Figure 12.1 Poor camera position
Lighting is obviously a key component of a video shoot. Huge amounts of time and money can be spent on lighting. Good lighting is very complex and skilful, and to get good at it you would need a lot more tuition than this book can provide.
Lighting may not be a component of your project over which you have much control. You may not have access to any lights. The good news is that modern cameras are much better at lower lighting levels, so there is less need for lighting now than there was in the past. But you will still need to give some sort of basic thought to lighting.
The lighting set-ups covered in this chapter will only be helpful when you are shooting fairly close up. They will work for presenters or interviewees, or close-ups on objects. They are not going to be helpful when you are shooting very wide shots or shots with a lot of action in them. This kind of lighting is very complicated and demands a lot of special equipment, and therefore is outside the scope of this book.
A camera is not nearly as sophisticated as your eye. Your eye is an amazingly sophisticated instrument. The pupil regulates the amount of light coming into your eye but your eye can also deal effectively with contrasting amounts of light. So, for example, if you are in a room looking out of the window on a sunny day, the amount of light outside is quite different to the amount of light inside, and yet your brain allows you to see both perfectly happily. If you are outside and sitting in the shade looking at a sunny spot, you can see things happening in the sunshine just as easily as things happening in the shade, providing it’s not too dark. A camera is not nearly as good at this.
To be technical for a moment: whereas the range of contrast your eye can deal with is 1000:1 a standard camera of the type you are likely to be using can only deal with about 100:1. You are ten times better than a camera at dealing with contrasting light conditions. This is the main issue you are going to need to be aware of when you are shooting.
This chapter is split into two. The first part deals with how to make the most of available lighting. This will assume that you have no special lights and are making do with the sun, or with lighting that is already available. The second part will go through some of the basics of lighting assuming you have a small lighting kit.
It’s highly likely that you are going to be making a video without the help of any lighting kit. In some senses this is good: one less thing to worry about! However, you will still need to understand some of the basics if you are going to get the best out of the light you do have. Since you don’t have any lights to even out the contrasts, you need to think about shooting so that you minimise the problem.
If you shoot against a window or against another bright light, you will come up against the problem of contrast. Except for the dullest of days or at night, the light outside the window will be brighter than the light in the room. This means that if you place an object in front of the window you will need to do one of two things. You can adjust the exposure so that you can see the object in the room. If you do this then you will get burn-out effect in the window; it will look as if there is a blinding white light outside the room. The other option is to close down the iris to accommodate the amount of light outside the window, but then anything in the room will look very dark; it might almost appear as a silhouette. Sometimes this can create a nice effect but if you use it for an interview it will look as if you are trying to disguise the interviewee! Figures 12.1, 12.2 and 12.3 give you an idea of the effect.
Since you have no lights to balance out the amount of light for the camera, your only option is to not shoot into a window or light; if for some reason you have to do this, you should choose the time of day when there is least light: late afternoon, evening or, less likely, early morning. You would then need to make a judgement as to how much flare or burn-out you can tolerate in the shot. This is also true of any other bright light source – the sun, lamps, candles will all create this issue of contrast.
Figure 12.1 Poor camera position
Figure 12.2 Exposure set for exterior light
Figure 12.3 Exposure set for interior light
Even if you are not using any kit it is helpful to understand the basics of lighting. The most basic lighting set-up is called three-point lighting. There are three types of lights in this set-up.
The three types of lighting follow this order. If there is only one light source then it’s the key light. If you have two light sources then it should be the key light and filler. The backlight is the last one.
If you are shooting inside during the day, the most likely key light is the window. In this instance if you are shooting something close up such as a person or an object you should avoid shooting directly into the window but you can put your subject to one side so that the window becomes your key light (Figures 12.4 and 12.5).
Figure 12.4 Correct camera position
Figure 12.5 Camera position for shooting near windows
However, sometimes there isn’t quite enough light or you may want to light the other side of the person or object. You may want to add some light. If you don’t have any kit there are a couple of ways you can do it (Figures 12.6 and 12.7).
Figure 12.6 Camera and fill positions
Figure 12.7 Camera and bounce
First, you can use the available sunlight from the window but reflect it back onto the other side of the person or object. In effect you are creating filler light. For this you will need a large piece of white card or paper – even a piece of polystyrene, the bigger the better. You can position your person/object to one side of the window as before. A third person needs to stand in front of the window, but out of frame and angling the card so that it reflects or bounces the light coming in from the window onto the person being interviewed. The reflected light is acting as your filler and will help with any shadows or dark spots (Figures 12.8 and 12.9).
