Framing & Lighting.

Brandon Rice

Brandon Rice

Distributed Producer
Well, this is just one of those things that popped up. I was chatting with a buddy of mine several days ago, and we were talking about what good framing and compositions are and what aren't. We came to think about something quite interesting. Framing and frame composition are MUCH more important than "good" lighting. If you have the most gorgeous light ever, but amatuerish and bad framing the shot will not look good. But, if you have passable lighting, or even bad lighting, but your framing and composition are spot on, your shot won't be as noticeably bad. What are your thoughts on this? I came to a conclusion that while framing and lighting are both important, I think framing is really the most important of the two.
 
Composition (framing) is very important. Not just what you see in the frame and how it's positioned, but the placement and height of the camera to get the right angle as well. I've only recently come to appreciate the tried and true Hollywood composition techniques.

Most of the time, they keep the camera perfectly level and raise and lower the camera to get a nice center on the frame. You're always right on level with the person in frame. When there are two people in a scene, perhaps one standing, one sitting, the camera is at each person's relative height for his/her shots.

This whole thing is sort of the opposite of what I'm now seeing as pretty amatuer (and am very guilty of) of putting the tripod around a comfortable neutral height and tilting up and down to get the right frame. This can be OK, but really only for specialized shots intended to amplify an intimidating height or lowliness.

Composing for thirds is big. OTS shots are big. Right now, I'm really loving conversations where the less important character is shot MS OTS of the main character, and the main character is shot CU from a less drastic angle.

There is definitely a well-established composition language. When you use it, you look professional. When you don't, you look amatuerish (unless you are clever enough to break the rules in some innovative way).

The thing about composition is that it really doesn't cost you any extra time. You have to position and frame the camera regardless. You either do it well, or not. So, I don't know if it's more or less important than lighting, but you should still light, and take a few minutes to learn better ways to compose.
 
I think they're equally important. Bad composition can really throw you, but I'm actually thrown more by bad lighting. If you have bad lighting, it's going to look like someone's home video. It doesn't matter how well the shot is framed, it's still going to look horrible.
 
Hm. See that's where I disagree. I think great composition and NO lighting will look less home-videoy and more professional than good lighting and horrible framing.

But, in the big scheme of things, yes, they're both very important.
 
I guess I just think that composition is such a basic skill that it really isn't much of an issue. Lighting is far more of a challenge.
 
Hi Brandon,

An interesting philosophical topic. Perhaps in balance, the novice filmmaker lacks in lighting more than composition (at least more glaring). Hopefully most of us have paid our dues and $$$ and have good understanding of the technical side of lighting. For instance, Ross Lowell's techniques in "Matters of Light & Depth" is an excellent book.

Agreed, subtle differences in composition differentiate the pros from the rest of us. Yet good books like Lowell's certainly include composition and framing as an integral aspect of lighting and depth (pg 48-55 and don't miss Slavko Vorkapich's tips on pg 55). So I'd agree with other posters here that in the end, composition, framing, and lighting are all integrated - not an either/or.

Regards, Michael
 
in the end, composition, framing, and lighting are all integrated - not an either/or.
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Of course they are all integrated. I would say that if I could take a home movie, and either change the lighting or the composition, I would change the composition. That would make the biggest difference in trying to get a good 'look'.

They are both equally important though when you have control over both.
 
I'd say composition is more important assuming the light on location is bright enough to achieve proper, noise free exposure. After all generally from what i understand, placing lights serve more to accentuate the room lighting in most cases so that the camera can get a proper exposure. But if you take a show like infernal affairs where most of the lighting is really flat, you realise that composition plays a much more important role than especially dramatic lighting. I think a good comparison would be The Departed vs Infernal affairs. The Departed had more dramatic lighting than infernal affairs, although both had good framing.
 
I agree with a lot of what has been said here. I still believe I am on a side where I see composition as being more noticeable to your average viewer as being professional or amauter. That having been said, I am not downgrading the importance of lighting, but I still think good composition and framing is the first step, and more noticed by an audience.
 
MalcolmOng said:
I'd say composition is more important assuming the light on location is bright enough to achieve proper, noise free exposure.
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There's a lot more to lighting than getting proper exposure. That's like saying that composition is aiming the camera so that your subject is in the frame. It's a lot more than that.
 
Thats true, but if you don't have the capacity to improve on the lighting then your composition becomes especially important
 
I teach both, and personally I don't see how one can be more important than the other. If either are bad enough, enough being the key word, that it takes your audience out of the story, then you have failed, and the goal of the motion picture, to tell a story. Thats why we have gaffers and camera ops and a DP orchestrating both, so that we can have quality in both areas. I think lighting is as much a part of composition as framing is, how can you have one without the other?
 
Look, I understand both are important... this is very true... BUT... I think if someone has gorgeous lighting and bad composition (which I've seen) it takes me out of the story MORE than someone who has decent to passable lighting but great compositions...
 
Brandon Rice said:
Well, this is just one of those things that popped up. I was chatting with a buddy of mine several days ago, and we were talking about what good framing and compositions are and what aren't. We came to think about something quite interesting. Framing and frame composition are MUCH more important than "good" lighting. If you have the most gorgeous light ever, but amatuerish and bad framing the shot will not look good. But, if you have passable lighting, or even bad lighting, but your framing and composition are spot on, your shot won't be as noticeably bad. What are your thoughts on this? I came to a conclusion that while framing and lighting are both important, I think framing is really the most important of the two.
Click to expand...
Well, I don't know how you light, but I always frame first and then light the frame, otherwise you are just waisting time and light. So you always light so that frame looks the "best".

BTW it's not only lighting that a cinematgrapher does, it's controling the available light too, so when you are framing, you are controling the available light.
 
a beautifully composed shot backed by a meaningful performance/talent will almost always draw all attention away from lousy lighting.
 
There are a lot of indie films that have done very well with minimal to no lighting at all. If the story is good enough and the camera direction, acting, composition is good, it can still be a winner.

Has anyone seen the film "Trans"? That film was minimally lit, if at all, and it's quite a compelling adventure.

I think if you look at it, a film can usually get away with deficiencies in one area, if it is very strong in all other respects.
 
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