I work in theatre (and am going to school for technical production with a specialization in electrics and lighting) so lighting is kind of my thing!! Though I recently moved, and I'm still putting off lighting my room the way I want to. Have to wait for landlord permission to install fixtures.
Fixtures/Lamps:
Table lamps go a long way! I currently even use just a tiny ikea USB reading light. Small, strong, long life, and easily adjustable during a show. Even lying down I can just kick it down or nudge it to highlight or adjust for the tiniest movement, which is very handy. The downside is that it's a very harsh light, and sunspots are inevitable even out of the corner of your eye, haha. If you use something like that, toss a tissue or 1 ply of toilet paper over it, and stick an elastic band to hold it in place as a poor woman's diffuser/frost!
A tip I have that I need to use myself once I unpack is lighting temperature. Home lights, especially in bedrooms, are often very warm (yellow-ish) and it isn't very flattering! It's what makes you look shiny and orange. On the flip side, adjusting by adding blues can make you look washed out.
I really recommend LED lights for this purpose. They're the closest you get to white, really, and have a lot longer life than normal bulbs. Again, they can be harsh, but diffusers are great. (plus, you can get LED strips/lamps/bulbs with remotes to change colours and sometimes intensity as you wish. Check amazon, try a few things out for cheap until you see what you like best!)
As a theatre person.... Gels! Gels and string lights. They're a cheap fun way to add some fun to your show or video. Google Rosco or stagelightingstore. You can get rolls of coloured plastic made for going over lamps and lights to filter colours, or rolls of frosts that spread and soften existing light for about $7 per 20x24 foot rolls. You'll basically never run out - those suckers take a while to burn out on source 4s emitting ~1090 celcius per hour. Use gels to adjust the colour temperature of the room lighting, or for cool effects. (One lamp to the left with pink, the other to the right with blue, suddenly you've got kickass 'club lighting' for a video)
And string lights are so cheap and so damn pretty (I'm VERY mad that I lost my box of them in the move.)
Light Positioning:
I could say so much about the angles of light and how they look on people but tbh most o my knowledge is lighting a person on stage, so I'll just leave this gif of how angles change your look:
Sigh. I have all these ideas and all this advice, when will I use it for myself?
