Quality in terms of lighting is how the intensity of the illumination effects the mood of the image and the visual impact it gives off. There are normally two distinctive qualities- Hard and Soft.
Hard lighting is a direct light that creates bold shadows, crisp texture and edges. This creates some very bright and dark areas within a shot and can give a very artificial look to the subject.
Even though this picture doesn't give of a artificial look, it still has distinctive bold shadows and distinctive lighting on the face.
Soft lighting is indirect or diffused and blurs contours and textures. It creates a softer constrast between light and shade. As we can see from the image the light looks very natural and has very light shadows.There is also 'flag'. This is a material used to shield the camera lens from unwanted light.
As a class we were told to perform an experiment in which we tested different qualities of light to see what works best and looks the best and most effective. This would also help us in our short film as it would allow us to be more creative in our lighting. We began by looking at Madonnas music video 'vogue'. This music video was famous for using film noir style and using shadows to create the mood of the video.
From both of these pictures we can see there is use of hard lighting, which isn't giving a lot of detail to the subject. If you look at the first picture we can see the intensity of the light and not much detail. We can just see the outline of the shoulder blades however the lighting is very dominant. The same can be said about the second picture with there being a lot of hard light and not much detail shown as a consequence.
This lead us onto our main experiment. We were told to allocate ourselves roles, however as there were only four of us we had to multi-task. The roles included:
Director- Cameraman
- Clapper operator
- Recorder
- Gaffer
- The model
We also had a large amount of equipment for this experiment:
- Mini DV Camera
- Tripod
- Batteries
- Base Plate
- Tape
- 1x Lowel Pro 250w lamp
- 1x Stand
- Diffusion attachments
- Speed ring
- Black Sheet/Card
- Scissors
- Safety gloves
- Extension leads
Altogether we have 4 different shots in which we manipulate the intensity of the light and use different diffusions and lighting equipment to change the light.
This is the first clip. This shot included us using black sugar paper and diffusers to manipulate the lighting.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXIq6afyZsA&feature=related
The second clip is were we used barn doors on the actual light to direct the light, bounce the light off the ceiling, tin foil and white paper. We also used ventian blinds. These were created by cutting lines in some black card and then being held up to the light.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bm4kDecXLs
This is the third clip. This is where we applied Spot and Flood to the lighting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXkmNhGYA-0
The fourth clip is where we changed direction of the light to see what difference it made to the shadow and subject.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YdFyF5wkoc&feature=related
After watching the Madonna music video, learning about the different types of light intensity and conducting our own experiment I can say that I have learned a great deal about how lighting affects the feel of a shot and the tone of the film as well. By using lighting affectivley on its own you can create a mood equal to possibly the dialogue that is actually spoken. The experiment had its own strengths in that we as a group learned different roles and learnt more about different roles and how they all work together within a film production. I think it will be very beneficial to think about lighting when it comes to filming our short film as it can help create different moods so easily.
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