Where/ How did you learn how to light?

[Ashley Barron]

Where did you build your chops and understanding of lighting?

 

- short films?

- crewing?

- watching movies?

- practicing in your own time?

- asking/watching experienced Cinematographers?

- all of the above?

[Brian Drysdale]

All of these, plus paintings, photographs and real world light.

[David Mullen ASC]

Yes to all -- and don't forget reading books and web or magazine articles.

[John Holland]

To start with it was seeing how shadows fell be it day or night and working out where light was coming from . Plus watching hundreds of films and seeing how the few DPs i admired lit.

[Mei Lewis]

I find learning about artificial light helps me understand natural and ambient light better.

 

In a simple setup using just artificial lights (eg a 3 point interview setup) it can be clear what each light is doing, and then I can recognise what the sun, streetlights etc are doing when they're doing something similar.

 

The light in say an ordinary street may be very complicated, light coming from the sun, sky and various reflections. I find being able to break that down in terms of what the equivalent softbox, umbrella, hard light etc. would be very useful for visualising what's going on.