The Numbers Game: How Much Does AdSense Pay on a Thousand Video Glimpses?

YouTubers are fantastic people who create content and make a living out of it. But have you ever thought about how much YouTube pays or what YouTube AdSense earnings are?

If you aren’t sure about the YouTube payment situation or how much AdSense pay for views, you will learn this below. Whether you’re planning to create a channel or already have one, learning how much you can expect YouTube to pay will help you in the longer run.

Be it AdSense pay on 1,000 views or AdSense pay per click; this blog features information you may appreciate.

1. Type of Content
2. Keywords
3. User Location
4. Time Requires to Get Views
5. Video Duration
6. Your Niche or Industry

• Pros and Cons of Earning Money from Google AdSense

Part 1: How Much Does AdSense Pay Per 1,000 Views

As a content creator, you might be tempted to know how much you can expect to earn through AdSense. Since it’s a free and simple way to make extra bucks, showing ads with the content you produce for online platforms, it’s essential to know how much it pays for views.

Pay Per 1,000 Views by AdSense

For 1,000 views, expect AdSense to pay around $8-$20. However, your total earnings will depend on factors such as your content type, users’ location, and setting of ads in Google AdSense, so it can pay on thousand views.

More so, AdSense opts for Revenue Per 1,000 impressions or (RPM) to showcase the amount you would get for 1,000 impressions. Remember, this RPM doesn’t include the actual amount you’ve earned. But it focuses on dividing your earnings by page views and impressions, then multiplying those by 1,000.

You can also refer to the formula for better understanding.

Formula:

RPM = (Estimated earnings / Number of page views) * 1000

From this formula provided by Google official, we can easily know that

Estimated earnings = (RPM * Number of page views) / 1000

To understand it further, see the example below.

Suppose you’ve earned around $0.10 from 20 page views; your page RPM would be $6.00 in simpler terms.

($0.10 / 25) * 1000 = $6.00

Also, if RPM is $4.00 from 45,000 ad impressions, your estimated earnings would be equal $180.00

($4.00 * 45,000) / 1000 = $180.00

AdSense Pay Per View

Lastly, if you’re looking for an exact answer regarding how much it pays per view, know that it varies and is based on different factors, such as niche or audience demographic.

But you can expect something between $8 to $12 on 1,000 views after monetizing your YouTube channel with your Google AdSense account.

Part 2: How Much Does AdSense Pay Per Click?

After understanding AdSense’s way to pay for 1,000 views, formula, or pay per view, here’s what you need to know about AdSense’s payment on per click policy.

On Average, you can expect AdSense to pay something around $0.20 to $15 on a click. Talking about estimated earnings or one click, it depends on the cost-per-click in the niche, including the publisher’s earnings and competition among rival advertisers.

And if you’re wondering, cost-per-click is when a user clicks on your ad, and you earn money for it. However, advertisers always decide the cost-per-click for ads. In this case, some advertisers don’t hesitate to pay extra, depending on what they intend to advertise.

Part 3: AdSense Earnings Per Thousand Pageviews Examples

From pay per 1,000 views to pay per click, understanding the AdSense payment policy is essential if you’re up to monetize your YouTube channel.

Since there’re YouTube AdSense requirements, such as audience demographic, niche, or content, learning about which niche is the lucrative one will also help you decide your next move.

Let’s take a look at the following examples for better understanding:

• For example, if arts and entertainment is your niche, you can expect to earn $5.62 after accumulating 1,000 pageviews.
• Creators who create content on vehicles can earn around $9.20 on every 1,000 pageviews.
• If you’re into beauty and fitness, expect to earn up to $13.01 on 1,000 pageviews.
• For real estate, health, home, and garden niches, you can earn $14.50, $17.40, and $23.35 on every 1,000 pageviews.

Remember, people from North America can make the most of these earnings. But worry not if you are based outside North America. Because Google AdSense revenue calculator can help you find the average pageviews on monthly basis.

