if you've ever mucked around with a
flashlight before you probably already
know that direction can drastically
change how something is perceived and
that is the topic for part one of the
lighting series direction so if I was to
ask you what is this shape if you say
it's a circle what if I said what is its
three-dimensional shape well you
probably couldn't tell me right because
we can't see its form and the reason we
can't see its form is because of the
lighting
now you might guess that it's a it's a
sphere but it could just as easily be a
cone it could be a flat disc it could be
a cylinder lit from the top it could be
some weird wobbly shape or it could be a
sphere so the new information that we're
getting on the right hand side there is
shadow and that shadow is created by the
direction the direction creates the
shadow which helps us understand the
form so the first lesson and very
important point to remember is that you
shouldn't fear shadow shadow is your
friend it's just as equally as important
as the light because without the shadow
we're not able to understand the form
we're not able to actually see the image
to which you are trying to perceive to
we're unable to understand things right
or to give a more practical example say
you went to the trouble of creating this
hulking dude you spend all these weeks
and months you know sculpting out the
pecs and all that kind of thing but then
you lit him like this that would be a
mistake lighting from the front is the
easiest way to flatten form and
unfortunately we can't see all that
detail if we move that light to the top
left hand corner it's only then with the
introduction of shadow that we're able
to understand its form you're able to
see the shadow underneath the pecs the
six-pack
the veins in his arms the Bulge it's
revealing all this information to us
which we couldn't see before so the
shadow is incredible
important and that's all done by the
direction of the light obviously um
however if you have ever looked at
yourself in the mirror before you left
the house and thought hmm looking good
or looking as best as I'll ever look and
then caught a glance at your reflection
in maybe the elevator mirror you
probably also know that shadows can
sometimes be undesirable so shadows will
reveal form but it can also reveal
undesirable forms if you're not careful
so let's talk about it starting at the
top with the the first light which is
flat front lighting if you put the light
directly behind the camera
aka flash lighting this is why flashes
on cameras typically make things look
flat you get this effect right we can
understand that it's a face but not much
more than that we're very good at
recognizing faces so we know it's a
human but like you know how big is her
nose is she Pinocchio we don't actually
know this like how far back is her ears
or that the cheek definition we can't
see a lot of information here we just
sort of almost seeing like a trace
outline of basic features that's about
it however having said this like yes
it's flattening and it's pretty
undesirable for most cases there is
situations where you would want to light
from the front and you think about it
say for example you were photographing a
an elaborate costume or something like
that with a unique pattern and you just
wanted to show the pattern you wouldn't
want to see shadow you wouldn't want to
see the form you would just want to see
that pattern well maybe you were doing a
photo shoot for somebody with a tattoo
or the tattoos with a focal point maybe
you don't want to see shadow you would
use flat lighting so very rare but there
is cases where you would want to have
flat light so that's lighting from the
front now watch what happens if we move
that light up and just slightly back we
now have something much more desirable
so this is called paramount lighting or
butterfly lighting
I want to avoid just giving you these
terms because then you just sort of
remembering like the word like Oh
paramount oh that was cool how do I do
that and instead of like learning what
it's actually doing a why it's desirable
so this was I guess created from
Paramount Pictures which is where the
names comes from as just very glamorous
lighting but the reason it's glamorous
is because you're giving just a small
amount of shadow so you can see just
like how big the nose is the lips that
the chin obviously there's there's
separation between the head and the neck
the the cheekbones but most importantly
of all you are still able to see the
eyes which is crucial here so for many
reasons it is used a lot in fashion
photography fashion beauty climber shots
now this is obviously this example here
is using a lot softer lighting which
we'll talk about in the next part
but the position of that light is it is
what's important here it's it's creating
just just enough shadow just so that you
can understand the face better but not
like undesirable shadows and also by the
way I should say that this is relative
to the direction of the head because
we're talking about the light on the
head so if you've yeah your shoulders
are facing here but your head is to the
side then yeah if you had the light
directly above you would have totally
different things so it's the the light
is basically above you like that
wherever the head is turning that's
that's what we're talking about here
anyway so let's talk about undesirable
if we move this light back just slightly
we now have something horrible and this
was that example of when you look at
