Lighting For Television

Candace Lee Egan

One of the best ways to enhance the impact of your video images is through the creative use of lighting. This, for me, is the most important element in maximizing the image quality you are capable of producing with any camera or video format. Good lighting can make a VHS camcorder shine, while poor lighting can make the most expensive professional video camera look inferior. In more subtle ways, lighting can have a tremendous impact on how the viewer perceives your video. Through creative lighting you can establish a mood or the time of day, enhance the illusion of three dimensionality, reveal or obscure visual information, and create an artificial reality.

Good lighting is not just the province of the boys and girls in Hollywood. You don't need a big budget and lots of expensive lighting equipment to do creative lighting. There are lots of inexpensive tools and simple tricks that you can use to enhance your lighting. But first, let's talk about some of the basic principles of lighting for video.

 

MODULE 1

MODULE 2

Lighting With Shadows

Basic Elements of Lighting

Seeing Lighting

 

Direction

Quality

Lighting Ratio

Control

MODULE 3

Basic Lighting Design

3 Point Lighting

Measuring Lighting

Lighting Plots

MODULE 4

Controlling Light and Shadow

Diffusion , ND & Color Correction

Reflectors

Lighting Accessories