Use Practical Lighting To Create AESTHETIC Talking Head Videos

I've went through a lot to get to this point, but I think I finally found it. What's up, beautiful creators? In this video, I wanted to share with you all four tips on how I create an inviting space for your talking head videos for your social media. Let's get into it. So the first tip is going to be lighting. I wanna specifically talk about practicals. Practicals are lighting fixtures that are a part of your set or the world of characters. So for instance, it can be a lamp could be a practical. In this case, my windows are practicals. My neon sign is a practical. My desk light is a practical and my computer screen are practicals. I wanna show you all what it looks like if I didn't have my practicals and what it looks like if I didn't have my light fixtures, my LED lights. So as you can see, my practicals are working really hard on the left side of me and they're kind of help elevate this space. Now on the right side of me, I have my window, which also helps bring light into that. You can see the fall off off my shoulder. So it's actually acting as a really good backlight as well as the backlight that I have on my lamp. So I have like some fall off from my light, but the practicals on the left side are really doing the work. Now, mind you, I really only have about three lights that I use. I have my key light, which is always my 100X that I put at 5300, which is daylight to match the window. And then I have my backlight, which is the 100XS. It's literally just to bring some ambience to that picture. So I have an MC4 in there as well that's bringing gradient. And then I have a MC4, a purple MC4 behind the computer. So this is what it looks like without my practicals. Now the left side just looks really weird. There's no light happening. I have my computer screen that is just black. My neon sign isn't helping bring anything together. Like this is just, it's just my key light and my backlights and my window. And so again, practicals are very important and you wanna make sure that you learn to add those. Figure out how you don't always have to have actual light fixtures or like artificial lighting or like light that you bought. If you have a lamp in your house, if you have, you know, go get you a bulb from Aperture that you can control. If you, you know, use your computer screen, use your TV, use certain things that are already within your house to create a nice inviting space. The second tip is going to be creating a color theme. Now, you know, back in the day when Instagram was real like pop, popping like that and you used to be real into your aesthetics so you had some consistency with your main page. So when people went on there, they saw like this color theme. That's essentially the same thing I'm talking about. You wanna create this like really nice, consistent color theme. So when every time somebody's watching your content, they're like, you're kind of creating your brand colors, right? So every time somebody sees my stuff, they're like, oh, I know this is Britney's. It's she's, it feels relatable. It feels welcoming. It feels inviting. It feels warm. That is what I want people to feel every time that they watch my content. And so with that, I looked into the color wheel and I wanted to feel like, do I wanna go more cool or do I wanna go more warm? I decided to go more warm because I felt like for me, warm just works really well with black skin. And so I decided to really just elevate my skin. So I would say really kind of come up with a color scheme. Every time somebody look at your talking head, make sure it feels inviting, but make sure that there is some consistency with it so they can get to know you, you know? And so that's how you create inviting space. We interrupt your daily viewing to let you know that this video is sponsored by Motion Array. I personally love Motion Array for the variety of graphics, templates, music, and sound effects that I can use on all of my projects as well as client projects. If you wanna create aesthetically pleasing videos that will step your content game up with fun features that will separate your work from just okay to amazing, definitely check out Motion Array. Tip number three is going to be the depth of field. And I'm pairing that with my ND because in order to have depth of field, you may need an ND. So right now my setting, my camera setup is my Sony FX3 and the Sigma 18-35. That is a crop lens, I know, but it works really well when you stay at 35. But with that, I can go to a 1.8 and that's the only reason why I still have it. I have it because I had a Blackmagic and that 1.8, it just tops the 2.8 to me personally. One, being that my room is fairly small. And so with that, I do like to create some depth of field because everything is right behind me and it can get pretty busy. And so to create an inviting space, I don't want it to feel like it's so busy that you can't focus in on me. So I do wanna have some kind of depth of field. Another reason why I do like to use my Sigma 18-35 1.8 is because I can go all the way down to the 1.8, put the ND filter on there to make sure I can stay wide open. That creates depth, but then also, personally, it feels more roomy. And so having some type of way to create depth of field really works for me in this space until I get my own studio or get a two-bedroom or something like that, I can create this roomier space that you guys think is more roomy just because of how I decided to configure it with my camera. So really trying to create depth and to where people can focus on you and focus on everything kind of goes to me. Everything is, I'm centered. I want everybody to focus on me, not everything that's on my desk, not anything else. And so that is the goal with the depth of field and being able to use my ND filter to stay wide open on my lens. Now, if you're doing a talk in here, you do not want harsh light on your face unless you're talking about harsh light. But if it's just me talking to camera, I wanna create a really nice, soft look, a natural, soft look. And so with that, your key light should be soft. It should fall nicely on you so that people can focus on you. So with me, I have a Amaran 100X and I have it at about 35%. And the goal is, the thing that they say in production is, the bigger the modifier, the softer the light, right? So I have a huge modifier on it and it's allowing my 35% light to just fall a little softer because it's spilling a little bit more as opposed to as if I used a smaller octo or a smaller modifier, and then it would come off a little harsher. It would come out a little harsher. And the fact that I didn't put it on 100% or 50%, I put it on 35% so I don't have a lot of power. And so it's really creating a nice, soft fall off on me so that when you see me, I just look good, I got a little makeup on, I got my diffusion filter on, so it's really creating a nice glow. All of it works in my favor. And so it makes, in turn, it creates this really nice inviting space for you all. So I just think it's overall a win-win situation with how I decided to set up my YouTube channel. And this has been going for a long time because again, if you look at my older videos, I've went through a lot to get to this point, but I think I finally found it. And again, you may go through a lot to get to the point of, I think I finally found my look. Even if you have LED lights, find a way to make them fit naturally within your scene. But hopefully this all helped you all. I just wanted to show you all how to create an inviting space because a lot of people have been asking me the wrong questions. They're asking, what camera do I use? They're asking my lighting setup. But again, it's not necessarily just about those things. It's about the details of how I really used not just my lighting setup, but my practicals. How I really did use a bigger modifier. So it doesn't matter the light, it's the modifier. Just certain things like that matters more than me just being like, oh, I use the MRM 100X. Okay, well, what do I do with that information? So hopefully this all helped you. If you have any questions, please leave them down below. I can't wait to see what you all produce with this. This goes beyond talk ahead. This just goes with how to create inviting content in general. But if you do go on Instagram, you'll start to see that a lot of people are doing talking head content. And so with that, create an inviting space, a space where people wanna watch it regardless of what you're talking about. Or they'll just hit you up and be like, yo, I like the lighting, right? If nothing else, I love the lighting. So hopefully this helped. Leave it down below if you guys have any questions. Give this video a like, please, and make sure that you are subscribed to my YouTube channel. Share with your friends. If you're trying to create a podcast or a YouTube or whatever it may be, hopefully this helped you all. I love you. Thank you for all your support, and I'll see you all in the next video.