yourself in an elevator reflection and
you've got these hot hard circles
underneath your eyes very undesirable
because obviously the eyes of the window
to the soul and we can't see them
the height is coming directly into it
they throw that the only thing thrown
directly into into shadow which is
horrible it also is going to highlight a
lot of
like the the Crowsnest very undesirable
way to to light a face but something
else and I only just noticed this just
the other day but it also makes the face
look like something else and think about
it look at it what does that kind of
look like it looks a little bit like a
skull so I got no proof of this is why
it has this kind of effect but it does
look like a skull there's no ice there
and it's just I don't know I feel like
that's that's probably part of it but I
would say most of all it's just you know
highlighting the wrong things and not
being able to see the eyes but there are
cases where you might want this like if
you're making a movie like Star Wars and
you've got Darth Sidious if that's his
name I don't know if that's named Darth
Sidious right who I think they used make
up they actually emphasize that even
more so that even when the light was
like coming underneath him his eyes were
still like dark pockets right so yeah
making somebody look evil
it could be desirable in that sense you
want to make them look dog almost dead
like a skull go for it there are also
situations where for the environment
that you're in it would make sense to
have light coming directly above like in
this scene from the zodiac where they're
sitting across at a restaurant and
there's like a pendant light directly
above them right it you got to sort of
think about the situation in the style
of movie you were making but in that
situation maybe it would make sense to
have doc pockets under the eyes even
then though you can see they've used a
soft light and maybe a little bit of
fill so that you can still actually see
the eyes in there so anyway it's it's
not it's not good it's called raccoon
lighting sometimes because it makes you
look like a raccoon pretty undesired
well pretty much the worst thing ever
but anyway now if we moved that light
even further back then we see even less
information now we've got all we can see
is the silhouette and this can be it's
used a lot in movies for obvious reasons
that you don't know who the character is
so at the start of Blade Runner
when Ryan Gosling invites himself into
this guy's house and the guy awry
like oh who is this person he's an
intruder is he here for ulterior motives
is he friendly is he foe we don't know
and it's kind of a like a mysterious
sort of look later on when you meet
Harrison Ford the exact same thing he's
in silhouette and it's kind of I think
it's it's undesirable because as humans
we want to be able to read someone we
want to be able to identify them and and
read their expression and not being able
to see any of that is very chilling it's
like friend or foe like who is this
person
so you know again might make sense for
if you're making a movie but if you huh
I don't know trying to show off a
character that you sculpted this is just
about be like the most impractical or
like not revealing anything useful to
the viewer at all okay now move the
light around to the side and you have
what's called split lighting which is
obviously half half the face in line the
other half in shadow and really I feel
like this is just a combination of two
things it's revealing something and it's
hiding something it's not showing too
much form we're not seeing any form like
underneath the cheeks or like they're
the Irish it's kind of flattening from
the obviously one side of the face but
it's sometimes used when I guess you're
trying to make somebody look like
they've got something to hide I don't
know if that's reading too much into it
it might be I
it's called split lighting because it's
just split but there's also cases where
a character sitting next to a window in
a movie and you've got split lighting I
don't think it's necessarily evil
mysterious whatever I just think it's
it's it's hiding something but it's
revealing something and you know that's
about it now swing that light around way
underneath and you have the classic
torch underneath the face that you know
you told scary ghost stories with now I
was kind of interested in this because I
I first heard about this effect from the
universal principles of design book that
said that the reason that this looks
unnatural is because we live on planet
earth where the Sun is always above us
and so having light coming from
underneath us looks it doesn't look
right however when I was thinking about
I was like I don't know if that's true
because the bounced lighting is a thing
and light hits the ground and bounces
off until we sometimes have light coming
from underneath us so I'm like why does
it actually look creepy
so I even like asked on the psychology
Stack Exchange I also asked science on
reddit didn't get really any responses
some people on Twitter did though um and
somebody pointed out that it does kind
of look like a skull which i think is
true that nose shape there it's the
exact shape that you have with a skull
that's the empty because cartilage
deteriorates you have like an empty hole
in your face so it makes it look like
that and then obviously it's used in
movies for horror films
hoorah scary that kind of thing somebody
else pointed out that it's kind of like
it's highlighting the brow of the like