Part 4: Earnings from AdSense: Factors to Consider

After learning how much you can earn in different niches, it’s equally important to focus on the following factors, so you can qualify and start earning from AdSense with ease.

1) Type of Content

To monetize your videos for AdSense, ensure that you own the rights to use visuals and audio elements of your video. And focus on creating all elements of your video yourself.

For YouTube, you can try creating tutorials, do-it-yourself videos, original short films, original music videos, home videos, travel vlogs, or even daily-life vlogs.

While creating content for YouTube, remember advertisers consider placing ads on more advertiser-friendly content.

As a blogger, you must provide unique but quality content to exceed AdSense’s eligibility criteria. Having unique content helps Google understand what your website is about. It’s even better if your website provides a one-of-its-kind experience and users visit it again.

Be it a vlog or blog, please ensure that it’s original and not a copy from other sources. This way, you can elevate your credibility on the respective platforms. For a great user experience, opt for intuitive navigation.

And to up your content game, you can even use the calculator to determine the value of your content and estimated revenue from AdSense.

2) Keywords

Keywords are phrases and words that describe your service or product. The ones you choose will help show your ads to users.

Therefore, go for the relevant yet high-quality keywords and add them to your ad campaigns. This strategy will put your ad in front of potential buyers.

3) User Location

Remember, AdSense follows geo-targeting strategy, so it can place ads on different pages. These ads are based on a user’s language, region, and IP address.

Put simply, ads serving to a user from Algeria may differ from the ads for a user from Georgia.

4) Time Requires to Get Views

There’s no fixed time frame; however, you can focus on search volume, audience, and competition to start getting the desired number of views.

The first 60 minutes are crucial after you post a video. Then, the next 24 hours and the first 48 hours are equally important because YouTube gives an unnatural boost to it. It helps YouTube observe responses, such as how viewers interacted with the video and what kinds of viewers were interested in it.

Remember, if a video fails to get any views in a couple of days, it won’t likely perform and will consider “dead” on the platform.

More so, if a video performs better slightly, it’ll start to reach its full potential in the next 3 to 6 months, according to the views it receives per day. Oftentimes, videos took up to a year to perform well.

And if your video starts to perform better and faster in those 3-6 months, it’ll likely do better in the longer run.

5) Video Duration

Focus on the length of your video, as it determines how many ads can be shown in it. This part also influences your earning potential. When your video is longer in length, it’ll increase its worth.

However, you must find the right balance between video duration, quality, and the number of videos on your channel, so you can continue to earn without hindrance.

6) Your Niche or Industry

Niche is another essential factor to opt for AdSense earnings. Some of the profitable topics are:

• Business
• Investment
• Health
• Insurance
• Online Marketing

You can choose the area that interest you the most and start people educating about it.

For example, people tend to think about investing their money to multiply it. You can create videos on investment-related topics, tips and tricks to get maximum views.

Part 5: Pros and Cons of Earning Money from Google AdSense

At this point, you’re familiar with almost all aspects of generating money using Google AdSense. And considering the factors, it seems like a task you can perform.

Before you try earning money via AdSense, consider the following pros and cons.

Pros

• Google AdSense doesn’t charge an extra fee. It’s a totally free service that can help you earn dollars.
• Don’t know how to make ads? Don’t worry; Google will do it for you.
• It enables you to use one account to monetize multiple websites.
• As a passive income, it doesn’t require additional effort.

Cons

• Making the first $100 is a must to get paid further.
• With AdSense, you won’t be allowed to use another ad network.
• A policy breach could make you lose your account.
• You need a lot of traffic to make some serious money.
• Adding several ads can annoy your viewers.

Final Words

Monetizing your YouTube channel for AdSense is great for having a steady passive income. But, it’s a time-consuming process and has a set of advantages and disadvantages.

If you already have a YouTube channel and a certain number of views, you can take it further using the provided information. However, focus on factors such as user demographic, content type, and quality to achieve long-term success.

