Lighting Styles

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Nobody356

Well-known member
Hey,

I feel like I have gotten a lot more comfortable with lighting lately and I can easily light most scenes. This being said however, I think that I light everything quite similarly. I guess its ok because in a way I'm creating a personal style, but I'm still young and relatively inexperienced so I dont think I should be stuck with one lighting formula.

Is there anywhere that lists different styles of lighting, maybe that different filmmakers or genres of films use. I would really be interested in information like this to broaden my knowledge of lighting and giving me ideas to experiment with.

I want to work on the fact that some people say that all my work looks very similar. Even if you dont have a link, if you know of a cool style and how its done by all means, tell me about it here.

Thanks in advance.

Chris
 
Watch "The Insider" -- turn off the sound and learn... Scenes with harsh lighting (even at night) are to tighten the emotional stress of the character but scenes of calm are lit very "pleasantly" with soft key... You should light depending on the mood of the scene.
 
Very generally speaking there's essentially High Key lighting and Low Key lighting. Low key lighting in when most of the scene is underexposed from the key light but there will be parts that are exposed properly or even a little over. High key is the opposite where most of the frame is exposed properly (or at key light) and with ample fill light. It really has to do with contrast. Mixing up your contrast levels and how each light corresponds to your base stop (probably your key light) will help to affect your overall look.

Either way it's good that you're developing your own style. It's exciting when you start developing your own bag of tricks of what you like and what works vs what doesn't.
 
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That's kind of like asking what are the different styles of painting. There are countless different ways to render something and each artist has to find his style. The best thing one can do in any art form are the following:

a. Look at other people have done and decide what you like.
b. Figure out why you like it. Why it works.
c. Experiment on your own and find your own style.
d. Look at your stuff and figure out what you like and why you like it.
 
I have always thought that American Beauty had some amazing lighting. If you watch the commentary they talk aboout different lighting situations, very interesting to watch.
 
Just remember that the camera sees light differently than your eyes. So you must decide on the desired mood and what NEEDS to be seen and more importantly what does NOT need to be seen. Generally, (not always) you will expose for highlight detail and add or remove light to control shadow detail. You will locate lights to provide highlights and shadows to produce the illusion of 3 dimensions. Remember to light the background too! This generally improves the illusion by separating objects in the midground from being lost in the background. Rim lighting the actor further helps to separate the actor from becoming part of the background. Last, don't forget about REMOVING light from where it DOES NOT belong using flags, grids, scrims, barndoors, etc. Avoid having brightly lit areas very close to the camera. Well, that's my 2 cents worth!
 
If I remember right American Beauty was DP'd by Conrad Hall.. Of course it had good lighting. That guy was genius, RIP.
 
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