YouTube Lighting Setup for Beginners: 3-Point Lighting Tutorial

08/20/2020Link7

Are you looking to level up your YouTube video lighting? Jake shows you his home studio setup and discusses three-point lighting, as well as DIY solutions appropriate to your filming location. What do you think is the best lighting for YouTube videos? Feel free to share your thoughts.

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7 Comments

Ditto..Could you list links to lighting you mention. 

thanks for your video 

A good starting point, but there is more than just the talking head to light in many YouTube videos, as not all of us do static talking heads, but as I said, a good start. In this case, 3 point lighting is often the perfect solution for this type of shot, be it a single talking head or more. There, several 3 point lighting arrangements may be needed, one arrangement per person, and his suggestion of using a practical light for when space behind him is not available (as is using a light colored shirt for high backed chairs, or the combo of the two.

I would like to see other types of lighting talked about when a static talking head is not being shot, like how to shoot when in the WS mode and the person is not static, but all over the place, say, sped up to denote elapse of time. A good example is modustrial maker on YT. He often is shown working in the building he bought for his residence/shop and YT video studio and often utilizes at least one large light with softboxes to light the space, which when away from the window up front and the one he had installed in the back of the space, the rest is windowless, so he lights the space with the 2 big lights and uses small battery powered RGB LED small panels for practicals, having one red, the other blue to wash the bit of wall behind him, or simply to add interest to the space is another way to light for YT.

In my last video, I shot using 2, just over 10x10 LED bi colored LED panels with diffusion panels they came with and barndoors on stands, and augmented with the house lights, most of them warm white, but one light over the sink that is cool white as that's what I was able to get when that fluorescent lamp went out. Here, I was shooting POV from my head with the GoPro mounted on a head strap so I'm not in the shot, but talking behind the camera into a wireless mic connected to the media mod on my Hero 9 for audio and the lights basically upped the overall lighting levels of my kitchen, which also had the lone window (west facing for light and adjusted the video lights accordingly between cool/warm white to ensure good, even illumination of the kitchen space as I cleaned up, which was the focus of the video in the first place.

Those 2 examples are what I'm talking about with other lighting techniques, as needed for when not doing static talking head shots.

Otherwise, a good video overall.

Great input and suggestions, john p.! We appreciate engagement with our readers and always welcome their suggestions. Thanks so much for watching and taking the time to comment.

Hi! Thanks for the video! I really appreciated it! Could you list below the three lights you mentioned in the video with direct links to the items? That would be so helpful for those of us new to this!