Cinematography Lighting Skills for Filmmakers & Content Creators

1. TRAILER: You cannot separate lighting from film making. And your video is not looking cinematic because you are not making use of lighting or your lighting is bad. I am Isaac. Welcome to this course. Having worked in the film industry long enough, I have come to the conclusion that what makes the most of cinematography is lighting. The expensive camera and professional collaborating are just like psychics. Professional lighting sets the stage for a great film. If the lighting itself from the beginning, it messes up the whole film. And that my friend is why I created this course filled with battery of lessons that equip you with every skills you need to take your film lighting from amateur and create your own cinematic videos. This course is created for beginner, cinematographer, intermediate, and even advanced learners. Stand a chance to learn a great deal from this course. As we cover a wide range of topics on cinematic lighting in cinematography, you get to learn different types of sources of light, quality of light, lighting set up, shaping light, different types of diffusions and diffusing light. Using light to convey ni and emotion and secret of cinematic lighting. What do you need to pass playfully? In this course, you need a video camera or a smartphone. One key light and a bans board or a complete lighting equipment. If you don't have any of these lighting gears for now, it's okay. This course will guide you about different lighting equipment and gears available in the film industry that you can buy. We will create projects and a lot of exciting class exercises as you watch step by step, how lighting is done. By the end of this course, you will be heavily equipped with professional sematography, lighting skills you need as a filmmaker to produce thematic videos. What are you waiting for? Let's get started. 2. Lighting Basic: Lighting is the number one, the most overlooked aspect of filmmaking. It is number one thing that we change everything about your film project and help you to achieve the cinematic feel you see in professional films in the industry. If you can learn lighting, you will up your production value like you've never seen before. Actually, I've seen filmmakers buy red cameras with no lighting and their footage looks worse. There's someone with a cannot fifi with great lighting. When people ask me to critique their work or ask me why their shot doesn't look as good as their competition, I can usually tell immediately that they either didn't have any light or their lighting is really bad. Light is a vital aspect of filmmaking. It serves as the foundation for what the audiences on screen. Without proper lighting, there's nothing to see in the frame. It guides the viewer's focus and communicates significance in all forms of filmmaking, from documentary to narratives. Light is essential to the entire production team. It's creates the visual mood, atmosphere, and meaning, telling the audience where to look. Lighting in film influences how scenes are perceived, defining mood, and contributing to storytelling. It's a critical element that can enhance or diminish a narrative's impact beyond mere illumination. Lighting is integral to visual storytelling, conveying characters, emotion, and directing the viewer's eyes. The director of photography, DP and the golfer, work together to craft the lighting plan, ensuring that each frame tells a compelling story. Before delving into the process of setting up light, it's essential to grasp the various forms of light in the industry. Light can be categorized into two primary groups, natural and artificial. Natural light encompasses sources like sunlight, moonlight, and fire light, which occur without human intervention. Artificial light, on the other hand, includes all human made light sources powered by electricity, such as LED, Fluorescent, Dunkin, and HMI. With these broad categories, there are further distinctions to consider. Mbient lighting refers to any existing light at a location that the film crew did not bring. Includes light from sources like street lamps, neon signs, or even moonlight. Practical lighting, on the other hand, encompasses an invisible light source within the frame. Whether it's an ambient source or one intentionally placed by the gulper, motivated lighting implies that there is a logical or justifiable reason for the presence of light in the scene. Practical lights, for instance, often exists to provide this justification or motivation for the light within the narrative. Understanding the distinctions is fundamental when setting up the lighting for a film. 3. Tungsten and HMI Lighting: Types of lighting in Filmmaking. There are various types of lighting products and sources used to achieve specific lighting effect and meet the needs of different situations. Each type of lighting has its unique characteristics and applications. There are some common types of light sources used in film making industry. Four main types of light then. Hmi, Lead, fluorescent, thunsin light. Thunsin lighting has a long history in the film industry, dating back to the heli days of Hollywood and the black and white film era. It was one of the earliest and most widely used lighting sources. And its a significant role in shaping the look and aesthetics of plastic cinema. These lights use a toxin filament that is heated to produce light, creating a warm orange, huge illumination typically around that to very caving on the color temperature scale. Tonkin lights are very bright, have a lot of power, and can create a very focused spot light, or be flooded to get a broader light. The biggest advantage of tonxin light is that you get a lot of output for a very little cost. However, one of its main drawbacks is its energy inefficiency toxin lights indeed generate a substantial amount of heat as a byproduct of producing light. And this heat can be quite wasteful, especially in long film shot were temperature control can be a concern. In response to these concerns, the film industry has seen it shifts towards more energy efficient lighting technologies such as lead and fluorescent lights. Before we learn about lead and fluorescent type of lighting, the next lighting type I want to talk about is HMI Lighting. Hmm Lighting is a popular and versatile lighting technology widely used in the film industry. Hmi lights are known for their eye output. This light is capable of producing the brightest of all lights. Wi 5,600 V in daylight balance, color temperature that stimulate the sun. Hmi has the ability to produce a bright focused beam of light. Making it suitable for long throw