lighting adjustments

[Jim Nelson]

Hi,

 

Can someone please help me out? I know now why you adjust lights when going from a wide to a medium and then to a close up.

 

But why do you adjust the lights when you are at the same distance from the subject but just at a different angle than the previous shot?

 

What I mean is that you don't go from wide to medium, but just from a wide shot to another wide shot. Or from a medium shot to another medium shot. and you keep the same distance from the subject.

 

I know that sometimes you can have a light in the frame, but what are the other reasons?

 

Is it also that when you are at the same distance from the subject but that you are just at a different angle, then the lights look different than the previous shot?

 

 

thank you very much

[David Mullen ASC]

I know that sometimes you can have a light in the frame, but what are the other reasons?

 

Is it also that when you are at the same distance from the subject but that you are just at a different angle, then the lights look different than the previous shot?

 

 

thank you very much

 

Yes, the lighting may not look as good from a different angle -- usually the problem is that it has become too flat. What looked nice and moody as a side light now looks flat as a front light, so you cheat it.

[Jim Nelson]

thank you very much for your help.

 

when you say that "the lighting may not look as good", are you also referring to the shadows that may not look the same from a different angle?

 

and what are the other examples, other than the one you mentioned already, of light that doesn't look the same from a different angle but at the same distance from the subject?

 

 

 

thanks a million

[Tom Jensen]

Sam pick a movie with some night scenes. Look at a wide shot and notice the faces. Often there will a very dark side and a lit side. It's hard to put a fill light in because you will see it in the shot. Then look at the close-up and you will see that it will probably not be as contrasty because now you can bring lights in closer to the subject and make the actors look pretty. It might look entirely different that the wide shot but the average guy won't notice it.

[David Mullen ASC]

Obviously a light coming from one angle is going to look flatter or more shadowed as you move the camera around the subject.

 

I once wrote an article in "Student Filmmaker" magazine about cheating the light in a sequence, using a scene in "Tucker" as an example.

 

#1 First the lighting starts out harder and more shadowy as Abe (Landau) takes Tucker outside at night to tell him about a government conspiracy. Abe, a somewhat morally-complex figure, is kept a bit in the dark:

 

#2 The reverse angle on Tucker, who is not a mysterious figure; he is lit by the soft glow of the factory:

 

#3 This is the same shot as #1 and starts out the same. Abe steps forward, into a more frontal key light as he makes a personal relevation, the more revealing light mimicking his openess. The camera dollies behind Tucker's back (hence why now we see a new angle on the building in the background) to create a new screen direction to indicate an emotion shift in the scene:

-->

 

#4 Cut back to the new screen direction reverse angle on Tucker. The key light has been completely flopped to the other side to keep him lit from the direction of his eyeline and keep some mood rather than end up on the same side as the key, as would be logical.

 

#5 Tighter close-up on Abe. Now that same key light as the wider shot in #3 has been softened to match the soft light on Tucker's face, and to make him more sympathetic:

 

So whereas the change in lighting happens within the shot for #1 & #3, as Abe steps forward out of one light and into another, there is a major cheat in #4 for the second cut back to Tucker with the new screen direction, and a minor cheat on #5 to make the close-up lighting softer and gentler.

[Jim Nelson]

Thank you so much. It was very very helpful.