The Low-down on lighting

[K Borowski]

I am in search of the definitive book on lighting that will explain everything there is to know on this most artistic part of making movies. I am interested in lighting for film in particular, and I want my technique to be flawless. The books on cinematography I have read so far have been so incredibly vague that I have been very frustrated at buying them. Does anyone have a book in mind that would suit my needs?

 

Regards.

~Karl Borowski

[DavidSloan]

This post is kind of silly...you want your technique to be flawless from reading a book? First of all there is no such thing as flawless, as "flaws" themselves can be artistic choices. It's all subjective. What's flawless to you is trash for someone else.

 

Again, there are no short cuts or "definitive books" that will make you a flawless DP. Just read everything you can get your hands on, as I do and most everyone else on this board does. Then go out and shoot, shoot, shoot. I've learned so much this past year because I shot, a lot. You can't become a DP from reading, sorry.

[Guest Andy Sparaco]

You might check out lighting classes offered on DVD. I think Kodak offers a Master of Light DVD set. Check the ASC website. A video demo is much more informative then a book. Gee maybe someone should start a biness doing that! :D

Edited December 12, 2004 by Andy Sparaco

[K Borowski]

First of all there is no such thing as flawless, as "flaws" themselves can be artistic choices.  It's all subjective.  What's flawless to you is trash for someone else. 

 

Again, there are no short cuts or "definitive books" that will make you a flawless DP.  Just read everything you can get your hands on, as I do and most everyone else on this board does.  Then go out and shoot, shoot, shoot.  I've learned so much this past year because I shot, a lot.  You can't become a DP from reading, sorry.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I'm well aware that lighting is subjective and that reading a book won't make me an instant expert, but to be honest I don't even know where to begin. All of the work I have done thusfar except for a few few things have been documentary style available light. I lit a room once with some souped up lamps running lightbulbs that were over the recommended limits and once I lit some shots with a bar light right next to the camera. I want to understand the different looks that different lighting placements give so I have some place to start from. I understand that we learn best by doing, but I don't want all the stuff I start out doing to look like total poop. Does that make sense? I want to learn how to emphasize certain aspects of a shot with light and how to meter and expose film so it will look just the way I want it to. I want to know different methods and techniques and styles of lighting because the style of lighting I use is most reminiscent of 10 o'clock news footage lighting of 30 years ago and I know that that isn't the style I want.

 

Regards.

~Karl Borowski

[DavidSloan]

You should have articulated yourself better, then. Saying you want to learn basic exposure and saying you want flawless technique is a world apart.

 

I suggest you PA on some shoots and start jotting down all the DPs setups, while taking stills of the spaces...later when you get home look at the photos and try to understand his setups...I did this for a long time. I also recomend you to take a basic course in a school like Film Academy, which will get you started on cameras and exposures. Finally you can start taking stills.

 

As far as books: you can't go wrong with anything by Kris Malkewitz and Blain Brown.

[Ken Zukin]

To add to David's reply, which is a good one, you might consider VOLUNTEERING to assist on some shoots. Be eager, try to anticipate the needs of the people you are working with, don't ask questions in the heat of battle, and generally try to make yourself indespensable so you'll be asked back (hopefully in a paid capacity).

 

Also, if you want to learn lighting, may I suggest a still photography camera/class, and an art appreciation class. And watch some classic movies with the sound off. You can learn to shoot in sequences by doing that. And by all means, if you have any kind of a video camera, practice with what ever lights you have.

 

It's a craft, kind of like playing the guitar, -it's a 10 year process. But the payoff is a good one.

 

Good luck to you,

 

Ken Zukin

[Chris Keth]

I'm well aware that lighting is subjective and that reading a book won't make me an instant expert, but to be honest I don't even know where to begin.  All of the work I have done thusfar except for a few few things have been documentary style available light.  I lit a room once with some souped up lamps running lightbulbs that were over the recommended limits and once I lit some shots with a bar light right next to the camera.  I want to understand the different looks that different lighting placements give so I have some place to start from.  I understand that we learn best by doing, but I don't want all the stuff I start out doing to look like total poop.  Does that make sense?  I want to learn how to emphasize certain aspects of a shot with light and how to meter and expose film so it will look just the way I want it to.  I want to know different methods and techniques and styles of lighting because the style of lighting I use is most reminiscent of 10 o'clock news footage lighting of 30 years ago and I know that that isn't the style I want.

 

Regards.

