Cinematic Lighting Masterclass - Make Any Scene Look Like a Movie

1. Introduction: Oh. In a world where everybody wants the cinematic look, only a few understand where it truly begins. So here's some tips but here's the problem. We chose expensive gear, fancy cameras, fast lenses. Only to end up frustrated. But what if the secret wasn't in the camera? What if it's been in front of you all along? Yes, lighting, the invisible art that separates the ordinary from the unforgettable. I'm Adi, a videographer who spent years decoding the mystery. Through failures, frustrations, and hundreds of tutorials, I think I cracked the code. And now I'm handing it to you. No expensive setups, no Hollywood budget, two lights, and a whole lot of creativity. If you are ready to turn your videos into pure cinema, this class is where it begins. This is the cinematic lighting master class. 2. Class Structure: And before we dive in, let me give you a quick overview of what I've covered in this class and how I've structured this entire class. In the first few sections, I'll start with the basics. I'll teach you what all different types of lights are there in the market. What is the role of all those lights and which light would be good for you if you're a beginner and what lights I'm using. So I'll give you introduction of all the lighting because I can understand that if you want to look online to buy a light for your videography, there are tons of options, and it is just so hard to know which one would be good for the purpose, what you serve. And once we have covered all different types of lighting in the market, then we would move on to the fundamentals of lighting. For example, we would be learning about the key light, which is the main light, we would be learning about back light. We would be learning about the ambient light, for example, the lamps, what I'm using. And we would also be learning what are the main roles and how we can manipulate the settings of the light or how we can manipulate the position of these lights to create different look or different feel. We would be learning how a light can shape the subject and shape the surrounding, how a light can convey certain feelings to your audience. And once we have learned all the basics and fundamentals, then the fun begins. I'll demonstrate how to light various scenarios and more importantly, show you how to achieve completely different looks in the same frame by simply adjusting lights at different angle and simply adjusting the camera at different angle. So I'll show you the behind the scenes of a lot of different scenes, what I recreated from movies, and then I'll show you my thought process of why I position the light a certain way because that's what I was missing, as well when I started my journey that I would see the final shot. I would see all the fancy lights what people are using, but I wouldn't see how they're using, where they have placed the light, where they have placed the camera. And that's exactly what I'm going to show you in this class. So now let's get started. 3. What is a Studio Light: In this section, we're going to be learning about different types of lights which are available in the market. And the first light and the most commonly used lights are the studio lights with a soft box. The studio lights comprises of three components. First, the main light, second, is the soft box which is attached in front of the light. And the third is a reliable and sturdy tripod. I use studio lights all the time. That's what I'm using to light up this shot, as well. But with a twist that we can cover later, since I started my journey, I bought these cheap Amazon lights they serve the purpose for that time, but a few months later, I ended up buying a proper studio light. And I use that studio light for next four to five years, and recently I've upgraded to another studio light, which I'm going to tell you later, and that has changed the game. So if you are serious about filmmaking or content creation, it is really important to invest already in a good studio light because once you buy that light it's gonna last you for years. But yeah, we're going to also be covering some different kinds of other lights as well, so you can see which one is best for you. But some of the pros of studio lights are they are portable, they are handy, and they can help you create any look you want. They are super versatile and they're super common, and it is also really easy to buy a lot of accessories for these lights. But some of the dimits are these lights, they can be bulky. The lights itself wouldn't be bulky, but the soft box, which comes in front of the light, that can be bulky. And if you have a small space, that can be a bit of problem. So a lot of times when I started I was living in a small apartment. I had a really tiny room, and I would really struggle with how to keep the light at a certain position and a certain angle to get the best look because it was just so bulky and the soft box in front of it was also so bulky. So you have to keep that in mind. But other than that, these lights are the best investment ever for anyone. And you can use these lights to lit up interview shots. You can also if it's a good and powerful light, you can also use these lights outdoors, which I'm going to show you later. 4. My Favourite Studio Lights: And now your question would be, which light I'm using? So I'm using a light from a brand called Sun Crafter and why I chose this light is set. It is a key light, which is extremely, extremely powerful. Like, right now, I'm running this light at about two or 3%. And if I put it 200%, the whole footage would be overexposed. But that's not the main reason why I got this light. I got this light because this light is also an RGB light, so I can change the color of these lights to any color what I want. So that's why I think this light is really handy because I use it for interview shots, talking it shots like this, but then I also use the same light for creating any cinematic environment or creating any dramatic look. So that's why I've invested in this light. It's a pretty good light for the price range. So that's the light what I'm using. 5. Should you get an LED Light?: And the second kind of lights are LED lights or LED strips. You might have seen those lights in movies or you might have also seen your favorite creators using those lights. They are pretty good. They are also cheap, and you can also change the intensity of lights in LED lights. But the problem is the quality of the light coming out from the LED lights is not that good, and sometimes they're also not that strong. But for some of you beginners, I think an LED light can also be a game changer because it's a small strip. The soft box which comes in front of that strip is also really tiny. So if you are living in a compact space and if you just want to light up your scene just for a talking head shot like this, then I think LED light can be a good option for you. You don't need to go for a big and bulky soft box with a studio light. But the thing is that the high end model of those LED lights can be expensive. And the cheaper ones, they are pretty good for the time being. But after a point, the performance reduces or they just die out if you buy from Amazon. Yeah, I really do your research on the LED light. But if you're really serious about filmmaking, I would still recommend to get a big and nice studio light. Or what you can also do is use an LED light as a secondary light. So, of course, you can get a big key light, and you can also buy an LED light which would act as a secondary light, you know, to