Pulse Width Modulation is NOT Your Friend

Here’s the deal: there’s this thing called “pulse width modulation,” and under certain conditions it doesn’t play well with rolling shutter cameras. Most of the time it’s no problem, but we don’t get phone calls from post when there’s no problem. Here’s how to avoid that phone call.

LIGHTING STRATEGIES: Placing a Hard Key Light

The most important thing you will ever learn about lighting is this: LIGHTING IS NOT A FORMULA. Learning about lighting, though, is a process of becoming aware, and in this first of many articles I’m going I’m going to try to increase your awareness of one specific thing per article. The more awareness you have the more easily you’ll be able to adapt your lighting to your circumstances because you’ll see, with your own eyes, what you need to do to make an image that satisfies your inner artist.

I think the best place to start is with classical key light placement. This knowledge is not something you will use verbatim as this is not a style that is in vogue at the moment. The underlying principles, however, should be of daily benefit.

Choosing the Right Green Screen Materials

Okay, you’ve seen the green screen “Kits” that come with some cheap lights, stands and a green screen cloth backdrop… or someone tells you to just go down to Home Depot and get a couple gallons of their “greenest” paint - a couple hundred bucks and you’re good to go, right? WRONG! A setup like that will be of little use if you’re seriously trying to get a decent matte. Without the right green screen materials, even the best lighting and camera won’t help you.

The entire green screen process is a careful balance of color & light - a very narrow spectrum of colored light that reflects back through the lens and is easily matted (or “keyed”) out with sophisticated software.

The Simplest, Fastest Interview Lighting Setup—Ever.

For a long time my primary source of employment was shooting corporate marketing communications videos. As these consist primarily of “talking head” interviews, I tried every lighting setup I could think of to make people look their best quickly, as many of these shoots have tight schedules and not much turnaround time between interviews. This setup is the result of years of experimentation.

Unboxing:  FloLight MicroBeam 128

I’m currently doing some social media consulting for a great company you may have seen me cover in the past, FloLight.  To familiarize me with their products, they were good enough to send me their MicroBeam 128, camera top, LED light.  This is a great little light that is the perfect solution for HDSLR “Run & Gun” setups.

Fill Light: The Underdog of Lighting

The day I stop learning about lighting will be the day my EKG goes flatline. There’s an extraordinary amount to learn and absorb, and I doubt I’ll ever learn all of it. That’s okay, because it means I’ll never run out of new things to learn. My most recent fixation is on the one light many think about the least: the fill light.

Blue Nile Shines Thanks to the Canon 5D and Apple Color

One of the best things about this business is that greatness lurks around every corner. If you are resourceful and creative you’ll find it well enough.

Unboxing:  FloLight’s MicroBeam 256

I recently had the opportunity to get my hands on the FloLight MicroBeam 256. This light is a fantastic light for mounting on to your camera’s shoe or where ever you want it. The unit is incredibly light for its size, and it delivers a nice wide wash of white light that will enhance any ENG production or hand held applications.

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