distance. And spotlighting typically positioned 20 to 30 feet away from the targeted scene. These lights are exceptionally powerful and much more energy efficient than traditional toxin lighting. These characteristics make HMI lights particularly well suited for outdoor and day light fee making. As they can produce powerful ignation that matches the natural daylight, ensuring consistent color temperature throughout the scene. However, it's essential to note that while HMI lights deliver beautiful daylight, balanced light, they come with some downside. They tend to be large and heavy, and can be expensive and consume a significant electricity. As a result, HML lights are considered among the least versatile and user friendly lighting options. Nevertheless, when the need for an exceptionally bright light source arises, HML light remains the go to choice in the film industry. In the next lesson, we will explore two other important lighting ties, lead and fluorescent lighting. The modern lighting technologies have become increasingly popular in the film industry due to their energy efficiency, factility, and ease of use. See you in the next lesson. 4. LED & Florescentt: Welcome back. In this lesson, we will discuss about LED and fluorescent lighting types. In the previous lesson, we talked about Tonkin and HMA light as part of the four main popular types of light in the film industry, LED light. Led lighting has revolutionalized the film industry in recent years due to its versatility and energy efficiency. Led's can cover a broad range of color temperatures. From 2,800 calving warmer, similar to Tonkin lighting, to 10,000 calving cooler, resembling daylight. One of their most significant advantages is their extreme energy efficiency, as they produce almost no heat and can be powered by standard house outlets or even batteries. The eliminates the need for large generators on many sets, contributing to a more eco friendly and cost effective production process. Lds come in various forms, including spotlight LED panels. Tube lights are composed of numerous tiny LED elements. They have the unique capability to change color temperatures from warm to cool, simulating both daylight and thanks in lighting. Moreover, some advanced LED fixtures offer RGB functionality, enabling precise color customization without the need for traditional gels. One of the main disadvantages is that LEDs are generally not as powerful or bright as some other types of lights for the price you pay. This can be limitation in situations where a high intensity light source is needed, such as for large outdoor scenes, or situations where you need to compete with natural daylight. Of course, you wouldn't want to use LED to imitate daylight quality. Another challenge with LEDs is color accuracy. Why many high quality LED fixtures provide excellent color accuracy? Some lower end or counterfeit LED light may exhibit color shapes, often with a magenta or green tint. This can be problematic for filmmakers aiming for precise and consistent color rendering in their Ss. To mitigate these issues, it's important to invest in reputable LED fixtures and use color correcting gels software tools when necessary. Despite these limitations, ongoing technological advancements are driving down costs and increasing their output, making them an increasingly practical choice for filmmakers of all levels and budget ranges. Their lightweight, cool operation and low energy consumptions have led to their widespread adoption in the film industry. Fluorescent light. Fluorescent lights are another lighting option used in filmmaking, especially as filmmakers become more experienced. As you get a little more advanced into filmmaking, you find yourself starting to use other lights like fluorescent light, similar to LED fluorescent advantage of being lightweight, heat free, and energy efficient. They are available in both daylight and tonken color temperatures, providing versatility in adapting to different lighting situations. One notable aspect of fluorescent is their cost effectiveness compared to LDs, making them an attractive choice for budget conscious production. However, fluorescents come with their own set of limitations. They are typically available as tube light or regular light bulbs, which can limit the variety of lighting set up you can achieve with. Unlike LDs, they are less versatile in terms of form factor. Additionally, fluorescent are not battery operated, which can reduce their portability sets compared to battery powered lighting solutions. An advantage of fluorescent light is their improved color accuracy compared to standard office fluorescent light, which often exhibit unwanted green and magenta color spikes. Nevertheless, it's important to note that unlike many LED fixtures, fluorescent are not dimible. Which can affect their adaptability in situations that require precise control over light intensity. Filmmakers fluorescent for specific lighting scenarios where cost efficiency and color accuracy are paramount. While considering their limitations in terms of dimming capabilities and portability. And that will be it on the for main types of light in the film industry as we've mentioned, Thunksen, HMI, LD, and fluorescent light. You may now proceed to learn more about lighting in the next lesson, as we discussed about lighting set up. 5. Lighting Setup: Now let's look at the building blocks of lighting. Arguably, the most common way to light a subject is with three point lighting, which has three light sources directed at the subject. A key light fuel light and back light. Key light. A key light is the primary and strongest light. Essentially, it is your brightest source of light in the frame. In most cases, it is placed at 45 degree angle away from the subject. However, the key light can be placed in a lot of different directions to create a different mood in your work, which we'll talk about when we get to lighting angles later on. Your key light in a scene may sometimes be the one source of light required to light the entire scene. Sometimes your key light might be the natural light, the actual sun. Sometimes that might be an artificial light. You have to augment the sun. That's where you start. Is there an existing key light or is there a light that you can motivate from that's already in the set that you want to be your key light. Key light doesn't have to always be a big soft source. Some of my favorite shows like House of Card and Mine Hunter, you know it's character sometimes just by a lamp. And they literally have the lamp on and the lamp is key, it is the predominant. 