Continuing on with Week one’s lesson on the natural light that surrounds us, we learnt about the different tools that can add or subtract light, but also redirect and change the quality of light. Our first day of the week, we redid the first exercise with more emphasis on the composition of the shot, and also with the addition of white and black boards. On the second day, we introduced artificial lighting using various light sources.

The first task of the week allowed us to manipulate the natural light in the room with the use of black and white boards. We were able to bounce the key light and add fill to subject. However, in reverse, we could use a black board and take away light from the fill by placing the board next to the subject. This type of practice of adding and taking away from the light further demonstrates that we don’t need expensive lighting equipment to gain some sort of control over the lighting. Using such inexpensive equipment allows us to manipulate the natural light through changing the direction or the quality of the light. In effect, this will allow for more freedom to light the subject in different ways for different moods.

On the second day of class during the week we were introduced to a type of lighting that is very common in studios. We Used three sources of light which was a key light, a fill light and a back light. We used a 1k for the key light and a red head for the fill. However, we could not position the red head in a traditional three-point lighting set up. The reason being that the light produced by the red head was over powering the key light. The fill light had to be less intense than the key light, otherwise it would defeat the whole purpose of having a key and fill light, which is to make the subject ‘pop’. In order for us to reduce the intensity of the red head, we bounced the light onto the ceiling and adjusted it until we were happy with the amount of fill on the subject. In this process we realised how hard it was to control the bounce light because it became highly diffused by the ceiling, which scattered the light everywhere. The drawback in this technique was not being able to control the amount of spill.

A typical three-point lighting setup

source: https://birtecinematography.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/3-point-lighting.png