Before you say a single word the background in your video is already speaking for you. A dark background that looked like a stage curtain didn’t set the business tone I wanted. Choosing a lighter, structured, background now sends the right message from the very first frame. It also turned out they are easier to work with.
You see a lot better than your camera
Changing from a dark to light background projects a more business-oriented impression, but there is also a technical reason due to the limited dynamic range of video cameras.
Camcorders are sensitive, but their sensitivity pales compared to your eyes. What looks good to you will look different to your camera.
Cameras have a limited dynamic range and don’t cope well with scenes that mix very bright and very dark areas. This is the origin of a best practice: use a light background for light-skinned people, and a dark background for darker-skinned people.
I am light-skinned so a very dark background is difficult to light and expose properly. A lighter background gives a better image and does not need so much extra lighting.
Up-close lighting for tight spaces
For this video I used 2 lights (I will show you my lighting setup in an upcoming video). For the moment I will share that both lights are just out of frame and very close to me.
With the lights so close I only needed 155W of extra lighting. If the lights had been twice as far away I would have needed 620W to get the same light level.
Keeping the lights very close saves on power (good for the environment), but the most important benefit is it is easier to find somewhere to record in a tight office environment.
Workflow
It took just over 2 minutes to record this video in 1 take. I spoke freely without script or bullets, but had arranged my props in advance so they were within easy reach. At 2:05 minutes it is only just over the 2 minute limit we try to follow.
Sony Vegas took 7:56 minutes to render a 4.073 GB AVI file. Sorenson Squeeze took 7:00 minutes to encode this with the MainConcept H.264 codec into a 17.2 MB MP4 file.
As usual I compressed the video using a bitrate of 1,000 Kbps as this gave a good balance between size and download speed.
Next time
In the next video I will take a short detour and briefly talk about getting great audio. Spend a little on an external microphone and you will dramatically increase the perceived quality of your business web videos.
Please jump into the comments with your own experience of whether light or dark backgrounds work best.
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