6. Light Angle: Light angle or light direction, the entire emotion of your projects can change just by slightly moving the light in your skin. If you move the light too far up above your subjects, you get more dark shadows underneath the eyes. And the person looks less trustworthy and more depressed. If you put the light too low, you reverse the shadows on the face, the person will start to look like a villain. To get the most natural looking light on a person's face, you want to have the light 45 degree angle on their face, creating an upside down triangle on the subject's opposite cheek. This is known as Remdrat Lighting, named after the famous painter. Remdrat will use this in almost all of the portrait. This lighting will keep those shadows on the face, but also give enough lighting on the other side to illuminate the highs and provide slight cheek definition. You also create a slight drop shadow under the chin and it just looks natural. If setting up your light, remember that the direction of the light is just as important as anything else. If you place the light at the wrong angle, opposition too high, too low, it can result in an amateur image or even confuse your audience as to what they should be feeling. Just a slight movement can make such a difference. 7. Where To Start Lighting: Where to start, Lighting. Knowing where to start with lighting can be a challenging task. But with some fundamental tips and hearts, you can create compelling and visually appealing scenes. To begin, it's important to understand the key elements of lighting, which include intensity, direction, color, and quality, which is what everything thought in this course is all about. Intensity refers to the brightness or darkness of the light. Why? Direction dictates where the light is coming from and how it falls. Subjects color can set the tone and mood and the quality relates to the softness or harshness of the light. These elements are your building blocks for effective lighting before placing any light before bringing anything in. The first essential starting point is to assess your scene and subject. Consider the story you want to tell, the emotions you want to convey, and the characters as objects you want to emphasize. Is it an intimate dramatic moment or a bright and cheerful scene? Understanding your intent, we guide your lighting choices. The next thing to do is personally what I L as a DPE and someone who is directing the scene is just watch the blocking. Watch where characters are going to move. Watch where everything is going to play out or it's going to happen. Just see the space the second. You can just literally just bring your gaffer, your key grip everyone in a corner just to watch the blocking. You might see that an actor walks over to a window and just get exposed with some light. Makes your job a lot easier. Just seeing where the actors are and where they are going to interact with a scene is always a really good approach. Before doing any other thing, you've seen the blocking, you've seen where everyone's landed as a DP. The nesting to do is watch out for natural light. This can be your best friend. Start by looking at the available natural light sources, such as windows or doors, and use them to your advantage. Position your subject in relation to these sources to achieve the desired lighting effect. You can also manipulate natural light with diffusers, reflectors, or cuttings to soften or redirect it. My usual approach, similar to how I did on this Scout. When I was there on the Scout, I tried to remember, was there a sunlight coming, Was there a cool lamp we can play, Because when you framed up and you've got the camera all set up, what's already happening. Is there anything, is there something cool and exciting already happening? And if so, how can you embrace that? Or think that? Yeah, You know, because there is a really cool sun and it's sort of raking across and eating the bed, but your actor is still a little dark and, you know, you can motivate from that light source. So my other sort of approach on where to start after seeing the blocking is just to see what the light is already doing indirectly in the space. And you can heighten that. That's just the best way to naturally light scene is what is already there. And heighting was good and takeaway was not. If you're sitting indoors or in low light condition, artificial lighting becomes essential. Begin with a key light, which is your primary light source. This light set the direction and intensity for the scene. Experiment with different angles and distances to find the most flattering and dramatic lighting for your subject. Once you have your key light in place, add fuel light to soften shadows and reduce contrast. This could be another artificial light source or reflector, bouncing light back onto the subject. Avoid overexposing the scene and maintain a balance between your key and few light. Consider the background as well. Back light or accents can help separate your subject from the surroundings and hard depth to the scene. Use colored El to create unique effect or to match the mood of the scene. Don't forget to experiment and make adjustments. A lighting set up might not work perfectly on the first try. Take tests shot, and make incremental changes to your light, their positions, and their settings until you achieve the desired look. Pay attention to the shadows and eye lights and make sure they complement your scene. Also, remember to pay attention to the color temperature of your lights. Mixing different light sources can create a mismatched core unnatural loop. So try to keep your light sources consistent in terms of color. In summary, where to start with lighting? A scene depends on your creative vision and the story you want to convey. Understand the fundamentals of lighting. Assess your available resources and experiment with natural and artificial light sources. Continuously refine your set up and make adjustments to achieve the desired move and mood for your visual content. Practice and experience will help you become more proficient in lighting scenes effectively. 