Portable Appropriate Lighting for outdoors...

F

FishingBloke

New member
I am starting to get into filming fishing as a hobby. But wish to at least make it look reasonably professional.
I'm having a few issues with lighting, especially when I'm in forrest/bush areas where I am under and around lots of trees and the light is patchy.
I do have a basic 126 LED small battery powered light which I can attach to my camera shoe when filming people/objects within about 3 meters/9 feet. But was wondering are there any other recommendations for portable lighting to overcome these sort of issues?
Being a newbie I'm still limited to my knowledge of whats out there and there is only so much Google I can do... which ends up getting confusing anyways.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! As I said I'm not a pro, and my gear is not the absolute greatest. I'm still learning filming techniques. And have only made a few basic short fishing films/episodes by myself.
I use a JVC Everio GZ-HM1 which seems to do quite a good job and has seems to have enough features for now.

Cheers.
 
LED lights and the new Plasma lights are all relatively portable, if you want very high luminance, choosethe big ones, 600 LED is a good choice for out door in my opinion. it's $250 and uses V mount battery.
 
Jokers are great portable outdoor lights, hmis aswell for daytime use. You can use them with batteries too
 
The issue of patchy light is going to be most evident when you're in the forest, midday, with not a cloud in the sky. The sun is blasting down into the thick brush. Some of it is getting 100% of the light coming through, and some of it is hardly getting any at all. You've already experienced it!

If you shoot early in the morning, or later in the evening when the sun is low on the horizon, you should be able to control it a little more - and it'll have an overall more attractive look. If you film on a cloudy day, the difference in light and dark in the bush will be a lot less pronounced (nice soft light pouring in).

Are you filming this as a documentary kind of video, or are you attempting to capture archaic fishing imagery?

If it's the first, then I'd try and get your subject to either stand where they're bathed entirely in sunlight, or they're entirely in the shade. Shade, from my experience is desirable 95% of the time. Softer light! But anytime you've got indiscriminate patches of shade, with light pouring through, it's going to look less than ideal. If you've got lights powerful enough to compete with the sunlight, and blast away the shadows, you can do that. But at midday I don't think you're going to do that with a portable LED unit.

If it's the archaic fishing imagery you're going for, or if it's possible, I'd film at sunrise and sunset, and take advantage of the beautiful light. Position the subject in a way that make them look great in the natural light. Honestly, I'd even get them to forget about the fishing for five minutes while you get the shot. Maybe stand somewhere they wouldn't if they were only there to fish. But that's the controlling photographer in me coming out :)
 
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