~Karl Borowski

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

The best way to learn, unfortunately, is to make lots and lots of mistakes. No matter how much you read in a book, you're still going to have to develop your eyes by doing it. DOn't be afraid to make those mistakes. A good book to get you started though is "Cinematography: Theory and Practice" by Blain Brown.

[J. Lamar King IMPOSTOR]

I'm well aware that lighting is subjective and that reading a book won't make me an instant expert, but to be honest I don't even know where to begin.  All of the work I have done thusfar except for a few few things have been documentary style available light.  I lit a room once with some souped up lamps running lightbulbs that were over the recommended limits and once I lit some shots with a bar light right next to the camera.  I want to understand the different looks that different lighting placements give so I have some place to start from.  I understand that we learn best by doing, but I don't want all the stuff I start out doing to look like total poop.  Does that make sense?  I want to learn how to emphasize certain aspects of a shot with light and how to meter and expose film so it will look just the way I want it to.  I want to know different methods and techniques and styles of lighting because the style of lighting I use is most reminiscent of 10 o'clock news footage lighting of 30 years ago and I know that that isn't the style I want.

 

Regards.

~Karl Borowski

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Where do you live? Maybe you can score an invite to somebodies set.

[radar71]

use a still 35mm camera and practice with really simple setups. you should be able to find some basic lighting techniques online (i know you can, i'll leave the googling to you). do those and realize how they work, key, fill, rim. etc. the artistic part cannot be learned or taught you need the eye.

[David Mullen ASC]

One book won't do it -- you have to read a lot of them, from technical ones to interviews with DP's, old ones and new ones, etc. And magazine articles. When I decided to learn cinematography, I pretty much read anything I could find.

 

And watch movies, study the lighting. Then make movies and copy the lighting. You can do this in Super-8 or DV or with stills. I also tooks stills off of movies on home video to study the lighting.

 

"Film Lighting" by Malkiewicz is a good place to start.

[Leon Rodriguez]

Try this web site for shopping for input into ideas. http://www.firstlightvideo.com/

As was previously stated, academic materials is good information but doesn't translate to skills any more than being a film critic makes one a filmmaker. No shortcuts. YOU have to light scenes to really learn how to do it. You don't need a lot of expensive lights either. You need a dark garage and some practicals and an idea of what you want to create or recreate. Home depot will give you a good enough place to start cheap.

 

Find a simple scene you like and try to recreate it with those practicals and a dark garage. Shoot it with a cheap camera. This is an enjoyable process.

 

Just start doing it. evaluate. correct. do it again. evaluate. correct. do it again... ad infinitum.

[K Borowski]

Dave: you're right. I'm not always the best at articulating myself. By flawless, I mean flawless exposure-wise. The artistic nature of shooting and exposing film obviously can never be truly flawless as it is indeed subjective.

 

Here's my quandary. I'm making a documentary NOW and I have free film coming to me. For starters, I am looking for a book that explains how to light for video news film and other low speed stocks without too much of a hastle. I'm not sure what they used back then, being a product of the 1980s myself. Was it all on-camera lighting, or what? Then, for more controlled interview-type shots, I know a little bit from my still photography background about main light, fill light etc, but I want a book that explains more about exposure with specific stocks and what to look for and what to avoid and how exactly one goes about metering a shot that involves light of various intensities at different angles and from different sources. Basically I need a book that is a crash course and that gives me somewhere to start from, less artistic and more documentary. I plan on focusing more on the artistic side of exposing film once I get better at it. I am going to be using 7239, '40, '50, '51 and maybe a bit of '67. I'd like to be able to avoid doing everything totally with available lighting, which would necessitate almost exclusive use of '50 and '51 in 16mm, which are supposedly as grainy if not moreso than the '40 is in DR8. Obviously, using '40 indoors will require some sort of lighting and I don't know where to begin. I'm interested in a book, preferably from this period, that is designed with documentary'style lighting in mind. Do any of the authors you gentlemen have mention include lighting recommendations for work of this nature? I'll do some googling of my own and see if I can figure some of this out for myself. The lack of good websites on the subject and lack of suitable books at the libraries I frequent is perplexing and frustrating at times, and I bet everyone here has stacks of good books to recommend that will be good guides. As for me getting a job on a set, who the hell shoots movies in Cleveland Ohio, the most impoverished city in the world??? Even the movie they did about Shaker Heights a while ago was faked in Hollywood. College classes are out of the question as the only course that comes close to lighting is some video class at the local community college (I don't own a video camera either, so it'd be tough). :(

 

Regards.

