American cinematographer (Oct 1933)

October 1933 • American Cinematographer 225 Methods in Amateur Lighting by Charles C. Clarke, A. S. C. and Wm. Stull, A. S. C. general effect is of complete naturalness. The lady is seated at the piano: there is a fairly strong light on the left side of her face, ostensibly coming from a table-lamp beside her on the piano. The right side of the face is slightly shadowed, and—apparently from the lighted room behind her there is a rim of back-lighting on her hair and shoulders. Behind her, on the wall to her right, is a wall- bracket, obviously one of a pair: these throw pleasing shadows of the mantel, etc., on the wall, relieving its drab whiteness, and giving a sense of depth and roundness. They also throw a splash of light across the folds of the curtain in the doorway, giving a more natural effect, and offsetting the flat blackness such a curtain would otherwise give. In the room behind—well silhoutted by the dark frame of the curtain—shadows of the chairs are cast on the wall, again relieving a blank expanse of white surface. That is what we see on the screen: but how is it actually done? Let’s begin at the beginning: the front-light. The prin- cipal front-light ostensibly comes from the lamp on the piano. Now it would be perfectly feasible to use that lamp as the actual source of the light, by putting a photoflood bulb in it. However, the arrangement of the shade is such that this would be likely to give a harsh horizontal shadow across the middle of the subject’s face, so instead we put a fairly strong bulb (165-Watts) in the lamp, and used a 500-Watt light, placed just out of the picture, and quite high, to supply the actual light. The secondary front-light, which relieved the shadows on the other side of the subject, came from a home-made “broadside,” fitted with the 250- Watt tubular bulbs (only one of which was burned), and a simple diffuser of white silk. We’re really quite proud of that “broad:” it was made from a 15c aluminum dishpan, a couple of strips of angle-iron, two sockets, and an old- music-stand. Fitted with the shorter photofloods, it could easily be made as a four-bulb unit; it is cheap, and, while not as efficient as a properly designed lighting-unit, very useful. Obviously, the back-lighting could hardly come from the lights in the farther room, so we placed another 500-Watt light behind the subject, as low as its stand would permit, and with the lamp itself tilted well up. This lighting would, in itself, be sufficient to give a good exposure, with a nice lighting on the subject; but we can improve things a lot by placing a few units here and there HOW IT LOOKED ON THE SCREEN: Note shadow of mantel and wall—fixture on wall; high-lights on draped curtain, and chair-shadows on wall of back room; also back-lighting on subject, and contrasted planes. to light the room as well. For instance, the modelling (or shadow-casting) light on the back wall: first, we lit the two wall-brackets—not for illumination, for they were fitted with small, flame-colored bulbs of negligible photographic value, but so that they would appear to be the sources of the modelling-light. The actual light for this purpose came from another 500-Watt light placed well out of the picture, and fairly close to the wall. It was raised as high as the stand would go, and tilted so that it gave the desired light- and-shadow pattern on the wall. The illumination of the far room was managed simply by putting a photoflood in the chandelier: this gave a strong general flood of light through- out the room. The back wall of this room seemed to offer too large an expanse of unrelieved white, so we pressed into service another emergency-unit: this one consisted simply of a wooden base, a socket, and a sheet of heavy tin about a foot long by six or eight inches wide, bent to form a U-shaped reflector for a 250-Watt tubular bulb. (The small, hand-lamp reflectors for photofloods would do just as well.) This was placed on the floor, hidden from the camera by the buffet, and arranged to cast the shadows of the chairs (which were moved out from the wall a few inches) onto the wall, thereby breaking up the flat, white surface. Thus, by just a little added effort, a few extra lights placed judiciously, and a photoflood or two in the regular fixtures, we were able to light up the two rooms so as to get a pleasing, natural effect rather than an ordinary, flat lighting. The same general ideas can be used under almost any conditions encountered in home interiors. In almost every room you will find projections of one sort or another which can be utilized for creating shadow-patterns; or, if necessary, the furniture itself can be used to cast shadows on flat, white walls. It is always a good plan to base your lighting on natural effects: that is, to work it out so that, on the screen, the light all appears to come from sources natural to such a room. For much of this, photoflood bulbs judi- ciously placed in the regular fixtures, are invaluable, while a few of the many small photoflood units such as the well- known “Flectors” come in very handy for use in low positions. These same general rules will apply, of course, to Koda- color interiors, too, with the exception that in Kodacolor you will need about 50% more light overall, and a stronger front-light than is ever desirable for black-and-white. For this purpose, especially, the new “Brodlite” 6-photoflood “Broadsides” should prove invaluable. There is another phase of interior lighting which is all too seldom considered by non-professionals. This is the use of (Continued on Page 234)