Lighting Cats for YouTube Videos and Portraits: GVM SD200B Review

Lighting animals, especially cats, for photography and YouTube videos can be a real challenge. Some pets tolerate strobes, but many, like my three rescue cats, respond much better to soft, continuous lighting. For two recent video/photo shoots, I used the GVM SD200B continuous light and it turned out to be the perfect (and very unscary) vibe for both portraits and long form YouTube content.

I needed to create two Claw Club videos for my YouTube channel, each requiring a different mood and lighting setup for both the footage and the thumbnail portraits. The first was a whimsical summertime kitty picnic, complete with a strawberry cream sando. The second was a cozy October release with retro 80s Halloween vibes (like when we used to trick-or-treat with pillowcases & our awful smelling plastic costumes), and I needed the candles in the scene to show up. Both scenes required warm, soft, and reliable continuous lighting that wouldn’t disturb the cats.

For the picnic video, I aimed for a bright, natural daylight effect. The GVM’s app made dialing in the exact color temperature and brightness incredibly easy. While I did experiment with the scene modes, I found that setting it manually to 3200K with a small octabox diffuser gave me the cozy warmth I wanted, more so than the daylight preset.

Onto the Halloween video, where I I kept the same 3200K color temperature but dimmed the light to let the candles stand out and flicker naturally on camera. Although the SD200B offers a candle flicker mode, I preferred the look of steady lighting in this particular setup and let the candles & Halloween lights do the flickering.

Each video shoot lasted about an hour, with plenty of still portraits taken in between. Luckily for me, the cats weren’t bothered by the light at all, and that’s a huge advantage when working with Sensitive Sallies (aka my cats). That means I get to set the light and forget it, just filming the cats relaxing in their scene and ACTUALLY relaxing. In addition to needing an unobtrusive light for these videos, I also need one with a small footprint. This GVM is compact and the carrying case stores easily.

This light has become a go-to in my studio setup, especially for all pet related YouTube content and social media shoots. I’ll be incorporating SD200B into future studio shoots, alongside other continuous lights, and I’m hopeful they’ll all match in color temperature for a seamless shoot. I will be finding a softer octabox for this as I like REALLY diffused lighting, but that’s a modifier issue.

I would recommend this continuous light for small studio setups, and most definitely long form YouTube and social media content. I’m super happy with the results.

Learn more or grab yours here: Studio Lighting

Shopify: Click Here

Amazon: Click Here