Image: Gregory Crewdson © 2004
Painting with light. Narrative lighting techniques.
It is often said that light is
the main aspect of cinema-
tography. Lighting is a story-
telling tool and can be used
to great aesthetic effect but
is often also a practical ne-
cessity. We take a brief look
at the theory and technol-
ogy behind the craft and try
to expand on some of the
techniques used.
In order to control the look and
impact of an image the photographer
or cinematographer has to do more
than just pick a lens and point the cam-
era. How light falls within the scene
and the lighting ratios will not only
ensure the audience can see what’s
going on but will also give the scene
it’s atmosphere and help to convey
narrative meaning.
As we know, neither film or digital
imaging sensors see the world as we
do. They have much less dynamic
range and do not perform white point
adaption in the same way as the hu-
man visual system. Though we can
select film or digital settings to adapt to
the white point of our main light source,
mixed lighting records quite differently
than it looks.
Much of the craft of lighting narra- They produce a lot of heat, not as
tive scenes is creating shots that appear much as some sources but enough to
how the scene might appear to the be an issue indoors or when using gels
naked eye. This involves careful control or lighting adaptors. One practical
of contrast, lighting quality and colour advantage is that tungsten lights are
temperatures. Not to mention a consid- easily dimmed though their colour tem-
erable understanding of the recording perature does warm as they are re-
medium. Before we delve into the tech- duced.
niques we’ll take a brief overview of
the lighting technology available.
Tungsten lights come in such an
array of types that a comprehensive
Tungsten Lighting look at them is not possible but some of
the main kinds encountered in photog-
Still the most widely used photo- raphy are:-
graphic light source, tungsten lights
have the advantages of being cheap, Simple reflectors and PARs
simple and available in a wide variety
Sometimes not much more than a
of types and sizes. They are also still
bulb with a reflector dish, these are
the most common source in everyday
probably the most simple form of pho-
life, so give a close colour temperature
tographic lighting. They tend to vary
(!3200K) match with most location
from 150-3000 watts and provide a
lighting.
cheap and simple solution.
Their white point is also one of
their key disadvantages, at least when
daylight balance is required. They do
however have a continuous spectrum
giving them good colour rendering
(CRI!100) and allowing filtration to
other colour temperatures.
CTB (or 80A) gels can be used to
filter their output to resemble daylight
but this also causes a one and a half
stop loss in light intensity, which can
render them too dull to be of any prac-
tical use.
Fig. 1.1. Photon-Beard Redhead 1KW Tungsten PAR
 Available as floods with wide
angle reflectors or spots with more
concentrated parabolic types. Some
units include a fixed lens to help con-
centrate the light still further and others
have an exchangeable set that allow
them to be changed from a tight spot to
a much wider flood.
Without adaption they provide a
relatively harsh light but they are effi-
cient. In cinematic lighting large arrays
of PARs are often used to provide a
softer source and lots of raw power.
These arrays are also useful for produc-
ing shafts of light. Some PAR arrays
offer the ability to focus all the lamps
on the same spot. These provide one of
very few ways to achieve a soft but
concentrated light source.
Fresnel Lamp
The fresnel type expand on the
simple PAR design by adding a fresnel
lens to focus the beam. Most provide a
considerable degree of control and can
go from a flood right down to a tight
spot. They are available in a huge
range of sizes, from about 250W up to
20KW or above. Again they produce a
hard light.
At the same power level they produce Fluorescent Tubes
four times as much (or two stops more)
light output. Traditional fluorescent tubes were
never really of any use for photogra-
phy. They had a very discontinuous
spectrum, with a massive peak in the
green region. Magenta gels or filters
could be used to reduce the green but
still their colour rendering was far too
poor for most purposes. As they tradi-
tionally ran off standard AC, flicker
was also a major issue.
These days high frequency, colour
corrected units designed specifically for
photographic uses are available that
provide a light, compact, soft source
that can be very useful. A bank of fluo-
rescent tubes mounted in front of a
reflector can provide an excellent, flat-
Fig. 1.3. ARRI Daylight 18KW HMI Fresnel tering soft light and can be used in a
very compact space. They are limited in
However, bulbs are vastly more
their power output though and are of
expensive than tungsten. They need a
most use on small indoor sets.
voltage much higher than mains, espe-
cially to get them started (up to
20,000V)2, so require a separate trans-
former. They are not as simple to dim
either. If you simply reduce the power
to the transformer the unit will fail.
Some HMIs now allow up to two stops
of dimming but this is not nearly as
much control as with tungsten. Their
colour temperature shifts the other way
too, getting slightly cooler when
dimmed.
As these lights run on alternating
current flicker can be a problem. The
use of square wave AC in most modern
units largely solves this for normal
speed cinematography, and for stills
photography. However, high speed
cinematography and high shutter speed
stills can show signs of variation be- Fig. 1.4. Kino Flo Wall-O-Light 10 x KF55

