Filmmaking / Directing : Telling Story with Light by Robert Macfarlane

One of my favorite tools too. I like to use various light colors for mood enhancement and breath life into the scene. I hate flat lighting - I see so much of it.

Agreed Doug! It wasn't long ago that the raw footage look was in vogue, turning any contrast into a milky haze

You might be a more technical Director, I tend to be a more artistic Director; yet we both agree on the end result. I find that I spend an inordinate amount of time exploring, tweaking and fine tuning the lighting until I set the 'right' mood. Then it all goes to hell.

Lighting is crucial to the creation of the images. It is the transition from Art Direction to Cinematography. Knowing and visualizing what you wish to achieve on screen to support and enhance the story is the starting point. Using available light is great but presents unique challenges. The single biggest is that the ball of fire in the sky moves. Changes the angle and sometimes the amount of light where you are shooting. If it is a scene that can be shot in 15 minutes the change may not be noticeable, but once it get longer you have to keep on top of the changes to your scene and deal with those changes appropriately. Obviously this affects exteriors but also interiors where there are any windows. Other interiors, where the sun doesn’t play, means you have to evaluate what the light looks light and how much there is. With current cameras there is always enough light to get a proper exposure. But does it look correct for your shot? Do the actors look good, or appropriate? Vilmos Zsigmond used to call this “unavailable light”. There is enough to get an exposure but it looks wrong so why would you shoot in it?

Think of the interior with no light.and build from there. Amount, colour, texture, contrast ratio, angle, shape, shadow, etc. all have to be considered for both the foreground and the background. And be consistent throughout the shots in the scene. This becomes quite difficult when shooting without lighting. There was a “movement” called Dogma 95. Everything had to be exactly as it was on the location. People were working incredibly hard to balance that approach with the look of the picture on the screen. Haven’t heard much of Dogma 95 in a while.

Truly the hardest thing regarding lighting for our industry is to get people to actually see the light in the scene and know what can do done to shape and manipulate the light to complement the story being told. “What do you see and what should it look like?”, are my usual questions to those trying to learn more about lighting. Sadly, once people realize there is not an app for that, and you have to think and learn, many loose interest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9w8I_YD29E. This may also help.. Robert!

Thanks for share @Robert “Neg” lighting I’ll experiment with for a Noir. I’m hiring a studio & black room 3 days but want more time with a DOP on location. That shot behind shower curtain goes to show some lighting tricks can be awesome with no money. My favourite lighting is sultry Neo or Vintage Noir colour or B&W depicting existential characters drowning or thriving outside the mainstream in real or imagined twilight zones. @Andrew RE Foreground & Background. Vital you mention, as John Boorman said a set should be as 3D as possible. @All I’ve seen additional eye lights used to light actors eyes not so we see the actual light per sae but just the ocular beam off a character’s pupils. I know a director who regularly paints the floor black or white and another who used hundreds of real chinese lanterns on high sticks to hold above the actors on a night shoot.

@Leonor thanks for the share. Just seen the start only cos going out soon and it looks riveting. Catch up later.

Also lighting effects can be altered at source within the camera itself before even considering external factors. Tweaking the manual settings universal to all cameras can reap drastically different results. Eg Shutter speed, frame size, aperture, IOS, white space, temperature etc. Many initial mistakes are due to “Auto” mode operating in full swing.

You can't alter lighting in the camera. Bad lighting will ruin a shot. You can't change the angle of the light, or the quality of it. Color etc. once you've shot it. You can use filters but that's on the lens. Not in the camera. So far there's nothing you can do in the camera other than cut the quantity of light hitting the sensor and white balance / black level adjustments. Again, none of this is changing the lighting.

A DP adjusts their environment (lighting) to suit the camera settings they want to work at. A videographer adjusts their camera settings to the environment they find themselves in. Huge difference. The former requiring a wealth of knowledge and tools to do properly on any scripted film or tv show.

