An at-home video setup for livestreams or remote podcasts with online guests.
✨ Livestream lighting setups.
🧙 While natural light is free, it's also wildly inconsistent due to changes in weather and time of day.
🧙 For best results, turn off all ceiling lights to prevent hot spots and unflattering color shifts.
🧙 For best results, use a powerful daylight-balanced LED video light on a tall stand aimed toward the ceiling to brighten the entire space or film in a space with an abundance of natural light.
🧙 Use a daylight-balanced LED studio key light (preferably with a large softbox) to light your face.
🧙 Create some distance between you and the background so that the key light for your face won't lighten the area behind you.
🧙 Use a daylight-balanced LED studio key light (preferably with a large softbox) to light your face.
🧙 Create some space between you and the background so that the key light for your face won't wash out the colored LED light behind you.
🧙 Place a daylight-balanced LED video key light (preferably with a large softbox) to the left or right of the camera for a dramatic effect.
🧙 For best results, turn off all ceiling lights to prevent hot spots and unflattering color shifts.
🧙 Use a daylight-balanced LED studio light (preferably with a large softbox) to light your face.
💎 These image quality settings will produce fantastic detail, color, and dynamic range without needing to color grade.
Rotate the Mode Dial to Movie Mode
🧙 A 4K HDMI capture device and a micro HDMI to HDMI cable are required.
Connect a micro HDMI to HDMI cable from your camera into a 4K HDMI capture device
🧙 4K Output Select requires the camera to be connected via HDMI before you can select it.
Set the 4K Output Select to HDMI Only (30p)
Set the Picture Profile to PPOFF
Set the Creative Style to Standard
🧙 If you prefer a more natural look or a better starting point for color grading, I recommend increasing saturation slightly while lowering contrast and sharpness.
🧙 DRO/Auto HDR brightens the shadows and produces an image with more dynamic range.
Set DRO/Auto HDR to Lv5
🫥 These autofocus settings will allow the camera to focus on your face continuously, while also giving you the option to pause focus to prevent the camera from hunting or racking focus during a livestream.
Set the Focus Mode to AF-C
Set the Focus Area to Wide
Set Face/Eye Priority to On
Set the AF Drive Speed to Normal
Set the AF Tracking to Responsive
🧙 Pause autofocus to prevent the camera from hunting or racking focus while recording.
Assign a Custom Key to AF/MF Toggle
Press the AF/MF Toggle button to switch between AF and MF
🔴 These exposure settings provide enough sharpness (depth-of-field) for a livestream (mic and face) while allowing for some separation (blur) in the background.
Set the Exposure Mode to Manual
🧙 Your lens may not be capable of reaching F2.8, in which case, set the aperture to the lowest possible F-number instead.
Set the Aperture to F2.8 or Higher
Set the ISO to 100
Set the Shutter Speed to 1/50
🧙 Most daylight-balanced LED video lights have a Kelvin temperature around 5500K.
🧙 A custom white balance corrects any color shifts and produces an image with accurate colors and better-looking skin tones.
🌓 Steps to make the image brighter or darker.
🧙 Using a Variable ND Filter is best since it keeps the shutter speed fixed at 1/50 for natural motion blur.
Attach a Variable ND Filter and dial up the filter strength
🧙 Raising the shutter speed too much may introduce flickering with certain lights and make your movements look unnatural.
Raise the Shutter Speed to a higher value ( 1/60, 1/80, 1/100, etc.)
🧙 Raising the ISO will introduce noise (grain). However, it's the best option to evenly increase brightness in most cases.
Raise the ISO to a higher value ( 125, 160, 200, etc.)
🧙 If you raise the key light intensity too much, the background may get darker due to the imbalance in light levels.
Increase the Intensity of the Key Light
🧙 Zebras can help you determine whether or not the highlights in the image are too bright (overexposed).
Assign a Custom Key to Zebra Display
Set the Zebra Level to:
🎤 These audio settings are intended for a dedicated microphone, which will significantly enhance the quality of your audio.
Connect a Microphone into the Mic Input
Set Audio Level Display to On
🧙 To prevent the audio from clipping, make sure the audio levels never surpass -3db while talking into the mic.