The Craft of Interview Lighting

On this Canon video cinematographer Matt Porwoll takes us behind the scenes of the interview shoot and gives us an inside look at the lighting setup he used to create the look and feel of the shoot.

Lighting is much more than just adding light where there is a lack of. When doing an interview just like when shooting a feature film there should be a reason for using each light. Some might be more practical but others can help you tell the back story.

In this case Porwoll wanted to showcase the environment and not just the speaker. He wanted to give it a rugged yet interesting mood. This is why he used a small warm light on each work station.

What you should come out with after watching this video is that just like with other elements in your frame – lighting has an active roll which you can and need to control as part of the general story that you are trying to convey to your audience.

You can check out many more helpful photography tips on our Photography tips section here on LensVid as well as more specific lighting tips here.

Iddo Genuth
Iddo Genuth is the founder and chief editor of LensVid.com. He has been a technology reporter working for international publications since the late 1990's and covering photography since 2009. Iddo is also a co-founder of a production company specializing in commercial food and product visual content.

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