Lighting can make or break a video shoot.

And the better the lighting, the posher the resulting video picture.

While a newsy look around an office or workplace, or an interview on the fly are often fine without lights, there are many situations where lighting matters.

For example, a Presenter on location at your site, or a key speaker to camera, or a drama shot onsite, or posh product shots, are just four situations where top lighting can make a big difference.

Sometimes one light is sufficient to illuminate a scene, as simply throwing more light at it will give it a lift. This kind of simple lighting will substantially cheer up the resulting video picture. It's usually done by putting a white gauze (called scrim) over the light, and bouncing the light off the ceiling for an even distributed look.

But on other occasions, the actual subject will need to be lit and - backlit.

While the subject can be lit in an interesting way to give character and a distinctive "look", backlighting will enhance things even further.

backlighting

Backlighting is literally what it says, lighting the background area behind the subject, so that the whole picture looks more composed, has depth, and generally feels posher.

Coloured gels can be used with backlighting, casting a faint (or strong) pink or lilac or yellow (or other colour) that will set the mood and make the background area look more interesting and appealing.

types of lights

Lights themselves can be of various types.

Big two kilowatt lights, called Arri's, can light a factory floor or large area.

A pair of smaller 650 watt lights, called redheads, can light an office.

For closeup subjects, halogen lights called Dado's are increasingly being used.

From these basics described above, lighting can follow any combination or number of lights or coloured gels, depending on the scene and what is required to be done.

lighting on location

One key point to remember about lighting is that it takes time to set up lights.

If there is a lot of footage to be shot and time is short, then lighting may well be minimal, or non-existent, and rely solely on the available natural light and a good camera.

But for best work, lighting makes all the difference, and the extra time required for this simply has to be budgeted for. It costs more but you get more.

If you need posh pictures, then make allowance for extra time and money.

Electric power supply for the lights also needs to be available. While this sounds obvious, a warehouse with 3 phase supply will need a step-down transformer provided.

Or where there isn't a power supply, a silent generator will be required. A noisy generator will be picked up on the microphones.

summary

Lighting makes for posh pictures. But allow for the extra time and money required to do this.

Lighting can be three types: Overall lift, subject lighting, and backlighting.

Lights are of three types: 2,000 watt Arri's, 650 watt redheads, and halogen Dado's.

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