Any YouTubers /Photographers / Lighting Engineers?

R

Rauko

Well-known member
I'm setting up a small setup in his bedroom for my son to run his own YouTube channel from ..

I have a LED panel (Neewer 660) .. a couple of ring lights .. and a RGB LED coming ..

I know the basics of light setup (3-point lighting and such)

But .. a few questions though :

Should i start from a completely dark room and just use the lights I have (or might need)? He does want a consistant look from video to video - so figured this would be the best way to go and not have to deal with differences between day / night and a couple of Tut videos showing the kind of lighting he wants suggests so .. but everything looks harsh and unflattering when it's set up .. I've tried softening the LED but it doesn't seem to do much ..

Should i go with dim lights and use the camera ISO to lighten everything up?

How close should the lights be to the subject? Currently - the key light is about 2.5 meters .. bringing closer tends to blind him ..

If anybody has any general tips .. then shoot!

Thx in advance!
 
As I say, I've watched Tutorial videos ... yet everything I do comes out too harsh and unflattering ... and I don't get the results they do .. I'm wondering how much they do with lighting and how much they do with camera settings ..
 
Sorry to hijack but similar theme. In my home office I have my window behind me. I don't get much direct sunlight during the day on that window other than 1st thing in the morning but my face is dark in videos. Tends to look better as the day goes on and the sun passes over the top of the house so that window get's little light. My webcam is a Logitech c930 and it has a very small light that doesn't work particularly well when the sun is bright.

I presume I need some sort of light in front of me but what works best? I'm not sure I want a light pointing directly at my face so a desk lamp seems like a better idea but would that do what I need or is it the wrong sort of light.
 
Nano said:
Sorry to hijack but similar theme. In my home office I have my window behind me. I don't get much direct sunlight during the day on that window other than 1st thing in the morning but my face is dark in videos. Tends to look better as the day goes on and the sun passes over the top of the house so that window get's little light. My webcam is a Logitech c930 and it has a very small light that doesn't work particularly well when the sun is bright.

I presume I need some sort of light in front of me but what works best? I'm not sure I want a light pointing directly at my face so a desk lamp seems like a better idea but would that do what I need or is it the wrong sort of light.
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Look at something like the elgato keylights.

Also set your webcam to manual exposure and set it up because the bright sunlight will be messing with the auto exposure.

Some Logitech webcams reset settings so you may need to run a utility to save what you set it to - will be loads on google about logitech saving settings etc
 
Rauko said:
Rauko said:
As I say, I've watched Tutorial videos ... yet everything I do comes out too harsh and unflattering ... and I don't get the results they do .. I'm wondering how much they do with lighting and how much they do with camera settings ..
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A lot will use mirrorless cameras but most will be lighting and exposure. You'll need diffused lights rather than bare bulb, and you'll want to set webcam up manually. Ideally you'll want a key light which is the brightest light on one side and a fill light the other side less bright, or there is the ring light type for a certain aesthetic. You can have ambient lighting as well.

You light your scene then set exposure to the lighting. Any sort of auto exposure or auto brightness will mess it up

Try videos by Gael level or something like

You need to make sure your lighting can be colour temp corrected as well rather than just being a light source. Lights can be closer, you just adjust the power to light the scene.

Start off with all lights off and webcam on manual exposure, turn on key light until it's right, turn on full light and adjust til it's right, add any ambient lighting you would have in and adjust camera settings. It will look better with brightness lower and light provided by the lights than lower lights with camera boosting it
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Sorry there was a crash and it's screwed up the above and cba to fix it 😂 sat in dentist waiting room
 
5600k can look blue & harsh.. 3200k is a warmer look.

Set your camera's white balance manually to match the light colour.

Bounce light off big surfaces to reduce shadows, give a more even softer light.
Set ISO for your controlled light setup.

Key is to be able to repeat setup & that requires manual ISO & WB...
 
BobUpnDown said:
5600k can look blue & harsh.. 3200k is a warmer look.

Set your camera's white balance manually to match the light colour.

Bounce light off big surfaces to reduce shadows, give a more even softer light.
Set ISO for your controlled light setup.

Key is to be able to repeat setup & that requires manual ISO & WB...
Click to expand...
Thanks guys .. and should this be from a completely dark room (I currently have blackouts on the windows)?
 
Are your lights in soft boxes? If not. Place some white paper or tracing paper in front of the lights to soften them. Do you have a polarising filter on the front lens of the camera? It might take the glare patches off the face .
 
Sammysmiths said:
Are your lights in soft boxes? If not. Place some white paper or tracing paper in front of the lights to soften them. Do you have a polarising filter on the front lens of the camera? It might take the glare patches off the face .
Click to expand...
I've got a diffusion plate over the LEDs and also white sheet over the open barndoors currently ..

Another problem is that the key light - even at 10% dimness - lights up the entire room almost. We want it dark(ish) behind so it can be lit with different colours via the RGB light .. but the LED is like a floodlight!

I'm going to experiemt with turning the light towards the wall and have it reflect instead of having it point direct - so I'll see how that works.
 
What’s in the background? I use a black roller blind as a background when photographing still life/objects.
 
Your key light sounds too powerful if it's flooding the entire room, no need for plain backgrounds imo, unless you want to green screen or literally have a plain background but that's a load more set up time. Bouncing off walls will colour the light ans affect its temperature and potentially start creating shadows as well

When my key light is set to minimum power it is barely on and I can slide it right to 100% which is glaring


I've just seen that your key light is 2.5m away. For video that's probably too far unless you're in a good studio space. He's an example photo of a setup- unless he's doing full body shots and have good lighting I think you probably need the lights on less bright and closer to him.

1661440859953.jpeg
 
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