Solving a Specialist Filming Problem

How we designed a custom lighting rig for watercolour art educator Annette Raff

Client — Annette Raff, Watercolour Lessons Online | Location — Brisbane, QLD | Consultant — Dominic, Dragon Image Brisbane | Completed — April 2026

Brief: Custom lighting rig for filming watercolour painting tutorials.

Challenge: Reflective paper, tilted drawing board, need for overhead camera access.

Solution: Flexible LED flex-lites on boom stands with C-stand accent arm.

Result: Repeatable, glare-free, daylight-accurate footage — every session.

The brief

Annette Raff runs Watercolour Lessons Online — a growing library of instructional painting content for students across Australia and internationally. When she approached our Brisbane team, the problem was specific: her existing lighting setup was producing footage that simply didn't look like what she was painting.

Watercolour paper is highly reflective. Under conventional studio lighting, any light source positioned at the wrong angle produces a harsh hotspot across the painting surface — obscuring the very detail students need to see. Her drawing board was also tilted at a working angle, which ruled out a number of standard overhead solutions. And she needed the ability to get a camera directly above the work without a stand leg in the frame.

This wasn't a job for an off-the-shelf kit. It needed a purpose-designed rig.

The design approach

Our Brisbane consultant Dominic spent time understanding not just the room, but Annette's actual shoot workflow — where the camera positions were, how long sessions typically ran, what her tilted drawing board setup looked like in practice, and where she moved during filming. The goal was a lighting solution that would be consistent, repeatable, and practical to operate solo.

The core challenge: wrap an angled, reflective painting surface in soft, even daylight-balanced light — from positions that don't obstruct camera angles above or in front of the board.

The solution centred on a pair of LightPro 150S 150w Daylight Rollable Flex-lites — flexible LED panels that can be shaped and angled precisely, unlike rigid softboxes. Mounted on medium boom stands, these can be extended out over the drawing board without a vertical pole interfering with the shot. A LightPro K1 C-Stand with boom arm provides a third control point for negative fill or an accent from above. The entire rig is weighted and stabilised with a 5kg shot bag — essential when running long boom arms at height.

A NEEWER ball head and E-Image nano clamp rounded out the system, giving Annette flexible camera and accessory positioning options on a single rig.

Equipment specified

Item	Qty	Total
LightPro 150S 150w Daylight Rollable Flex-lite with DMX	2	$1,969.00
LightPro Medium Boom Stand with Weight	2	$790.00
LightPro K1 C-Stand with Arm, two Clamps & turtle base	1	$290.00
NEEWER Heavy Duty Camera Tripod Ball Head	1	$77.00
E-Image A05M Nano Clamp (4kg)	1	$20.00
LightPro 5kg Shot Bag	1	$45.20

The outcome

The completed rig gives Annette consistent, daylight-accurate light across the painting surface — no hotspots, no reflective glare, no colour cast. Because the lights are on boom arms, she has full freedom of movement around the board and the camera can be positioned at any angle, including directly overhead for close-up brush and wash sequences.

Equally important: the rig is fast to set up and consistent to repeat. Annette can dial in the same look session after session without needing a lighting technician on set.

This is exactly the kind of project we enjoy — where the production need is specific enough that a standard solution won't do, and the right answer requires understanding how someone actually works.

If you're building a specialist content studio — whether for education, product, broadcast, or something we haven't seen before — we'd love to hear what you're trying to create.

Tags: Studio Lighting · Content Creator · Custom Rig · Brisbane · Education

Got a specialist brief? Contact our Brisbane team