When it comes to video recording your show, don’t sleep on the lighting. You probably already know this, especially if you’ve seen plenty of bad lighting in videos on YouTube, but you may not know the basics of getting good lighting, at home or in a studio. We’re showing you some simple tips for upleveling your lighting, with the example of how we light our clients in the studio to see a case study.
In this episode Tiff and Christine show you how the basics of lighting your videos to make much better visual episodes!
“Lighting can be super simple or super complicated.”
tiff tyler
Notes on this season:
This season of the show is all about using a studio and a crew to film your show and make it look its best! That means that we filmed the whole season in Christine’s new studio in Salt Lake City, Worthfull Studios! We invite you to watch the full episode on YouTube to see everything we are talking about >> https://youtu.be/XhcTBhZMG8A
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Links mentioned:
- Looking for pro support to build your podcast? Find out more ways to work with us!
- Tiff Tyler
- Christine Baird
Subscribe to the Podcast!
Many thanks to our production team
- Luis Puente for Broll shooting
- Casey Partridge for video editing
- Worthfull Media for audio editing
- Mosaico Productions for video effects
- Amela Subašić for artwork
Transcription of this episode:
(auto-generated, please forgive typos)
Christine (00:04):
Welcome to Think Like a Producer podcast. I’m your co-host Christine Baird.
Tiff (00:09):
And I’m your co-host Tiff Tyler. Being in the podcast industry, being in the content creation industry. This is what we learned, and this is how you can get out of your own way and get started.
Christine (00:20):
You name it. We’ve probably done it. This podcast is about bringing all the wisdom to you. Tune in weekly, to learn how to think like a producer.
Tiff (00:32):
Welcome to this episode of Think Like a Producer. This will be a fun episode that I don’t think we’ve had a chance to really dive super hard into. Uh, in the previous seasons, we’ve mentioned an episode about lighting. When cine and I were podcasting in separate states, , um, but still podcasting. So we showed kind of like a natural light where she was in front of her window. We showed what I was using, which was more artificial light like you’re seeing right now. And we’re now in Worthfull Studios and lighting is, lighting can be super simple or super complicated. If you’re going to the same place over and over again, you start to get better with the lighting and kind of tweaking certain things, um, to make things better as you gradually go. If you’re kind of like me over the last two years and everything you do has been different, then you’re always coming up with new ways to light new areas and new places.
Tiff (01:20):
Um, but we’re gonna show you here at Worthfull Studios. Just some of the things that I think about when I’m lighting, especially for, for online video because there’s cinematic dramatic lighting. You know, you’ve seen where someone’s kind of like their whole face isn’t necessarily lit and you know, it’s a little bit darker on this side, it’s just creating more contrast. And then there’s really what I think we’ve concentrated more on, which is kind of just making sure the person is well lit. There’s not too many shadows, you can see them clearly, and it’s just something that we wanna make sure is bright and, uh, colorful and attractive for people online to stop and watch and, and see the video. So lighting is something that’s often overlooked or very confusing, I think, for people. So I’m just gonna give you some basics. We’re gonna show you right now in this next clip on just how I approach lighting, how I try to show people to approach lighting, but also know that you’re gonna constantly be practicing. I’m still practicing to continuously get better at this skill. It’s a skill that you’re gonna keep learning over and over again. So let’s dive into this quick tutorial.
Tiff (02:23):
So welcome to this clip. I know we kind of introed it a little bit earlier in the episode. This is Kat. Hi. Hi Kat. She’s an amazing florist out here in Utah, Salt Lake City, and she has been nice enough to sit here while we talk about lighting for a little bit when it comes to videos online or any kind of media that she want to create for Worthful Studios in particular, which still shout out to Christine Worthfull Studios Love it, . Um, there’s a lot of lights, , we already have a lot of light that we walked into. So when I was thinking about this, I was thinking more so filler. How can I match the lights that already exist in the studio and just fill it in so that there’s not too many shadows or too many things. And Kat looks as amazing as she does in person, but also on camera.
Tiff (03:07):
It’s sometimes kind of hard. I know that people to match that, right? Like you see so many look beautiful, but for some reason in the camera it’s a little bit darker or I’m getting a lot of shadow and different things. And so what we do, even with just setting up this particular look, we tried to pull a cat away from the wall as much as possible, right? If she had been kind of back here with all the lights on her, there would be a lot of shadows from her hair, from her arms. Were moving around and everything. And so keeping her as close off the wall as possible helps with shadows, filling in, looking kind of around her eyes. There’s another thing we have here. I know I’m going through this quickly, but it’s called a reflector. It’s actually filling in some of the light from below to help with just creating an overall look.
