Build a Professional Studio Lighting Setup on Any Budget (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: The camera I'm recording with right now costs thousands of dollars, but if I turn off these lights, it starts to feel pretty worthless. So after nearly a decade of lighting YouTube videos, commercials, and short films, I've learned that professional videos aren't made with expensive cameras. They're made with good lighting placed in the right spot. So in this video, I'm going to break down my entire studio lighting setup, show you what each light is actually doing, and help you build a professional lighting setup at almost any budget. Before adding any lights to a room, I like to start by turning off everything I don't need. Overhead room lights usually create shadows under your eyes, add strange colors to your skin, and can sometimes flicker on camera. So turn those off. Once the room is under control, we can start building the setup with the most important light. Your key light is the main light exposing your subject. If you're working with a limited budget, this is where I would spend most of it. You don't need three cheap lights simply because you've heard of three-point lighting. One good key light will usually look much better than several lights placed around the room without a clear purpose. For this kind of setup, I like using a high output LED light with a softbox. In this case, I have the Amaran Ray 120C and an Octabox. A Cobb-style video light is a great option because it gives you plenty of output and allows you to attach different modifiers. Cobb lights are also fairly inexpensive while keeping the size down and the output up, which means they're really versatile. But you can also use an LED panel, a smaller video light, or even a ring light if that's all you already own. The specific light you use matters a lot less than where you put it and how you soften it. If I place the key light directly behind the camera, it fills in most of the shadows of my face. That gives me a bright and clean image, but it can also look a little flat. And if I move it too far off to one side, one half of my face becomes really dark. That might work for a dramatic indie horror film, but it probably isn't what you want for a YouTube video. So instead, let's place the key light approximately 45 degrees to one side of the camera and slightly above eye level. This creates a natural highlight on one side while allowing some shadow to remain on the other. That difference between light and shadow gives your face shape. From there, you can move the light around, look at your monitor and adjust it until the image feels right. The position of your light is important, but the size of your light source can make just as much of a difference. A small, bare light produces hard shadows with sharp edges. It can emphasize skin texture and create an image that feels harsh. Again, in some scenarios, this makes sense, but for a YouTube talking head, maybe not. A larger light source creates softer shadows and wraps more naturally around the face. That's why I'm not pointing this LED light directly at myself. I'm using a soft box to spread the light across a much larger surface. You can also shine a light through a diffusion or bounce it off a large white wall, or bouncing it off of the ceiling is also a great option. I do that all the time. If you're on a smaller budget, even placing diffusion in front of an LED panel can help. Even placing diffusion in front of a ring light can make a big difference. Just make sure you're using materials that are safe around your light and aren't touching anything that gets too hot. If you're working with some of these brighter LEDs, they can get really hot fast. I've seen plenty of fires from them. A material I recommend all the time is a fabric called muslin. You can get it in bleached or unbleached, and it's pretty cheap off of Amazon and really flexible to use. In the film industry, we often use materials like this 8x Chimera cloth. It's overkill for this kind of stuff and pretty expensive, but with bigger lights and spaces in a feature film or commercial, this is standard practice. The distance of the light also matters. Moving a large, diffused light closer makes it appear even larger and softer relative to your face. So instead of placing your light across the room and turning it up to full brightness, bring it closer and lower the intensity. A large, soft light source placed close to your subject is going to look much more natural and reduces the amount of power the light needs. Once your key light is in place, look at the dark side of your face. If you like the contrast, you may not need to do anything else. In fact, when I'm recording these videos, this is good enough for me. But if the shadows feel too dark, you can add fill. The easiest and least expensive option is a piece of white foam core from a hardware store or a 5-in-1 reflector placed opposite of your key light. It catches some of the key light and bounces it back towards your face. Move it closer to brighten the shadows or move it further away to create more contrast. You can also use a second light as your fill, and that's where three-point lighting comes from. But in most scenarios, that can produce too much light, it's more expensive, and it takes up more space. I much more prefer using a white foam core instead. At this point, we already have a complete lighting setup. The key light exposes the face and the fill controls the shadows. For most videos, that's all you're going to need. But if you want to add more depth, the next step is separating yourself from the background. We can do that with a backlight, also known as a hair light, rim light, edge light, etc. etc. This light is placed behind me and aimed towards the back of my head and shoulders. It creates a small highlight around my outline, helping me stand out from the darker background. You don't need a huge light for this. In fact, the smaller the light source, the more contrast it's going to add. A small LED panel, tube light, or a compact video light can work fantastic. In my case, I'm using the Amaran Ray 60C and a small Octadome. I'm mounting this light to something called a Varipole from a brand called Impact. These are awesome for putting up lights in small spaces, especially if you can't mount to a ceiling or if a light stand just won't fit. I use them all the time. But I will mention, this light is completely optional. If you already have strong separation between yourself and the background, you may not need it. Like for instance, the window already kind of builds separation for me in my studio space. But I like how the added backlight adds motivation from the light coming from the window in my studio. So I think it makes sense here. The final light in this setup is a practical light. A practical light is simply a light source that appears in the frame and makes sense. It could be a lamp, an LED tube, a sign, or anything else that adds some interest to the background. In my setup, I'm using an RGB bar light to bring some color into the shot. You can also count the window in my room as a practical light, and it's definitely doing some work to expose the background. But the RGB bar light is doing very little to expose my face or really anything else in the room. And the video would still work perfect without it. It's mostly there to add style and make the background feel more intentional. This should be one of the last things you worry about, especially if you're on a budget. Get your key light right first, then control the shadows, create separation if you need it, and finally add the background lights for style. Let's look at the complete setup one more time. With everything turned off, the image is dark and doesn't have much direction. In fact, we can't see much of anything. First, we'll add the key light. This is doing most of the work properly exposing my face. Next, I add a little fill to control the shadows. Then the backlight helps separate me from the background. And finally, the practical light adds some color and visual interest. The key light is the foundation. Everything else is there to solve a specific problem or add a creative touch. If you only have the budget for one light, buy one light. Add a softbox, place it correctly, and learn how to control it. You can always build from there. And these same principles are going to apply whether using a cinema camera, a phone, or recording directly into Riverside. Riverside can simplify the process of recording and editing your content, but taking a few minutes to shape the light before pressing record will make the original image look much more polished. And the better your footage looks when you record it, the less you'll need to fix it later. And as far as lighting goes, that's really it. If you're ready to put these tips into practice, you can try Riverside for free using the link in the description. I know I didn't mention lighting with the sun or outdoors, so if that's a video I should make in the future, let me know in the comments. And of course, feel free to ask me any questions. I'll be happy to answer them personally. Make sure to like and subscribe to the channel for more videos just like this. And thank you so much for watching. We can't wait to see what you create.