Lighting for Video: an Introduction
Lighting for video is an essential element for making a great impression. Even in a simple web conference, having good lighting for the video will improve the quality of your appearance. Poor lighting can ruin a shot, and great lighting can take it to the next level. If you want to look your best, it is important to understand the basics of lighting and how to apply them to your home studio web conference setup.
Four main factors
Regarding lighting for video, there are four main factors to consider: intensity, color, quality, and direction. Intensity refers to how bright the lights are, and it affects the amount of detail in a shot. Generally speaking, you want the light to be evenly distributed across the scene before you start shooting. Color is important because it can affect the mood and atmosphere of a scene. For example, warmer colors like oranges and yellows can bring a sense of energy to a shot, while cooler colors like blues and purples can bring a calming feeling. The quality of light refers to how hard or soft it is. Finally, the direction of the light is important for creating interesting shadows and highlights that draw attention to certain elements of the scene.
Intensity (brightness)
Light intensity is simply how bright it is. Intensity is measured in lux and lumens.
These units can be a bit confusing, so here’s the difference. Lux is a measure of how bright the light is falling on the subject (usually specific at a particular distance, while lumens measure how much light is being emitted from the source. In general, the higher the lux or lumens, the brighter the light will be.
A 100W equivalent bulb is usually rated around 1,600 lumens, while a very bright car’s high beam can be around 14,000 lumens. In a home studio, 3,200 lumens a few feet in front of you can be uncomfortably bright. My own main light for my web conferencing setup is set at 1,600 lumens.
Color temperature
Color temperature is a measure of the “warmth” or “coolness” of a light source, and is typically expressed in Kelvin (K). Warmer colors have a lower color temperature, usually between 2000 and 3500K, while cooler colors have a higher color temperature, usually between 5000 and 6500K. Knowing the color temperature of the light sources you are using allows you to match them in the scene to create a more natural and balanced light.
Color rendering index (CRI)
CRI is a rating system used to measure how accurately a light source renders the colors in a given scene. Generally speaking, the higher the CRI, the more accurate and natural the colors will look. A CRI of 80 or higher is recommended for most video applications. For really natural light, you want a CRI of at least 90+.
Quality (hard and soft lighting)
Light can be hard or soft, depending on the shape and size of the light source. Hard light has a smaller and more focused area of illumination. This makes it great for creating strong shadows, which can add drama to a scene, increase the appearance of texture (or wrinkles), or just make it uncomfortable to look at. This type of lighting is more often used in documentary projects or when trying to create a more realistic or gritty look.
Soft light produces softer shadows, giving more even lighting in the scene that seems to wrap around your subject. It is generally used in more creative, cinematic shots and portraits, as it adds a softer, more flattering look to the shot. To get soft light, you want a large source close to the subject.
This is why softboxes exist. Get one. It’ll make you look better on Zoom.
Direction (Placement of lighting)
Key light
The key light is the main source of light in a scene. It determines the overall lighting of the shot, and it is typically placed near the center of the scene. The key light is often the brightest light, and it typically defines the mood and atmosphere of the shot. It is important to get the key light right, as it is the foundation of the lighting setup.
If you only have one light for your web conference setup, make it a medium-sized softbox almost directly in front of you and slightly above eye level.
Fill light
The fill light is used to fill in the shadows created by the key light. It is typically softer and dimmer compared to the key light, and it is often positioned on the opposite side of the scene. The fill light can be used to soften any harsh shadows created by the key light and to add depth to the scene.
You only need this if you’ve got your key light off to one side. This adds a little more dimension and interest to your face than the straight-on softbox.
Hair light
The hair light is used to separate the subject from the background and to create a more 3-dimensional look in the scene. It is usually placed behind the subject and pointed toward them at a low angle almost exactly opposite the key light. It outlines your hair and the edge of your shoulder away from the key light. This type of light is great for creating interesting highlights and separating the subject from the background. It helps focus the viewers’ attention on you.
Types of Lighting for Video
There are a few different types of lights used for video production. For video, you need continuous lighting. Continuous lights are lights that remain constant, meaning that the amount of light they emit does not fluctuate.
Sunlight is one choice for lighting video but suffers a few drawbacks. When it’s right, sunlight is the perfect, beautiful source to light your scene. There’s a lot of potential with natural lighting, but it can be unpredictable and hard to control. As the day goes on, the light intensity, color, and direction change, so the shadows move. Clouds or shadows from trees can move across your scene, suddenly changing your lighting at inconvenient times.
Moving into artificial light, the most common type used to be tungsten light, which is an inexpensive, long-lasting light source good for shooting in both indoor and outdoor settings. Tungsten lights have a low color temperature of around 3000K. This makes your scene look rather yellow to the eye and also on video unless you adjust your camera’s white balance to correct it. Tungsten lights also emit most of their energy in the infrared range. That is, they’re hotter than they are bright.
Fluorescent lights can be good for indoor settings, as they create a soft, even light without producing too much heat (or using too much power). They do tend to have poor color rendering, though, because they don’t offer a full spectrum of light similar to sunlight. Often, they’ll give a strange greenish cast to your video.
Hydrargyrum medium-arc iodide (HMI) lights are a type of metal halide arc lamp. They are often used by professional video crews for shooting in daylight settings, as they match the color temperature of natural sunlight, 5600K, and they’re super bright, which you need for lighting a large scene outside in the sunlight. The downsides of these lights are significant, though. They’re hot, they need a lot of power, and they’re very expensive. The Arri M18, for example, can output 1,000,000 lux at 1 meter but takes 1800 watts and costs around $5,000. Not suitable for home studios.
LED lights (like this GVM 80W with softbox) are bright and energy-efficient, making them a great choice for shooting in a variety of environments. You do have to be careful, though. LED lights flicker. Usually, the flicker is too fast for you to notice, but it can show up quite obviously in video depending on how the LED flicker timing interacts with your camera’s shutter speed. LEDs are the top choice for small home studios. They’re quite bright, are efficient, and run cooler than other options. They’re also lightweight, long-lasting, and reasonably inexpensive. Just check that the ones you buy have a good CRI and are advertised as “flicker-free.” They’re not totally flicker-free of course, but it’ll be easier to manage.
Video camera noise
You should also be aware of video camera noise. This is the grainy or static-looking effect that can be seen in some shots. The amount of noise will depend on how bright the lights are, and the type of camera you are using. If your scene is too dark, your video camera must raise its ISO, or sensitivity, to brighten the video. This amplification increases the amount of noise in the image, making shadows look muddy and highlights have weird colors. Generally speaking, the brighter the light, the lower the noise.
Another thing to consider here is the camera’s sensor size. Larger sensors capture more of the available light, so their video looks better at lower light levels. Typical webcams, like those in laptops, have sensors that are tiny. This is why your video often looks so muddy. Brighter lights help a lot, but having a camera with a larger sensor like an APS-C or full-frame mirrorless camera (like this Sony A7S III) will make every scene look better.