Free Download For Win 7 or later(64-bit)

Free Download For macOS 10.14 or later

Part 1: How Much Does AdSense Pay Per 1,000 Views

As a content creator, you might be tempted to know how much you can expect to earn through AdSense. Since it’s a free and simple way to make extra bucks, showing ads with the content you produce for online platforms, it’s essential to know how much it pays for views.

Pay Per 1,000 Views by AdSense

For 1,000 views, expect AdSense to pay around $8-$20. However, your total earnings will depend on factors such as your content type, users’ location, and setting of ads in Google AdSense, so it can pay on thousand views.

More so, AdSense opts for Revenue Per 1,000 impressions or (RPM) to showcase the amount you would get for 1,000 impressions. Remember, this RPM doesn’t include the actual amount you’ve earned. But it focuses on dividing your earnings by page views and impressions, then multiplying those by 1,000.

You can also refer to the formula for better understanding.

Formula:

RPM = (Estimated earnings / Number of page views) * 1000

From this formula provided by Google official, we can easily know that

Estimated earnings = (RPM * Number of page views) / 1000

To understand it further, see the example below.

Suppose you’ve earned around $0.10 from 20 page views; your page RPM would be $6.00 in simpler terms.

($0.10 / 25) * 1000 = $6.00

Also, if RPM is $4.00 from 45,000 ad impressions, your estimated earnings would be equal $180.00

($4.00 * 45,000) / 1000 = $180.00

AdSense Pay Per View

Lastly, if you’re looking for an exact answer regarding how much it pays per view, know that it varies and is based on different factors, such as niche or audience demographic.

But you can expect something between $8 to $12 on 1,000 views after monetizing your YouTube channel with your Google AdSense account.

Part 2: How Much Does AdSense Pay Per Click?

After understanding AdSense’s way to pay for 1,000 views, formula, or pay per view, here’s what you need to know about AdSense’s payment on per click policy.

On Average, you can expect AdSense to pay something around $0.20 to $15 on a click. Talking about estimated earnings or one click, it depends on the cost-per-click in the niche, including the publisher’s earnings and competition among rival advertisers.

And if you’re wondering, cost-per-click is when a user clicks on your ad, and you earn money for it. However, advertisers always decide the cost-per-click for ads. In this case, some advertisers don’t hesitate to pay extra, depending on what they intend to advertise.

Part 3: AdSense Earnings Per Thousand Pageviews Examples

From pay per 1,000 views to pay per click, understanding the AdSense payment policy is essential if you’re up to monetize your YouTube channel.

Since there’re YouTube AdSense requirements, such as audience demographic, niche, or content, learning about which niche is the lucrative one will also help you decide your next move.

Let’s take a look at the following examples for better understanding:

• For example, if arts and entertainment is your niche, you can expect to earn $5.62 after accumulating 1,000 pageviews.
• Creators who create content on vehicles can earn around $9.20 on every 1,000 pageviews.
• If you’re into beauty and fitness, expect to earn up to $13.01 on 1,000 pageviews.
• For real estate, health, home, and garden niches, you can earn $14.50, $17.40, and $23.35 on every 1,000 pageviews.

Remember, people from North America can make the most of these earnings. But worry not if you are based outside North America. Because Google AdSense revenue calculator can help you find the average pageviews on monthly basis.

Part 4: Earnings from AdSense: Factors to Consider

After learning how much you can earn in different niches, it’s equally important to focus on the following factors, so you can qualify and start earning from AdSense with ease.

1) Type of Content

To monetize your videos for AdSense, ensure that you own the rights to use visuals and audio elements of your video. And focus on creating all elements of your video yourself.

For YouTube, you can try creating tutorials, do-it-yourself videos, original short films, original music videos, home videos, travel vlogs, or even daily-life vlogs.

While creating content for YouTube, remember advertisers consider placing ads on more advertiser-friendly content.

