Film announcement

Film Lighting Techniques

Six-Point Point Lighting Setup

Basic lighting: the three-point lighting setup

The most basic lighting in film is the three-point lighting setup. Lighting from three directions shapes your subject and sets them apart from their background.To achieve this, your film lighting equipment needs to face your subject from three directions: front, back and side.

KEY LIGHT
The key light is the light that registers most prominently in your frame. So, when you look at the image of Amelie above, you'll see that the screen-right portion of her face is brightest. That's the key light.

FILL LIGHTS
Quite simply, fill lights fill in the shadows of your frame. You'll notice that the screen-left portion of Amelie's face is in shadow, but with her features still plainly visible. That is a fill light at work.

BACK LIGHT
The back light gives an edge light to the rear portion of your subject. Often, the backlight shoots down from a higher angle. You can see that Amelie has a light contour along her shoulders and the nape of her neck.

what's next?

The cinematic types of lighting in film:

Every cinematographer is an artist who makes creative decisions on how to guide the viewer's eye within the frame using lighting equipment. Their applications are broad, but their creative interpretation is what makes their lighting cinematic (or not).

Before the setting ligth you should think about:

Which props and scene elements should be emphasized
Whose perspective we're seeing the scene through, and how much light they should be able to see
How characters differ from one another in a frame
Which emotions are being expressed through harshness of light, or its color
Each of these decisions are then realized technically by planning and executing lighting setups to create the desired effect. But the cinematographer must dream up what these effects will be before setting up any lighting equipment.

Natural film lighting

Natural film lighting refers to using and modifying the light that is already available to you at your location.
Before you shoot, you can take your camera to the location to see how well the natural light holds up. You can decide from there how what additional lights you might need, or how you might adjust the light. For example, you can use bounce boards for reflecting the light, or black flags for blocking it out.
Cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki maximized natural film lighting on Alejandro Inarritu's The Revenant. His interview with GoldDerby is a wonderful primer on finding and controlling available light in shooting locations.
For example, he speaks about using Magic Hour, or the soft light created by the sun at the end of the day, for specific moments. And, further, he talks about how the selection of locations, and how they appear at different times of the day, created appropriate moods for the shoot.
It required a great deal of flexibility and preparation, but the results are stunning.

Cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki talks finding the natural light

3-time Oscar winning cinematographer Emmanuel "Chivo" Lubezki chats with Gold Derby editor Zach Laws about his work on Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's new film, "The Revenant."

Link to interview

Just watch the footage of Emmanuel Lubetzky and get inspired

The Cinematography Of Emmanuel Lubezki

Set

This is the light that illuminates the background. Sometimes you rely on the ambient light, or you have a light source in the background, or you have spill from your key or fill lights. If possible, having a separate light source for your set light provides more control over your lighting.

Set light

Kicker

This light gets its name because it adds a "kick" of light to something in the scene. You can use the kicker to provide highly controlled application of light just where you want it, to highlight something important in the frame—in this case, a color chart.

PRACTICAL LIGHT

Often times, using existing lamps and light sockets around the set can be used to light a scene. This is referred to as practical lighting, and is particularly useful when you need to reveal wide portions of the set, or move around it in longer takes.

Conclusion
Six-point lighting setup. It doesn't mean that you can only use six light units and, in fact, there are many more different lights with different names, which we'll get to in the future.
Back to using every light, lots of info, easy to see, but not as interesting as when there is something not seen.
That's it—that is the six-point lighting setup. It doesn't mean that you can only use five light units and, in fact, there are many more different lights with different names, which we'll get to in the future.