1066 – Light Up Your Videos: Tom talks Elgato Key Light

SUMMARY BY CHATGPT

In this episode of Screw the Commute, Tom Antion continues “Elgato Week” by reviewing the Elgato Key Light Mark II, a professional lighting solution designed to improve video quality and simplify the recording process for solo creators.
Tom explains that traditional lighting setups require constant back-and-forth adjustments, which is time-consuming when working alone. The Elgato Key Light solves this by allowing remote control of brightness and color temperature in real time, so creators can fine-tune lighting while sitting in front of the camera.
Key highlights include:
• High brightness (up to 2800 lumens) with adjustable output down to 10%, preventing washed-out images.
• Adjustable color temperature, letting users switch between warm and cool lighting to achieve a flattering, professional look.
• Multiple control options: Stream Deck buttons, free phone app, PC/Mac software, or an optional remote.
• Wi-Fi connectivity (Mark II supports modern networks, unlike the older 2.4 GHz–only model).
• Works seamlessly with other Elgato products like the Stream Deck (Episode 1064) and Elgato Prompter (Episode 1065).
Tom emphasizes that lighting is more important than having an expensive camera, and that good lighting can dramatically improve video quality even with basic equipment. He also advises against green screens, arguing that they are difficult to light correctly and often look worse than a well-lit real background with depth or bokeh effects.
For those on a budget, he mentions lower-cost alternatives:
• Key Light Air (less bright)
• Elgato Neo (compact and affordable)
The episode closes with promotions for Tom’s automation book, mentor program, and digital marketing school, along with scholarship opportunities.
Bottom line: The Elgato Key Light Mark II is a powerful, flexible, and user-friendly lighting upgrade that saves time, improves video quality, and integrates smoothly into a modern content creation setup.

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Episode 1066 – Elgato Key Light
[00:00:08] Welcome to Screw the Commute. The entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money, with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multimillionaire, Tom Antion.

[00:00:24] Hey everybody, it's Tom here with episode 1066 of Screw the Commute podcast. Hey, I think we got Elgato Week coming, this week, because each episode has been about the company and their products called Elgato. Today we're going to talk about the Keylight Mark Two, which is a lighting system for you to make your video life better and easier, and it's just awesome. Now, while we're at it, I'll tell you about episode 1065 that was on the Elgato prompter so that you can do all kinds of cool things. Reading scripts and putting, having an extra display on your your computer and so forth. And then 1064 was on the Elgato Stream Deck. That's where you can hit, you know, program it. I say program, but it's really like nothing. You don't need a programmer to make certain buttons do stuff on your computer. For instance, I have a button goes to screw the commute. I have my phone number, I can hit my email and you can do multiple things with it can open up zoom, turn on your lights, start the recording. I mean, all with one button, that kind of thing. Anyway, so anyway, anytime you want to get to a back episode, you go to screwthecommute.com, slash, then the episode number. Stream Deck was 1064, the prompter was 1065. And today the key light is 1066. All right. Make sure you pick up a copy of our automation book. screwthecommute.com/automatefree. Get version 3.0. That's the latest. And check out my mentor program at GreatInternetMarketingTraining.com and my school at IMTCVA.org, the only licensed dedicated internet and digital marketing school in the country, probably the world, and certified to operate by SCHEV, the State Council on Higher Education in Virginia. But you don't have to be in Virginia because it's quality distance learning.

[00:02:30] All right, let's get into the Elgato Key light. That's called. Now that term is a generic term also in how you light a person in video stuff. So a key light is what they called this light as a brand name. All right. So if I'm talking about your key light and your fill light and your backlight and, and your uplight and those kind of things are generic terms on where the light is placed and how bright it is. But this the name of this particular light fixture is called a Key Light by Elgato. All right. So one thing the this light can do is save you a little time, because when I set my lights up to do a video prior to having these, I'd have to go around to each light, plug it in, turn it on, and then come around in front of the camera to make sure that it's right, that the brightness is right, and so forth, and then go back and adjust it and go back and forth to make sure it's correct.

[00:03:38] And if you don't have a helper, this is this is a pain in the neck, I'll tell you. But I've been doing that for years and years and years now when I shoot videos by myself, when I'm in the studio, I got Mark there shooting the video and I can just sit there, and then he makes me look as pretty as possible. But a lot of times he makes me put a black bag over my head to look as pretty as possible. That's a different story. So it does save you some time, but it also makes your videos better. Because if you're sitting there as the subject and you can adjust the lights remotely, there's various methods. I'll show you in a minute. Some cost, some are free. Then you can get the best picture possible because it's actually you in there. You're not running around and then coming back and you can't remember what the the previous setting looked like. This way, in real time, you can see how the light is affecting you. Okay.