the eyebrows which can kind of make you
look angry and mad so I think it's like
you're not able to kind of read their
face it kind of makes them look mad
they're kind of like a skull and it's
unnatural because light usually comes
from above us so therefore it's just
unpleasant try walking into a job
interview hi how you going and shine
like a light underneath your face that's
a terrible example but you're gonna
you're gonna be off-putting for a number
of reasons in that situation anyway
swing that light all the way to the top
left-hand corner and you have what is
just neutral light it's you're able to
understand the face very well because
you've got not only from above but also
from the side just a slight amount of
shadows in all the right places that you
can best read the form pretty well that
little triangle on the cheek there's
sometimes called Rembrandt lighting I
don't want you to remember these terms
just think about like what you're doing
to the face it's used a lot in movies
right because it's just a neutral way to
show a character underneath the ceiling
light underneath the environment light
whatever it is obviously in this example
using soft light which we'll get to but
but yeah it's there was a note in
universal principles of design that said
that
75% of paintings in the Louvre have
lighting coming from the top left-hand
corner which I don't think necessarily
means it's like the secret thing you got
to do it's probably also a sign of maybe
the painters are all right-handed they
didn't have artificial lights they had
to do it in the daytime so therefore I
have a light had to come through a
window or something I don't know but
anyways it's just an interesting tidbit
I thought I'd throw in there to waste
your time anyway so the light direction
when it comes to faces it all depends on
what you want to say it's it's a catalog
it's not like any of these things is
wrong and you should never do it it's
gonna be right and wrong depending on
the circumstances you're making a movie
with a creepy character do all the the
weird creepy stuff if you're trying to
make somebody look desirable and
interesting then do all the good stuff
right so depends on what it is you were
going for now when it comes to
environments though because obviously
environments are totally different to
faces faces is more about like
psychology environments is you know
you're showing an environment to someone
so it's still about form so when I made
this picture I deliberately put the Sun
in the background with harsh shadows
coming across the that rock face there
because the tutorial was on cliffs which
he could watch if you wanted to but I I
really wanted to detail that that rocky
cliff face so I positioned it there but
most of the time when it comes to
environments it's more so about just
time of day and and signaling that right
so when it's noon obviously the Sun is
directly above us it's hot and it
generally tends to flatten things
because of the volume right we're not
able to see the shape of these trees
very well it's just kind of flat and
harsh and it says more to me about like
Oh heat and like off-putting than really
much about form later in the day as the
light reclines into this in lower into
the sky you get a lot more interesting
shadows and we'll talk about this in the
next part we talk about like the golden
hour but this is where you can really
basically change wet with shadows are
appearing and when you swing that light
around you're really emphasizing
different parts of the image and you're
guiding the viewer to different things
so this is why I think that that
lighting when it comes to environments
and architecture it's it's more so about
the composition and where you're guiding
or unintentionally guiding people to
just through the light direction so I
think that's more important than really
like form although that does play a part
as well to use another example for
architecture so this is just like blue
lighting and you just sort of seeing it
from a neutral sort of view it's blue
it's morning whatever maybe there's a
bit of feel and atmosphere from that but
throw a light in the background and now
you're looking at the corridor in the
background looking straight down the
right-hand side there move the light
over and now you're looking at the
chairs right so you guiding the eyes to
that thing get rid of the Sun altogether
and then turn on some countertop lights
and now you're looking at the food on
the counter right so it's more so about
composition than it is a really about
form although obviously there is some
form in there as well if things were
completely blinded flashlights from the
camera then you wouldn't really be able
to see or understand things very well
but mostly it's about composition so
environments yeah form mostly
composition that's a chess set
so remember though the takeaway from
this video is is not to think of these
like recipes of like oh what was the
paramount lighting you know like think
of that remember that direction is
creating the shadow and the shadow is
revealing the form and it's gonna reveal
form and it might be an undesirable form
if you're not careful so you want to
reveal the right forms think about what
message you're trying to say and then
what shadow is going to reveal that the
best way okay so that was part one guys
hope you liked it in the next video
we're gonna be talking about size in
part two which you can click there and
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