8. Quality of Light: Quality of light. Your goal as a cinematographer is to light your subject or an actor in the most flattering way possible. And also keep it looking cinematic. If you look at most movies, much like I did growing up, there tend to be a trend to make your subject, your actor, your star artist look good. If hired you as a cinematographer for a reason they're leaning on your expertise to make them look good. Quality of light isn't just about how high the light is at the color temperature, or how accurate it is. Why? Talking about things like light shape shadow, how it plays on faces and something that's very important, how hard or soft the light is. How can the light be harder or softer? Because it's just photos. What it actually is is how the shadow rolls off the face. Another subject a cinematographer must choose between add light and soft light to achieve the desired lighting effect for the scene. Add light is more directional light than great shark shadows, which works best in more dramatic and intense scenes. More light is indirect, soft light, more diffused, and generate less defined shadows. This type of lighting is often used for happier or romantic scenes. Some of the best naturally occurrence of light comes during magic hour or golden hower. This occurs twice a day, just before sunset and just after sunrise. When the sunlight is less hash and more colorful. A small light source, we give you a harder light, a larger source, we give you a softer light. What it does is it spreads the light around. When we light an actor's face, a larger source will create a softer shadows. We say that it's a when the light is small and whether or not it's bright, it creates a harder shadow because there is a less of the light that wraps around the face or whatever other objects we are working with. Now, a lot of people will say that light is too harsh on the subject. They'll pull the light away. But that will make the light harder because distance equates size. A smaller light is harder light, a larger light is a subter light. It may be better to bring a light source closer and dim it to create a sufter light than to pull it away. How do we make light softer? We use diffusion. We spread the light out. And the stronger the diffusion, the more spread out it becomes, the softer it becomes, and the softer our shadows will also become. You want to think about the quality of the light when you choose the light fixture. You use to light as a very hard source, like a part is going to shoot light very strong in one direction. With hard shadows. A Anal is a lens that goes onto a fixture and spreads the light out and create a softer shadow. Now LT of florescent may come four foot wide blogs and they are already pretty solved. You can work with that if you want to have a softer light, if you need a harder light, you use a smaller sauce. Think about the quality of light in your sea. It's going to be very important and it will really help you to determine the mood and the feel of your project. When it comes to achieving hard light, it's important to under, it's not a difficult task. It simply requires avoiding the diffusion of the light source coming from part of light. By keeping the light source unobstructed, you can create a focused and intense beam of light that produces sharp shadows and distinct edges. However, achieving the soft lighting takes knowing how to manipulate the light source and control its diffusion. In the next lesson, we will learn various techniques for achieving industry standard soft lighting. This will help us understand how to shape soft lighting effectively. But shortly before you go, let's quickly relate to measuring the quality of light using contrast ratio. Low key of high key sinmatography is a balance between light and shadow. And one of the ways this relationship is expressed is called the contrast ratio. This is a shorthand for how we measure the difference between light and shadow in two areas of an image. Usually between the two side of a subjects phase or between the subject and the background. Key lighting is a term that expresses a low contrast ratio, where the background and the subject are lit evenly with minimal contrast. Low key lighting, on the other hand, uses a high contrast ratio where the difference between light and shadow is much larger with maximum contrast. Both high and low key lighting are used in a variety of genres to evoke specific D and atmospheres overall. High key lighting is used for brighter, happier scenes, while low key lighting is often used for darker, dramatic scenes. Okay, that will be it for this lesson. Let's quickly dive into the next one to learn about shaping lights to achieve soft lighting. See you there. 9. Soft Lighting: Soft lighting. It's important to understand what makes soft light like, how do you achieve it? There are different rags, greed silk and diffusion. You know, every DP is going to have their favorite. But at the end of the day, it's not the fabric or diffusion itself, but the size. This was something that I really did not know for a while. I just thought, okay, well okay, if we want it soft, just put a layer of diffusion. But I was not really understanding why it was soft. If something is bigger, it's going to softer. If you are going to key a subject, the light will appear softer. If it was being sent through a 12 by 12 frame of diffusion versus a four by four frame diffusion. If you just took one by one light panel and shine it right at the subjects face, it would appear very harsh. 1 ft by 1 ft is pretty small, but if you actually were to put that one by one light panel and send it through a four by four frame, now your light source is four feet big. The larger it is, it has a better chance at wrapping around and appearing, getting rid of as shadows. And then beyond that, if you took that one by one light panel and sent it through a 12 by 12 frame of diffusion, it's going to feel incredibly soft. Just to recap, the bigger the source, the softer it is. Ensure your strength and thickness of fabric do play into it. But ultimately understanding that bigger is better for achieving soft light is a great place to start. I think a great way to put this together into context is when you shoot at blue hour or golden hour, the sun has just behind the mountain. The sun is gone. But what you're left with is sort of a beautiful 30 minutes of a fading blue sky. And that's incredibly soft if you frame and never, ever shot around that narrow window of time when the sun is just said, but you still have a good 30 an hour to go. That is when the light is the soft because if you were to look up the entire sky is your source. You're just getting soft. Ambient light from the sky. You're not getting a shadow from the sun, you're just getting a soft return. Your blue power stuff is going feel much softer. But if you went out at 02:00 P.M. if you were to look up at the sky, the sun is only about this peak. It's much smaller. Back to our by one light panel example. You can honestly look up and hold your finger up the sun in relation to you and about the size of your finger nail. That's a very small, very bright source, but very small. Being able to diffuse that and put that through diffusion. Or in example, if the sun was gone