Professional video producer Leon Circuit gets passionate about light.

Shall we start with a small experiment? All you need is a large piece of white paper or card and a subject, in our case another person. Go outside into this wonderful summer daylight and observe the shadows and lines created on the subjects face, now hold the piece of paper up and allow the light to reflect onto the face. You will see what a great difference an inexpensive piece of kit can make. The lines and shadows under the eyes or chin have gone giving a much more flattering picture.

This is already done on still cameras with a fill in flash but takes a little more thought with video. You could of course set up a collection of lighting rigs, get a generator, fill out a health and safety sheet and run out of time, but why not try the card trick instead for those face to camera shots. The kids can hold the reflector and feel part of the production too. Experiment for different effects with the use of other colours. Gold will give a warm feeling to the face, blue a colder one.

For a more professional approach, all camera shops sell large coloured reflectors but why not screw up a piece of tin foil, roughly flatten it out and stretch it over the back of your gold card. The creased up foil gives a more natural reflection.

Summer and Autumn are great times to be out filming because of the wonderful light that we get both ends of the day. When I am preparing for a job I try to incorporate that light into the filming if possible, it just adds wonderful atmosphere that a lighting technician can spend hours trying to perfect.

On the cheaper consumer camcorders the lighting conditions can make all the difference. Filming your children in the middle of the day, outside, with the sun shinning, looks so much better now and in ten years, when it really matters, than the footage you shot inside at night with the house lights on.

At a later date we will discuss the art of artificial lighting and believe me it really is an art, but in the meantime make the most of these wonderfully long days. If you are filming the children or a piece to camera for a company training video consider the position of the windows and use those natural rays to your benefit.

Have a look at this web site for some basic camcorder information, but don't rely on this information alone when researching camcorders. http://www.cinematography.org/camcorder/index.html

Don't forget you can contact me with any camcorder or video queries at Circuit Productions, 1 Grimsby Road, Louth, LN11 0ED or email leon@circuitproductions.com

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