How Would You Light? - Bradford Young Inspiration

[Nathaniel Nguyen-Le]

Hey guys. First post here. My name is Nate, and I'm an incoming cinematography student based in California. These days, I am trying to deconstruct shots and cinematography styles in order to try emulating them myself.

These two shots are composed by Bradford Young, one my favorite current cinematographers today.

How would you guys go about lighting these compositions? I love how the light falls off and wraps around the face. It is contrasty without seeming too contrasty if that makes any sense.

Young and his dark images are truly mesmerizing.

 

[David Mullen ASC]

The light is contrasty due to the blackness of the shadow side but it doesn't feel harsh because (1) the softness of the light, creating a gradual fall-off into black, and (2) the dimness of the highlights, so the range does not go from pure white to pure black.

The first shot may just be one big soft light, I don't know if the background got additional light, not knowing how far it was from the foreground, but odds are high that this is a smaller room and the wall is just lit with the same light as is on her.

The second is a little harder to figure out without seeing more of the sequence, but I think the background is just lit by a Cool White (cyan) fluorescent fixture on the frame left side of the hallway, reflecting off of the walls too, though there is a change that there is also a faint soft second light hitting the background from an open door off-camera. He seems lit by some soft practical source in the top of the wall on frame left, perhaps not Cool White fluorescent but tungsten.

It is hard to say, the two wall fixtures, foreground and background, may be both yellow-white-ish, not Cool White, and the cyan color comes from the paint job on the walls rather than the light being cyan. If he moved from the background to the foreground in the same color of light then the second would be true.

 

[Evan Prosofsky]

I know that on Saints Bradford lit only with Tungsten and was underexposing quite significantly to get the muted look you see there. I remember his gaffer telling me they used a lot of chimera pancake lanterns to augment practicals and ofcourse his gorgeous ultra diffused kino toplight/booklight. I remember the shot of RM on the train was a 20k far away outside the windows. Sorry I can't be more specific Bradford is a magician and has no formula I've been able to find!

If you like the quality in the first image you could look to one of Chivo's favorite techniques, he achieves it with two 18k's far away through a 12x12 lite grid (non silent) and then another 12x12 lite grid (non silent) much closer to frame and no fill. When he can he will have an additional 4x4 diffusion just next to the talent for three layers of total diffusion. You see this a lot in Lemony Snickets

 

[Nathaniel Nguyen-Le]

David Mullen, thanks for your detailed analysis. I'm truly grateful for the immense knowledge you give to the cinematography community each and every day. I am only beginning to analyze compositions and lighting setups. Because of this, I prefer looking at still images rather than the actual movie. How do you think I should go about studying lighting setups?

Evan Prosofsky, can you explain a little more about the kino toplight/booklight? Is Young actually booklighting a kinoflo on the ceiling or is the kinoflow just diffused without having an actual bounce. I really appreciate your input. The Lemony Snicket lighting design seems like a very interesting way to produce soft beautiful light. I gotta try it soon!

 

[Eamon Long]

Nathaniel - - The ASC has a vast library of killer book recommendation. Truthfully...It's very easy to get lost in the construction of scenes but rock solid fundamentals in lighting will make your brain soar with ideas. Then attaching emotion to the light, then developing your style, it's amazing. Honestly just goofing around and getting hours with your sources make for a really good learning session. Keep it up! -E

http://store.ascmag.com/category-s/258.htm
Click some of the tabs like "Dp bookshelf" enjoy.

 

[BRANDON JAMESON]

two 18k's far away through a 12x12 lite grid

TWO 18Ks?????

Aint nobody got a budget for that!!!!

 

[Ulf Krentz]

TWO 18Ks?????

Aint nobody got a budget for that!!!!

And even if budget is no concern, might be overkill in the little corridor :reddevil:

 

[David Mullen ASC]

When you start out learning to light, I'm not sure it is necessary to know exactly what fixtures were used on some bigger movie, what matters more if the lighting effect created, the mood, the intent behind the lighting, etc.

However, hallway shots are always hard to light and generally the best approach, and more practical, is to design the set or dress the location with practical light sources that create the look you want, even if that sometimes means turning off a lot of existing lights. So in the case of the hallway shot from "A Most Violent Year", my guess is that a naturally diffused practical source near the top of the wall on one side of the hallway was installed to create that look, though if that area was never in camera, you could rig almost anything to create that effect, but given the space requirements, it is still likely to be some smallish unit that has a bit of diffusion on it, or a diffusing cover on a practical.

The only reason I think seeing the whole shot or other angles may be useful in that case is to know whether the cyan background color is due to lighting or the color of the walls, because in a single frame, it could be either. Though in your case, learning to light for that mood, you could also do either if you like that look.

 

[BRANDON JAMESON]

Mr Mullen, you are a continual source of wisdom and delight.

Thank you!