As a blogger, you must provide unique but quality content to exceed AdSense’s eligibility criteria. Having unique content helps Google understand what your website is about. It’s even better if your website provides a one-of-its-kind experience and users visit it again.

Be it a vlog or blog, please ensure that it’s original and not a copy from other sources. This way, you can elevate your credibility on the respective platforms. For a great user experience, opt for intuitive navigation.

And to up your content game, you can even use the calculator to determine the value of your content and estimated revenue from AdSense.

2) Keywords

Keywords are phrases and words that describe your service or product. The ones you choose will help show your ads to users.

Therefore, go for the relevant yet high-quality keywords and add them to your ad campaigns. This strategy will put your ad in front of potential buyers.

3) User Location

Remember, AdSense follows geo-targeting strategy, so it can place ads on different pages. These ads are based on a user’s language, region, and IP address.

Put simply, ads serving to a user from Algeria may differ from the ads for a user from Georgia.

4) Time Requires to Get Views

There’s no fixed time frame; however, you can focus on search volume, audience, and competition to start getting the desired number of views.

The first 60 minutes are crucial after you post a video. Then, the next 24 hours and the first 48 hours are equally important because YouTube gives an unnatural boost to it. It helps YouTube observe responses, such as how viewers interacted with the video and what kinds of viewers were interested in it.

Remember, if a video fails to get any views in a couple of days, it won’t likely perform and will consider “dead” on the platform.

More so, if a video performs better slightly, it’ll start to reach its full potential in the next 3 to 6 months, according to the views it receives per day. Oftentimes, videos took up to a year to perform well.

And if your video starts to perform better and faster in those 3-6 months, it’ll likely do better in the longer run.

5) Video Duration

Focus on the length of your video, as it determines how many ads can be shown in it. This part also influences your earning potential. When your video is longer in length, it’ll increase its worth.

However, you must find the right balance between video duration, quality, and the number of videos on your channel, so you can continue to earn without hindrance.

6) Your Niche or Industry

Niche is another essential factor to opt for AdSense earnings. Some of the profitable topics are:

• Business
• Investment
• Health
• Insurance
• Online Marketing

You can choose the area that interest you the most and start people educating about it.

For example, people tend to think about investing their money to multiply it. You can create videos on investment-related topics, tips and tricks to get maximum views.

Part 5: Pros and Cons of Earning Money from Google AdSense

At this point, you’re familiar with almost all aspects of generating money using Google AdSense. And considering the factors, it seems like a task you can perform.

Before you try earning money via AdSense, consider the following pros and cons.

Pros

• Google AdSense doesn’t charge an extra fee. It’s a totally free service that can help you earn dollars.
• Don’t know how to make ads? Don’t worry; Google will do it for you.
• It enables you to use one account to monetize multiple websites.
• As a passive income, it doesn’t require additional effort.

Cons

• Making the first $100 is a must to get paid further.
• With AdSense, you won’t be allowed to use another ad network.
• A policy breach could make you lose your account.
• You need a lot of traffic to make some serious money.
• Adding several ads can annoy your viewers.

Final Words

Monetizing your YouTube channel for AdSense is great for having a steady passive income. But, it’s a time-consuming process and has a set of advantages and disadvantages.

If you already have a YouTube channel and a certain number of views, you can take it further using the provided information. However, focus on factors such as user demographic, content type, and quality to achieve long-term success.

Free Download For Win 7 or later(64-bit)

Free Download For macOS 10.14 or later

Perfect Lighting Setup for Engaging YouTube Videos

How To Light Your YouTube Video

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

When it comes to sensitivity to light, no consumer-level camera sensor comes close in performance to the human eye. Many newbies to videography, though, don’t think about this when they use their camera indoors and discover that their recorded footage appears too dark.

If you want to use your camera indoors as many YouTubers do, you’ll need to have extra light. But the solution is not as simple as surrounding yourself with lamps that are all randomly placed.

Below, I’ll go into detail on how you can set up your lighting equipment to make your YouTube videos look good.