and you are just dealing with the entire sky, your source of light is going to be much softer. Understanding the concept as we've laid them out, here are my favorite ways to achieve soft lighting. The first being a double break. A double break is when you send a unit through two layers of diffusion. A workhorse for me on Indi features or shoot raft to move fairly quickly is a sky panel system, which if you think about is only 21 by one light panels together. That's essentially the diameter of an system. It's a very small sauce. But when you send it through a chimera bank, that's one break of diffusion. If you send that sky panel once again through an H by It frame, you're essentially turning a sky panel, which isn't that big, through two layers of diffusion by the time it hits your subject. It's incredibly solved. I think another tricky thing with a double break that some people don't understand, it took me a while to understand is you want your light to fill the entire frame. If this was your Sky panel and this is your diffusion, you want to work your diffusion far enough away to where the entire diffusion frame is filled up. If you just literally put a sky panel and 6 " away and four by four frame, your entire four by four frame isn't being filled. Circling back to a larger is better. You want to fill your entire frame. If you have an eight by eight frame right up against your chimera box, it's only going to eliminate maybe half of the eight by eight. It defeats the purpose of the double break. When you double break a light, sending it through two layers of diffusion. You want to spread them out far enough light, a few feet diffusion a few feet. Another layer of diffusion that's going to yield the softest source. Another way to achieve soft light is by setting up a book light. See you in the next lesson to learn more about that. 10. Shaping the Light: Shaping the light. Shaping light is a fundamental concept in inmtography and filmmaking. Allowing you to control and manipulate how light interact with your subject. And seem to create a specific mood, atmosphere, and visual effect. The main reason for needing to shape light is often we're using soft light as a key light. When doing so, the light by design is spreading softly, not only on your subject, but on the back wall behind them and on other areas of your set. To prevent this, you need to bring in flags to control the light. What are the tools that is cinematographer? The gaffer, the key grip, working as a team used to shape light. There are three primary tools in your grip package that you will use to shape light. These are flag net or screams, and diffusion. A flag is a solid object that doesn't let any light through. It's for blocking or removing lights. The screams cut lights, but does not change the quality of the lights. It's just bring down the intensity of the lights without changing the quality and the color of the light. But diffusion with soften light, cut light and change the quality of the light. The strength of the diffusion and the material is made of in such a way that it will do one or the other more. It might cut less light and add a different quality, will completely diffuse the light and make it much more soft. Working on the few side of your subject, most of the time you will be either substracting or adding light on the few side of the subjects face. A good way to remember this is usually if you're shooting on shadow side, would be the side of your face that your actor or is in shadow. One thing to take in mind is every set is different. Some sets might have white walls, white ceilings. Others might have wood walls and no ceilings to matter the set, every surface in the room is reflecting light. In our instance here, the white wall behind camera is actually fly in the bouncing light on our subject when we're doing so you know you want to have control of all these variables. You don't want to have just light scattering around hitting your subjects that you didn't really put there. Part of the fill negative fuel side is controlling this. Not only controlling the contrast and its ratio to the key, but also controlling and shaping light that might be scattering around, maybe excess light bouncing from your key, light hitting other walls, and sending light back on your subject. At this point, we'll be bringing in negative fuel, which would be removing light. This is done by bringing in a solid. Solid comes in four by 48 by 812 by 12. The negative fuel, a black diffuser, used to remove light completely from unwanted area. These are all different sizes, but in this instance, on a close up framing size, a 44 black solid floppy is going to be employed to die in the contrast and die in the shadow side. The closer you bring the negative in, the more we can see the shadow side get darker and darker, the vice versa. If we were to substitute this black solid for an ultra bounce, a piece of muslin, any sort surface that's white, you are going to actually see that it's sending light back verses remove it. Field is adding lights. Negative field would be subtracting lights with solid. So few think of passport. Think of white. Think of putting more light on the side of your actor's face. And negative, few, think of that black solid that we were just demonstrating. You're just trying to negative, subtract the light on the side of the face. So those are the two times you are going to be playing around with when shaping the light. 11. Siders: Ciders. Cider is a flag that is shaping light at the site of your light source. Cider is a term in referring to the flag in use for shaping the light intimatographic. An easy way to think of this is like the barn doors on tongs. In light, we've tossed on these lights in earlier sections of the course. Those are ways of controlling the light. But if you build a light, you know like sky panel like double break, maybe you got or did you don't really have any bundles, you are just like puking light onto the set. So think of when you are shaping light like the very rudimentary left band, right bundles are engaged. You are essentially doing that with flags, a very larger scale version on some of the sources that you are setting up. When it comes to shaping light, there's sort of a times or communication, depending on where the flag is, it is called something different. So as a DPE, you are going to be calling out for these certain things and we are going to kind equip you the language of how you would talk to your on set, for instance, to dial in a flag. You wouldn't say, could we get a flag on the lamp, Right? You could, but there's a much more efficient way of saying that. This term is called