tween frames. Carbon Arcs

Fig. 1.2. ARRI Junior 5000W Tungsten Fresnel
Soft Lights
Basically a tungsten bulb (or
bulbs) firing backwards into a large
reflector. These provide a softer source
but due to the still uneven fall of light
on the reflector they may not be as
flattering as other options. Their bulk
makes them less portable than a soft-
box or large bounce and they are no
more efficient. They are most commonly
found hanging from the ceiling in TV
studios.
HMIs
Already heavily used in cinematic
production but also finding a place in
stills photography, HMIs are gas emis-
sion bulbs that produce a semi-
continuous spectrum with a colour tem-
perature very close to daylight (CCT
!5500K, CRI>90)1. They are available
in a similar range of sizes and types to
tungsten lamps but are more efficient.
These lights are a common choice
for providing fill under daylight condi-
tions or for simulating daylight itself.
Like the large tungsten lamps they can
provide a lot of power but often need
to be adapted to provide the quality
desired.
Colour Rendering Index (CRI)
The CRI is a measure devised by
the CIE (International Colour Consor-
tium) to specify the ability of a light
source to render accurate colours. It is
measured by objectively comparing
the colour rendering of the test source
to that of a reference source.
It produces a number between
zero and one hundred, with a perfect
source giving one hundred and no
light at all giving zero. It is an old
measure and there are questions as to
it’s correlation with subjective assess-
Dating back to 1801,3 the carbon
arcs were the first source of high inten-
sity electric light. They radiate by pro-
ducing an actual electrical arc in air
between two carbon electrodes. They
have several advantages. They can
produce a great deal of light and a
ment. It can however be useful, along
side the correlated colour tempera-
ture, for judging the suitability of a
light source.
As an example, continuous spec-
trum tungsten lighting has a CRI of
nearly 100, a household ‘cool white’
fluorescent with it’s spiky spectrum
about 60 and a sodium street light
with it’s almost monochromatic light
close to zero.
A CRI of 90 or above is consid-
ered necessary for photographic pur-
poses.