Figure 12.8 Without the fill
Figure 12.9 With the fill
A second option is to use the lighting that already exists in the room as an alternative key light. It’s likely that table lamps or standing lamps will be more effective than overhead lighting, particularly if you are lighting people. Overhead lighting directs the light to the top of someone’s head. This is not necessarily the part of the body you most want to light for video; usually you want to light the face and in particular the eyes. To do this a table lamp is going to be the best, ideally something like an angle-poise lamp which you can direct.
You should have the lamp positioned at the just above the height of the person being interviewed. It should be positioned just to the left or right of the camera and directed towards the face. However, if it is making your person squint it’s not positioned right; just alter the angle slightly.
Warning: If you are going to be using lamps in this way it needs to be thought about in your Risk Assessment. Once you start having stuff plugged into sockets, you create risk in that you need to make sure that:
This may sound like an over-protective fuss; after all, you use electricity all the time and you turn lamps on and off all the time. However, remember that when you are looking down the lens of a camera or concentrating on shots you will not be thinking about anything else and therefore you are much more likely to trip over something. Often there are lots of people moving about in a small space and again this will make you much more likely to trip up.
Without expensive lighting equipment it’s not really possible to add any lighting when you are shooting outside. However, there are a couple of things that can improve the lighting.
The same applies to contrast outside as it does inside. Obviously the weather affects this and the issue of contrast is much greater on a sunny day than it is when it is cloudy.
Shooting directly into the sun will have the same effect as shooting into a window. You will get a kind of blinding white light around the object you are shooting or you will get it in silhouette. Equally, if you are shooting an interview or piece to camera it may not be a good idea to shoot with your back to the sun. It will mean that the person in front of the camera is likely to be looking directly into the light and will start to squint and become uncomfortable. It is best to shoot at an angle to the sun (Figure 12.10, overleaf).
Just as you did with the window, you can use a piece of card or polystyrene to bounce some light from the sun onto the other side of the person’s face. On a bright day you may find that the person has a shadow cast across one side of the face; bouncing some sunlight back can eliminate the shadow.
Figure 12.10 Camera position for sunny conditions
On a sunny day you will find that there are lots of shadows around. Again this will create the issue of contrast. If half of your shot is in sunshine and the other half in shadow the camera will not cope with this contrast nearly as well as your eye. On a wide shot this is fine: you can’t and shouldn’t eliminate the shadows; but if you are filming a close-up or piece to camera, interview, etc., you will need to make a decision as to whether you are going to be in shadow or in sunshine. Half and half is no good.
If you find yourself in a situation where you have to film in part shade and part sun, you have two options – use an umbrella or something similar to create some shade. Alternatively, just wait, and the shadow will move as the sun crosses the sky.
Remember: The position of the sun moves, so you will need to think about where the sun is in the sky. You may find that a particular shot is fine in the morning but by late afternoon is not possible because the sun is now directly in your shot. When you do your recce you should be thinking about where the sun is and plan your shooting around this. Again this will be particularly important if you are filming in spring and summer on bright, sunny days.
If you are lucky enough to have access to some lighting kit then you have a little more flexibility. However, unless you are in a professional world you are really only likely to have a basic kit which can provide light when you are filming close up. You are very unlikely to have the huge lights you would need to illuminate a big space, so I wouldn’t worry about this.
Lighting effectively is an extremely skilful and creative aspect to film-making, but learning lighting techniques takes a lot of practice and all but the most basic set-ups are really outside the scope of this book. This chapter covers the most basic lighting set-up. However, practice varies widely and most cameramen and women develop their own preferred styles, and there is no real right and wrong.
Basic lighting can affect three aspects of your shot.
Just as with natural light, there are the same three important lights (Figure 12.11).
Figure 12.11 Camera and lighting positions for three-point lighting
The main source. It is usually a hard light which will create shadows. It is usually placed just above the height of the person or object and to the left or right of the camera. This means it will create light on one side of the object and create a shadow on the other side. If there is a visible light source in the shot (e.g. a window), then the key light should come from the same side. This will give the impression that the light is coming from the visible source.
