$0 vs $20,000 lighting setup
What do you get when you spend all this extra cash anyhow?
youtube video
Play Video
In this blog post I’m going to pull out nearly every light in my kit to show you what a $20,000 setup looks like!
I’m also going to cover setups at 5 other price points, including a pro $10,000 setup, a starter $1,000 setup, all the way down to this basic zero dollar scene.
At each level, I’ll reveal a tip, or two(!), that you can use to make your videos look more cinematic, regardless of your budget level!
$0
Who needs to spend money to get quality lighting? With careful timing of where the sun is in the sky and a big ole window, you can get cinematic shots like these without spending a dime!
How? Well, if I place my subject near a window that isn’t receiving direct sunlight, then voila(!), I’ve magically got a softbox the size of that window lighting them!
This effect happens because light coming in through a window has first bounced around the outside environment before reaching that window. It’s reflecting off things like trees, cars, the ground, buildings, sidewalks, etc. Put another way, light is coming into the window from all directions, instead of one direction aka the sun. And this is basically the same effect as when light is softened by putting it through some type of diffusion. The thicker the diffusion, the more the light “bounces around the environment”.
Soft light is usually preferred because it flatters the appearance of our subjects by reducing the appearance of skin imperfections. Hard light can be useful for certain moods, but I’m pretty much always using some type of diffusion to soften at least my key light for a scene.
Key tip: I use a sun tracker app, like photopills, to show me where the sun will be throughout the day when I’m location scouting. These apps make it easier to plan our shots for the day, usually because we’re avoiding direct sunlight coming in through windows.
Bonus tip: One of my favorite ways to make a scene feel lifelike is to use practicals! Practicals are lights that are seen in-camera, usually in the background of your shots. They help to add realism, increase visual interest, give a sense of depth, and add motivation for off-camera lighting.
And there you have a no dollar lighting setup for on-location shoots when you’ve forgotten everything but the camera!
$10
Moving up a level, let’s create our own key light so I don’t always have to be near a window! For roughly $10, I can make a soft key light by popping an incandescent bulb into a clamping work light and diffusing it through some napkins that have been taped together.
Because the incandescent bulb emits at 2700 Kelvin, I’ve set my camera to around 3,200 Kelvin while recording. This adjustment gives my subject a slightly warmer skin tone, and cools down the natural daylight behind them so that there’s a subtle hint of a blue and orange complementary look going on. Kinda looks like a cool winter afternoon to me.
Is this something I would ever show up on set with? No. Is this fire safe? Hellllll no. Do I get a soft quality of light though? You bet!
Key tip: By adjusting where I place the key light relative to the subject (me), I can drastically alter the mood of the image. Placing the light directly in front of me gives a flat look that “works”, but by placing it at a 3/4 angle to me, I can achieve that Rembrandt lighting that looks so pleasing and gives some nice shape to the face. By continuing to rotate the light, I end up at side lighting, which has a really moody feel and is generally only used for dramatic situations.
$100
At the $100 level, let’s pull out the first film quality light of the video, this Sirui tube light. And let’s grab one of the first accessories that EVERYONE should own as a light lover, a 5-in-1 reflector.
This setup works functionally the same as the $10 setup, but now I have direct control over both the intensity and color temperature of the light!
One reason intensity adjustment is handy is because not every room has the same amount of ambient light. Controlling the output of light to match the lighting on location and get the mood I’m going for by just turning a knob is so much easier than the “old days”.
Having adjustable color temperature as well is nice for a variety of reasons. I may want to match the key light to the existing lighting on location, or I can warm up the key a bit if my talent has darker skin tones as daylight balanced lights can sometimes feel too clinical.
If I want to add some extra razzle dazzle to the frame, I can place that incandescent bulb on the opposite side of my key as a rim light, giving my subject some much needed separation from the background!
Key tip: One reason this setup looks “cinematic” is that I’ve pulled my subject away from the wall. Here I am placed closer to the wall for comparison. Why does moving me only three feet have this effect? Well, light spreads out as it travels from the source. Because of this, the intensity lessens as it travels. This effect is referred to as the inverse-square law. By pulling my talent away from the wall and using the natural falloff from the key, I can increase the separation between the subject and background. This makes it easier for the viewer to quickly see that my subject is the focal point of the frame.
$1,000
Moving on to the $1,000 setup, this is the kit I frequently suggest to traveling DP’s because of its versatility and packability. It also works wonderfully as a beginner kit to learn 3-point lighting with because of the ease of setup!
An amaran 200d acts as the key. I have this going through a 3’ softbox. A couple MT pros act as both hair and kicker lights, and that handy 5-in-1 reflector helps to control the amount of light on the shadow side of my subjects face.
Let’s breakdown why I love this kit. The amaran 200d is a powerful light for its size, rivaling the Aputure 300d for 1/3 the price. I’m using the 3’ lightdome III because 3’ of width gives a soft look, the circular shape gives a pleasing catch light in the eye, and it packs down really flat for travel or storage. The best thing about this softbox though, is that it comes with a grid.
Key tip: Grid’s are accessories placed on lights to control how wide their beam spreads. Without the grid, you can see the key shines everywhere in the scene, spilling on the background. With the grid, the key only hits the subject. Using a grid like this gives me separation between the subject and background and gives me more control over lighting the scene. I’ll also use grids on my lights when I only need to light a particular part of the frame, like an overhead dining room scene or something.
