Lighting Under Challenging Circumstances

Shooting your own video can really be very exciting especially if you are on the verge of making your own feature film. It is not only fun to see the videos that you took but it is also satisfying to view scenes and see it the way you want it portrayed. Yet, like any budding video cameraman, there are challenges that you will be encountering while trying to shoot some scenes. One of these hurdles is how to take good and discernible shots when the amount of light present does not permit you to do so. Here are a few tips on how to handle light challenges that will definitely come your way as you trod along this video-making path.

• When you do nit have the luxury of natural light going for you, extra lighting sources are really necessary in order to give life and the right mood to the scenes you are trying to capture. Some video cameras are not really designed to shoot under poor light conditions and if you push it, you may end up with bad reels filled with grain, noise, and under-saturated images, not too mention low contrast creating scenes that look like they were taken when video was first invented. Low light has only has one solution – extra lighting.
• Camera-mounted lights or a hand held one would do the trick if your scene requires a small amount of light only. A mounted light will work better though since it is automatically pointed to where the camera is focused on, yet if you want to produce refractions, a hand held one would really do the trick. A portable kit should always be on hand just in case the camera mounted bulbs lack the light effect that you need especially if you want to generate shadows.
• Always keep in mind that the bigger the aperture, the better it is for you. You really have to master the art of configuring your F-stops and your zooms to make the most out of the lighting that you have. If you are have minimal light conditions, minimize the use of your zoom or do not use it at all.
• Shutter speed plays an important role in lighting management. If you are pretty low in lighting, you might want to put your shutter speed at a/30^th of a second since that lowers the speed considerably and maximizes your exposure time maximizing the use of your light. However, learn how to adjust in terms of positioning if you are trying to shoot objects or people in high motion because at slow speed setting, the forms will show as blurred.
• Lower down your frame rate because a decrease in the number of images captured over time means more light for you. If your camera is set at 30 frames per second, try lowering it down to 24 FPS and see the kind of exposures that you have achieved. You will be surprised it is way brighter than when your camera is pegged at 30.

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