filmmaking is the softlight, which creates a very
soft, diffuse, almost shadowless light.
Another piece of lighting equipment, the reflec-
tor board, is not really a lighting instrument
because it does not rely on bulbs to produce illumi-
nation. Essentially, it is a double-sided board that
pivots in a U-shaped holder. One side is a hard,
smooth surface that reflects hard light; the other is a
soft, textured surface that provides a softer fill light.
Reflector boards come in many sizes and are used
frequently, both in interior and especially in exterior
shooting; most often they are used to reflect sunlight
into shadows during outdoor shooting.
Quality The quality of light on a character or sit-
uation is a very important element in helping a
movie tell its story. Quality refers to whether the
light is hard (shining directly on the subject, creat-
ing crisp details and a defined border and high
contrast between illumination and shadow) or soft
(diffused so that light hits the subject from many
slightly varying directions, softening details, blur-
ring the line between illumination and shadow, and
thus decreasing contrast). We can generally (but
not always) associate hard, high-contrast lighting
featuring deep shadows (known as low-key lighting)
with serious or tragic stories and soft, even lighting
(high-key lighting) with romantic or comic stories.
The way the cinematographer lights and shoots
an actor invariably suggests an impression of the
character to the audience. A good example of how
the quality of lighting can affect how we look at and
interpret characters in a scene can be found in
Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane (1941; cinematogra-
pher: Gregg Toland). When Kane (Welles) first
meets and woos Susan Alexander (Dorothy Comin-
gore), the light thrown on their respective faces
during close-up shots reveals an important distinc-
tion between them. Susan’s face, lit with a soft light
that blurs the border between illumination and
shadow, appears youthful and naive. In contrast,
Kane’s face is lit with a hard and crisp light, making
him appear older and more worldly.Direction Light can be thrown onto a movie
actor or setting (exterior or interior) from virtually
any direction: front, side, back, below, or above. By
direction, we also mean the angle of that throw,
for the angle helps produce the contrasts and shad-
ows that suggest the location of the scene, its mood,
and the time of day. As with the other properties
of lighting, the direction of the lighting must be
planned ahead of time by the cinematographer in
cooperation with the art director so that the light-
ing setup achieves effects that complement the
director’s overall vision.
The effects possible with any one lighting setup
are extensive, but not limitless. If anything, the pio-
neering work of one cinematographer may make
such an impression on moviegoers and filmmakers
alike that it limits the freedom of subsequent film-
makers to use the same lighting setup in different
ways. In other words, as with most other aspects of
filmmaking, lighting is subject to conventions. Per-
haps the best-known lighting convention in feature
filmmaking is the three-point system. Employed
extensively during the Hollywood studio era
(1927–47), the three-point system was used to cast
a glamourous light on the studios’ most valuable
assets during these years—their stars—and it
remains the standard by which movies are lit today.
The three-point system employs three sources
of light, each aimed from a different direction and
position in relation to the subject: key light, fill
light, and backlight. The backlight is the least238 CHAPTER 6 CINEMATOGRAPHY
Softening shadowsOutdoor shots in direct sunlight pose
a risk of casting harsh shadows on actors’ faces. This shot
from James Cameron’s Titanic(1997; cinematographer:
Russell Carpenter) shows the effect of using a reflector
board to soften shadows and to cast diffuse light on the
bottom of the chin and the nose and under the brow, thus
giving Leonardo DiCaprio’s face a softer, warmer look
on-screen.