Fig. 1.5. Bladerunner (1982) was the first feature film to use Xenon lights.5 The Bladerunner Partnership © 1982
continuous spectrum with very good
CRI (!100). They are the only light
source that can be adjusted between
daylight (5500K) and tungsten
(3200K) balance without the use of
filters (this is done by changing the type
of carbon electrodes used). However
they are principally desired these days
because of the quality of light they
produce, due to the very small size of
the arc they are almost a point source
and are considered the best match for
direct sunlight.
However, they have such big dis-
advantages that they are rarely used
nowadays. They require a great deal of
direct current (225 amps for the stan-
dard Brute)4 so need a powerful DC
generator to feed them. As the arc
burns the electrodes are consumed and
so must be constantly feed in to keep
the light stable. This can be done by
motors but these lights always require
an operator to adjust the motors and
monitor the arc. They also produce a
lot of heat and ultraviolet radiation.
They were traditionally used for
fake sunlight, daylight fill and night
scenes but have largely been replaced
in these tasks by HMIs and Xenons.
Xenon Continuous Lighting
Considered by many as the best
alternative to a carbon arc, they pro-
duce a vary similar colour temperature
Shutter Speed/Angle and Motion Blur
Most stills photographers will be
familiar with the effects shutter speed
can have on how motion is rendered.
How this effects a moving image
however is a slightly different matter,
and cinematographers often talk
about shutter angles as opposed to
speeds.
Cine cameras have a rotating
disc shutter. A pie-slice shaped section
of this disc is open to let the image
fall on the film and the rest is mirrored
to reflect it into the viewfinder. In
normal operation half of the disc is
to daylight arcs (! 5500K) and a simi-
lar light quality. These are gas dis-
charge lamps like HMIs. They use fast
pulsed DC as opposed to AC but due
to the high voltage/low current nature
of this supply the PSU and cables are
much more similar to those required by
an HMI (or studio flash system!) than
those required by the carbon arcs.
They are the most power efficient form
of continuous lighting and show no
problems with flicker even at very high
shutter speeds. Another advantage is
how stable the colour temperature is,
with age and with voltage dimming.
The models currently in circulation
are built with a tight parabolic reflector
that produces a very concentrated
beam. This limits their uses and can
make using light adaptors difficult. The
very high intensity of the beam can be
dangerous, it can break standard glass
and melt heat-hardened cine-gels in
seconds. The distribution of light within
the beam is never quite consistent due
to the reflector shape. They are also
expensive and rare.
Xenon Flash/Strobe Lighting
For stills photography flash lighting
has many advantages over a continu-
ous source but some of these advan-
tages can also be useful in cine film.
The ability to freeze some of the motion
but allow other parts to blur. The ability
open (shutter angle of 180°). This
means the film is exposed for half of
the frame interval (for 24fps film a
shutter speed of 1/48th sec). For
normal looking motion to be recorded
to adjust shutter speed without effecting
flash exposure. Not to mention the
incredible power efficiency and light
intensity achievable.
Xenon flash units use the same
technology as their continuous lighting
brothers. In stills photography the DC is
flashed (all released at once) in syn-
chronization with the shutter, as op-
posed to pulsed. In cine film the same
principal is applied but with the flash
fired every frame.
For the stills photographer their
clear advantages are portability, vari-
ability and their ability to freeze mo-
tion. For cinematography their uses are
much more specialized and the tech-
nology likewise. They are mainly used
to produce sharp images with very
stuttered and disturbing motion effects.
With flash durations sometimes as short
as a 20,000th of a second (at normal
shooting speed this is a shutter angle of
less than 1°) motion blur will be at an
absolute minimum. This is however a
special effect with limited uses.
As dimming is often achieved by
reducing flash duration this can effect
apparent shutter speed and it means
that unlike their continuous output cous-
ins flash units do show some shift in
colour temperature when adjusted.
Fig. 1.6. Elinchrom 3K Studio Flash Head
Fig. 1.7. Shutter Angles
(in most circumstances) this shutter
angle needs to be maintained.
If the shutter angle is too short
motion can appear stuttered, too long
and the image will be too blurred.
 Fig. 1.8. This frame from Amelie demonstrates how lighting can be justified without necessarily being realistic. This shot is in a cinema so we can believe the soft blue key light
comes from the screen and the backlight comes from the projector. However, the ratios are far from realistic and the catchlights in the eyes give away the key lights location, too
close and too high to be the screen. Tapioca Films © 2001

