stupid simple lighting that works (with 1 light)

0:00 This overhead soft light will illuminate 360°

0:03 of our dining room for several different looks.

0:06 Hallmark, indie, and dramatic Hollywood.

0:09 And this overhead look is something that Hollywood

0:11 and indie productions have done for a long time

0:14 because it looks natural and you can get

0:16 a variety of different shots without having to rejig everything.

0:18 This first setup is a very dramatic, moody one.

0:21 We're using this massive octagon.

0:24 Are you ready to sit at a table dramatically?

0:28 I do that every day.

0:30 [Music] FYI, if you're looking at this mic, you're like,

0:44 "What's wrong with the What's wrong with your tip?" It's cuz a dog ate this.

0:49 All right, next setup.

0:50 I don't know what it is about when it's you.

0:52 How are we going to make movies together if you can't deal with acting with me?

0:56 Are you going to be an actor in them?

0:58 I'm a director by trade and a jack of everything else.

1:03 I'd say a zack of all trades.

1:05 Is that like a zack?

1:07 But I'm always trying to figure out how do I

1:09 get the best bang for my buck on a small footprint.

1:11 Most of the time when I'm not shooting bigger shoots,

1:14 I'm on my own with one or two crew members trying to make movies.

1:19 And in a climate like this where making movies

1:22 is getting more and more difficult to have big shoots,

1:25 doing the small footprint stuff is pretty helpful.

1:28 So, in this video, we're going to be using a variety

1:30 of different modifiers with one light because no matter what film you're making,

1:34 you're always going to have to do lighting.

1:36 So, we're trying out Amaran Octadome 120, $19.

1:40 Amaran light box 30x120, which is around 72 bucks.

1:44 The light dome 90, which is 99 bucks.

1:47 and the lantern light, which is $99 USD.

1:50 And if you stick to the end of the video,

1:52 not only are you going to watch all of these use cases in an actual scene,

1:55 but you're also going to hear what my thoughts are with each one,

2:00 so it can help you maybe better determine what modifier

2:03 works for the types of shoots that you want to do.

2:06 If you uh look over here, I've got this big light dome.

2:08 I've seen them mostly for interviews and YouTube videos

2:11 because they cover up a nice soft surface space.

2:14 I have it at 1% brightness right now and it is just juicy enough

2:18 to fill this entire space in combat with the backlight coming from over here.

2:22 Takes up a big footprint.

2:24 So I would say while it is one of the nicest for talk to camera,

2:29 I'd say is one of the most cumbersome for small spaces,

2:32 which now let's lead into our very first setup,

2:34 which is using the octagon light.

2:36 This is like the darkest kind of setup.

2:38 And what we've done is we've closed the blinds.

2:42 We've made the light overhead.

2:44 And what overhead light does is it creates a lot of shadow.

2:48 But seeing how the light migrates.

2:50 Check out how what it does to Jackie's face.

2:53 And not one way is better than another.

2:55 But see if once it's kind of more front-facing,

2:57 it probably looks a little bit nicer, but then as we rotate it to be kind

3:02 of behind her, watch how dramatic it ends up looking.

3:05 she ends up being less of the focus and the background kind of becomes

3:08 more lit and now it's kind of acting more as like a hair or rim

3:12 light which uh this just looks super dark and moody but it also looks

3:16 like we have like fluorescent lights on the inside which is not my vibe.

3:20 I'm using the uh Amran app here.

3:27 David Fincher likes shooting with the yellow lights.

3:29 Yellow and weird.

3:31 Now, if I want it to be more dramatic and fill the background less,

3:34 which I think Yes, please.

3:35 That sounds good.

3:36 Going to lower this down just before it pops into the shot.

3:40 This has no business looking this good.

3:42 This is another one of those like this looks too

3:44 good for for what we're doing here right [Music] now.

3:53 He said this would be a utopia.

4:00 Look at [Music] it.

4:04 It's just a cage.

4:09 Gilded cage and we're just pawns in their disgusting game.

4:20 You I need like one second of me nodding.

4:23 It's going to be you the whole time.

4:24 Can you tell me how you came up with the sci-fi script?

4:27 Yeah, I asked Google.

