Video: Lighting Your Video

In this short video film maker, Steven Hutchinson gives some advice on lighting your video.

Video Transcript

My name's Steven Hutchinson, I'm a film maker and on behalf of FamilyVideos.co.uk I am going to give you a bit of advice on how to light your video.

When lighting a video it is important to bear in mind that there are should be three points of light. There is the key light which is the primary source of light for your subject, there's the fill light which acts to fill in the shadows that may be cast by the key light and there's the back light which will add some depth to your shot.

If shooting indoors, the key light could come from light from the window for instance, but with this you would need to make sure that you add a fill light, such as a lamp or maybe a couple of lamps.

When filming indoors make sure you don't film your subject against a window with a lot of light coming through it because your camera will not pick up your subject, it will just pick up the light coming in from the window - so you'll end up with a silhouetted subject in front of a very bright window.

When shooting outdoors obviously you won't have the luxury of your three light points so you'll have to make sure that your exposure on your camera isn't too high or else the sunlight will bleach out your shot and will make everything look too bright, so make sure you check the exposure on your camera when shooting outside.