Gels and Modifiers used for balancing with fluorescent or sacrificing much intensity and there
lighting). is many other options for modifying
A vast range of different options
light. They are are vitally important
are available to modify the colour, Diffusion gel is also available in
part of recreating naturalist lighting
quality and directionality of light various strengths but diffusion or soften-
effects.
sources. Gels are used to adjust the ing of the light is also achieved by
colour of the light. Colour conversion bouncing light off of large reflectors or Justified Lighting
gels are the most commonly used. They shining it through muslin or a similar
One of the principal characteris-
convert the colour temperature of the fabric. Softboxes use this same princi-
tics of narrative lighting and the way in
source from tungsten towards daylight pal but also serve to control the direc-
which it differs most from other forms of
or vice versa. Some perform full con- tionality to some extent. Concentrating
applied lighting is the need for light to
version others only partial (see fig.1.8). the source can also be achieved vari-
be justified, or for it to be coming from
Colour correction filters tend to provide ous ways. A snoot or a focusing at-
an identifiable source. The key light or
more subtle adjustments and are avail- tachment will produce a spot but also a
principal source will almost always be
able in a wide range of colours. They very hard source. Honeycombs are
playing the part of the sun or other
are available in all primary and secon- another way to restrict the source and
main light source and in many ways
dary colours and various strengths. The achieve a tight beam with a fairly soft
can be considered a character in the
Usual naming convention is CCssH quality.
scene.
where ss is the strength of the filter and The problem with all of these fit-
H is the colour shifted towards. For Other lights may be less obviously
tings is that they absorb some of the
example a CC30M is a strong minus- justified. Fill light, or light used simply
light output of the source. Barndoors
green (Rosco full minus-green) filter to reduce contrast and fill in the shad-
give you some control over the light
where as a CC075G is a mild plus- ows, is often totally un-justified and as
spread without changing the character
green (Rosco 1/4 plus-green, these are a result we often strive to hide it’s
source. Soft sources are usually used
and the fill is often directed from the
Wratten Hoya Rosco Colour Temp. Shift (!) Mired Shift Exp. Comp.
camera position so shadows don’t give
- - Full CTO 6500K-3200K, 5500K-2900K +167 +3/4 the game away. Sometimes many dif-
85B LA-140 3/4 CTO 5500K-3200K +131/+140* +2/3 ferent lights are used to simulate cer-
85C LA-80 1/2 CTO 5500K-3800K +81/+80* +1/2 tain lighting conditions. These will
81D LA-40 1/4 CTO 5500K-4500K, 3800K-3200K +42/+40* +1/3 clearly be justified and like the key may
81A LA-20 1/8 CTO 3400K-3200K +18/+20* +1/4 well be important parts of the set or
81 - - 3300K-3200K +9 +1/6 story.
80A LB-140 Full CTB 3200K-5500K -131/-140* +1 1/2 Sometimes lights are needed sim-
80B LB-120 - 3200K-5000K, 3400K-5500K -112/-120* +1 1/3 ply to illuminate a subject or to accen-
- LB-100 3/4 CTB 3200K-4700K, 3500K-5500K -100 +1 1/3 tuate some character of it. Conven-
80C LB-80 1/2 CTB 3200K-4100K, 3800K-5500K -81/-80*/-68** +1 tional wisdom is that these lights should
80D - 1/3 CTB 3200K-3800K, 4200K-5500K -56/-49** +2/3 also be justified so as not to interfere
with the audiences ability to suspend
82C LB-40 - 2800K-3200K, 3200K-3700K -45/-40* +2/3
disbelief. This is not always the case
82B - 1/4 CTB 2900K-3200K, 3200K-3500K -32 +1/2
however and sometimes un-justified
82A LB-20 - 3000K-3200K, 3200K-3400K -20 +1/3
lights can enhance the image and give
82 - 1/8 CTB 3100K-3200K, 3200K-3300K -10 +1/3
a surreal or interesting effect.
Fig.1.9. Table of colour conversion filters and gels.

