If you live in Sweden or other countries on the same latitude, you know that the light of the sun is very special and rare during the winter.

For videos, we need enough light to have a correct exposure, but we also need lightning to create a “filmic look” to support our story.

The challenge we have for corporate and documentary shots from a lightning perspektive are mainly logistics and a small crew. We can’t afford a large truck with lightning equipment, a dedicated gaffer and a bunch of best boys/girls.

We don’t have our own studio, instead we shoot everything on location, thus some of the limitations.

The requirements we have are as follows:

Fast to set-up & take down
Easy to transport

Decent to good light quality

Support three point lightning

Not to expensive

Our basic lightning kit for corporate and interviews contains the following items.

We have now an Aputure Amaran kit with one 672S LED and two 672W LED in a bag. The panels are powered with batteries or via 220V. The bag also includes a Manfrotto Superclamp, a power strip from IKEA and a roll of gaffer tape.

The combination of one more narrow LED and two wider gives us the possibility to setup a classic three-point lightning.

Right now, we don’t have any extra batteries, but I have already seen the need for it during outdoor shooting in the dark hours.

There are also three Manfrotto 1051 BAC tripods with a bag in this kit. If needed, we can bring sandbags with us to stabilize the tripods, but as they are 6 kg a piece, we try to avoid them if possible.

We have large reflector boards and flags in different sizes to be used on C-stands, but this need another kind of logistics.

Our approach is therefore to complement the lightning bag with one foldable Lastolite Reflector, one Lastolite Diffusor and a telescopic holder as in the picture above.