Tiff (03:53):
Now, we talked about this when Christine and I were sitting down for movies and for TV and different things. There’s a bit more of a dramatic lighting, I would say, right? So there’s, you actually use shadow to help tell the story, but for online, I prefer to fill everything in or make everything bright, make everything so you can see it very clearly. And if Kat decided to use this video in particular on Instagram or anything, people will very clearly be able to see her. It’s bright, it’s very colorful, and hopefully this will make someone stop so that they can actually listen to the story that she’s gonna tell or hopefully, um, tie her brand in to this high quality and pay you for your talent and things that you do. We talked about filling in the light. It’s not dramatically want it to be bright and presentable online.
Tiff (04:40):
Want people to be able to see Kat and be, and obviously we talked about audio in a different episode so they’ll be able to hear her clearly when you are filling in the light. A lot of things that I like to do actually is turn off. I know this is gonna be weird for a sec, but go with me. Can you, uh, turn that light off for a second. When I first came into the studio, I cut all the lights off and turned it on one by one so that I could see each light. That’s obviously behind us, but I could see each light and where things were filling in. And then, uh, we kind of played around with it for a little bit. At first. I had some of the track lights on, then all the track lights on realized I just wanted to fill in this space as much as possible because we want our videos to look like you’re kind of in a comfortable position.
Tiff (05:26):
Maybe you’re even at home even though this is actually a studio. And then when I’m filling in the light, you could just turn yours on. Sorry, I know it’s, it’s a bit of a blast light, but I’m, it’s good to sometimes turn your lights off and on because you wanna be able to see where the light is hitting. So I’m gonna turn this one on just to warn you. And you can kind of see where the shadows are filling in. You can see, uh, what I recommend usually is to have lights that not only have dimmers but can also change the Kelvin. I don’t wanna be too technical. I’m trying to think of the best way to say it. Um, warmth.
Tiff (06:03):
Thank you. You can change the warmth. So I’m gonna show you, well, I’m not gonna show you that too much, but having a dimmer, being able to, trying to be able to control the light, how much you’re putting on your subject, your talent is really important. So you can control the light as much as possible because what I’ve noticed when people are at home when you’re trying to do this yourself, everyone just kind of turns the light on as high as possible, . Um, and it’s just because we think more light means better light. But really it’s trying to see where the light is helping tell the story where the light is feeling. And you wanna be very particular about these details. Again, this could be a lot for someone who’s never played with light, who’s never like touched light panels or anything, but that’s why we encourage you if you’re like, I really don’t wanna become a lighting expert. Hire Christine , come to Worthfull Studios and just let us take care of it for you. Not trying to be super salesy, but that’s, it really does make a difference. So that cat can come in, cat came in, it was already pre lit, didn’t have to really think about much, can kind of just sit, we fill in the light and make her her absolute best. And now she can show up and talk about her business and talk about what she wants. And doesn’t have to overthink about the technical side of things.
Kat (07:14):
Lighting is, it can be really tough with floral. Um, a lot of the things that Tiff was talking about of uh, when you’re photographing your work to pull it away from the background, um, I don’t have a beautiful lighting set up, so working with natural light is what’s best for me. But it is really difficult because there’s so many details in each flower to when I photograph my work, I usually will try to do either a detail shot and zoom in on one or two particular flowers or really pull it out to get that full structure and shape of it. Um, but the best way to do that is to minimize shadows, pull it away from the background, good lighting, um, minimize shadows. I think I said that already, but really minimize those shadows. Um, but it is hard to tell a story through good lighting and photographs with floral because I think they are more, uh, the power of it is experiencing them in person. So translating that can be really difficult and really important to do a good job at.
Christine (08:21):
So as you can see, it is so worth it to bring in people who know how to light as well as shoot as well as stage. It’s uh, if you’re gonna invest in higher production quality, just you gotta invest in people who know lighting. And as we’ve shown you, it doesn’t have to be crazy. We don’t have like a bajillion lights in the studio. We do have pretty good light cuz it’s a brand new building and we thought through that, but it is so worth it if you’re gonna pay more for good production, don’t skimp on the lighting. And one thing that we didn’t necessarily cover because we’re in a controlled light studio, we’re actually downstairs is if you’re shooting in daylight, there’s a whole other thing cuz you gotta think about clouds and shadows. So that’s not for today’s episode, but we just wanna throw that out there. Um, daylight can be super beautiful and it also presents different challenges with video. So don’t skip on the lighting. Hire people who know the basics and can make sure to bring enough. Uh, it’ll be so worth it. And of course, if you haven’t subscribed yet to the channel or to the podcast, definitely do it. We hope you binge all the episodes in this season. We’ve made them for a reference for you and we will see you on the next episode, I think like a producer.
Christine (9:37):
Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Think Like a Producer. This has been a Worthfull Media production. Massive thanks to our team who makes the show possible. Worthfull Media for audio editing, Jorge and Veronica from Mosaico Productions for video effects and Amela Subasic for our amazing artwork and graphics.
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