To really understand light and be able to light,
you have to understand how it makes you feel.
What is your first reaction to that question is
okay technically, how do you learn to light?
And then you think about traditional lighting.
"- Congratulations on Earth.
- What do you think you're doing?"
Front light, key light, backlight,
fill light, kicker light.
That's not really the essence of lighting.
It's the image that you have in your head.
That's more important than the technique if that makes sense.
"- Get busy living
or get busy dying."
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When I was a kid, I used to spend a lot of my time fishing.
And you know, when you're fishing, you're watching a float
or you're just staring at the weather, you know.
Some days would feel ominous
and some days would feel sparkling
and that wasn't just my mood,
it was just created by that kind of the light, the feel of the light.
I wouldn't say we probable should go fishing to learn what light does,
but you know, it's looking around, it's being aware of those things.
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And I think the other thing to do is to look at other work,
obviously, look at paintings.
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But I mean, look at photographers work, still photographers work.
And just look at the personality and the difference between
individuals work
and the sense of them behind their pictures.
William Eggleston was one of the first really great color photographers.
There's two pictures that are just
one's the back of an old lady's head,
and she's sitting on a very green, shiny couch.
It's just the back of her head and her shoulders with this couch.
It's amazing.
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And there's another of a very famous one
of a little kiddies toy in the yard
with a garage door behind it.
And it's just the colors and the sense of sadness and melancholy
that he creates just through this image and the light.
It's really interesting.
There's no way you're going to copy that work
`cause it's very individual, it's personal to them.
What it is is, is to look at it and see the possibilities
to develop your own way of seeing really,
which is a pretentious way of saying it,
but I don't know any other way of saying it.
To develop your eyesight.
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The key thing about exposure is thinking about the range
and knowing without spending hours on a film set going around with a light meter,
knowing what that's gonna look like.
Feeling confident that that part of the room is going to drop off to black.
Or it's going to have little detail
and that hotspot over there
is not going to go so nuclear though, it's no good.
"- Thank you, Mr. Kincade.
It's a beautiful old house.
- She is.
And like all great ladies,
she still has her secret ways."
Where you want to put the actual exposure
that's something you'd need to know by eye
and taking a reading.
On the other hand,
the idea of going around the set
and taking a reading of every little dark light and every variation,
it's just, you shouldn't be a slave to it.
"- Alright."
You know, I used to obsess about exposures.
As I said, I didn't want to be a slave to the meter, so I would just,
I always would take one reading or generally of a scene
and then, then I could judge after that.
Then I could do it without a meter.
"- I'm so happy when I'm with you.
- You don't have to say that."
♪ ♪
I think it was James Wong Howe said,
" I wish I had more time
because I used to light a set with hundred 10 K's or whatever,
you know, 100 lights.
And now I've got it down to 10 or 11, he said,
I really want to get it down to one.
He was searching for simplicity.
He was searching something significant and pure.
"- Do you have any idea how crazy you are?
- You mean the nature of this conversation?
- I mean, the nature you."
It's very easy when you're on set and you're nervous to kind of get tied up.
But there was a particular time on "The Hudsucker"
when I designed a rig for this night scene and this boardroom,
but it wasn't quite right.
And I kept trying to mess with it to get it right.
Some point you gotta say, okay, it's not working.
We'll start again.
And I ripped it all down,
put up three China balls and we're ready to shoot after lunch.
"- If that's all."
It done nothing happened.
But it's better to do that I think if you can.
Then just struggle and struggle
to try make something work
when it was your initial decision that was wrong.
Just admit that's not right place to put it, do something else.
Go back to looking at people's stills photographs and what you're like.
For me, the best stills photograph are ones that just strip away all the things
the photographer might see on the periphery
of what is around them?
And concentrate on that one little image
that says more than you would, if you showed it in a big, wide shot.
It's also important, I think to go down to Home Depot.
I mean, seriously, just look at the bulbs that are available.
Look at what you can get.
You just don't buy a few bulbs.
You're going to have a practical lab, take the shade off and just use the bare bulb.
And then get different kinds of diffusion.
The different kinds of materials
to put in front of it
and just see as you should save, you move it around, see what that light does.
"- What's in the satchel? - It's full of money."
You're looking at the quality of that light
on a face or on an object.
You can bounce it.
You can black one side of the bulb
and use the other side to bounce off some materials.
There's lots of pictures of just old buildings and signs
and look at the difference between somebody like Alex Webb
and the way they use light and color.
Compared with Brassai or somebody who is using black and white.
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To experiment all you need as it say a bare bulb
and just bounce the light off it and just play.
"- Come on, plug me into the ozone, baby! Come on!
Come on!"
♪ ♪
So, I think the only way you really learn lighting is
by experiencing light and life,
and the possibilities and the variations,
the nuance of what light does.