act as a fill light or a back light, what I'm using here. But I'm not using LED light. I'm using something else, which comes next. 6. Why Tube Lights Are The Best: Stick lights or tube lights. I have a tiny stick light also from the brand called Sun Crafter. It is called TL 30. And stick lights are, I think, one of my favorite lighting equipment because they are just so small, so tiny, you can just fit them anywhere. And if it's a good quality stick light, you can create any mood from that light. So the stick light, what I'm using is, you know, lighting up here, lighting me up. So you can also control that stick light with your phone. So you see, this is what that light is doing, the tube light is doing, which is at a higher angle. Which is acting as a backlight, but we're going to learn about backlight later. So don't worry about it. So some of the pros of stick lights, they are highly portable. They are not that expensive. I think the one what I have is just 100 bucks, and it is pretty damn good. And the good part about these stick lights are you can also operate them with the battery. So you don't need to put a cable. So that's why that gives you flexibility to put it anywhere. I have used this light as an ambient light, which I'll show you in the upcoming sections. In the upcoming sections, I have combined the key light and the studio light to create some really, really cool looks. I'm really excited to share that section to you. But let's learn the basic first. That's really important. Some of the things what you should keep in mind while buying a stick light is that that is just a secondary light. That is just supporting your scene along with the big light because a lot of times, if you have the light this interview shot like this, just one tube light or stick light is not enough. And also, because they are in a tube, the light spread can be a lot. So if I just want to point it myself, that wouldn't be possible with a tube light because the light would just spread everywhere in the room. So that's why I'm using a little grid in front of my tube light so that the light spread is not that much. So those things you have to keep in mind is that the tube light cannot be your primary light. 7. Practical Or Ambient Lights: And the next one's practical lights. So practical lights are the lamps, what I'm using in the back, the lamp which is here. So yeah, if I just turn that off, I can show you how boring the scene would be. So if I just turn them off, this is how it looks, and if I just turn them on, this is how. So I'm using I use practical lights in a lot of my shots because that just looks cozy. That also gives some depth in the video. But it's also really important to buy, you know, the Phillips Hugh kind of practical lights. You would also find a lot of cheaper options for these practical lights. So if you have a table lamp, you can make it cozy by adding more warmth by changing the color of the light, and you can also make it more blue or some other crazy color if you want to go for a creative look. That's why it's also really important that if you want to film in a studio like this, you know, or if you want to film in your home office or if you want to film in your home, really make sure to get those good RGB light because these lights, what I have, they are not RGB, so it can be really white or it can also be really warm. So now I've set it up to 3,300 kelvins, both the lights, so they are giving this warm feelings. So that's why it's not just about buying the most expensive light. It's also really important to focus on the ambient light because that is what is giving the look to your scene. 8. Why Use A Softbox: And now let's talk about soft boxes. Remember I told you that I'm using this key light as a studio light with a soft box. Of course, when you go to search for lights, there would be thousands of options for a studio light, but there would also be thousands of options for a soft box. So a soft box is an equipment which comes in front of the light. This is how my image would look. Without a soft box, you can see it is super harsh. So that's a light which is directly coming from my studio light. But if I put soft box on the top, then that makes the image a little bit softer, a little bit smoother, and that looks a bit more neutral, a bit more cozy. So that's why a soft box is used on a studio light. But with soft box, you should buy. So I'm using a soft box, which is a parabolic soft box. So it is circular. It has this bigger depth. So the bigger the depth is, the softer your image would be. And the bigger the soft boxes, the softer your image would be because these parabolic soft box, they come in different sizes. They are 60 centimeters diameter, 90 centimeters, 120, 180. But the problem is, the bigger the bigger softbox you have, the more space it needs. So since the last four years, I'm using this parabolic soft box, which is 90 centimeters, and I think that is good enough. Cannot imagine 120 centimeter diameter soft box here because that would just take so much space. Parabolic soft boxes are the most common soft boxes used by creators or also used in films. 9. Rectangular Softbox: There are some other soft boxes as well. For example, a rectangular soft box. So what a rectangular soft box does is that it kind of helps you to not spill the light. So there are some of the soft boxes, which is 30 centimeter by 120 or 30 centimeter by 90. So what they would do is that they would narrow down the space of the light spilling. The leaner the soft box, the leaner the rectangular soft box, the less light it would spill all over. And the bigger the soft box, the more light it would spill over. The soft ox what I'm using is, of course, 90 centimeters. It is spilling a lot of light. So this is how the image looks originally when I film, and this is how it looks, you know, when I did the color grading and color correction. So that's why rectangular soft boxes are used to minimize the light spill. 10. Strip Or LED Softboxes: And now we have the strip soft boxes. So strip soft boxes are used with the LED lights. They are really thin and they are super portable. But then the light which comes out of that is not that smooth because the depth of the soft box is not that big. So yeah, you have to be mindful while choosing the soft box. If you're a beginner and if you're serious about content creation or if you're serious about learning filmmaking, I would just go for a big soft box and 90 centimeters, I would say. It's a good starting point to learn, and it gives you just so much possibility. I just have one soft box, and we would be recreating a lot of crazy scenes with just one soft box even without soft box, don't worry about that. This class is all about learning cinematic lighting with minimal care. So now that we have discussed the commonly used soft boxes, there are also different types of soft boxes which are used in the industry, such as a Chinese lamp. There are some big diffusers which are used on a movie set. Aria, I am assuming that you are just a beginner. You are a creator like myself. And first of all, like, we don't have the space to store 200 meter soft box. So yeah, that's why I didn't discuss those soft boxes with you because I don't want to waste your time. So now let's move on to the next section. 