One of the issues we faced on production was the lighting. At first, the lighting was super harsh and created harsh shadows and was not white balanced on the camera.
(Note shadows behind actresses & objects).
One of our main problems is no use of a backlight and all of the lights were placed around the front and side of the set. We were too worried about trying to see the characters properly, and ended up making them look flat against a harsh background of yellows and shadows. I should have looked at the camera more to make sure everything looked A-OK.
So, from what I have learned at SAE, to get a nice smooth set lighting is to firstly use 3-point lighting. Around the subject, there are three main lights used to evenly light up a set (note picture below).
These are the Key light, Fill light and Back light. The Key light is the main light used in a set and has the highest intensity. It is usually placed between 25-45 degrees from the subject and is never, if not rarely, placed directly in front of the subject. Next, is the Fill light which has a medium intensity. This is placed on the opposite side to they Key light and sometimes further back. This light ensures there is no harsh shadows across the subject. For example, a person’s face may only be half visible. Unless this is the look you are going for, ensure you use a Fill light.
(Stylistic shot with no Fill light).
The next light is the Back light, which can sometimes be the most useful. The Back light separates the subject from the background, or sometimes can be one of the few lights in the scene. They are often used for silhouettes and Noir films to create dramatic, stylistic shots.
The image above displays the before and after effect of a subject in backlight. As you can see, the backlight separates the subject from the background, whereas before his hat and suit blended into the background. It is a common problem when the background and foregrounding subject have similar colours.
Another way to ensure lighting is smooth is to use diffuser, or to bounce the light from a wall. On set, to fix the harsh lighting we bounced the colour off the walls and used some of my diffusers I own. This toned down the lighting and made the harsh shadows disappear. After a trusty white balance, here is the difference:
Before
After
Not only are the shadows gone, but it looks like daytime and the image is smooth and clear.
While image quality is an important aspect when it comes to lighting, safety is by far the most important. On set, Josh O put a diffuser over a light without pulling down the barn doors to create a distance between the light and the cloth. This burnt a hole through a diffuser, which thankfully is designed not to burst into flames. Then there are the obvious safety hazards like cords and yelling strike before turning on a light.
Other than that, there wasn’t many problems we faced on set and lighting was pretty consistent the whole way through.
See you later,
– D x
dana rosanne 