How to find FLOW...First Shooting with an LED Light Set Up

Just published the latest entry in the How to Defeat Dudes Video Blog: How to Find Flow and Truly enjoy your training. I was really happy to get this vlog up for a myriad of reasons. For one, the idea of FLOW is something that doesn't just pertain to martial arts: it rests at the core of your enjoyment for any kind of activity, hobby, work or sport, and once you understand the concept it can do wonders for not just the degree to which you enjoy the things you do, but also the degree to which you progress in it as well. Furthermore, if you are not enjoying what you do, then understanding flow can also contribute to your ability to pinpoint what exactly the problem is.

Beyond that though, another reason that I wanted to get this vid up was because it was the first one I shot using a camera-mount LED light set-up that I picked up not too long ago. A few months back while I was still working on the video game job that I was doing for most of last year, a camera crew came on set and was interviewing each of us about the game. I took particular note of the set up they were using. Like a lot of interview/ documentary type things (at least shot by non-Japanese directors or camera crews) they were shooting it on a DSLR. What actually caught my attention however wasn't the camera; it was the LED light they were using. It was small enough, light enough (and cool enough) that the camera man could actually hold it in one hand and work his magic, and still packed a hell ofa punch in terms of the light that it was able to put out, and I decided that given how much time I spend both in front of and behind the camera, I thought that perhaps this little light would be a worthy investment.

Also recently I had read that one of the biggest mistakes up-and-coming directors make is that they think they need to invest in a super expensive $2000 camera, when in actuality, all they really need is good lighting. This flow video was my second attempt at shooting with it.

In the first attempt, which you can see in the previous video blog (How to Defeat Dudes on Cable TV), I tried to shoot it with a piece of opaque wax paper over the light to soften it, and as a function of that, it still ended up being too dark, and I can to fix the lighting with color correction. While it didn't look too bad (as you can see below), it made the colors look a lot more washed out and in darker areas that are underexposed, you can see pixelation on my arms from time to time.
Another thing that's nice about this LED light however is that because the light isn't imitating from a single bulb (or perhaps because its just the nature of LED lights) it not so bright that it will blind you to have it going in your general direction while you are filming. That's what I tried in the FLOW blog and as you can see below, even just using the standard iMac built in camera, it worked out pretty well. The colors are considerably more rich, there was little or no need for color correction, and underexposure on darker areas wasn't really an issue anymore. Most people who saw the vid thought I had actually gotten a new camera, when it actuality, it was simply better lighting. The only way you can even tell Im using it is if you watch the video closely, you can see a very slight shadowing of my hands on my shirt or on the white shelving behind me.
Before I could never should anything in my house after mid afternoon, because there wasn't enough southern sun coming in front the glass door next to my PC to light both sides of my face. One side was always dark. Likewise, at night, with the light in the middle of the room, I had the same problem on the opposite side of my face. Now whether I am filming a blog at dusk or in the middle of the night, either way, I can just use the light to compensate the darker side of my face. For that versatility alone, this light was a worthy purchase. Beyond that, again because it is small, light and easy to carry, I was actually able to bring it and use it on a professional shoot as well for a new show I am hosting on TOKYOPOP's YouTube channel.

You can see a small clip of it here in this vid. Useful stuff. Not bad for $150 bucks. Yosh.