Lighting Workshop

My Experiments In A Lighting Workshop

In order to create my music video plan i needed to know how to work different sets of lighting and what effect they would give to a clip. So today In a class Lighting Workshop  I was given the opportunity to use three different sets of lighting equipment to develop a understanding on the effect they have when lighting up a scene in my video.

From my experiments i could see how much lighting in video can play such a important role in the type of video you're doing,i learnt how its important to use it properly to get the effect intended.

First of all we used Light Reflectors: To begin with I used Light reflectors,Light reflectors reflect light where ever you would like to be more lit,to use a light reflector you have to hold the reflector at different angles and you can see how the light will bounce off either the silver reflector side or the Gold. Both can create different looks,the silver side simply reflects the coloured light you shine towards it,where as the Gold side reflects the given light but creates a more tanned look to your object or person when directed at them. These reflectors can be useful when using natural lighting,for example outside in the sun you aren't going to get even lighting on both sides of a object (if this is your intention) so if the sun is shining on one side of the object and you want to make it symmetrical you can use your reflector to balance out the darker side of the object. Or if you want your object to have a slight tanned look you would use the Gold side yo create this. The only problem with Light Reflectors is you have to have another person beside yourself to hold and position it correct,which i will remember when it comes to my Music video.

Here you can see by using the light reflector i managed to light up her initially,even on a black background. I learnt that you need a more direct light source to get the best results so the reflector can pick up the light and bounce it where needed.

The next light equipment i used was Light boxes,Light boxes are great at lighting up the scene as they're bright but due to the box around the light,the light is softer giving the model a 'air brushed' look as the boxes brought down the intensity of the lights alone,they generally expose the image without it being over exposed. 

As you can see in this image the model is exposed to the right amount of light,this due to two soft boxes on either side of her. The soft boxes create a over all lit up scene without any lighting being too harsh,the lighting is spread evenly,these would be good for a general scene which just needs good quality lighting.

I then used Photographic Lights,these lights were very fluorescent meaning they were very white and very powerful,the lights made the image we took look very professional. I ended up placing the lights facing the wall behind the model so the background was bright white making it look very professional. I found that placing the lights  in front of the model completely over exposed the image,although i think if positioned correctly the lights could look great in the background of the video to give a lens glare in the camera.

This shows how i set up the lights:

As you can see i put the umbrellas on the lights to make it slightly less powerful and to reflect the light away from the models face. Later on i took the umbrellas off and although the lights were powerful,in the background they gave a good lens glare.You can see how the lights also lit up the background making it look very professional.







The picture taken using the Photographic Lights.
As you can see in this picture the background is lit up making it look professional.