lighting for moving subjects

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diego80

Active member
hello to everyone,

I am new here.

first of all, congratulations for this forum and thanks to those who share their informations.

as the title suggests, I would like to ask how I could procede to light actors who actually move on the scene.

the articles I have read and the stuff i checked is almost all about lighting static subjects; but how can we give continuity of lighting (including obviously the same ratio between shadows and bright areas) to those subjects who move?

thanks for reading
 
The principles of lighting do not change. However, when you begin to light scenes instead of just an actor or two, you have to start asking some more questions.

1. What is motivating the light. Is there a window with sunlight pouring in? Is there a table lamp? Is someone holding a flashlight or a candle?

2. Once you understand where the light is coming from, you'll have a better idea of how to move the actors through that space. This is referred to as "blocking". Once you have worked out the blocking, you can now begin to see how the camera will capture the actors as they move.

3. Understand that the actors in a scene will not always be lit perfectly. Especially when you are shooting wide. That's ok. The lighting is there to reflect the "mood" of the scene. It helps us understand the space we're in. When you move in for your closeups of the actors, you can adjust the light a bit to get the fill ratios right, and so forth.


A good way to observe this is to visit an office building or another fairly large space with windows. Watch as people move around in the space and how the daylight or room lights affect them. The trick in drama is to recreate that, either in the studio or on location.

Hopefully the more experienced folks here can offer a LOT more advice than me, but this is just where beginning to learn now.
 
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I think what he is worried about, is being able to keep his actors visible, rather than what realistic light source might be around them.
 
Well, you recreate the realistic light sources around them and just walk them through the scene. If they're still too dark to your taste in certain areas, you can always motivate light from somewhere else in the room. Really, it just comes down to bringing up the existing light levels in a controlled fashion. Then you should be good.
 
You might also want to consider using a half scrim if an actor is walking towards a source, this should help even out the exposure throughout their travel.

Another thing I would recommend is to try to some how get a rim light or some sort of side light that the actor passes through. By having small light pockets scattered that the actor passes through it will give a better illusion of motion. (especially if an actor is walking towards or away from the camera) But like PerroneFord said, make sure there's some sort of motivation for it otherwise it will be more distracting than helpful.
 
Hey Perrone Ford what a great and simple explaination. I have been shooting for more years than I care to admit and I learned from your post.
Gary
 
Yes. I've asked the same question. Professors and Professionals have told me to not be afraid of light and shadow, light and dark. Many times the entering of light and receding into dark can help emphasize depth in a film.
 
first of all,

thank you all for replying!!


thanks especially to PerroneFord for his exhaustive answer.

I'll take some time to read more carefully these hints and will refer to them also in the future, as i move my first steps.

I have already bought a book on lighting (the one from blain brown "Motion picture and video lighting") which i did not find quite exciting to be true.

In the meanwhile, could someone of you suggest me a valid source or website with videos?

thanks again

Diego,
rome
 
PerroneFord said:
A good way to observe this is to visit an office building or another fairly large space with windows. Watch as people move around in the space and how the daylight or room lights affect them. The trick in drama is to recreate that, either in the studio or on location.
Click to expand...

I have tried this today and it really seems to be helpful and, most of all, very easy to practice
 
Capt Quirk said:
I think what he is worried about, is being able to keep his actors visible, rather than what realistic light source might be around them.
Click to expand...

it is partially what you said Capt Quirk,

but not entirely.

what i was thinking is: when you see a close shot on an actor's face, you get a peculiar impression given by the ratio between light and dark.

my question is: would it be possible to keep the same ratio even on a moving subject?

may be it is a stupid question.

I think the best i can do is trying something myself
 
I don't think it's a stupid question at all. But it's not one that reflects nature. If you walk into a room in a house during the day, there are generally one or two sources of light.

1. The Sun.
2. Maybe an overhead lamp or a table lamp.

The lighting ratios change with every step the person takes. Our mind processes this as reality. When we film, we add light to this sometimes in wide scenes so that what registers on film (or tape or whatever) closely resembles what we see with our eyes. Film and video cannot reproduce the same range of light and dark our eyes and brain can. So we have to fake it.

But trying to keep perfect ratios on people in a moving space is not realistic, and will ALWAYS looked forced.

To me, lighting a scene is about a couple of things.

1. How dark is the darkest part of my scene? This is the dark corner of a room, or the area behind the plant, or whatever. It is your "baseline level of light needed to register on film. You may choose to let it fall off to absolute black.

2. What is the brightest subject in the scene? It may be the sunlight from a window.

You need to find a way to capture both of these in your scene. Everything else in the scene falls somewhere in between these extremes. It may be that the ratio between the two is 10:1. Or maybe only 4:1 in a very bright scene or a very dark, nighttime scene.

I know people are fond of using waveforms to view the brightness and darkness of a scene, but I still like the light meter to tell me a few things. Like whether someone with a hat on is going to get enough light on their face for me to see their eyes clearly in a scene. Or whether the gun the antagonist is pulling out of a desk drawer is going to read. The waveform is a course tool that tells me if I'm in the ballpark. The light meter gives me the detail that I want.

I don't get to shoot much narrative work. Nearly all of my stuff is corporate. But I still want it to look good. And when I can take the time to get my lighting right, I am much more pleased with what I recording.
 
ok Ford,

thank you for replying. I'll take some time to read it and fully digest it.

anyway, I considered already buying a waveform, as long as it does not cost really too much.

ciao
Diego
 
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