Module 5: Lighting and Equipment Draft

Look at a painting, a photograph, or a scene in a movie that you think has interesting light. How is the painter or photographer achieving that effect? Start by identifying the light sources (you may not be able to see the source itself, just the light it produces). Examine each source for these factors that contribute to its effect in the scene:

What kind of shadow does it cast (crisp or diffuse)?
What angle is it coming from?
How bright is it (its intensity)?
How bright is it relative to other lights (the lighting contrast)? What color is it?

When you’re ready to shoot a scene, ask the same questions about the light sources. At times you may specifically check, say, the angle or intensity of a given light. But at other times you will look at things more instinctively, evaluating the overall “feel” of the lighting but keeping these factors in the back of your mind.

Qualities of Light

The hardness of light is a way to describe the type of shadow it casts. Hard light, also called specular light, like direct sunlight on a clear day, is made up of parallel rays that produce clean, hard shadows that neatly outline the shapes of objects (see Fig. 12-1). Hard light is crisp and can sometimes feel harsh.

Soft, or diffuse, light is less directional. It’s made up of rays going in many different directions and produces much softer, gentler shadows. The light on a hazy or overcast day is soft. It emanates from all parts of the sky at once. If it casts shadows at all, they are dull and indistinct.

Hard light can be produced artificially with lensed or focused lamps that emit a clearly directed beam. The spotlights used to single out a performer on stage are extremely hard. The light from a car headlight is quite hard. Hard light can be created with a fairly compact lighting fixture.

Because hard light casts very distinct shadows, it is used to delineate shapes. It brings out surface textures and can cast dramatic, sculpted shadows. The classic Hollywood look of the 1940s is based on fairly hard light sources (see Fig. 9-14). In a less flattering use of hard light, news photographers often use a simple, hard light that creates sharp shadows across the face.

Qualities of Light

The hardness of light is a way to describe the type of shadow it casts. Hard light, also called specular light, like direct sunlight on a clear day, is made up of parallel rays that produce clean, hard shadows that neatly outline the shapes of objects (see Fig. 12-1). Hard light is crisp and can sometimes feel harsh.

Soft, or diffuse, light is less directional. It’s made up of rays going in many different directions and produces much softer, gentler shadows. The light on a hazy or overcast day is soft. It emanates from all parts of the sky at once. If it casts shadows at all, they are dull and indistinct.

Hard light can be produced artificially with lensed or focused lamps that emit a clearly directed beam. The spotlights used to single out a performer on stage are extremely hard. The light from a car headlight is quite hard. Hard light can be created with a fairly compact lighting fixture.

Because hard light casts very distinct shadows, it is used to delineate shapes. It brings out surface textures and can cast dramatic, sculpted shadows. The classic Hollywood look of the 1940s is based on fairly hard light sources (see Fig. 9-14). In a less flattering use of hard light, news photographers often use a simple, hard light that creates sharp shadows across the face.

As noted above, the direction or angle from which light strikes the subject influences how the subject appears on screen. Light coming from the general direction of the camera is called front light. Front axial light comes from very near the camera’s lens; its shadows are mostly not visible from the camera position. Camera-mounted fixtures, such as flash units used on still cameras, provide front light, which illuminates all the visible surfaces of the subject. Full frontal lighting can be quite harsh and usually uninteresting, since dimensionality and surface texture are minimized. However, the flattening effect may be desired. Models are often photographed with very frontal light (see Fig. 4-5). In fashion shoots, sometimes a ring light is used that encircles the lens and can makes faces seem flawless and without dimension (of course, a little retouching in Photoshop makes them even more flawless).

You can think of full frontal lighting as projecting from the number 6 on a clock face whose center is the subject. (Think of the camera as also positioned at the number 6.) Offset (the light at number 5 or 7) and three-quarter front light (around 4:30 or 7:30) can be used for portraiture when more shadowing is desired.

Full side light (around 3 or 9) provides good modeling and indication of texture (since texture is revealed by the pattern of tiny individual shadows visible from the camera position). Side light can be quite dramatic. It produces shadows that fall clearly across the frame and distinctly reveal the depth of various objects in space.

Backlight originates from behind (and usually above) the subject. It tends to outline the subject’s shape and to differentiate it from the background. Backlight can produce a bright edge or halo on a subject’s hair and shoulders. When backlight predominates, sometimes called contre-jour, it can create a moody and romantic effect. If the background is bright and no light falls on the camera side of the subject, the subject will be in silhouette.

