For this week’s video I thought I would share a quick tip to improve the color of your video lighting in your productions.
Some of you may create YouTube videos at home, and perhaps you always shoot with window light. But what if you want to shoot, say, at night in a room that has warm-colored lights? Needing lighting, you’d probably head to Amazon and pick up a simple lighting kit. However, those light bulbs are what they would call “daylight balanced”, meaning the color of the light is designed to match the color of midday sun (a slightly blueish cast). So, they would be great to use as a supplement to window light, but not so great in a room with warm, tungsten bulbs.
The solution? You could go spend more money to get colored ‘gels’ (i.e. colored plastic) to try to change the color of your lighting to match your existing room lights. Or you might spend even more $$$ on a new light panel that has a ‘color dial’, allowing you to set the exact color of the light and match it that way.
An easier solution – just change all the bulbs! That’s what I did in the studio. I replaced the bulbs in the soft box with the same bulbs I had in my ceiling lights. Now, all the lighting everywhere is exactly the same, and they all give off the same color. I still needed to white balance the camera afterwards (which you should always do in any scenario), but in the end, all of the lights have the same color to them, meaning a consistent color for my video lighting!
Here’s a video where I demonstrate it:
Here are some of the links I mentioned in this week’s episode:
Cowboy Studio 2-Light kit:
http://amzn.to/2lT3rsu
G.E. 60-Watt replacement LED bulbs (these are Soft White – I used Warm White, but it doesn’t really matter which you use, as long as they are all the same):
http://amzn.to/2loemga
Color Checker Passport (if you need the full kit):
http://amzn.to/2kuBsT5
White Balance Card (a more affordable option):
http://amzn.to/2lXCqTX
If you like this video, I’d really appreciate a ‘thumbs-up’ over on the YouTube channel, and consider subscribing as well!