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what are commonly referred to as “party gels.”
Unlike color correction gels, which are used to
help balance the color cast of different sources,
party gels are used to intentionally introduce
color into your scene. Beyond conveying real-
ism, color is an important attribute of light we
can manipulate to help sell our story.Intensity
The intensity of a light refers to its brightness.
The intensity of the source itself is measured in
lumens, while footcandles or lux measures the
intensity of light hitting a subject. If your light
intensity is too low, you have to increase the
gain or ISO of your camera in order to record
correctly exposed video. This can increase the
amount of noise in your footage. If it’s too high,
you’ll have to close your iris down, increase
your shutter speed or ideally, use a neutral den-
sity filter to reduce the amount of light passing
through your lens.
Luckily, you can control the intensity of the
light source itself with a few different tools. One
option is to switch the wattage of your bulb.
Another is placing a neutral density gel over a
light or window, which will cut the intensity
without affecting its color temperature. A scrim
has a similar effect. You can also use a dimmer,
but be aware that this will shift the color tem-
perature of a tungsten light. Some LED lightshave built in dimmers that don’t cause this shift.
Finally, you can simply adjust the distance of
your light from your subject.
Combining lights with different intensities can
help you control the lighting contrast ratio. The
contrast ratio is the difference between the bright-
est and darkest portions of your scene. Much like
our ability to adjust for extreme differences in
color temperature, our eyes can easily adjust for
extreme contrast. While we are indoors in normal
room light, everything is well lit and we can make
out even subtle details in the darkest parts of the
room. Glancing out a window changes nothing.
We can see clearly everything in direct sun while
the details in the outdoor shadows are visible too.
We can also see both light conditions at the same
time. The indoor details and the outdoor details
are clearly visible to us.
Our cameras, however, aren’t so adept. Auto-
iris may be passable when we move from a dark
scene with a low contrast ratio to a much bright-
er scene with a low contrast ratio, but when we
try to capture a scene with a high contrast ratio,
such as a low lit room with a bright window
looking out into the daylight, our cameras often
fail miserably.
Simply put, the higher the contrast ratio, the
more dynamic range your camera will need in or-
der to capture your scene without underexposing
your shadows or overexposing your highlights.
A large production crew will have meters that
measure the amount of light in a scene and will
carefully insure that everything falls within their
camera’s dynamic range. This allows the camera
to capture all of the detail in the scene to give edi-
tors flexibility to color correct and grade in post.
With a combination of increasing and decreas-
ing the intensity of different light sources, you
can easily remedy most problems you may find
indoors. You can add light to the darker areas,
or reduce the intensity in the brightest areas. Of
course, the right amount of contrast just depends
on your artistic vision.
From experience I can tell you that it can be
extremely difficult, if not impossible, to match an
interior setting to an exterior setting without plac-
ing neutral density gels on the windows if you are
shooting from the interior and expecting to cor-
rectly expose the exterior. Conversely, if you are
expecting to shoot from outdoors and correctly
expose interior scenes through a window you will
need enormous amounts of light inside.
Not to worry, thought, because with careful
planning and preparation, you can create superb
results by shooting when the intensity of theIf you need to shoot a scene in a room with large windows, consider using
a large neutral density gel to better match the outdoor light intensity to the
indoor light intensity.LIGHTING NOVEMBER 2019
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outdoor lighting approximates the intensity of the
indoor lighting.
There is a time when the sun is close to the
horizon that the outdoor lighting intensity is
very closely matched to the average indoor
lighting of most buildings and residences. Dur-
ing this time the lighting results can be spectac-
ular, but there is one caveat: time. You only have
about 30 to 45 minutes to shoot, so you must
work quickly. But like we said, careful planning
can yield wonderful results.Quality
A third critical attribute of light you can control is
quality. The quality of a light source affects how
the highlights and shadows look in your scene.
The two common terms used to describe light
quality are hard and soft.
Hard light, such as the sun at high noon, will
create intense shadows and more contrast. Diffus-
ing the light produces softer shadows and reduces
contrast in the image.
Hard light is produced by small sources and is
used to create crisp, sharp transitions between
highlights and shadows. Two good examples of a
hard light source are the sun at noon, and a clear
incandescent bulb.
Soft light is produced by larger sources, and
results in diffused gradual transitions between
highlights and shadows. Essentially, soft light will
“wrap” around your subject and illuminate the
shadows to a certain extent. Two examples of soft
light sources are overcast skies and softboxes. Soft
light is scattered and therefore more difficult to
shape and control compared to hard light.
If you’ve got a hard light source, you can as-
sert some control over it. You can diffuse it with
material to make it softer, use flags to shape it or
use reflectors to bounce some light back into the
shadows to lower the contrast ratio. Even direct
sunlight on a sunny day can be rendered creative-
ly with dramatic results.Direction
The fourth attribute of light is direction, or angle.
This is a crucial component to achieving realistic
lighting. Lighting your subject from the side can
add depth and even mystery to the image, while
lighting from the front will produce a flatter and
more revealing image.
The direction your most intense light — com-
monly called the key light — determines where
your primary shadows will fall. In other words,
if you want to mimic sunlight coming in through
a window, you don’t want to place a hard lightdirectly above your subject. You also want to
consider the effect that direction has on your
subject. Lighting a face from the front at eye
level will create an extremely flat looking im-
age, while light coming from the side will reveal
texture and shape.Bringing it all together
While each attribute can be described individu-
ally, the reality is that color, intensity, quality
and direction give a specific light source the
unique look it produces. Combining various
light sources with different properties allows
you to properly light a scene in the precise way
you want. You are in control of the intensity
and contrast ratio, the quality of the shadows,
the color that creates the mood and the direc-
tion that reveals or conceals details and mimics
real world lighting.
The infinite number of combinations is what
makes lighting so complex, yet so powerful. Ul-
timately, your camera can only capture the light
you put in front of it, and the most important
thing is knowing you can bend it to your will to
get stellar looking images.Terry O’Rourke specializes in retail advertising photography
and videography for clients worldwide.You can comment on this article by going online:
http://www.videomaker.com/?p=72024351LIGHTING NOVEMBER 2019
Lighting from the side rather than straight on gives your image more depth.
This technique reveals form and texture that might otherwise be hidden.390 C03 Lighting.indd 49 9/24/19 2:24 PM