Cinematic Lighting Techniques | Part 1

hey what's up everybody in this video I'm going to show you how to make your images go from looking like this to this and the only thing I changed was the lighting lighting is one of the key elements to creating cinematic images and is one of the biggest factors that separates amateur looking films from professional looking films now I recently saw a post on the Facebook group of one of our members asking why does my image look flat and washed out but this image that I pulled off of an ad I just watched looks super cinematic what are they doing that I'm not doing to get that cinematic look and the answer is lighting and we'll talk about how lighting can create depth to make your images look more three-dimensional and cinematic now there are four main characteristics of light that I want to cover Direction color quantity and quality now because there's so much to cover I'm actually gonna split this up into two videos in this video part one we're going to be covering direction of lights and briefly talking about light color as well and then a video too we'll talk about light quality versus light quantity first let's talk about direction of lights depending on where you position your lights the shadows will allow you to form different shapes or patterns on your subject so using a basic three-point light setup we're going to go over five common lighting patterns and when you'd want to use them the key light is your main light that is used to light up your subject and depending on where you place those key light will depend on the look or a light pattern that it gives you the most common placement of a key light is slightly above your subject and about 45 degrees from the camera off to one side and the reason for this is because it creates shadows on the face making your subject appear more three-dimensional and thus creating depth to your image and as we talked about a lot in this course creating depth is what helps images feel more cinematic and pop out from the screen be careful though not all shadows are good if you place your light too high you'll start creating raccoon eyes on your subject this generally isn't a very flattering look and kind of resembles shooting at noonday which isn't the prettiest lighting to shoot in but you also don't want to put the light too low first of all because light sources don't naturally come from below us so it doesn't look very natural but also because it gives you that flashlight around the campfire look that tends to be more of a spooky scary feel plus it highlights areas that aren't super flattering like underneath chin the nostrils the eyebrow Ridge so by having the lights slightly above your subject you create a nice drop shadow drop shadow meaning the shadow underneath the chin that outlines the jaw which is typically a more flattering look and helps create dimension and depth with this key light position you also have the subjects eyes lit up nicely which is usually the main part of the face that you want your audience to focus on and if you look closely you can actually see the light sources reflection in your subjects eye and this is called a catch light having a strong catch light can help draw your viewers attention to the subject and gives your subject that sparkle on the eye look and depending on the shape of your key light you can get variety of shapes of catch lights in the eye for example if you use a square softbox or a window as your key light you'll get more of a square catch light if you're outside shooting and using light reflected off of surrounding objects then you'll see those reflected objects in the catch light of your subjects eye so those are just a couple things I look for when lighting my subject to help give them a more cinematic look now let's move the position of our key light to show you the five different lighting patterns and the effects they each have on your image as we move the key light directly in front of our subject we get an even flat look to our image and this is called flat lighting flat lighting on the face will mean that your subject is well lit and you are unable to see any shadows along their face this will give you the least dramatic look out of the five lighting patterns that we'll be talking about and is often used for a more lighthearted setting like commercials or Beauty shots that allow you to see every detail of the skin this look doesn't give a lot of dimension or depth to your subject though so isn't necessarily looked at as a more cinematic or dramatic option now if we keep the light in the same spot but just raise it up slightly from the flat lighting position we get what is called the Paramount or butterfly lighting paramount refers to Paramount Pictures who use this as their signature lighting style when it came to shooting their leading actresses and the word butterfly refers to the little shadow under the nose that the lighting position creates and is shaped kind of like a butterfly this lighting pattern is typically a more feminine lighting pattern because when used properly the shadows will accentuate the cheekbones creating depth to the face but be careful with the height of your light on this look because if you bring it too low you will lose the drop shadow under the chin along with a butterfly shadow under the nose thus going back to a flatter two-dimensional image and if you raise it too high the eyebrow Ridge will cover up your eyes giving you raccoon eyes and your butterfly shadow will start to crawl onto the lip making for a weird unwanted shadow on your mouth but let's now move the light slightly to the side and you'll start to see that butterfly shadow turn into a side nose shadow this lighting pattern is referred to as loop lighting because the nose shadow creates the shape of a loop on the cheek and this lighting pattern is generally used on rounder faces as the shadows it creates helps the face seem slimmer and longer and as we continue to move the light farther to the side about 45 degrees from our camera that nose shadow connects with the cheek shadow creating the lighting pattern Rembrandt lighting Rembrandt lighting gets its name from a Dutch painter named Rembrandt who used this lighting pattern for many of his paintings and this lighting pattern