Naturalistic lighting

[amy alderete]

Why does the director use this, and what mood does it create?

[Hal Smith]

Amy,

 

As you put it the question is almost impossible to answer. Give some examples of specific scenes in movies members here will be familiar with so they can understand just exactly what you mean by "Naturalistic Lighting".

 

One hint: The absolutely hardest lighting to create is lighting that doesn't look artificially lit once on a screen. Film and video don't see light like the eye does. To make something look naturally lit means creating lighting that AFTER it is captured by the camera and then gone through all the steps of post production it looks like the eye itself would have seen the original scene IF the original scene was lit by available light only.

[Joseph Nunez]

Naturalistic light used to mean soft and usually not too contrasty, and basically looks like NATURE did it and not a person.

 

Look up Nestor Almendros, maybe go on youtube and watch the trailers to Days Of Heaven, Sophies Choice, Badlands...

 

Maybe now the term means almost nothing- even superhero movies like Dark Knight are lit in a supposedly realistic way, although I know Zodiac was meant to look very naturalistic. If you look at something like Where The Wild Things Are which is a fantasy story, with its earth tones and soft light, you see what I mean about everyone insisting everything must be naturalistic.

 

naturalistic= like NATURE did it

expressionistic= trying to EXPRESS something even if its not realistic

[Stuart Brereton]

Naturalistic light used to mean soft and usually not too contrasty, and basically looks like NATURE did it and not a person.

 

 

Although natural light IS high contrast if you live in a sunny climate, or soft and grey if you live in northern europe. It can look many different ways depending on where you are and what time of year it is.