From creating a nice selfie video to your back-to-back Zoom meetings, good lighting can elevate your presence a lot! A clear view of the person they’re talking to, or a quality look at an object could mean a lot to the person on the other screen. After all, as they said, your presence IS the present, so here are a few tips to make good lighting for Instagram live video or video calls.
- Get enough uniform lighting. This means, avoiding concentrated lighting on just one part of the room. The camera will adjust the brightness of the video based on the brightest part of the room, and if it’s not placed in the right direction it can make the rest of the video seem darker. So get equally bright lighting for your room for a better video!
- Eliminate any backlight. Make sure you or the object you’re trying to show is in front of the light instead of against the light. If you’re against the light, your camera will adjust the brightness to your background, making your face even darker, so avoid backlights!
- Use natural sunlight as much as you can! Natural sunlight provides good uniform lighting, just make sure it’s facing your direction and doesn’t give too much glare to your eyes.
- Direct the light from above your face. Lighting angles matter a lot, so choose a good direction or angles for your lighting that you think could give justice to what you’re trying to show. Avoid direct light from below your face because it will create an unflattering shadow unless you’re hosting a Halloween-themed meeting.
- If possible, use multiple sources of light to eliminate shadow as much as possible. Shadows could create depth in photos, but for videos, you’re gonna move around and it’ll make your camera adjust the brightness, so try using multiple lights from different angles to avoid unflattering shadows.