“People tend to obsess over cameras and lenses, but what they think is a good a camera or a good lens actually is just good lighting.” Says Director of Photography William Hellmuth. He is based in Orange County and has been behind the camera for more than 10 years. He got his start worki

One of the more common mistakes many beginning and intermediate videographers make is confusing our tools for our medium. Too many shooters focus on camera and lens, but that’s like a sculptor obsessing over what chisel to use and ignoring the giant block of marble in front of him. Our medium isn’t

Hollywood, with its seemingly endless resources, spends loads of money on lighting nighttime scenes. But how do we — without a grip truck full of HMIs — try to approach lighting a night scene? There are a few tricks of the trade that our budgets should allow. This article is not about shooting ‘Day

Proper lighting goes a long way towards selling your project to viewers. Dynamic lighting allows your visuals to tell a visually captivating story, elevating your production to an entirely new level. A great way to do this is through lighting gels. What Gels Do Lighting gels serve a number of purpos

Lighting can make or break your shot. When you find yourself facing a challenging location to light, stop and think. Quick thinking can be more valuable than whatever you have — or don’t have — in your video lighting kit. Let’s look at how a few cinematographers found inventive lighting

In most cases, multiple lights are used to create what is seen on screen or in a photograph. This can be an intensive and expensive process that takes time to setup correctly. Yet in many cases, such setups are not needed or are just not possible due to budget restrictions or lack of access to equip

Proper lighting is one of the primary elements separating poor-quality images from masterpieces. A scene without enough light or with harsh, distracting shadows or highlights is not effective in communicating your message. It’s important to learn early on the best practices for lighting for video. T

  There are many different types of lights that can be used on set. The standard three-point lighting setup involves a triangular positioning of your lights at different distances and diffusions to your subject in order to get the perfect lighting for your scene. One particular type of light th

“Lighting is to film what music is to Opera” –  Cecil B. DeMille. As the legendary director was implying, light is the foundation of our craft. Big budget feature films spend small fortunes lighting each scene, and with good reason. Light itself can set a story: From the harsh noon sun of

Lights, Camera, Action — “Wait, but we don’t have the lights! How can you have camera and action without lights?!” Well, if you don’t have the budget for expensive hollywood lights or an Oscar winning cinematographer, not to worry. We’re going to go over some ways

 As filmmakers, we’re storytellers. Through our lenses, we unfold the chronicles of the human experience. Whether we are taking the viewer on a fictional journey in a narrative feature or a real life experience through a documentary, it is our job to make the viewer feel something —hopefully ma

To understand contrast ratio or lighting ratio, you need to pay attention to the way your favorite TV shows and films are lit. In most cases, the elements of lighting disappear into the background. Unless you’re truly paying attention or have a trained eye, you might not notice the nuances of

One of the most important things to know about a Fresnel light is how to pronounce it. There are few quicker ways at being labeled a “newb” (newbie, novice or newcomer) in a photo/video store or on a film set than by mispronouncing the light as a FRAZ-nel. It’s pronounced “Fray-NEL,” wit

In this article I will share with you the KISS method — or Keep It Simple Stupid — as it pertains to various aspects of video lighting, and how you can still get professional results with minimal setup, and without any high-quality equipment. Top-notch equipment doesn’t necessarily guarantee a t

You don’t always have the luxury of filming in an area where there are windows. Sometimes you have to film on sets where there are no windows at all, but the project you are working on calls for some positive and upbeat window light. How do you create window light on a set without any windows? Jay P

Capturing Light Your camcorder captures light, records it and stores it in such a way that allows you to play it back so everyone can see what your camera saw. That’s all it does and, more importantly, that’s all it knows. You are responsible for controlling the light you are about to capture. Light

Having a great eye for lighting is a good talent to have, but being able to back up that great eye with solid data will not only increase the quality of your judgements, but also make communication on set better and easier. Knowing the quality of the light in your shot helps with exposure choices, b

A cyclorama is a stage background that was developed during 19th century for the purpose of providing a smooth white or colored surface, thus a creating the illusion of a larger background. Initially, fabrics such as muslin or canvas were used. These were stretched on the sides and weighted on the f

The very nature of lighting with a reflector is to “keep it simple.” With that in mind, we’re going to learn how to apply some basics of lighting to create some very nice effects with only the use of one, two or three simple reflectors. The Single Light Setup Starting with a one li

We see the world in color. It is the way we as humans perceive almost everything that goes on in our lives. Over time, our senses have developed to associate different colors with different emotions and actions. For the modern day videographer this means that color is an incredibly important tool to