11. What Is A Key Light: Yes. Once we have learned about the type of lights and the equipments, now it's time to light them up and learn about them. So the first type of light is the key light. So the key light is the light which is coming here, what I'm using to light up myself. And the key light is a main light in the scene. The key light kind of defines the entire scene. A key light can also be placed here. A key light can also be placed behind me. A key light can also be placed outside the window acting as a sunlight or a moonlight. We're going to talk about those later. But yeah, a key light is the main light in the scene that determines where the audience should be focusing on. And how the key light is, for example, if the key light is soft or if the key light is hard, that determines how the audience would feel. 12. Different Key Light Placements: Once we have learned what is a key light, now let's talk about different types of key lights placement in an interview shot. Because once you learn how to light up a subject in a talking head shot like this, then you can understand the basics, and then you can start creating whatever you want. So the first placement of a key light, the most usual placement of a key light, while lighting up a subject while doing an interview or, you know, just while lighting up a subject in general is placing the key light at 45 degrees. This is how the subject looks when I placed just one single key light at 45 degrees. It gives a well defined look. It is perfect for interviews, and it also provides dimension to the face of the subject. You can see that one side of the face of the subject is a bit lit up, and the other side is a little bit dark. So that creates a bit of depth, that gives a bit of shape to the face because if I put the key light right in front of the camera, and then the key light is facing head on on the subject, this is how the image looks. So if you see if I compare the angle at 45 degrees, and if I compare the angle at zero degrees, there is just so much difference. If you want to create more drama in the scene, bring the key light to 90 degrees. So what happens in this shot is that one side of my face is lit up and the other side is completely in shadows. And that creates a bit of drama in the scene. And a lot of movies, a lot of TV shows, they use this technique where they place the key light at 90 degrees. You can also use this look for an interview if you want the interview to look a bit more dramatic. So yeah, I'm just giving you the tools, and then you can just create how you want, what you want, depending on what kind of feel you are going for. 13. What Is A Rembrandt Light: And the next one is Rembrandt light. So remember, in the first scenario, I told that put the key light at 45 degrees. What remembrant lighting does is that, you bring the light a little bit higher and then tilt the light at about 45 degrees. So now what's happening is that the light is way above the subject's head and it is casting a shadow on the other side. And if you can see the face on the other side, it creates a triangle, and that gives a really cool dimension to a face. That is called Rembrandt lighting. And why it is called Rembrandt lighting, as most of you know, Rembrandt was a well renowned artist, a well renowned painter. In most of his painting, he would paint the portraits of people like that. On one side of their faces, they would be a bit of trangle that gave such a beautiful depth to the face as compared to if you just keep the light head on to the subject. So, yeah, that's Rembrandt lighting for you. 14. Butterfly Lighting Technique: And the next one is butterfly lighting or paramount lighting. Here we place the key light in front of the subject, but we bring the key light a little bit high, and it is pointing down on the subject. Now what happens is that the top part, the forehead, the hairs, they are a bit lit up, but the bottom part of the subject creates a soft shadow under the nose and the chin. You can use this lighting technique when you want a symmetrical look on the face, when you want a symmetrical look in the environment. At 45 degrees, you don't see the entire face of the subject, but in some scenes, you want to show the entire face of the subject, but you want it to look still nice, then you can use the butterfly technique. 15. Do's And Dont's Of Lighting: Those were a few lighting techniques with the key light, and few things what you should be keeping in mind when lighting a subject with the key light is at, make sure that the subject, they don't have raccoon eyes. And what I mean by racoon eyes is this. So now you can see that there's a lot of shadows under the eyes. So you always have to make sure that you're placing the light at a good enough position and placing the subject at a good enough position that there is not so much darkness under the eyes. And the next step is if you want to light up a subject in a neutral scene, then try to make the light a little bit soft. Sometimes, from your soft box, if the light is not that soft, then bring the light a little bit far away from the subject. The further you bring, of course, the intensity of the light would reduce, but the softness would increase. So really, when you're filming yourself, like how I'm filming, you just do a 1 minute shot, you know, when you're filming for the first time, then look in the computer that is the light looking really harsh or not. If it's looking harsh, and even if you brought the light further back, it's still looking harsh, then what you should be doing is hang a diffuser in front of the light. And that's exactly what I'm doing here in this room. This is how this scene would look without a diffuser. Or you know what? Let's just talk about this entire setup later. Don't worry. 16. What Is A Fill Light: And now let's talk about the second type of light source, which is the fill light. A fill light is a secondary light source in a lighting setup and is primarily used to reduce the contrast or soften the shadows. In this scene, you can see that this is the video this is how the image looks without the fill light, and this is how the image looks with the field light. And, of course, a fill light wouldn't be as strong as the key light. 17. Different Fill Light Placements: And now let's learn about the placement of flight. So usually fill light is also at 45 degrees, but on the other side when you are lighting up a subject for an interview in normal cases. But what you can also do is that you can also move the fill light to 90 degrees, and that would also give a different dimension to the face. And sometimes what you can also do is bring the fill light at about 45 degrees but behind the subject. And that time, the fill light becomes a backlight, but we're going to learn about back light in the upcoming section. But yeah, let's talk a bit more about fill light. The fill lights are not only just lights, what you can use. You can also use a reflector which can act as a fill. When I speak of reflector, what I mean is this. So you see this white how do you say? It's a white cloth. And what this white thing is doing right now is this is giving me a positive fill. So this reflector, it is acting as a positive fill, which means that the sunlight is this blinding, which is coming on my face. That is the key light, but since I don't have a fill light, I can use this as a reflector. And what's really cool about this reflector is it has different different sites. So this is how my face looks when the white side is lighting up my face as a negative fill. So let me show you the other sides as well. And I'll show you how the gold inside looks. So you can see the difference that now my fill light is a little bit warm because now, of course, the sunlight is being reflected from this golden reflector. So this reflector, what I'm showing you, I think you can buy it for super cheap. It's just a piece of