Lighting 4 Music Video at DVinfo.net

Mehrad Raissi · June 27th, 2007, 02:24 PM

hi ,
1. would someone please explain me what is the best lighting setup for music video ?
2. any idea about regular florsent lighting ?
3.what about lighting a guy on Green scrren for music video ?

4. any body tried regular ring flurcent lights as on-camera ring light?
thanks

Justin Deming · June 27th, 2007, 07:36 PM

You are going to have to be allot more specific than that for starters.

What kind of music video are you trying to make? You can make videos showing the band, or something not showing the musicians at all, but depicting the meaning of the song in some artistic way.

Flourescent lighting can be used for some types of video, depending on what kind of shots you are trying to get, but again it depends on what you are trying to do.

Lighting a guy for green screen is plausable if you want to make it look like he's somewhere you can't shoot the video, but then you need footage of the place you want to place him, match the lighting, and properly light the screen. The process is called Chroma Keying, and it's not a simple task.

And for your last quesion, the flourescent ring lights have been used for camera lights before, but it's not the easiest thing to do. A good search of these forums should turn up the quest of others who have gone down this road before.

I don't want to discourage you, I just want to pont out that there are allot of directions you could go, and no one can answer your questions until you give us a bit more info about what you want to accomplish.

Mehrad Raissi · June 27th, 2007, 08:13 PM

thanks justin ,
u r right , sorry but i didn't find specific answers ,
yeah lighting the singers , on chroma key . not chromakey screen .
i tried it with a normal lighting not too overexpose but the edge and details r not as good as it shoud be .
for example i like the way they light in carrie underwood's before he cheats Music Video:
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fu...oid=2018391612

or

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T56vLzS5i5w

u see , there is no shadows on her skin , i'm sure that it's a soft bright white (something like flurcents) , and stgae lighting is perfect as outdoor lighting .

i want that skin tone .

and for chromakey parts
i like lighting of " atomic kitten 's if u come to me " music video :
www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWBLYjTsUTA&NR

thanks ,

Marcus Marchesseault · June 28th, 2007, 05:47 AM

For most of the Carrie Underwood video, it looks like she is lit by a single source slightly above and to the right of the camera. There is a small shadow under her nose that falls a bit left on the image. The reflection of the light is also visible and it is just above and to the right of her pupils (dark center of the eye). The lighting you are describing is sometimes called "flat" lighting because it doesn't create a lot of shadows that give more dimension to the face. It is sometimes considered more appealing for women to give them a softer look. This look can be achieved even with smaller fixtures if they are fairly close to the camera. The farther a light is away from the angle of the camera, the more pronounced the shadows.

The other lights used in the Carrie Underwood video are very strong backlights. You can even see the use of two spotlights behind her that follow her movements. These are used to give a glow to her hair and to create beams of light projecting through the smoky/foggy set.

I also suspect that the creators of the videos may have slightly overexposed the video to cause fine details on the women's faces to begin to blur out to white.

Mehrad Raissi · June 28th, 2007, 12:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marcus Marchesseault

For most of the Carrie Underwood video, it looks like she is lit by a single source slightly above and to the right of the camera. There is a small shadow under her nose that falls a bit left on the image. The reflection of the light is also visible and it is just above and to the right of her pupils (dark center of the eye). The lighting you are describing is sometimes called "flat" lighting because it doesn't create a lot of shadows that give more dimension to the face. It is sometimes considered more appealing for women to give them a softer look. This look can be achieved even with smaller fixtures if they are fairly close to the camera. The farther a light is away from the angle of the camera, the more pronounced the shadows.

The other lights used in the Carrie Underwood video are very strong backlights. You can even see the use of two spotlights behind her that follow her movements. These are used to give a glow to her hair and to create beams of light projecting through the smoky/foggy set.

I also suspect that the creators of the videos may have slightly overexposed the video to cause fine details on the women's faces to begin to blur out to white.

thanks ,pretty good explanation

i know that shooting overexpose is somehow possibe to fix sometimes , but isn't it risky ?

and what do u think about overxposing the subject too much and then using ND filter ?!

about that flat lights that u said , what kind of light can i use ?

thanks again

Marcus Marchesseault · June 29th, 2007, 12:45 AM

You probably shouldn't overexpose video as it doesn't handle highlights as well as film. You can probably simulate this effect with color correction, but I am not an expert in that area.

An ND filter will only darken the whole scene. It will not help.