Table of Contents Using Light You Already Have Window LightingHome Lighting Home Studio Lighting Light Control3-Point Lighting4-Point Lighting

Part 1: Using Light You Already Have

Most beginner YouTubers light their videos with what they already have. That’s what I did to start as well. In the past, my video recording space consisted of natural sunlight coming from my window and ceiling light for times when the sunlight wasn’t strong enough.

1. Window Lighting

The best thing about window lighting is that it’s free. The worst thing about it is that it’s uncontrollable. The amount of light you get in your video can vary with all the changes in the weather.

Window lighting for me was especially difficult to work with because I live in a very rainy and cloudy city, Vancouver, Canada, where we pretty much just get three months of good sun.

Above are two freeze frames from one of Daniel’s past window-lit vlogs. Although these two frames are both from the same vlog, you can see that the image on the right looks brighter due to clearer skies at that moment. These varying amounts of light is what you will have to deal with if you choose to light your YouTube video with window lighting.

2. Home Lighting

Home lighting is another source of light that many new YouTubers use. In the past, when my window light wasn’t strong enough to light my video recording space, I would turn on the ceiling light.

Notice how the color of Daniel’s skin looks much more orange here (above) than the color of the skin in the two side-by-side window lighting examples? The side of the face also appears to look bluer. This all happened because he mixed up different color temperatures shining out of the two lights (cooler window light and warmer ceiling light).

Most home lighting is warmer in its color temperature. If you want to use your home lights without everything being orange-tinted, you’ll need to switch out your light bulbs for daytime LED light bulbs.

Ceiling lights are also typically situated in the center of a room in order to light an entire room evenly. This is not likely to be the best location for your filming video. Since the ceiling light was directly above the face in the above example, you can see harder shadows beneath his cheeks.

Part 2: Home Studio Lighting

If you rather not deal with all the window and home lighting challenges, you can set up studio lighting in your home.

1. Light Control

The first thing you’ll want to do to set up studio lighting in your home is to pick a room to film in and eliminate as much external lighting as you can. Use blinds, curtains, towels, or any thick fabric to block sunlight from shining into your room.

2. 3-Point Lighting

The most common setup for studio lighting is 3-point lighting. For this kind of lighting you’ll need three lights: a key light, a fill light, and a back light (also called a hair light).

Out of the three lights, the key light should be the brightest. When it is positioned to the left of you (as shown in the diagram above) your right side will have shadows.

To minimize the shadows on your right side, use a weaker light as a fill light. You don’t want your fill light to completely eliminate all your shadows or else your shot will look flat.

Lastly, a backlight positioned behind you can give an appealing highlight to the ends of your head and even help to separate your hair from blending into your background if both happen to be dark.

3. 4-Point Lighting

As a YouTuber, you may not only want yourself to be seen optimally with proper lighting, but you may also want your background to be seen optimally, especially if you’ve taken the time to decorate it for your audience.

What you’ll need to ensure that your background is sufficiently lit is 4-point lighting setup. The 4-point lighting setup is the same as a 3-point lighting setup, but with an additional light shining at your background.

For more information on lighting equipment, check out my Top 17 Video Lighting Equipment For YouTubers .

Touch Up YouTube Videos with Filmora

Filmora is one of the best video editing software for YouTube beginners to start the YouTube channel. So, if you find the lighting isn’t perfect after recording, you can use the Auto Color Enhancement feature in Filmora to adjust the color with one-click. Or, you can change the white balance, Light, color, and HSL manually. Filmora also features some presets and LUTs templates , which allows you to apply pre-programmed effects to video for color correction faster.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

When it comes to sensitivity to light, no consumer-level camera sensor comes close in performance to the human eye. Many newbies to videography, though, don’t think about this when they use their camera indoors and discover that their recorded footage appears too dark.

If you want to use your camera indoors as many YouTubers do, you’ll need to have extra light. But the solution is not as simple as surrounding yourself with lamps that are all randomly placed.