We are also concerned with the vertical angle of light—that is, the height from which it strikes the subject. Top light, which shines down from directly above the subject, can make deep shadows in eye sockets. Cinematographer Gordon Willis used top light in The Godfather to cast menacing shadows in Marlon Brando’s eyes. Top light can also make landscapes seem more two-dimensional, because few shadows are visible (think of sunlight at noon on a bright day). Most movie lighting is done with the key lights angled about 40 degrees from the floor or slightly higher for the best modeling without casting excessive shadows. Underlighting, in which the light comes up from below the subject and casts shadows upward, occurs rarely in nature and is used in horror films to lend a ghoulish look to faces.

Fig. 12-5. Lighting depends on the camera angle. From this side, the performer is backlit by the spotlight, with a very high-contrast, edge-lit look. If you shot from the other side, she would be front lit with a much flatter look. The camera on the crane directly above is seeing a side-lit shot of the keyboard. (Sony Electronics, Inc.)

Fig. 12-4. Directionality of light. The subject is lit by one light. (A) Backlight or kicker. (B) Side light. (C) Three-quarter front light. (D) Full frontal light. Also see Fig. 12-40. (Ned Johnston)

Much of the mood or atmosphere of a lighting scheme is determined by the lighting contrast— that is, the relationship in light intensity between the brightly lit areas and the shadow areas. With great lighting contrast, there is a great difference in intensity between the bright areas and the deep shadows. With low lighting contrast (often achieved by using secondary lights to fill in the shadows), the lighting appears fairly flat and uniform throughout the frame. The degree of lighting contrast is often expressed numerically in terms of the lighting contrast ratio (see p. 512). Lighting contrast results from the relationship of the key light (which casts the primary shadows) and the fill light (which fills in the key’s shadows). See below for more on these terms.

A low-key lighting design has high lighting contrast and a Rembrandt-like look, with dark shadow areas predominating over light areas. Low-key lighting is associated with night, emotion, tension, tragedy, and mystery. Film-noir movies, as well as Citizen Kane, are lit in moody, low-key lighting; the dramatic feel of the lighting is well suited to the black-and-white image.

With high-key lighting, the lighting contrast is low and bright tones predominate, making everything appear bright and cheery. High-key lighting is often used for daytime scenes and comedy. Most studio-shot television shows use this kind of low-contrast lighting scheme because the light is evenly distributed around the set, which is convenient in situations in which several cameras are shooting simultaneously from different angles or when an actor must be able to move freely around the set without walking into deep shadows.

Fig. 12-6. The single candle produces hard light (note the crisp shadows) and a very high-contrast lighting scheme with no fill lighting and deep shadows. (The Penitent Magdalen by Georges de La Tour, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Mr. & Mrs. Charles Wrightsman, 1978)

Fig. 12-8. The window light here is quite soft (note the gentle shadow angled downward from the windowsill). Compared to Fig. 12-7, this lighting is lower contrast, since the light source is bigger and softer, and reflected light in the room helps fill in shadows. See other works by Vermeer for his masterly rendering of natural light. (Young Woman with a Water Jug by Johannes Vermeer, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Henry G. Marquand, 1889)

Fig. 12-7. In this scene from Get Low, smoke is used to reveal the rays of light streaming through the window. Lighting contrast on the face is high, with little fill lighting for a stark look. The frame has a great feeling of depth that ranges from the foreground subject to the middle ground window, and then to the back wall of the church. (Sony Pictures Classics)

Household Bulbs and Photo Bulbs

• It used to be that most home interiors were lit with tungsten incandescent bulbs. These are rapidly being replaced with compact fluorescents (see below). Nevertheless, there are still tungsten bulbs in use. Common household incandescent bulbs can be used with video cameras as long as the camera can get a good white balance. They can also be used for black-and-white film shoots. Their color temperature, however, is about 2900°K, so the light they produce looks yellow-orange instead of white on tungsten-balanced color film. Sometimes professional 3200°K lighting units are used for the primary illumination for a shoot, and household incandescents are used in a table lamp or other practical fixture (see Lighting Styles, p. 498). In this case, though the household bulb may look yellow relative to the movie lights, it may seem natural in the scene. See Practicals, p. 491.

