Tips & Free Stuff

There are two schools of thought within the Hollywood tradition which affect the way in which portrait lighting is adapted for use in motion picture work These schools can be called "Pictorialism" and "Naturalism". Some camera persons claim that a striking photographic image will do more to engage the viewers eye than an adherence to a naturalistic logic There are of course, two venerable traditions in Hollywood embodying this pictorialist approach: the glamorizing of stars and the expressionistic imagery of horror films and mysteries. The key ingredient in Naturalism is "Source Light" in which the directions of the key light are determined by the apparent source of light within the scene or by a source that can be logically inferred from what is in the shot. Most camera persons will set the key light in a wider shot to correspond to naturalistic source, although they may cheat the direction of the key in a close-up in order to provide more flattering or interesting light on the actor.

Often the essence of good lighting is simplicity. The simpler the lighting, the simpler it is to do and the better it looks. When light starts to double up to much, you wind up with two or three unwanted shadows and things become complicated. It is sometimes best to just start all over again building up your lighting pattern one unit at a time.

In lighting always strive for "mood". You can learn a lot by simply taking the time to study the lighting that surrounds your every day environment and the effect it creates.

TIPS ON OUTDOOR LIGHTING

You may recall reading the little phamplet whe you buy a roll of film that tells you about having the sun over your shoulder shining on the subject.

Professionally this is almost the opposite of what we strive for. There is good reason for this thinking. Looking directly into the sun causes a person to squint and frown, add, "say cheese", to this and you get the "I'm trying to look good for the camera, so hurry up, I can't hold this much longer" look.

Placing the sun behind the subject gives us much less of a squint but in addition creates a three dimensional look to the subject as the sun provides a nice hair and shoulder backlight. If the subject is against a dark background it looks even better because of the contrast in the shot. If you have a white piece of art card or foamcore laid in front of the subject at a 45% angle, you will be able to "bounce" some of the sunlight into the subject and bring out a little more sparkle to the scene. In the biz, this white card is known as a "bounce Board". Now this stuff is not rocket science. All good basic photographers using stil or video cameras know this, and now so do you.

Watch out for this the next time you have the opportunity to see a movie crew at work outside on a sunny day. That big light coming from behind the camera is just filling in the subject the same way as a bounce board. The big square frame in front of the light has what we call "diffusion material" attached and is just softening the light for a more pleasing look.

There are a lot more professional tips and techniques that you can also learn from my book"Marketing with Film and Video" which is available from this page

Here's to good lighting!

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