When designing lighting for television studios and various broadcast studios, it’s crucial not only to meet the video shooting requirements of the entire studio but also to consider how to coordinate with the host through lighting design. The host’s skin tone, clothing, and other factors can significantly impact the placement of studio lights and the adjustment of light intensity.
Common Studio Lighting Techniques
- Three-Point Lighting: Uses key light, backlight, and fill light (such as kicker lights) to highlight the subject.
- Multiple Key Lights: Ensures various camera positions can capture the main light sources.
- Soft Front Light: Enhances the effect of backlight, providing a uniform illumination across the performance area.
- Side Key Light: Utilizes hard light from the sides of the set, offering side key light and side backlight, with fill light coming from the front.
- Overall Lighting: Starts with basic lighting (referred to as general illumination in television, with an intensity of 800–1500lx) to ensure the camera’s color reproduction, followed by applying three-point lighting (multiple key lights, backlights, and fill lights). The illumination from multiple key lights should be consistent, as should the backlight and fill light, ensuring uniform color tones in camera-specific shots.
- Layered Lighting: Used in music and dance programs to create a sense of depth and perspective through differentiated lighting for foreground, middle ground, and background, with varying intensities.
- Indoor Daylight Scene Lighting: Mimics sunlight by casting shadows through windows with strong lights, matching the direction of natural sunlight to enhance realism. Fill lights should be positioned to form a 70° angle with the camera to minimize long shadows.
- Indoor Night Scene Lighting: Typically involves illuminating the interior with ceiling lights, desk lamps, and wall lights to create a night-time ambiance, emphasizing the effect of lights being turned on or off.
Studio Lighting Tips
- Avoid Flat Frontal Lighting: Use side or backlighting to avoid flat, two-dimensional effects. Incorrect use of frontal lighting can lead to logical inconsistencies in the lighting environment.
- Utilize Backlighting and Spotlights: Separate the host from the background to emphasize their image and create a three-dimensional effect. Proper use of backlighting enhances the depth and three-dimensional appearance.
- Play with Shadows: Use shadows to create contrast and depth, shaping the scene and mood. Remember, the absence of light is as important as its presence.
- Set the Tone with Lighting and Exposure: Consider the scene’s reflectivity and light intensity. Different light intensities can create different atmospheres, like a warm ambiance with 3200K warm light or a serious mood with 5600K white light.
- Backlight When Possible: Highlighting characters from behind can enhance their features and three-dimensionality.
- Add Texture with Light Modifiers: Use gobos, flags, and other techniques to add texture to your lighting.
- Installation Methods: For studios with a ceiling height of 3.3 to 5 meters, rail-mounted installations are advisable. For lower ceilings (2.5 to 3.3 meters), consider using grid systems or fixed hanging methods.
