we all know that lighting is a big contributor to making a shot look cinematic
but how do you achieve that movie-like lighting when you're filming with little or no budget
i'm tom from fxhome by artlist and in this video i'm going to show you
some items that you can find around the household or that are incredibly cheap
to help craft and shape your lighting and improve your overall image quality
some of the best ways to begin lighting your scene is to start off in darkness and window light can
make that incredibly difficult for you depending on what sort of curtains you have light is going
to seep in which means there'll be an ambient light bouncing around the room in order to block
out that light bin bags are incredibly helpful you can of course buy them incredibly cheap and
all you need to do is get one out tear down the seams so it's completely opened up and then tape
it to the window you may need to add multiple bags to layer up as some can be translucent
next up paper card and foam board you can get these in a range of sizes for your needs but
this material is great not only can you bend and shape it into different props for
outfits and costumes cosplay this reflective material because of its whiteness can actually
bounce the light so when i bring it here you have a reflector coming coming down it's bouncing
off the light or alternatively with a stand you could block out the light completely and because
they usually come in a pack you can even tape them together and have a much bigger reflector
next up i'm going to make sure that i get my pronunciation right aluminum foil i hope i made
java proud if the foam board reflection wasn't enough then aluminum foil uh attached to that foam
board can really help that is that's doing quite a lot all it takes is one sheet wrapped around the
foam board and you now have a diy reflector and as you can see this reflects a fair amount of light
it's pretty good i'd use this and then bake some cookies afterwards reflectors aren't
usually that expensive but if you're working to no budget this does help quite a lot if
you don't have access to many lights using a reflector is a great way to bounce the ambient
light at your actor by doing this you can actually soften the shadows or accentuate some of the light
that is going on to your actor so the foam board and aluminium tin aluminum the foam
board and aluminum foil is a great combination for you to create your own diy reflector great
tip tom hey if you're enjoying the video remember to like and subscribe to the channel we bring out
weekly videos so smash that notification bell so that you know when we bring one out see you soon
now let's move on to something for diffusion a shower curtain the material on shower curtains
is great for diffusion all you need to do is place your light hang the shower curtain above
your light and then you automatically have a wonderful diffusion sheet so this diffusion
will soften the light that is coming through so if like before you can't block out the light
with bin bags for example you can definitely soften the light that is coming into the room
you can also use this while you're outside as well hanging over your subject like butterfly diffusion
this will break the natural daylight that is going on to your subject and particularly on a sunny day
something like this is going to be a huge help for making sure that your image is correctly exposed
and in case it rains it's already waterproof this one is a gaffer's friend and my personal favorite
tape masking tape and duct tape are huge additions to your tool belt if your light
source doesn't come with barn doors then you can use tape to create your own and help shape and
direct that light source it's not just for the light source as well it's also for your camera
lens hoods help shield the light from the camera so you don't get any crazy flares or overexposure
lens hoods keep additional light out of the lens so by creating your own out of tape you're helping
the camera understand and expose correctly to your scene avoiding the ambient light that is dancing
around the room and just focusing strictly on your subject and while traveling to the location you
realize that you've forgotten your lens hoods guess what you've now got a solution you're
welcome not only that but you can use the tape for being tape you can use it for the bin bags
that we mentioned earlier sticking those foam board cards together on set tape is everyone's
best friend maybe that one's not a particular light tip but it's definitely something that
you can find around the house that will help your cinematography in the future our last tip for you
should only be used on lights that are unable to overheat such as leds or softbox lights gels can
be quite expensive and in some cases depending on the light you're using they can melt and
stick to the light however using a material like a t-shirt can actually help change the tone of your
lights throwing a simple t-shirt over a light can change the color completely and depending on your
wardrobe will provide you a complete rainbow of colors with a t-shirt being quite thick it will
diffuse the light ever so slightly but overall you'll have a wonderfully toned light that you
can't often get with most gels we use this quite a lot when we're doing green screen stuff we have
a green morph suit that we throw over the top of an led and that just helps pop the green screen
ever so slightly so the light that's going on the green screen is also green and helping us key out
our footage later when we're in hitfilm it also helps us avoid hot spots during exposure you know
intense white light i've had a great time making this video and this was requested by you guys
so if there is something that you want to see in the future then do leave us a comment down
below and let me ask you do you have any diy tips of your own for filmmaking let us know was there
something that we missed if you're going to try out one of these tips then please do like this
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