Light up my life!
Quickfire Challenge | Light up my Life!
For this quickfire challenge the goal is to tackle issues of light. Lighting is one of the most important aspects of any visual image captured either with still or video cameras. The type of lighting you shoot in will play a major role in determining many of the aesthetic properties of your video. Light shapes the mood, depth and emphasis of your content, so you should choose your lighting setup carefully.
While you may not always have the budget or availability of lighting equipment it is still crucial to understand the very basics of lighting setups. The most widely used setup is called the 3-point lighting system. This lighting technique uses 3 lights to light one subject, providing most powerful natural looking lighting.
Here is a short video on the use and setup of a 3-point lighting system:
Even if you do not have the “proper” or “ideal” lighting equipment, you can still use the technique of the 3-point lighting system with very crude sources. For example you can still construct a 3-point system with light bulbs and some creative thinking dealing with spacing issues.
Specific Challenge Information:
For this challenge your task is to go out and shoot a sequence of short videos (approx 10 seconds each) of a moving object under the following lighting conditions:
- +fluorescent light
- +window light
- +low light
- +sunlight (if available)
- +shade
- +cloudy (if available)
- +experimental light
When you have finished shooting your different lighting setups, choose the short video that you think is the best lit, and the worst lit video. For the best lit video, what about the light makes this appealing? For the worst, how might you try to alter the light source to achieve a better shot?
By understanding how different light interacts with the subjects you film, hopefully you will be better prepared to film scenes for your own iVideo’s.
Tags: 3 point lighting system, lighting, video
