Professional Lighting Set Ups: Definitions and How-To
Proper lighting techniques are essential to holding someone’s attention in a video. Think about it: if you’re doing a house tour for your real estate business, a makeup tutorial, or a product review and your lighting is so dark that it’s difficult to see what you’re demonstrating, people will click off immediately. Viewers will not hesitate to jump to another, higher quality video in a matter of milliseconds. That is just the game of social media.
Think about it like this: the style of content you are producing is the package for your product. The product is whatever valuable information you are sharing with your Viewers. You could have a highly valuable product that people could greatly benefit from, but if it’s packaged in a way which damages the product, then the product is no use of production costs.
See? It’s the same with content production. Viewers need to be able to see and hear you clearly. Not only is this important for your Viewers, but just about every camera has quality issues when performing in low light.
I remember being on a film set before in a movie by Sam Levinson — yes, the creator of the HBO hit series Euphoria. The scene was set at night. The first thing I noticed when walking upon set was the amount of lighting he used, at night. You would have never guessed it. Plenty of overhead, soft, fill light (mimicking street lights that actually work), practical lighting (in the form of houses with lights on them), light reflectors, and backlight (in the form of an explosion).
The key is knowing when to use lighting and how to use it in a way that is not only aesthetically pleasing, but also high quality. Shockingly enough, this can be done with “cheap” lights as well. The right amount and placement can take your channel from zero subscribers to over 50k, easily.
First, you have to learn what different types of lighting are. I’ve compiled a list of popular lights used in filming cinema, The Godfather of Social Media, if you will.
Key Lighting
Used to draw attention to the main subject in a frame (a particular shot in a film). This lighting is used to make the subject stand out from the rest of the scene. This can be done with a box light, a ring light, a lamp, a flashlight, or whatever works. It is key to see what’s happening in the shot.
Fill Lighting
Used to counteract shadows. You may be filming opposite a window, or in between skyscrapers. Maybe it’s dark where you’re filming and using only a key light produces dark, heavy shadows that are distracting. Using a fill light can counteract these shadows for a softer, more realistic appearance to the subject of the shot. It should be less intense than your key light. Typically, it’s placed 3/4 away from the key light.
Imagine the subject is the center of a circle: the key light stands on one point, and the fill light moves around that circle to the right spot which dampens shadows. You can notice fill lighting when you see someone’s face being lit up in two directions, like Brad Pitt in Fight Club, or Keira Knightly in Anna Karenina.
Backlighting
Creates a “glow” around the subject. Takes your videos from “okay” to “wow.” This will also help your subject to stand out from the rest of the environment. It creates a halo of a silhouette around the subject. Think Javier Bardem in Skyfall, or Daniel Craig, also in Skyfall. You’ll notice without key, or fill light, in both of these examples, backlighting can create some stunning silhouette imagery.
Backlighting is typically used to give a dark, mysterious, unsettling, and/or sexy vibe to a scene.
Side Lighting
Dramatizes structure in a subject by creating heavy shadows. Usually placed to the side of the subject. If not countered with fill, or key light, this can create sort of a harsh and “dark” look. The difference between this and fill lighting is placement of the key light. There is an absence of fill light on the subject. Think Hannibal Lecter from Silence of the Lambs, or Leonardo DiCaprio in Inception.
Side lighting is often used to give a sharp, mysterious, tense, and uncertain vibe to the scene.
Practical Lighting
When the subject, or scene, is illuminated by a light within the frame. Like Winona Ryder in Stranger Things, and also Winona Ryder in Stranger Things. This can be done with Christmas lights, candles, a salt lamp, LED strips, neon signs, the list goes on.
Practical lighting often gives a brighter vibe to a scene. It's main purpose is to illuminate shadows so the subject can be seen well in a shot. It can also be used to set the tone to a character's environment. This may include candles, christmas/fairy lights, fire, streetlights, the "Moon" (a light shining through a window to imitate the effect. Warm (yellow, orange, pink) practical lighting can make a scene feel comfortable, safe, and hopeful. Cool (blue, purple, and white) practical lighting can make a scene feel sterile, calculated, cold, and uncomfortable.
Ambiguous colors, like red, can produce a variety of emotions. Red can mean hate, love, lust, anger, or sensuality. Green, on the other hand, may portray jealousy, disgust, authenticity, or liveliness. The tone of the scene itself will indirectly tell the Viewers how to feel while watching the scene.
