Lighting For Television

Lighting With Shadows

One of the more important realizations in learning about lighting is that lighting is not necessarily the art of adding light to a scene. Instead, as Tom LeTourneau so aptly put it in his book, Lighting Techniques For Video Production, lighting is "the art of Casting Shadows". For some of you, that may be a radical statement. I myself spent years trying to eliminate ugly shadows in my scenes, typically by adding more and more lights.

But, stop and think about it. In movies and TV shows, frequently its the depth and placement of shadows that make the lighting so dynamic and evocative. Shadows, from subtle to dark, help give a scene 3 dimensionality and help establish the mood of the scene. Shadows can also establish the time of day, hide or accentuate features of the set or actors, and suggest set elements, such as windows, which don't really exist. So, an important element toward creating better lighting is to start to look at lights as not only sources of illumination, but also as shadow generators.

Seeing Lighting

This also leads us to a valuable skill that is important to develop-the ability to SEE how light and shadows fall on objects and people around us, and in the scenes that we shoot. You have to make a concerted effort to look past everything else and concentrate on the subtleties of color, shadow, and highlights which are created through lighting.

For example, notice how the light from a window falls on objects in a room. Objects near the window are strongly lit on the side facing the window, with details accentuated by highlights, while the opposite side of the objects are darker and less defined. Also observe how the wall opposite the window softly reflects light back into the room helping to illuminate the side of the subjects away from the window.

Window light

All around us are wonderful examples of how light defines our environment. You just have to LOOK.

Now that you're looking at the effect of natural light falling around you, we need to discover how we can recreate and enhance those effects in our videos.

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Lighting With Shadows
One of the more important realizations in learning about lighting is that lighting is not necessarily the art of adding light to a scene. Instead, as Tom LeTourneau so aptly put it in his book, Lighting Techniques For Video Production, lighting is "the art of Casting Shadows". For some of you, that may be a radical statement. I myself spent years trying to eliminate ugly shadows in my scenes, typically by adding more and more lights. But, stop and think about it. In movies and TV shows, frequently its the depth and placement of shadows that make the lighting so dynamic and evocative. Shadows, from subtle to dark, help give a scene 3 dimensionality and help establish the mood of the scene. Shadows can also establish the time of day, hide or accentuate features of the set or actors, and suggest set elements, such as windows, which don't really exist. So, an important element toward creating better lighting is to start to look at lights as not only sources of illumination, but also as shadow generators.
Seeing Lighting
This also leads us to a valuable skill that is important to develop-the ability to SEE how light and shadows fall on objects and people around us, and in the scenes that we shoot. You have to make a concerted effort to look past everything else and concentrate on the subtleties of color, shadow, and highlights which are created through lighting.
For example, notice how the light from a window falls on objects in a room. Objects near the window are strongly lit on the side facing the window, with details accentuated by highlights, while the opposite side of the objects are darker and less defined. Also observe how the wall opposite the window softly reflects light back into the room helping to illuminate the side of the subjects away from the window.
All around us are wonderful examples of how light defines our environment. You just have to LOOK. Now that you're looking at the effect of natural light falling around you, we need to discover how we can recreate and enhance those effects in our videos.