Matt Whitney Posted April 14, 2022 Share Posted April 14, 2022 I've been trying to learn everything I can about cinematography for the last 6 months or so, and the biggest hurdle I've been running into is the overwhelming amount of different lights and light accessories available. It's all well and good when a tutorial shows me how they lit a scene, but if I have no idea what lights they're using, or why they're using those, I feel lost. When I try and go through lists of lights and read up on them, I get overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of options. I would love any suggestions of where to start to get a good base knowledge of different lights (and I don't just mean the difference between HMI, tungsten, and LED. I understand that. It's that within those categories there seem to be hundreds of options) Thanks in advance for the help. This site is an amazing resource. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stewart McLain Posted April 24, 2022 Share Posted April 24, 2022 Some books that I've found useful: "Film Lighting" by Kris Malkiewicz , "Lighting for Cinematography" by David Landau, and "The Set Lighting Technicians Handbook" by Harry Box. I would probably rate them in that order for ease of reading too. "Film Lighting" is very conversational in its approach. The Landau book takes a more text book approach. The Harry Box book is really technical guide. It does provide more thorough lists of lights and lighting equipment but it's also the densest read. All of them are good resources. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Tyler Posted April 24, 2022 Share Posted April 24, 2022 Here's a good place to start, Matt. https://www.amazon.com/shop/cinematographyforum/list/2C9LGBNKW7L9S 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Whitney Posted May 10, 2022 Author Share Posted May 10, 2022 Thanks for the responses! I actually have all but the last book on your list, Stewart. I'll have to move them up the line. Tim, this is a great resource. I'll be getting several of these. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now