Daylight streaming in a window is a great light source but it means only shooting during the waning daytime hours. What if you could shoot a daylight interior, at night, with basic lights you can buy on Amazon and from your local hardware store? 

We’re going to look at some tips and tricks for shooting great tabletop shots, whether it’s a product shot or an insert shot. We cover issues to watch for when you get in up close, how to sculpt an object with light and cards and how to build your own tabletop lighting softbox.

Guerrilla filmmaking means working with what you have to the best of your ability and in the area of lighting, nothing is better than using that great illuminator in the sky the sun. It shines without charge and is tax-free. Let’s talk about ways to leverage it for your interior lighting and how to augment it affordably.

Frank shows you how to light with window daylight, adding a bounce card, daylight balanced fill light and adding an edge light. He also covers how to ensure you buy the right lamps and bulbs to work with natural daylight.

If you’re used to shooting inside, taking your video camera outside can be a study in contrasts, especially here in sunny California where the midday sun is high and harsh. Frank demonstrates some tricks to work with that big lumen maker in the sky: covering diffusion, exposing for a soft background with neutral density filters (ND's) and using a bounce reflector for back-lit subjects. 

Lumens and Lux have started showing up in the specs for video as well as commercial lights, but what are they and how can you use them? Frank explains the difference between Lux, Lumens and Foot Candles, how to convert them, and which specs are helpful and which aren’t when you're purchasing or renting lights for your video production.

Filming insert shots can be fun and interesting, but a little tricky if your actor has to hold something steady in the frame. Frank demonstrates a grip trick using a pigeon plate and a grip stand to help film nice, steady insert shots and talks a little bit about French oak wine barrels.

Frank looks at the world of affordable fluorescents, how to attach them to light and grip stands, and explains CRI ratings so you can avoid green lighting.

Frank rediscovers a tried and true piece of common hardware in his kit and uses it to fill in those black holes in his shot. At some point, when lighting for your video production, you just run out of lights. What to do? You have a lot of CFLs and LED bulbs but no more lamps to put them in.

We’re going talk about two basic types of practical dimmers, a standard dimmer that’s used with tungsten lights, and electronic dimmers that work with everything including LEDs and dim-able CFLs.

Frank reviews the Neewer Umbrella Softbox and demonstrates how he uses it with a dual LimoStudio socket light. He also explains why he’s so excited about a product that only costs $7.50.

How to Make Transparent Liquids Pop

Lighting liquids for table top or an insert shot can be a little difficult, because, well they’re generally transparent. You need to reflect light off of something in order to see and record it right? So how do you do that when it’s mostly transparent. Here's a few tips and tricks.