That is a great post. I am excited to look at this. Thanks for sharing.

@M Lavoie I understood we tell the camera what the primary source of external light is EG Tungsten, Sun, Shade, Cloud, Incandescent and work out the colour temperature manually ASWELL AS considering all factors for External lighting. On a low budget set there may not always be ample choice of external Pro studio lights and skipping the “Fundamentals” at hand is a mistake. Fake ISO digital light can ruin shots as you say but cranking shutter speed in certain circumstances with ISO right down works by day for correct exposure. The histogram screen, display monitor for prior testing light in a scene and white space Kelvin measure are all “Internal” to a camera I’ve practiced on. I made some scenes bad, others too orange/blue until mastering the basics to obtain a perfect lit shot with no external help. @ALL Going back to original question of thread, what is artist’s favourite lighting? As a director whatever is best to make a particular scene “Rock.” EG Horror where bad shit happens dingy tungsten & candles with Neg & Shape or a sci fi LED lights with Bounce & Flare & VFX.

Shutter speed/angle should not be adjusted to reduce or add light in cinematography. Ever. It's not a tool for that in the way it is for still photography.

In film, the shutter angle/speed is locked in almost all cases at 1/48th on digital and 180 on film. That's when filming at 24fps. You never change that unless you want wildly erratic looking motion in the frame.

Think the storming of the beach in Saving Private Ryan. Or if you go the other direction, Chunking Express. A Wong Kar Wai film of the 90s. Motion gets wonky when you mess with the shutter. So you don't.

If you have too much or too little light your only camera options are ISO adjustments, Iris adjustments or ND filters. Unless you actually change lighting. The elements outside the camera. Usually with lots of grip and lighting gear.

I think some of the earliest “Indie” storytellers to work with light over a geographical stage were the unknown builders of Neolithic site Stonehenge 4000 years ago. Yes it wasn’t a film but the giant Sarsen stones portray a visual moving enigma attracting a world wide audience. Sunlight is true white light matching 5600 Kelvin which I enjoy experimenting with most & a neutral density filter isn’t always what’s needed in bright daylight on lens cos sometimes a different certain look needs nailing.

@M Lavoie Thanks for info, you are talking about “Industry Standard Cinematography” & Equipment which I was not. The U tube samples in thread focused in part on artists playing with light with whatever means at their disposal to get visual results & I don’t claim to be cinematographer. When I direct I have a DOP but I want to do some hand held art house type video cam in juxtaposition next time on set after learning the craft.

@V Lavoie What cinematography camera do you use? We’ve been using smart phones & hand held which have “internal” settings/monitor to aid light adjustment plus external light GODOX SL - 60 and supermarket LED’s. Also we downloaded 3 film APPS. It could be that we did not get ugly fuzzy visuals when cranked up shutter speed & lowered ISO outdoors in sun cos of type of APP, in fact it lessened motion.

Most Android phones now have manual camera settings without 3rd party apps. Allowing you to lock all controls like a pro camera. I phone may. Not sure.

You can get a clipon variable ND for any phone for $30.

If you crank up the shutter you won't notice smearing. It will just look jittery. Hyperreal unnatural. Its when the shutter is low that you see trailing streaks of the image.

That's such great advice Robert. All types of cameras, including phones, can do so many things now, knowing your lighting can really help up the game for anyone shooting on anything!

In fact I have been using the fabulous Blackmagic Pock Cinema camera 4K which you can buy for less that $1000 now (still best bang for buck in my opinion). I use vintage lenses from Ebay and I have instead spent WAY more on lights - got a couple of 600Watt bi colour LED's and 4x 300Watt LED's for all my commercial and drama needs.

Moral of the story - put your money in front of the camera whenever you can!

I agree, Lighting creates an impact to a story as well as a camera angle, great example is your post.

Agreed! Lighting is essential to making a great film, and adds so much to storytelling.

You speak my language Robert Macfarlane