Excellent live streaming lighting tips from Yololiv

Lighting like a pro is important for your streams. YoloLiv gives some great tips and factors to know to shine up your stream.

YoloLiv provided a color theory chart that goes over the color models and meanings.

Colors in the lighting have moods. For example the color red might remind you of blood and green might remind you of money/wealth. When choosing a color theme for your stream keep the color meanings in mind.

You should also keep the color temperature in mind.

“Actually, light is measured on a Kelvin scale from the lowest 1000K to the highest 10,000K. And the higher reading leads to the change from warm orange to cold blue. If you want the original color with no preference for warm or cold, you can choose 4000K to have a natural view. While the commonly used period for color temperature would be from 3200K to 5600K. You do not want to go too far to damage the view.”

Now here are some tips to keep in mind when choosing lighting for your stream

Before the startup you should first turn off the lights. It’s good to start with a clean slate and will be easier to build your lighting one by one to create the lighting look you are aiming for. Next choose between soft or hard light. Hard light comes from a single-point source. Soft light is produced by a diffuse light source. Knowing the difference allows you to make changes to the lighting mood. “As a simple example, you could close the drapes and use small, powerful lights to create dramatic images for serious moments,” says YoloLiv. Or, you could use lights filtered through a commercial light diffuser (sometimes called a “lightbox”) to achieve the opposite mood.

Next YoloLiv suggests using a three-point lighting system. These are used to build the lighting in the view.

The three-point lighting system includes

The Key Light
This is the strongest light you have and should be positioned pointing down at your subject at an angle. Located about 45 degrees to the subjects right or left
The Fill Light
This is half as strong as the key light and should be positioned to the opposite side of the subject at a 45 degree angle.
The Back Light
This light is above and behind the subject, usually off to one side. This will help make your subject stand out from the background.

For outdoor lighting setups YoloLiv suggests using the sun to create a simple three-point video setup.

“You can start by placing the sun in the position of the key light, just offset from your subject to one side or the other. To do this, you’ll have to record in the morning or afternoon, when the sun isn’t directly overhead.
You can create a fill light and a backlight using reflectors to redirect (or “bounce”) sunlight onto your subject. A reflector could be a commercial product or even a large sheet of white cardboard. Sometimes, a gold reflector is useful to enhance the sun’s natural color. This is most relevant for the backlight setup.”