Lighting

We had a Lighting Workshop, where we learnt how to use lighting effectively in our pieces

The professional taught us that any light can be used for the actual light, and also that the 3 Point Lighting: Key, back and filler lights are usually the same kind of lamp.

In our lesson we used the schools ‘redheads’ to show us the difference that the light makes.

He showed us that we can use walls and ceilings to bounce the light, and also use a reflector to give a softer light feel.

Natural light is light blue; however artificial light is usually orange. To make the scene feel more natural we used a filter that was coloured a pale blue.

For Film Noir (French for “Black Film”), the lighting should be Low Key Lighting, which accentuates the contours of an object by throwing areas into shade while a fill light or reflector may illuminate the shadow areas to control contrast.

Key Words:

Key light – Usually the brightest and the most influential

Back light – Helps counteract the effect of the key light, thus making the character/object look more ‘rounded’

Filler light – Helps to soften the harsh shadows that the use of key and back lights creates. There may be more than one filler light.