The job of the filler light is to disperse the shadows caused by the key light and to light the part of the person or object that the key light cannot reach. It should be placed on the opposite side of the camera to the key light. This should be a softer, more diffuse light. You can achieve this by moving the light further away from the subject or opening the doors to the light so that it floods over a wider area. Sometimes camera operators use trace across the lights. This is a special kind of tracing paper that softens and diffuses the light. Be careful though: putting ordinary paper in front of a hot light may just end up with a lot of burnt tracing paper and a fire hazard. There are many other ways of diffusing, and endless amounts of kit you can buy, but I’ll just assume for the moment that you don’t have access to this.
The job of the backlight is to help the object stand out from the background. It gives the shot a greater sense of depth and a slightly more three-dimensional feel. It should be placed to one side of the object rather than directly behind the object. It is usually a hard light; if you place it directly behind the object the light would be shining straight into the camera.
Of course you may not have three lights, in which case:
If you look at the images shown in Figures 12.12 to 12.17 it will give you a good idea of how each of the lights affects the look of the shot.
Figure 12.12 Positions key, fill and backlights
Figure 12.13 Effects with three lights
Figure 12.14 Position key light and fill
Figure 12.15 Effects with key light and fill
Figure 12.16 Position with key light only
Figure 12.17 Effect with key light only
EXERCISE 12.1 Lighting
To do this exercise you will need to have a basic lighting kit. You will need to set up in a fairly darkened room. You should have at least two of you doing the exercise, or more if you want. Choose a person or object to film and then find a shot you like; don’t make it a very wide shot. Arrange the lights as you have them in Figure 12.11. Don’t put your object next to a wall. Make sure there is some distance between the object and the wall behind, and if possible try to put something in the background. Take the shot in the following ways:
Take the shots in any order; don’t stick to the one I have given you. Once you have all the shots you can start to compare the effect that each light has on the shot. If you log onto the website you can find links to sites which allow you to play with this type of lighting.
Different light sources give a different overall colour. Daylight has a slightly bluer or cooler light. Ordinary light bulbs have a more orange or warmer light. Fluorescent lights tend to be a bit cooler or bluer than ordinary light bulbs. Our eyes will automatically make an adjustment and, if you look at something white in daylight, it will still look white if you bring it inside and look at it under a normal light bulb. The camera needs more help. The images shown in Figures 12.18 to 12.20 (overleaf) show you the type of effect achieved if you don’t white balance. The first image has the kind of blue effect you get with daylight. The second shows the kind of effect you get using light bulbs. The third image gives a better colour balance.
As with contrast, our eyes are much better at white balancing than a camera. We just do it automatically and don’t have to think about it, but a camera won’t be able to do this. Not all cameras will come with a manual white balance but a lot of them do. If you have a camera with a white balance then it’s worth playing around with it to find out what it does.
Some cameras have an automatic white balance. The camera will automatically try to adjust for the type of lighting you are in and will attempt to guess at what will be the best setting. However, if you want to make it more accurate or if you just want to have a go and see what happens, you will need to adjust it manually.
The way to do this is to get something white, usually a piece of paper or card. Point the camera at the white card and zoom in so that about 80 per cent of the frame is covered. Make sure you have the right focus and the right exposure. Adjust the white balance: there is likely to be a set white balance option; allow it to adjust so that the camera knows what colour white is. It should indicate to you when the white balance has been achieved. The rest of the colours will adjust themselves to the new setting. If you do this you will need to remember to do it again for every new location. If you don’t do this, all your other shots will come out very orange or very blue depending on where you have moved from and to.
Figure 12.18 Too much blue
Figure 12.19 Too much orange
Figure 12.20 Correct white balance
Figure 12.21 Camera positioning for white balancing
EXERCISE 12.2 White balance
You will need a camera which allows manual white balance. Take an object or a person and frame a shot. You should take exactly the same size and angle of shot in four different ways:
You should find that your first shot looks OK but the second shot looks very blue. The third shot will look OK but the fourth shot will look very orange.
Getting good at lighting takes a lot of practice and getting lighting right can be hugely time consuming. Even on quite simple shoots it can take up to an hour to get the lighting right for a quite straightforward shot and on big drama sets it can take much longer. You need to know in advance what kind of mood you are going for with your lighting. Is it bright, naturalistic, or are you looking for a more moody, stylised look? If you are going to be using lighting kit then it’s a good idea to practise as much as possible before you put yourself under time pressure for your actual shoot. If you are using lighting then always build lighting time into your shooting schedule, a minimum of 30 minutes for lighting any one set-up.
Remember: Lights use electricity, they are hot and they can fall over easily. You will need to think about this in your Risk Assessment.