Lighting

Stuff You Need to Know

Lighting gels are essential for a cohesive video.

Lighting gels: What are they and how do they work?

If you’ve never used lighting gels in your video productions before, they may seem a little daunting, but the effort is worthwhile.
The Sun: Everyone’s Light Kit

How to harness sunlight for an amazing outdoor lighting setup

"If you really look carefully at natural light, you realize how complex it is, and how it's constantly shifting. When you put up an...

White balance for film and video: A beginner’s guide

When is white not really white? When it’s headed toward an unprepared camera sensor. Understanding white balance and the color difference between light sources...

Three-point lighting — the first lighting technique to master

Three-point lighting the easy answer to a myriad of questions. It's very adaptable, doesn't necessarily requires three lights, and luckily, it's not terribly difficult to learn.
Our medium isn’t our hardware. Our medium is light. Let’s talk about luminance and the inverse-square law.

Understand luminance for more control over your lighting setups

One of the more common mistakes many beginning and intermediate videographers make is confusing our tools for our medium. Too many shooters focus on...
The Five Most Difficult Lighting Scenarios

The Five Most Difficult Lighting Scenarios and How to Handle Them

We caught up with a 40-year industry veteran and university professor for some lighting advice.

4 Common Lighting Mistakes (and how to fix them)

Lighting is an art that can take years to master. Avoiding these mistakes, however, is a quick way to improve your results.
Colorful array of apples

Understanding CRI & TLCI: The importance of color rendition

Cinematography is all about light, but filmmakers soon learn that all light is not created equal. The human eye is immensely versatile at adapting...
Lighting Setups with Only Practicals

How to Light a Scene Using Only Practicals

Lights, Camera, Action — “Wait, but we don’t have the lights! How can you have camera and action without lights?!” Well, if you don’t...

Tell Your Story More Effectively with the Correct Application of Hard...

“Lighting is to film what music is to Opera” -  Cecil B. DeMille. As the legendary director was implying, light is the foundation of our...

Video Courses

Church Video Production

How to Plan a Production (Free for Non-Members) Planning is vital to the success of any production. Without a plan, your video likely won’t succeed...

What's New

5 professional lighting setups for interviews

5 professional lighting setups for interviews

No matter if your interviewing your neighbor or local mayor, having a professional lighting setup is key for capturing a great interview.

The quality of light

Light is essential in cinema. How much light you use and how you choose to deliver it sets the mood and feel of a scene.

Lighting techniques for film and video

To create the best lighting for your project, it's important to understand the essential lighting techniques for film and video.
Light modifiers

Every type of light modifier for video you need to know

Light modifiers are essential parts of video production lighting. You must know every light modifier available to ensure you have control over your lighting

Day for night shooting: Shooting night scenes on a budget

Day for night shooting is a staple of the filming industry, allowing productions to cut costs and film night scenes during the day.

Why color temperature is important for video

In a nutshell Color temperature measures the color of light, existing on a scale between a lit match (1700 K) and skylight (10,000 K)The most common light sources are daylight (5600 K) and indoor tungsten (3200 K)The lower your light is on the kelvin scale,...
Type of lights

Light types for video — How to light your production like...

The best ways to make a production look pro is to use the right type of lights at the right time — though this is easier said than done.

Film lighting 101: The tools and techniques you should know

Understanding film lighting tools and techniques is essential to making great film and video.
What is a gaffer?

What is a gaffer and how do they play a crucial...

Every successful project needs a talented gaffer working at the helm of the electrical department. Here is why gaffers are so important.
Controlling the Quality of Light

How to control your quality of light for better footage

There's an old axiom in the art world: A good artist is the master of their tools. A great artist is the master of...

Light types for video

This video is all about light types for video and film.You’ll learn about Tungsten, LED, Fluorescent and HMI lights. We will also cover Soft,...
We'll define what low key lighting is

What is low-key lighting and why should you use it?

Low-key lighting is a great lighting technique every videographer should have in their arsenal. Here we'll define what it is and how you can use it.
High key lighting was used in this scene in 2011's Restless

What is high-key lighting and how can you use it?

It’s important to know what high-key lighting is and how you can use it to add depth to your film’s atmosphere and style. Here's what you need to know.

Three-point lighting — the first lighting technique to master

Three-point lighting the easy answer to a myriad of questions. It's very adaptable, doesn't necessarily requires three lights, and luckily, it's not terribly difficult to learn.
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