Best Lighting setup for Live Streaming

To truly shine on camera, having the best lighting setup for live streaming is essential. Lighting dramatically change the look of your shot. When your lighting is done well, you can grab and keep your audience’s attention, but when done poorly, there are often unintended consequences. In this article, we’ll discuss how to achieve a professional live stream lighting setup.

How Lighting Impacts The Quality of Live Streams

Lighting is crucial for livestreaming, ensuring viewers visually identify the subject and understand the tone of the stream.

Enhancing Visibility and Clarity

Live streaming should put the spotlight on the on-camera talent, so the audience can easily identify where to focus their attention. Most often, filmmakers use three point lighting to bring attention to the face, which we’ll talk about in a moment. You’ll also want to light the background to create dimension.

Creating Mood and Atmosphere

Lighting plays a major role in setting the tone of the video. How you choose to light your subject can give off a moody edge or warm glow. Harsh light, for instance, involves a strong beam of light that creates contrast between the light and shadows which gives off a feeling of drama. Soft light, on the other hand, reduces shadows through diffused lighting and feels inviting and warm. So, your lighting choices really inform your audience, letting them know how you want them to feel.

You can also use light to design your space, through your use of available light, artificial light, and practical light, like adding a lamp in the frame. For example, streaming from a basement studio with no windows using light bars and a RGB color wash on the background may give your stream a high tech feel. Alternatively, filming from a home office powered by natural sunlight with potted plants in the background gives off a totally different vibe.So, whether you’re looking to have a relaxed conversation or jump into a dynamic gaming match or deliver a professional presentation, create the look of your livestream to match the mood. 

Lighting for Streamers: Common Challenges

Finding the best light setup for streaming in your unique space is not as easy as it looks. Some common challenges:

Limited Space and Mobility

In a TV studio, space is rarely the problem. But at home, you’re operating in a pre-determined space, working around windows, walls and doors, as well as furniture and available light. That means you’ll want to be strategic to find solutions using available light and determining where to add artificial light that works with your space.

Budget Constraints and Affordable Solutions

Another obvious challenge is budget. It takes time to build up your studio. In addition to your camera and your computer needs, you’ll find lighting solutions at various price points.Professional lights may be worth the investment in the long run, offering powerful lights with convenient dimming and color adjustment options and sometimes bluetooth capabilities and companion apps and beyond. 

For affordable solutions, use natural light from windows or repurpose household items like a gooseneck office lamp and hardware store lights and a large foam core board to bounce light to DIY. These cost-effective strategies are perfect for beginners looking to enhance their live streams without breaking the bank.

Key Lighting Concepts to Keep in Mind

Let’s dive into some essential lighting factors to keep in mind, including color, contrast and contour and more.

Understanding Color Temperature

Understanding the colors of light is helpful when designing a lighting set up for live streaming.

While cameras have an auto-setting for white balance, you may prefer to set your white balance manually to have control of the color and keep the color consistent. Videographers may hold up a white card to dial in their white balance in camera. Some filmmakers prefer a pre-programmed white balance setting to match the situation. Or you can dial in the color temperature manually by Kelvin. While the sun is considered to have a blue hue, around 5600 Kelvin, it changes, especially around sunrise and sunset when the glowy light casts a golden or blue hue on the world. The color temperature of a warm and homey indoor tungsten light bulb is around 3200 Kelvin. Fluorescent lights, often found in corporate offices, tend to give off a greenish hue.

If you’re using multiple light sources to set up your shot, keep an eye out for mixed lighting. A color temperature of 3800 Kelvin or 4200 Kelvin can serve as a middle ground, but you may prefer to match the light color. For example, if you’re using natural sunlight beaming through the window as your main light source, and then you add a household lamp, the lamp might look orange while the window looks blue on camera. If that’s not your intended look, you can replace the tungsten household lightbulb with a daylight colored lightbulb to better match the color temperature coming from the window. Or, maybe you close the window blinds and add another household lamp so all lights are tungsten. You may also consider repositioning your shot to avoid having a color clash.

While you can add an orange or blue or green or magenta gel over your light to manually adjust the color temperature of your lights as they do on film sets, a more practical choice is to buy a light that has a color temperature adjustment dial. That way you can easily change the color of the light to match the scene.

The Role of Diffusion in Lighting

Learning how to light your subject is an art. Professional lights vary greatly in the size and intensity and type, in addition to where you place the light, how far it is from your subject, and how you shape it.For your stream, are you looking for harsh light that creates drama and interest? Or do you prefer a soft light that is more gentle and dreamy? Most YouTubers and streamers use soft light because of the way it falls on the face. While harsh light creates contrast between light and shadow, diffused light spreads the light evenly across a wider surface to minimize shadows.

