Visual Cinematography: Light, Exposure, Tone, Color, and Movement

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering concepts of light, exposure, lenses, depth of field, tone, color theory, and camera movement.

Foot candle

An international unit that represents the intensity of light from a single standardized candle at one foot's distance.

Exposure

The interaction of the amount of available light let in through the camera lens with the specific film stock loaded into the camera or the sensitivity of the video camera's chip.

Aperture

The camera mechanism that determines how much of the available light will enter the camera.

T-stop

A measurement of the amount of light transmitted through the opening in the lens, calibrated on an inverse logarithmic scale where lower numbers represent bigger openings.

Underexposure

An exposure condition where an image is exposed with less than the standard amount of light falling on the subject, producing a darker image with considerably less detail in the shadows.

Overexposure

An exposure condition where an image is exposed with more than the standard amount of light falling on the subject, resulting in a whiter, washed-out look with halo effects and blown-out highlights.

Reflective light meter

A light meter that measures the amount of light reflected by a given object or area back onto the meter.

Incident light meter

A light meter that measures the amount of light falling on the meter itself when held in a specific spot.

Fast stocks

Film stocks with higher ASA or ISO ratings that are more sensitive to light, require less light to make a properly exposed image, and yield grainier or noisier images.

Slow stocks

Film stocks with lower ASA or ISO ratings that are less sensitive to light, require more light to make a properly exposed image, and yield sharper images.

Focal Length

The degree of magnification of a lens, technically defined as the distance (measured in mm) between the optical center of the lens and the point in the camera where the image is focused.

Fixed Lens (prime lens)

A camera lens possessing a single focal length.

Zoom Lens

A complex lens that allows smooth movement through a range of focal lengths.

Dolly-counterzoom (Zolly)

The simultaneous usage of a camera dolly movement and a zoom adjustment at the same rate.

Normal Lens

A lens with a focal length of $40\text{--}60\text{ mm}$ (with $50\text{ mm}$ being very nearly the same) that yields views roughly equivalent in magnification to the human eye.

Short (Wide-Angle) Lens

A lens with a focal length of less than $40\text{ mm}$ that minifies objects, stretches space along the z-axis, exaggerates relative differences in size, and can cause barrel distortion.

Long (Telephoto) Lens

A lens with a focal length of greater than $60\text{ mm}$ that magnifies objects and compresses or flattens space along the z-axis.

Depth-of-field

A camera's range of distance through which objects appear in focus.

Film Plane

The place inside the camera where the image is focused.

Focus Point

The specific point of sharpest focus in a shot.

Reflective control

An art direction technique where the brightness range of a shot is controlled by the inherent reflective value of the scenery, location, props, costumes, and set dressing.

Incident control

A lighting technique where the brightness range of a shot is governed by the amount of light falling onto the objects.

Coincidence of tone

A visual relationship where the tonal range reveals the subject.

Non-coincidence of tone

A visual relationship where the tonal range hides the subject.

Maximum affinity of tone

A visual state achieved when tones within a shot are as similar as possible, created using small groups of similar greys or a single shade of grey.

Maximum contrast of tone

A visual state where the two extremes of the grey scale (jet black and bright white) contrast to create visual intensity, with almost all middle greys removed.

Reflectance Value

An object's inherent physical ability to reflect light.

Hi-contrast

Single images that contain bright highlights, stark black areas, and a narrow range of grays.

Low-contrast

An image that contains a narrow range of tones.

Additive color system

A system using colored light to illuminate the same surface, overlapping colors and adding wavelengths together to create new colors (primary colors: Red, Green, Blue).

Subtractive color system

A system using mixtures of color pigments (such as paint or dye) or filters that subtract wavelengths from each other to produce a new color (primary colors: Magenta, Yellow, Cyan).

Hue

The position of a color on the color wheel, consisting of eight basic hues: red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, violet (purple), and magenta.

Brightness (Value, lightness)

The addition of white or black to the hue of a color, representing the tone of a color in relation to the gray scale.

Saturation (Chroma, Intensity)

The purity and vividness of a color according to the standard color wheel, where desaturated colors move closer to gray.

Complementary colors

Colors positioned directly opposite one another on the color wheel.

Monochromatic color scheme

A color scheme that employs only a single hue.

Limited palette

A deliberate palette that consists exclusively of the colors chosen for the film while removing every other color.

Color Script

A visual representation of the color scheme of a film, typically broken up between acts and arcs, functioning similarly to a storyboard for color.

Magic Hour

A time of day characterized by a unique quality of shadowless, blue daylight.

LUT (Look Up Table)

Electronic settings used in digital cinematography that alter hue, brightness, saturation, contrast, and exposure latitude to radically influence image color.

Timing (Color Grading)

The color correction of images on film, captured digitally, or transferred from film to digital file, allowing independent manipulation of hue, brightness, saturation, and contrast.

Luminosity

The brightness or tone of a color, where greater luminosity indicates that a color appears closer to white.

Actual movement

Motion that occurs exclusively in the real, three-dimensional physical world.

Induced movement

An illusion of motion where a moving object transfers its movement to a nearby stationary object, usually making the smaller and/or brighter object appear to move.

Apparent movement

The perceptual experience of motion created when one stationary object is rapidly replaced by another stationary object, as seen in animation or sequential arrow signs.

Simple movement

Screen movement occurring along vertical, horizontal, diagonal, or circular paths.

Complex movement (Compound Movement)

Object movement that moves in depth on a flat screen, alluding to movement along the z-axis.

Point of attention (POA)

The audience's eye movement as they watch the screen.

Continuum of movement

The practice of controlling where the audience is looking and how their point of attention moves from one area of the screen to another.

Pan

A two-dimensional camera movement turning left or right.

Tilt

A two-dimensional camera movement pointing up or down.

Dolly

Physical three-dimensional camera movement along the x or z axes, parallel to the ground.

Crane

Physical three-dimensional camera movement along the y, yz, or yx axes involving a height change.

Grip

The production crew member who pushes the camera dolly.

Steadicam

A stabilizing camera mount system that offers the mobility of handheld shooting while isolating operator movement to produce smooth floating movements.

Motivated camera movement

Camera movement directly motivated and guided by character movement, where the camera moves with the subject.

Autonomous camera movement

Camera operation that moves independently without being prompted or motivated by character movement.

Parallel movement

Camera movement that travels in the same direction, at the same speed, and maintains the same distance from the moving subject.

Non-parallel movement

Camera movement that does not maintain a constant distance or direction relative to the subject, creating visual depth through size variation.

Semi-autonomous camera movement

A camera movement whose start is motivated by a character's action, but which diverges by moving at a different rate or continuing to move after the character stops.