| The
main difference between straight and artistic
video lighting is mood. Mood-setting moves beyond
technical competence and into lighting design.
It's not hard to do if you know how to control
three basic lighting components: key, contrast
and color.
First,
of course, you need to be clear about exactly
which mood you're after: sunny, dreamy, macho,
scary or any of a score of other emotional states.
For instance, midnight lighting is equally dark,
blue and contrasty for both strolling lovers
and lurking vampires. Beyond the basics, though,
romantic and horrific are different animals.
So
let's see how to paint emotional light pictures,
using contrast, color and, first of all, key.
As used here, "key" doesn't mean the
main light on the subject, but the proportion
of light to dark in the image. We'll work indoors,
where you normally do most of your lighting
and have the most control.
High-Key
 High-key
images are basically light-toned with darker
accents. This doesn't mean low contrast; a good
high-key lighting design includes a full range
of tones from white to black.
Usually,
high-key lighting feels warm, cheerful, expansive
and energetic. Look at the great screwball comedies
of the 1930s and you're sure to find high-key
lighting. To achieve this "open" look,
typical high-key designs feature thorough key
and fill lighting for the subjects, plus lots
of light on the walls and floors. Small areas
remain darker to punctuate the overall design.
If you're working with a limited kit, soft boxes
or umbrellas are particularly effective because
they deliver wide, even light that helps light
the background. In fact, it's hard to keep them
off it.
High-key
can also mean heat and glare. For emotionally
hot interiors, start with a basic high-key light
plan and then adjust it by upping the contrast
or the overall brightness, by either slightly
over exposing or by pumping up the brightness
in postproduction.
You
can take high-key in the opposite direction:
toward a cold, hard, feeling suitable for prisons,
bus depots and futuristic settings. The quickest
way to achieve this look is to put away your
lights and use ceiling fluorescents alone, preferably
in a grid ceiling, if you have one. The shadows
will be diffused, but they'll show up under
your subject's eyes and chins. If you lack fluorescents,
then get your soft lights as high as possible
and block the performers to stand beneath them.
Low-Key
 Low-key
lighting produces mainly dark images accented
by lighter areas. Film noir classics and dramas
like Casablanca use a full gray scale from black
to white, but the darker tones predominate.
The
basic flavors of low-key lighting are dramatic
and powerful. To set the mood, work as much
as possible with spots, softening fill lights
with screens or spun glass sheets. Backlighting
is important, both for the light accent it provides
and to separate subjects from the backgrounds.
The
real secret of low-key lighting is in those
backgrounds. Keep furniture and other objects
partially in shadow, and don't wash the walls
with light. Instead, use controlled patches
and shafts of light to create patterns on the
background. To look realistic, these light areas
should be motivated, that is, there should appear
to be light coming from windows, doors or practical
lighting fixtures. Cookies (solid boards with
silhouette patterns cut into them) can splash
backgrounds with trees, Venetian blinds or simply
mottled patterns to break up the light. Use
cookies sparingly because they can look hokey.
By
taking low-key lighting to extremes, you can
deliver spooky, mysterious and menacing feelings.
In this approach, you reduce bright areas to
the minimum needed to understand the image or,
for extra suspense, even below that minimum.
This makes the audience strain to identify that
huge shape that is lurching toward the plucky
heroine. Minimal lighting does not mean poor
lighting: make sure you still get a good exposure.
Two
ancient lighting techniques work well in scary
scenes. First, key the menace from directly
behind to create an anonymous silhouette. Then
light the heroine from below (as if with the
candle she's carrying). As with cookies, keep
these effects under control unless you're striving
for an extreme effect.
Low
key can also mean warm, cozy, safe and romantic.
Using a fire as the motivation for key lighting
is the most obvious technique. Practical (meaning
visible in the frame) lights work just as well.
Whether talking in a restaurant booth or on
a living room couch, a couple in a circle of
warm (i.e. bright) light with darker tones around
them looks great. |
Contrast
The
range and gradation of the tones from black
to white in an image determine the contrast.
A wide brightness range (often called a long
gray-scale), means that every level from dead
black to pure white is present in the image,
though this can be harder to see in color than
in black and white.
Generally,
a long gray-scale is preferred, but to create
a soft, passive or misty atmosphere, you sometimes
want to avoid black and white extremes and confine
your tones to the midrange. To do this, make
sure you have plenty of fill light on subjects
and broad, even background lighting. Here again,
soft lights work best because they deliver naturally
low-contrast lighting.
If
gray-scale is the range of tones, gradation
is the size of the jump from one tone to the
next. Normally you want as long a gradation
as possible, something like 14-plus steps between
black and white. However, for a harsh, stark,
brutal or macho feeling, try reducing the number
of steps from black to white. To do this, reduce
fill light and splash hard bursts of light on
backgrounds.
Both
contrast range and gradation are easily managed
in post, so you may want to light normally for
both moods and then make adjustments later.
Color
There's
nothing like color to influence mood, whether
hot reds, sunny yellows, soothing blues, living
greens or violent purples. The production design
usually sets the color, but you can enhance
it with colored gels over your lights.
Again,
warm firelight is the obvious example. Subtler
effects include very pale warm gels to give
a feeling of glamour or a hint of blue in the
backlighting to suggest romantic moonlight.
When
working with color, don't forget that the background
lights don't have to be perfect in color temperature.
For instance, standard household bulbs (around
400 Kelvin warmer than halogen lights) can look
great in bedrooms, living rooms and other areas
where you want an appealing color tone.
And
don't forget the emotional effect of off-camera
lighting effects. The ghastly yellow of the
bar neon or hotel sign can be truly unpleasant.
The revolving red squad car light says danger-danger-danger.
Moody
Blues
To
sum it all up, first decide what mood you're
shooting for, then decide whether to go high-key
or low. Fine-tune subjects and backgrounds to
achieve the right feeling, then use contrast
and color for the finishing touches.
Mood
and Style
Don't
confuse mood with style. Where mood is the emotional
cast of the image, style is the esthetic approach
to it. Lighting styles fall into four basic
types:
- Naturalism imitates real-world illumination
as closely as possible.
- Realism employs subtle techniques
to enhance its effects, though it still looks
natural to viewers. Realism is typical of
TV dramatic series.
- Theatrical
realism
is still accepted as real, although it uses
more assertive techniques like rim lighting
and wall patterns. This is the Classic Hollywood
style.
- Expressionism frankly strives to convey
strong feelings, whether the result looks
real to viewers or not.
Mood
It in Post
Increasingly,
editors are enhancing the mood in postproduction.
With digital editing, you can make extensive
changes in:
- Contrast Increasing or decreasing
it to make action punchier or love scenes
softer.
- Color
Saturation Dialing the color intensity down to a "steel engraving"
look or all the way to black and white or
else up to the candy-apple richness of '40s
musicals.
- Color
Tint
Adding overall color casts from monochrome
hues like sepia, to cool or warm color casts
for night or day effects, to more subtle shifts.
- Selective
Color Shift Changing one or more particular colors for special effects.
Good
shooting!
Contributing
Editor Jim Stinson is the author of the book Video Communication and Production. |
