How much light do I need ?

Hello.

An aspiring Youtuber, I need to buy some lighting.

How many lumen (if that's the relevant unit) would I need in order to film myself standing 3m (10ft) from the light, my back to a window on a sunny day, and still be decently lit from head to waist ?

I intend to buy flicker-free dimmable LED gear, unless advised otherwise.

Thanks in advance for your inputs.
 
It takes a lot of light to compete with the sun. Does the window have to be in the background?

You can use the light coming in through the window as your key light if you have a decent background the other direction. If it’s a pretty open room with lots of glass and lots of light coming in, you may not need that much light. Both of those options kinda suck when it gets cloudy or dark outside, though.

You just don’t need as much light if you aren’t trying to tame the window in the background unless you’re able to knock the window’s level down with ND gel or a scrim. If you’re absolutely committed to the window in the background, you’ll need a fairly powerful light. Look at the Aputure Light Storm C300D or the Intellytech F-165. The plus side to the window in the back is that it does provide your backlight. Get the light with a softbox (sold separately) and then grab a large 5-in-1 reflector with a stand and holder to bounce your key a little as a fill on the other side of your face.
 
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Thank you. The C300D is way over my budget, but the F-165 could fit if I squeeze my wallet a little bit.

The room is big and open only on one side, making it too dark most of the time. It is a music studio, and I'd like to be able to film myself at every station, which means sometimes in front of a window. I'd rather not have to dress the windows, for a more more spontaneous grab of the camera (and spotlight) when I feel like recording. Of course, a simple solution would be to close the curtains, but it would be a pity since the view is splendid. Note that we're not talking about having the sun in the frame, but a sunlit landscape in the Background. (Well, sometimes sunlit - it is Belgium after all ;))
 
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Note that we're not talking about having the sun in the frame, but a sunlit landscape in the Background. (Well, sometimes sunlit - it is Belgium after all ;))

Right, but any daylight outside the window is going to need some firepower for an interior foreground or the window will blow out and the sunlit landscape will be of no use.
 
Wow. Well, it depends as there is a significantly cheaper option. How about tungstens? Massive bang for your buck and 2000w will just about compensate for the sun.

A cheap, Chinese 2,000w blonde will cost you £100 and a used stand around £50.

The bulb will cost you around £10 and make sure you buy Osrams.

This is waaayyyy cheaper than LEDs where the absolute cheapest equivalents to tungstens (which have a green cast) will cost 2 or 3 times as much.
 
The "Coke" Solution is because gels are not adhesive and it uses the sugars, hmm maybe Sprite is better because clear ;) but for a YouTube studio it's perfect will stay up and can remove when u want and Windex will clean it off.
 
Just buy a cheap softbox kit off E-Bay, if you don't have one.

Place two softboxes in front of you. Arrange them however you like. Maybe place two on one side to give your face some contrast. Or just put one on each side to light evenly.

Then hold a gray card against your chest and set aperture against that. Remember, if you're shooting 30FPS to use a 1/60 shutter.

The light from the window may be blown out, but it sounds like that's the effect you're shooting for.
 
Just buy a cheap softbox kit off E-Bay, if you don't have one.

Beware cheap softbox kits from eBay.

Cheap tungsten softboxes are fire hazards. Cheap fluorescent sofbox kits have nasty green or magenta shifts and may flicker.

The light from the window may be blown out, but it sounds like that's the effect you're shooting for.

He’s said specifically that he wants the camera to be able to see the view outside the window. That brings us back to more light power, gelling the windows, and/or both.
 
Gelling the window with ND is the smartest solution imo. Spend like $125 on a roll and then find the lights you like most. If you're a baller on a budget? Go with tungsten and Gel the lights with CTB so that it matches the outside color.

Heres some links

.6 ND
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0089R11XG/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?tag=griptips-20

.9 ND (I recommend)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006TH98F6/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?tag=griptips-20

1.2 ND
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LGB0UK2/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?tag=griptips-20

heres also a tutorial link to what I did so you can see the difference
https://youtu.be/XRB05T-pU2A

As far as lights that I use for the show, its all tungsten and honestly I recommend the basic ARRI kit cause then you can get your return on investment when you rent it out to productions. I have the 5-light kit and its paid itself about 4-5 times over. LED is nice but most productions don't know what they want right now and if you're working in the industry, tungsten will always get rented first. I'll never sell it. Heres a link to that too along with another link to some CTB to gel those for color.

https://www.amazon.com/Arri-Softbank-IV-Tungsten-Light/dp/B0051645L8/ref=sr_1_25?tag=griptips-20

1/2 CTB (just so that you can fold the gel and put it on the light to get full CTB and still have an option to dial back)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000GQ3JWE/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?tag=griptips-20

hope this helps!
 
A different approach...cut down the amount of light coming through the window by stretching window screen fabric over the outside of the window. It will cut down the amount of light coming through the window significantly, so that you need less light inside your room. If needed, you can put two layers of screen over the window. The screen can be purchased from hardware stores (or Walmart) in large rolls.
 
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