LIGHTING
LIGHT TERMS
Key Light
The main light source in a scene.
Fill Light
The secondary light that is generally used to fill in shadows. Lower intensity to the key light.
Side Light
A light that hits half of the talent's face.
Rembrandt Lighting
Lighting at 45 degrees, that casts a shadow from the talent's nose, creating a triangle below their eye.
Back light
Light from directly behind the talent. Serves to silhouette them.
Rim / Kicker Light
Light from behind that creates an edge and separates the talent from the background.
High Key Lighting
The lighting of the scene is consistent and bright.
Low Key Lighting
Dark and atmospheric lighting. Often high contrast with deep shadows.
Lighting intensity can be adjusted by focus or strength, but also distance from the subject.
They can be diffused by special diffusion paper or skrims.
LIGHT COLOUR
Light also has colour properties. Tungsten light, traditional bulbs has an orange tone and has a colour temperature of 2700K (Kelvins) to around 4000K.
4000-5000K is said to be white light and emits little to no colour bias.
5000-7000K has a blue tint.
Modern LED lights can be adjusted between Kelvin values. Older Halogens or filament lights have fixed light temperatures. These can still be changed but require coloured 'gels' placed in front of the light. They are coloured plastic cards, that can be pegged or slide into the light. They are heat resistant, so wont melt as filament lights get very HOT!
COLOUR GRADING
This is a post-production (editing) process. Computers now allow greater control over the manipulation of images. The image can be tinted entirely or colours or parts of a frame can be isolated to make more subtle changes.
Some editors rely on LUTS (look up tables) which apply colour filters to the image, but don't consider the specifics of the unique image.
RGB Curves and Luma Curves, allow greater control and customisation.
Some software also allows for masks / or power windows to select a small part of a frame to manipulate.
If colour correction is something that interests you, I highly recommend exploring and learning the DaVinci Resolve software.
https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/davinciresolve/
This software is used on many professional films and TV shows, and has become freeware in recent years (costs nothing to download and use).
CASE STUDY
Analyse this scene from animated film Trolls (2015) in terms of colour.
PRODUCTION DESIGN
The Art Director has a large team to bring the creative vision to life.
- Location Scouts
- Set Designers (and their construction team)
- Costume Designers
- Hair and Make-up
ACTIVITY
Create a Mood Board for a fictional character. Consider
CASE STUDY
Analyse this scene from The Matrix (1999) in relation to how colour is used.