Most of us are not going to be hauling around a full lighting rig to get those perfect cinematic shots while on the family holiday… or maybe that’s just me.
Anyway, if you have delved into the world of lighting with regards to shooting video (and you know you should) you have probably discovered that the most common set up for lighting is a three light configuration.
It usually consists of one strong light directed at the subject at a 45 degree angle known as the Key light.
The second is at the other 45 degree angle and is slightly less bright. This one is called the Fill light.
And finally there is one light positioned behind the subject (out of sight) and this is the Back light.
The key light provides the main source of light, the fill light helps add contrast to the subject and counters and washout that the Key light is causing.
The backlight helps contrast the subject against the background.
All pretty basic and there are hundreds of tutorials around to show you how to do it.
But as I said earlier, none of us are actually carrying around three lights for the duration of the family holiday!
One of the reasons it is important to at least be aware of this basic lighting set up is that very often “in the field” you can substitute available sources of light to mimic the three light set up.
In many cases you may only be able to get two out of three or even one, but by doing so you will improve the overall look of you videos enormously.
Probably the hardest place to attempt lighting is in the outdoors on a very sunny day.
If you position the sun directly behind you the result will be a squinting subject, a flat washed out look or even your own shadow appearing in the shot.
But by simply considering the sun to be your Key light, you can change your own and the subjects position so that you get a better shot.
How to Do Visual Comedy
Some YouTube Stuff
The vast majority of people uploading content to YouTube I am sure are bitterly disappointed with the results they get.
For some reason most people I deal with seem to think that all you have to do is upload any old piece of video stuff to YouTube then sit back and wait for international fame to come knocking on the door!
Of course all that happens is that they sit back and after a while drop off to sleep cos’ nothing is happening!
The reality is that over 100 hours of video footage is uploaded to YouTube every minute of the day 24/7 and even 5 years ago there were over 200 million individual videos already uploaded.
How anyone thinks that their little video is going to get noticed within this ocean of other video content amuses me no end!
The truth is that getting exposure on YouTube requires work. And most importantly it requires the right kind of work done the right way.
I posted and entire series on how to upload and optimized your videos to YouTube some time ago and I think most of what was posted it still current.
You can see that series of posts HERE.
In the meantime take a look at this article below for at least beginnings of what you need to be doing to get noticed.
- Are You Guilty of Making These 13 YouTube Mistakes?
And speaking of YouTube its important to keep up with their developments as they are occurring if you are really serious about going in that direction. YouTube is an ever evolving service that can treat you right if you know what they want.
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