• Photo bulbs are available that use tungsten filaments similar to those in household bulbs, but the light emitted is designed to match tungsten-balanced film. Both 3200°K and 3400°K versions are available. A bluer, “daylight-balanced” version (rated at 4800°K) can also be purchased. Photo bulbs may be either photofloods or reflector floods. Reflector floods, such as the R-40, are mushroom shaped with a built-in reflecting surface that projects a more directed beam of light.

Tungsten-Halogen Bulbs

Also called just tungsten or quartz, these bulbs employ a tungsten filament surrounded by halogen gas encased in a quartz glass bulb (see Fig. 12-17). Tungsten-halogen bulbs have been the most commonly used bulbs for professional lighting instruments. The standard “tungsten” lighting unit is assumed to have a tungsten-halogen bulb rated at 3200°K. The bulbs are small and the brightest ones are rated at about 20,000 watts. They burn for hundreds of hours, do not diminish in brightness or color temperature over their life span, and are relatively resistant to breakage during transport. Tungsten bulbs become very hot and are used mostly in heavy-duty fixtures for maximum safety and control. Finger oils damage quartz glass, so use gloves or paper when handling the bulb. If the glass is touched, wipe it with alcohol. Carry a metal clamp for removing hot bulbs. Since quartz bulbs can explode, never turn one on when you or anyone else is directly in front of the fixture.

As noted above, tungsten bulbs are rated at 3200°K and can be used with tungsten-balanced film without a filter. These bulbs, and any other tungsten-balanced source, can be raised in color temperature to better match daylight illumination with a blue dichroic filter or with blue gel material (see p. 497). This normally cuts the light’s output by about half.

Fig. 12-11. HMI lights being used outdoors. Note the ballast unit (circled). HMIs are an efficient source of daylight-balanced illumination.

These principles apply to all AC discharge lamps, including some fluorescent tubes (see below), HMI, CSI, sodium vapor, and mercury vapor lamps (the latter two are often found in sports stadiums and parking lots; they may require special filtering for color balance).

There are flicker-free ballasts available that allow filming at any frame rate without risk of HMI flicker and may output more light; however, they can produce a high whistling sound in some settings.

HMI Bulbs

Hydrargyrum medium-arc iodide (HMI, also called metal halide) bulbs are an efficient lighting source that produces daylight-balanced illumination (5600°K or 6000°K). HMIs put out three to four times as much light as tungsten bulbs for the same amount of electric power used. This improved efficiency means that bright lights can be run off a smaller power supply, possibly avoiding the need for special power lines or generators. Trying to match daylight with a tungsten source requires filters that cut out half the light; HMIs require no filters for daylight and are far more efficient for daylight applications. HMIs also give off less heat than tungsten lights, making them popular with actors and crews. HMIs are generally operated using AC power (wall current) and require a ballast unit to control the electricity going to the lamp. Most HMIs produce a pulsed light that seems continuous to the eye but may result in flicker in the video or film image if used improperly.1 To avoid flicker, the light pulses must be evenly distributed on each video or film frame. These are the guidelines:

1. Use a crystal-controlled camera. All video cameras and most sync-sound film cameras are crystal controlled.
2. Use a very stable power supply. In most technically advanced countries, the frequency of AC current is very stable. Care must be taken when using generators (use a crystal-controlled generator) or when shooting in the developing world.
3. Use a frame rate that is divisible into twice the AC frequency. Thus, in the United States and other countries where the AC power is at 60 Hz, a frame rate of 12, 15, 20, 24, 30, 40, or 60 can be used. At 24 fps, camera shutter angles from 60 to 200 degrees will work fine, but a shutter angle of 144 degrees allows for the maximum variation if camera or power is slightly off speed. In countries with 50 Hz power, you can shoot at 10, 12.5, 16.666, 20, 25, 33.3, or 50 fps without danger of flicker. In these countries, a camera run at 25 fps can use any shutter angle. A camera run at 24 fps can avoid flicker by using a 172.8-degree shutter.
4. When shooting in former NTSC countries that use typical 60 Hz power, standard video frame rates of 30p or 60i can be used without flicker (and use a shutter speed of 1⁄65 or 1⁄120 second). Informer PAL countries with 50 Hz power, video cameras run at 25p or 50i should be flicker-free (use a shutter speed of 1⁄50 or 1⁄100).

Fluorescent Bulbs

Fluorescent lighting falls into three categories: compact fluorescents often found in the home, conventional fluorescent fixtures typically found in office and institutional settings, and specially designed fluorescent lighting units for film and video work.

