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Advanced Lighting

Linda Barzini

Linda Barzini

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I don't have a good grasp at advanced set lighting. Any good tutorials that explain techniques for blocking spill with scrims, rim vs back vs hair lights, negative fill, directional grids, etc.?
 
Lighting is a tough subject. Heck I'm lecturing on the topic tomorrow and still learning stuff all the time. So much technology out there. But in reality it's all about light quality, intensity, and control.

I don't know if what I can "say" is going to help, but I'm up and chatty, so who knows.

I feel I can give decent advice on spill at least. I've shot a lot of VFX related motion and still work and it is the thing to look out for.

A few important things off the top of my head to look out for are:
- Angle of incidence, light bouncing right into a surface you are trying to capture or worse right into the lens can be bad.
- The material bouncing the light (if any) and the material receiving the spill.
- Light quality/intensity. Softening a source can help in some situations.
- Space between subjects and background/foreground.
- Flagging/Cutting bleeding light that isn't necessary.
- Adding more light to your keylight. Sometimes works, not always.

Last few years I've learned a lot about the power of negative fill. Desert shoots with large swashes of sand are just a big reflector in reality and adding black into the mix subject left, right, top, or even bottom is fascinating and helps carve some contrast in where it could be problematic.

Rim, back, hair lights. I know when I go for the hair light it's more of an exercise of feathering via barn doors or black wrap to add a bit of accent or color. I often diffuse a hair light, though I'm not a big fan of using them for narrative work too often. Rim lights for me are about how much of a cookie cutter effect you want. A hard source can certainly create a pure white outline, which is nice sometimes. Mostly I think about the mood and if it's appropriate to have that much of an edget to my subject. So often I'll hit it with some opal and soften it up a bit. If I want even less and more of a hint, ND or dim it. Back light I tend to go with hard sources and I'm often looking for strong silhouette, so that might even be my key in some instances and maybe just reflecting a bit of light back into my subject for texture. Depends.

Grids and honeycombs are a really nice tool useful in particular for directing soft light a bit more.

An odd personal note. I probably have 30 different types of lighting gear laying around. The more I shoot the more I just want fresnels. A nice hard even light that I can manipulate to soft, spread, spot, cut, etc..... Though a couple panel LEDs recently have interested me, nearly every shoot I do now is based around fresnels. Heh. I say this after a week of poking around a lot with some new CFLs for a shoot later this month too because one location is wicked narrow. CFLs these days are actually vastly improved in terms of spectrum and they are bloody cheap for a good amount of punch.

The biggest lessons I learned on set when I was younger in regards to general lighting was just how much overhead and angled light was utilized and how it was diffused. This plays a roll in spill and general control. Light on eye level with talent wasn't common on much of the stuff I was working on at the time. Accent lighting utilized within set pieces fascinates me to no end. Learning about filtration, diffusion, and various sandwiches has been some of the most fun I've had. I see a lot of people are shooting just one color temperature these days, but I don't think that's exactly the best way to go. At least not for narrative work. Subtle color like a straw or something is useful for adding warmth without going full orange or yellow.

I will say I'm getting more into playing with shadow and using less light. I don't mean low light, I mean like two sources rather than five and seeing how much I can get out of it.

Don't know if any of that helps.
 
Phil Holland said:
Lighting is a tough subject. Heck I'm lecturing on the topic tomorrow and still learning stuff all the time. So much technology out there. But in reality it's all about light quality, intensity, and control.

I don't know if what I can "say" is going to help, but I'm up and chatty, so who knows.

I feel I can give decent advice on spill at least. I've shot a lot of VFX related motion and still work and it is the thing to look out for.

A few important things off the top of my head to look out for are:
- Angle of incidence, light bouncing right into a surface you are trying to capture or worse right into the lens can be bad.
- The material bouncing the light (if any) and the material receiving the spill.
- Light quality/intensity. Softening a source can help in some situations.
- Space between subjects and background/foreground.
- Flagging/Cutting bleeding light that isn't necessary.
- Adding more light to your keylight. Sometimes works, not always.

Last few years I've learned a lot about the power of negative fill. Desert shoots with large swashes of sand are just a big reflector in reality and adding black into the mix subject left, right, top, or even bottom is fascinating and helps carve some contrast in where it could be problematic.