plastic, so you don't really need to have an expensive one. And I just got it from Amazon. The reflector, what I'm using is 60 centimeters by 120 centimeters. So it is pretty big, and it does a great job with all my filming needs. So yeah, let's talk about negative fill and show you how that looks. So you can see this reflector is quite big and it comes with a packet. So the first side is, of course, the white side. The second side is the golden side, and we have more sides. So that is hidden somewhere inside here. There is a hidden thing, which is a diffuser that I would be using in some future scenes, and I can also show you now, but let's show you the other sides as well. Now you can just flip it around and I can put the diffuser back again. And now, if I put the black side on, so now let's see how that looks. Now the right side of my face is completely dark. One side of my face is, of course, lit up by the key light, which is the sunlight because I've put a black reflector here that is absorbing all the lights. And this kind of light absorber, the black light absorber, it is called negative f, and we would be using this in the future scenarios as well where I would be showing you some real life examples. But now let's show you how can we diffuse the sunlight? So let's take the reflector out. So here we're just going to take it out. And it works, and I'm hoping that it shouldn't fall. And now what this is doing is this is giving me a super soft light. So this is really acting as a studio light. So if I just turn a little bit more towards the light as if the light is at 45 degrees, you can see how nice my face looks with the sunlight, but we're using this cheap diffuser. So fill Light is, of course, adding a positive fill, you know, reducing the contrast. But if you want to increase the contrast, then you can use a negative fill, which simply means just blocking the light on one side and you can do that is by bringing a black cloth on the other side on the opposite side of the key light. Fill lights can also be ambient lights. For example, if you are lighting up a scene from one side and if you don't have a fill light, then you can use a lamp on the other side, and that would act as a fill light. So fill light, yeah, does not has to be an expensive studio light or does not has to be a film making light. It can also be just light which is just lying in your 18. Why Use A Back Light: Now let's talk about backlight. What is a backlight? Back light is placed behind the subject often at a high angle, pointing towards the back of their heads or shoulders. For example, in this case, you can see that how the scene looks without a backlight. And now, when I turn the backlight, the shape of the subject completely changes. The primary function of a backlight is not to light up a subject, but to give a different dimension to a subject by, you know, adding back light. And most of the times backlight is also used so that you can separate the subject from the background. So the viewers can see the depth, the distance between the background and the subject. In this case, I'm also using a back light, which is lighting myself from there. So if I turn that off, this is how I look. And if I turn that on, you see, it gives that extra dimension. It's lighting me up on the edges of my body. And yeah, so that's what back light does. 19. Different Backlight Placements: And where you would be placing the back light. So the classic back light placement is on top of the subject. So here you place the back light behind the subject, but at an angle. So it is lighting the subject from the top, and it is lighting the head of the subject. And that, of course, separates the subject from the background. But in a lot of cases, a back light can be used on the side of the subject, like how I'm using now. So it is kind of complementing the key light. So the key light is lighting me up from this side. And to avoid a lot of shadows, I've used the backlight. But if you want to go for more dramatic shot, you can keep the backlight on this side of the subject. So one side of the subject is lit up and the other side is completely dark. I absolutely love using back lights, and, yeah, you can do a lot of creative shots as well with the backlight when you introduce colors. So that's why the sun Crafter TL 30 I'm using as a back light is an RGB, so you can use any color you want. If I do crazy blue or red, that gives a bit more drama to the subject's face and to the entire scene. And sometimes you can light up an entire scene with just a backlight. So you turn off the key light, turn off the fill light, and just leave the backlight on, and that is called a silhouette effect. In that effect, just the back light is lighting the subject, and that gives a bit of drama. So here you can kind of see the subject's face, but not entirely, so that creates a bit of curiosity that creates a bit of drama in the scene. And of course, with the backlight, you can use a harsh backlight to create a bit more drama, and you can also use a soft back light, which is what I'm using now. So it's there but for normal people, they cannot really tell that it's there. Yeah, that's the difference between using a hard back light and a soft back light. And one important tip while using a backlight is avoid light spilling. You see, in this case, the light is spilling and it is going everywhere, and it's also coming on the lens of the camera, and then you can actually see that there is a light placed. Whole point of setting up light in a scene is that the audience shouldn't know that it's a light. It should just come to them a bit more obvious that, ah, oh, there is a window. So of course, there would be a light coming from there or there is a lamp. So that's why the light is lighting up the subject here. And sometimes backlight can also be achieved by using practical lights. For example, how we discussed that in field light, the field lights can be achieved as a practical light. Blight can also be achieved as a practical light. 20. How To Use Practical Lights: And next one is ambient light. So yeah, as you can see, there are table lamps here. So yeah, along with the key light, the fill light and the backlight, I think ambient light, it also just acts and gives a bit more dimension to the scene. So yeah, if you have some table lamps, really use them in the shot. And in the upcoming section, I'm going to also be showing you how to use a mixture of ambient light, a key light, and a back light to create some dramatic shots. So don't worry about that, but yeah, ambient lights are also really important to be used in any scene, whether it's an interview, a drama scene or any kind of. 21. My Interview Lighting Breakdown: And now let's talk about how did I light up the scene. So, of course, I'm using a key light but with a twist. So this key light has a soft box, a 90 centimeter soft box in front of it, but it also has a grid. So a honeycomb grid looks like this. And what that grid does is that it kind of helps to not spill the light. So, for example, if you see these two cases, the first one was without the honeycomb grid. And the second one is with the honeycomb grid, and you can see the difference between the spilling of the light. Once I put everything, the light on my face was still a little bit harsh, and I didn't have enough room to place my light further away from me. So what I did was I hung a bed sheet in front of my face. So this is how the light looked without the bed sheet. So you can see this is how I look without the bedsheet. So, of course, I can reduce the intensity of the light, as well. I can