If your videos look flat, harsh, or just “off,” the problem usually isn’t your camera — it’s your lighting. In this tutorial, AJ walks through his complete studio lighting setup: how to go from harsh overhead house lights to a soft, cinematic look using affordable gear, and the common mistakes that ruin most creators’ lighting.
Watch the full walkthrough here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mC6ZzTG9f8E
Step 1: Kill the house lights
Before adding any light, turn off everything else. Mixed color temperatures — warm tungsten sconces on one wall, daylight bulbs on the other — fight each other and make skin tones impossible to get right. Start from pitch black and build your look intentionally, one light at a time.
Step 2: Set your key light (the most important one)
Your key light is the main light on your face. AJ uses a Godox VL-150 with a Neewer softbox and light grid.
Two mistakes to avoid:
Don’t put it directly in front of you or on the camera. That gives you a flat, shadowless look. Instead, place it off to the side at roughly a 45-degree angle so you get gentle shadow on one side of your face — that contour is what makes the image look dimensional instead of flat. If you wear glasses, raise it to about 45 degrees up as well to avoid glare.
Don’t shoot a bare COB light straight at yourself. Without diffusion, the shadows are harsh with hard edges. The softbox gives you a smooth falloff from highlights to shadows, and the grid keeps spill off your background so you can control where the light goes.
Step 3: Add a shoulder (hair) light
Mounted above and behind, AJ uses a Godox SL60 (https://adorama.rfvk.net/rnZ0bj) as his shoulder/hair light to separate him from the background.
Mistakes to avoid:
Don’t crank it to 100%. An overpowering backlight looks amateur fast. Keep it subtle.
Don’t use random colors. If you add color to your hair light, make sure it matches or is inspired by light already in the scene — or use basic color theory for intentional contrast.
Step 4: Light the background (not the whole room)
For the background, AJ uses a Neewer RGB480 panel placed directly behind him, aimed at the wall.
The big mistake: lighting the entire space instead of just the background. Putting background lights on stands that wash the whole room — or bouncing them off the floor or ceiling — creates an ambient color cast over everything, including your skin. Aim the light at the background only. Done right, you get a nice gradient that draws the viewer’s eye to the center of the frame.
Step 5: Add an accent light
AJ adds a Viltrox Weeylite RB9 pocket light as an accent. Small RGB pocket lights like this are versatile — bright enough to work as a travel key light in a pinch, with nicer falloff than smaller competitors.
Step 6: Fill the shadows with a reflector
If one side of your face is too dark, you don’t necessarily need another light — a 5-in-1 reflector bouncing your key light back is often enough.
Two mistakes to avoid:
Don’t overfill. You want a sculpted image with both light and shadow, not perfectly even lighting on both sides.
Use the right side. Silver is the go-to for a stronger bounce; white gives a softer bounce; gold adds warmth. Silver over white is a common mix-up. AJ uses silver here because his main source is already a big softbox, so the bounced light stays soft.
The complete setup
Key: Godox VL-150 + Neewer softbox with grid — 45° to the side, 45° up for glasses
Hair/shoulder: Godox SL60 (https://adorama.rfvk.net/rnZ0bj), kept subtle
Background: Neewer RGB480 aimed at the wall behind, gradient effect
Accent: Viltrox Weeylite RB9 pocket light
Fill: 5-in-1 reflector bouncing the key
That’s it — five pieces of affordable gear, placed with intention, and the difference is night and day.
This post is based on AJ’s video tutorial — watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mC6ZzTG9f8E. Gear links above are affiliate links that support the channel at no extra cost to you.
Want help making better videos? Work with A.J. Williams Media: https://www.ajwilliamsmedia.com.
