Lighting for live web streams and filming YouTube videos

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7 Sep 2024
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This one is for the live streamers/gamers/video content (not OF) creators here.

I'm looking to improve my lighting for live streaming. I'm a guitar tutor that regularly teaches online so need good lighting quality so it looks professional plus makes it more easy for the learner to see me and my guitar. Also I make guitar cover videos to go on all the socials.

Currently the rooms (I teach in 2 different rooms) have either 1 room light or LED downlights which aren't really positioned right and create bad glare/shadows. I need the lights facing me just above head height.

I got a Raleno softbox last month, but its far too big and too powerful. As its got no dimmable/adjustable settings its hard to control the level of the brightness. I've had to face it against the wall and use the light bounced off that to give the keylighting. Then a smaller box light thing as a fill light. Kinda works, though I think I would be better off with something less powerful and a bit smaller. Also as I do guitar cover stuff I use RGB lighting and if the main lights are too strong it'll kill the impact of the RGB.

I've been looking at the Elgato lights and they seem to get good reviews, a ring light wouldn't be the first choice as during the lesson they don't need to see my face for 80% of the stream. (Though I may be doing general streams on webcam such as music chat in the future). The main keylight (big one and the air) is too big, as I don't have tons of space behind my desks for massive tripod stands in each room. The mini might be the best option as its not too powerful (though it does put out a lot of light) but may not be enough as the main light. I turn off all other lights in the room. So I may need 2 Elgato minis? So positioned both at a 45 degree angle either side, to give nice balanced lighting with no harsh shadows. They sell desk clamp mount things which would save a lot of space. But I wonder if I can get away with just 1 keylight mini. I was also interested in the Logitech Litra glow but its probably not going to be enough and looks smaller than the Elgato ones. Need more control with the positioning and angles too.
 
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If you're looking for a reasonably cheap option:

At my work, I used a 60cm under cabinet light to light up my face rather than being silhouetted against the window behind me. I move it around as needed, and just clamp it in place against the shelf. Because its a reasonable length, it gives off quite a uniform light.

from here: https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Main_I...hting_Kitchen_Index/Ultra_Slim_KBU/index.html
 
I got myself a Keylight Mini last week, its quite bright for such a small box. I propped that up on a tripod stand thing just above eye level tilting down. It worked well but only lit up one side of my face because I was using it to the side. Have since ordered a second one and a multi-mount desk clamp. So my plan is to have both of them off to one side either side of my webcam.

One window is off to my side behind me so I can get some natural light if I wanted to, there's one behind me too but I have a roller blind to block out any sun from that side as it'll cause really bad glare.

Hopefully my 2 Elgato Keylight Minis will do the job. I can keep my Softbox as a backlight if I wanted to, so behind me facing my main Keylight (or one of them). My 2nd Keylight Mini is arriving on Thursday so I'll report back on how it helps having another one.
 
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