Lightning continuity and light axis

[José L. Martínez Díaz]

Hi,

 

I'm looking for some source of knowledge (books, videos, courses, your personal input etc),apart from experience, about lightning continuity and light axis.

 

I'm almost self trained, and althought I have knowledge and some experience, know the tools, got some nice images and effects, I still find incredibly difficult to keep lightning continuity between set-ups. I got it done, but I simply have no learnt rules or paths to follow, and always rely on monitor, heavy planning and on-set re-touching.

 

I've found very little literature about this topic (Ritsko' lightning for location motion pictures is the only that comes to my mind) and I would be really thankful to anyone who give me some clue to improve my knowledge on this topic.

 

Thank you!

 

José L. Martinez Díaz, aspiring cinematographer.

[Michael Nash]

The books section of this site has lots of good references.

[Matt Workman]

ugh yeah I know continuity is a pain...

 

My best lessons have just been to shoot and review...shoot and review...

I've made a lot of mess ups that I cringe to watch, but that makes you better for the next time.

 

If we don't have video playback...pretty much always...I've gotten in the habit of matching the camera settings with my DSLR and shooting stills of the frame. Then playing them back when thinking about the rest of the coverage to make sure it matches.

 

Also if you storyboard and shoot the wide shot first you'll have a better intuition on "matching" for the closeups.

 

Nothing worse than watching an edit where they background levels are dancing in every shot. I've had a script supervisor comment on background elements not matching "brightness-wise" which is a thin line, but I was ok with her telling me that.

 

Either that or stick to one take scenes. :-)

 

Matt

[Michael Nash]

It does take practice, but it becomes easier to "see" on set after awhile. The easiest way to ensure continuity is to match meter readings for keylight, fill light, backlight, and background. After awhile you don't need the meter as much, and you become less of a slave to the numbers.

 

Another rule of thumb: Your eye tends to spot changes in contrast before anything else (key/fill contrast ratio), then color, then the direction and quality of light. If you take care to match the contrast ratio and color, you'd be surprised how much cheating you can get away with during coverage when it comes to the quality and direction of light.