reduce it like so, but I still feel that it's a little bit harsh on the face. The shadows are a little bit harsh, and this is a normal interview shot, so I didn't want to go for that harsh look. So that's why I just hung a bedsheet in front of the light, and then it gives a much softer look. But what happens is that as soon as you put the bedsheet, the intensity of the light reduces because it is filtering out a lot of light. So then I would just increase the intensity of the light until the exposure looks good in the video. So yeah, that was my key light, and it is placed at 45 degrees and a little bit higher than my face, and it is just pointing towards me. So that's the key light. And now I'm not using a fill light. I'm only using my monitor as a fill light. So my monitor is just placed here, if I just turn that off, this is how the scene looks. It is not really doing too much, but it has a subtle look. And if I turn this on, and I've just left a white background on the desktop, so it is giving some sort of light, really subtle light, but not that much. And then, of course, the next light, what I'm using is the backlight. And I'm using why I've placed the back light there is that that light is also kind of depicting the light coming out of that lamp. So that's also really important while lighting up a scene is that you should only place the light in the positions where there is already an ambient light placed. For example, if I turned off both the lights, then the back light wouldn't really make sense. Let me just turn that off. So if I turned off those lights, then the backlight is not really making sense. Like, we don't know where that light is coming from. But if I turn on the lamp on the corner, then the people might think that the lamp is emitting that light on my face. I'm just using the combination of these two studio lights to light up this scene, and the back light is also at 45 degrees and a little bit higher. And then next is two ambient light. So I just have those lamps at really low intensity so that they are not too distracting because here, you should be focusing on me, not the background. So that's what you should also keep in mind is that the key light should be the strongest. The back light should be not that strong as key light. That's why I recommended you to use Phillips Hue lights or some other lights because you can change the intensity because with the normal lights, you cannot change the intensity, and they would be so bright. And then to complement that, you have to increase the brightness of the key light. And the more you increase the brightness, the harsh the more harsh the face looks of the subject. So yeah, this is how the scene is. And trust me, it took a lot of trial and error to set up this shot because we just moved to this new house, and then I have this new studio, and I tried a lot of different types of settings, a lot of different types of light setting, a lot of different types of camera placement, the background placement. And then in the end, I came up to this conclusion that I would be using this setting to teach this course. So there is also a thing that if you're a beginner, and, of course, you bought the lights, you took the course, you learned everything. Things also might not work in the first group, but you have to keep trying, maybe come back to the lessons what I've taught and really see where I've placed the light, why I have placed the light, and then try it for yourself. And then just do a lot of times just practice. And the more you practice, then once you have the setup, at least the talking setup, then next time if you have to film, you don't have to spend hours to film the setup. Like, trust me, I've spent the past couple of days just trying to figure out what would be the main talking head shot setting for this class. And once I have this setting now, I would be using this in the future classes as well. But I would also try some other settings because it's also really just nice to challenge yourself and just give different dimensions to the student. And yeah, just lead by example that if I can do it, you can do it, too. So yeah, learning the basics is one thing, but then just trying it out and figuring out for yourself is there you would learn the most. 22. What Is A Color Theory: Color Theory for cinematic lighting. So some of you might have heard about this. Most of you not. But what is a color theory? Color theory is an art and science of using different kinds of colors to create the look what you want. For example, the most common colors patterns are teal and orange. You would see in a lot of movies and why people choose teal and orange is because if you see the color theory graph, teal is on one side and orange is on completely other side. And those are called contrasting colors because they both have completely different look and once combined, they give a really nice look in the image. And I have used a lot of these kind of colors in the upcoming section. And now you would know that why I've used those colors because they just make the image look more dramatic, make the image look more vibrant. The warm colors such as yellow, red or orange, when mixed with green, blue or purple would give you really cool look. And now that you were listening color theory from me, if you go back and check most of the movies or TV series, they use color theories because a lot of times you would see that there was a yellow, and in the background, there is a blue light or there is a cyan light somewhere. And you can choose what kind of look what you want. For example, if you want a cool look, if you want a cold image, then your primary colors would be the cool colors such as blue, green, or purple. And then the supporting colors would be the warm colors, such as yellow, red or orange. But if you want to go for a warmer look, then the primary colors would be the warm colors, and then the secondary colors would be the cool colors. And that's what I've used in the upcoming scenes as well, that if you see this scene, this was the cozy look where the warm colors are the dominant colors, and there is a little bit of blue color in the background. But I completely changed this entire scene to a cold scene by using the cool colors as the primary color and then the warm color as the secondary color. So you can use the color wheels to light up the scene in a few different ways. The first way is complimentary color wheels, what I've told you already. But what you can also use is something called analogous colors, which are the colors next to each other. For example, if you see this scene from the movie Dune, this scene has yellow, orange and red. It doesn't have any other complimenting colors. And they give a certain look as well. So that kind of lighting technique is called analogous lighting technique. And there's another way you can light up a scene is by triad colors. In this scene, you can use three different complimentary colors. For example, red, blue, and yellow. So obviously, out of all the three colors you can choose which can be the dominant ones and which two are not so dominant in the scene. So yeah, that's why color theory is really important to learn for beginners and once you learn it and once you start implementing the color theory in your scene, that would completely change the game. And that's why I would recommend RGB lights as well for your key light and the supporting light because yeah, interview shots is one thing, but if you want to go for a creative look, you can do that if you have an RGB light. And that's why I'm using the Suncrafter because yeah, the combination