I’ve made a lot of posts about lighting. Ways to get lighting on a budget, and I’ve mentioned it in enough of my posts about photography and filmography. However, I’ve never touched on how to get good lighting when live streaming.
And with live streaming, it becomes much more complicated as you’ve got the light from the computer to think about and you’ve only got limited space. With over types of filming, there’s a tiny bit more freedom and the ability to use natural daylight.
Here’s your 101 on how to get good lighting for your live streams:
Why does the lighting need to be good?
I can hear you ask why you need good lighting for a live stream. Primarily when some people still use 240p camera quality sometimes.
And I have many answers to that question.
Firstly you should always try to have the best camera footage for a live stream; however, sometimes a 240p quality is all you can afford for a while.
But good lighting is a must. It can make or break your live stream. Let’s say you have a 240p quality on your webcam. While it won’t improve the pixelation, a good amount of lighting makes what we’re seeing much easier to take and understand. And if the camera quality is at its best, it enables the audience to see still that high-quality camera work.
Ultimately the lighting affects what we can make out with the camera, and even with the best quality of pixels available, if the audience can’t see it well enough, they won’t tune into your live stream.
In short bad lighting makes or breaks a live stream.
What sources could I utilise?
The one thing that always comes up when you talk about lighting is knowing what sources of light you can utilise and where you can find them.
Natural lighting.
One of the best sources of light you can get is natural lighting. It works for any medium! The film, youtube videos, photos, you name it, works! Natural light is just using the sunlight that occurs in the room. However, this is dependent on sunlight. This tip will work if you stream in the mornings or before sundown when the days are at their longest.
Ring lights
Sometimes you’ll need something brighter, or you’ll need another light source somewhere. Ring lights are good as they light what is in front of them evenly, and you can adjust the intensity and change the colour from white to yellow if you need something softer.
Backlight
Backlighting is where you are lit up from behind the shot. This is great for getting the background more visible and making your set look much more lively—this is why you typically see the light behind your favourite streamers.
Or another alternative is to use a coloured neon light to make the background brighter and set the atmosphere of your streaming space, which is why the neon light trend became popular on tic toc and all the other social media platforms!
Keylight
The key light is the primary light source you will use when streaming. It’s a bright LED light that can provide high-quality light with a diffuser. However, these are pricey so feel free to use other lamps and a different kind of reflective light to play around with where the lighting lands and how bright it is!
Fill light
These umbrellas and softboxes provide light filling the dark spots that other sources can’t!
Ultimately, you won’t need all these lights to get good visibility and brightness in your live stream, depending on your setup.
I suggest getting a couple of ring lights and some natural lights and then working from there as the things like key lights and backlights get expensive. And although you may need this stuff nine times out of ten, it’s mostly a backlight and one or two ring lights.
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What position works well?
It’s not just the source of light that’s important. It’s the placement. Here are some options that could work for you. But remember to experiment and follow what suits your room best! And what lights are available to you.
Two lights
This setup has two lights and is the method most beginner streamers use. Natural light would be a good source of fill light. And then, you use a ring light as your other key light and use something to reflect it on your face/surroundings.
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Or use two essential lights as your primary lighting structure.
One light
Sometimes you can’t get multiple back and key lights. So the best thing to do is get a ring light and place it behind the camera. Having some natural light from a window will also help.
Loop lighting
If you have one key light and fill light, this option may work for you! Place the key light on one side of the camera above eye level, and the fill light goes on the other side.
The critical thing with the lighting is to experiment and see what’s right, do a couple of test streams before the first official one. And then once you’ve got what works.
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