Some attorneys think that if they shoot a video in their office, the lighting will look good. Others think that because they have a nice corner office with big windows and a great view that shooting their video in front of the big picture window will show how important they are with a corner office and nice view. Still other attorneys feel that creating dark shadows improves their credibility when discussing their area of law by creating a mood.
Let’s get right into it. They’re all wrong.
Before I explain why, let me tell you about the lighting equipment I use. I bought my lights at http://www.skaeser.com: reasonbly priced and good quality. Total price with tax and shipping was about $750. Does that mean you need to spend this much to light up your videos? Absolutely not.
I know people who use regular fluroescent lamps and ordinary floor lamps. Here’s the key when lighting: Regardless of what type of lighting you use, make sure you have plenty of it!
Nobody will watch your videos if it’s dark. Your goal is not to create mood lighting. You want to capture a viewer’s attention. A dark video will lose instant credibility and the viewer will click elsewhere, never to return. I guarantee it.
I use a softbox, which is a fluroescent bank of lights sheathed in an opaque material that allows light to softly shine through. You do not want a spotlight in your face. The lights are positioned at 45 degrees to each side of you to eliminate shadows on both sides of your face. When I have the time, I also use a hair light, which is a small fluroescent light attached to a boom pole that points directly over my head, pointing at, you guessed it, my hair.
Why use a hair light? It illuminates the top of my head and gives added contrast to the background. I also like to use a small light to illuminate my background. Otherwise it looks too dark.
THREE LIGHTING TIPS
- Halogen lights are super hot as are $20 work lights from Home Depot. Fluroescent is cool to the touch and much less money. They do not give off a ‘hum’ as fluroescent bulbs did 20 or 30 years ago.
- Try not to mix both fluroescent lights and incandescent lights. They have different temperature and visible light spectrums that tend not to mix well.
- SET YOUR WHITE BALANCE ON YOUR CAMERA EVERY TIME!
What is white balance and why do you need to know about it? The white-balance setting allows you to tell your camera what is really white. Why is that important? If you don’t set your white balance before starting your video shoot, you run the real risk that your camera will make all of your colors dark and off-color.
What about automatic white balance? In some cameras that will be adequate. However, to make sure you are getting true colors you need to set this every single time. Do not leave this step out. Otherwise you’ll shoot an entire afternoon of video only to upload it to your computer and can’t understand why it’s so dark.
How to set your white balance? Simple. Next time you’re at Target or Staples, buy a white posterboard. It costs approximately $1.29. Take that posterboard and put it on the chair you intend to sit in and zoom in on it so only the posterboard is showing. Then push the “white balance” button on your camera, and if you have a setting to lock it, then do so. That’s it. It takes all of 10 seconds to do. However, if you omit this step, it will cause you hours of wasted time and effort.
What about those flip cameras that don’t have a white balance setting or an external microphone jack? That can be a problem. Unless you have amazing lighting and you’ll be very close to the camera, my suggestion is that the flip cameras are not yet up to the task of creating professional looking video. For personal use and quick and dirty videos, they’re just fine. But not when you want to create a professional looking product that will make a website viewer want to pick up the phone and call you.
LIGHTING TIP NO. 4
Don’t shoot your video in front of your beautiful office window. Why not? Your camera doesn’t know what to focus on. It doesn’t know what’s light or dark. When you have a bright source of light from outside, it makes everything inside look extremely dark. The better practice is to close your window shades and put up a drape or curtain to give you an even, textured background.
If you think those lights in your office desk are sufficient and you don’t need additional lights, watch what happens when you do a video sitting in your office. It will look dark. Creating a dark video guarantees that nobody will watch it.
Caveat: In some advanced video editing software, you can digitallly enhance the lighting to make a darkish room look brighter. However, don’t rely on any post-production digital magic to improve your dark video. You are better off with good lighting that you can tweak and improve during editing.
Join me in my next article when I discuss the importance of having good sound equipment for your video. You don’t want someone turning their volume all the way up and thinking “I still can’t hear you!” Until next time, see you on video!
Gerry Oginski, Esq., is a New York medical malpractice, wrongful death and personal injury trial lawyer, in practice since 1988. In the last year, Gerry has created, produced and uploaded more than 130 educational videos about medical malpractice and personal injury law to his Web site and video-sharing sites. He is also the featured author of YouLaw, a Technolawyer blog, where he reviews and rates the latest law firm videos so that you can learn what works and, importantly, what doesn’t. Gerry has used his video experience to create a new service for lawyers called The Lawyers Video Studio to help get lawyers on video. To take advantage of how video can help you, contact him via e-mail at [email protected] or telephone at 516-487-8207.
