quality of the highlight

[Jim Nelson]

Hi, can someone please help me out.

 

I know that hard lights have harsh highlights (and hard shadows) and soft lights have soft highlights (and soft to no shadows).

 

My question is: as you go for closer shots (medium and close up) do you notice the harshness of the highlight even more? Im not talking about the shadows here, I talking about whether the quality of the highlight is more noticeable as you go for closer shots (medium and close up)?

 

 

 

Thanks for your help.

[Adrian Sierkowski]

Well it certainly gets bigger looking on the screen. Generally, the closer in you get the softer you get with your lighting, and go into beauty lighting, normally. You can get away with more in a wide shot.

[Paul Bruening]

It's not easy determining the information you're looking for. If your question assumes that the lighting will remain the same between the wide shot and the mediums/close-ups the answer is, "Yes. The lighting will be more noticeable." That may not be a bad thing, though. It may be a useful look. Generally, it's more common practice to let light be harder on wide shots and somewhat softer the closer you get. The reasons have, in part, to do with our brains and the perceptive experience of a movie. In a wide shot, more definition of shape from sharper lighting can make the acceptance of facial shape easier. But, at close-up, harsh light and sharp shadows can be disturbing and compete for recognition and perceptive participation of that face. Softer light and softer shadows define a close-up'd face fine without jarring the viewer with harshness. That's not a rule, just a tendency in lighting. And as Adrian pointed out so well, it's normal for the lighting units to behave that way anyway.

 

That help? We can take a stab at anything, you know.

[Jim Nelson]

Thank you very much. It helped a lot :)