Fig. 1.10. Two Ruby 7 tungsten PAR arrays being used as fill lights. Their colour temperature has been corrected to
daylight balance with a sheet of CTB (80A) gel. Luminaria Inc. © 1998
Compressing Reality
Having touched on most of the
available artificial light sources lets get
back to the sun. Daylight has the obvi-
ous advantage of being free but it is
not as predictable or controllable as
one might like. The problem with direct
sunlight and to some extent diffuse
daylight is the high contrast they pro-
duce. Reducing this contrast is one of
the key tasks of the cinematographer.
The most common tactic used is to
‘fill’ the shadows with soft lighting, 1-3
stops below the key light. Usually the
colour temperature of the fill light will
be picked to match the key light. For a
truly realistic effect the fill can be
gelled to cool it down a little (1/4-1/2
CTB), simulating the blueness of skylight
which is natures fill. To achieve objec-
tively correct colour much more blue
shift than this would be required but as
stated earlier this kind of colour con-
trast is accentuated by photography
and so reducing the differences actu-
ally produces a more realistic effect.
Some shots will require different
levels of fill than others. In some it may
be desirable for the characters to be
seen in silhouette. In a shot where the
characters faces are completely in
shadow it may be desirable to allow
the key light to overexpose a stop or so
and fill to not far below correct. If the
whole frame is in shade then the prob-
lem may not be shadows but rather the
coolness of the natural light.
The hollywood style tends to be to
use lots of fill, often to quite unrealistic
levels. This is undoubtedly beautifying
to the actors but can produce a kind of
plastic appearance and interfere with
the atmosphere of the scene. In most
narrative photography fill is used much
more subtly, so we can see just enough
to follow the story without it effecting
the atmosphere or looking artificial.
On small sets and in tight cropped
shots it is often possible to get sufficient
fill by using large white reflectors to
bounce the diffuse light back into the
shadows. This requires getting the re-
flector(s) quite close to the subject and
in most circumstances will not provide
enough light. Silver reflectors throw
more light back onto the subject but this
can have a quite unnatural quality. The
other main problem with reflectors is
they need to be placed to catch the
light. This may not be the best place for
the fill to be coming from.
One solution is to bounce one or
more daylight balanced sources off of
the white reflector, increasing the light
levels and freeing it from some position-
ing restraints. Another is to place light
sources behind diffusion material or use
softboxes, producing a similar effect.
Some prefer to fill from the opposite
side of the camera to the key, others to
fill as directly as possible from camera
position. Again this may depend on the
shot and of course practical restrains
such as space and mounting issues.
Placing the fill higher up will help with
realism, as it could be reflected light
from a passing cloud but this may not
be as flattering as placing it at about
head height.
The same principals apply when
shooting indoors with window light.
Again with direct sunlight using a fill of
balanced colour temperature can look
unnatural and cooling by 1/2 CTB can
help. When tungsten lighting is to be
used on the indoor set we have more
problems. The difference in intensity
may simply be too great for the tung-
sten lights to compete. ND (neutral
density) gels placed over the windows
can help but the colours are still differ-
ent. We probably don’t want to correct
this completely as it will also look un-
natural but some correction will be
required. As we are probably already
struggling to get enough intensity from
the tungsten lights (and they may well
be part of the set) correcting them is
often out of the question. Gelling the
windows is again the most common
solution and most cine-gel manufactures
supply combined 1/2 CTO and ND4/
ND8 gels for this very purpose.6
Fill is also important when shoot-
ing under artificial location lighting.
Here fill should almost always be of the
same colour as the key, unless the fill is
to appear to come from another source
on the set. When light sources them-
selves are in shot this can cause an-
other problem. In order to have them
render acceptably the exposure has to
be set so low that they throw little of no
light on the subject. The usual solution
to this is to place another higher pow-
ered light of a similar quality just out of
shot, lighting the subject in as similar a
way as possible to the fixture lamp.
Faking Daylight
Rather than deal with all of the
problems involved with using natural
light, the weather, sun position and all
the issues discussed above, it is often
easier to fake things completely. This is
rarely possible on large outdoor loca-
tions but for working on a set or inside
a location it can be the best solution. It
makes colour temperature and contrast
much easier to manage and you never
have to wait for the sun to come out
from behind a cloud.
Window light is relatively easy to
fake, so long as we don’t need to see
out of said window. If the window is not
in shot then it need not exist at all. A
large softbox or bounce lit slightly cool
will provide convincing light from a
north facing window, or on an overcast
day. If the window is real then covering
it with diffusion and pointing light(s) at
it from a relatively high angle is the
most common solution, but you can mix
and match. By how bright and how
cool these lights are we can control the