of these two lights are just so good. So yeah, if you are interested in checking out these lights, you can check out my Amazon Link down below. Of course, if you buy the light from that link, that would support me as well. 23. Real World Examples: Now that we have learned about all the basics and all the theory of cinematic lighting, now it is the fun part. So I'm gonna be going through different different scenes, and I'm going to be teaching you exactly how I lit up this scene. And what was my thought process? What was my thought process of placing the camera, of placing the light, of reducing the light in some places. So let's go. 24. How To Create A Cozy Scene: In this scene, I'm going for a cozy look in my home studio, and we have one key light, and I'm keeping the camera straight on my face. And the chair is tilted at about, I think, 45 degrees. So yeah, so camera is not, like, straight on on my face. And of course, now we're going to go to film the first scene. We have a problem. The problem is that here I'm trying to depict in the scene that the light is being produced from the ambient lamp, but the lamp is already too much lit with my main key light. So what I would be doing is I would just tilt the direction of the soft box so that the light from the soft box is not on the lamp, it's just on me. And that's when the grid is also really handy because the grid is really helping me to not spill the light on the plant and on the walls behind me. I would also try to bring the soft box a little bit back because I felt that the light was a little bit harsh. So I brought the soft box back, changed the angle, and this is how the shot looks. It's a decent shot, but I also feel that my face looks a little bit too warm because now what's happening is that the light is falling on my face, but it's also falling on the curtains, and then the light is being reflected from the curtains on my face on the right hand side. Yeah, that is not really a pleasing look, in my opinion. So what I did was, I also turned off the ambient light, and then I opened the curtain. Once I open the curtain, the glasses outside, they are acting as a black wall because it is still early morning, so there so there's no sun at all. And here what I would do, I would take the similar shot again, and now I would have more shadows on one side of my face, and it should be looking a little bit more pleasing. But of course, now we want to experiment a little bit more because with one light, the scene looks pretty decent, but we want to experiment with more light. So what I would be doing is I would be using a fill light. So here what's going to happen is I would be changing the color of the fill light to, like, a moonlight, bluish light what I would be doing is I would be placing this fill light outside. Once I place the fill light outside, I'm also making sure that fill light is behind me, so it is kind of acting as a backlight, so it's not straight on on my face. So there would be a subtle bluish look because of dislike placement, and it would look like I have a moon light on my face on one side. So this is what the scene looks, and here we just use one key light, which was lighting one side of my face and one backlight, which is, of course, also acting as a fill light, and it is giving that moonlight effect. So what do you think? And of course, I also change different camera positions. So some shots were medium wide, some shots were close up, and then I'm also showing the book what I'm reading. So that's also really important that if you are filming any sequence, make sure to take wide, close up and medium shot. And yeah, that would give you a full sequence and, of course, give more information to the audience. 25. How To Recreate Moon Ligh: In the last scene, we made the setup a bit more cozy. But in this scene, we want to keep it a bit more cool. We want to show the night light a bit more. So to achieve that, what I did was I put the key light outside, and to make it less harsh, I, of course, hung my bedsheet on top of the key light. And because of that, it gives a really nice and soft look on the room on the walls of the room on the furniture, on the chair. And once I sit there, then it almost looks like there's a moonlight falling on my face. And to compliment the moonlight, to make the scene a bit more vibrant, I'm using my lamp which kind of gives a warm and cozy look. And in my opinion, the light of the lamp was not that powerful. So what I did was I placed another my small tube light behind the lamp. So in reality, there are two lamps which is giving the warm light, which is the table lamp and my tube light. But of course, you don't see the tube light in the image. So people the audience would think that the entire warm light is coming from the lamp. That's why it's also really important to be a bit more mindful about the placement of the lights. It almost should look like there was no lights at all. The scene is lit up by quite obvious things like the table lamps, like the moon, because if the audience would figure out that you have placed the lights here, you have placed lights there, you know, studio lights, then the whole scene looks a bit more artificial. So, yeah, that's how we achieved this look, again, with two studio lights, of course, I took shots at different angles, you know, at different focal length just to give more information to the audience. So yeah, what do you think? 26. Filming Indoors Using Sunlight: And here are some more examples of daylight shots. So what I did in this scene was I am just lying down on the ground and the sunlight is falling on one side. That is making my face look dark on the other side, and that creates a bit of drama in the scene. I placed the camera on a C stand, and here I'm just sitting on the chair and the sunlight is falling on one side of my face. So kind of you can see the shadows. You can see my body half lit up. And I also took some more shots at different angles, and in all the angles, you can see that the sunlight is falling on one side of my face, giving that cinematic look. Just make sure if you're filming under any light, the light should be at an angle. 27. Filming Outdoors In Direct Sunlight: And here we are filming when the sun is lighting one side of my face. This shot can be a little bit dramatic, you know, if you want to use it for that purpose. And yeah, the sun is pointing on my face as a hard light, and that can serve one purpose, but we can experiment with something different. So let's try that. Now what I've done is that I've put a white bedsheet in between myself and the sun, and that gives me a really nice and soft look on my face. In the previous shot, you saw that there was a lot of harsh light and that can serve one purpose, that can give more dramatic look. But this shot, it can give a bit more softer, a bit more neutral look. And here what I can also do is I can just use the sun as a mbrant light. So now the sun is at 45 degrees, and it's also I think at an angle, it's not super on my head. It's at 45 degrees, I would say, and it's pointing down and the light is pointing down towards me, and that gives a bit of drama on my face, that gives a bit of contrast on my face. One side of my face has a little bit of shadow, and another side is a bit more bright. But now, what are we going to do is we're going to be using this reflector to see how it affects the light on my face. So this would be the black side. So if I put the black side here, now you can see that there's a lot more darks on the left side of my face. And if I just flip it to white, so now the shadows on my face would