Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1949)

464 HOW TO PLACE LIGHTS CHARLES H. COLES THE home movie maker approaching interior lighting for the first time will do well to learn exactly how each type of lamp lights a particular subject. To find out what to do with your lighting units, let us take but a single one of them and see what it does for you. FRONT LIGHTING The front light (light that illuminates the front or camera side of the face) is basically important. Placed beside the camera and at its height, it produces no shadows, gives minimum contrast, reduces wrinkles and smooths the skin (see Fig. 1). You should note also in Fig. 1 that a front light on a subject near the background creates adequate illumination on the background as well as the subject. However, a front light on a subject far from the background (see Fig. 2) produces the peculiar illusion of the subject being in a dark room, because the wall behind receives so little light. The height at which we position any lighting unit also has marked effect on the picture it produces. In Fig. 3 we see that lighting from a low angle looks unnatural ^F FIG. 1: Front lighting, with lamp at camera and at its height, gives minimum contrast. Note normal light on near background. and produces curious shadows. However, a light placed about a foot or two above the level of the subject gives a much more natural appearance to the face (see Fig 4). Isn't our normal illumination usually from above? THREE QUARTER LIGHTING We have just discovered the pleasant effect of raising the light source a little above subject level, even with front lighting. Let's now see what happens if we move our raised light source off to one side of the subject as well. We find (see Fig. 5) that we begin to get shadows that show our subject is not flat. But notice how dark these shadows are and that the background again tones down when the subject is far from the wall. With the subject nearer to the background (see Fig. 6), some light is reflected back from it. If, now, a reflecting surface (newspaper will do) is placed on the off-light side of the subject, the shadows are lightened still further (see Fig. 7). HIGHLIGHTS AND SHADOWS However, a lighting unit may produce a wide variety of highlights and shadows depending on the type of reflector (if any) used with it and the degree of diffusion created in the original light source. A bare bulb produces brilliant highlights and hard shadows with sharp edges (see Fig. 8). For filming hard, solid objects it may be excellent, but not for faces. The installation of the bare bulb in a reflector improves its effect immediately by softening the shadow edges (see (Fig. 7). We now have a combination of a small, sharp light source (the bulb) and a large, soft source (the reflector). If we now cover the reflector with a diffuser (cheesecloth, for example), the shadows grow so soft as to be formless. The highlights, however, are gone, too. Thus, this is a good fill-in light to kill shadows, but it is a very "dead" light and not suited for main lighting. The popular reflector-flood bulb with built-in reflector is intermediate in effect between a bare bulb and a bulb in a metal reflector with diffuser. It is, of course, very convenient to use because of its small size compared to a reflector, but its light is not so soft and pleasing. FIG. 2: Same lighting, with subject far from background, dims setting. Diffusing screen on unit also reduces light travel. FIG. 3: Front lighting from below subject creates unnatural shadows on near background. Effect could simulate firelight.