Below, I’ll go into detail on how you can set up your lighting equipment to make your YouTube videos look good.

Table of Contents Using Light You Already Have Window LightingHome Lighting Home Studio Lighting Light Control3-Point Lighting4-Point Lighting

Part 1: Using Light You Already Have

Most beginner YouTubers light their videos with what they already have. That’s what I did to start as well. In the past, my video recording space consisted of natural sunlight coming from my window and ceiling light for times when the sunlight wasn’t strong enough.

1. Window Lighting

The best thing about window lighting is that it’s free. The worst thing about it is that it’s uncontrollable. The amount of light you get in your video can vary with all the changes in the weather.

Window lighting for me was especially difficult to work with because I live in a very rainy and cloudy city, Vancouver, Canada, where we pretty much just get three months of good sun.

Above are two freeze frames from one of Daniel’s past window-lit vlogs. Although these two frames are both from the same vlog, you can see that the image on the right looks brighter due to clearer skies at that moment. These varying amounts of light is what you will have to deal with if you choose to light your YouTube video with window lighting.

2. Home Lighting

Home lighting is another source of light that many new YouTubers use. In the past, when my window light wasn’t strong enough to light my video recording space, I would turn on the ceiling light.

Notice how the color of Daniel’s skin looks much more orange here (above) than the color of the skin in the two side-by-side window lighting examples? The side of the face also appears to look bluer. This all happened because he mixed up different color temperatures shining out of the two lights (cooler window light and warmer ceiling light).

Most home lighting is warmer in its color temperature. If you want to use your home lights without everything being orange-tinted, you’ll need to switch out your light bulbs for daytime LED light bulbs.

Ceiling lights are also typically situated in the center of a room in order to light an entire room evenly. This is not likely to be the best location for your filming video. Since the ceiling light was directly above the face in the above example, you can see harder shadows beneath his cheeks.

Part 2: Home Studio Lighting

If you rather not deal with all the window and home lighting challenges, you can set up studio lighting in your home.

1. Light Control

The first thing you’ll want to do to set up studio lighting in your home is to pick a room to film in and eliminate as much external lighting as you can. Use blinds, curtains, towels, or any thick fabric to block sunlight from shining into your room.

2. 3-Point Lighting

The most common setup for studio lighting is 3-point lighting. For this kind of lighting you’ll need three lights: a key light, a fill light, and a back light (also called a hair light).

Out of the three lights, the key light should be the brightest. When it is positioned to the left of you (as shown in the diagram above) your right side will have shadows.

To minimize the shadows on your right side, use a weaker light as a fill light. You don’t want your fill light to completely eliminate all your shadows or else your shot will look flat.

Lastly, a backlight positioned behind you can give an appealing highlight to the ends of your head and even help to separate your hair from blending into your background if both happen to be dark.

3. 4-Point Lighting

As a YouTuber, you may not only want yourself to be seen optimally with proper lighting, but you may also want your background to be seen optimally, especially if you’ve taken the time to decorate it for your audience.

What you’ll need to ensure that your background is sufficiently lit is 4-point lighting setup. The 4-point lighting setup is the same as a 3-point lighting setup, but with an additional light shining at your background.

For more information on lighting equipment, check out my Top 17 Video Lighting Equipment For YouTubers .

Touch Up YouTube Videos with Filmora

Filmora is one of the best video editing software for YouTube beginners to start the YouTube channel. So, if you find the lighting isn’t perfect after recording, you can use the Auto Color Enhancement feature in Filmora to adjust the color with one-click. Or, you can change the white balance, Light, color, and HSL manually. Filmora also features some presets and LUTs templates , which allows you to apply pre-programmed effects to video for color correction faster.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

When it comes to sensitivity to light, no consumer-level camera sensor comes close in performance to the human eye. Many newbies to videography, though, don’t think about this when they use their camera indoors and discover that their recorded footage appears too dark.

