You may think that cinematography
would be all about using a camera. However, the most important part of a
cinematographer’s job is actually lighting. Scenes are lit to: create a look
that tonally suits the story, to provide a consistent source of illumination
that doesn’t change or effect continuity, and to give the camera enough light
to be able to properly expose. In this video I’ll show you two
different lighting setups for two different looks and compare how you can
get away with using only natural light, or how you can elevate that look a bit more by
supplementing natural light in a motivated way. This video is sponsored by Nanlite
- whose great lighting products and film equipment I used to make this video. Lighting can take two forms. It can
be more expressionist and exaggerated, to completely elevate the
footage out of the real world. Or it can be naturalistic, where,
although artificial lights are used, they are used more subtly in a motivated way
to keep the story within the bounds of realism. Today we’ll focus on creating a naturalistic look
by using motivated lighting. What exactly is that? Motivated lighting involves first examining the
natural light sources that are present in the space and then placing additional artificial
film lights to supplement the natural light. Or, sometimes, if a source doesn’t exist, cinematographers will create an imaginary
motivation for it in their head (outside of the frame of the shot) and then
add artificial light using that idea. There are three things to consider
when lighting in this way: the direction of the light, the quality
of the light and the colour of the light. Let’s keep these three factors in mind when
we go about creating two different looks: a brighter illuminated high key look
and a more shadowy low key look. Let’s start by showing how we can
create a high key look - without many shadows on our subject - using
only the natural available light. When only using ambient light in a space, it’s very important to be aware of
what the natural light is doing. I chose to shoot the natural light look at
a specific time in the morning where the sun was still low enough in the sky that it would
angle in I through the main window in the space. I checked the forecast beforehand and made
sure it was a sunny day. Light scouting, weather observation and scheduling is very
important when dealing with only natural light. Next we need to think about direction.
In this room the main source of light comes from a large window on the side
and a smaller window from the back. Another important part of natural lighting is how
you position the subject. Rather than placing her so that she is directly in front of the window
and the light source is totally front on and flat, I’ve positioned her so that she is side
lit by the sun coming through the window. Also, placing the main source of
light directly behind the camera is normally not a good idea as it may cast
the shadow of the camera onto the subject. This positioning of the subject means the natural light comes through and creates
contrast on one side of the face. Also this little window provides a small
backlight which separates her from the background. Now that direction is sorted we can focus
on the quality of the light. I’ve used a muslin curtain to diffuse the intensity
of the light, softening any shadows, and reducing the brightness of the
illumination outside the window. When setting the exposure level for a high key
look I’ve focused on the illumination of the skin by increasing exposure - in this case with
an ND filter - until I’m happy with the level of light on the face. This may mean that the
area by the window blows out a little bit - or turns to pure white - which isn’t ideal but we
can’t control that. Not without lights anyway. Finally, the colour of our light is that of
the natural sun - which also can’t be changed. One reason I usually don’t turn on
any overhead house lights when using natural light is because mixing the
colour of artificial warmer ceiling bulbs and natural daylight may
throw off how colour is recorded. So there we go, a high key
look using only natural light. One reason that DPs use lights to still create
a naturalistic look is because of this curtain in the background. It’s a bit blown out. In
other words the natural light from outside is much too bright and turns to white, lost
information. This is not pleasing to the eye. So to create a better look I will start
by setting the exposure of the camera so that it is balanced to the light in the
background by only looking at this window. Now it’s not blowing out, however, it’s
much too dark to be a high key look. So, we need to add light. Let’s
start by thinking about direction. Our strongest source of light is coming
from the window - we’ll call this our key. Then some of that lighting from the
window is coming inside and bouncing back as a soft ambient source - we’ll call this
our fill. Then, finally, ambient light from that little window is hitting the back of
her head - we’ll call that our backlight. Using three light sources in this
way is called three point lighting. Now that we’ve identified
where the light is coming from, let’s add film lights that mimic the
direction of the natural sources. The three lights that I’m working with: a
Forza 500B II, a Forza 60B and a PavoTube 6C, are all products from Nanlite:
the sponsor of this video. Earlier this year I worked as a DP on a feature
film, and on that job we only used LED lights. LEDs offer a high quality output of light,
flexible colour temperature adjustments, are easy to run with a small crew and
most can run off house power or batteries. Nanlite’s 500B II is a great example
of a higher output LED. It’s quick and easy to set up, can easily be diffused using
accessories like Nanlite’s Parabolic Softbox, and you can immediately dial in your exact colour
temperature and now even adjust the amount of green or magenta so that you can perfectly match
up to natural light or create a tinted look. It also comes with lots of built in presets, like a TV look, which makes it quick
and easy to achieve a lighting effect. If you want to check out Nanlite’s products
I’ve linked their site in the description below. With our lights on hand, let’s
think about the quality of the light that we want. Because the
sunlight coming through the big window is strongest we’ll put our biggest
light there - a Nanlite Forza 500B II. The sunlight coming through the window has been
diffused by the curtain and is nice and soft, so we’ll do the same and add a softbox, with a layer
of stronger diffusion in front of it to soften it as much as possible. I’ve also added an egg crate
grid to it which controls the spread of the light, focusing it more directly on our subject
and preventing it from spilling everywhere. Next, we’ll take our second strongest light,
a Forza 60B, and use it to recreate some of the natural ambient fill light. This we’ll also
diffuse and make nice and soft by using a lantern. This creates more of a soft spread of light.
