Improve Your Zoom Call Lighting with this Film School Hack

Last week I wrote about improving your Zoom calls with elements I learned at Film School - paying attention to camera angles, composition, and “set design”. Today I want to talk about lighting. After an embarrassing story. About lighting.

My first Zoom call of coronatimes was an emergency meeting for a board I am on. It was after work on the first day that school was closed, March 16.

During the day I’d posted-up to work in the corner of our bedroom, next to a window that faces due East. It’s a small desk, there’s barely room for a notebook and my laptop, and there’s not even a desk lamp (this is a storytelling technique called foreshadowing, which we can cover in a later post …)

I stayed at that desk for the board meeting at 5. The first hour of the call was great, visually, but being mid-March the sun quickly dipped behind the trees. My light was gone, now I was illuminated only by my laptop screen. It was positively ghastly. One other trustee even (lightly) mocked my appearance!

Be aware of your light sources.

Before you turn on the video and jump on the call, scan the room. Where is the light compared to where I am? Will it change with the passing of time (or even a big cloud)?

We’ve all been on a call when someone is in front of a picture window. Has this ever worked?

Better yet, control the lights.

Shortly after my ghastly call, I rigged a video call studio in our finished – but messy – basement. While I was setting the “stage” I fortuitously found a book from film school called “The Filmmakers Handbook” and reread the chapter on lighting. I found this image on three point lighting to be quite helpful:

Here’s my definition of the three lights:

1. The fill light fills in the shadows on your face created by other lights. This light is closest to the camera, at the same height as the camera. It doesn’t have to be very bright; it just needs to lessen the shadows. On a real set it’s often reflected onto the subject.
2. The key light is the main light on your face. It’s the brightest light and is usually diffused to be softer, which helps it cast less harsh shadows. This light is placed on the opposite side of the camera as the fill light, higher than the camera.
3. The backlight is a little more extraneous for our purposes – and I’m not saying that because I never really got mine to work. Its job is to outline your hair or shoulders brightly, helping you stand out from your background. Usually it’s behind and above the subject.

My setup

Luckily in my basement I did have a spare light from Ikea, the Regolit pendant light shade. It’s a paper sphere that’s about 18 inches in diameter. And it diffuses light like a dream. A perfect key light.

My fill light was a spare table lamp that doesn’t really fit with our current living room set up but still functions.

The backlight was a gooseneck clip light that I attached to the top shelf of the bookshelf behind me. But I couldn’t direct the light like I wanted to. Because of its placement, this light is challenging without barn doors – those black metal flaps attached to the front rim of a light that help direct and control light. When I set up my backlight I didn’t have them (what, do you have barn doors lying about your basement?) so I had light spill on my screen that I couldn’t control.

Here I am in our “studio” before I set up the lights. The ceiling light is on one side and the blueish light on the other side is coming from the basement window.

Now I’ve turned on the fill light.

For comparison, here’s just the key light:

Neither are bad, but they’re not great. But put them together:

 Here’s one with backlight turned on. Is it worth the distraction of the hotspot spilling on the shelf behind to have a slight accent on my hair and apparently, temple? I didn't think so.

For reference here is the whole setup. The fill light is on the left, at the same height as the laptop camera, the key light is above my head on the other side of the laptop:

I bet on January 1st - or heck, even March 1st - you never thought you’d be looking at photos of me in my basement, reading an article about lighting a Zoom call. But here we are. Zoom calls are our connection to the world; we’re using them for giant group meetings, one-on-one meetings, happy hours, birthdays, even job interviews. 

So take a few minutes to consider lighting on your next Zoom call. At the least, don't sit in front of a window. At the best, set up a couple of lights. Save your coworkers from weird – or even ghastly – lighting. 

Don’t be me!