If you want to use your camera indoors as many YouTubers do, you’ll need to have extra light. But the solution is not as simple as surrounding yourself with lamps that are all randomly placed.

Below, I’ll go into detail on how you can set up your lighting equipment to make your YouTube videos look good.

Table of Contents Using Light You Already Have Window LightingHome Lighting Home Studio Lighting Light Control3-Point Lighting4-Point Lighting

Part 1: Using Light You Already Have

Most beginner YouTubers light their videos with what they already have. That’s what I did to start as well. In the past, my video recording space consisted of natural sunlight coming from my window and ceiling light for times when the sunlight wasn’t strong enough.

1. Window Lighting

The best thing about window lighting is that it’s free. The worst thing about it is that it’s uncontrollable. The amount of light you get in your video can vary with all the changes in the weather.

Window lighting for me was especially difficult to work with because I live in a very rainy and cloudy city, Vancouver, Canada, where we pretty much just get three months of good sun.

Above are two freeze frames from one of Daniel’s past window-lit vlogs. Although these two frames are both from the same vlog, you can see that the image on the right looks brighter due to clearer skies at that moment. These varying amounts of light is what you will have to deal with if you choose to light your YouTube video with window lighting.

2. Home Lighting

Home lighting is another source of light that many new YouTubers use. In the past, when my window light wasn’t strong enough to light my video recording space, I would turn on the ceiling light.

Notice how the color of Daniel’s skin looks much more orange here (above) than the color of the skin in the two side-by-side window lighting examples? The side of the face also appears to look bluer. This all happened because he mixed up different color temperatures shining out of the two lights (cooler window light and warmer ceiling light).

Most home lighting is warmer in its color temperature. If you want to use your home lights without everything being orange-tinted, you’ll need to switch out your light bulbs for daytime LED light bulbs.

Ceiling lights are also typically situated in the center of a room in order to light an entire room evenly. This is not likely to be the best location for your filming video. Since the ceiling light was directly above the face in the above example, you can see harder shadows beneath his cheeks.

Part 2: Home Studio Lighting

If you rather not deal with all the window and home lighting challenges, you can set up studio lighting in your home.

1. Light Control

The first thing you’ll want to do to set up studio lighting in your home is to pick a room to film in and eliminate as much external lighting as you can. Use blinds, curtains, towels, or any thick fabric to block sunlight from shining into your room.

2. 3-Point Lighting

The most common setup for studio lighting is 3-point lighting. For this kind of lighting you’ll need three lights: a key light, a fill light, and a back light (also called a hair light).

Out of the three lights, the key light should be the brightest. When it is positioned to the left of you (as shown in the diagram above) your right side will have shadows.

To minimize the shadows on your right side, use a weaker light as a fill light. You don’t want your fill light to completely eliminate all your shadows or else your shot will look flat.

Lastly, a backlight positioned behind you can give an appealing highlight to the ends of your head and even help to separate your hair from blending into your background if both happen to be dark.

3. 4-Point Lighting

As a YouTuber, you may not only want yourself to be seen optimally with proper lighting, but you may also want your background to be seen optimally, especially if you’ve taken the time to decorate it for your audience.

What you’ll need to ensure that your background is sufficiently lit is 4-point lighting setup. The 4-point lighting setup is the same as a 3-point lighting setup, but with an additional light shining at your background.

For more information on lighting equipment, check out my Top 17 Video Lighting Equipment For YouTubers .

Touch Up YouTube Videos with Filmora

Filmora is one of the best video editing software for YouTube beginners to start the YouTube channel. So, if you find the lighting isn’t perfect after recording, you can use the Auto Color Enhancement feature in Filmora to adjust the color with one-click. Or, you can change the white balance, Light, color, and HSL manually. Filmora also features some presets and LUTs templates , which allows you to apply pre-programmed effects to video for color correction faster.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

When it comes to sensitivity to light, no consumer-level camera sensor comes close in performance to the human eye. Many newbies to videography, though, don’t think about this when they use their camera indoors and discover that their recorded footage appears too dark.

