Lighting for Various Scenarios

Given the many different types of location around the world and the lightings that come with it it's always best to think about what to use and where it'll be a good fit compared with others. Using three examples hopefully I'll be able to show you why lighting is important and what effect it can have when used. (All links and screenshots for research can be found below)

Talking Heads:

Now when people say talking head, I'm sure you think to shows where it's either debate or host + guest. While these are true a more common form is that for interviews, this is literally just like the image above not a full profile but maybe half or just the face. This means that when lighting for this the primary area you'll want lit is the face of the interviewee.

Now there are a couple of choices that I will get into later but first I want to talk about placement, not matter what light source you end up picking chances are that you'll need to think about where you put the light as this will effect camera exposure and the actual person themselves. Too much and the video will be overexposed, too little and then the video won't be able to capture much as it'll be too dark. So a highly recommend and almost standard position is just behind the camera angled towards the interviewee, as this gets the light on them but also doesn't make the camera overexpose the image.

In terms of the lighting itself you have a number of good choices, some used more frequently than others such as a ring-light mainly used by people on Instagram and YouTube but can be used for interviews too. It works well with some of the more common and more likely used lights like LED light panels in order to complement each other.Typically a LED light panel that I mentioned before will be used in a three round set-up just because they're slightly cheaper and give a full clearance whereas a ring light will still have a shadow area.

A final thing to consider when lighting for this type of interview is background, having a backdrop will massively affect the amount of light across the entire interview time but the key deciding factor is colouring. Having a black backdrop will absorb the light making it a darker scene and therefore a more serious and sombre tone for the interview. Whereas a white backdrop will reflect it back and light up the backend of the space as well making for more of a brighter tone and maybe a lighter topic.

Hopefully this will help you next time you film an interview.

A Night Time Shoot:

Now night, dark and not much exposure or reliance for the sun which gives you more flexibility when it comes to set up but like I said it's dark which makes it more difficult to show highlight maybe more key areas if modelling or can be used for a different effect and tone all together depending on where that light comes out at and the intensity.

For complete coverage I'll do both photography and filming just to make sure that I don't miss anything important.

Photography, on the face of it usually a bright subject, with studios and lights everywhere on white backdrops. But this doesn't mean that there's no reason not to use night for it, depending on where you go will determine what you need and where to put it, for example in a city shot you may not need that much extra lighting but using a tripod and lens hood will be musts to get the most out of the time there. Both of these will help with stability and for added measure the hood will also protect from lens flare form bright off shot sources.

However say you're promoting a product but you want a darker area so you use an alleyway in order to get the right shadows, then you run into another problem which is the light. As mentioned earlier having a tripod and lens hood will be a saviour no matter where you are but lighting the area will need to be considered, having a small portable light source will be handy even if it's a flashlight or a phone attachment as they are easy to get hold of and will give the right light needed.

For filming the same concept still applies, tripods and hoods will be a must in order to get the best product out of your time, but there's a new technique that will boost it to a new level.

So we're back in this alley way and you have your filming equipment set up: camera, tripod, lens hood, light source and subject but you feel it's bland. This new set up should help with colourings. Depending on what your going for will determine what colours, modern party then maybe strobe with brighter colour sheets or if it's more of a sombre moment then deeper colours like dark blues might be better off being used.

The reason for considering using colours when filming is that it adds that little bit extra to the scene and the reactions from the audience, it also helps in creating atmosphere and meaning lifting it up and bringing it forward.

Hopefully now you can see the importance of lighting in a night shoot for both photography and film and how adding or taking away can give it something extra.

Portable Documentary:

Now as the name suggests this is a filming setup where movability is key, now cameras are the easy part having them either handheld or on a body-rig but either way working with the camera is the easy bit now trying to get the best lighting that you can out of the scene while still trying to be portable is the more difficult part to this whole thing. Big lighting rigs like the one we discussed for the talking heads portion won't be as practical as others just because of transportation and time consumption in setting them back up to only collapse them again after a small segment.

Now for recommendations in terms of how to get the most use out of it, obviously the most well known and used lighting but the natural lighting from all around. This is one of the most common sources just because it's easily accessible for everyone and that 9 times out of 10 it will always cover enough area for your shoot without needing much more extra light, but in the cases of lets say a shadow overcasting the scene when you need light then you'll need some sot of set up, so you'll probably want some small ones.

One that you could use is a video light, these can be attached to a twist type of tripod and those can come in small sizes making them very portable and have enough brightness to cover whatever scene or setting you have. But because they're small this reduces their effective range and therefore limits what you can do with just one and will probably increase the amount spent on the production.

Now depending on the type of documentary glowsticks could be a good alternative, they still give the light needed but can also give a good and cheap alternative for colourings to give the scene a different tone or to emphasise a certain point made within the film. But again due to the small nature of them they'll still only cover a small effective area but then there's a bigger issue, glowsticks don't have the same time potential as the film light. The film light is battery powered meaning that only can it be recharged but it also can last a while in terms of life whereas once you snap and shake them glowsticks they only last a few hours if that so it's not cost effective either as you'd have to buy loads to counter balance the quickness that they run out.

From this your best bet will still be the film light just because you'll get more out of what money you put in, plus it adds colour sheets for cheap extras.

Hopefully this has given you a good insight into what lighting is good for what type of production.

Have a good day.