Think about the sun. The sun gives off different qualities of light depending on if it’s a blue sky day or a cloudy day. On a sunny day, direct sunlight can be harsh and creates big contrast between light and shadow. On a cloudy day, the light is not as strong, but there is an even light on the world which means less shadows and low-contrast between the sunny and shady spots. The clouds act like a big softbox for the sun, diffusing the light.Understanding how to diffuse light in your studio will help you achieve great lighting for live streaming. Diffused lighting comes in various shapes and forms. Rather than pointing a small light source to directly at your subject creating harsh light, having a relatively large light source to light your subject creates soft light.

While the pros may lean on silks, scrims and flags on set, diffusion could be putting a lamp shade over a household lamp, or adding a softbox over a studio light. Even small lights like Joby's LED Video Lights come with a silicon light diffuser to soften the light. If you’re using a window as your light source, perhaps you have a window shade to modify the light. Or maybe you can point a bright light at a white wall or ceiling or large piece of foam board to bounce the light. Diffusion helps you craft how the light will wrap around your subject, creating a warm and inviting look on faces.

Keep in mind, the intensity of the light changes drastically as you move the light closer or further from your subject. When purchasing a light, consider looking for a dimmer control so you can easily make adjustments to the brightness of the light.

Setting Up Three-Point Lighting

When it comes to interviews and lighting a subject, the three-point lighting technique has become a standard in the filmmaking industry. In essence, you’ll have a key light, fill light and backlight.

Positioning Your Key Light

Your key light is the main source of light that illuminates your subject. It’s generally the biggest and brightest light placed at a 45 degree angle to the side of your subject. Often when your interviewee is facing camera right or camera left, the key light is placed on the same side where they are looking, thus illuminating the backside of the face.

Using Fill Light to Reduce Shadows

A fill light is positioned opposite the key light to fill in and soften shadows to create a balanced look. This light source is not as bright as the key light, to shape the face.

Creating Depth with Backlighting

A smaller backlight is often used to separate the subject from the background. The backlight is often placed on the same side as the key light, but behind the subject and a little higher than their head to create a hair light. This adds depth and a level of professionalism to the shot.

Common lighting set ups

Leveraging Natural Light for Streaming

An easy and free way to get started is to utilize natural light. If you have a window, position your desk to face the window. The diffused sunlight offers a nice natural light on your face. Keep in mind, sunlight is not consistent, so based on the weather and time of day and time of year, the light will change. A sunny day, a cloudy day and especially a partly cloudy day produce different qualities of light. It’s helpful to be able to control the light with window shades or silk to cut the light as needed.

You may also want to add artificial light to get the desired look. While overhead light may be nice to light the room, it may also cast unwanted light on the top of your head. It’s helpful to have a dedicated light (or two) for your face. You may try putting a lamp on your desk to light your face. Or maybe you can invest in installing a dedicated LED light panel or two. You can also consider bouncing a strong light off of the wall or ceiling to add light to the room, which will offer a softer look rather than pointing a light directly at you.Eventually, perhaps you can ease into a professional three-point lighting set up and beyond. Understanding your space and the tools available will help you create a smart light setup for streaming.

Using Ring Lights

Ring lights have become a popular solution for live streaming because they are affordable, lightweight and easy to handle and give off an even light.

Some people mount their cameras in the center of the ring while others like to position it to the side. Ring lights provide a larger surface area of light, which can help reduce shadows. They also tend to leave a ring shaped halo reflection in the talent’s eyes.

As we discussed earlier, when shopping, consider the size and bonus if you have a dial to control the brightness and color temperature.

Lighting for Green Screen for Virtual Backgrounds

When filming with a green screen background, it’s important that your subject is well-lit and that your background is evenly lit, so that the computer can work its’ magic to make the background disappear in post. If your background is bright on one side and darker on the other side, it can be more difficult for the computer to identify a consistent shade. Consider lighting your background from both the left and right side to ensure even lighting. And of course, avoid wearing green!

Tips and Techniques for a Professional Live Streaming Finish

Positioning Lights for Different Content Types

Many genres and niches for livestreaming have a pre-determined look. Gaming livestreams may be more dramatic with dark studios and RGB color whereas educational tutorials may feel a bit more traditional with light backgrounds. Watch other streamers in your space to see what the vibe is and design your own look and feel that is unique to you!

Maintaining Consistent Lighting Across Sessions

For online streamers, it’s helpful to have a consistent look from broadcast to broadcast. How you show up visually helps you build your brand, and it’s also helpful to create a familiar space for your audience to join you each time. Design and test your stream and repeat what’s working.

Conclusion

Creating a professional lighting setup tailored to your livestreaming space is an important step for any storyteller. Take time to learn how to explore and master different lighting techniques to create a quality lighting set up that matches your space and personal style. Happy streaming!