Lighting, to me, is one of the most frustrating parts of making a movie or video. Even if I were using a $2,000 lighting set up, I would still find it difficult to make it look good. I don't use a professional lighting set up. I use three halogen lamps from Home Depot. Two of them are on a telescoping stand and cost me about $30 a piece. The last one is a single hand held one that I can place just about anywhere. Getting the halogen is important because it casts a white light on the scene, instead of yellow. For each of these lights, I have a white, cotton sheet that I can hold up in front of the lights. This softens the lights when I need it. So that is my light set up... Cheap and useful.
What I am doing is making sure that I am lighting everything that I can, minimizing any shadows that may appear, and making it very easy for me to adjust the lighting in the editing software during post-production. Camcorders under the $2500 dollar range often have problems in low light situations. The auto focus doesn't work right, the picture gets grainy or digital looking and there is nothing you can do to make it look better in post production. Even if the scene is suppose to be at night, I suggest shooting it in good lighting and adjusting the light levels in your editing software.
The reason I have the three lights is so I can do a traditional three point lighting set up. One for the key light, one for the fill light, and one for the back light. See this website for a tutorial that can explain it much better than I can. http://www.izzyvideo.com/three-point-lighting/
Using this technique will keep your movie looking professional and keep you from having to reshoot a scene later on.
No comments:
Post a Comment