be a little bit less. So I'm just holding it on with my hands here. And if I take it out, so this is without the reflector. So you can see that there is a subtle change in the face of the subject. So, yeah, we are doing everything for free. There's no light used, and still you can get professional look on the subject's face. 28. Studio Taking Head Lighting: So this would be a talking shot in my studio, and I'm just trying to figure out what kind of light position is good. And in the first setting, I'm keeping the light on my left, and the sunlight is falling on my face from the right. And of course, I put the light at 45 degrees angle from the camera. Is a shot. It looks a little bit decent, but, of course, here, people can tell that I've put a light on my right. And it looks a bit unnatural because the sunlight is falling from one side. So, of course, the side where the sunlight is falling, that side should be brightest. So what I did was to make it feel right. I put the key light in the direction where the sunlight was actually falling, and I have put the camera right in front of my face because it is a talking head shot. And this is how it looks once I place the key light on the same side where the ambient light is. This is what I meant in the previous section was this is what is called motivated light. So that your audience would feel that the light is coming from a natural light source, whereas it is actually coming from from an artificial light source. So yeah, this is how the shot looks. And if I turn off the key light, then you can see how dark it is because, of course, the sunlight is actually lighting up the background, not the subject, which is myself. And the key light is, of course, helping me to light up the subject. But if I make the shot in a wide angle lens, then I can see that one side of my face is completely dark. And if I don't want it to be too dark, then what I would do, I would just put a fill light on the other side so that it is giving just a little bit of fill on my face so that there are not much shadows on one side of my face because I'm not really going for a dramatic look now. So yeah, what do you think? 29. Faking A Sunlight Indoors: So this is one of my favorite scenes so far. So I have made an entire video of coffee making ASMR. And, of course, the light what you see in this video is all fake. So how I've created this light is with my Suncrafter, the main studio light, and I've put a barn door in front of the light so that the light is not going to spill. And I'm not using any reflectors or any diffusers in the front because the sunlight is usually quite harsh. It cast quite strong shadow. So that's yeah, that was the look I was going for. And this is how it looks in the kitchen where I would be filming. But I thought it looks a little bit fake. I brought the light to an angle where the sun usually is. This is how it looks with the light, and this is how it looks without the light, and it looks amazing. And of course, I am placing the camera at different different angle and making some shots, which would fulfill the sequence. And one thing what you would notice is that whatever shot I'm taking, the light is on almost opposite side of the camera. So I'm so my camera is never next to the light. My camera is never parallel to the light. Always at an angle, mostly it is opposite to the light, and that also gives a really nice and dramatic effect. And because the light sometimes was too harsh, so that was casting a lot of shadows. So for that, I have used the reflector, and that is lifting up the shadows a little bit. So yeah, this was the shot, and of course, I have changed a lot of different angles. I have filmed close ups, wide angle shots, mostly close ups, and I'm also making sure that I'm recording the audio. So yeah, and this was the final shot where I'm just coming, and yeah, you can also see here that the light is the sunlight is just lighting one side of my face. And that gives a nice cinematic vibe. So yeah, what do you think of this sequence? So you see with one light, you can make the light as a moonlight, you can make the light as a sunlight. So that's really cool part about having an RGB light. So yeah, what do you think? 30. Filming In Bedroom - Part 1: So this is another very interesting scene what you can create in your bedroom. So here, of course, the first step was to close the blind. So this shot was taken during the daytime. That's why I've eliminated any outdoor light. So yeah, that would give a nightlight feeling. And then I have put my studio light without any attachment in the front. And then I have, of course, hanged my good old bedsheet. That bedsheet is giving me that soft, creamy blue light that would look to the audience that the moonlight is coming from outside. And to complement the blue moonlight, I have placed a warm table lamp next to the bed. And because the light from this warm table lamp was not enough, what I've done is that I have put my tube light behind the table lamp. So to the audience, they, of course, wouldn't see the tube light, and they would think the entire warm light is from the table lamps. And one more thing which is really important, what I've done in this scene is that I've placed some dark towels next to my face on the left hand side. The reason for that is that I was afraid that the moonlight would fall on the wardrobes, the white wardrobes, and then they would reflect back on my face. So I didn't want the blue light on my face where it's not needed. So that's why I put this dark towels, and I also took some shots at different different angles. So yeah, this is it. So let me know what do you think? 31. Filming In Bedroom - Part 2: Mm hmm. Now what I wanted to do was I wanted to create a sunlight look, a harsh sunlight look. So for this, what I did was I put an attachment in front of the light. This is just the blinds from my bathroom, and it was quite small, so I just took it out just to have some texture on the bed on my face. So it kind of looks like the sunlight is coming from the window, and the window had these blinds. And that is also helping me to eliminate the direct light falling on my face, which might look a little bit harsh. So after adjusting the light and the blinds, this is what my shot looks like. And in this scene, I'm just using one light. There's no complimentary light because it just wouldn't make sense. 32. Faking A Moon Light: This is a very interesting scene that I've lit up with just one studio light and a couple of ambient lights. So of course, as you can see, the studio light is placed outside, which is my main light, the TL 300 C, and I've changed the color of the light to bluish light, which kind of replicates as a moonlight. And to make the moonlight a bit softer, I placed a diffuser in the front. That gives me a really nice and soft blue light which falls on the walls of the room, and it looks like a moonlight. And the light which complements the moonlight is my table lamp. It's a mushroom lamp which is just on my table. So yeah, that gives a complimentary color. So that gives an orange or warm color, and the blue light gives a cool color. That's why this image looks a bit more cinematic. And then I'm also taking some close ups and some lights coming out of my keyboard. And this is a very special shot as well. Here you can see that the moonlight is falling on my face as a backlight. Is really subtle, so it kind of looks like a moonlight. And to compliment that, I have kept the lamp in the frame, which is, of course, behind me. So yeah, that also gives a really nice cinematic vibe. This is how I've achieved this look, and, yeah, we just used one studio light to lit up the shot. And if I turned off everything, then this is how the shot looks. And this was when the moonlight was on, and this was when I turned on the table lamp. What do you think? 