Part 2 – Lighting

After learning about your camera, perhaps the next most important part to understand when shooting your own video is lighting. If at all possible I’d advise lots of practice with light placement, finding out about different types of lighting available etc. Several tutorials online talked about three main essential ingredients, which are front, side and back lighting.

My preference when it came to hiring lights was 3 tungsten 2kw blondes with a trace frame on a heavy duty stand for softer backlighting. This was perfect for strongly lit bright scenes, where the main object was to see everything clearly. For more moody stuff, like this video by Portico Quartet, point a few 100 – 150w dedos at the floor in strategic places, shine a few protofoto 1 x 4 strips directly on the band for more even lighting and place a few strategic spots way in the background (the space in this video is actually larger than it seems) for texture. Next time I’d like to experiment with some spots with adjustable brightness.

Unfortunately I made the mistake of not allowing time to play around with lighting on the day of the shoot, so the results weren’t all I might have wanted. My advice would be to allow 1 – 2 hours before any shoot to get to know the room and light it how you want. Don’t forget to watch LOTS of band videos online, find the ones with a look that appeals to you and talk to as many people with a good knowledge of lighting as you can.