Help me build a lighting kit for my wife’s small kitchen YouTube setup (Amaran 200x S?)

[organerito]

Hi,

My wife would like to start making videos and eventually launch a YouTube channel. The content will mostly focus on our family life, with a strong emphasis on activities in the kitchen.

The kitchen is quite small — about 18 feet by 14 feet — and she plans to film herself doing various things, primarily cooking.

I’d like to ask for your help in building a lighting kit. Please be patient with me — I’m trying to learn as much as I can!

I’ve been looking into the Amaran 200x S, and I’m wondering if you would recommend getting two of them for key and fill lights, along with something like the Amaran Light Dome Mini SE as softboxes. Would that be a good starting point?

Could you please help me put together a simple but effective kit to begin with?

Thank you very much!

 

[laptech]

This is not really the place for the advice you are looking for because youtube has all the advice/tutorial videos you and your wife would need for setting up lighting in the kitchen.

 

[organerito]

This is not really the place for the advice you are looking for because youtube has all the advice/tutorial videos you and your wife would need for setting up lighting in the kitchen.

You’re absolutely right. I’ve been searching on YouTube, but the problem is that there are so many ideas—maybe too many. Most of what I found were either DIY solutions or high-end setups, and I felt a bit overwhelmed and lost.


I was simply hoping to hear what some of you personally use. That kind of real-world input would be really helpful.

 

[laptech]

You’re absolutely right. I’ve been searching on YouTube, but the problem is that there are so many ideas—maybe too many. Most of what I found were either DIY solutions or high-end setups, and I felt a bit overwhelmed and lost.


I was simply hoping to hear what some of you personally use. That kind of real-world input would be really helpful.

I cannot see how the view of MR members is going to be better than that of youtubers who are doing social media videos and showing you how it is done and what it needed, is that not real world?. If you are specifically wanting the advice from a mac user than youtuber iJustine is the person you want to look at because she has done many many videos in her kitchen.

 

[richardallan]

Don't be too hard on the OP. He's asking for help and you're not being very helpful. I don't shoot much video indoors and if I do I try to make do with available light and often it looks ok. If I need more light, I have a couple of old tungsten photo lights that I bounce off the ceiling and this works incredibly well. Obviously you have to get your white balance right. But something like that may be a cheap option to try. It might get you started at least.

 

[ChrisA]

Hi,

My wife would like to start making videos and eventually launch a YouTube channel. The content will mostly focus on our family life, with a strong emphasis on activities in the kitchen.

The kitchen is quite small — about 18 feet by 14 feet — and she plans to film herself doing various things, primarily cooking.

I’d like to ask for your help in building a lighting kit. Please be patient with me — I’m trying to learn as much as I can!

I’ve been looking into the Amaran 200x S, and I’m wondering if you would recommend getting two of them for key and fill lights, along with something like the Amaran Light Dome Mini SE as softboxes. Would that be a good starting point?

Could you please help me put together a simple but effective kit to begin with?

Thank you very much!

I hate to say this but you are doing the predictable beginner thing: Asking about equipment before you do anything else. Next I'd gues you want to decide and which camera to buy and lenses and if Final Cut is better then Adobe or Resolve

You should be thinking about the story you want to tell and how to collect the footage and editor need to tell a story

As a photographer yu should be thinking about camera locations relative to the subjects and maybe the overall style you like.

That said, you want a general purpose kit that can be setup and moved and used in many different ways. Start with a 200 Watt COB light (any brand) that has a Godox mount for modifiers and then get at least a small softbox. The bicolor lights are good so you canmatch the existing house lights or match sunlight coming in the window.

Buy GOOD light stands and buy more sand bags then you think you will need and fill with sand from Home Depot.

If the subject moves around at all you light the set, if the person is stationary, you like the person. What makes film making hard is you need to moves the lights every time you move the camera. Smart film makers run through the whole story with the camera in one spot. then back up, move the camera and do the story again. It might be easier to bake two cakes then do 8 camera setups.

Then you edit. You learn quaily that you job with the camera is to creat the footage an editor will want. You need to get all the short the editor will want, long, medium and close up b-roll.

Food videography is rely hard, harder then food photos. I know a few people who do this professionally and they talk about the things we don't see like "The Buket". The talent take one bike of ther (say) pizza, lets use see her face expression that she like it, then spits the pizza intothe bucket and then hand her another slide and she does 15 takes with many variations.

You never to the story front to back in one take, you need to break open a full carton of eggs to get one egg-breaking shot that you like. You do a medium shot if breaking the egg then go back and do a closeup using a different egg. And you move the lights when you move the camera.

Always you likey wan the light just outside of the frame, as close a possible but not in the shot

 

[organerito]

Hi,

Thank you so much for your help. We now have the camera, and I’ve started learning Final Cut Pro. My wife has been practicing a lot—she already has around 1,000 video files and seems to know exactly what she wants. She’s also deleted quite a few, refining her work as she goes.

We have a large window, and she’s beginning to understand how to work with natural light. However, there are areas of the kitchen where she’d like better control over the lighting. One corner is underexposed, and the white balance appears slightly off. The counter doesn’t receive as much window light as the table does.

I’ve heard that you only start upgrading your tools once you’re aware of their limitations—and I believe she’s reached that point. Since we’ve never worked with lighting before, that’s why I reached out for help.

Thanks,

 

[Alameda]

Hi,

My wife would like to start making videos and eventually launch a YouTube channel. The content will mostly focus on our family life, with a strong emphasis on activities in the kitchen.

The kitchen is quite small — about 18 feet by 14 feet — and she plans to film herself doing various things, primarily cooking.

I’d like to ask for your help in building a lighting kit. Please be patient with me — I’m trying to learn as much as I can!

I’ve been looking into the Amaran 200x S, and I’m wondering if you would recommend getting two of them for key and fill lights, along with something like the Amaran Light Dome Mini SE as softboxes. Would that be a good starting point?

Could you please help me put together a simple but effective kit to begin with?

Thank you very much!

I visited B&H Photo in New York a few months ago, and asked them the same questions. They spent a long time going over options. There's a brand called Profoto that people like a lot, but it's expensive.

They recommended a sub-$400 kit from Genaray for starting out. You usually want two lights, not just one.