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362 Video Digital Communication & Production
Copyright Goodheart-Willcox Co., Inc.
Casual Video
Lighting for eBay
Offerings on eBay, Craig’s List, and similar
websites usually include pictures. Most of
these are stills, of course, but very short videos
can be useful where the sale items need to be
demonstrated.
Shooting casually with your phone, tablet,
or small camera, you do not want to build the
light tents and seamless paper backgrounds
required for professional work; but it is still good
practice to find a simple, attractive background
for your footage. Here are some tips for making
good-looking eBay videos:
• Work outdoors, in the shade. A wall on the
shady side of a house or other building
makes a good background for shooting in the
soft, even light of the shade.
• Make the background simple but not dull. A
little modeling is good, especially if it is out of
focus behind your sale offering.
• Check focus carefully and play back each
shot to double-check it. Nothing looks more
amateurish than a poorly photographed
object.
To illustrate, here is a copy of an image
previously shown in Chapter 13. Notice that:
• It was recorded in front of a home garage door.
• The object is sharp but the background is
deliberately soft-focus.
• Because the camera is diagonal to the
background, the garage door inserts seem to
sweep toward the camera.
• A swash of shadow varies the lower background,
and swashes of light streak across the door.
(Both were caused by the form and bright
chrome work of a pickup truck in the driveway.)
The garage door is a “found” background for the shot.
Goodheart-Willcox Publisher
Internet Lighting
In addition to videos posted to social
websites, many carefully produced videos are
published on the Internet. These programs
should be as fully lit as programs destined
for other delivery systems. Although many
sites now accept high-defi programs, finition
streaming videos can have limitations because
they are often intended for less than the full
screen area. Here are some tips for lighting
Internet videos:
• Use classic four-source lighting (key, fill, fi
rim, and background lights) to model
subjects and enhance their apparent depth.
• For how-to videos featuring details of
construction projects—such as do-it-yourself
camera stabilizers—use two-source soft
lights instead, especially where shadows can
obscure details.
• When recording “talking heads,” pay
special attention to rim (back) lighting
to separate subjects sharply from their
backgrounds.
• Aim for high (or at least “medium”) key
lighting to deliver bright images. Streaming
video, especially when lower quality, can
turn dark areas muddy and lacking in
detail.
• Keep background lighting simple to avoid
shadow patterns and excessive modeling
that can compete with foreground subjects.
Backgrounds should be just dark enough
so that well-lit foreground subjects stand
out, Figure 16-51.