Lighting and sound for video
From the shoot Written from the offices, meeting rooms and event venues I film in. How I write these guides →
In this guide
Fix sound first, then light, then colour and the background. Put a clip-on mic on the person, light the face from one side with a second light on the back of the hair, and match your lights to whatever room light is left.
The thing that most often makes video sound amateur is the simplest to fix, and it's not having a decent microphone. People treat sound as secondary because video feels like it's all about the picture, but get the sound wrong and the whole thing sounds amateur, even when there are cheap mics that would have saved it. Not investing in light does the same damage. People end up filming someone who is practically sat in the dark.
When people tell me their video looks "a bit amateur" but can't say why, it's nearly always one of five things. These are echo, a dark or shadowy face, odd skin colour, a messy background, or a person who melts into the wall behind them.
From the shoot, office rooms you can't control
Most of the rooms I film in are offices, meeting rooms and event venues, and two problems come up again and again.
The first is mixed light. One source in the room is cool, another is warm, and on camera the two clash. If it's bad enough, I've stood on a chair, asked the venue for paper and some tape, and blocked the light out myself.
The second is an air conditioner running in the room. In an office you often don't have the luxury of switching it off. The answer is not to hit the panic button. I record the room tone, a few seconds of the room with nobody talking, and the noise can usually be removed in post.
One I remember well was the key interview for a micro-documentary, in an old London office with a big air-conditioning unit we couldn't switch off. We turned the contributor's back to it, recorded on two mics and cleaned up the rest in post. The full story, and what it taught me about seeing a room before the day, is in video production basics.
What's wrong with my video? Symptoms and quick fixes
Find the symptom, then go to the guide that fixes it properly.
| What you see or hear | Usual cause | Quick fix | Full guide |
|---|---|---|---|
| Echo, hollow or distant voice | Mic too far away, hard surfaces | Clip a mic on the person's chest; move to a softer room | Where the mic goes |
| A hum or hiss under every word | Air conditioning, fridges, traffic | Move away from it; record room tone; clean it up in post | Room tone and ambient sound |
| Dark face, bright background | A window or lamp behind the person | Turn them round, or move them so the light falls on the face | Two-point lighting |
| Flat, lifeless face | Light coming straight from the front | Light from one side for some contrast | Two-point lighting |
| Orange or blue skin, or both at once | Mixed light, or the wrong white balance | Switch off or block one source; match your lights to the other | Colour temperature and white balance |
| Person melts into the wall | No separation from the background | Add a backlight on the hair; move them away from the wall | Two-point lighting |
| Busy or messy background | Shot set up where it was easiest | Move the furniture; choose the background before the light | What to wear on camera for clothes that clash |
My pre-shoot routine
This is what I do when I walk into a room I've never filmed in, before I set up anything.
- Listen. Before I unpack anything, I stand still and listen for noise, such as air conditioning, a fridge humming, traffic, the buzz of an event next door. I've lost count of the times I've arrived to find roadworks outside the window. I look at the surfaces too. Carpet and soft furniture help, while hard floors and bare walls bounce the sound around.
- Find the quietest spot. At an event, or with a loud air conditioner in the room, I set up as far from it as I can.
- Clear the room. Colleagues often want to come and watch. They make noise without realising, and they make the person on camera nervous, so it's often best to ask them to wait outside.
- Choose the background. I pick the part of the room with a decent background, and never put a bright window behind the person. If the room won't give me a good background, I don't fight it. I move the camera and reframe the person until the background works for the shot.
- Control the daylight. If the room is too bright, I pull the curtains.
- Move the furniture. I'll almost always move chairs and tables to build the setup I want, rather than film round them.
- Match the light. If there are room lights I can't switch off, I set my own lights to match their colour. If I can switch them off, I choose the mood instead.
- Record a test. A short clip with someone who isn't being featured, played back to check the sound and the exposure. The full routine for interviews is in how to film an interview on your phone.
Sound
Get a microphone on the person. A clip-on mic on the chest beats any phone or camera mic across the room, because it's close to the mouth and picks up far less of the room. Where you put it, how to hide the cable and how to keep out rustle are in the audio step of my phone interview guide.
When a room is noisy and there's nothing more you can do on the day, record the room tone and clean it up afterwards. I use Adobe Podcast's free Enhance Speech. It works well, as long as you had a good mic on the person to begin with.
Light
I bring two lights as a minimum. One goes on the face, set to leave a little contrast, and a backlight goes on the back of the hair to separate the person from the background. One light can work, and a third is a bonus if you can carry it. My portable pair are an amaran Pano 60c and an F7. The F7 is bi-colour and the Pano 60c is full colour, so both can be set from warm to cool white. Where each light goes, how far away and how bright are in two-point lighting.
Colour
Skin looks wrong on camera when light sources of different colours fall on the same face, or when the white balance doesn't match the light. Start with the room. Switch off or block one source if you can, then match your own lights to whatever is left. I tend to like a warmer look, but the client's brief decides. Kelvin numbers, white balance and mixed light are covered in colour temperature and white balance.
Background and clothing
Choose the background before you light, and move the furniture if you need to. Then check the person doesn't blend into it. A dark top against a dark wall, or white against white, is where a backlight earns its place. What people should wear, and the patterns and colours to avoid, are in what to wear on camera.
What I'd do differently
Bring the kit, every time, so you can walk in with confidence. Confidence is a big part of any recording, whether you're on a phone or a premium camera. You can't make every room perfect, so the job is to make the best of the situation you're given, and the right lights and the right mic are what let you do that. Turn up to a badly lit room with no lights at all and you've set yourself up for a long, difficult edit trying to make it look professional.
Questions I get about lighting and sound
Should I start with sound or lighting?
Sound. People forgive a picture that isn't perfect, but bad sound makes a video sound amateur straight away, and it's harder to fix afterwards. Get a mic on the person first, then light them.
Can I fix bad audio after filming?
Partly. Background hum and room noise can usually be cleaned up afterwards, especially if you recorded a few seconds of room tone, and free tools such as Adobe Podcast's Enhance Speech do a good job. What no tool can fix is a voice the mic never picked up properly, so get a mic close to the person first.
Do I need manual settings?
Not to start. A mic and a better spot in the room will improve your video more than any setting. When you're ready, a camera app with a histogram, such as the free Blackmagic Camera on iPhone, lets you check the exposure properly.