Chris Cooke

I'm working on an introduction to lighting right now. I'm writing it for some interns at the tv station I work at. It still needs some work but you can take a look. Introduction to Lighting by: Chris Cooke Introduction Most people take light for granted. It's a part of everyday life that's so familiar to us that we don't even think about it. Why then is there so much discussion and mystique about lighting techniques? Couldn't we just take one big light, flood a scene with it and leave it as is? Then the talent would be illuminated, and really, all that most people care about is what the talent is saying right? A lot of beginners who are asked to light a scene have these thoughts run through their minds. The thing is that the talent is what we want people to focus on and think about, not the lighting. The paradox is that this is precisely why great lighting is important. We as lighting directors, cinematographers, gaffers and lighting camera operators have the responsibility of making the talent and sets look beautiful and helping to focus the eye of the viewer on whatever we want them to look at (usually the talent but not always). It then becomes somewhat puzzling when a straightforward interview needs a dozen lamps, but you find out that a particularly impressive lighting effect was achieved with just a single lamp. What is the purpose of lighting? 1.Illumination 2.Making a 2D image apear to be 3D (seperation and contrast) 3.Creating a mood (depth of field, quality of light, color, etc) 4.Enhancing Beauty Learning to Light When lighting for the camera, there are three broad approaches we can follow. 1.Trial and error. Some setups might look great and others will look horrible. 2.Routines. Consistent but somewhat boring lighting. 3.Creative Analysis. We make decisions methodically, based on a real appreciation of how light behaves. Some things to consider are how light modifies and enhances; how it alters the appearance of subjects; how it can develop a mood. We will discover how to manipulate light; how to use light creatively to achieve exactly the effects we are seeking. When problems arise, creative analysis enables us to discover and correct them systematically. Understanding Light Light travels through space in the form of electromagnetic radiation at over 186 000 miles a second. We measure color in wavelengths (nanometers). When dealing with nanometers, the primary colors for NTSC (National Television System Committee) television systems are specified as red = 610 nm; green = 535 nm; blue = 470 nm. We measure color tempurature in degrees kelvin. Tungsten balanced light (studio lighting) is supposed to be exactly 3200 degrees kelvin (3200k). Outdoor light on a sunny day from roughly 10:00am to 4:00pm is about 5600k. As light becomes warmer (closer to the orange end of the spectrum), the degrees in kelvin decreases. White light contains all colors of the visible spectrum. Combining the primary red, green and blue colors will produce white light. Also, when a narrow beam of white light is interrupted by a prism, its component colors become refracted to differing degrees, and spread in a spectral band (creating a rainbow). Light intensity (quantity) is measured with a light meter in foot candles (North America) or lux (metric). A footcandle is defined as a unit of illumination equal to the intensity of one candle at a distance of one foot. Foodcandles are usually used as a measure of light received as opposed to light output. Quality of Light The quality of the light directly affects the mood in a scene or on a set. Typically, women are lit with soft light because it helps hide wrinkles and gets rid of ugly nose or chin shadows. I always use very soft light for my fill light(s) and a little harder light for my key. Hard light can be effective, especially when placing shadows on backgrounds. Faces can also look good with hard light but shadow placement becomes very critical. Methods of creating soft light: Bounced lighting: This can be done with a specular bounce board such as tinfoil or a soft board such as foam core. Ceilings and walls also work great when on location. Diffusion Media: There are many different types and weights of diffusion, but its main purpose is to scatter light so that it wraps around the subject. Softlights: A softlight is a permanent or portable lighting unit that is bounced and diffused. The advantage of softlights over bounced lighting is convenience - you can use softlights anywhere, with no need for a wall, ceiling or bounce board ? and control; it's easier to direct the light exactly where you want it. However, softlights can take up more space. Relative Distance to Subject: A typically hard source like a Zenon can essentially end up quite soft without any diffusion by placing the light extremely close to the subject. The closer we place a source to a subject, the softer the light will appear. This is why large diffusion frames that are filled evenly with light are often placed right outside the frame especially on closeups. Shaping Light There are many ways of shaping light to go exactly where we want it to. We use grip equipment to help us do this. Barndoors, snoots, flags, cutters and scrims are just some of the grip equipment available to us. I often use flags or barndoors to build up contrast on a set or get rid of the notorious double and triple shadows. Some of the fixtures used to shape light in different ways are: Leko (ellipsoidal) - Outputs a very narrow beam for hilights, patterns and spotlights. Lekos have shutters in them so that we can place the light even more accurately. Gobos are metal disks that can be dropped into a leko for different patterns and effects. Fresnel - The Fresnel (pronounced fra-nell) lens in the front of the light (named for the person who devised it) consists of concentric circles that both concentrate and slightly diffuse the light. The quality of the resulting light is relatively hard but the lens takes the edge away making the light a little more flattering to faces. Scoops and Broads ? Open face fixtures that spread the beam over a broad area. These lights are typically softer than fresnels but have shorter throw distances. They are often used for fill and general washes of light. PAR can - PAR is an acronym for parabolic aluminized reflector. It is perhaps the most widely used light for concerts, nightclubs and touring productions. PARs can be helpful to us when low wattage and high output lights are needed. They are lightweight and come in a variety of sizes and styles (narrow spot, medium flood, wide flood). Lighting setups As a rule, the most attractive lighting occurs when using an approach called three point lighting. This is not by any means a hard set rule but it's definately a good starting point. Key Light ? The key light is the primary source of illumination. It is usually positioned off to one side of the camera and tilted down at the talent at a 45 degree angle. This key light: Establishes light direction. Creates the principal shadows. Reveals form, surface formation, and texture. Largely determines the exposure. Fill Light ? This light is used to fill shadows without causing a shadow of its own. The amount of fill in a scene or on a set directly impacts the mood and visual interest. Too little of fill and we won't be able to see into the shadows (not necessarily a bad thing, especially when lighting a moody, highly stylized scene). Too much fill and the scene becomes flat and boring. The best place to position your fill in most cases is just above eye level and right beside the camera (opposite the key side). The fill light should be soft and usually (but not always) warm. Back Light - The back light is important in creating the illusion of depth. Television and film are two dimensional formats and one of our main jobs is to make nearly everything we shoot look three dimensional. Depth is the dimension that is missing from a 2D image. Back light is one of the ways in which we create that three dimensional look. Placement of the back light is critical depending on what you want it to do. Kickers, rim lights and hair lights are all forms of back light. The typical lighting ratio of key light to back light is 2:1, but that's not a rule that you have to stick to. A back light can actually turn into the key light if you want it to. Remember the definition of key light? It's the primary source of illumination. For instance, if you are doing a scene outside with a woman who's face you want to flatter, it can be beautiful to backlight her with the sun and then bounce sunlight onto her face or use an HMI (halogen metal iodide) as a soft fill and then expose for her face. Even though the sun is the back light, it's also the key light. This setup is often used in beer commercials or glamor photography. My biggest caution with this is that you give the talent enough fill so that the back light does not overexpose. Eye Light (a.k.a. catch light) ? An eye light can be the extra touch that a scene needs to bring out life in the talent. The fill or key light often doubles as an eye light (depending on positioning) but there are times when you need to put a light up specifically for this purpose. Background Light(s) ? Background lights are used to bring out interesting details in the background or help make the scene look more interesting. My main use of background lights usually has to do with contrast. Without highlights in the frame, you will probably get a flat picture. Just as uninteresting though, is a background that is over-lit. When the whole background is evenly illuminated and/or brighter than the talent, it can be very uninteresting and even distracting. Practicals ? The term ?practical? refers to any unit on set that needs to be electrified, whether it is considered scenery, props, or costumes. Practicals can be a source of motivation for bigger lights outside the frame, or they can just add visual appeal in balancing the frame. Gels and Diffusion ? The color and quality of the light can be manipulated by gels and diffusion. The way that color makes us feel and perceive is amazing. Color is a world of its own that we won't get into right now. There are also many different types of diffusion. They all spread light in different ways. Its basic function is to scatter light so that it appears soft. By now, it's quite obvious that lighting is both an art and a science. For a more experienced lighting director, the emphasis begins to be put on art because he/she no longer has to think about the technical side that becomes routine. There is very little artistic or technical information in this basic guide compared to what is out there for you to learn. If you are at all interested in the amazing world we can create with light, please take it upon yourself to learn all that you can with books, online forums, practical application and asking questions.