~Karl Borowski

[DavidSloan]

How did you get a gig to shoot a doc, on film, and you don't even know how to expose? Can I have your agents number? LOL :D

[K Borowski]

I know how to expose, just not how to expose with artificial lights. I'm not getting PAID to do a documentary, merely I've come across free film. And what's an agent? :rolleyes:

[DavidSloan]

You make very little sense, my friend...I'm sorry to tell you. You know how to expose but not for artificial light!? <_<

[K Borowski]

I know how to meter with available light, expose for the shadows, all that jazz. I want to find a book that shows me how to figure out the proper exposure with different intensity lights coming from different angles. How do you expose with a 500W light from one side, but a 1000W light from the other, for instance? This is always a source of confusion for me.

[David Mullen ASC]

A 500w light that is much closer than the 1000w light will probably be brighter on the subject so I think you're very confused as to how to think about lights.

 

I don't understand, metering light is metering light -- it doesn't matter if the light was available or added artificially; light falls on the dome and you measure it.

 

You're not asking how to meter, you're asking how to balance your lighting? Otherwise, what's the big deal? -- you point the incident meter at the 500w light or at the 1000w light and read what the meter tells you. You expose the film for the light you want to be at normal exposure, so if it's the 500w light that is providing the "normal" brightness, you measure that and expose for that. You said you know how to use a meter so I don't understand the question.

 

Maybe you're thinking about this the wrong way. Measuring light is the easy part; the real issue is whether the shot is lit correctly. You can expose a badly lit shot "correctly" so that it's not over or underexposed looking.

 

Think of the sun as a really bright movie lamp and your household lamps are fairly dim movie lamps and you'll understand how to deal with something inbetween like a 1K. If you're working with a certain speed film stock, experience tells you what lamps tend to be necessary. But you can also look at charts of photometric data if you're not sure. You need 100 footcandles of light to expose 100 ASA film at f/2.8 (therefore on 200 ASA and 100 fc, you get an f/4.0, etc.) Manufacturer's data will tell you how many footcandles their light produces at full flood or spot at certain distances to the subject, like from 10 feet away. Not that I work that way...

 

This would probably be easy for you to figure out by getting a still camera, a light meter and a few lights.

 

You don't just turn on a 500w light and a 1000w light and say "now what do I do?" Let's say the 500w light was shining directly on the face as a classic 3/4 hard key light and the 1000w light was bounced off of a big white card for soft fill. And you adjust the fill until you liked the level by eye compared to the key. Now you meter the key and it tells you something on your meter. If you expose for what the meter tells you, the key will look of normal brightness. Now if you want to measure the fill, you can, but you are exposing for the key. But let's say that testing has shown you that you want the fill to be three stops underexposed compared to the key. So if you key is at f/5.6, then your fill has to be at f/2.0 to be three-stops under (I'm assuming you know the f-stops: F/1.4, 2.0, 2.8, 4.0, 5.6, 8.0, 11, 16, 22). So you adjust the fill in various ways (scrimming, moving closer or farther, etc.) until your meter says F/2.0 -- but you're shooting at f/5.6 because that's what the key light is. That's one method. But telling us that one light is 500w and another is 1000w is meaningless because their brightness is not just due to their wattage but how they are used (direct, diffused, spot, flood, gelled, etc.) and how far away they are from the subject. In the example I mentioned, the 1000w light, though more powerful, is providing the weaker amount of light because of the way I'm using it.

[John Sprung]

Instead of a book, start with a stick of wood about 4 ft. long and a 100 watt household bulb wired up on one end. Turn off the other lights in the room, grab the far end of the stick, and observe the results you get putting your single hard source in various places throughout the room. You'll learn more about light quicker that way than anything else you could do. Next, youll have to learn about soft light, which you get when the source is fairly large as viewed from the subject, like bounce light off a big white wall. Finally, try combining multiple sources. Lighting is best learned by doing.

 

 

 

-- J.S.

[Jack Barker]

Walter Graff is giving a one day seminar in New York at the end of January, with plenty of hands-on lighting. It's only $100. Goes from 8:00AM to 6:00 PM+. Go to: http://www.bluesky-web.com/

 

Go to the page "INSTRUCTION"

Scroll down and click on

 

"JANUARY 2005 SEMINAR IN NYC Click Here!"

 

All the details are there.

 

Airfare from CLE to EWR is less than $200 R/T. What you learn will last you a lifetime.

[vellmar]

All the best advice I could give has been given. I'm only writing this to agree with everyone above me. It's like shampoo directions... shoot, take notes, look at your final cut, and repeat.