Lighting Up Your Live Stream: Four Common Lighting Problems and How to Fix Them

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Are you wondering why you might be losing viewers for your live stream? Poor lighting could be one of the contributing factors.

You might have noticed that your lighting doesn’t look as good on your live stream as it does in person. The most common suggestion to fix this issue is to add more lights, but that can be an expensive fix that will not necessarily solve the issue. 

Our team put together a few helpful solutions to improve common lighting problems for your church live streams: 

Problem 1: Shadows on speakers’ faces.

You might see shadows under hair, noses, or eyebrows during a stream because of overhead lights shining directly down onto the pastor speaking. The simplest way to fix this is by adjusting your lights to shine at an angle towards the stage or pulpit to eliminate the harsh shadows. 

Problem 2: Your video is too dark.

You can fix this by opening the aperture of your camera lens to be wider or slow down the shutter speed. This might also be caused by light from behind your pulpit, stage, or speakers. If you have a bright window behind your speakers, the camera will balance the light by making the video darker. If you can close or block off any bright windows or light sources behind your stage or pulpit, that will also solve this problem.

Problem 3: You see dark spots on the stage.

These are usually caused by a lack of lighting or gaps in lighting. Try to reposition your lights above the stage to cover the stage more evenly. You could also add additional lighting fixtures to fill in the empty spaces. 

Problem 4: The natural lighting is overwhelming.

If your stage or pulpit has large windows that cover them in sunlight, it might make your speakers “glow”. One way to fix this is by repositioning your cameras so that the windows are not in the shot, you could also add shades or blinds to the windows to reduce the harshness of the sunlight.

At LiveControl, we help our clients troubleshoot these problems by installing our two PTZ (pan-tilt-zoom) cameras in optimal spots in their worship space. And, during a service, our expert camera operators ensure that they get the best shots during your live stream. 

To learn more about how we can help you improve your live stream, schedule a free demo with our team here.