You can use almost any light to achieve a "flat" look. The position of the lights are more important than the type of light. Make the key light stay close in line with the camera and you will have that quality of light. It is also possible to do this with multiple lights, but I believe they used only one. If you want the shadows to be small and crisp like in the Carrie Underwood video, you can use any type of flood light or fresnel light. If you want the shadows to be softer (more blurred), you can use a physically larger light source like a big fluorescent or a softbox. The larger source of light casts less defined shadows.

June 27th, 2007, 02:24 PM	#1
Mehrad Raissi New Boot Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Tehran Posts: 10	Lighting 4 Music Video hi , 1. would someone please explain me what is the best lighting setup for music video ? 2. any idea about regular florsent lighting ? 3.what about lighting a guy on Green scrren for music video ? 4. any body tried regular ring flurcent lights as on-camera ring light? thanks Last edited by Mehrad Raissi; June 27th, 2007 at 04:38 PM.

June 27th, 2007, 07:36 PM	#2
Justin Deming Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Minneapolis, MA Posts: 84	You are going to have to be allot more specific than that for starters. What kind of music video are you trying to make? You can make videos showing the band, or something not showing the musicians at all, but depicting the meaning of the song in some artistic way. Flourescent lighting can be used for some types of video, depending on what kind of shots you are trying to get, but again it depends on what you are trying to do. Lighting a guy for green screen is plausable if you want to make it look like he's somewhere you can't shoot the video, but then you need footage of the place you want to place him, match the lighting, and properly light the screen. The process is called Chroma Keying, and it's not a simple task. And for your last quesion, the flourescent ring lights have been used for camera lights before, but it's not the easiest thing to do. A good search of these forums should turn up the quest of others who have gone down this road before. I don't want to discourage you, I just want to pont out that there are allot of directions you could go, and no one can answer your questions until you give us a bit more info about what you want to accomplish.

June 27th, 2007, 08:13 PM	#3
Mehrad Raissi New Boot Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Tehran Posts: 10	thanks justin , u r right , sorry but i didn't find specific answers , yeah lighting the singers , on chroma key . not chromakey screen . i tried it with a normal lighting not too overexpose but the edge and details r not as good as it shoud be . for example i like the way they light in carrie underwood's before he cheats Music Video: http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fu...oid=2018391612 or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T56vLzS5i5w u see , there is no shadows on her skin , i'm sure that it's a soft bright white (something like flurcents) , and stgae lighting is perfect as outdoor lighting . i want that skin tone . and for chromakey parts i like lighting of " atomic kitten 's if u come to me " music video : www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWBLYjTsUTA&NR thanks ,

June 28th, 2007, 05:47 AM	#4
Marcus Marchesseault Trustee Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Honolulu, HI Posts: 1,961	For most of the Carrie Underwood video, it looks like she is lit by a single source slightly above and to the right of the camera. There is a small shadow under her nose that falls a bit left on the image. The reflection of the light is also visible and it is just above and to the right of her pupils (dark center of the eye). The lighting you are describing is sometimes called "flat" lighting because it doesn't create a lot of shadows that give more dimension to the face. It is sometimes considered more appealing for women to give them a softer look. This look can be achieved even with smaller fixtures if they are fairly close to the camera. The farther a light is away from the angle of the camera, the more pronounced the shadows. The other lights used in the Carrie Underwood video are very strong backlights. You can even see the use of two spotlights behind her that follow her movements. These are used to give a glow to her hair and to create beams of light projecting through the smoky/foggy set. I also suspect that the creators of the videos may have slightly overexposed the video to cause fine details on the women's faces to begin to blur out to white.

June 29th, 2007, 12:45 AM	#6
Marcus Marchesseault Trustee Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Honolulu, HI Posts: 1,961	You probably shouldn't overexpose video as it doesn't handle highlights as well as film. You can probably simulate this effect with color correction, but I am not an expert in that area. An ND filter will only darken the whole scene. It will not help. You can use almost any light to achieve a "flat" look. The position of the lights are more important than the type of light. Make the key light stay close in line with the camera and you will have that quality of light. It is also possible to do this with multiple lights, but I believe they used only one. If you want the shadows to be small and crisp like in the Carrie Underwood video, you can use any type of flood light or fresnel light. If you want the shadows to be softer (more blurred), you can use a physically larger light source like a big fluorescent or a softbox. The larger source of light casts less defined shadows.