By popular demand, I’ve jotted down some details about my updated “cinematic” Live Streaming Studio V3 setup and gear. I’ve also shared some Lessons Learned at the end of this article that might be helpful if you also want to achieve a more professional or “cinematic” look for your streaming or Zoom calls.
UPDATE 2025: On my color grading in 2025
UPDATE 2024: On my color grading in 2024
UPDATED to Lighting & Look v3.1: Above, a screenshot from my current v3.1 setup.
See for yourself in the video below what v3.0 actually looks looked like when recorded and check out the comprehensive list (constantly updated) of the gear I’m currently using to achieve the look on this page.
I’ve since added back some contrast, some more definition or 3D-ness, by returning to a higher ratio / difference between key and fill light for the v3.1 as opposed to v3.0 that had a tad too little definition (and was a little too heavy on the red/warm side), as seen in the video below.
Of note, video compression in conferencing or streaming software tend to smear the image a whole lot (that’s why I have the camera output set to be so sharp – more details in = more details out when compressed in Zoom), and depending on the conferencing software and the operating system, things happen to your saturation and gamma – so it can take a bit of trial and error, aka brute-forcing, to get to a color grade and look that makes for a usable correction LUT for your setup outside of DaVinci Resolve, considering the whole signal chain.
Fun fact: One of the other changes from v3 to v3.1 is the choice of microphone. Can you hear it? (One costs 1.600,- Euros, the other 117,-). I’m actually now using the cheap-ass microphone(!) instead of my (still beloved) Neumann. Check out this list of gear for the deets.
