Now simply put color temperature is describing how warm or how cool light is and so you can actually measure the temperature of this light in kelvin. So similar to going outside and saying it's 90 degrees Fahrenheit. I can look at a light like this and tell you that it is 5000 degrees kelvin. So kelvin is the unit that we measure light and that number before it is telling us how warm or how cold it is here's a really easy way to explain color temperature. So right here we have a light by gum it's the 560as led bi-color lights and so these lights can be warm and cool and that's a really cool thing about bi-color led lights so right now, it's at kelvin now the higher the number the cooler the light is this is more similar to what you're going to see outside and so on my phone.
It's connected through the gvm app. I can change the color temperature and you can see that is changing the color of the light to more of an orange and so right now it's at 2300 kelvin you can see. It's very orange this is almost like that fire kind of light or something like a warm lamp. That you would see in your house now remember that any light is going to have a color temperature. So whether you're outside in the sun or you're inside with an led light like this or even a light bulb. They're all going to have their own color temperature. Now inside your camera, you are going to see something called white balance and this goes hand in hand with the color temperature of your lights and so you want to set the correct white balance to get the truest and accurate colors.
We actually made a video on how to do this and we walk you through step by step you can click on the card or check the link in the description to check out that article. So let's light a scene here where we are going to be inside in the daytime and so we are going to be using lights that replicate the sun and that shaded kind of color temperature. So if you're wanting to add more light to your shot with these led lights. You want to make sure that the color on these lights match the same color temperature coming through those windows. Now the cool thing about these bi-color led lights is it's really easy to do with the knob on the back. You can just change the color temperature right there and match the lights. So that it looks like it is sunlight coming through the window typically.
If you were using bulbs to light a scene like this then you would need gels to get the right color temperature and that's really why I love bi-color-led lights. It's because it's so easy and so quick to get the right color temperature for your scene. Now when we were setting up our key light that kind of lights up that main part of my face we were using these gvm lights. Now they do say that they go from 2300 kelvin to 6800 kelvin but I did some tests on my Blackmagic camera and I found. That you're getting more around 2500 kelvin to 56.50 kelvin. Now, this is still a good range you're still able to get that warm light like this, and then you're also able to get that daylight type of vibe with that 56 50 kelvin although.
You do need to make sure that it is all the way cool to get that color temperature. So in the shot with that key light, we actually set the light to about 6 700 on the light even though. We were truly getting from the light about 5600 kelvin one of the cool things about these lights is that you can actually power them with sony pdf batteries and so on my hair light. I plugged in those batteries because I didn't want wires going all over the place and so this made it really easy to just throw it up in the air and then what was really cool is I could control it from my phone just sitting down. I could control the brightness and the color temperature just while looking at the monitor doing it from my phone this was really really cool starting with that back hair light we set that up on the c-stand. So it was outside of the frame and we set it to about 2800 kelvin to match that lamp in the background. When it came to our key light we had this just outside of the frame and we matched it to that daylight temperature and we had a softbox.
Just like this one on that key light so it gave a really nice soft effect and so you can actually pick these up separately and we'll have links to all the stuff in the description below. If you want to pick that up and so that helped to give a nice soft roll-off from the light to the shadows and with the third light in the kit we actually use this for a fill light and so I had a one-dollar bounce board. That I picked up from dollar tree I just simply clipped it to a light stand and then I bounced the light onto that board and this gave a really nice soft light onto the left side of my face. We're just kind of filled in the shadows and really made it a brighter shot. Now let's say it's night time just like this and we're shooting something indoors. Where the color temperature is going to be a lot warmer now sometimes when shooting inside you actually kind of want to get that warmer kind of look because our eyes are so used to that daylight color temperature.
That when we come inside and it's nighttime we're kind of used to having that warm mood and tv shows and movies sometimes do this where you see that the shot is on purpose very warm kind of orangey and that is because they have these warm lights and then what they're doing in-camera is they're making the color temperature a bit higher than what the lights are at so in the camera. I could set the white balance to 2700 kelvin but you can see that it just looks a little bit flat. I wanted more of those warm tones coming in to really give that warm nighttime lamp type of vibes. So what I did is I actually set the white balance in the camera to 3600 kelvin and that is going to warm up the image. Now with that being said let me kind of break down exactly how I set this up so you guys can do the same thing at home.
Now when I set up the shot I wanted that lamp to be in the shot to be my motivational light. So that I could bring in my key light on that same side so you can see in the shot that the lamp sits on that right side of the frame and then I set up my first key light on that right side of the frame as well and that is going to be coming in looking like it is a part of the lamp also looking like it maybe could be coming from a different lamp but it has that same color temperature. So it looks very natural in this shot now because that led light is bi-color it was very quick and easy to get it to the right color temperature to match that lamp and then I actually removed the diffusion and I kept that grid on there to kind of keep the grid pointing the light directly at what is a shower curtain.
So this is a dollar and I'm using this on a c-stand to kind of give a big nice soft light so that it can go onto me without you know that harsh light everything looks nice and soft. I also bought some clips from the dollar store to attach that shower curtain to the c-stand and really with positioning it. I wanted to bring it as close as possible to help get that soft light and then I just dialed in the power of the light until it was properly exposed now already the image is looking incredible but I wanted to add a little bit of that extra sauce onto the scene and so what I did is i went outside and I have that kind of moonlight or street lamp porch light whatever it is and I made it as cool as possible kind of to reflect that moonlight. So I set it all the way to 6500 kelvin and you want to use a sandbag so make sure, you're using sandbags whenever you're setting up light. So that nothing tips over but I used the NPF battery since that light was outside and I didn't have an outlet out there the nice thing was those sony pdf batteries were powering the light and have been working all day for me.
I set up the light by taking off the diffusion and the grid but I kept on that reflector dish that came with the softbox to give a little bit of extra power because it does make it a little bit brighter. When you have that on then all I had to do was make sure that the light was not in the frame. So I raised it up and moved it over until it was just out of frame. Now if you guys are looking to get into some led lights i definitely recommend getting something like a bi-color light because it's so versatile you can use it for something like this where it's nighttime and you have those warm lights but you can also have cooler lights or daylight temperature lights and so that is the really cool thing about bi-color LEDs coming up.
Next, I have three tips for you to get cinematic lighting in your article. So that you can be cool and look like a Hollywood director but if you enjoyed it. This article first way to like it and comment down below let me know what kind of lights do you use to light your videos all right tip number one is soft lighting. This is one of the biggest tips when it comes to lighting. That I tell people because this is something that I wish I would have learned earlier. Now hard lighting is when you get that like kind of spotlight onto your face and you get those hard shadows but soft lighting is a lot softer it's a lot more beautiful and it just looks good for when you're trying to do cinematic stuff is using that soft lighting. Now here are a few cheap ways to do it. If you don't have a bunch of money to go and get all this lighting gear one way is to get one of those one dollar white foam boards from the store.
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