Ahoj. This is Zdenka. Whenever I am making videos here on YouTube,
I'm always aiming for the best light possible. I'm trying to make the videos
look the best I can possibly make them look and sometimes I get very lucky with
the light, sometimes I don't get so lucky with the light. And I got a lot of
questions from people who ask me: " I'm using the same settings, I'm using the
same camera. How come your video looks so much nicer?" Well, I think today we should
cover everything about outdoors light. So let's look at different times of the day
and some of the tricks I am doing to get the best possible result when it comes
to video. The same principles apply to photography as well, so let's go.
And if you're new here, my name is Zdenka Darula.
I work as a photographer since 2007. I make video and photo tutorials, tech reviews
and creative camera challenges, so you might consider hitting the subscribe
button. Here in Canada, we are very much still in the outdoors season. It is the
end of the summer, but it's very nice. It's usually sunny, it's very comfortable,
the temperatures dropped a little bit so it makes it better now but the wind is
starting to pick up as we are getting closer to the fall. Different times of
the day offer different light conditions and you can do a lot to improve your
videos here on YouTube when you're filming yourself or filming others for
your vlogs. So let me take you throughout the whole day, hour by hour. Let's talk
about different lighting conditions and let me share some of the tricks I am
doing so you can use them as well.
I am pretty sure that some of you saw my summer videos which were filmed very
early in the morning. Well, I actually didn't have to film that early in the
morning but there were three reasons why I chose to drag myself out of bed at
4:30 a.m. Reason number one. Temperatures here in Canada are super
hot in the summer days and the humidity on top of it doesn't really help so you
sweat pretty much the whole day. But when you get up so early in the morning, it's
nice and cool and it feels super comfortable. Reason number two. Parks are
completely empty. Who would want to go to the park at 4:30 a.m? You will see here
and there the occasional runner, you know people like to exercise in the morning
maybe before they go to the office but that's about it. So some runners, some
people on the bicycles, maybe one person or two walking their dog but that's
about it. The parks are so quiet you don't get to
hear all those voices talking so it is so much better for your microphone as
well. And reason number three. You get the nicest light of the day. Very plain and
simple, the nicest light of the day. So I got up at 4:30 a.m., got my makeup and
hair ready, get out of the house, quickly swing by somewhere to buy coffee
on the way and made sure I'm on that location 15 minutes before the Sun was
coming out. During that time, during 15 minutes I was usually filming the b-roll
because the colors were the nicest and when I had enough b-roll and the Sun was
just about to peak out, it was just about to come out, I'd turn the camera at me
and I was facing the available light at sunrise and I started filming myself
just to get that golden first very, very soft light. And here you can do two
things. When the Sun is still just coming out and it's very soft in the morning,
you get that golden shimmery light on your face. So you're gonna face the Sun
but once the Sun gets a little bit higher and it's getting much stronger,
you're starting to squint and all that, what I like to do I just turn around. I
have the Sun in my back not directly in my back when it comes to sunrise about a
lot to the side, so I get the hair light from the back
and I see the nice shadows from the trees in a background. It just looks very
scenic when it comes to sunrise. I'm a brunette and it looks really nice if you
allow that Sun from behind to kind of hit you from behind because it makes
that hair light very nice but you have to make sure that you have background which
is very dark. If I would be using a background like a sky or even Sun
as my background I would end up with that whole blown highlights look behind
me which is just not very pretty at all. To make things even better, I'm using
this little notebook where I am actually writing all my scripts. I know I could be
using computer, I could type it all there and just print it out but truthfully I'm
trying to minimize the computer screen time from my eyes in my case. The right
eye is still bugging me so I'm the old-fashioned. Just writing the scripts
by hand, literally. So when I was filming in the mornings, what he didn't see
sometimes when I was sitting on a porch, I was using the white paper from my
notebook as my reflector. So when I was actually lifting my arm like this a
little bit I was getting that nice filling light back into my face... just a
little invisible trick. Morning light is seriously very rewarding and it's super
easy.
And then at 10:30 we are dealing with a daylight. The very harsh light. It's
usually between 10:30 and all the way until 3:00 p.m. and that's when I am
usually trying to aim for an open shade like right now. I'm standing in a shade
but if you, if I show you what's in front of me, this is the edge of the shade and
Sun is over there. So that Sun is reflecting light back on my face. I still
keep the Sun in my back because I want that hair light but again my background
is pretty dark. If I would turn towards the light background it will be all
blown off which doesn't look very good with my dark hair so I just turn around
where the background is pretty dark. And if you happen to film in a city and you
see some nice bright wall, you can use it as a reflector like I'm using the paper
right now. So if I bring it closer to me then you will see that I'm reflecting
the light back on my face like right now. So that will be if you are standing next to
the wall. If you happen to stand next to the wall which has even a color,
you might end up with an interesting background and the color might pick up a
little bit on your face. You will just get different tone and if you have
nowhere to hide and you have to deal with that harsh light like if you are on
a beach or something like that, then you can always for that little short period
put on your sunglasses. First of all it will hide those ugly shadows under your
eyes and get rid of the squinting you might have that little cool look for a
few minutes. And then once you are in a shade or close by the shade then you can
obviously take off your glasses.
And if you wake up in the morning and you look at the weather forecast and
they are calling for overcast day or cloudy, I always say it is lottery time.
That is the best day of all to film at. You can shoot in any kind of direction,
you have the perfect studio light. Every time I say to bride during the
wedding and she's kind of looking all sad because it's overcast and I tell her
hey you just won the lottery with light. They kind of look at me like I'm crazy
but we all know what I'm talking about. Right? So yes when it's overcast it's
time to get outdoors and film for sure. And for late afternoon and evening the
same principles apply like early in the morning during sunrise. Well, I really
hope that you found the tips in this video useful. Hit the thumbs up button if
you liked today's video, subscribe to all future videos like these. If you have any
questions, comments or you simply want to say hello, you can just do that in a
comment section below. I will read it all and I will try to respond and I'll see
my friends in the next video. Cau... Ahoj...