siders, not like apple cider, but think of the side door side plus R, just adding ER to side. A cider is basically a flag on the lamp right, or a flag on the lamp left. I just want to take a moment and elaborate a little further on the terms lamp left and lamp right. Though the terms left and right seem like easy to grab, where it gets a little confusing is who is left and who's right. The easiest way to understand this is if you are standing at the base of the light looking in the direction that the light is pointed towards your, your set, your subject it will be your left will be lamp left and your right would be lamp right. Where this gets a little more confusing and tricky in most circumstances as a DP you are going to be on the other end of that diffusion, everything is going to be inverted. If you are a DP looking at that light source, that might actually be, but to communicate to the gulper or key grip or whoever might be manipulating that line, you are going to have to invert it. Your right is actually going to be lamp left and vice versa. Understanding this as confusing as it can be, it might actually effectively allow you to communicate to your crew when making adjustments to flags and to panel light in certain direction. I think the best way to show you how insider effectively works to cut control and shape light is by showing you a before and after. So here is the first shot. It's a subject being lit with a light, going through diffusion with no flags and no siders. And here is the same shot. The only difference being being we added a lamp left sider. You can see by just adding one flag, a lamp left sider, we were able to cut all of the lights and spew from eating the back wall. Keep this in mind as you are lighting your sin. That's essentially what siders and all flags do in general, is they help you control and shape your light from eating unwanted areas of your set. 12. Topper and Bottomer : Toppers and bottom. So far we've introduced ciders, lamp left lamp, right siders. As you imagine the top and bottom flags, those identifiers are called a topper and a bottom. A topper is a flag that is shaping light at the top of your light source, while a bottom Er, is a flag that is shaping light at the bottom of your light source. I know they are not the most imaginative names, but for communicating to your key group that is, or you are going to want to remember cider left or right, topper or bottom. Those four areas are basically a way of communicating where flags are going to go. I think the best way to show you how a topper and bottomer effectively work to control and shape light is by showing you a before and after. We've got a subject from a previous demonstration, we've actually tilt decider controlling and cutting light of the back wall. But that's it. There's no topper. There's no bottom. This is what the frame looks like. And now we're going to bring in a topa and a bottom. And you can instantly see the result. I mean, we've effectively removed light from everywhere in the sea for the subject fees. I know this is a little extreme and pretty stylized, but essentially what we've tried to do is just show you how you can use flags in different areas, from insider a topper and a bottom u to effectively ship light and remove light from unwanted areas on your set. That's essentially what using flag and shaping light is. Lighting is seen, you're bringing in flags are essentially just cutting your lights to look a certain way. But we haven't really tossed on the types of flags, you'd use different terms for me, siders, I typically lean towards a four by four black solid floppy. A four by four black solid floppy is a pretty standard thing in most grip packages. Most three tons, five tons, whatever your grip package might be, might be, will typically include this. But if you are building your own kits from scratch, always throw at least five to ten of these on there. Not only are they great for negative view, but they are also really great for controlling and shaping light. When it gets to a topper and bottom, er. I do feel like if you're working with eight for a double break or an eight by eight frame for a book light, when you're using a larger source for diffusing. I do find that the black solid flop pies are better for sliders and there is actually a better flag for the toppers and the bottomers. The force would either be a Medax. Medax is just a name or identifier to a longer flag that's actually intended to really reach over from the side and extend to cover your larger source, or better yet, wag flag. A wag flag is actually like a fabric, but instead it's just painted black. You can actually roll and twist it down. It's very precision to, for dialing in topas and bottlers. I will say though, the work flag is really only for indoors. Since it is lighter fabric, the wind will take it away. But if you are in a studio stage, maybe an interior, if you're using toppers and bottoms to control light, opt for a work flood. 13. Diffusers1: Diffusers in cinematography. Diffusers play a crucial role in controlling light quality and shaping it effectively. Much of what we've covered in this course has revolved around understanding lighting quality, distinguishing between art and soft light, and determining the best applications for each. In this context, diffusion becomes indispensable in achieving the desired soft light. Among the most commonly used diffusers are those crafted from various fabric materials. This category encompasses silk, muslin, and grid clothes, all of which are capable of producing high quality light. Once the decision to incorporate soft light into a sin is made, there are numerous methods to attain the necessary diffusion. Essentially, diffusion involves placing a semi translucent material between the light source and the subjects, ensuring the even spread of light, which in turn softens its impact in larger settles. Silk diffusers are frequently employed to achieve similar effects. Grid clot, diffuser. One of my favorite is grid lute. It comes in three different strains. The thicker the strength, the more light it absolves. This will yield a softer quality of light, but result in light loss or stop loss. For instance, if a beak eight by 84 grid diffuser is placed in front of a key light and it's looking a little bit dark, cutting too much light. Knowing that you can increase or decrease the strength of your fabric. Diffusion is helpful to get the desired result or look what can be done in this situation is shrink it down from the least, the highest level of the fabric diffusion thickness and strength. Or from the highest to the lowest level of the fabric until the