Illuminations: On-Camera Lighting
When you're shooting news, documentary, wedding, family, or other event videos, you're always on the move -- and your light has to move with you. The good news is, if you take care in choosing, equipping, and using your "inkie" (as historic Hollywood called them), you can achieve surprisingly good results.
Camcorder lights retail from around $20 to more than $500. The high-end units are as versatile as studio lights. The first thing to look for is flexible light intensity. Some units achieve this by putting multiple lamps in a single reflector, so you can switch on as many as you need. Others put the lamps in two or three separate reflectors; some are designed to throw a narrow beam while others shape a wide one. That way, you can control not only the light intensity, but its pattern as well. Still other models vary intensity with a built-in dimmer and/or a focus-able lamp. (Don't forget: flooding the lamp reduces its intensity while widening its beam sprea…
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