If you want to use your camera indoors as many YouTubers do, you’ll need to have extra light. But the solution is not as simple as surrounding yourself with lamps that are all randomly placed.

Below, I’ll go into detail on how you can set up your lighting equipment to make your YouTube videos look good.

Table of Contents Using Light You Already Have Window LightingHome Lighting Home Studio Lighting Light Control3-Point Lighting4-Point Lighting

Part 1: Using Light You Already Have

Most beginner YouTubers light their videos with what they already have. That’s what I did to start as well. In the past, my video recording space consisted of natural sunlight coming from my window and ceiling light for times when the sunlight wasn’t strong enough.

1. Window Lighting

The best thing about window lighting is that it’s free. The worst thing about it is that it’s uncontrollable. The amount of light you get in your video can vary with all the changes in the weather.

Window lighting for me was especially difficult to work with because I live in a very rainy and cloudy city, Vancouver, Canada, where we pretty much just get three months of good sun.

Above are two freeze frames from one of Daniel’s past window-lit vlogs. Although these two frames are both from the same vlog, you can see that the image on the right looks brighter due to clearer skies at that moment. These varying amounts of light is what you will have to deal with if you choose to light your YouTube video with window lighting.

2. Home Lighting

Home lighting is another source of light that many new YouTubers use. In the past, when my window light wasn’t strong enough to light my video recording space, I would turn on the ceiling light.

Notice how the color of Daniel’s skin looks much more orange here (above) than the color of the skin in the two side-by-side window lighting examples? The side of the face also appears to look bluer. This all happened because he mixed up different color temperatures shining out of the two lights (cooler window light and warmer ceiling light).

Most home lighting is warmer in its color temperature. If you want to use your home lights without everything being orange-tinted, you’ll need to switch out your light bulbs for daytime LED light bulbs.

Ceiling lights are also typically situated in the center of a room in order to light an entire room evenly. This is not likely to be the best location for your filming video. Since the ceiling light was directly above the face in the above example, you can see harder shadows beneath his cheeks.

Part 2: Home Studio Lighting

If you rather not deal with all the window and home lighting challenges, you can set up studio lighting in your home.

1. Light Control

The first thing you’ll want to do to set up studio lighting in your home is to pick a room to film in and eliminate as much external lighting as you can. Use blinds, curtains, towels, or any thick fabric to block sunlight from shining into your room.

2. 3-Point Lighting

The most common setup for studio lighting is 3-point lighting. For this kind of lighting you’ll need three lights: a key light, a fill light, and a back light (also called a hair light).

Out of the three lights, the key light should be the brightest. When it is positioned to the left of you (as shown in the diagram above) your right side will have shadows.

To minimize the shadows on your right side, use a weaker light as a fill light. You don’t want your fill light to completely eliminate all your shadows or else your shot will look flat.

Lastly, a backlight positioned behind you can give an appealing highlight to the ends of your head and even help to separate your hair from blending into your background if both happen to be dark.

3. 4-Point Lighting

As a YouTuber, you may not only want yourself to be seen optimally with proper lighting, but you may also want your background to be seen optimally, especially if you’ve taken the time to decorate it for your audience.

What you’ll need to ensure that your background is sufficiently lit is 4-point lighting setup. The 4-point lighting setup is the same as a 3-point lighting setup, but with an additional light shining at your background.

For more information on lighting equipment, check out my Top 17 Video Lighting Equipment For YouTubers .

Touch Up YouTube Videos with Filmora

Filmora is one of the best video editing software for YouTube beginners to start the YouTube channel. So, if you find the lighting isn’t perfect after recording, you can use the Auto Color Enhancement feature in Filmora to adjust the color with one-click. Or, you can change the white balance, Light, color, and HSL manually. Filmora also features some presets and LUTs templates , which allows you to apply pre-programmed effects to video for color correction faster.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

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