Basic lighting setups and concepts explained for indie filmmakers and video content creators.
High-contrast lighting is responsible for some of the most memorable imagery put to film. The crisp, delineative quality of deep blacks contrasted with the lit portions appeal to our love of strong scenery, our innate sense of visual beauty. So, how does one achieve this look in films or photographs of their own? With a …
Harsh light has its uses. It heightens drama, creates sharp contrast, and works really well for tonally dark films and genres like action, sci-fi, thriller, and horror. But, say you’re not shooting a bleak apocalyptic thriller or grungy futuristic action film; say you want some soft lighting. In that case, you’ll need to get your …
This is part two of my articles covering the basics of green screen and chroma key. If you missed part one, which covered general green screen knowledge, check it out here. This article will strive to answer the question: How do you use a green screen and chroma key properly? Here are the most important …
Over the last two decades, green screens have gone from uncommon novelty used solely on VFX-heavy films, to staple of cinema on even the most minute budgets. And while ‘green screen’, like ‘CGI’, ‘mo-cap’, and other well-known filmmaking terms, has successfully permeated the mainstream culture, very few people can, in actuality, describe what it does. …
Good lighting makes the scene. Knowing how to use light to advantage is crucial if you want to get good footage. In this article, I’ll guide you through the basic light setups for video – from 1-point lighting to 4-point lighting. The information is meant as a kind of recipe to get you started. In …
In a previous article, you learned the basics of lighting types such as natural light, soft light, and hard light. Now it’s time to move on to light bulbs and accessories which help to manipulate the light. As you can probably know, there are different types of bulbs that produce light such as incandescent, halogen, …
Choosing the right light type when shooting a video or a film can have a big impact on its quality. If artists use paint and sound to create emotions, filmmakers use a combination of lights and shadows for the same purpose. There are numerous types of lighting types frequently used by filmmakers such as natural …