Yeah, I know some guys shoot whole features at 2.8 and it's not much of a problem (Powel Edelman, PSC). Just be careful when lighting with only firelight. There are a couple potential problems. I prefer to supplement existing firelight with geled softlight. One of the problems that can occur is skin tones rendering way too warm. Curtis Clark, ASC talks about a solution to this problem in the link that djdumpy posted. Another problem that some people may or may not like is that firelight is actually hard light. I think that hard firelight on film doesn't look realistic because we perceive it in real life as soft. Also, it can be effective to use different colored gels on different flickering soft sources in order to increase the visual appeal and perception of realism. The caution that you must take when taking this approach though is that you don't overlight.

I just got back from seeing March of the Penguins. I wanted to see this movie since I read about it in AC Magazine. The cinematographers on this film are hardcore. In light of the conditions though, they got some amazing footage. Research on a doc like this would be essential. I was not impressed with the quality of the film but that had a lot to do with the projection at Paramount in my town (off center, jumpy and scratches). Also the blowup from 16mm to 35mm doesn't help. Morgan Freeman helps make this doc interesting with his unique narrative style. The underwater scenes and the penguin closeups were my favorite parts of the film. I think that some of the underwater scenes were CGI though. Also, was there a D.I. done to certain scenes? I noticed both a digital colorist and a film colorist on the credits.

JP has a good point and his stills look quite good but there are definately times when you need more depth of field (ie. talent/camera movement). Correct me if I'm wrong JP but you were probably at about f2.8 with 500T film. This has the potential to give your 1st AC nightmares.

I've done a pretty convincing firelight using a fresnel with CTO on it. I then spun a pitcher 3/4 full of water in front of it. This ended up giving me a nice looking flicker affect for cheap. You can take a look at a clip with this scene in it at... http://creationarts.ca/screenings.htm click on The Huron Carol

I was just sitting here reading cinematography.com with one eye while glancing down at the latest American Cinematographer Magazine issue. I noticed that David Mullen is also mentioned in AC Magazine. They referred to him as "a walking encyclopedia of cinematography." No one knows that better than those of us on this site.

Depending on placement of the key, this would eliminate shadows but hopefully create some shade. I imagine that he keyed her about 20 degrees off camera axis and a couple feet above camera height. This would create shade on the fill side of the face in order to model it a little and bring out some of her features.

I love it Adam. I've never looked at the FAQ's before but I'm really impressed. David, Laurent and you have done a great job so far. Soft light is often missunderstood. I'd recommend that everyone read this FAQ (even though it's not finished).

In my experience, those extra frames of diffusion will help diffuse the light even more. There comes a point though where light becomes so scattered that it is no longer posible to make a visible difference (except to knock the light level down) by adding more diffusion or bouncing it one more time. Like Michael said, the the more you diffuse the light, the less the inverse square law will have to play in light falloff. Specular sources fall off less rapidly because their rays are parallel.

I know you're new dude so I'll give you some slack but first of all, there's no need to yell. I do understand what you're trying to say. I've just seen way too many local commercials inside a furniture store when the camera is white balanced to the interior store lights and they have these ugly blinds with this cold and steril blue coming through them. In some cases, mixed color temps can work but don't just do it because it's easy or because it looks "different". I just did an interior scene with huge windows keying the talent with uncorrected, natural daylight as my source. I white balanced to that and then put a tungsten fresnel up with 1/2 blue on the inside for fill. Then I used a naked fresnel for a backlight/kicker (the motivation being a window on that side of the talent with the "sun" hitting her directly at about 30 degrees). This setup looked absolutely gorgeous and I used mixed color tempurature. There's nothing wrong with it if there's a good motivating factor.

Actually that guide is for gels. You can write to rosco, lee and gam to get all of their gel swatches. It's free.

This might be what you're looking for. http://rosco.com/includes/technotes/filter...lor_Filters.pdf

Looks pretty good Michael. The sweeping yellowish/green light is interesting. What was your motivation for it? I actually kind of like it. Also, it doesn't particularly look "lit" when the sweeping lights are not on the talent. (That's a good thing) What did you use out the windows? It looks like either smoke or some frosting on the glass. I would have liked to see the girl's eyes a little more in her closeups (before the sweeping light hits her). I'm not saying to do the traditional ring light but maybe a small dedo focused on her eyes but dimmed or ND'd down.

That's an interesting comment about adding two small sealed beams on a car's wiper motor. I've done a shot like this before with four assistants: Three were sweeping fresnels across the car (different colors for different effects) and one of these three was rocking the car slightly. One guy drove by with his headlights on at the directors cue. This was a very short scene (only about 6 seconds) Water moving up the windshield can help sell the scene. Use a garden hose and a high powered fan to give the illusion of movement. If you use water, lighting his/her face from outside will give you a nice water pattern. I also tried getting an assistant to grab two flashlights and walk behind the car. After a couple seconds, he turned right as if turning onto another road. (that shot never got used but it was entertaining watching him trying to walk super still with two flashlights in hand)

Wow, sounds like you're gonna be busy this month. I find it amazing that you still make time to let us know what's going on. Thank-you. You probably won't be able to post any stills untill after the film's been released eh? I find that odd that your colorist is ignoring your gray scale and color notes. That's not a very common problem is it?

