what's up everybody Peter MacKinnon here
and today talking about this horrible
lighting situation and how to make it
look like this for less than 50 bucks
welcome back to another tutorial so glad
to have you guys here and I know what
you're thinking what I can get these
lighting results for less than $50
yes yes you can and it's honestly like
I'll be honest I will be 100% on it so
easy
lighting is something that scares a lot
of people and they either think to
themselves like I just don't care to
light something and just no interest and
that's fine there's also people who are
like I don't have the money or the
budget or kind of like the interest in
learning about which lights to buy and
then spending the money on those lights
I totally get that too then there's the
people who are like I would love to
light something well but I know Pete
that you always say natural light is the
best find that natural light but I live
in a basement apartment or my apartment
faces a brick wall in New York and I get
no sunlight in there or I'm shooting in
a building today that has no windows so
sometimes you got to rig up a lighting
system and this is kind of what I've
rigged up today which is a typical kind
of home office setups a little bit edgy
I got that fall off on the on my left
side of my face here to add that
dramatic kind of cinematic feel if I
wanted to spill that in a little bit I
could add a little bit of extra light
there but I kind of like that edgy
mysterious cinematic look a little bit
more I think it pops so even though this
is a really budget DIY lighting setup if
I'm being paid thousands and thousands
of dollars to do a commercial gig I'm
probably not going to use this set up
full disclosure I'm going to use
professional lights and modifiers and
stuff that I've already purchased for a
gig of that caliber but if I'm someone
that's starting in photography or find
new to photography or if I'm just trying
to figure out lighting and I want to
dabble and sort of play around with it a
little bit this is the perfect kind of
thing to mess around with and go out and
buy the items and try it out for
yourself you can see what the
different light makes because it's not
always about the camera that you're
using the light is the biggest aspect of
photography but beat that you're
shooting outside or inside or you're
using natural light or strobes or speed
lights on top of your camera or you've
got a setup like this where we've got a
ten thousand dollar professional studio
lighting setup light is so important
it's crucial and it's going to make or
break your photo you're going to need
some clamps you can buy these at a
hardware store for like $0.99 or at a
photography shop they're going to cost
you and I said photography shop now I've
never said that the camera shop at a
camera shops are going to cost you like
five bucks max per clip but they're
really really strong I use them all the
time I suggest getting them anyway
you're going to need like three pieces
of foam cord just go to Walmart and get
them they're usually like a dollar max
per piece so it should cost you less
than three dollars if they're on sale or
whatever you're going to need an LED
light now instead of going to buy a huge
LED panel or some Westcott flex LED
light which is awesome by the way but
instead of buying like that professional
photo gear that I was telling you about
that the camera shop would sell for
thousands or hundreds and hundreds and
hundreds go to Home Depot and you're
going to buy this husky LED light panel
it's a work light so if you're working
in the garage we're going outside you
plug it in it lights up the workspace
you're good to go we're going to use
that LED light to light this scene and
that's the only light right now that I'm
using I don't have this on the shopping
list but if you want to go to Ikea and
buy a desk lamp you can do that in an
extra piece of foam core so you can
bounce that light off that foam core to
fill in that negative space but like I
said I prefer more of the edgy look so
don't really think you need to buy a
desk lamps I'm going to leave that off
the list you're also going to need gels
now you can get these at a camera shop
you can order them on Amazon I'm gonna
drop some links below so you guys can
navigate to this stuff easily these are
colored pieces that was really thin
plastic if you will it's like a is it a
plastic is it it's not paper but I don't
know it looks like this kind of looks
like he oh it changes the color
what would you say that whatever gels
just look it up I'll drop the link below
another thing one of my favorite things
in the whole world
gasps tape and love gas caves
he's at masking tape would be good to
duct tapes way too sticky and we'll just
rip off your rip off your face when you
try to pull it off anything it's way too
strong forget some gasket get some
masking tape we're going to use that to
tape the gel over the light the last
thing you're going to need is a light
stand it can be a cheap one it doesn't