Fig. 12-13. This Lowel Rifa light (see Fig. 12-19) has a receptacle for professional tungsten-halogen lamps, or you can quickly replace it with a screw-in (Edison) fitting that accepts standard household bulbs and compact fluorescents (shown here). CFLs are cheap and use very little power. You can get daylight-balanced, professional CFLs (5500°K) or use conventional household bulbs of various color temperatures.

COMPACT FLUORESCENTS

Many homes are lit with compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs), which typically have a spiral-shaped or short, folded tubular bulb, most of which screw into the same household receptacles used for incandescents. CFLs are available in various color temperatures ranging from a warm white that is close to tungsten up to daylight (for more on CFL color, see p. 308). CFLs can be used for video assuming the camera can get a good white balance and for film as long the color works with your stock and any other lighting units. Some CFLs are dimmable. CFLs can be used in some professional lighting units (see Fig. 12-13). CFLs and LEDs (see below) produce the smallest carbon footprint.

Fig. 12-14. (left) Kino Flo high-output, flicker-free fluorescent bulbs are available in true tungsten (3200°K) or daylight balance (5500°K). (top) Kino Flo Diva-Lites are useful as a soft source and for large areas. (right) The BarFly is handy for tight spots and accents. (LocLum.com/Kino Flo, Inc.)

CONVENTIONAL FLUORESCENTS

Standard fluorescent lighting fixtures have long, straight tubular bulbs and are usually undesirable for shooting—but they may be unavoidable. The spectrum of light from standard fluorescent tubes is discontinuous and matches neither tungsten nor daylight illumination. There are several types of fluorescent tubes available (daylight, cool white, warm white) that vary in color. Daylight and cool white tubes may produce an unpleasant blue-green color cast. Some warm white bulbs, however, are fairly close to tungsten.

As long as all fluorescent tubes in a scene are the same type, most video cameras can achieve an acceptable white balance (you may want to experiment with the “daylight” position on the white balance control). Film cameras can be used with filters on the lights or the camera to improve color rendition, such as using either an 85 or an FL-B filter for tungsten films or an FL-D filter for

daylight-balanced films. However, with many color film stocks, acceptable color balance can be achieved in the lab even if no filters were used. It’s better to get a good exposure with no filter than to be forced to underexpose with a filter.

Fluorescent lighting causes similar but less severe flicker problems than HMIs (see above). Standard frame rates of 24, 25, and 30 fps are fine. (In North America and other places where 60 Hz power is used, the rule of thumb is simply not to use shutter speeds faster than 1⁄60 second; in other

parts of the world where power is delivered at 50 Hz, 1⁄50 second should work.)

Mixing fluorescents with other sources of light can cause problems (see Mixed Lighting, p. 514). Fluorescent fixtures at workplaces often shine straight down, resulting in overexposed hair and deep eye and nose shadows. Many DPs choose, whenever possible, to replace standard fluorescents with color-balanced tubes (see below) or to turn off the fluorescents altogether and relight with some other source. When shooting in supermarkets and other settings in which it’s impractical to either turn off or replace existing tubes, a DP will sometimes use a professional fluorescent fill light fixture that uses the same tubes, to at least maintain consistency.

Fluorescent Bulbs

Fluorescent lighting falls into three categories: compact fluorescents often found in the home, conventional fluorescent fixtures typically found in office and institutional settings, and specially designed fluorescent lighting units for film and video work.

Fig. 12-13. This Lowel Rifa light (see Fig. 12-19) has a receptacle for professional tungsten-halogen lamps, or you can quickly replace it with a screw-in (Edison) fitting that accepts standard household bulbs and compact fluorescents (shown here). CFLs are cheap and use very little power. You can get daylight-balanced, professional CFLs (5500°K) or use conventional household bulbs of various color temperatures.

COMPACT FLUORESCENTS

Many homes are lit with compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs), which typically have a spiral-shaped or short, folded tubular bulb, most of which screw into the same household receptacles used for incandescents. CFLs are available in various color temperatures ranging from a warm white that is close to tungsten up to daylight (for more on CFL color, see p. 308). CFLs can be used for video assuming the camera can get a good white balance and for film as long the color works with your stock and any other lighting units. Some CFLs are dimmable. CFLs can be used in some professional lighting units (see Fig. 12-13). CFLs and LEDs (see below) produce the smallest carbon footprint.

