- Hey, it's Justin Brown here from Primal Video.
So, we all know that lighting is a key element
in creating professional looking videos.
But, there's a ton of options out there,
so where do you start?
Well, for all the professional work that I do
and the corporate work that I do, I normally take or use
a LED lighting kit, or LED lighting panels,
because they're easy to travel with, they're light,
they're easy to set up, but they're pretty expensive.
But, for my home office studio set up,
I use a soft box lighting kit, cause they're
great to leave set up, they're cheap,
and you can get some really good results with them.
I do know of some people, though, that have blown up
their soft box lighting kits, and have also got some
pretty bad flickering through in their videos.
In this video, we're gonna cover three things
that you need to know about soft box lights.
What to look out for, and how to get the best results.
And these all come down to three things,
which are power, the globes, and positioning.
(synthesizer music)
So, we'll jump straight into it, and the first one is power.
You need to make sure that your soft box lights
are rated for the power that you've got
in your geographic area.
So, if you're in the United States, that's 110 volts,
if you're in Australia, that's 240 volts.
Now, I do know of someone who bought a soft box lighting kit
from Amazon in the States, had it shipped over to Australia,
and plugged it in here.
Now, the lighting kit they bought was rated
for only 110 volts, our power being 240,
blew it up pretty quick.
So, that's a big, big waste of money,
and probably not a great thing to have happen anyway.
So, you need to make sure that when you're buying
your soft box lighting kit, that you're getting
the right ones for your power or for your area.
Now, the ones that I use are a Studio Pro brand,
which is just a cheapie from Amazon.
But, these ones are rated for both 110 volt and 240 volt.
So, again, just check before you buy,
because most of them will be one or the other.
Number two, it's really important that you look at
the globes that you're going to use in your
soft box lighting kits, for a couple of reasons.
The first is that they are power rated as well.
So, if you have imported a light that is capable
of 110 volts and 240 volts, or whatever it might be
in your regional area, make sure that your globes
are rated to run at that power as well.
I'm sure it's not going to be pretty if you, say,
plug in a 110 volt light globe into a 240 volt power.
But, no matter what your voltages are,
just make sure that they match your area as well.
The other reason it's really important
to get the correct globes to match them for your region
and for the power in your region is so that they're
flickering at the right hertz or the right time.
So, in Australia, all of our lights and all our power
runs at 50 hz, so they flicker at 50 hz.
In the U.S., that's 60 hz, so you need to make sure
that your globes are matched to that.
So, if you then set your camera's shutter speed
to match that, either 1/50 or 50th/2nd
if you're in Australia, or 50 maybe all it says
in your camera, or 60, or 1/60th of a second
if you're in the U.S.
Now, that way you will totally remove the chances
of there being any flickering or strobing in your videos.
You can also use a multiple of that,
so in Austalia, being 50, you could also
set your shutter speed to 100.
Likewise, in the U.S., instead of 60, you would go 120.
As long as it's a multiple of those,
then your camera's shutter speed will be matched
to the lights that are flickering in your scene.
So, when you're purchasing your globes,
you'll normally get two main options.
One is a warmer globe, which is a yellow or orange-y light
that comes out, and the other is a cool blue
or a white light.
So, wherever possible, I would say to go the cooler light,
unless you're trying to match any lights that are
already in the room or the office that you're going
to be filming in.
If you've already got lights in there that you're
going to have on when you're filming,
then you need to match the color of the lights
that are already in there.
And on to number three, which is positioning
of your soft box lights.
It's really important to get the position, the height,
the set up of your lights correct to get the best results.
So, in most cases, the best height to have
your soft box light set up to is to head height,
so that your head is in the middle of the
soft box light area.
Whether you're going to be standing or sitting
in your videos, these lights typically come
with height adjustable light stands.
So, it's really easy to either raise them up
if you're standing, or to lower them down
if you're going to be sitting down for your videos.
So, no matter what your scene is, the most important
thing to do is to light your subject first,
and then if you've got additional lights,
then you can use those to light up your background as well.
So, if you've only got one light, the ideal place to put it
would be somewhere near the camera so it's lighting
up your person from either front on,
or if you're in situation like I am here,
where I've got light coming in through a window,
then you can use it to fill in the shadows
on the opposite side from the window.
Now, if you've got two soft box lights,
then the normal set up for that would be
both of them probably in line with the camera,
but shining in to yourself, the subject,
on a 45 degree angle.
Now, if you've got a third light, then you can either
use it to light up your background, or you can use it
to shine some light on either the top of your head,
or on your shoulders to really make yourself
or your subject pop out from the background.
So, there's the three things that you need to know
about soft box lights to get great results.
The power, the globes, and the positioning.
If you found this video helpful, we'd really appreciate
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button yet, make sure you do.
We'll see you next time.