Easy Video Lighting Fix: Unbleached Muslin Bounce
· Lighting · 2:14
Here’s a quick demo showing you the difference between lighting with unbleached muslin versus bleached white bounce materials. Using muslin is an easy way to warm up and revitalize a lighting design that’s yielding asty skin tones or generally muted results– and it’s easy to DIY! Let’s see how it’s done.
Some of my other studio gear:
Gear used or mentioned
The links below are Amazon, B&H Photo, Sweetwater, or other affiliate links. As an affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
- Unbleached Muslin Seamless Diffusion Fabric in various sizes — B&H
- Aputure 600D Pro Daylight LED Light — Aputure, B&H, Amazon
- Aputure Spotlight Max 36º Lens Kit — Aputure, B&H
- Sennheiser MKH50 microphone — B&H, Sweetwater, Amazon
- Sound Devices MixPre audio recorder — B&H, Sweetwater, Amazon
- Impact Turtle-Base C-Stands — B&H, Amazon
- Aputure LS 600x Pro Bicolor LED Light — Aputure, B&H, Amazon
- Aputure Light Dome III Softbox — Aputure, B&H
- Amaran 300c RGBWW Single-Point LED Light
- Amaran Spotlight SE — Aputure, B&H, Amazon
- Rosco Prismatic Glass Gobo in Cool Lavender — B&H
- Canon C70 Cinema Camera — B&H
- Canon RF 24-70 f/2.8 lens — B&H, Amazon
- Panasonic GH5 camera — B&H, Amazon
- Panasonic 12-35mm f/2.8 II lens — B&H, Amazon
Read the transcript
For talking-head and interview video, one way to warm up pasty or cool skin tones is bouncing or shooting light through unbleached muslin fabric — a slightly tan-colored, off-white cloth — rather than a bright white bounce surface. In this demo, a 600W daylight-balanced Aputure 600D Pro is bounced through a Spotlight Max modifier onto unbleached muslin as the key light.
Comparing unbleached muslin to a standard white-sided sound blanket bounce: the muslin produces noticeably nicer skin tones with less magenta cast and warmer highlights, versus the whiter, cooler highlight from the plain white bounce — a subtle but real difference.
The seamless piece of unbleached muslin used here (with grommets and ties, made specifically for gaffing/lighting work) cost about $79, though you can also DIY it affordably by buying unbleached muslin fabric from any fabric retailer. A simple, inexpensive addition to your lighting toolbox for subtly better skin tones. Get out there and make some great videos. Talk to you again soon.