Lighting

Common Lighting Term

Backlight

• Helps separate the character from the background to create depth

• Help the frame feel three-dimensional

• You don’t always need a backlight but that’s determined by how dramatic you want your lighting set up to look and feel

• The sun is a great backlight

  • You can use a reflector or bounce the sun at a lesser intensity back the subject

Kicker/Edge Light

• Used to graze an actor’s cheek, usually on the fill side.

• Can eliminate the use of fill light depending on stylistic choices

• Not a backlight but a backlight can be used to create a kicker

Topper

• Light from above the subject’s head

• Flag that cuts the upper part of a light

Bounce

• Bounce a light in a location to for motivated lighting

• Use bounce to raise the ambient light level in a room

Practicals

• Working prop lights, like lamps or streelights etc.

Available Light

• Natural light

• Whatever light exists in a location

Lighting Patterns

Flat

• Involves one key light souce and no shadow detail on the face

Butterfly

• Give subjects a more glamorous look

• One of the best ways to soften the skin and hide imperfections

• Usually with diffusion added from the frontal and top down position

Loop

• Used to give you a more dramatic lighting style used in narrative and documentaries, high end news packages.

• The shadows fall to the corner of the nose

• Usually involves placing the light between the 12-1 or 12-11 clock position

Rembrandt

• Generally refers to any light pattern with that triangle of light as Rembrandt lighting

• Well-known lighting style

• Almost always seen in narrative films and documentaries

• Placement of the light is similar to the loop lighting but at a steeper angle to create drama

Side Lighting

• Light source always comes from the side of the subject

• Used in narrative and documentaries to create a dramatic look

• The fill side of the face is left with various levels of shadow detail