tools like soft boxes, umbrellas, cloths and filters to produce diffused light.

A professional four- light kit with one umbrella, two soft boxes and one barn door. The umbrella provides moderate diffusion and the soft boxes give extreme diffusion. Barn doors are used to point and shape the light beam.

The only drawback to diffusing your light is that as you diffuse, you lose intensity. Diffusion is so desired though most people accept that trade-off. Have you ever wondered why they bother to paint the inside of most light bulbs white? The answer is that the white paint diffuses the light and makes it more pleasing to the eye. On top of that, people usually add a lamp shade for even more diffusion.

Quality lighting is key to quality video production. That doesn’t mean it needs to be difficult.

A white poster board makes a good reflector for about a buck. Mirrors reflect too much and don’t diffuse the light much at all. Sometimes this can be used to good effect but generally, reflecting your light off a mirror won’t give you what you need.