Lighting 101
Lighting can make or break your shot. Poor lighting produces amateur looking footage that you will struggle to expose properly and introduce noise into the image. Lighting is so much more than providing enough light for your camera to see what is going on. It sets a tone, adds drama, heightens suspense, changes the mood, can establish a time and place. It give the director another tool to convey meaning to the audience. Here we look at a the key things you need to know about lighting. Starting with a standard setup for lighting and the key terms based around a 'Three Point Lighting' technique.
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3 lights covers the basics and the key roles of different light and there position. This example is a bit more advanced using 6 lights.
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Before you decide how many lights you want to use, you need to ask yourself what mood/look/feel you want to achieve.
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Diffusion - Hard/Soft light
To diffuse light is to change its source size. From a pin point creating hard light to a large source wrapping light around the subject to create softer light. There are different levels of diffusion. Hard light produce sharp shadows. The light transitions from light to dark quickly. As seen in the left example. Soft light is where there is a greater gradient between light and dark as in the right hand example. A common diffusion method is to use a soft box. |
Large Scale Diffusion
The larger the light source the softer the shows. This video shows you the effect of using a large Silk on a butterfly frame to diffuse sunlight. |
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Bounce Cards/Reflectors
A bounce card is a object that reflects light, normally being a flat surface. This doesn't have to be anything special a peace of card, paper, foil or polystyrene will do. The more reflective the surface is the more light it will reflect. These are simple to use and are great to use as a fill light |
Bounce Lighting from Vimeo Video School on Vimeo. |
Neutral Density Filter (ND Filter)
Neutral destiny filters reduce light throughput by a certain F-Stop (exposure level) without altering the colour of the light. Filters Colour filters or gels can be fitted to a light fixing to change its colour. These can simple be clamped to the barn doors Gobos Gobo's are physical templates like stencils that can be fitting in front of lights to shape the light. Often used in theatre. |
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Negative Fill
Negative fill is the ability to block light from your hitting subject. White walls ceilings and other reflective surfaces will bounce light around your subject. Controlling this stray light will give you control of the shows. |
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Tungsten vs LED vs Fluorescent
Tungsten
Pros Best colour Rendering Cons Very Hot Used lots on powers replacement of bulbs Use of Gels to daylight balance Dimmer changes colour temp |
LED
Pros Coolest operating temp Can use batteries Small and portable Long lasting bulbs Various colour temps Dimmerable Cons Colour inconsistency Few spot options |
Fluorescent
Pros Cool Operating Temp Reasonable price Various colour Temps Cons Colour inconsistency (better with more expensive bulbs) Dim by turning bulb off |
Colour Temperature
Colour Temperature and Colour Balance go hand in hand. Colour Temperature describes the the warmth or cold feeling of light. We have a direct correlating relationship between Warm/Red and Cold/ Blue. Colour temperature is measured in Degrees kelvin with bluer light having a higher number.
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