guide: your first video light should be a…
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point sources
Point source lights are called that because their light emits from a small point on the fixture. A small surface area causes these fixtures to emit hard shadows. And hard shadows are important to have because looking out a window, I can see a pretty significant hard source of light… the sun! By adding a hard source of light to the scene I’m lighting, I am mimicking sunlight, which adds a sense of realism to my frames.
But! Hard light isn’t very flattering on a subject. So, when they’re lighting subjects, point sources are used with accessories called “modifiers” . These diffuse and spread the light, which creates a softer transition between light and dark areas. Usually, these modifiers come in one of two flavors, softboxes, that can attach directly to the light, or diffusion rags, that are rigged separately.
hard vs. soft light
As we move a modified light further from our subject, we are decreasing the ratio between the size of the light to the size of the subject and therefore reducing the softness of the light. This is why manufacturers like Aputure sell softboxes in various sizes.
How this works practically, is that in order to shoot on a wider lens, I need more space between my subject and the edge of the frame. Pulling my key light back reduces the apparent size of the light for my subject, and the softness of it, so I’ll compensate by using a 5′ softbox instead of a 3′ one.
point sources & modifiers
Being able to be both a hard and soft source is one reason I think point source lights the best first light. Then, as you acquire more lights, what was your key light can easily fill another role because of the wide variety of accessories available for point source lights. From lanterns that help bring up the room level, to spotlights that allow you to cast shadows from tree branches or blinds, to fresnels that drastically increase the output, point source lights always have a place on set.
panels
The other type of light you may be considering is a panel light. These are attractive compared to point source lights because they cast a soft right out of the box. But this also means that they can never be a hard light like a point source can.
Depending on the type of panel you’re purchasing, they either come with a removable or built in diffusion screen that helps to diffuse the LEDs into one large source. Some newer panels will even group their LEDs and place them inside reflectors to tighten the beam angle, allowing for more output when used without the diffusion screen.
inverse-square law
This is the formula for the inverse-square law. That little doohickey sign means inversely proportional, so what this means is the intensity of our light is inversely proportional to 1 over the distance squared. Which is a lot of words to say that light doesn’t get dimmer in a linear fashion as you get further away from it, but logarithmically.
What this equation means in practice is that as the distance between the light and subject is doubled, the amount of light reaching the subject is reduced by one quarter. So, the closer the light is to a subject, or subjects, the larger the difference in exposure across the width of them will be. We can see this represented on this graph here, which is some real world data recently acquired by American Cinematographer. Let’s focus on the initial part of this graph. Notice how when we go from two to four to eight to sixteen feet, the quantity of light hitting the light meter is reduced by 1/4 each time.
If we take our panel light and place it as close to me as possible, we get a look referred to by many DP’S as “sourcey”. This is because there is an obvious difference in the amount of light hitting my face compared to my body. In order to fix this and get a more cinematic image, I ideally want to position the light far enough away from my subject so that the exposure across their whole body is relatively the same. Looking at this graph, we can see that this begins to be in the 8-10′ range.
point vs. panel
The financial cost of applying the inverse-square law on set is another reason point sources have an advantage over panels for beginners. Because most panel lights use a diffusion screen to blend the LED’s on board, their output is lower than an equivalent wattage point source light. This means you have to buy much larger and more expensive panel fixtures in order to achieve a similar output to a much less expensive point source. Something like the amaran 200d and 2x fresnel will give you a ridiculous amount of output for less than $400. And, according to Aputure’s official output calculator on Sidus Link, the 200d and fresnel 2x has twice the output as the nova p600c, a light that would cost nearly 10x as much.
secondary lights
While either a point source or a panel will make a great first light depending on your use case as a filmmaker, there do exist a few other styles of lights to consider when rounding out your kit:
tubes
Tube lights are incredibly useful lights. I’m nearly always using these on set for a part of my frame after my key light is established. These lights work great as hair lights or rim lights, can be rigged almost anywhere, and their thinness and width gives them utility to do what other lights couldn’t be rigged to do. These are the lights you see in the background of most music videos doing all kinds of fun flashing effects and whatnot as well. If you’re just starting out, grab a set of 2 two footers – after you’ve bought your point source.
Because of their long shape, tubes have a unique shadow pattern. They are soft in one direction, but almost hard in the perpendicular direction. Because of this, I’m always positioning them horizontally when they’re lighting the faces of my subjects.
Tubes are always full-spectrum output these days. So not only can you control color temperature, but you can also tune into any color in HSI mode. I’ll drop a link below to my video about using color temperature to achieve cinematic looking frames if you’re curious what that’s about. Another convenience, tubes usually have some type of battery setup so they can be used in locations that don’t supply power. If you’re in a pinch, tubes also make a passable key light, especially if you have a two or four foot one.
Tubes are also beginning to come with individual addressable pixels on them, which allow for some really advanced effects. This type of lighting style is becoming very common on large film sets that use giant LED walls as backdrops, but is also beginning to trickle down to smaller sets and be available to a more general population.
While there are significant advantages to owning a good set of tubes, I don’t recommend them as a first light just because they are a one-trick pony. A point source can go from hard to soft and anywhere in between with the multitude of modifier options, but tubes will always just be tubes.
flex-panels
Flex panels are a subset of panel lights and are becoming increasingly more attractive as a purchase option. They’re a great addition to the kit, and as they become increasingly more powerful and easy to build, I would even recommend one of these over a hard panel depending on your budget level and use. The flex panel will accomplish mostly the same thing, and can be rigged in even more places because its so lightweight and thin.
They can literally be taped to a wall or ceiling and their thinness means that wall can be just out of frame, allowing shots you couldn’t have achieved using other types of lights. This opportunity doesn’t arise very often though, which is why I still consider a point source to be the better option given its versatility.
practicals
The last type of lights are practicals. These are smaller lights that often end up in frame as accent lighting. They can be anything from 1′ tubes, to film quality bulbs, to mini LEDs. I consider all of these to be must have accessory lights because much like a watch, earrings, or necklace, they’re not the statement piece to your frame like your key light is, but they do add to the richness of the image and the look isn’t complete without them.
Oftentimes, you’ll see a lamp in frame to provide motivation for the space lighting that’s just out of frame. Putting a film quality bulb inside this lamp instead of a household bulbs enables greater control over the output and color selection. Smaller tubes or mini-LEDs can be mounted in a myriad of ways to highlight certain parts of the frame that might have been too dark previously, or just to add some color to make a frame more interesting.
daylight vs. bicolor
Daylight vs bicolor, which is the better option for you? Well, my advice would be to buy the biggest light you can afford in daylight balance, and get the rest of your lights as bicolor. Having a light that has a lot of output is great when the sun is near your frame, otherwise having control over the color temperature of lights gives you so many creative options.
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– Tyler Trepod is an owner/operator gaffer of a 1/2-ton G&E truck in the Denver, Colorado market
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