Rim, back, hair lights. I know when I go for the hair light it's more of an exercise of feathering via barn doors or black wrap to add a bit of accent or color. I often diffuse a hair light, though I'm not a big fan of using them for narrative work too often. Rim lights for me are about how much of a cookie cutter effect you want. A hard source can certainly create a pure white outline, which is nice sometimes. Mostly I think about the mood and if it's appropriate to have that much of an edget to my subject. So often I'll hit it with some opal and soften it up a bit. If I want even less and more of a hint, ND or dim it. Back light I tend to go with hard sources and I'm often looking for strong silhouette, so that might even be my key in some instances and maybe just reflecting a bit of light back into my subject for texture. Depends.

Grids and honeycombs are a really nice tool useful in particular for directing soft light a bit more.

An odd personal note. I probably have 30 different types of lighting gear laying around. The more I shoot the more I just want fresnels. A nice hard even light that I can manipulate to soft, spread, spot, cut, etc..... Though a couple panel LEDs recently have interested me, nearly every shoot I do now is based around fresnels. Heh. I say this after a week of poking around a lot with some new CFLs for a shoot later this month too because one location is wicked narrow. CFLs these days are actually vastly improved in terms of spectrum and they are bloody cheap for a good amount of punch.

The biggest lessons I learned on set when I was younger in regards to general lighting was just how much overhead and angled light was utilized and how it was diffused. This plays a roll in spill and general control. Light on eye level with talent wasn't common on much of the stuff I was working on at the time. Accent lighting utilized within set pieces fascinates me to no end. Learning about filtration, diffusion, and various sandwiches has been some of the most fun I've had. I see a lot of people are shooting just one color temperature these days, but I don't think that's exactly the best way to go. At least not for narrative work. Subtle color like a straw or something is useful for adding warmth without going full orange or yellow.

I will say I'm getting more into playing with shadow and using less light. I don't mean low light, I mean like two sources rather than five and seeing how much I can get out of it.

Don't know if any of that helps.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the awesome insight Phil and thanks for the link Michael. Hey Phil, are you partial to any specific brand of CFL?
 
Lighting can be overwhelming, so I like to teach people about the "why". If you can't figure out why, you won't get much further. And it's not lighting, as it is about light shaping. Creating a mood for narrative work is very different than doing the same for interviews or corporate work. But in either case your video tap is a blank canvas, and your job is to create the directors vision and do what's best for the story. Motivated light is a skill that just grows with experience. Good lighting will influence production value just as much as good talent. Try to get on other sets and just observe is probably the best advice I can give.
 
Yep best thing to do is watch others light and look at the monitor. Contrast and ratios, contrast and ratios....
 
You own the camera, you own some lights... Shoot. Make notes. Watch the replay. Change what you don't like. Repeat. Yes there may be a lot more to it, but there is no substitute for practice.
 
Look at natural situations that have beautiful light. Note why it looks good and what you could do to emulate that.

Don't be afraid to use only a couple of lights. A famous DP when asked about what he would take if he could only get two lights was known to remark "An 18K and a Pepper." Now that's certainly paraphrased, but it shows that there is an important focus on doing more with less and having a deliberate key light and then another light to create a little extra magic with.

Learning how to control your light is a matter of trial and error and it helps to sit in a room and just work through different scenarios. You will never forget the lessons you teach yourself on your own time.

For some real insight, check out this from Roger Deakins: http://www.theblackandblue.com/2012/12/10/roger-deakins-advice/
 
The best tutorial IMO, when you have a good paying job hire in a great gaffer then watch & learn.
 
Mike Garrick said:
The best tutorial IMO, when you have a good paying job hire in a great gaffer then watch & learn.
Click to expand...

A lot of what I've 'learned' was from working years as a low-ish paid P.A. on commercial sets - watching D.P.'s and Gaffer's set up lights / reflectors / neg fill / framing etc - while I changed garbage bins, and got coffee for the producer... Comparing my notes from set, with the finished ads that showed up on T.V. weeks or months later. Then practicing.

I guess the kids these days watch a couple YouTube tutorials and call themselves a D.P. or if their work is really serious a Cinematographer. /sarcastic commentary
 
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