How do you light your videos?

tovo
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Wed Dec 09, 2009 7:36 pm

wandoctor wrote:
get yourself a couple of shop lights with clamps from your local home depot. Then get yourself a couple of grow light bulbs, or natural light bulbs. Step three get some heavy duty poster board and some clothes pins. Bend the posterboard around the outside of the lights, put in the bulbs, clamp them to something handy near you and let the light reflect back at you.

Voila..pro lighting.

Warning, Hang the lights so the posterboard is below the light, not above it and do not leave the lights on unattended with the posterboard clipped to them just to be safe.
Good tip wandoctor. Cheap and I assume effective. Karma to ya.


TGMatt
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Wed Dec 09, 2009 8:51 pm

thank you...btw, that should be bend the posterboard halfway around the lights....


quincy451
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Wed Dec 09, 2009 10:21 pm

All good advice here. My wife has a 3 lighting system. Both professional and a shop light conversion system. She uses two in front of the subject and one behind. A 3 way light system it is called.

Me I just try to remember brighter is better. The 3 way system cancels out any shadows.

Yea for the two videos I have done so far I did switch rooms for lighting and space to set things up. Yes Michele have not forgotten the guitar demo video you wanted to see...on tap. Still kicking tires on my new toy.


AcousticAl
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Wed Dec 09, 2009 11:54 pm

Hi Dennis,

All good points in this thread so far. The main thing to keep in mind with most mini cams today is that more light is better. Less light will make the footage grainy and dull (less colour).

If your camera is new- then your yellow complexion is probably due to an improperly set colour/white balance preset. You'll need to change it in the menu setting from the outdoor filter to the indoor filter-- or vice versa, depending on where you end up finally shooting. If that still doesn't fix it, then the yellow is probably due to an overexposure to tritium levels at the Springfield Nuclear Plant. Tell Smithers you're taking a vacation.

Chris is right- I do have all the toys at my disposal, but I don't use any of them to record my videos. As a point of reference- my last video/blog of 'Still the Same' was recorded with available (window) light in my family room. My older entry of 'Fire & Rain' was a mixture of window light and a desk lamp that wasn't even really pointed at me!

I think that you can end up spending a lot of unnecessary time messing with lights etc., when you should really just sit down and do your thing. As long as we can clearly see what you're playing, and the sound is good, that is all that matters imho.


AcousticAl
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Thu Dec 10, 2009 12:04 am

Hi again,

Hope you don't mind, Dennis- but I thought this would be a good spot to re-post something that I posted in the TG Techies Group about shooting in general. Lots of tips below if you or others are interested..

-Choose a quiet room/place. Somewhere that you won't be interrupted (phones/kids/dog etc.)

-Make sure there's lots of light. Low light means grainy, gray video. Either sunlight or room light or both is good. Just make sure the light source is mostly in front and not behind you- or you'll be in silhouette.

-Take the time to frame your shot. Get the camera on a level surface. It doesn't need to be a tripod- but make sure whatever your camera is on is flat/level. Many camcorders have 'flip-out' lcd screens turn 180 degrees. This will let you line your shot up properly.

-Check the audio you'll be recording with headphones. Most camera's built-in microphones will be ok to use- just get it as close to you as possible while still framing the shot you want. If you happen to have an external mic- that would give you even better sound. Just place it about a foot away from the sound hole of your guitar.

-There's a saying in video- 'Garbage in-- garbage out'! You can't improve on the initial quality you record at. Therefore, try to record at the best possible quality for whatever gear you use. The better the quality, the better visuals you'll upload, and the more detail we'll see when we view it.

**EDIT- I need to qualify this point about quality. You need to try to find a balance between the quality/size of your video file-- and the maximum size youtube will accept for a file (2 gigs). As a point of reference- I uploaded quicktime files (.mov) using a sorenson compression. My files were about 150 meg each, and still had pretty good quality. I would try to avoid .avi files, as they tend to be huge and unmanageable.

-Another saying in video is 'Tape is cheap'. Check the video when you're done to see if it shows what you need it to. If not- then do it again.

-Relax! I was really nervous about putting my playing out there for all to see- but I have received nothing but positive and constructive feedback from everyone. I'm sure you'll have the same outcome. Thanks for reading and I look forward to seeing your vids!


Al


wiley
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Thu Dec 10, 2009 1:37 am



wiley
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Thu Dec 10, 2009 1:48 am



Chasplaya
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Thu Dec 10, 2009 4:41 am

Some really useful advice here guys

many thanks Chas


willem
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Thu Dec 10, 2009 5:26 am

Chasplaya wrote:
Some really useful advice here guys

many thanks Chas
We looking forward to your thing Chas!!!and i know for sure you gonna suprise us!!


Chasplaya
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Thu Dec 10, 2009 1:06 pm

willem wrote:
Chasplaya wrote:
Some really useful advice here guys

many thanks Chas
We looking forward to your thing Chas!!!and i know for sure you gonna suprise us!!
Well Willem with all the inspiration and advice the bar has been set pretty high, I don't think I'll be able to live up to that lol.


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