Fig. 1.11. A still from Bring Out The Dead showing how tungsten , fluorescent and mercury lighting together is re-
corded by tungsten balanced film. Touchstone Pictures © 2000
apparent weather conditions. If the
window light is gelled quite cool and
the shot kept quite dark then the im-
pression is of a dark and stormy day. If
we use pretty much white light and
keep things bright it feels like summer.
If there is tungsten lights on set then it
may be best to use tungsten for the
window light and gel it blue as re-
quired. You could however use flash or
an HMI and gel it orange.
If the sun needs to shine in through
the window then things get a bit more
complicated. The key to producing
convincing sunlight is to use a small
source and place it as far away from
the window as possible. If the light is
too close then areas of the set close to
the window will be much more brightly
lit than those further away. The shad-
ows will also be too soft and they will
be distorted. If the light is off to one
side of the window the shadow will
show perspective distortion that is
never seen with sunlight. Keeping the
light at a distance will minimize all
these problems but obviously requires a
powerful light. You should also remem-
ber not all the light that comes through
a real window comes directly from the
sun. Adding a little soft light that is
slightly cooler can help with realism.
Bare in mind though that if the real sun
comes out it may overpower your lights
and ruin the shot. If the lights are close
to the window then you may be able to
curtain it off but with one light 40 feet
away playing the sun this isn’t an op-
tion. Working at night is one solution.
All these same principals apply
when working outdoors, on a set that is
pretending to be outdoors, or in
chroma-key work. Large soft sources
positioned above the set will simulate
light from an overcast sky. Again how
bright and how blue will depend on the
weather conditions being simulated.
Clear conditions again call for a pow-
erful source at a distance, possibly
supplemented by soft sources from
above. Adding some diffusion to the
fake sun can help to keep contrast
down and simulate haze or wispy
clouds. Replicating very specific
weather conditions, say in a chroma-
key shot, can get quite creative and the
key to this kind of lighting is always
real world observation.
Faking the daylight makes fill light-
ing much easier. You no longer need so
much power to compete with the key
light. This means you can use less pow-
erful lights or more diffusion to produce
a more realistic effect. Colour control is
easier and often unnecessary if all the
lights are of the same type. In cinematic
production and higher end stills this
approach is very common for daylight
interiors and built sets.
Night-time
Shooting under real moonlight is
still not really possible and faking it is
no simple task. Much of how we per-
ceive moonlit scenes is due to the hu-
man visual system as opposed to actual
qualities of the light. To start with
moonlight is not much bluer than sun-
light and if we look at the moon itself it
appears pretty white, even yellow. We
perceive a certain blue/green quality
to it’s light due to the way our colour
vision breaks down at such low lumi-
nance levels, really we see very little
colour at all. Photographic convention
is to gel your fake moon quite blue and
viewers have come to accept this. It is
not however terribly realistic. With
digital post production it is possible to
get a more realistic effect with a white
moon but de-saturating the colours in
post. De-saturating the reds more than
the greens more than the blues will
produce quite realistic moonlit colours.
The quality of moonlight is also
hard to pin down. It is a hard source
but somehow seems to produce a soft
feel. Using a source as hard as the
moon itself will rarely have the desired
effect. Some diffusion or a softer
source will help. Moonlit scenes also
appear fairly low contrast so plenty of
soft fill light is useful where possible.
Allowing any bright highlights will spoil
the effect and should be avoided. Low
contrast is the order of the day.
Shooting in built up areas with lots
of artificial light is very different. Here
viewers will accept light coming from
many different direction and of many
different colours. As lighting fixtures
will often be in shot high contrast may
be an issue. Fill lights can help, often
lots of soft blue light from above is used
but often dark streets will still record
textureless black. Wetting the streets
and thus creating specular reflections
can solve this problem and be very
aesthetically pleasing.
The colour of street lamps, shop
lights and other fixtures may well vary
greatly. If the camera is tungsten bal-
anced, sodium street lamps will render
completely orange as will anything lit
by them while fluorescents and mercury
street lamps will appear green or cyan
and render other colours they illumi-
nate quite poorly. This may be desir-
able, depending on the effect you are
after. Unless you are working on a very
large production there’s very little you
can do about it. Choose locations with
this in mind. Mercury street lamps can
be more photogenic than sodium. If
you do have to work under sodium
lamps have your characters lit by tung-
sten light from a shop window or the
headlights of a passing car. Perhaps a
thin line of oblique orange light is all
that is needed to show the characters
smile!
Fig. 1.12. 4.8K HMI Balloon Light being used to
replicate moonlight on a night exterior.
 In the Gregory Crewdson image
that opens this article the light is less
about visual metaphor. more about
setting the mood and producing a stun-
ning image. Combined with the pose of
the actor and the few props it conveys
a strong narrative. The complexity of
the lighting and the incredibly well
balanced tones and colours achieved
show a mastery of the art of lighting
second to none.

