Vihan,
The first low (&no) budget short film event in Iran,
Presents.
In association with
Khanesh institute
and 35mm studio
Natural Lighting Cinematography
Chapter 7
Kinds of Lighting
We have two conditions for lightning
one is High Key Lighting
that frame is more bright and less dark spots
which means if there’s a contrast the ratio of brightness to darkness is more,
We have another condition called Low Key Lightning
the ratio of darkness to brightness is more
High key lightning is mostly for family movies, comedy, etc.
Everything should be bright for people to see
so the ratio of darkness to brightness is less
and it usually makes less contrast
Low key lightning is for thrillers, crime, action, mystery
that has an inciting incident in which
It makes us explore more in these stories when we have more darkness
Darkness in stories which we get to know about little by little is more
as a result of us using low key lightning
even in comedy
it’s possible to have a low key shot
that depends on the whole meaning of a sequence
Also for documentary
you want your whole movie to have a dark atmosphere or not
Usually dark scenes are more intriguing
you pay more attention to who that person is
or what is sitting there in the dark
what is back there
It makes you concentrate on sujet and intrigues
But in a high key lightning everything is clear and plain
It's a general fact
When you say it’s a high key lightning movie
you may say ok it’s a high key lighted
even in between all those high key lighted shots
you may still see some low key lighted shots as well
Excepting or violable, which doesn’t disorganize whole movie shots
So, when you think about the movie it remains to you as a high key lightening
and the short form of high key lightning or low key lightning is high key or low key
Generality is important
We may have high key but we also want it to be mysterious
But we can’t just film it like we film a low key lighted film
because we have to represent our low key lighting in comparison to our high key lighting
to suffice it just make 50/50
In a 70/30 high key movie
or 80/20 is bright to dark
if you have a 50/50 sequence
that sequence to whole movie is defined as a low key
You should compare it to all shots not one to another
for example
right here we have ¼ light
so you must make this ¼ to all shots
So your set design gets mostly all dark colors
as a result your sujet gets more far away from spot lights
Your camera has a specific angle to light
you should obey this in general
In documentary, all is the same.
you should always try to do that
as an example the window’s right here
I won’t record here with my back to the window
I always try to see window myself
if it’s behind me I won’t be seeing the window
Try to consider these
or I don’t know you go some places with four or five windows
It may happen in a narrative low budget movie
you have nothing for lighting
you just have an option to cover or uncover some of these windows
Then you just have to decided which one to close and which one leave to be open
or they all are next to each other in a row
you may use just one of these windows next to each other
to add side light to my character
and open one other in the back just to lighten my background
or if you’re making a high key
that’s for better to open all
and taking my camera closer to light
because I don’t have an option to light from the other side
I don’t have accessories
specially in a documentary
So you define ratio of light
you define your camera spot in a relation with light to make a ratio
This is important to maintain whole feeling of a film
Same thing happens with colors
you have a kind of a black and white frame
except for skin tone
the rest is black and white
well walls do have a kind of a blue/green color.
If I put this red object right here
In apart of my frame I shall remove it right now, or later
Sometimes you don’t have time or option
or it’s a documentary and you cannot do that
For example a women or a man walks in your frame and  passes by or stands right there with a red dress
in a monochrome movie
you can change it later
if you can’t do any thing about it while you’re filming
you can later select that color and edit it’s saturation or hue and something like that
Lighting with condition of a moving sujet or camera
what should we do then?
I say you should keep the ratio with about you’re sujet
if the decision is
there to be a contrast
always make an angle towards your moving sujet and camera to make it happen
Even there are some times that you don’t move your camera
but I say moving it, is easier
for example sujet is walking towards the light and that light is in front of them
Like if I walk here now same thing happens
my camera here walks with sujet
this is simple
but there are some times that the camera is still and your sujet is moving
and its ratio with light is changing as camera moves
we must place some things in its way to make that happen
as an example
I’m here with my camera right there
as light covers my face
I start walking and camera pans along my way
darkness starts to take more spaces in picture
Because camera turns and sees the dark side of the sujet that has blocked the light in front of it
I shall place stuff on my way to make it seem closer to my first shot
or if I care more about ending part of the shot
and I want more contrast
from the beginning I must have It
now, with this white background, we have a very bright picture
So, we have to do something with the background to have ¼ ratio, brightness to darkness
it’s actually more complicated in documentaries
You may be not able to change it all at the moment
you can change some part of it later
we should make lots of changes in post-production
especially in documentary even in narrative movies
sometimes it doesn’t worth if I literally color these walls
well I will darken it later
Another thing that I can do is to add shade to the background
or blocking the source of light
but it’s very complicated in documentaries
so we postpone it to post-production
Vihan,
the first low (&no) budget short film event in Iran.
