In today’s episode, we’re talking about how to get the perfect lighting for all your videos. So much depends on having the right lighting, and now that we’re all doing more video calls, we want to look good, right? We’ll present a few tips, including how to set up a lighting system in your home called three-point lighting. It’s time to lighten up already!
Links in this episode: How to Get the Perfect Lighting for Video
Transcript
Welcome to the Get Digital Marketing Results podcast where we give you information and actionable tips to grow your organization.
Bob: Hi, I’m Bob Clark.
Donna: And I’m Donna Botti. We’re with Delos Inc and we make the web work for you. In today’s Tech News Tuesday episode, we want to talk about how to get the perfect lighting for all your videos. Now that we’re all doing more video calls we want to look good though, right? So much depends on having the right lighting, so let’s talk about a few tips.
Bob: That’s right Donna. But you gotta have a few basics to get out of the way first. You have to pick a really good location. You don’t want to have a window or light source coming directly behind you, because you’ll end up being in a dark silhouette. And don’t have the camera pointed up to the ceiling, or looking up your nose. I’ve been on a few Zoom calls now where I’ve seen more ceiling fans that I care to look at. And you want to look directly into the lens at your eye level to get the most natural appearance.
Donna: Right, it will not feel natural to you, but to the person on the other side of the camera who’s viewing you, it’ll look more natural. It’s really difficult I think when you’re just talking to the lens of the camera, it’s something we have to try to get used to a little bit more. The other thing to think about is that natural light can be flattering, but it’s also really tricky, the sun can go in and out during your call, maybe you have an evening call, it’s very unpredictable. The more control you have over your lighting, the better the results you’re going to get.
Bob: Yeah, so you can just get some inexpensive clamp lights, they work really well. They’re always available at Lowe’s or Home Depot, and they’re not dimmable, so they can lead to some harsh lighting.
Donna: You can use a few tricks to get around that. You can bounce the light off a wall or another surface, or you can use readily available diffusion materials, like put some wax paper over the front, or a frosted shower curtain liner from the dollar store. People use sheets, even a piece of printer paper or tissue paper can help to soften the lighting from these.
Bob: But if you have a little bit more money to invest, there are some mid-range and high-end lighting options available out there to make yourself look a lot better on video, and they start at about $100.
Donna: But whatever you use, one thing you want to do is to try and set up what’s called three-point lighting. You want two lights in front and to the side of you, and one light coming from behind and the side of you. So the front key and fill lights as they’re called, would be at about 4 o’clock and 8 o’clock respectively if your camera is at 6 o’clock and you’re facing it. From behind you the backlight would be between 1 and 2 o’clock, something like that.
Bob: Yeah Donna, we’ll put a picture in the show notes of how that looks, cause that sounds a little hard to do, is it?
Donna: It’s not hard to do, it’s hard to describe it in words, right? [Laughs]
Bob: Once you get the set up there it should be good though. So another thing you wanna consider when setting up your lighting is you’re going to want to consider the light temperature. Some bulbs appear warmer or cooler, so try to get a natural look. And if you wear glasses, you gotta watch out for glare. You may have to adjust your lights either higher or further back to minimize glare.
Donna: And if you’re a Zoom user, there’s a setting called “touch up my appearance,” give that a try. It’s going to give you a softer, more polished look automatically.
Bob: That’s it for today’s episode. You can find the link to the TechSmith article and a transcript of today’s podcast at DelosInc.com/135. And don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss out on our actionable digital marketing tips to grow your organization