this week we're looking at lots of
different lighting examples focusing on
the ways that we can use light
creatively hello my name is simon cade
and this is DSLR guide so this series is
all about the ways that we can use
cinematography to tell a story visually
and in part one we looked at framing
composition which is the second link in
the description and the future will be
looking at lenses and camera movement
but for now we're focusing on lighting
so our first setup will film in some
sort of workshop now typically this
space would be lit by a single
florescent strip coming from above and
you'll notice that with most of these
setups we're making lighting choices
based on what would naturally be there
already so I think this is a really
important part this is called motivated
lighting and I think it's really vital
when it comes to the creative side of
cinematography because we're helping to
immerse the audience in the film now
before we look at that example let's
just quickly cover the basics of
positioning lights so if we're going for
a flattering look then we could go for
Rembrandt lighting which is where we
position the light roughly 45 degrees to
the left or the right and then we have a
triangle of light which is bordered by
the shadow of the nose so with a bit of
diffusion this kind of light is
generally going to be pretty flattering
we can clearly see the eyes including
the little spark which is saying we see
all the time in filmmaking and
photography so Rembrandt lighting with
that little eye light is a pretty safe
bet if we're going for flattering
lighting and of course we could move our
lights further to the sides and then we
can get some pretty weird looks and
that's pretty much where a lot of
lighting tutorials would stop but I
really think that it goes way further
than just saying this lighting make
someone look good and this lighting
doesn't so let's say that our character
is a workaholic they spend all their
time at the workshop away from their
family so we might want the audience to
empathize with his family to understand
how he's distant from them so we might
use lighting coming from above which
creates these nice shadows over his eyes
so that we can't really connect with him
now if we think that's distracting the
audience we could use a bit of diffusion
to make it more subtle but either way by
hiding his eyes we're only changing the
mood and we're stopping the audience
from being able to fully connect with
him so if we go back to the workshop
we've got a single LED panel
the aperture HR 672 s with some
diffusion and of course I'll put all of
the lighting gear that I'm using for
these setups on the blog post which you
can find the first link in the
description so our light is coming from
above which is motivated by two things
firstly the fact that it's a shed and
that we would expect there to be a
single fluorescent coming from above in
this workshop and then also the fact
that his family feels distant we want to
kind of disconnect the audience from him
by hiding his eyes so we're happy with
both things there the fact that it's
motivated by the surroundings but also
the emotion so the other aspects of
lighting aside from placement are
firstly intensity so in this case we
will it in the background fall into
darkness because he's so focused on his
work that he can't see the things around
him and his family also the light
quality in this case we're using fairly
soft light because we're trying to
replicate a fluorescent and finally is
the color of the light in this case
we've added a slight green tint to it in
color grading because we want to
remember the fact that it's supposed to
be a fluorescent tube so for our next
example we're looking at the softness or
the quality of light so in this one our
light is motivated by a window so we
don't have to have the light coming from
directly above and it can be really nice
and soft so let's just quickly go over
the basics of light quality before we
move into that example so a hard light
source creates crisp shadows with lots
of contrast whereas if we had a bit of
diffusion in front of the light then or
essentially doing is making the light
source bigger by spreading it out and
that means that the light kind of wraps
around the edges a bit more and has much
softer shadows now in movies soft
lighting is pretty common I think this
is because firstly it's very flattering
it makes people skin a better but also I
think it's because in real life we don't
really see really harsh dramatic light
that much just will make kind of a learn
about now I'll be the first to say that
it's impossible to fully summarize what
hard or soft light will do for your film
but I think a good way think of it is to
imagine the punch ups in the grimy
basements of Fight Club it's all about
that tribal aggression and so we've got
that really dingy lighting with you know
single light sources which are very hard
and leaving lots of shadows around and
then compare that to the start of the
movies with the boring office job and
the obsession with IKEA furniture
got very minimal shadows and of course
the lighting is quite soft and quite
unobtrusive so imagine if we could swap
the lighting for those scenes and how
much that would change their kind of
mood of the scene I think that's the
general thing you have to think about is
you know watching a film and I'd
recommend finding your favorite film and
looking at when they use hard light and
when they use soft light and what that
kind of does in terms of the tone of the
scene but let's get back to our main
example so if positioned camera and our
actor so the two aperture LEDs are
roughly where the window would be or
that you can see that I've definitely
cheated a bit we've got a nice
reflection in the eyes and because we're
imitating a window we've got a really
really soft light from the west caught
fast Flags diffusion which are rigged on
a c-stand so both the placement and the
quality of the light are motivated by
this idea of it being window although of
course we'd have to have established
this already earlier in the scene with
maybe a wide shot which shows the window
