Lighting for interviews is something that you have to learn. If you don’t, then it makes your videos look terrible.
So I’m taking the approach that you already know a little bit about lighting so I’m not going to go into the benefits of umbrellas over softboxes, bi colour over daylight, flourescents over leds. I simply show you what I use and why to get the look I want.
I like to shoot interviews very naturally and if I had my way I would have a host of 2K’s and 1K’s at my disposal to create these shots.
The reality of filming interviews is that you are normally shoved into a meeting room or a small space (and that is only the beginning of the horror).
My set up of 3 led panels and 1 reflector can all go in one bag and can happily sit in a small or a large space. Most people forget that for an interview you’re not lighting the whole room. You’re lighting what’s in the frame. It took me so long to understand this concept and now that I have I am never letting it go.
The shot I demo in the video was filmed on the Canon C100 on a Tamron 24-70 f2.8 at 50mm, f4, ISO 400 in Wide DR.
I shot it at f4 to give the AF a sporting chance (as I was filming this solo) although I normally shoot at f3.2 to give more separation between the subject and the background. If it’s a plain wall though, f4 is where I’m at.
Again in the video I show an example using natural light as your key light which again in like doing a lot. It’s mostly because office backgrounds don’t tend to be very interesting, but the ones that are are generally not well lit so a nice window light is always helpful.
Here is a BTS of the set up:
I’ll post more interview set up shots in the future as 2017 is looking to be very busy indeed.
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