Any Lakeland video production professional will happily tell you the merits of natural lighting on a video. In fact, for low-budget projects, sunlight can easily make up the majority of your video’s lighting.
In some cases, it is more than possible for there to be excessive sunlight present while filming, which can pose a problem for your video. Too much sunlight is too much light in your video, which will mess up the visuals of the video footage.
However, the best way to counteract excessive sunlight is through the use of costly lighting equipment, which can be difficult for smaller productions. So how are you supposed to handle this? Learn how to deal with sunlight on your Lakeland video production project on a low budget.
Make use of your surroundings
Direct sunlight can be quite glaring for your video footage, so one way that you can offset this is by making use of your surroundings to dampen the effect of the sunlight.
For example, if you’re looking to film in a forest, excessive sunlight can be a huge help to the video because the excessive sunlight can easily penetrate the thick foliage, giving you just enough sunlight for your video. If you’re filming out in a more open area, one option to consider is by using objects around your surroundings to contrast with the sunlight.
In another example, if you’re filming near some plants not as dense as a forest, you can angle the camera to catch the sunlight casting interesting shadows on the subject’s face. This is a good way to bend the sunlight to make your video more interesting, rather than washing it out.
Focus on the landscape
If you are filming out in a completely open location, it can be hard to control the lighting conditions for your Lakeland video production project, and filming a subject in these conditions will be a challenge. If you find that conditions aren’t up to snuff, you can focus on filming something else for the time being.
One thing you can consider is filming the local landscape. When the sun is out in full force, it usually illuminates the landscape in such a way that provides striking, dynamic shots that cannot be replicated in lesser sunlight conditions.
Try to avoid filming the sun directly; instead, you can focus your shots on the sky and how it contrasts significantly against the greens, browns, and other colors of the landscape. This is a simple, yet effective way of getting some great shots for your video while still managing to stick to your budget.