Learn to light.....please

V

vegasdigitalfilms

Active member
I've spent many, many years behind the camera, starting in film.

I love the new 24p technology. It's easy, inexpensive (after the initial investment) and makes movie making so much more fun.

I love to watch indie projects shot in 24p, but one thing that really, really bugs me is the lack of lighting. I understand most HD cameras have wonderful lowlight capabilities, but it seems because of that feature, people aren't lighting their movies adequately. Everything looks dull, and well....blah. It screams 24p video.

Lighting is an artform that anyone behind the camera needs to learn. Not only for technical reasons, but also for artistic reasons.

I see so much footage that despite the action going within the frame, the scene is boring.

It doesn't take a lot to add lighting to your production. If you are on a really tight budget, at least buy a couple of hardware clamp lights with some 200w bulbs and light your scene! Sure it takes time, but it will be well worth it and it will make your $100 production look like $10,000. It will make your video look closer to film despite the 24p.

Forget the cranes and the steadicam rigs and learn how to light. It's a skill ALL DP's need to know and your audience will appreciate it. Believe me.
 
where did you learn how to light then?

I'm sure you've learned after you got into the industry.
and that's one of the reasons why people don't know how to light.

for some reason there is always a film class but not a single lighting class.
the only way to learn lighting is to take a photography class but that's just 3 point lighitng.
in cinema it's more then that when there's dolly/crain/steady cam shot.

it's really hard to learn how to light when you're not in the industry so that's a major problem.
lucky I learned from the pros!
 
Ryvac,
I agree that it is hard to find a lighting class. Learning from the Pros is the best alternative. There are other alternatives for the hobbiest/newbie - reading books, studying movies, watching 'how it was made' DVDs, American Cinematographer and most of all, Practicing.

I will be learning my whole life.


Jason
 
I too have heard good things about the Maine Workshops although they are not cheap. I learned to light by working with talented DPs. Lighting is a hands on sport, book knowledge is of limited value in effective lighting, it is more simple cause and effect and developing working visual vocabulary of tricks, tips and favorite looks mixed with a basic knowledge of how light behaves.

One thing that most newbies are clueless about is that lighting isn't lights, lighting is more about controlling and shaping light. Controlling light is gripping. Flags, silks, solids, diffusion, egg crates, softboxes, barndoors, cutter, fingers, cookies, meat axes, apple boxes, C-stands, lighting stands, etc. are all more important than worrying about which lights you are using.

Besides hands on, browse Matthews and Moderns website and look through their catalogs, you will discover all kinds of interesting tools for shaping and controlling light. That is what lighting is about, not buying little lighting kits and thinking that you can actually light much beyond a single talking head effectively. I had a professor once who told me that having a plan of action, a lighting plot and knowledge is far more important that having an entire 10 ton full for G&L. I agree.

If you cannot crew with pros, I recommed still photography with a cheap digital camera. Anyone with a P&S and half a brain can shoot in lots of different lighting situations and at least begin to understand how light behaves. Manipulating light is kind of like trying to hold Mercury in your hands, it runs all over the place (anyone else break a thermometer when you were a kid to do this? Shudder. Nothing like playing with poison). Light is easy to tame and bend to what you want it to do if you have a plan and understand how light behaves.

Dan
 
Video and photos for that matter are 2D mediums. In order to give them at least the hint of a third dimension, we have to play with light and the absence of it (shadow) in various ways. That gives subjects more depth. You have to have a vision for the scene and enough knowledge on how to carry that out.

Control is important as is also type of light: hard or soft. Soft light flatters but is poor at shadows. You can get them, but not well defined. Sometimes we don't want shadows at all, so you follow schemes that accomplish that and give a very flat lighting. When we want more defined shadows, we need harder light. Then we start to get a more dramatic depth or at least perceived depth.

After that, as Dan said, you have to control all the instruments, hard or soft, to keep them confined to the areas they are affecting and not touching anything else. That's where the real work and thought comes in. Learn why you would use one or the other in each segment of a scene and how you'd control it to keep it confined so it doesn't contaminate another area and mess up the look you're trying for.
 
There are the basics you can learn (standard three point lighting) but lighting is not an exact science.

Proper lighting simply means taking a scene, and enhancing it.

Believe me, I've been on many a shoot where it takes hours to light. It's trial and error. You set the lights up how the director wants the scene lit and do your best to make his vision a reality.

Some people have a knack for it and can get a scene lit pretty quick, but from my experience it's rare.

There are some good books on lighting that will at least get you started in the right direction. Then it's up to you to apply it in every production. The more you light, the easier it will get and the more professional your footage will look.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top