so the next thing is to check that we're
happy with the way that this presents
our character now I think it's worth
mentioning here that lighting is not
usually going to be the main focus of
the scene most of the time we're going
to let the performance and the script
handle most of the storytelling so I
think in this case we might be happy to
just use soft lighting as a default so
as not to distract the audience
sometimes just keeping it simple and
going for realism is a perfectly valid
creative choice so next up we're looking
at intensity so let's jump back to our
generic example the majority of the time
once we chose somewhere to place our key
light will then set our exposure based
on the intensity of that light and the
interesting part is then deciding what
we want to do with the rest of the scene
how bright we want the rest of the seem
to be so to me there are two main ways
that a cinematographer can help to tell
the story with the intensity of light so
the first thing is by guiding the
audience's eyes but then the second
thing is evoking an emotion so firstly
if everywhere is equally bright the
audience won't know where to look it's
an uncomfortable information overload so
by letting the background become darker
it helps our subject in the foreground
to stand out now I know that sounds
simple but a great cinematographer can
have complete control over where the
audience is looking at any time in the
film so in practical terms this just
means looking out for bright reflections
in the background that could be
distracting
or flagging light away from the person
in the foreground of an
over-the-shoulder shop so if we go back
to one of our examples we can see that
I've carefully blocked the light with
some Westcott flags in order to keep the
attention on the foreground these flags
can help us have complete control over
the intensity of each different part of
the scene whether it's the foreground
the background or some little detail so
the other important part of intensity is
the key to fill ratio so in our example
I used another aperture LED light to
bring up the shadows a bit which I think
gave it a more natural look but to be
honest you can't always give a perfectly
logical explanation as to why you're
using a certain amount of fill light
although it's definitely worth thinking
about it but you know you can say that
using less fill light gives it a more
dramatic look like someone is hiding
something all this an element mystery to
it but really I do think there's a lot
more to it than that and it's often just
a very subtle kind of shift in the
atmosphere so I definitely think is
worth kind of watching a film that you
like and looking out for how much feel
like they're using because again this
stuff is really subtle it's really
emotional when it's not as simple it's
just saying like that using more fill
light makes it happy and less makes it
set and finally let's look at colour and
I think it's worth noting that I believe
that colour is best used as part of the
costume and the production design rather
than just lighting I would rather have
completely neutral lighting with really
interesting color contrast between the
costume in the background and the colour
of walls and stuff like that but there
is still a time and a place to use
coloured lighting so for example about
color we'll be using blue light which is
associated with moonlight in a night
scene now I think the key thing with
lighting a night scene is to focus on
the background here I pointed a second
LED to catch those leaves
now illuminating the background and then
backlighting our character is a really
common way to light a night scene I
think the silhouettes remind us that
it's a night scene while still letting
us see what's going on because the last
thing we want is for it to look totally
unnatural as if someone is literally
placed a lighting on top of the camera
so this is why I think by collecting and
lighting the background works well so if
we quickly go through our four aspects
the placement of the light is quite high
up because we're replicating the moon
which is also high up the quality of the
light is quite hard because the moon is
a relatively small source so you guys
it's so far away and it does create
fairly harsh shadows as for intensity
we're really dialing it down and making
it quite dark because of course we do
want this to look like a night scene and
finally the most important one for this
one is color so we're using a white
balance which makes everything look a
little bit blue which really helps to
seal this idea of it being moonlight
because of some reason we have this idea
completely ingrained in us from movies
which is that at night things get a bit
blue and you can see how strange it
looks when I warm up that light so I
definitely think this is something worth
noting if you're trying to sell this
idea of it being night now in terms of
the creative application of this kind of
light the obvious choice would be for
horror films where we're trying to scare
people reminding them that out in the
shadows anything could be hiding so
often in horror films there will be nice
scenes but then also there's something
quite romantic about night scenes
whether it's going for a stroll outside
and dark when no one else is out and
about or maybe even just you know
looking up at the stars there's
something very romantic about night so
it really can go either way and that's
what I'd like to end with here is that
there's never one answer to what a
certain light quality or placement or
color or intensity will do for your
shots there's always you know different
interpretations and then once you
combine it with all the other aspects of
filmmaking you know having a script and
performance and the kind of shots you're
using you can completely flip the
emotion that a certain lighting means so
it really is up for interpretation but
that's pretty much it for this week on
the blog post I will be adding those
lighting diagrams plus all the equipment
I've been using as well as some videos
that really got me interested and
inspired about lighting that's it for
this week see you next