is known for creating a triangle of light on the cheek subject and is probably the most popular lighting pattern used in Hollywood films as it creates a dramatic cinematic three-dimensional depth to the subjects face now with Rembrandt lighting depending on where you position your camera you can get different looks as well if you position your camera on the broader side of your subject this is called broad light and if you position your camera on the darker side of your subject this is called short light or the dark side and it's most common in cinema to shoot on the short or dark side as it creates more drama and depth now let's move our key light 90 degrees or completely to the side of our subjects and you'll see the entire side of the face becomes shadowed this is called split lighting because it splits the face in half and this lighting pattern is used to create an even more dramatic look and it's also popular in Hollywood films especially during scenes that are meant to be super dramatic and where paramount lighting is typically used to create a more feminine look split lighting tends to make subjects look tougher and more masculine so as you can see just with the positioning of our one key light we can create a wide range of looks and fills to our image let's now look at our second light of the three point light setup and that is the backlight or rim lights or hair light back light because the light lights up the back or if it's slightly high becomes more of a hair lights or if it's more to the side a rim lights back light as we talked about in the natural lighting video is commonly used during golden hour when the Sun is low in the horizon and starting to set so by using a backlight we are replicating that golden hour look sources of backlight can oftentimes be practical lights as well like a window or a lamp or anything in the background that looks natural to help light up the back of your subject the purpose of backlight or rim light is to create a halo or rim around the outline of your subject in my setup for this tutorial I have the backlight positioned about four feet above me and pretty much directly behind me so you can also play with the exact positioning of this light to create slightly different looks our third light in our three-point light setup is the feel lights as the name states the fill light feels in light usually on the opposite side of your key light making your shadows less dramatic depending on the mood of your story and/or scene you can choose to use a little or a lot of this fill light the more feel light you use the less contrast your image will have and this is referred to as high key lighting which is used more in comedies romances sitcoms commercials Beauty shots etc it gives a more lighthearted less dramatic look whereas when you have less fill light it creates more contrast and this is referred to as low-key lighting and is used in more dramatic scenarios and has generally looked at as more cinematic due to the added depth it gives your subject now I rarely use feel like for my setups but rather I just have my soft key light and the backlight and if I need any fill then I use my five and Lin reflector so there you have it those are the three main lights in a basic three-point light setup and some of the light patterns that can be created be careful though unless you're going for a pitch-black background look you'll want to make sure you have some light on your background to give your audience some context as to where your subject is this can either be done by allowing your other lights to spill on the background or you could add another artificial light lighting up just the background and a common lighting pattern that can be created by using background light is called checkerboard lighting which basically means that you light up the background on the dark side of the subject but leave the background dark behind the bright side of your subject a checkerboard effect this method once again is used to create depth by contrasting the light and helping the subject pop from the background to take it one step further you can add a gel to your backlight to create some color contrast which brings me to our second characteristic of light which is color alright that's all I got for you guys today if you want to see the second half of part 1 and part 2 of cinematic light shaping then you're gonna have to check it out at full time filemaker.com this is where I post all my exclusive content and guys I've had a lot of you asking me post content weekly post content daily and I actually do post weekly content and sometimes daily but it's all on my full time filmmaker private community so if you want exclusive content from me you want personal attention from me you want my feedback on some of your videos then full time filmmaker is the place to get that that is where I can give you personalized attention and if you're not quite ready to join full time filmmaker then make sure to check out the free one hour filmmaking training which is basically like a free trial to full-time filmmaker where I share a bunch of insights from the course but that's it guys hope you enjoyed if you have any further questions please let me know

Channel: Parker Walbeck

Views: 2,065,684

Keywords: lighting, cinematic, light shaping, tutorial, filmmaking, cinematography, light, techniques, parker walbeck, full time filmmaker

Id: eZ5hpcn6tIM

Length: 10min 1sec (601 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 30 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/smarti77]

... very good but this is only half of the video, acting as a teaser to the paid site.

[u/heywood94]

As somebody looking to get into taking portraits, this was brilliant, thank you for sharing. i was also wondering something so will ask here.

what scenarios would you use diffusers as apposed to just lowering the power of your light source? i assume they do similar things thinking about it. thanks

[u/rideThe]

Excellent primer. It's rare in a YouTube tutorial that you don't find some glaring mistakes/inaccuracies (that often stem from the creators barely understanding the material themselves...), but in this case, it's solid.

[u/wormbot]

Thanks for this awesome video. Just got my first speedlight. This will be very helpful!