As you can see here it hits the little plant on the table. This mimics the spread and quality
of natural ambient sunlight bouncing off a wall. Finally I rigged a little tube light on
an extended c-stand arm as a backlight. This ever so slightly adds to the feel
of the light coming from the back window. Now, for our third variable: colour. To
me, the brightness of high key lighting feels like it would go well with a warm,
morning look, so I cranked all the colour temps on my lights to 5,000 Kelvin - which
is just a bit warmer than normal sunlight. The 500B also comes with a cool new
feature of being able to adjust the amount of magenta or green tint
to the light. So I added a bit of magenta which to my eye helps
give a warmth to the skin tones. And there we have it. A high key look - this time with added artificial lighting that
should still feel quite natural. Let’s take away those lights and create a
new low key look with only natural light. Rather than being bright like the high key
look, low key lighting accentuates shadows and darker tones and usually has an overall higher
contrast between areas of light and shadow. Since we’re not allowed to use any
lights we’ll keep the same positioning, quality and colour of light as before. However,
we are going to change our overall exposure. To prevent those window highlights from blowing
out like they did for the high key look, we’ll lower the exposure using an
ND filter on the front of the lens, until we can still read information
on the window and it’s not blown out. This leaves the frame looking
much moodier than before, even though the only change made
was in exposure, not in lighting. This creates plenty of shadows across the frame, which may work as a nice look for some stories,
however may be a bit too dark for others. So, let’s see if we can’t find a middle ground
between the very shadowy low key, natural light look and the high key look
- by introducing some film lights. We’ll use almost the same placement for
our key light as before. But this time, instead of being more in front of the character,
we’ll bring it around a little bit more until it’s right on the edge of the frame
and is lighting more from the side. This will create just a little bit more contrast, as less light will fall on the side
of her face nearest to the camera. We’ll go ahead and turn on
the same backlight as before. However this time, we’ll leave our fill light off. If you compare the high key lighting shot that
uses a fill light and the low key shot without one you’ll see that not illuminating
the one side of her face creates a gentle shadow on the side that favours the
camera - therefore creating more contrast. Because I’ve moved the key light
around, there is less light that spills on the wall behind her, which also
makes it feel like more of a low key look. On top of this, there is a slight difference in
colour. Because the low key look is a bit moodier, I cooled down the colour temperature
on my fixtures from 5,000K to 6,000K. So there we go. A low key look that
was achieved with motivated lighting, by simply eliminating the fill. Four different looks: two created
without any lights and two created using artificial sources. Lighting is
always subjective and should change depending on the nature of
the story you are telling. This look may be better suited
for commercial applications, while this look works for a
film with more dramatic content. But besides the look, what other advantages does
using lights provide? Perhaps most importantly using lights creates a consistent look, which
will hold up for much longer periods of shooting. If it takes a couple of hours to shoot a scene
using only natural light, the look of the ambience may have completely shifted as clouds came
over, or the sun got flagged by a building. This means that the consistency and continuity
when cutting to different shots will be off. Using film lights means that even if the
natural light changes, the artificial light should maintain the continuity of the look,
which means you will be able to shoot for longer. Also, relying purely on natural light means you
have limited to no control over the look of the image. For this video I could pick a day and a
specific time where I knew we would get strong sunlight, but that isn’t always the case. If
you need an interior to look warm and sunny, but it rains that day and you don’t have any
lights, then there’s not much you can do. If you liked this video please
consider subscribing and hitting the bell notification. As usual a special
thanks to all the Patrons for your continued support of the channel. Otherwise, until
next time, thanks for watching and goodbye.