The MT pros also come with grids, again giving me control over their spill onto the rest of the scene, particularly these plants and this side of the couch right here. With a few pieces of grip hardware, I’m even able to place both of these on one stand. This top one acts as the hair light, and also gives a little separation to the shoulders too.
The kicker light is placed on the opposite side of the key, and gives the little kiss to the cheek. I’m a fan of this light because of the separation that it gives to the subject from the background on the shadow side of the face. It also feels a little natural to me that somewhere opposite the key there would be a window or picture frame or something that’s bouncing light back onto the subject.
One final note about choosing a beginner setup. All three of the main brands, Aputure, Godox, nanlite, make fantastic lights at entry price points. Replace the amaran 200d with a 300c, or with the nanlite FS-300 or the GODOX ABC, you’ll honestly get the same results. I would advise sticking to one manufacturer when you start out though just because being able to control all your lights with one app can be sooo handy.
$10,000
Alright, alright alright! Let’s dig out the real toys! This $10,000 setup looks a lot like what I bring to location for most of my commercial interviews.
A 1200d serves as the key, going through this book light contraption. I’m using the 1200d because it’s powerful enough to bounce off this wall, and back through this 6×6 piece of magic cloth and still light my talent with the proper exposure. This bouncing, book-light setup gives me a really creamy, soft look, while also maintaining highlight detail in the blue sky in the background due to the brightness of the 1200d.
A 600d with an F10 fresnel attached bounces off the ceiling to give me control over the brightness of the background. For a moodier scene, I would turn this off or leave this at a low level. To have a more sunny, daytime, high key scene, I’d begin to bring this up until the background was nearly the same level as the subject.
Another 600d on the new Aputure spotlight max sits on a triple riser outside, adding this hard scratch to the background of the scene. I love adding a slash like this to a frame because it helps give the background some texture and depth. It’s all about adding eye candy to retain viewer interest!
2x Aputure PB6’s act as hair and kicker lights, giving the subject separation from the background. Using a two foot wide source instead of a 1 foot one for the hair light helps to spread it more evenly across the entire back and shoulders of my subject turning it into more of a rim light. Same thing with the 2’ bar as a kicker. It separates the entire shadow side of the body, not just the face.
Key tip: Have you caught on yet that in every one of these shots I’m using a far side key? Almost every scene in every movie you’ve ever watched uses this technique to add depth and dimension to the image. A far side key refers to where the key light is placed relative to the camera and sight lines of the talent. A near side key places the key light on the same side of the talent’s eye line as the camera. A far side key places them on opposite sides.
As you can see, there is a tremendous difference between the two, why is that? Well, the most cinematic images in movies make you forget that you’re looking at a 2 dimensional representation of a 3 dimensional image, you just feel inside the scene. A far side key casts visible shadows giving the talent depth, helping to create this effect. Lighting from the same side gives a flat, washed out image because all of the shadows are filled in.
$20,000
And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for, the $20,000 setup! Surprise! I’ve been in it this whole time.
One of the things about production is that we’re never lighting just one scene a day. Having enough lights to be able to put together two or even three scenes at once makes the day so much smoother. I can light an interview setup for the morning, and then head out to get the afternoon’s b-roll shots lit so we can roll right after lunch.
Let’s break down how I lit my studio space using the other, more colorful half of my kit.
A Kelvin EPOS 300 acts as my key, going through that trusty lightdome III and grid for the same reasons as before. I’ve warmed this up from 5600 kelvin to 5000 kelvin just because I like how it makes my skin look.
A second Kelvin EPOS 300 sits in the back of the shot, shooting into the rear corner of the room and casting a nice ambient glow throughout. If I pointed this light directly at the background, there would be harsh shadows, the room wouldn’t fill out with color, and it would be this really obvious, “sourcey” light. By aiming at the corner, I’m in effect turning that corner into a giant softbox, which softens all those hard shadows and creates a much gentler falloff from right to left across the scene.
Two MT pros act as my hair and kicker lights, doing the same thing those two lights have been doing in the other setups.
Several MC pros are placed inside the shelving unit over my right shoulder to give some complementary coloration to the background.
The slash in the background over my left shoulder is made by using the Aputure 60x and mini spotlight.
And finally, just for the fun of it, some Aputure PB12’s magnetically attach to my shelving unit, it’s YouTube after all! These do also give some leading lines towards the subject, and add a bit of color to an otherwise dark part of the frame.
Key tip: Let’s talk about how I was able to keep the background saturated while still being able to key my subject. Sometimes, placing a grid on the softbox just isn’t enough, I have to pair it with a technique called feathering. To do this, I’ll place the key light where it would normally live, at that 45 degree angle from my subject. If I point it straight at the subject, however, we still get some spill into the background, you can see it in this lesser saturated portion of the frame here. To solve this, I’ll rotate the key light towards the front or edge of frame until I am no longer spilling into the background, but making sure I haven’t rotated so far that I’m no longer hitting my subject. Sure most of the light is just going into the wall now, but I’ve got a keyed subject and a richly saturated background!
follow me
disclaimers
– Some of the links in Tyler’s blog posts are affiliate links, which means that qualifying purchases will help financially support Tyler at no extra cost to you. If you wanted to purchase something else but still support Tyler, please use the following link: https://amzn.to/3WdnsdM
– This blog post contains only Tyler’s opinions about G&E, gaffing, and LED lighting, and was not reviewed or paid for by outside persons or manufacturers
– Tyler Trepod is a freelance owner/operator gaffer of a Grip & Electric truck based in Denver, Colorado and serves the Boulder, Denver, Colorado Springs, & Fort Collins markets