In Bladerunner, Ridley Scott uses

lighting as one of his main tools in cre-
ating the strange future world in which
his characters live. In fig. 1.5 beams of
light scan through the building making
it feel almost like a war zone. Rutger
Hauer is largely in shadow with only a
thin line of oblique back lighting pick-
ing out his silhouette. Not only does
this lighting help to establish depth and
Fig.1.13. Caravaggio!s Judith Beheading Holofernes
make the actor stand out but it also
In situations like this and artificially ability to develop atmosphere and it’s creates the atmosphere of the shot and
lit interiors you can really be creative. use as visual metaphor. helps to convey the characters menace.
Light can be justified coming from just
Lighting can manipulate peoples Carol Reed provides a master-
about anywhere if you work with the
appearance, with the narrative in mind. class in the use of chiaroscuro as a
set design. The question becomes much
As a model or leading lady can be visual metaphor in his 1949 Noir film
less ‘what should the light be like’ and
beautifully soft lit to make her appear The Third Man, and makes it look so
more ‘what do we want the light to be
even more desirable. Likewise people simple. We see the mysterious Harry
like’.
can be made to appear more threaten- Lime more often in silhouette than we
Chiaroscuro ing with oblique lighting or lighting do in full light. He is hidden from us as
from below. Stanley Kubrick uses this in he is hidden from the other characters.
This is an Italian term generally
a fantastically subtle way throughout We see his shadow loom large over
translated as light-shadow. In the con-
his film repertoire. In fig.1.14, taken them as he looms large over their lives.
text of the visual arts it is used to refer
from The Shining, the Lloyd character is Light can also be a narrative element
to the use of light and almost more
softly up-lit from the bar which is made itself, like a beam of light coming down
importantly shadow to help depth per-
from diffusion material and is a lighting from heaven or a mysterious glowing
ception, to convey importance and
fixture itself. The effect is subtle and box.
meaning on certain elements in the
totally justified but we are left in no
frame and to help tell the story. Artists
doubt as to the ominous nature of this
like Giovanni Baglione and Caravaggio
encounter.
used these techniques masterfully long
before the advent of photography. Film
Noir saw perhaps it’s most famous use
in photographic image making and it is
today a crucial part of our visual lan-
guage.

Light and shadow are crucial to

our perception of three dimensional
space in two dimensional images. Plac-
ing a brightly lit subject in front of a
dark background makes it easy for the
viewer to separate the subject and
gives it more perceived importance.

Lighting as Storytelling
To some extent all the techniques
we have discussed so far are about
telling the story. They set the scene,
establish the time of day and the
weather conditions and help to lead the
audiences attention to the important
elements. But when we talk of lighting
as storytelling we tend to mean it’s Fig.1.14. The unsettling effect of up-lighting in Stanley Kubrick!s The Shinning. Warner Brothers © 1980
 units turned right down the light they
give off is often a little warmer than
one might expect, maybe around
4800K. With the day outside overcast
this gave enough of a colour tempera-
ture difference to create the desired
effect without the need to gel either
windows or flash. The tungsten christ-
mas tree lights rendered very warm
which was also as desired. The light
from the right was restricted right down
using a thick honeycomb. This was to
stop it having much effect on the right
hand wall or producing a shadow of
the actor. It was intended to be some-
thing of a special effect, like it came out
off nowhere.

Conclusions
Lighting is undoubtedly a creative
art but at it’s core is a technical under-
standing of light and colour. In essence
it employs the same theory and tech-
niques as used in any other form of
applied photography but applies them
to the telling of stories. The techniques
and conventions in this article are a
useful guide but they are not set in
stone, there is always room for experi-
Fig.1.15. "The Gift!. Andy Schonfelder © 2007 mentation.
The Gift
To sum up and to try and illustrate
some of this I’m going to take the ex-
ample of a narrative still image I pro-
duced (fig.1.15, The Gift), looking at
how and why it was lit. It tells the sim-
ple if fairly ambiguous story of a mys-
terious christmas gift and clearly the
light tells the majority of the story.

The glowing box provides the key

light and creates most of the mystery
but all the other lights add their bit. The
lights on the tree, their warmness and
the way they have been allowed to
1. Flash head firing through a small diffuser. Set to 2. Honeycombed flash head to camera right makes
flare a little help to give it a christmasy create the impression of a household standard the subject stand out from the background and
lamp and to shop up the texture of the curtains. helps to produce a slightly surreal effect.
feel. The small amount of daylight
showing through the curtains sets the
time of day. The oblique lighting on the
curtains creates texture and depth as
well as playing the part of household
lighting. The spot light from the right
also creates texture and helps to make
the actor to stand out from the back-
ground. The fill light is there simply to
control contrast an ensure some detail
is rendered in the foreground shadows.
The thumbnails in fig1.16 show how the
lighting was built up and what each
light contributes.
3. The light from the box adds the essential story- 4. The glimmer of daylight, the dull golden glow
Apart from the christmas tree telling element and produces a wonderful chiaro- from the christmas lights and a small amount of
lights and the daylight through the scuro effect on the subjects face. foreground shadow fill provided by another diffused

curtains all the lighting was xenon Fig.1.16. The making of a narrative lighting set up. Andy Schonfelder © 2007
flash. With oldish flash tubes and the
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Light and Time Imaging © 2008