[Music]
Hey folks! Jordy here for cinecom.net
and welcome to tippy tricky Tuesday.
And in this episode we'll share five creative lighting setups
that you would see in music videos, commercials or feature films.
Today's episode is sponsored by Videoblocks.
A huge library of stock footage, templates and more.
One the video assets that they have are light leaks, strobes and creative looks.
You can blend these clips with your footage for a more dynamic look.
With a year subscription you can download as much as you want from their library
and all the items will be forever yours
and can be used in personal or commercial projects.
Start your 7-day trail right now from the first link in the description below.
The first lighting setup comes from a request we got from Hamza,
he has seen this videoclip where they created silhouettes.
This technique is also used in many stage performances
and can create some really interesting results.
You're going to need a tight white fabric for this.
We're using our diffusion frame
and set it up in front of the camera.
Behind that frame we put any light
and in between goes your talent.
It's as simple as that to create these silhouettes.
Important is that you have a hard light source though.
If the light is too soft, it's not so easy to get sharp edges around the shadow,
unless you stand really close to the frame.
[Music]
The next creative lighting setup is inspired by Taylor Swift's videoclip
"Look what you made me do".
From a cinematographer's standpoint, it's definitely a music video that you should see.
The lighting and detail to the different sceneries are really great.
So, in the beginning we see zombie Taylor.
We'll not be creating the entire background,
but just focus on the lighting on Taylor Swift.
You wanna create deep shadows under the eyes.
So, we'll place the light high up,
close to the camera so that it shines on the front.
The light has to be hard,
so don't soften it.
This is very typical for such horror scenes.
Also pay attention to the color of the light.
If you're using tungsten like we do,
you could also change your camera white balance to make it appear colder.
In the video clip's example we see that the light is aimed onto Taylor's face and chest.
This is done by cutting the light using the barn doors.
Try to make a cone
and if you have a grid, like we do in our soft-boxes,
it's a great addition too.
If you don't have barn doors on your lights, you can also use cine foil to wrap it around it.
This cine foil or black wrap was also featured in our video
about five film tools that you should need under 50 bucks.
And you can check that video out by clicking in the card up there.
The thunder is going to be a little bit more tricky.
You'll need a way to turn a light on and off very quick.
You might think about the flash of the camera, but that is a little bit too quick,
as that will only leave a stripe in your shot.
We're using an LED from Aputure, which we can quickly turn on and off.
It has a great response.
We'll put that LED panel behind the talent on either the left or the right side.
And on the oposite side, in front of the talent,
we'll then place a reflector, preferable with a silver side.
If you don't have this, you could also wrap a foam board with aluminium foil.
This will reflect the flash light and will also illuminate the front side of the subject.
[Thunder sounds]
For the next lighting setup we'll use that soft-box with the grid inside.
Now, the idea is to make your talent come out from the dark.
So it's important that you have a black background.
I'm going to use a fabric for that and trowing it over our movable walls.
Your talent should take some distance from that background,
so that we won't spill any of the light on that fabric.
It should stay black.
The grid inside our soft-box will make sure to guide the light more,
so that it won't spill too much.
You can see it as having many small barn doors.
Having soft light is rather a personal choice,
you could also go for a hard light if that suits the project better.
Simply put the light to one of the sides of the talent.
Make sure it's coming from a little angle, higher up.
But not too high or you would create that zombie look again.
Pay attention to the shadows and how they're falling.
If everything went good you should get this end result.
In post production you might need to crush the blacks a little more.
Creative light setup number 4! Also used in many videoclips or sports commercials.
Take two LED lights and give one of them a strong blue color
and the other one red.
I'm using simple gels from LEE, which are pretty cheap.
I'll leave a link to their website in the description below.
Next, place each light on the side of the talent.
Make sure that they have somehow the same output and are placed at the same distance.
You could experience with the height of the lights as well.
we're placing them at eye level to create horizontal shadows.
And this is basically it.
If your skin tones appear too unnatural,
you could add a tungsten soft-box in front
and set you white balance accordingly.
Make sure it only breaks that blue and red color a bit
and not take away the entire effect of course.
So, a little output is more than enough.
And then the final setup is what I call the hacker.
Hackers usually sit in a dark place.
And if you have some props of old computers and iron racks,
you can put that in the background.
For the lighting, we'll use a single LED panel in the back with a green filter in front of it.
It'll shine over the shoulder of the talent, who's sitting behind a laptop screen.
Next we'll lay a small LED panel on that laptop and let it shine to the subject.
You can also put your phone in here with its flash light on.
What we also do is wrap a blue filter around the small LED light.
It doesn't always appear that way, but laptops or mobile screens are always pretty blue.
[typing sounds]
If you do use a visible background,
do keep it dark and stroke another green light onto it from the side.
[Typing and computer sounds]
Have you seen an awesome lighting setup somewhere?
Let us know and we might make a part 2 of this.
So, make sure to subscribe.
Thank you guys so much for watching again.
And as always...
...stay creative!