Cinematographer Bradford Young uses the light in this scene from Ain’t Them Bodies Saint (2013) to establish the bond between Bob (Casey Affleck) and Ruth (Rooney Mara) and illuminate how the lovers are naive and foolish and together attempt to run away from reality (their crimes).

The late afternoon sun is a warm, golden colour that provides an effulgent rim light and a hard definition of the actors. In addition, the sun is the background source of light that generates the silhouette of trees and casts long shadows. Daylight filtered through the trees serves as a diffused key that is front/top lit and evenly wraps the whole face, this results in minimal shadows falling mostly under the eye. It is low intensity and the skin appears underexposed, however this reflects the setting as the subjects walk in and out of shadows. These factors maintain an authentic, natural style of light.

In the second half, the actors become bathed in the golden sunlight and the lens flares are of a hazy, angelic quality. This quality serves the narrative as it illustrates the fairytale, romantic world Bob and Ruth attempt to remain within and the figurative light they ‘see’ one another in.

I find my eye absorbs this image holistically. Although the subjects’ faces don’t have the same volume of light as the background, the combination of long shadows in the setting and hard rim light ensures the picture is balanced and the actors remain visually dominant. Also prior to analysing these lighting conditions I would not have thought to shoot in this situation for fear of underexposing the subject’s faces. Assuming an artificial source or very large reflector was employed to lift them out of complete shadow (underexposure), I can appreciate how difficult yet successful this light is.