I believe that you meant "writing with light" by Storaro. John Alton wrote the book called "painting with light" that was published in 1949 for the first time and now put back onto print. I'm in the middle of this book and am quite enjoying it although it's not the most informative book you'll ever buy. "placing shadows" is a decent book if you want to learn the basics and then some. My personal favorite is "Reflections". I like to hear what other DP's have done to get certain looks. Subscribe to AC magazine. You'll learn tons. Also, this forum is excellent.

Great job. You did a really good job of location scouting (especially that windy road in the mountains). Also, I loved the insert shot of the steering wheel.

Depends on your budget and situation. You could fly in a big butterfly over the set and have a 12K HMI going through it. Or, forget the HMI and just use the sun through a butterfly. Also, Tim makes a good point about shooting the clouds going in front of the sun for motivation. If done at the right time this can be used for dramatic emphasis. Big bounce boards are great for outdoors. You can shape the light in almost any way. If you backlight your subject with the sun, minor changes in continuity are less noticable than frontal lighting.

Very true Michael. I just finished a shoot that involved sodium vapor lights and I used them as a backlight. I got this redish orange color that looked kinda neat when white balanced to tungsten. It was actually more to the red end of the spectrum than I expected. Out of curiosity's sake, I also tried white balancing to the sodium vapors and used them as my key. That was a mistake. Skin tones went all wanky on me. HMI's are soooooooo far off sodium vapor lights though that you'll have to use a lot of gells to get anywhere close.

TV shows are getting better and better in my opinion. Shows like 24, Lost, CSI, etc, etc are like mini features every week. Huge budgets for these shows (13 million per episode is a ballpark figure for CSI Las Vegas) are helping a lot. Actually, if you really want to make money... get into TV. I've read a few good articles about 24 that are very interesting. The lighting for most scenes is basically all hanging lights since they shoot 360 degrees quite often. Also the lighting doesn't change much (if at all) for the CU's. The exteme movement I guess fits the show, not my favorite style of cinematography but whatever. American Cinematographer Magazine has a good article about Lost in the February issue. It's a very harsh and realistic show in terms of the way it looks. Ahh, the oversaturated, no fill look of CSI Las Vegas. If you want to know what a kicker is, watch this show. I enjoy watching this show and I've learned a lot from it. Overall, for the lack of time that tv series' have, most do a great job. If you want to see a piece of cinematic art though, go to a movie theater and watch a 35mm projection of your favorite movie.

We're doing 5 hours of live broadcast today and tomorrow on the Miracle Channel. You can check it out on www.streamingfaith.com or www.streamtv.net. I think that you have to log in to use it but it's not that hard. Our broadcast is from 5:00pm MTN to 10:00pm MTN. The set that I posted a still of is on these live broadcasts (although the lighting was not originally intended for 6 tv personalities to be on set). If anyone has a few minutes, check it out. Also, critique my lighting (especially on the live band).

Yeah, I can't seem to find any here in Lethbridge but I don't like the lamp anyways. Right now I have a 20W in there. The other option is to put it on my dimmer but I think that I'm just gonna get props to replace it with something a little smaller like maybe some greenery.

Yeah, after that show, I put some diffusion behind the lamp shade to knock down the output. I still don't like it though but it looks too empty back there without it if a fire's not crackling in the background. The set is also much bigger than what you see in this shot. There is a little more color in the closeups (greenery, books, pictures, etc). We're mostly sticking with the yellow/green/red color pallet. I find that I get too many complaints if I go any darker in the background although I could bring the hilights down a bit. Also, I think that I'll put in some puck lights and get props to put something interesting in the shelves by the fireplace. John, I like the idea about the color crystals. I think I'll try it in my boss' office to see how bright it will be. I'll look into the flicker box as well.

Actually, according to the February 2005 issue of American Cinematographer, the pilot for 'House' was originally shot by Newton Thomas Sigel, ASC. He shot most of the show on 5218. The lenses that he used werer Panaflex Millenniums and Primo zoom lenses. Cinematographers who have shot some of the episodes since Sigel include Walt Lloyd, ASC and Roy Wagner, ASC. Check out the link that Kevin posted.

I was able to get our editor to make me a stamp so that you guys could see where the fireplace is and what I'm talking about. I also direct this show. I get camera 3 to give me a continuous moving wide shot while camera's 1 & 2 get the close ups.