4:29 The first thing you're going to notice is that we're using a lot of big lights.

4:32 These are the 120s and 90s of the Amran softbox sets.

4:36 The reason why I want to use bigger setup

4:38 is because I want to shoot spaces, not faces.

4:41 Something that drives me crazy with all

4:43 of the stuff I've learned on the internet

4:44 is it teaches you how to shoot one shot but not an entire scene.

4:49 And once you get into narrative film making or even shooting B-roll,

4:52 you're not getting one individual shot.

4:54 You're getting the wide, medium, close-up, a couple overs.

4:57 And I wanted to use these lights in those use cases.

5:00 So you know, not just single shot,

5:03 but how to get the over and the additional shots that tell a story.

5:08 Okay.

5:08 And to talk about lighting angles,

5:10 I have this sort of example piece with Jackie here.

5:13 So starting off with like a bit of a headon look.

5:15 This is kind of like your typical YouTube vibe.

5:17 Now, as you start to bring it behind them,

5:19 you're starting to get a little bit more

5:20 shadow behind their eyes or under their eyes.

5:22 So it creates that dramatic almost horror vibe.

5:25 If someone's more suspicious or you can't trust them,

5:28 this could be the best setup.

5:29 Now, when it goes over to the side, this looks more like daylight.

5:32 So, if you're going for that daylight

5:34 spilling through a window, coming from a side,

5:36 putting it lower, just keeping on the seaand is probably your best look.

5:39 Now, if we angle the light a little bit more headon,

5:41 but higher up and putting at an angle,

5:43 you're getting that rimbrandt effect where you

5:45 get that butterfly light under someone's nose.

5:48 That's like the classic traditional look.

5:49 And just for fun, bringing it directly behind

5:51 Jackie is sort of like the optimal dramatic.

5:54 I thought that looked the coolest um as far as like getting a horror vibe.

5:58 Angle is everything.

6:00 Also, if the light just looks too intense when you're shooting it at your actor,

6:04 turning up the brightness and then just bouncing it

6:06 off something could give you the vibe you're looking for.

6:10 Like that's like an evening nighttime look.

6:12 If we even turn up the brightness even more,

6:14 it's going to fill the space up better, create much more of a bounce.

6:19 That looks like a nice bright window.

6:22 [Music] So, our second setup was this bright hallmark comedy style lighting,

6:30 which I think is the worst cinematography ever because it has no dimension.

6:37 But I would also say it is one of the hardest to get

6:40 because your production design really has to do a lot of work.

6:43 When you do the dramatic horror look,

6:45 it's really easy because you don't have to show anything.

6:48 If the house looks bad, if the wardrobe doesn't work, you just put it in shadow.

6:52 And I almost think like that underlit look is kind

6:55 of a lazy way to make any space look better.

6:58 But when the light is bright, you really have to focus on every detail.

7:02 This looks like porn lighting.

7:04 So, I'm cheating.

7:05 I wasn't just using one light.

7:06 I'm going to use the little Amand 25C, but same brand.

7:09 So, leave me alone.

7:10 Yeah, leave them alone.

7:11 Leave me alone.

7:12 This looks Hallmark, baby.

7:17 What I did was I took the rectangular 120 and I put it onto the light.

7:22 These new modifiers are super easy to use, especially this one.

7:24 I just clicked in and then uh I pointed it directly at Jackie.

7:29 And because it was more of a sliver of a light,

7:31 it wasn't spilling onto the wall, which was nice because I was already

7:34 getting that natural light through the window.

7:36 And then I angled it so I got a little

7:38 bit more shadow side because direct head-on just doesn't look good.

7:42 And I liked getting that little extra shadow on the side.

7:44 Now, this setup was still on this sort

7:47 of boom style arm that was on the seastand.

7:50 So that way I could just pan it left or right and that would

7:54 go either on one side of Jackie's face or on the other.

7:56 So it was an easy way to apply

7:58 shadow or remove shadow depending on what I wanted.

8:01 The final thing that I did was I put a bounce on the table.

8:04 So just sort of a reflector and it created a little bit

8:06 of highlight on Jackie's beautiful blue eyes

8:09 and made the shot look really clean.