matter how expensive it is just need
something that can extend into the air
you can use an ironing board for this
depending on what you mean it again I'll
drop some links to some really cheap
light stands below I definitely
recommend investing in one of them or a
couple of them because they always come
in handy but we're using this light
stand
and those duct clamps to clamp those
pieces of foam core to for our kind of a
little scrim modifier little DIY project
here okay so we got light stands we got
LED panel we got gas tape we got clamps
we got gels that's pretty much it so the
first thing I'm going to do is turn off
the lights in here completely so it's
dark and then we're going to turn on our
LED light panel okay she's got some back
away from our monitor but we can't
depend on that so we need to turn on the
LED that's not going to work whatsoever
way too bright looks absolutely
disgusting so we need to bounce this off
the pieces of foam core that we bought
and we got to adjust our camera settings
a little bit we're going to bring down
that aperture bring down that ISO and
bring down that shutter because whoa
this is not working okay we've adjusted
our camera settings a little bit they're
good that's where I like them now we got
to fix this lighting setup because
that's why now that we move that and
face to light the other way it's not as
bright and hideous but we need that
light to bounce off that foam core and
light up our face so let's bring over
that foam core
look at that we're almost there
LED panel bouncing off the foam core
reflecting in my face we need a little
bit of a background light
there we go adds a little more life to
the scene if you don't have a background
light you can use candles you can use a
lamp put it on the floor so that it
reflects the light upwards lots of
different things you can do if you have
pot lights or you have candles or
different things that you can light do
that and put in the background it'll
just be soft but it makes that detail a
lot nicer okay hang our gel up here in
front of the light like that perfect
good to go
and we are pretty much done that's it
it's that fat doesn't take a long time
to set up we have an extra fill light on
the right side here which is my left I
just tap this lamp you'll see it fills
in a little bit on my left side like I
said earlier I don't really like that
but it is optional I'm going to show you
how it's done right now for this we just
have an IKEA lamp here which is accessed
by this push button now I've got that
bouncing off another piece of foam core
which reflects me to the side I've also
got another CTO gel just paste the top
of the lamp here to get rid of that
orange color cast don't really like that
so again to try and match the light take
that little gel up there and we are good
to go and on the backside of this I am
literally just leaning a monopod against
the desk to help keep that foam core
from falling over that's it sometimes
it's just going through gear that you
already own or going through your house
and just finding things that you don't
use or things that you do use and
finding new ways to use them so for that
works perfect now I use a gorilla pod to
fasten this husky light to a light stand
you don't have to do that there's a hole
in the bottom of the husky stand that
you can put a tripod plate on and mount
it to a tripod but you can adjust the
tilt the pan all that stuff which is
great but if you don't have that and you
don't have a gorilla pod it comes with
its own base plate that sits flat so you
can put it on a stack of books you can
put it on a stack of boxes you don't
have to use this exact set up
to mount it to bounce it off these
pieces of film course that's just the
way I have it because I have this
equipment eventually yeah gorillapod
it's a great idea because you can just
wrap it around the light stand and you
could pretty much wrap it around
anything so I could wrap it around
something on the ceiling down flight
it's really versatile for me so that's
why I use the gorilla pod but you don't
have to do that you can use the included
legs that come with it mount it's flat
just be creative with it an ironing
board always seems to work well because
you can just kind of extend it flatten
to like a little makeshift table and
balance things on that you'll notice
it's your room or your office or
wherever you're lighting this stuff up
ends up looking just ridiculous you'd
never know from looking at me on that
side of the camera but if I turned it
around you're like whoa what's this
weird when you got going on in here so
that's it guys thank you so much for
watching I had a blast making this
tutorial for you hopefully you get
something out of it if you still have
questions or comments you can definitely
drop in below I do my best to get back
to as many people as I can so chances
are I will see it and I'll try to get
back to you like this video share it and
just you don't have a good day have a
great day actually
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