33. Single Light Dramatic Scene: Here in this scene, what I wanted to do was I wanted to light up the scene with just one studio light. And I have achieved that with the sun crafter a three red C, and it's just a studio light, and it is of the same warmth temperature as the light behind it. So there is a lamp ambient lamp, and that is almost the same temperature as this studio light. And here I'm just sitting on a little stool in front of the camera, a bit more close to the camera, then I realized that the shot was a little bit dark. So then what I did was I have these cheap reflectors from Amazon. And what I did now was that I have put the silver reflector, and that is reflecting the light on the dark side, that is lifting the shadows a bit more up on the dark side because I thought that it was a little bit dark. And if I put the black side of the reflector, then of course, you can see that there's so much shadows on one side of my face. The reason why I have placed the light at this angle is that because the audience might feel that the light from the big lamp, the light from the big studio light is coming from the lamp. So of course, it is a bit intentional. You can see the background lit up with the lamp, and you can also see that I've turned on the screens of my monitor and my laptop. So that is giving a little bit of depth on one side of my face, that is, of course, of a completely different color, which is blue. So that is also complimentary color. You see, you can lit up a scene with just one light and some ambient light and make it super cinematic. So yeah, let me know what do you think. 34. Dramatic Lighting - Part 1: This is also a very special scene what I have filmed in my bathroom, with both the lights. So here, the primary light is the light which is just hanging up here on a C stand. And I have kept the light to a bit of warm temperature, and it is lighting me up as how a light on top of the basin would light up. But yeah, the light on top of the basin was really harsh and of really bad color temperature. So that's why I've chosen the TL 30, the tube light. And what I've also done is that because the walls of the bathroom is made up of glasses, I have put a red light outside my room, outside the bathroom. And that is lighting the walls, and that is lighting a bit of a background. That is giving a bit of texture to the image. You can see that there are some red lines, and that is kind of complementing the warm greenish light. In most of the scenes we had used the main light, the big light as a primary light, but in this scene, it is the other way. That's what I was saying, as well in the beginning that tube lights are really special lights because they can just fit it anywhere. They can hang anywhere. So yeah, they can be placed anywhere, and yeah, they are used in a lot of movies, a lot of commercials, a lot of music videos. So yeah, what do you think about this scene? 35. Dramatic Lighting - Part 2: I mean, this scene, what am I doing is let me change to my favorite colors, which is the teal and not the reds, but a little bit lighter red, something like that. This is my favorite color combination because, yeah, I just love it. So here you can see what is happening is that I'm using complimentary colors. So I put the key light next to the curtain, so it almost looks like the light is coming from outside, but it's not. I've put the key light here. And because the sun crafted lights are RGB lights, I'm just changing the color. I'm changing the saturation as well. Right now it is not at full red. It is a little bit less intense red. But the blues here, the back light here that is full on with intensity. And with the backlight, I'm using the small tube light, but to make the back light a little bit softer, I'm using a little diffuser in front of the back light. So yeah, I think that's also really handy as well. And yeah, this is how this scene looks, and you can see that I am like this in the frame and I'm lighting myself from one side from the opposite side of the camera. So I am sitting here. For example, if I'm sitting straight, the camera is at 45 degrees to my left. And, sorry, the key light is at 45 degrees to my left, and the camera is at 45 degrees on the other side to my right. And the back light is at 45 degrees, as well. So from all these examples, I think you can really figure out that the camera, the back light, the main light, the key light, all sort of lights, they are never in the same plane. For example, the camera is never parallel or never next to the key light. The camera is never next to the backlight. So this you have to really keep in mind it is such a simple thing, but we often forget it, and then we realize that the whole footage is not really looking cinematic. And you can see that just by changing different different colors, we can achieve such a nice look. And because the curtains, what I have, it is not super opaque curtain. It is not a curtain which can eliminate all the lights, so you can still see a little bit of outside light you can still see the lights coming from outside, so that also gives a bit more depth in the background. And this is also one of my favorite color combination you can see in a lot of movies. But I think the greens are a bit too intense. So yeah, I'm just going to reduce the intensity of the green, something like this. Or maybe and also intensity of the reds. Something like that. The curtains is also acting. It's also giving a bit of mood to the scene. It kind of looks like, it is a room. It's not just black walls, because I really like I don't like it when there is an interview shot or a shot in a movie or a lot of creators they do that they like the background is everything is dark so you don't really see. You don't have enough context of where the action is taking place. And that's why it's really important to keep an eye on the background as well that Mac that the background shouldn't be super dark all the time. So yeah, this is how we have achieved this shot. And of course, I'm using a soft box and a grid on top because I didn't want the light to be spilling on these walls. I want the light to be just on my face. So, yeah, I think I think this look is really cool. What do you think? 36. Thanks For Watching: Yes, that brings us to the end of this class. And for the project of this class, I want you to recreate at least three scenes of what I've taught here. So, of course, you can use the sun crafter lights, what I'm using, or you can also buy some cheap Amazon lights to start with. That's what I did eight years ago. But if you're really serious, I would just go and invest in a good and nice light. Yeah, the amount of learning what you get from buying a professional light is way, way more than buying a cheap light in the beginning and then you have to buy the expensive ones or the proper studio lights anyways. Really try to recreate the three scenes. And if you are struggling to recreate, then just comment below in the class, and I would be happy to help you. Just give me a screenshot and tell me in the description that what is going on and what problems you are facing. So yeah, that was the end of this class. And to get more information about the project of this class, just go check out the description. And yes, I hope you've got a lot of value from the cinematic lighting master class, and I'll see you in the next one.