Lighting for Virtual Theatre

Rob Sayer (from his article Zoom Theatre Lighting)  professional Lighting Designer turned educator

A great article by Rob Sayer gives lots of points for lighting for Zoom Theatre.  Below are some ideas from his article for problems we all encounter on Zoom.

Any seasoned Zoomer knows that you need to elevate your laptop (and therefore, camera) to at least eye level and sometimes even higher. It’s common practice to put the computer on a box or something that achieves this.

Running Zoom at home not only do we not have much in the way of brightness or positional control, but the lights you have are not all that bright nor as flexible regarding where you put them.

In fact, the most common lighting in the home such as a central hanging light in the middle of the room or wall lights all around the edges are pretty much the least desirable setup for a Zoom performance.

Try setting your artificial light somewhere in front of you at eye level or above but not too high. A ceiling light is unlikely to be helpful, you would be better off sitting in front of an open fridge. But that has its problems.  You are probably going to need a desk lamp.

Try bouncing it off the wall instead of shining it directly at you. It won’t be as bright but might be more pleasant for you and on your camera.

Artificial light is more likely to have a warmer, more orange colour to it.

The image below shows the use of a mirror in an artificial light setup with a single home lamp, mirror and one with an added overhead domestic light.

Give it a try, Zoomers!