desired result is achieved. Being able to work up the strength of a fabric diffusion are really nice as a DP, because in certain circumstances you may want to set up the thickness to make it softer. Or you may want to work it up if you are pushing in maybe a smaller unit, but still want to achieve a softer source. There are scenes from films where the diffusion used for the key light was Crete closed. Another really cool way to use grite is to stylistically use it to boom or blow out your window. If you don't want to see what is outside, you will see this in tons of a lot of movies and television shows. Because in most circumstances, those shadows are shooting on the set, in a set up state. So if you are to look outside that window, in real life, they wouldn't be in outside New York or outside LA. They are shooting inside a warehouse. A stylistic way to make it seem like a bright, sunny day outside is to put greet clothes on the outside of that window and then shine light illuminating that clothes. When you frame up inside looking towards that window, the viewers think that it's just a bright sunny day or a blown out sky when in fact it is a piece of green clothes diffusion with light shining through it. Muslim diffusion, the next kind of fabric diffusion is Muslim. Muslim comes in two different kinds, bleached and unbleached. An easy way to remember this is when a color is faded than the original quality of color or thickness. Bleached Muslim is white. Very similar to white bed sheet, it appears to the highest, much whiter, while unbleached Muslim is actually a lot warmer. Think about something like cream color or something that hasn't blessed yet. This type of Muslim diffusion produces the softest quality of light out of any fabric. The only downside is it soaks up quite a bit of light. To do so, it can also be used as a bounce light because it is so thick that any light eating it will reflect back. Not only can you send light through it, but you can also bounce light into it. This is another reason why I think that Muslim is very versatile on set because you can use it one way or the other. Why you can't do that with most diffusion. Another really cool use for Muslim is using it as a color back drop for any music video or stylized shot. How you will achieve this is set up 12 by 12, or eight by eight. We bleached Muslim and put an RGB light sky panel, for instance, behind the Muslim behind the subject. What actually happened is that it soak up all the line, making it look like its own. Like it's the one producing it directly, serving as a colorful backdrop. Also, sick diffusion requires a tons of light. Not only do you lose three stops of light, but the quality is not usually better than grid or Muslim white diffusion. The next section of diffusion is white diffusion. They are smaller to the four by four versions of a grid or Muslim white diffusion comes in a roll and tend to look like frosted tracing paper. To use white diffusion, you unroll, cut, fall of white diffusion and skin or tip the four t to a four by four frame during shooting and the sun comes out. It can be hovered around the subject to diffuse the sun onto the subject. There are the same, some identifier where you have full F and quarter diffusion. Full white diffusion is Coed, 21f is scored 250. Why the quarter white diffusion is 251. What is nice about the white diffusion is being able to work off the strength. The same mentality of the grid. You can work the strength up and down to achieve the desired lighting effect. It's portable fabric diffusion, they are great for running gunning instances when you want to throw a light in front of a subject. Here is a scenario in the middle of the take. While using a giant diffuser, or eight x eight diffuser that is tied down, the sun might move away from the direction of the diffusion. There is no of time to spare about 15 minutes to correct this. A quick fix to bring in a 4x42 51 white diffusion just next to the giant diffusion. Just position it to correct the opening. It's yet the same effect as of the initial diffusion in use. 14. Diffuser 2: Another diffuser is high light diffuser. When you are Ming to exert precise control over the quality of sunlight, highlight is a great option. It falls into a unique family of diffusions, setting it apart from traditional options like white or clothes diffusers. Highlight is part of the frost diffusion family and it excels in exterior shooting scenarios, especially when shaping the sunlight. This becomes particularly significant because standard fabric diffusions often block too much light when you are shooting outside. This can result in your scene feeling like it's in the shade versus it's in the sun. Because it's cutting so much light that it no longer feels like a sunny day. This can be tricky, especially when you are set and you still want to achieve a sunny day. But just don't like the flattering the sun look on your subject. High light is a great go too. There's an identical one just made by a different manufacturer called Half Soft Frost Highlight or Half Soft frosts are almost identical, can be interchanged and they still give the effect. One important thing when using these larger diffusion frames is to secure them by tying them down. These frames behave quite similarly to sail boat. They can catch any passing wind or gust. In addition to placing sandbags on your stand, it's highly advisable that if you're working with a by eight or 12 by 12 frames, you tie it down to a substantial object or use a thin stick. This added precaution ensures a safe shooting environment when you're working outdoors. As a DP, it's your key grips responsibility, undo rigging, and safety. There's no need to become an expert in not just remember that when shooting outside larger diffusion frames should be securely anchored. Soft box diffusion. The soft box is a widely used diffuser in film making, frequently favored by tubears and for interview shooting set. The common one is God soft box product. It consists of a fabric and translutedent material stressed over a frame, which softens and diffuses the ash light from a source. The soft box, a gentle, even flattering illumination that minimizes our shadows and reduces glare on subjects faces. Using a soft box is a great way to get a nice soft spread of light onto your subject. The smooth to roll off gives a very cinematic and professional look to your image. There are also natural diffusers like cloud, dust, fog, or smoke. Another way to mitigate the intensity of the light is with natural density gels. This can be attached to the light or to the windows to reduce the sunlight. Flags are opaque pot that