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HINTS FOR LIGHTING

Your lighting doesn't look quite right? It flickers and doesn't stay the same? Don't know where to start?
Here are my suggestions for what you might like do next:
  • NOTE: This is NOT intended to be a professional lighting tutorial, just a 'what I do' and how beginners can improve with very little need for buying expensive equipment.

  • Ok, first things first, what type of camera do you have?

    If it is a webcam what type of light capture chip is in it, a CMOS or a CCD? The CCD (charge coupling device) is superiour for capturing images at high quality. I use a webcam called a kodak dvc 325, but essentially you want to have one with a ccd chip in it. The reason is that these chips can capture better images with lower amounts of light. Low light levels can really mess with the quality, but if you want to film in low light, you need hardware that works better in low light conditions (the best option of course is a video camera... but that costs money)

  • Physical Lighting.

    I use two small desklamps, both with a special type of lightbulb. It is called a 'phillips softone lavender' and is rated at 60 watts. Now, it doesn't really give out lavender (blue) light, but it does have a slight filter that cuts down the red levels from an incandescent bulb ever so slightly, this really helps improve image quality, especially with webcams. I bought the bulbs from the supermarket.
    The lights themselves are placed very close to the set, the bulbs themselves are usually not much further then 40cm away from the action (if i want strong lighting).
    The other important thing is to have any curtains or whatever closed in the room you are filming in (or film at night!) because even the slow movements of the sun across your room will significantly change the lighting in a scene over time.
    Also, always move you body out of the way, AND back to the same spot when you capture a frame, this is to minimise the differences your movements will make, and make sure the amount of light you yourself reflects back onto the scene is minimised. To help with this ALWAYS wear dark clothes (light clothes will reflect light back onto your set).

  • Software stuff.

    I can only talk about webcams here, but regardless of what program you use, you can always access the individual settings for your web camera from within the program. You may need to reset these every time you load it up! I always check. The most important settings to reduce flickering are the settings for 'exposure' and 'white balance' (older cams may not have the white balance settings).
    The reason these are important is that 'exposure' often has a check box next to it that allows the computer to auto adjust the exposure. If the computer does this it will adjust the input image based upon the levels of light so that the 'best' pic is captured by the webcam. If you don't turn this off, the light levels for your captures will be different for each frame as the computer will adjust each time you reach into the set to move something! This is kinda similar for the white balance too, once I'm happy with what I can see on the screen I turn it off auto as well.

  • Finally, proximity.

    My sets are always right next to my computer, at the same height, so that I can simply reach across to my keyboard or mouse and capture without having to make any huge movements that can affect the lighting of my current scene.

    Hopefully there is something in here that will help you out! (I'm sure I've left stuff out as well)

Want to contact me?

Nick Maniatis at h26fsok001@sneakemail.com
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