8:11 We did do a twoot, but I just thought it

8:13 looked kind of silly because it was really quickly done.

8:15 I would probably go for a little bit

8:16 wider and spend some time with the production design.

8:19 But this is sort of a nice single twoshot.

8:22 And this works really well for something like comedy or Hallmark

8:25 or just something lighter-hearted if you don't want more drama in it.

8:30 So, fun fact, I just emailed the entire company

8:34 my grocery list and I bought 600 pens instead of six.

8:37 So, I'm thriving.

8:41 The best thing about this light is that you

8:43 can just press it down and it's ready to go.

8:47 Our final setup was with the lantern.

8:49 And this is one of my favorite modifiers because it

8:52 lights an entire space up while also highlighting your main character.

8:56 And if you keep it close to your main character,

8:58 you can lower your exposure but also get just

9:01 sort of a nice soft ambience to the surrounding space.

9:04 This is really good if you have multiple characters

9:06 within a scene or you want to create sort

9:08 of a nice romantic light similar to what

9:10 the movie Skyfall does when he enters this casino thing.

9:15 I haven't watched the movie in a while, but I can remember the scene.

9:18 And to display what the lantern does,

9:20 I decided to pan it left and right to sort of show you what it

9:23 looks like when it's directly over top

9:24 of Jackie versus when it's off to the side.

9:27 So, this is what it looks like off to the side, almost not lighting her at all.

9:31 We're getting a little bit coming from the one side.

9:32 It looks unnatural, but watch as I pan it

9:35 over to kind of look more like the motivated sunlight.

9:38 In this example, you can understand how getting fake motivated light works.

9:42 So, having it just a little bit over top of Jackie looks like it's

9:45 coming from the window behind her, which is exactly the look I was going for.

9:48 And getting a little bit of that ambient

9:50 light from the lantern to hit up against

9:52 the walls actually went in our favor to give

9:54 us a little bit more wraparound on Jackie's face.

9:57 I used the little Ace25 on the table to get a little

10:00 highlight and it looked really cool because it I don't know,

10:03 for some reason it makes like everyone look like

10:05 they're crying or something and I think it just dramatic.

10:10 It's the only thing I can think of.

10:12 Okay, cam's rolling.

10:14 Also, I forgot to mention, but to get the sound for these scenes,

10:18 I put my microphone on the Joby tripod

10:21 and just had it directly pointing at Jackie.

10:23 This is not how you record audio whatsoever.

10:26 I'd actually highly not recommend it because

10:28 the cable kept getting in the [Music] way.

10:34 Oh, you really thought you picked me, didn't you?

10:39 Like a fish thinking he caught the fisherman.

10:42 That's cute.

10:45 I could ruin you.

10:48 And the worst part, you'd probably thank me for [Music] it.

11:02 After using these four different lights,

11:04 like the dome, lantern, the rectangular light,

11:07 and the octagon, I would say my favorite was the octagon.

11:11 It covered up a big surface space,

11:13 but without taking a lot of headroom, like let's say the light dome.

11:16 Um, and then my number two would probably be the lantern.

11:20 I'm such a sucker for that light.

11:22 I have three of them on my arsenal because I just use them

11:25 all the time and I think I'll be using that so much more.

11:28 Lighting is all situational.

11:30 So, what I used for this might be different

11:32 for what you would want to use for your project.

11:34 If it's a YouTube video, talk to camera interviews, that stuff.

11:37 You cannot go wrong with a light dome.

11:39 But, if you're wanting to get like a nice full space of light,

11:42 I was getting a lot out of the octagon.

11:44 But let me know what you think uh in the comments below.

11:47 I know some of you are cinematographers out there.

11:50 Um I'm just a director doing this stuff for fun.

11:52 If you had any thoughts, suggestions,

11:54 or what you would use, write that in the comments.

11:56 But also go take a look at Amaran's amazing selection of new products.

12:00 And if you're interested in an other cool Amaran product,

12:03 I have a video on the Pano lights, which boy oh boy do I love these a lot.

12:10 Look out, Jackie, cuz these might be taking your place.

12:13 Hey.

12:14 Hey.

12:15 Hey.

12:17 [Music]