Jim Nelson

Hi, This question may sound a bit silly but I just want to be 100% sure. You compose a shot to convey/transmit what a character is feeling or thinking. Is this correct? Thanks :)

Hi, I know that camera movements can be used to convey emotions, but what emotion/feeling do static shots convey? Thanks for your help :)

Thank you very much for your help. You said: "Our eyes look to whats in focus, and/or what's brightest; given a scene with something sharp in focus we'll look at that unless disturbed by movement or something "new" being added to the scene." Does this mean that if there's something bright or if something moves in the out of focus part of the shot, will we be distracted by that or will we be distracted by it only if it's in focus? Thank you so much for all your help :)

So basically, in the wide shot, the fact that the fill light can cast shadows of its own and the fact that we want the shadows to be the correct shade of black are reasons that the fill light doesn't always solve our problems with hard shadows. Are there any more reasons? I have one laaaast question: If we had, for example, a 2k hard light and a 2k soft light. I understand that the 2K hard light will cast harder shadows than the soft one. But if we want even harder shadows, can we use a more intense hard light like a 4k? In other words, does having a more intense light (higher wattage) give you harder shadows? Thank you so much everyone. you are all very very helpful :)

Thank you very much everyone. This is finally clear. However I have one more questions. When we shoot a wide shot and use a key light it'll cast shadows, so to eliminate those shadows we use a fill. Doesn't that solve the problem of those hard shadows? Thanks :)

Hi, I thought that the closer the light is to a subject the more intense it's gonna be and therefore the harder the shadows. But I heard somewhere that it's not the case. I heard that the closer the light, the softer the shadows. I thought before that when, for example, you move the reflector back you would get softer shadows and when you move in closer the shadows would be a bit harder (obviously it won't be as hard as a directional light). I'm really confused now. Can someone please explain this to me simply. Also, why is it that we use harder key and fill lights than desired when we shoot wide shots? Thanks for you help :)

I'm sorry but it still a bit confusing to me why the key and fill are harder than desired in the wider shots :(

Hi, can someone please help me out? I never understood why in wider shots the key and fill lights were harder than desirable. Can someone please help me understand this? Thanks :)

Hi, I learned that our eyes first go to the brightest colors in a photo. I also read somewhere that our eyes first go to the warmest areas of the photo. I'm a bit confused because you can have bright yellow and also bright green (which is not a warm color). And you can have pastel yellow (which is not bright) and pastel green too. Can someone please help me clear this up? Thanks

Hi, I learned that our eyes first go to the brightest colors in a photo. I also read somewhere that our eyes first go to the warmest areas of the photo. I'm a bit confused because you can have bright yellow and also bright green (which is not a warm color). And you can have pastel yellow (which is not bright) and pastel green too. Can someone please help me clear this up? Thanks

I'm sorry it's still a bit confusing to me :( For example, in the following shots of The Dark Knight. In the 1st shot we can tell that there's a guy behind the Joker even though he is out of focus. In the 2nd shot, the background is completely out of focus and we can't tell what it is. Does this have an effect on the message/purpose of the shot? If so what is it? In other words, in the 1st shot does the guy behind the Joker have an importance/do we have to look at him too? And in the 2nd shot is the background not important at all since it's completely blurry? Thanks :)

Thank you very much. It's a lot clearer now :)

Hi, I have a question regarding the use of depth of field in the composition of a shot. There are shots (for example close ups) where we focus on a character and the background is so out of focus that we can't tell what it is. And there are other shots where the background is out of focus but we can still get an idea of where the character is/what's behind him. Does this have an effect on the message the shot is trying to convey? I know that we use shallow depth of field so that we are not distracted by unecessary elements in the frame, but what if we can still kind of tell what those elements are even though we used shallow depth of field? Does that have an effect on the message of the shot? Thanks for your help :)

Thank you so much. Everything is now clear :)

Hi, When I said fast camera movements, I was refering to both smooth movements (like dolly and steadycam) and also handheld/shaky shots. I just wanted to have a clear idea of what fast camera movements and slow camera movements suggests. For example: in The Dark Knight, when the Joker crashes the party the camera goes fast and smoothly around the Joker and Maggie Gyllenhaal. Also in some movies we dolly slowly into the subject and other times we dolly quickly into them. I just wanted to know what feeling/mood the speed of the movement conveys. Thanks for your help :)

Thank you very much for your help. It cleared a lot of things. May I just know one more thing. Isn't grain got to do with the resolution? In other words, doesn't higher resolution mean less grain? And does all film have grain? Thanks again for your help :)

Hi, I'm quite new at filmmaking. I have a question. it might sound a bit silly but I want to be absolutely sure. Does digital, 16mm, super 16mm and 35mm have a different look to them? I know that they have different resolutions and therefore 35mm, for example, can hold more detail than digital. But just concernng the look of the image, is there any difference? I apologize if this question seems a bit silly. I just don't want to have any doubts about it. Thanks.

Hi, Can someone please help me out. What kind of mood/feeling does fast camera movement create? And what kind of mood does slow camera movement create? Thanks for your help. :)

Hi, - When you shoot outdoors and use lights (studio lights or reflectors), should these lights always be less intence than the sun? If so, what is the reason for that? - Also, would you add lights on a cloudy day or shady area, just to add more intensity to the existing light and not necessarily to add contrast? Thanks for your help.

Thank you very much. It helped a lot :)

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.

Thanks for your help. - So what you mean is that if you don't have a monitor and you want to check if the luminance is correct, you should trust the viewfinder? - You also can have the zebras appear on the lcd screen and on the viewfinder. Which one of these zebras is more trustable? or are they both the same? Thanks again and sorry if I keep insisting on this, I just want these things to be really clear :)

Thanks for your help. -When you shoot a movie, do you have to also select on the digital light meter which shutter speed you're using? -Also on analogue light meters, the frame rate and shutter speed are already set for you, you can't turn the dial to change them. What do you do if you want to change them? Im sorry if I keep asking this analogue light meter thing, it still a bit confusing to me :( -And my last question is: does the frame rate have an effect on the f-stop you get? What I mean is, if you shoot for example at IS0 500 and the foot candles are the same, shutter speed is the same. Just the frame rate is different. Will the light meter give me a different f-stop? Thanks again for your help.

So what you mean is with digital light meters, you have to select the frame rate and the ISO? On analogue light meters, there's different shutter speeds and frame rates written, but you can't select them. You can only have the default shutter speed and frame rate. I don't understand what you do if you want to shoot at a different frame rate or at a different shutter speed than the default one? Thanks for your help.

No camera system and viewfinder in particular. I just mean generally, which of the viewfinder or the lcd screen is more trustable? I think I heard a while back that you should trust the viewfinder, but I can't remember if that's exactly what that person said. So that why Im asking which one is more trustable for color, brightness, contrast and exposure.