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Video, as a content type, is gaining traction with online marketing for a variety of reasons: inexpensive equipment, cheaper bandwidth and hard drive space, the appearance of several viable dedicated video community sites and the advent of blended search results in Google. So, to put it mildly, lots of people are exploring video at the moment.

If you’re putting talking heads into your video, perhaps getting a video reference for your great work and so on, the following video by Burlington, Vermont’s Bill Simmon will be very useful. In this video Bill covers how to deploy the industry standard 3-point lighting technique to achieve the following:

1. Put enough light on the subject of your video (the person being interviewed) with a “key light.”
2. Use light to keep the subject from blending into the background with a “back light.”
3. Use light to keep the shadows on your subjects face from being too dark and dramatic with a “fill light.”

Bill uses a controlled studio and professional lighting equipment. This is probably beyond the means of most DIY online marketers experimenting with video. However, with a little creativity you should be able to apply the concepts he introduces using your own materials to improve the quality of your videos.

3-Point Lighting Explained! from Bill Simmon on Vimeo.

If you are fortunate enough to live in Burlington, VT and you’re interested in making better video, Vermont Community Access Media (aka VCAM) offers classes regularly. The above video was filmed at one of their classes. How’s that for cable access awesomeness?

Here’s a bonus link: An article about lighting houses.