Fig. 12-14. (left) Kino Flo high-output, flicker-free fluorescent bulbs are available in true tungsten (3200°K) or daylight balance (5500°K). (top) Kino Flo Diva-Lites are useful as a soft source and for large areas. (right) The BarFly is handy for tight spots and accents. (LocLum.com/Kino Flo, Inc.)

FLUORESCENTS FOR VIDEO AND FILM

Fluorescent lighting units are available that overcome the problems mentioned above. A wide range of fixtures are made by Kino Flo using high- frequency ballasts that are flicker-free and avoid the humming noise of standard ballasts. The KF55 tube is daylight balanced at 5500°K and the KF32 is tungsten balanced. Other manufacturers make fluorescent units as well. Banks of fluorescents can be used as key or fill lights. The light output is bright, soft, and very even. Individual tubes—sometimes very small ones—can be used for out-of-the- way spots or built into a set.

There are also fluorescent tubes available that can be used with conventional fixtures but produce a true color that reads correctly with either video or film. The Optima 32 bulb is tungsten balanced and the Vita-Lite and Chroma 50 tubes are daylight balanced. When shooting in an office or other institutional setting, a movie crew will often replace the existing tubes with these bulbs.

LEDs

A newer type of lighting unit uses LEDs (light-emitting diodes) and offers lots of advantages for shooting. These compact units produce heat-free, flickerless, silent light and some units can be dimmed from 100 percent to full off with no color shift (unlike many other types of light). Some LED instruments combine different-colored diodes, so they can be switched between 5600°K daylight and 3200°K tungsten balance (and some offer color balances in between). Other units are designed for daylight or tungsten color temperature and need a filter to convert to a different color. LEDs are highly energy efficient and have an extremely long life span. LEDs are available as flat panels, as focusable lensed lights, and as individual “bulbs” (such as those used in the home, which are bulb- shaped to emulate tungsten lights). As costs come down, LEDs are starting to replace other types of bulbs both in the home and on movie shoots because they are versatile and eco-friendly. See Figs. 12- 15 and 10-15.

Fig. 12-15. Litepanels MiniPlus LED lights mounted on a car mirror and camera. LEDs are efficient lighting, available in daylight and/or tungsten balance, and fully dimmable with virtually no shift in color. LEDs are available in large and small panels. (Litepanels, Inc.)

Lensed Spotlights

The most controllable kind of lighting unit is a focusing spotlight. Some spots have a Fresnel lens (silent s, pronounced “fray-NEL”) in front of the bulb (see Fig. 12-16). These lights emit focused, parallel rays of light that don’t spread out much or diffuse over distance. Most spotlights are focusable, which means the bulb can be moved back and forth relative to the reflector or lens to produce either a hard, narrowly directed beam of light (spot position) or a wider, more diffuse, less intense beam (flood position). These, like most other movie lights, have a set of adjustable baffles called barndoors, which are used to block the beam from going where you don’t want it (see Fig. 12- 18).

Mole-Richardson makes a widely used line of studio equipment and you should learn Mole’s names: a 5K lensed spotlight is a senior, while the 2K is a junior, and the 1K is a baby spot. A baby junior is a 2K in a small housing. A tweenie has a 650-watt bulb and a mini or tiny (also called an inkie) is 250 watts or less.

Focusing, lensed spotlights are versatile and very controllable and used extensively on typical movie sets. They may also be used on location shoots, particularly when the production is supported by a truck and a larger crew. However, lensed units are sometimes too heavy for a documentary being done with a small crew or involving a lot of travel. Some documentary DPs carry one or two lensed units and use mostly open-faced lights (see below).

Fig. 12-16. LTM Pepper Fresnel. Compact, focusing lensed spotlight. Note Fresnel lens. (Fletcher Chicago/LTM)

Open-Faced Spotlights

Open-faced spotlights have no lens in front of the bulb. These are lighter and cheaper than Fresnel units and are often used on location and in small-scale filming. While these nonlensed instruments can be focused by moving the bulb from spot to flood positions, they are less controllable or “cuttable” than lensed units (because the beam is not as sharp-edged), and the quality of light is not as har d.

Open-faced lights have various names. Mole’s 1K is a Mickey, Ianiro’s is a Redhead. A 2K may be a mighty or a blonde. Lowel’s open-faced spots include the Omni-light (maximum 650W) and the DP light (maximum 1K).