[00:04:36] So that's a that's a great thing. Now these lights are very bright. They go up to 2800 lumens. That's a lot a lot. In fact most of the time they're going to the highest setting is going to be too bright. It's going to wash you out. Uh, unless you're extremely dark complected. So you can adjust the the brightness all the way down to 10% of its maximum. And anything in between, it gets you the best. Look. I have other episodes on lighting a person's face and how you want the key light to be brighter. And then the opposite side. You want a fill light to cause a little bit of shadow that creates depth in the face. That's a whole other other episode, and you could get away with just buying one of these if you wanted, but they're very versatile. But I bought two so that I could have a key light and a fill light. Okay, now if you are the type of person that wants to use green screen and I am not in favor of green screen, you've probably heard me railing against this for years to do really good. Green screen, green screen. You know, you've got to really, really know lighting and making sure the green screen is perfect and it's lit perfect. The the screen is lit separately from you, the subject, and it's just a big production to get good green screen even with the the methods that they have now and the portable ones you can stick on the back of your chair and you know it's still terrible compared to just making a nice background.

[00:06:18] Wherever you're shooting and and living with that electronically, it's going to look fine. You can use bokeh, which is making the background look out of focus, which is a very makes your production quality higher, like a movie almost. So I'm not in favor of green screen, but if you are using green screen, you should get two of these lights or at least one of these and then another light on the background. But then it's going to be hard to match them and get the color temperature to match, which I'm going to get to in a minute. Now these are Wi-Fi enabled. Now the old model of this only worked on the 2.4GHz. But now these will work on probably any Wi-Fi that you have. This is the Mark two as opposed to the Mark one. And you can control these things several ways. So I have it programmed. And again, when I say programmed, it's just dragging up, you know, hitting a button on the computer and dragging it onto the the software. But I have a stream deck where I can hit the buttons to turn it on and off and raise the brightness and lower the brightness and and all that.

[00:07:28] Or you can get a phone app for free that will do the same thing. Or you can just do it on your PC with your mouse for free. Or they actually make a $30 remote control that you can use to click to make it work, which I would end up losing anyway. So so that's that. Now, another thing that you should know is about color temperature. And I'm probably I probably did an episode about this years ago. But see temperature light has what's called a color temperature. And warm is lower numbers. So it gives a warm, you know, golden ish feeling to the scene and cold is could be 5000, 6000, 7000 I think. Makes it really harsh, like a hospital hallway or something, you know. So, uh, and then you got indoor and outdoor, so, so you can set your color temperature also right from your, uh, stream deck or your, uh, app on your phone or your PC with the mouse or from the remote controls. So, so you can really make yourself look great. See, when you buy a light, just the cheapo lights, which, you know, I know I've used them for years and they work and it's better than nothing. Uh, in fact, your lighting is more important than your camera. If you you can have a pitiful camera and have great lighting and you'll still get a decent picture.

[00:09:08] But anyway, this is a quite a an upgrade from this. The regular lights that are all one color temperature, and you'd have to change the bulb on many of them. And once you get into the ones that can change color temperature, well, they're way expensive. So this is a reasonably priced alternative that's easy to control. And all these Elgato things work together beautifully. Like I said, I have the teleprompter up there and I have the stream deck and I can control the stuff from my my PC or my Mac here. My computer. So awesome. Now, if you're on a tighter budget, they have two alternatives. They have the key light. Light which is a little bit cheaper and not quite as bright. But you know what? You know, the highest setting is too bright most of the time on this, especially if you're fair complected. And then they have a little mini one called a neo. So that's alternatives that are much cheaper. But but up your your lighting will save you money on, you know, getting fancier cameras. And again, the you get a 4K camera and a lot of times wherever you're going is compressed to seven ATP or 1080p anyway. So which is just basically HD high definition. Uh, or you know, low definition like 780. So this can really do a great job for you getting the beautiful picture without buying fancier cameras.

[00:10:51] All right. So that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Look great on video that's for sure I want you to do that. And of course check out my mentor program. Greatinternetmarketingtraining.com. The longest running, most unique, most successful ever in the field of internet and digital marketing. You get one on one attention from me and everybody on my staff who's been trained by me. So it's a very unique setting. And then also you get a scholarship. If you're in my mentor program to my school, which you can gift to somebody, which could save you hundreds of thousands of dollars, save them hundreds of thousands of dollars in that they can get a highly in demand skill in as little as six months. And we've actually had people making money before they graduated. So check that out at IMTCVA.org. And we do give a 50% scholarship if you just want the school to law enforcement, first responders, nurses and military. And that includes their families, not just the the actual first responders and so forth. So, so really great, great situation for you. And there we go. So this was Elgato week with the stream deck the prompter and now the Mark two key lights. All right. We'll catch you on the next episode. See you later.