shape and block unwanted light. Flags are used to block or shape the lights by casting shadows or cutting off certain parts of the sea. This technique is particularly useful in controlling light spill and shaping the lights direction precisely. Bandles are adjustable flap of the light itself which are similar function Crete or head creates diffusion, direct light and help prevent it from spilling into unwanted areas. Light stands and stand, which are also useful for setting up diffusion flags, flaps and reflectors. Mounting and positioning of light on sets can be done with light stands or with San, which are also useful for setting up diffusion flaps, flags and reflectors. Just about everything needed to complete the desired cinematography. Lighting set, bun board and reflectors, you will almost never shine a light directly onto someone's face. You are going to light them in a more pleasing way. There are so many ways to light, and half of them bouncing or reflecting light from the source. Buns reflectors, including Board and Card are essential tools in filmmaking and photography for manipulating light. Essentially, it can also be used to diffuse light. These tools are typically made of reflective materials like foam core or aluminum. And are used to bounce and redirect light onto a subject. Bans board and card can soften shadows, fill in dark areas, and enhance overall lighting. Bouncing the light with the reflector create diffusion while also redirecting the light. The bounce board is also another way to diffusing light. You can bunce anything, LED, HMI, and any other light source. Bouncing light is what you do every time when lighting is seen. Bounce boards and reflectors come in various sizes, colors and texture, each bringing a unique type of diffusion. And are often positioned to bounce available light or artificial light sources. Providing control and creative flexibility in achieving the desired lighting effect in a s. 15. Book Light: Book light. In cinematography lighting, a book light typically refers to a specific type of soft lighting set up used to illuminate a subject. It's a technique where two large soft light sources are placed on either side of the camera, effectively opening up the book or the space between them to evenly and softly light the subject. This set up is commonly used in film and photography to create flattering, diffused light on the subjects face, reducing out shadows and producing a more even pleasing illumination. The book light technique is often employed in situations where a soft, natural looking light is desired, such as for portrait shots or interviews. By using two soft light sources, it helps minimize shadows and create a gentle flattering look on the subject face, making it popular choice for many sinematographers and photographers. Book light achieves its softness by bouncing the light into a large bounce. And then that bounce light is then once again diffused before eating your subject, where at double break, the unit is already pointed at the subject, you are just diffusing it twice. The book light actually involves the light that's eating your sub to be pointed away from your subject. It's being bounced and then that bounced light before eating your subject again is diffused. I will say this is the softest quality of light if you can manage to achieve a book light. It will yet the softest result because bounce light inherently is very soft, I would say. The only downside of a book light is you need an entire group village. Not only do you need the balance and the diffusion to make the book light work, but also you need a ton of flags to keep light from scattering and bouncing around, you know, circling back to our previous section where every service in your room is going to reflect light. If you have a white ceiling and a bunch of white walls, a book light is sending light everywhere in your bounds. So you really need to tamp that in. And that can take a whole lot of time. Though it's yet the softest light in my opinion. It does require the most amount of manpower to make it work and it also does require quite a bit of gear. My vote is the double break. Just because it's a little simpler and more straightforward and both totally work to achieve soft light. 16. Course Project: Welcome to Cinematographic Lighting Skills for Filmmakers and Content Curators and Skillshare. In this course, you dive deep into the heart and science of lighting for visual storytelling. Whether you are a filmmaker, content curator, or aspiring cinematographer, mastering lighting techniques is closer for creating compelling and visually stunning series. Now this is a project instruction. Creating a cinematic scene with lighting mastery objective. Apply the cinematography lighting skills you've learned in this course to create a captivating cinematic scene. Step one, scene settle. Choose a scene or a setting that aligns with your creative vision. It could be indoor or outdoor. Depending on your preference, consider the mood and atmosphere you want to convey in your scene. Think about the story you want to tell through lighting. Step two, lighting settle. Apply the following lighting techniques. We covered the entire course. One, diffusion. Experiment with diffusing light to create a soft and flattering illumination. 23 point lighting. Set up key fuel and back lighting to achieve a balanced and visually appealing look. Three, add verso, soft lighting, Compare and contrast. The effect of add and soft lighting on your S. Four, shaping light. Use flags, gobbles, and other tools to shape and control the direction of light. Five, contrast ratio, play with contrast to add depth and dimension to six types of lighting source. Experiment with different lighting sources such as natural light, Tonkin light, LED light, and so Hall. Step three, capturing the scene. Once your light setup is complete, capture a photograph or steel frame of your scene using a camera smartphone. Pay attention to the composition and frame it to enhance the overamatic feel. Step four, share your work. Upload the image capture of your scene to the project gallery. Your project description provide insight into your creative choices, the techniques you applied, and the mood you to comp. Tip for success. For success, don't be afraid to experiment and iterate. Lighting is a dynamic and creative process. Consider seeking feedback from your instructor if you have any questions to enhance your skills further. By completing this project, you will not only reinforce your understanding of cinematographic lighting, but also showcase your newfound skills. I look forward to seeing your cinematic scenes come to life.